More Design Work - Day 3 of MPC

More playing around with photoshop tools. Although these are leaf-pattern designs (I totally LOVE leaves and trees), the colors were actually inspired by... FOOD! Or perhaps "dessert" is more accurate. One of the more interesting things I've ever tried is a rich chocolate brownie served alongside green tea mousse. And I didn't even have the whole thing... I just *tried* someone else's. Even so, it still left quite an impression on me. It's a dessert served at a very cool tea house in San Francisco I went to a few months ago. It was fun day with friends talking about art!

Seven Trees - Day 2 of MPC

Day 2 of My Personal Challenge (MPC) has me going back to the archives, so to speak. Last year, I tried the "Every Day In May" challenge to create something (or in my case, take photographs) each day for the whole month. I managed to stick with it for about a couple of weeks but didn't complete. Since I never posted them before, I have a bunch of pics that I can go back to. (Yeah, I'm trying to get ready for work too and don't have a lot of time to post this... so having that source is good for me)

Anyway, I've always wanted to learn how to draw trees properly but am still in major need of practice. My versions end up looking like brocolli. I took these last year as reference pics, and just put them together on photoshop and did a little manipulating while using the program, giving them a bit of that "magical" flair... I hope.

My Own Personal Challenge

In a few days, it will be my blog's very first birthday! woohoo! I've decided to celebrate it by giving myself a challenge. I've seen posts where people try to draw something every day for a month or a year or whatever... hmmm, well I can already tell I'm gonna flake on that sooner than later, so I don't want to make it IMPOSSIBLE for me.

I think I'll just try to blog about creative stuff for as many consecutive days as I can (but I won't stress if I miss a day here or there). It can be as simple as writing about something I saw or learned, a photo, or maybe even some new drawings (probably lots of photos, I'm thinking). Just something to get back into the creative side of life, since things have been extremely hectic lately.

I started this site as a diversion from life's worries and concerns, and a year ago I just had way too many of those. This has been a very therapeutic, alternative way to spend one's energy on. And I must say that since writing and posting here, I've learned a lot about myself, met lots of incredibly nice and encouraging people, and discovered that it's more important to have fun with your art than to care if people like it or not.

Ok, so here's my first "creative" piece for this challenge. It's a tropical-inspired design I did on photoshop, using the various photoshop tools. Why? I kept hearing the song "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" in my head today - the version by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole (try saying that 10 times fast!) The link to the song is under the photo, if you'd like to listen to it. I like the song's style... and message. =)

Let there be light!

Some traditional color pencil sketches on black cardstock ATC's. It's fun to just draw sometimes! =)


Candlelight


Red Lantern


Fireflies Jar

This Spring's Orchids

Here's pictures of orchids picked from my backyard recently. It's not a wide variety of colors but I think the soft pinks and muaves are beautiful, and I wanted to capture them somehow with this series of photos... Happy Spring!

Something New...

So for the past few weeks, I've been playing around more with gouache. It's such a great medium! I love its coverage, blending capability, and just the way the brush moves it on paper. I went to a gouache demo some time ago, and the artist who was teaching was telling us that it was ok NOT to be exact when you paint. She said "let your brush dance on the canvas". Ok, well here's my very first gouache piece. Yeah I need more practice, but I did what she said and just let my brush "dance".


Something else I'm trying out is woodburning. Now this technique does take some getting used to, but it's fun! ooh, but watch out and don't squeeze the handle of the woodburning tool but instead lightly hold it like a pen. Otherwise, you'll get a fat heat blister on your finger like me. Yes, I burned myself quite badly doing this one.



Ok, totally unrelated but I was able to catch American Idol tonight and David Cook --Wow, you go boy! BRILLIANT!!!

The Only Moving National Historic Landmark

This week, I actually managed to do something I hadn't done before -- I rode a cable car! It's funny... I've lived in the SF Bay Area for most of my life, but that was one thing I just hadn't gotten the chance to do yet until now.

My work sent me to the city for a few days to attend a conference, and I knew I did not want to drive in, so public transportation was the alternative option. After taking our subway/metro system, I caught the California/Van Ness cable car line to the hotel.

I didn't realize that it took 2 people to operate it, with each car propelled by a continuously moving cable running at a constant speed underneath. Each car can be stopped and started by releasing and gripping the cable. One of the drivers mentioned that they had to change the cables every 100 days. You can read more about cable cars and a bit of their history here.

It was a fun commute over these last three days - but a ride on a cable car is way expensive -- $5 one way! That's a high price to pay for something that's kind of old, and goes pretty slow over a relatively short route. I mean, riding the MUNI metro is only $1.50. So the cable cars are more for the tourists than for most regular commuters. I would have tried to walk on other days, but the streets are really steep and the MUNI couldn't take me directly to the conference site the way the cable car could (yeah I know I'm SO lazy). Anyway, it was a fun experience nonetheless.