1 more month of summer

Keeping up with a blog is kind of tough :P

But I have some time to post up a very small amount of pictures that barely summarize the most chaotic part of my summer. Comicon, Siggraph student volunteering and moving to another apartment all within 2 weeks.

I got kind of sick after all the commotion because I wasn't getting enough sleep.

But it was all very fun. Except for moving -_____-

There's one more month left of summer before I start school at CalArts.

Ahhhh! I'm definitely excited to go but scared at the same time.

I hope I can live up to the school and my peers.

But until then...

I now have 4 gentlemen phone cases. None of them properly fit an iphone :p

So I have one more on the way that I'm slowly working on.

I spotted this painting at Comicon. I want it so bad.

But it's about a thousand something dollars or more ;__;

Isn't it so badass :)

I also met with Dan Paladin, the creative genius behind synj.net and all that goodness.

And he signed my Behemoth chicken. I actually wish I got a picture with him but I was scared...

The next few pictures are a summary of my time at Siggraph. Being a student volunteer was definitely a great experience. I want to continue to become a volunteer whenever Siggraph is in LA. I believe it is in Vancouver next year. So I don't know if I'll be volunteering.

I'm also very happy that I was able to get a Renderman teapot this year. I thought I would not be able to because of my shifts. But on the last day of Siggraph I ran over to the exhibition hall and stood in line for the teapot. I thought my sandals were going to break. It was a long line but I got one!

I feel like I've been focusing a lot on my Chinese paintings this summer. I've been sketching here and there, but Chinese painting has taken over my summer :P

It's a good thing though because I won't be able to focus on it during the school year.

I've been continuing my practice in dyeing the paper and adding snow or the moon.

I would like to post a screenshot of my CalArts Fall 2010 schedule for my next post.

I'm actually really really excited for school. Sometimes I still can't believe that I'll be attending CalArts.

And I didn't think that I would be getting a Tuberculin and Tetanus shot for the mandatory physical exam that needs to be done before school starts -____-

But as always, I'm looking forward to the journey ahead :)

iPhone Creature Cases

Summer is a very seductive season and switches on the vacation mode.

And by vacation mode... I mean crafting some iphone creature cases!

I don't have an iphone, but I found a bunch of small pieces of fabrics in my closet that I wasn't using.

And I decided to put those pieces of fabric into good use.

I hope to make 3 or 4 of these phone pouches. I'm naming my series the Gentlemen's Club :)

Because these creatures are well dressed and presentable. Not because... of the strip club thing...

So far I have made 2. The last one is a special one.

The hello kitty gentlemen is a present for my friend.

I'm kind of disappointed with the hello kitty pattern because hello kitty had a very hard time showing up.

The reason why I made the hello kitty gentlemen is because my friend likes hello kitty.

But hello kitty doesn't show up very much...

Also, the owl gentlemen is a bit smaller. So his face is covered when he is carrying a phone.

I hope to make 2 more before I start school.

I don't know if I will be posting anymore this month.

I have to move to my new apartment, and I will also be a student volunteer at Siggraph the last week of July.

So the next time I post anything, it will probably be August :P

Chinese Painting Exhibition Pictures

I'm posting a sample gallery of the Chinese Painting Exhibition.

There were almost 100 paintings! My internet will die if I try to post them all :P

But here are a handful of the paintings that were up. And a group photo of my teacher and the artists!

Notice that the last painting is a very very large version of the paintings that I'm doing now.

(that painting is taller than me!)

I always fail to capture the size of the paintings -____-

Some of them are very large and taller than me!

I also noticed that I did not take pictures of my own paintings :P

I'll have those up soon!

Chinese Painting Exhibition Round 2

Well... I have not been very good about keeping up with my blog.

Even though it's summer, there's always something to do :P

The past weekend was very hectic because it was time for another Chinese painting exhibition!

And it was a very good one because there were lots of people this year, and it's always nice to see the other artists.

So it was very successful and everyone had a good time.

We even did some live painting at the exhibition. I was asked to paint with 2 other artists.

I was sooooo nervous!! But it was a good experience.

I want to post pictures of the exhibition and even a little project I've been working on.

But my internet is screwy and needs to be fixed.

So for now, I'm posting some recent paintings that I've been working on.

The paintings are copies of my teacher's. They're composition and color studies.

Color as in... dyeing the paper. Haha, nothing too crazy.

Just experimenting with color temperature and mood.

This post needs to be short, the internet will die at any moment!

Also, thanks to those who commented on my stationary!

Full size?!

I think I solved the problem!

These are now full-sized :P

My Bat

There is a billboard by my place in Rowland Heights that says "Mybat."

I didn't know what it was but I kept thinking about those asian stationaries

and how they usually have phrases on them that don't really make sense.

Then I thought about a bat that belongs to you or me.

My bat.

And I had the urge to make some stationary in Illustrator :P

I made them letter size so they could be potentially printed out and used.

Though, I don't know who uses these kinds of papers anymore. (except me...)

Of course, I had to make one one of them tacky-looking :)

Turns out, Mybat is a company that makes wireless accessories.

update: I noticed that when I click on these images, a separate window or tab doesn't pop up. Many of my images are having the same trouble.

I will see to the bottom of this!

Ideally, these were supposed to show up letter size so they can be printed -___-

It's Summeerrr

I really haven't been posting much even though I've been out of school for a while.

But I've been catching up with things that I couldn't do while I was in school.

Working out, cooking, playing video games :P

I haven't completely thrown away art though. My Chinese painting exhibition is coming up soon.

I'm really excited because I've improved and learned so much in just one year.

My teacher has been selecting some pieces that will be exhibited.

And he actually took out one of my favorite pieces :(

It's been signed, stamped with a seal and everything.

Good-bye little fishes... maybe next year.

I've been learning to paint a lot of other stuff too. Such as this squash.

I don't know what kind of squash it is...I'm not sure how to say it in English.

But it's a dish that we order at Chinese restaurants when we go out. Other then that... I don't know much about it :P

It's fun to paint though.

This squash is quite funny. They start out as a yellow flower and grow down from there.

So when the squash is fully grown, they still have a small yellow flower at the bottom.

I've graduated to painting koi!!! This is only my first koi painting, and it's not the greatest.

But I'm so glad that my teacher approved.

So now I can start practicing. And maybe I'll have a really nice koi painting for next year's exhibition.

I've been picking up digital painting too. I kind of had a late start because I was struggling with it for a while.

I tried painting myself but it just wasn't working. They were all so hideous.

So I asked a good friend of mine to help me out.

My friend Young is an awesome digital painting and I love his style. And he was so willing to help me out.

Many many thanks to him.

Here is the link to his blog: http://nyang27.blogspot.com/

He has some amazing paintings. *jealous*.....

I'm posting my works in progress.

I've been starting out with just portraits. I still have to get the hang of it.

This definitely needs a lot of practice.

But they're not bad for my first time I guess :P

The first one is my boyfriend. His lips look weird...

I kept looking back and forth at the photo. Maybe he really is making a weird kissy lip thing.

The second is the actress Gemma Arterton. I made her look kind of disheveled and dead. Haha

I'll continue to work on these and make them better.