Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip Sunday Strip

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Commissioned ACEO

     

This was a commissioned illustration for Shelle, who's also an artist having her own store on Etsy. I had such a fun time illustrating her two beautiful daughters! I felt I've known them for such a long time after reading their pictures, understanding they gestures, knowing what they like and not, and then drawing them out from all I observed and what I felt. I love the process and I love how when each line and stroke matched what I felt about their personalities precisely.


Each took way more time than I thought, but what makes it worthy for me is always the feeling of the illustration delivered perfectly as how I wanted. And now I understand why a lot of artists are hungry. ;) 

       

Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 11

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 10

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 9

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 8

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 7

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SF Stories Postcard for Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival

Now with the date, time, and location confirmed on PAAFF's website, I finished the postcard as well! 

(top image is front, bottom is back, click on image to zoom in!)

Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 6

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 5

This is a San Francisco local strip! I LOVE San Francisco, but not so much for its fog storm. (click on strip to zoom in.)

Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 4

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 3

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip 2

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Maddie + Eagul Comic Strip

Boy! I finally got to scan these comic strips I did months ago, but my brain kinda die on ideas so I haven't done more, but I'd like to share what I had! So, this is a comic strip about a girl named Maddie and a seagull named Eagul become friends. They have opposite personalities, they are different in every single way, they don't agree with each other, they drive each other bananas... I don't know why they are still friends.
(click on image to enlarge the strip!)

No Bait, More Fishes!

So I want to share another secret here from learning at the Pacifica Pier today, and boy! Pacifica Pier is truly an interesting place to fish because its ever-chaning fish crowds! My first post about fishing shows all big surfperches like Silver and Walleye and 2 little smelts, and they were totally after artificial sandworm. But there was one time we went and there was no big surfperches so we didn't catch any fish with sandworm but everybody else was catching baby surfperches, and we found out baby surfperches only chase after shrimp, and then we bought some shrimp from a guy at the pier and as soon as we dropped down the rig, they nibbled like crazy! 


And today all fishes we caught are big Jacksmelt and baby Silver Surfperches and Shiner Surfperches, and we've never seen big Jacksmelt there before. At the very beginning we were still using all the left over shrimp bait and we did catch Jacksmelt but very slowly, and there's this guy who came later and all the sudden he became the focus because he caught big Jacksmelt one after another or I should say three after another three...I'm not exaggerating, it's really like every other minute he'd catch something, and we didn't even see him put on any bait, and there we found that he used very shining fly rig! I was thinking if I'm a fish I'd like to check out the interesting shining bug in the water, too! So he had like probably 8 fly rigs on the line, and he caught the most fishes without using ANY bait! And because he didn't need to spend time cutting and putting bait on, he quickly unhooked the fishes and just throw them in cooler and his rig's already down in the water again in minute. How efficient! 


Top left was first Jacksmelt I caught, and top right was second one I caught.... I was counting at the beginning but I lost count after many because we got busy with all the tasks and taming the strong Jacksmelt to unhook took a while. Bottom left is all Jacksmelt and Surfperches we caught, and bottom right is Jacksmelt on grill as soon as we returned home! Chong and Raul also caught 2 Bullhead fishes (Pacific Staghorn Sculpin), but people at the pier told us not to eat those, so we put them back in the ocean, however, Raul found some people favor Bullhead fish on the internet! So maybe next time we catch it again, we'll try it!

SF Stories Goes To Philadelphia Asian-American Film Festival

Alright! SF Stories is going to Philadelphia Asian-American Film Festival (PAAFF) from October 21 - 24th! So the director wanted the poster to have a bit more visual impact compared to the first version that we used at LA Asian Pacific Film Festival (you can see them on my 1st blog post 'SF Stories Movie Posters'). 


And I looked at PAAFF's website, and I decided to use PAAFF's yellow on this new poster design to go with the festival. So this will be the new SF Stories Movie Poster. And this time we got to have some Film Festival Laurel Leaves!


(click on image to view details of Brad and the flies...or laurel leaves)

Childhood Act 3

Here are the rest two of my Childhood series! 'I Am Brave' on the left and 'Once Upon A Time' on the right. 'I Am Brave' idea came from me remembering seeing kids like to be encouraged, you give them positive compliment and you tell them they can make it, and they usually do. And once they succeed like the little blondie in the duck inner tube learning not to be scared of water, they gain confidence and start taking over control and overdoing it with their very big proud face and keep asking you to look after look after look, they are so ready to teach other kids. This character reminds me of the cute band manager Summer in movie School of Rock. I love that movie.

'Once Upon A Time' describes the redhead girl like to read stories to others and tell people what she knows before anybody even ask. She's also very particular about what she wears, the colors and coordination from head to toe, and she will tell you she picks them herself. It's funny how these characters are so alive to me, I feel I can hear their voices and how they talk, and each one of them has her own attitude and personality.

Now my OCD is over with this series, but I find another OCD coming up and that's I feel like drawing something non-cutesy nor nice to balance out this series... I don't know why I sound like a Libra but I'm not. 

Childhood Act 2

After three girly girls, I thought I had enough because I never draw cutesy babydolls just being cute, but I guess I have this Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder on colors and themes... I felt I need to draw something green and blue to balance out previous three lovely passionate hearty cozy fuzzy sweetie warm colors like that cherry 'Call Me Princess', peachy 'Let's Play In The Park' and creamy 'I Am Beautiful'. 


Here is the lime one named 'I Heal'. 


I once wish my hair is that big so that I can get dreadlock hairdo. By the way, these Childhood Act illustrations are ACEO size, which is 2.5 x 3.5 inches, ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. I learned about ACEO from Etsy when I opened the dogbatcat shop. I thought it's a great idea and a great way for people to collect art they don't necessary want to hang on the wall, so I followed.

Childhood Act

After some oil paintings, I felt like playing with color pencil! And 'Childhood' naturally came to me when I looked at my color pencil while thinking about what to draw. I think because color pencil reminds me of my childhood drawing time, that's one of the most common art medium in an art set given to children. I like how it has the pastel look but it's finer than pastel, and you can do more detail with it.


The top left I named it 'Call Me Princess', I believe many girls had done that... trying on mom's high heels walking around feeling they are princess. The top right I named it 'Let's Play In The Park', little girls like to act like grown ups taking their babydolls everywhere. The one on the left is called 'I Am Beautiful', putting on mom's lipstick showing off to everybody in the house how they can be as beautiful as mom.


Funny thing is that I didn't do any of the above... I watched my younger cousins did all that. I was a tomboy girl all my youth, and I remember seeing evidence (pictures) of myself wearing heavy makeup like a show girl when I was little, I was told it was my aunts' artwork from being bored. 

Fishing Fun at Pacifica Pier

So I want to show off my fishing skill... and I'm so generous that I want to share the secret here. The above pictures were taken on the 22nd of this month at Pacifica Pier, it was our second time fishing there. The first picture (top left) is me holding a Silver Surfperch (I caught this fish in a funny way... on the dorsal fin, haha). And the picture on the top right shows total fishes we caught within 2 hours there! There were Silver Surfperches and Walleye Surfperches and two Anchovies on the sticks.


It did feel like hitting the jackpot, because we were the only one kept getting fishes. We actually learned the secret from a family when we were there fishing for the first time. This family's two boys who are probably just 9 or 10 years old but they were the fisherman on the pier that day, and they totally caught about 10 fishes with cheapo looking fishing rods. 


So we think the secret is not so much about what fishing skill, or what equipment because I also used a cheapo fishing rod that's only $10.99,  we think it's the bait. The family was using lived sandworm, and we thought the color of the sandworm might be what make it happen. So we bought artificial sandworm in orange color and it worked! And we were so very glad the family was not there, so we got to hit the jackpot. ;)


The bottom left and right pictures show we tried both grill and steam, and we got to taste surfperch more by steam (the meat came off easier,too), and smelt is definitely great by grilling because you can eat from head to eyes to tail to bone! Crunchy all the way!

Pots and Pans Man

Like Dancing Ninja, Pots and Pans Man was not Pots and Pans Man to begin with... It was a nerd with super clean cut hair sitting in the coffee shop (yup, I'm stubborn with coffee shop setting) enjoying his music and laptop. And when I drew to his arms... everything started changing from there, arms just naturally positioned like they're dancing. And then I felt like changing his hairdo to dread like, I felt like giving him an urban look with a plaid shirt and fit denim and my favorite green color high converse. 


And there he started his day with his music in the kitchen synchronizing with pots and pans and 'I like to move it move it' to his music before he can cool down for his breakfast. ('I like to move it move it' is from King Julien in Madagascar)


I think Pots and Pans Man came out not as I originally planned because he's jealous of Dancing Ninja. He can't let Dancing Ninja take all the spotlight, there's a need for balance, a competitor. He represents Day and Dancing Ninja represents Night.


Pots and Pans Man was also done in oil, and I left pots and pans undone because my feelings told me to. The focus is on the Man.

Dancing Ninja

So the "maybe" didn't happen, because artists change their minds all the time... I mean me. So all the sudden I felt like drawing people because they are still my favorite subject. Why? Because people are funny. I had the most fun drawing people and this one is fictional.


My idea comes in a weird way and usually changed along the way as well. The initial idea for this painting was a cowboy sitting down enjoying his coffee at a coffee shop on Monday to get rid of his Monday crank. And funny as I drew to glasses part, I started changing the shape of glasses to heart and star indicating his good mood after sips of coffee, and after I finished his head, I felt like he should be a hipster dancing. 


So I literally just drew as I felt what he should do, and at first he's dancing with twinkle twinkle little stars and saying 'follow me', but I felt his colorfulness from head to toe is so colorful as a disguise of who he really is, so I made the twinkle stars to throwing stars. 


So, he's a Dancing Ninja. Don't be easily fooled. ;)

Sleeping Fox - The Cuddle Family

So as I was finishing up the Bathing Monkey for the bathroom, I felt like creating one for the bedroom, too. And fox came to my mind first as my sleeping beauty. Because they just look so comfortable with their fur tail curled up and wrapped around like an all-in-one comforter-ish cushion pillow scarf...


And I remember last month when I watched Grizzly Man, the foxes that followed Timmy were so cute like dogs, they just wanted to be pet and want to cuddle. And they always look sleepy with their squinty eyes. To make it the same like the Bathing Monkeys, I made the youngster awake because they are always restless. This painting is also done in oil, and the background I used painting knife to make the hatching.


What room next? There are too many rooms now I've seen at some people's houses... bathroom, master bedroom, kitchen, dining room, study/office room, guest room 1, guest room 2, game room, kid's room, changing room, laundry room... Maybe I'll do storage room next. ;) 

Bathing Monkey - The Hot Tub Family

So I'm watching myself eating my own words... I've not been able to update my blog every other day. And I'm sorry to those artists who I criticized not update often enough. I now criticize time. It probably flies faster when it feels like to, and we don't even know. 


So I didn't slack off after the Camping Bears illustration, I was thinking hard what to draw next but it turned out thinking hard did not help me produce any art. Until last Sunday Raul and I went fishing, I got to play all day and on Monday I doodled outline for this Bathing Monkey painting. So, we should always play for inspiration. Yeah, I don't know why fishing has anything to do with monkeys or hot tub. Maybe I'm the monkey eager for a hot tub to relax and play. No parents, please. ;)


I painted this with oil colors, haven't done oil painting for a long time! And actually this is the first time I did oil painting this way, cartoony way. I used to do realistic with oil, that's how I was taught. And I feel painting realistic with oil colors is actually easier. I like this new experiment though.

Not When I Go Camping 5

No, I was not attacked by any bear nor did I attack any bear when I went off-trail camping in Yosemite last month on the 20th. I haven't posted anything for the past two weeks because internet break down until this morning. Boy! my brain was blank for the first couple of days without internet. So I did above 4 more camping bears in the meantime. Like the 10 Pastel Dog Series, I felt 10 Camping Bears Series reached a good amount, and I'd like to move on to next I don't know what yet illustration.

Making Camping Bears Series illustration was fun but required a bit brain juice for me, because coming up with the bubble talk line took some thinking plus I intended to couple them up by bears facing each other and by color themes as you can see the above (and from my previous posts)... not that it serves any particular purpose or has any deep meaning... I just like to torture myself.

This Camping Bears Series made me miss art markers a lot! They are so efficient and look great when it comes to both rapid visualization drawing and fine product rendering. And I like to play with the streaky look when you draw it slow, and when you blend the color faster you can also master a smooth surface without seeing any streak line.

Not When I Go Camping 4

I did this one earlier today, and the more I draw bears the more I feel I can speak for their behaviors. They are either curious or hungry. But they are curious because there might be food... so bears are simply hungry. I got this 'I Like Presents' idea from watching those youtube about how bears easily pop-open coolers by putting their paws on the cooler and using their whole body weight to press on it... the movement looks like they're giving CPR, and quickly food pop out like presents. 

Not When I Go Camping 3

I just did this one couple hours earlier because those cute pictures of bears checking out people's cars on internet just cracking me up... maybe not so funny anymore if it happened to our car next Tuesday.

dogbatcat Shop NOW OPEN

YAY!~~~~
Our dogbatcat shop on Etsy officially opened today! My lovely Pastel Dog Series paintings (my July 8th post) are now available for purchase! You can click on the images shown on the right-side bar under SHOP MY ART to see what is currently selling in our shop, or you can go to
www.dogbatcat.etsy.com

?? dogbatcat? What the heck is dogbatcat? And how and who came up with it? you asked. It is literally dog, bat, and cat combined creature. Of course it was Raul the writer who came up with the name! Because we wanted to open Etsy shop together to sell and share our creatives and fun (and maybe other artists would like to join us in the future), and he thinks dogbatcat very well represents us different artists come as a group.

Not When I Go Camping 2

Here are another two. 

Not When I Go Camping

I started these two "Bear At Camp" illustrations because Raul and I are going off trail camping at Yosemite next week, and we truly hope bears won't come "Knock-Knock" us. Though we're prepared and we've rehearsed for meeting-the-bears situations. 

The illustrations were done in markers and india ink on 5x7 watercolor paper.

Lovely Best Friend - Pastel Dog Series

   

   

   

Dogs are the cutest thing on earth! When you shout high-five, they probably come faster than your friends and family! Before this post, I was just watching a cute clip on youtube about a dad's high-fiving his baby in the booster seat but baby's too little to understand it and the dog sitting next to the baby was watching first but probably seeing no reaction from the baby, s/he started passionately cutting in front to give its high-five like non-stop! How cute is that?


I started this series at the beginning of this month, and they are the first ten I finished by yesterday. There will be more coming, at lease I should draw my Yorkshire Terrier! They are done in soft pastel and size is 8.25x8.25 in, I also named them the way they looked to me... (the format here doesn't allow me to label under each image, so the names below go like the image grid above)


White Face Husky  |  Blushing Poodle  |  Pirate Jack
Pudding Shih Tzu  |  Eyepatch Terrier  |  Marshmallow Bichon
Earmuff Beagle  |  Beard Schnauzer  |  Bat Ear Chihuahua
Pink Bow Bull