Happy Valentines Day!

It's my first time participating in illustration Friday. The topic is 'celebrate' and I think it's time to celebrate one of my favorite holidays.

An early Valentines gift

A while ago I asked Juan if he could make me my dream light table...a heart shaped one. I drew him this sketch to give a rough idea of what I wanted.

He ended up doing so much more than I expected and spent countless hours working on the table. There are so many things about it that are just so awesome! He reinforced the heart top with wood underneath and has it hinged so it can be elevated. The light inside is nested on a tilted base to match the angle of the table top. The best part is that Juan wired the table so it has an ON and OFF switch plus an extra outlet in case I want to attach a table lamp...or charge my cell phone. ;)
Here are some progress pictures






And the finished product. I love this table so much and cannot wait to start using it!

Kid stuff

A couple weeks ago I came across my old elementary school artwork. Just for fun I decided to post some of the drawings. They are quite embarrassing to look at now but at the time I thought they were fantastic!...haha
The picture below is a comparison of a mermaid I drew when I was 7 and a sketch I drew a few months ago. The funny thing is that they are in such a similar pose holding the same kind of shell and I drew them years apart.

I remember I was especially proud of this one of Ariel and her sisters. One of my favorite scenes from the movie was at the beginning when all the sisters were singing at the concert...I feel like those cute characters don't get enough recognition.

Snake Charmer

I have sadly not been able to post as much as I would like but at least I have been sketching daily.
Anyway,here are some quick marker studies for a new painting that I would like to do sometime in the future.

Chinese lions!

Chinese New Year is coming up and today Juan and I were able to go to Yee's Martial Arts where my brother and sister were practicing lion dancing. Their studio is going to be performing in the parade in San Francisco and it was really neat to see them prepare for it. I give them extreme credit for what they do..it looks so hard! Here are some of my sketches.
Different lion heads




Drum player

West Coast lion dancer. He had cool hair.

Two girls practicing their shoulder stacking

More Practice

My sister hiding in a lion head

Beach girl

The weather has been so warm this past week..being January it's quite deceiving.
It feels like beach time! :)

A present for me!

At the Sketchcrawl, I noticed that a really popular sketchbook was the Fabriano Classic Artists Journal.The pages are so nice and perfect for ink and watercolor too.
I couldn't stop talking about it to Juan and today he surprised me with one! :)
Although I am really happy I have the sketchbook, I loved the wrapping paper even more. Check it out:

First Sketch Crawl 2009

Yesterday I participated in my first SketchCrawl! The weather was fantastic..a perfect day to draw outside. I had an amazing time and met some very cool people and talented artists. I have not drawn from life in a while so it took me some time to get used to it again. Here are some of my sketches from the crawl.




We started off at Golden Gate park around the carousel and children's park..there were so many kids and families to draw.




We walked a ton and tried to find new areas to draw..through the Haight,stumbled across a basketball court..but we made our way to this place know as "hippie hill" for the rest of the day. In all my years of living in the bay area I had never been there.
It's def something to see...huge group of people in a circle playing drums together, girls doing hula hoops,people playing hacky sac..there was even some guy who dug a hole in the ground and was attempting to make his own course and play golf.

Around 4:30 everyone met up at the De Young museum to share sketchbooks and hang out for a bit.
I had a great day and will definitely make an effort to participate in the sketchcrawls to come!

More concepts for my Cirque animation


Here is a sketch of a ballerina on the tight rope

Happy New Year!

Cheerleaders!

10 min photoshop sketch!


Here is my first post of the year..just a couple of quick sketches.
2008 flew by but it was great..newly graduated, I got a job as an animator at a fun, toy company working with great people, I turned 23 which is my favorite number!,I have the most wonderful boyfriend in the world, I started a blog,and met some fantastic artists and friends!
I have many resolutions this year...and I intend to fulfill all of them! One that pertains to this art blog is to become a better artist! That being said, I will try to draw something everyday even if it's a quick little sketch..just so I don't let myself go rusty. 2008 was great but 2009 shall be an even more fabulous year! :)

p.s. If you haven't seen the Curious Case of Benjamin Button, PLEASE GO SEE IT! It is one of my favorite,heart-warming movies and I truly believe it will make everyone happier and appreciate life more. :) It is a great film.

Le Cirque Des Ballerines

These are some ideas for a new personal project that I plan on starting one day..I would like to incorporate hand drawn/traditional or digital painted bgs and 2d animation with actual pencil and paper. I haven't done any animation on paper since graduation so it's going to be challenging! :)

My animation will involve a circus of ballerinas, trapezes and tight ropes galore! Here are some really rough concept sketches. More prettier concepts coming soon!

I made a 2 minute flash animation for my boyfriend for Christmas. It was a time line of events from when we met until now and he simply adored it...GREAT SUCCESS! Here are a few screen shots.

Il fait froid!

Happy Friday!

A save-the-date I did for some friends a few months ago. Their wedding was bug themed and they wanted the drawings to have a sort of Chibi look to it. I've never drawn anything in that style but it was fun.

My avatar!