New Year Resolution~

Happy New Year!!!!!

Wish everyone Happy Healthy and Dream Comes True!!!

Wish my art will sell!!! (hahahaha)

Wish my painting skill gets better~~~

And Wish my family have a healthy and happy year...

Cheers!!!

from Patty - January 01, 2010 - 00:11AM

Finally found my acrylic paints...

I'd finally dug out my long lost acrylic paints in my closet storage box... Tested them out and found that they are still good!
At first I wasn't sure what to paint since it was going to be a test piece, but after I drafted out the mermaid and dolphin picture, I decided to paint it seriously... (not just random doodling... hahaha...)
The difference between watercolor and acrylic paints is interesting. I like the bright and clear translucent feel in watercolor; but acrylic paints really give the depth and I can layer the paint without massing them up... One thing about acrylic paint that I don't like is it dries out too quickly. I have to spray water constantly on my palette... anyway, testing is over. Now I have to paint some more~

Holiday Eating Disorder...

(left: my latest ACEO sketch for Lord of the Rings - Fan Art - Gimli and Lady Eowyn)


I'd been to so many family or friends lunches, get together parties, dinners almost every day during this crazy holiday break... (Don't feel like a break for my stomach...>o<) I'd TRYed to control the food I took in while partying with people. However, the temptation is just way higher than my self-control consciousness... After the last party (at New Year night I believe) I "think" I'll need to go on my extreme dieting plan... (hahaha... *we'll see*) I'm surprised that after all these parties and food, I still have energy to draw.... XD

Style Experimenting

Just taking a break from drawing the "Rings"... It's fun to try different drawing/painting styles. My "sea witch" painting (left picture) is mixed with watercolor, color pencils and a little bit of gouache for high-light. Very classic media for illustration... XD. I was thinking of digging out my acrylic materials for my illustration work. (Lots of my art supplies were still in my closet... hiding in my storage boxes) But I'm so afraid that once I dig them out, my 4 year-old son will come to "Play" or try to "Help" me with my art... (Imaging a "very helpful" little kid playing with the acrylic paints... think about the cleaning part... *headache* at least watercolor I can scrub they off the skin and shirt... Although my little boy got his own art supplies and easle to play with, but someone else's always seems better than his... XD) Well, I might have to try it without him noticing them... Until next time, I'll still keep using my ink and watercolor... (Back to my "Rings" research)

All Hobbits look so similar... my bad...

After drawing 4 hobbits (Frodo, Sam, Pippin and Merry), I found all my hobbits look very similar... Even I gave them different costumes, hair colors, even the background or things to hold... (ie Pippin is holding the treebeard's nose... and Sam is holding the light bottle...) they still look the same in the black and white drawing... Still have lots of room to "improve". Let's just put it this way, all these characters were cartoonized under my pen... @o@ I'm not so sure about making them more beautiful (trying to), but it seems that it conflict the realism style that I was trying to achieve. I'd remembered that I used to be a good pencil sketcher during high school, but good pencil sketch needs precious time to complete which most my time went to my daughter and my son that only time to sketch was when they were all asleep... zzz (me sleep too) Pen and ink drawing is my another lazy way to sketch I guess... It just simplifies the process... Anyway, time to practice more... Chow!

Lord of the Rings Fan Art

It's funny that when drawing in pen and ink, I felt like drawing them in cartoon style which automatically make the character's eyes much bigger than normal... It's not a good practice but just cannot help it... Pen and ink style with lots of lines is always my favorite style. I usually will spend lots of time drawing people's hair, mustache, tree trunks or anything with lots of texture... Lord of the rings series inspired me a lot in fantasy drawing. The characters and backgrounds, costumes they wore and weapons they carried were all wonderful study materials in fantasy art. Thanks to the marvelous novel and wonderful movies that make our imaginary world comes true... =)

Fun ACEO

Just discovered the fun of ACEO - the original art card creation. The tiny size (only 2.5"x3.5") art card creation is really interesting~ What interests me the most is: I don't have to use my big easel to paint them! Just my ordinary one foot desk is more than adequate... Ha! I feel like creating hand-painted Pokemon cards or something... But it's great practice for my illustration career... Cheers!
ps: Great for mailing too!!! Save lots of money...

Pingu candy land...

Yesterday when me and my husband took my boy to Bloorview kids rehab for semi-annual check up, we saw this funny balloon creatures scene on the side road while we are coming back home. It's really cute. My boy love the Pingus the best and the snow globe too. Too bad that the traffic was so bad on bayview ave at the rush hour that we cannot stop by and have a closer look... It was just around Bayview Avenue and Lawrence in Toronto. North of Sunnybrook hospital (where Bloorview Kids Rehab is). Such a Christmas cheers! Ya... today's last day of my kids' school... We will back on track when New Year comes! For now, we are going to EAT, SLEEP and PLAY! Merry Christmas! and Happy New Year!

Snow Snow Snow

It's another snowy storm day... on my birthday! Hahaha! I'm the snow child. Every birthday is a snowy day! I'd received my Mario Cart Wii game from Amazon.ca today which we placed the order 2 days ago. We'd tried to find this game at bestbuy and walmart but all sold out! Amazon is really good. Shipping is super fast even in this crazy shopping Christmas holiday! Anyway, my holiday for this winter break will be playing lots of Wii games and do Wii exercises!!! We also got the Wii my personal fitness couch and Wii Gold's Gym Cardio~~~ Burn the extra Body Oil!!! HAha! So Happy!

Last day from Retail

Today we got the first snow storm warning. Everything is frozen outside. The wind is blowing like crazy but I'm enjoying my day playing with my kids at home. It's almost Christmas, but my son just got a fever yesterday. I was suppose to work yesterday, but I had to call in sick (not me, but because my boy is sick). And Today I got a call from the store saying that my work schedule for tomorrow has been cancelled. My reaction from receiving this call was very happy! XD No kidding! Most people must have felt frustration because of work schedule being cancelled. However, I'd gave them my resignation since 2 weeks before, I'm much happier to leave the crazy retail store and leave the torture chamber due to crazy holiday hours. I'd been in retail business since my daughter was born (back in 11 years ago); and I'm totally DONE with it. Hope this will teach me a lesson that don't let me go back to my old road.
Got some free time to spend with my kiddos and hopefully I can catch up with some paintings that I'd always wanted to do but no time before~~~ Lots of time now! I mean we cannot always have the world. You lose some and you gain some~ Cheers! and Chills... (Cold Winter...)