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...)

First Day at the New Store~

I think I'd been self-employed for too long that I'd forgotten how stressful to work for someone else... Anyway, as long as it pays the bills at the bottom line... First day at new place, I felt like it's Valentine's day or Mother's day for me. Customers lining up in front of me all needs to ask/pay something. Sometimes I asked myself that if I look more friendlier than other workers that why they all want to ask me but not others... >O< I even cut my finger by accident with the broken glass from the popped frame that I was going to put back to shelf. Luckily it was not major and other staff help me to clean up quickly and first aided me with something. Hope that today I made all the mistakes and next time I won't make them all..... hopefully... let's cross our finger. Why do I switch from self-employed florist to other people's employee? I guess the main concern is I don't have to worry about the business after the hours are done. I can be with my kids and family and not to kill my brain cells off with all the other stuffs I have to deal with related to business. Just work and get paid. easy and simple... hahaha for now... maybe I'll change my mind again; but at lease let me try this one first and see how long I can stand it for.

Need Time Off...

Sometimes you will feel that you are so tired of everything... Tired of work, tired of your lifestyle, tired of the things happening around us, tired of the same O same O... No motivation of doing anything... I really think that we all need some time off to do things we like to do... But when is my turn to have time off for myself? Good question... While we are making other people happy from what we do, who is going to make us happy? Hope my tiredness will go away somehow; otherwise, it's not healthy... *cranky mood*

In picture<-- a handtie bouquet for graduation that was requested to make it look like a bridal/presentation bouquet. Flowers include 1 doz red roses with baby's breath and some lily grasses.

Time is limited... Just be Happy~

有了小孩(s)生活起了很大的變化，我都覺得自己與世隔絕‧成天不是工作就是帶小孩，自己也沒私人時間去做其它事。朋友只能電郵，覺得少了聯絡太久就快失去聯絡‧大概也是跟自己不積極的性格有關…現實太多不成文的因素造就了許多無法實現夢想的理由，有時覺得身不由己啊…不過自己要學著在有限的環境中，創造自己的快樂

Create your own happiness in your limited environment~