Sunday, July 19, 2015

Happy Hobo



Been abandoning my blogspot for tumblr...might just move on to tumblr soon since I have too many pages to manage and update. Although I've always felt that blogspot was more ideal for writing long detailed posts and sharing my process/inspiration.

 But for now, here's a piece I finished last month! Inspired by the city of hobos I passed by on my way to work daily. It's been awhile since I've done line work illustrations and I was surprised by how stress-free it felt to just doodle and then color. I used to do a lot of crazy line work pieces before I went to art school. After art school it was all about ditching the line-work, working fast and rough while keeping all the technical things in check so this piece was pretty liberating to work on.

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Super Mom!

Had this idea in mind and finally decided to tackle it for Mothers Day. It was definitely a challenge cause I had to step out of my comfort zone and try something different from my usual (simple) works. It's my first time painting an interior environment so it was hard for me to decide on what palette I wanted. My original intent was to do a night scene which would've fit the story better, but that would require a cooler palette. I wanted something warmer so... morning it is! Tried not to overwhelm myself with technical details but at the same time I didn't want things to look "off". The struggle was real with this piece and it made me realize I still need a lot of practice when it comes to painting!

On the bright side, I've signed up for Schoolism's subscription and can't wait to start it!! I totally miss learning with some sort of guidance since I've been feeling a bit lost about advancing my skills after graduation. I'm trying to push myself to step out of my comfort zone but it's hard without some sort of guidance...



Originally intended to save a desaturated version just to show my values but then I thought it would be fun to keep the outfit colorized.

Saturday, May 2, 2015

Golden Days




Close Up

Finished this one a few weeks ago! Been posting on tumblr but there's still something nice about blogspot although nobody uses it anymore. Maybe its because I've always been into this old school style blogging (like back in my xanga days) so I feel more comfortable sharing things in detail here.

Anyways, I was stuck on a complex piece so I decided to take a break from it and worked on something simple and minimalist. I was actually inspired by a few a simple photographs with gorgeous lighting so I decided to illustrate it with a little story I envisioned on my mind.

I realized that minimalist drawings are actually very challenging since most of us tend to naturally over-draw. It requires an eye for design and definitely some very strong foundational and technical skills to be able to strip everything away while knowing what to keep. Although this piece looks simple, I struggled quite a bit when it came to questioning myself what to keep and what to eliminate. Overall, im not sure if the feeling of the piece translated as well as I had envision but I got to a point where I knew I should stop. Maybe I will rework it in the future but here it is for now!

Saturday, April 11, 2015

Quick Sketch































Quick sketch of my sister with my new surface pro! Slowly getting used to it, im not sure if its ideal for very fine detailed drawings yet but its amazing for sketches and fast comic style drawings. Been working on a few pieces but haven't felt satisfied with either yet...

Thursday, April 2, 2015

The Messengers

Finished this a couple of weeks ago! Still a pretty loose and simple illustration but I wanted to focus more on story telling. Inspired by some Chinese folktales and dramas I used to watch/read as a kid.




I've always wanted to try blocking in with 3D and using 3D cam to get depths of field...I later realized it wasn't really necessary with the simplicity of this piece, but it was a fun experiment! Will definitely be utilizing this method in the future although it does require a few extra steps. This would be a great method for detailed environment paintings or anything that requires some precise perspective (wish I'd done this when I was drawing The Bait)

Monday, February 23, 2015

Golden Catch



*judging you with my party hat on*


Just finished!It was something I started on during a slow day at work and just kept working on during my free time. I've recently changed my mindset and approach to drawing and this has been one of the most enjoyable pieces I've worked on so far. Gotta enjoy the journey!

Recently made a FB page to post all my updates, it'll pretty much serve the same purpose as this blog but less wordy ....ha! https://www.facebook.com/joycefanart

Saturday, February 14, 2015



" Fail as much as you can so you can eliminate your flaws." 

                              - Goro Fujita 


Wise words from an amazing artist.

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Top Chef : Season 12































This season was just way too awesome!! TWO female Chinese chefs and TWO Portland chefs kicking major butts!! With me being Chinese (female) and from Portland, I was totally rooting for the four of them...and guess what? They ALL made it to the top/final four. What I found interesting was that they had such a diverse group of contestants and would've made an awesome line-up of character redesigns- all different shapes and sizes with contrasting personalities. If I have time I would love to do an entire line up of all 16 chefs.

Working on this reminded me of how tough character designing is. Its been awhile so I definitely felt a bit rusty...you can see a lot of my drawing/design weaknesses here. Still have a long way to go, but one step at a time!

Also, I'm back on tumblr ...and other places. just sort of testing which would be the best platform...


Saturday, February 7, 2015

The Bait

How many cats can you spot?


Done at last!! 

I would say this is technically my "first" full on illustration with environment and characters. I got a bit too excited and neglected some important steps that would've made my life a lot easier...as a result this piece took WAY longer to finish than it should have. I was erasing, redrawing, removing overly done details, simplifying etc. but this could have all been avoided if I had just slowed down in the earlier stages to really build and secure the  "foundation" of the piece.

Worked on this with the mentality of deleting it afterwards...working this way relieved me from all the restraints and pressure I felt previously. I was getting way too caught up with the technical side of drawing that I've almost forgotten how to enjoy it. 

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Baaaa



Just leaving a note to prove that im still alive.

Drawing has been very tough lately :( but slowly trying to get back on my feet. Been working on a few pieces but can't seem to get anything done!! I think I need to get back to tradition mediums, maybe this digital thing is killing me.


Fixed my Forest Friends piece because I realized the composition of the snowballs were driving me nuts. Also fixed The Journey because I've always felt like the giraffe's legs was disrupting the flow of the piece. Now I can stop feeling that "off" feeling when I look at these two pieces!