Time really flies, after a handful of posting, it's already the last day of this year.

Thinking back last year, I was pretty busy to figure out finding my way, and I think I had not so bad year. Hope this new year of blue horse bring me a luck to run like a horse. I will happily work my full force flying my blue mane. Happy New Year everyone!

                       Season's greetings to you all!

Medium Hunt

Finding a new medium is always inspiring and a trip to an art supply store is my favorite thing.
Among other places in San Francisco, I'm a big fan of FLAX. For some reason I've been thinking that the location isn't convenient, may be it's because of the highway nearby. Early this year, when I actually drove to the store,I found that it is much closer than I thought and they even have the free parking lot in the back. I almost took the oath of loyalty that day and since then, I'm getting lots of helpful tools and materials from that store.The other day I was seduced by one 'Try Me' sign there.

 It was the 'Water Color Graphite'. It was a graphite block in a lip balm sized can. You can use it with wet brush, it almost felt like using a Chinese ink brush painting or the cake eye liner. I was excited, I tried it on the try notepad on the side. My bird is tweeting in the forest of other's try doodles.

I expected it to be really erasable like other graphite media. To my disappointment, it wasn't dramatically erasable, still I could lighten it up a bit. When I came home, I tried this new material right away. I started from a girl's face with a bang hair like me, then added other animal friends. 

This medium enables wide range in value, I loved the subtlety of it. When I was done with the drawing, I added a slight red wash then scanned and did other elements in photoshop. I posted this on Facebook on one rainy morning, wishing a warmer weather. To my surprise, rain really went away!

How Sunny got her groove back

I was waiting for a good time to come back and run this blog like a BLOG. It already has been more than a half year since I posted lastly, I think it's too much time to get away by just saying 'Sorry I've been lazy updating'. I'm back from SCBWI conference in LA last weekend, it's just right time to come back.

I met my tribe there. They were huge, more than thousand people and they were not all. We just recognized each other at first sight, I felt like in a big family gathering among them. 

It was my first major conference, so I was really nervous and already tired from preparing stuff to show. But from the first presentation, I knew I belong to them. The word 'like minded people' stayed in my mind all through the conference, and boosted my courage to say hello to the people I first met. 

 

Meeting my favorite artists in person and hearing the wisdom from them were just priceless. Making new artist friends and sharing our love of what we do were amazing.

The most valuable lesson that I learned was that there's no other secret to masterpiece than time and effort. They spent years to develop stories and characters, and devoted themselves to it. I really appreciate everything they shared with us. How genuine and humble they were, made me think that I love those people so much and I want to grow old with them. On my way home I was so happy and confident that I'm an illustrator. My first thoughts when I woke up next day was 'I'm so fulfilled with the happiness to know that I'm in the right place.'

                              However, I have to admit, oh boy,the portfolio showcase was pretty intense.

                                      

I'd like to appreciate my colleagues Kelley, Shih Fen and Hyoji for being wonderful conference buddies and most of all, my husband who encouraged and supported me to go.

My wonderful conference buddy Kelley described about details of the conference well in her blog.  I would've been less nervous if I saw Tina Kugler's kind posting before the conference. Also I found Juana Martinez 's posting about making physical portfolio which would've been really helpful. Even though I had my cold allergy situation from air conditioning, I'd definitely go back to meet my tribe again, next time, with the better portfolio and maybe a proper outfit for the Gala.

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