Congrats to D & A! :)

As I've been getting to explore more digital painting on my own, I find that I want to paint whenever possible. So I got on a roll this weekend and painted this for D & A's wedding. I'll be printing it out and framing it for them. Their wedding color was a muted green, so I thought I'd use that for the background. Also, the clothing wasn't as detailed so I decided to blur it on photoshop, so the focus could be on their faces. As I was finishing, I also played with the composition, and decided that I liked them on the left side of the frame.

Anyway, it was fun and I'll be doing more exploratory paintings...

D & A, we wish you the best and congratulations on your recent marriage! =)

Happy Anniversary...to us. :)

I painted this on photoshop from a picture of me & craig for our 4th year anniversary...it's my first digital painting so I struggled a lot with it. Took me almost a week (or was it 2?) working at nights. I think I learned a lot from it. Hopefully it'll get a little bit easier as I keep doing this. He doesn't ever check my blog so I think it's safe to post it today...:)

first figure paintings

This was the last painting I did from the painting class

It's been ages since I've done any blogging...well, aside from the figure drawing classes that I have been attending religiously, I also started a figure painting class with Randy Sexton, an artist who has taught a lot of my co-workers at Pixar. He's a brilliant painter, and a great teacher too. I was a little embarrassed to post my paintings, but now that the 8 weeks of classes are done (we didn't get to paint every week, so there aren't 8 paintings), I felt like it's worth sharing. I see improvement in my work, and although I'm far from where I want to be, I'm proud that I took the first step in taking this class.

Hope to continue with this in the Long pose nights...
week 1

week 2

week 3

week 4

seeing double

it's been a while--I've been busy sewing actually :)
So I finally DID finish the dress I started posting/blogging about for the last 2 months. Then I had enough leftover fabric to make a top! I actually like wearing it b/c it fits me well and i didn't pay for it!

forgotten sketch

I think this was from last month...keep forgetting to date my drawings. Honestly, lately I've been throwing a lot of my sketches away out of frustration. But I took a shot of this one a while back, and just got it uploaded. It's ok...for now. : \

dress update

I finally put the zipper in the dress that I've been making for many months now...I guess now that summer's pretty much over I don't feel too motivated to finish it...but the zipper took a little while to set in b/c I'm used to the invisible zipper, and this one required a different technique. Well, I'm just out of practice, if you really want to know the truth..

There's not really much left on the dress! Just hemming it up and putting in a hook and eye...why is it taking me so long?!

A new month!

Did a bit better yesterday--still feeling like my drawings aren't improving much--or just getting tired of the same poses and models...don't know. But it's still good to keep at it! These are all 1-minute poses that felt like 30 seconds in reality. : P

The Doodling Continues...

I have been so busy that I haven't been able to post my latest drawings...that and I haven't really been feeling that good about drawing. I guess I go through phases...but here are some of the ones I've done that are decent. Consider this a recap of the month of August. :)

not-so-new project

I started making this dress maybe 2 months ago, but ever since I ran into a slight problem (the front gathering made me look pregnant, so I have to change it somehow), I have abandoned the project. But I wanted to post the process so that one day when it's done I can see how far I've come.
I got the fabric from Clement street in SF, and it's actually the same fabric that one of the anthropologie tops is made out of! (Anthro is my fav store in the world, except I can't afford any of it...so I try to make things that look like they're from Anthro. hehe)

What's in a name?

Just learned some new things in Photoshop, such as making a stamp pattern...so I was eager to try it out! This is a stamp pattern I made with my name.

A lovely wedding

My good friend Ceci just got married last Saturday! It was one of the most beautiful weddings I have been to--here's to Ceci & Wayne!

Costume design nomination!

Wow--I feel really honored--I just received a letter saying that I have been nominated for a Hillbarn Theatre Subscriber Choice Award for my designs on "A Thousand Clowns"! The results should be in on Aug 10, at the awards ceremony. I'm not sure if I can go that day, but I hope to...just something to smile about. :)

Hot Asian Model

Haha, that got your attention! ;)
I just can't think of anything creative to title my entries these days. But honestly, the model Isabelle is really fit--believe she is/was a dancer--she has the elegance of a ballet dancer. Such great form and posture. Anyway, she was fun to draw, but I didn't really have a great drawing day. Here are just a few...

blah! The rest of it was a struggle--so I cut out this one...I liked the pose.

lovely model

LOVED the model from last week--co-worker T said after the session: "she was pretty...", to which R & I quickly responded, "Yah! She was pretty good wasn't she?" T followed: "No, I mean she was pretty." hehe. Just some fun costumes and it really helped me to draw better.




A few more!

The one above has the famous Tom Gately (teacher)'s correction next to it (gives it so much more attitude! That's what gesture is about)...and the guy's just brilliant!

photo collage for my sister...

My sis graduated with her MBA from UCI yesterday. I've been inspired by her photography, and wanted to do something similarly beautiful. Equipped with a less than powerful tool though (the Cannon poweshot A95), I couldn't get any good shots of her during the ceremony...but I think this will be sufficient in helping us to remember the wonderful event.

"Chinese Dumplings" short film

This is LONG overdue. I finally found the film that I costume-designed for: Chinese Dumplings. I worked with Michelle Hung (writer & director) & Quyen Tran (Cinematographer), and the film won the UCLA Spotlight in 2006 and Best Cinematography! It has since been featured in various venues. I also made the "stunt dumplings" featured on this film, with the help of Reina. Special thanks though must be given to my friend Christina Chao for her labor on helping me sew little laces onto Grace's socks, and the headband for Lucy. Lucy's costumes had to be basically made from scratch--her top I created from a t-shirt and a knit halter I found thrift. Her skirt was thrift women's size 14, and had to be made to fit her. The mom's clothes were mainly vintage, and her slippers were mine. :)

here's a link to the film on youtube.com

http://youtube.com/watch?v=LzH0ZOc1x8g&feature=related

best to you Michelle on the film--hope it gets made into a feature!

"Black Book"-PSA film at Paramount

This is the short film I co-designed costumes for over 2 years ago, and I finally just found a "making-of" clip from it! The film was a public service announcement that won a screenwriting award and then produced by professionals from Paramount Studios. We had a trailer full of costumes! It was insane.

To see the making-of video, click here:

http://www.mtv.com/overdrive/?vid=121873

or here!

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if you look closely, I'm wearing pink, towards the beginning of the film, helping an actor with her clothes. You really only see my pony tail and three-quarter view of my face. It's not an all glamorous job!

Gesture drawing 6/10/2008

These are from yesterday's gesture drawing class. Yes, I take both gesture and figure drawing classes at Pixar!

So it's frankly hard for me to tell if I am doing well in gesture drawing, b/c it is so different from figure drawing. But Nick S., the instructor/friend from the class kept saying, "These are awesome, what happened?" Which seems to say I used to suck a lot more, and I was like, "Wow, even though I feel like I can't draw right now, you think these are good? I guess that's the key to being able to do gesture drawings..." So you be the judge. I have no idea.

"A few good wo-men"...

sorry i couldn't just put "More drawings" for my title--had to TRY to be clever. hehe.
But here are some results from today's figure drawing session at work. I felt pretty loose, after my recent vacation to China...so I think my drawings are a bit more free.
I believe these were 1-2 min-poses. There is prob one on each sheet that I like, but decided to just put the whole thing on. :)

go figure...

I've been really thrilled about being able to take figure and gesture drawing classes during lunchtime at Pixar. It's an amazing perk of working here. I try to document my progress by taking pictures of my sketches so I can have digital copies of them--and I toss most of the hard copies. I have a long way to go, esp seeing how crazy awesome the artists here can draw...
Here are a few from back in February (2/26)...



And a few from March (3/4):


(Yeah I know, what's up with the half-completed heads?...I'm slow I know...)


one in May (5/7)--might be a 5 minutes pose:

This one I'm a bit embarrassed to put up b/c the model had such a great pose, but I failed to work fast enough to capture it all...this is really just the skeleton:

a friendly gesture...

Ok, enough of me trying to have clever titles...hehe. I'm kind of cheesy like that. So Gesture drawing has been a challenge for me, b/c even back in college when I took gesture drawing, it was all about the figure. But here at Pixar, I'm learning you're supposed to make up a story about what the figure is conveying. So to say the least, it's been a struggle, but I'm thankful for the opportunity to draw regardless. I'm just really rusty at this. The one above dates 5/7/08, the ones below from today! I think I'm getting it a little bit more...