May 29, 2008

Objects from China:

Portrait of a Bronze age beast! Yes, another cool object from my favorite museum.

So now that I'm all caught up again, I'm off on another trip for the weekend (yes, I cannot stop travelling!), so unless I can figure out how to take fantastic cell phone pics of my sketch book and post them, look for more drawings on Monday! Thanks for bearing with the hit or miss updates as of late, but all the daily drawings are there and accounted for sooner or later! : )

May 28, 2008

Objects from China:

Yet another awesome find from the Guangzhou's Museum of the Nanyue King; this one is a top decorative piece for an ornamental room screen divider; originally feathers were placed on the top of his head. I absolutely love his smile- some sort of demented Chesire Cat demon god!!

May 27, 2008

Objects from China:

This one is based off another gem from the Guangzhou's Museum of the Nanyue King; it's inspired from a jade dragon ornament that was found on the Nanyue King himself, and makes up the logo of the Museum.

May 26, 2008

Objects from China, part II:

I found this fantastic door knocker at an antiques store in Shanghai and just thought he was absolutely wonderful! Not sure how authentically "antique" he was, as there were two of them, but he had such fantastic character, I couldn't pass him up!

May 25, 2008

Objects from China;

I saw this beautiful turquoise fox-like bronze at an exhibit in Guangzhou's Museum of the Nanyue King (they were having a wonderful special exhibit on "The Bronze Age----Relics of the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties from Henan"), and it totally inspired me to draw this relic up. I never think of turquoise as being found in China, but there you have it!

Anyway, the museum had some beautiful pieces- I was super bummed they didn't offer a catalogue of the special exhibit, but I did buy the official catalog of the permanent collection! ; )

May 24, 2008

Good to be back home! After 36 hours, gaining a day, a taxi ride, 2 train rides, a bus ride, a plane ride, and a car ride, it's finally good to be back ho...zzzzzzzzz.........

May 23, 2008

Fish aquarium store or restaurant? Eating out in Guangzhou, China, is like going to my favorite aquarium store, but here I have to worry about picking out my dinner instead of picking out something to decorate my tank with!

May 22, 2008

Oolong Tea Ceremony waiting at the airport

May 21, 2008

Crazy drivers!!

I have never experienced driving as crazy as Chinese drivers outside of video games- the only way to describe being driven around China is like Grand Theft Auto, but without the car jacking or hookers. Or Crazy Taxi. Come to think of it, our taxi driver -did- drive on the sidewalk at one point. So maybe more like Crazy Taxi.

Seriously. I thought I was going to die at several points. But in a fun way! They all drive like maniacs, but they manage to do it without cars being wrecked on the side of the road everywhere (that I could see). Words cannot even describe the madness. I don't think my drawing can even accurately describe it. Go play a video game (like crazy taxi) and drive like a reckless maniac, and perhaps that will come close, but without the death defying part. (to experience what it's like to be a pedestrian crossing a road, go play Frogger. Seriously- life building skills people!)

May 20, 2008

"Just Looking!"

The vendors here are in-sane! They are pretty aggressive, and will try to sell you anything; there were times I wasn't even sure what they were selling, they were just listing off prices to me!! I've been offered watches, bags, countless fruits/snacks/foodstuffs, jewelry, toys, water, maps, zippy magnet things that make annoying sounds, hats, wallets, bone carving things, pan flutes, more watches, more bags, portraits, little jasmine scented dangly things made from straw, postcards, fans, necklaces, tours, photos, things with my photo on it, rollerskate dealies that attach to your shoes, and things that i'm sure i'm forgetting about, and these are things people have come up to me in the street to sell me, not including brick and mortar vendors. You can't glance at something without being descended upon by salespeople. The merchants in the shop like to yell out either "hello!" or "just looking!" which seem to be the only english they know, which strikes me as odd. Shouldn't I be the one saying, "just looking?"

The magic words are "Boo Ya," which translate to "no thanks/ not interested", which came very, very much in handy; although you have to be as persistent as they are, which can be pretty tough at times!!!

May 19, 2008, part II

Strange food!

At a banquet this evening, looked into the pot and had this looking back up at me! It was very tasty, although I didn't try any of the parts that had anything that could look back at me...

May 19, 2008

Moment of Mourning

At 2:30 today, everything stopped what they were doing; car traffic, foot traffic; everything came to a complete standstill, and all the horns and sirens sounded for three whole minutes. My mom and I, on our way to see a temple, were completely bewildered, as we had no idea what was going on, but as we were later told that evening, it had been one week since the large 8.0 earthquake had struck in Sichuan province, and all of China was having three minutes of "silence" at exactly the time when the earthquake had hit a week ago. It was eerie knowing that all across the country that everybody had come to a standstill; however, it was very confusing in the moment, not knowing why everybody had stopped, and why all the horns and sirens where going off with no warning or reason!!

Speaking of the earthquake, it was all over the news during our visit; lots of blood drives and money donations everywhere; very tragic and lots of very sad imagery all over the tv footage and newspapers.

May 18th, 2008

I like to call this one, "the Other Sleeping Dragon." Jet lag+ snoring parents= fail!

May 17, 2008

Adventures in Shanghai!

Today was a whirlwind tour around Shanghai; walking down Nanjing road, around the Bund (fantastic people watching), and finally over to Yuan Garden before swinging back over to the Bund to see it all lit up at night. Whew!

Along the way we saw tiny fishing ponds stocked with goldfish where kids could fish for goldfish, surly watermelon man vendors with mean knives and cigarettes, and checked out some famous soup-dumplings at Yuan Garden (thanks for the tip Will!)

May 16th, 2008

Our first meal in China! Our friend and host in Shanghai, Michelle, bought us to a local Chinese-Muslim noodle shop where they were making up some fresh ramen noodles. It was a super yummy meal and a great way to start off our trip!!

May 15th, 2008

On the way to China!

This is a rough map of our route; my handy sketchbook happens to have a map of China in the front: we spent a day and a half in Shanghai (1), 5 days in a city on the coast called Xiamen (2), then a day and a half in Guanzhou (previously called Canton) (3) before leaving via Hong Kong.


These next two are sketches on the plane, one from the National Geographic issue on China, one illustrating the plane ride!

Ni hao China!

Hey everybody! As you may or may not know, I am off on a week and a half adventure in China, so I will not be updating my blog until May 25/26th. I will be drawing every day about my adventures in China (Shanghai and Xiamen, mostly), so be sure to tune back in to see the new additions. I can't wait to see what adventures and new sights this trip will bring!!!

Camel and girl

Was watching a show about the Sahara desert, and they were showing camels, so I was inspired to draw this! Wanted to play around with colors too. Enjoy!

Too many headaches

Was inspired by some of Louis Roskosch's work, which was mentioned on Drawn! this week; love his lines and some of his color sense, so I tried incorporating some of that in this piece. As the title says- I've been dealing with too many headaches lately. Hopefully they'll clear up enough for my big trip coming up this week.

Tiki!

Inspired by my fiance's tiki mug collection- love the lines on this guy's face!

Renaissance Woman

Inspired from my Taschen book of costumes- a 16/17th century German woman's outfit. Enjoy!

Illustration Friday "Electricity"

For Illustration Friday's theme, "Electricity," I thought of Topsy, the unfortunate elephant whom Edison electrocuted in order to demonstrate the dangers of AC current. I wanted to draw something that would capture the barbary of the act and add a crown of electric sparks, while incorporating the bizarre headdress that they put on her. I'd like to think of this image as some sort of electric ghost or spirit of Topsy.

More Joshua Tree studies

Just a quick sketch...

Draw yourself as a teen meme

Damon did this livejournal meme, and figured I'd give it a whirl:

Draw yourself as a teenager and now

I think I've come a long way, myself! (ps- yes, I used to wear plaid shirts, but not because I actually listened to grunge music; just because it was a fashion trend and I was just happy that my dad had some cool looking shirts I could borrow!)

Mojave Mound cactus

Another cactus study from my trip! This is the Mojave Mound cactus- beautiful red blossoms with some mighty scary spikes! Ouch!

Finished beavertail cactus, with more color

Here is yesterday's drawing, with color, as promised! Just did a light pass with color- wanted to preserve the texture of the text beneath. Enjoy!

Halfway there

Feeling very much under the weather tonight, so can only get this up- started this at lunchtime; meant to color it in, so it's only halfway done. Will try to get the finished color pass up tomorrow with another drawing! enjoy! (it's a beavertail cacti from Joshua Tree)

Teddy Bear Cholla

Another blooming flower from Joshua Tree (green flowers! very beautiful in a subtle way). Also, forgot to mention it- this is my 202nd post! (passed #200 a few days ago!) Whoo hoo!

Mountain Quail

Finished off my trip to Joshua Tree earlier today with a hike to 49 Palms Oasis and saw tons of Mountain Quail, so my drawing today is of one! They were so amazingly adorable- snapped some great pics of them a well! Enjoy! (ps- guacho boy is the name of the book from which my new sketch book came from)

Joshua Tree

I was in Joshua Tree for the weekend- here's a sketch of the park at sunset; Also, my submission for this week's Illustration Friday's theme, "Seed," for every mighty Joshua Tree must first grow from a small seed!

Friday fountain

Drew this Friday at lunch at work- fountain in our patio at work. Enjoy!

Dumbo octopus

Another from Claire Nouvian's excellent photography book of deep sea creatures, "The Deep." Also known as the glowing sucker octopus.



Just a small note- I will be out of town (in Joshua Tree!) through Sunday, so will have new drawings to post then! Have a good weekend everybody! : )

End of April

Quick lunchtime sketch- end of my hummingbird notebook too! Time to start a new Ex Libris Anonymous sketchbook!