5 Days in Tokyo / Sticker + Postcard Set

One of my new years resolutions for 2014 was to make a zine and distribute it, but every time I came home from a trip I would begin to paint and make sketches for a zine but I could never finish it. It starts getting tedious and arranging the pages seem really confusing to me.

But! I finally found a solution! Instead of a zine, I made this illustrated postcard about my spontaneous trip to Japan in September: '5 Days in Tokyo'. It's short and sweet but still tells the story about what I ate, what I saw and what (or who, hahahaha!) I did.

Like everyone else I like to talk forever about myself and my travels but this condensed format doesn't really let me do that. Just little symbols and a sentence or two to explain each one.

I also made 8 piece stickers out of the little illustrated objects, portable talisman I can stick anywhere to remind me of the good times I had on the trip. A seashell collected from Kamakura beach, an Iphone for OkCupid/Tinder holiday flings, both fatty + lean tuna sushi from Tsukiji Fish Market, a sweet potato with soulful little eyes, a cool Tokyoite girl spotted at Omotesando shopping district and lastly the airplane window view of the perfectly manicured Japanese farmland.

I hope that people will look at the objects in the set and wonder what kind of story I'm trying to tell, like a puzzle you can decorate things with.

I'm gonna be making these postcards for all my trips now, next stop: 5 Days in Chaing Mai for Christmas! Helllloo elephants and delicious Thai food!

Buy the '5 Days in Tokyo' sticker set from my Etsy shop themarrow and get the free matching postcard! They'll perfect stocking stuffers for your kawaii wanderlusting pals. Gotta stick 'em all!

September TMI / This Month I: Went to Tokyo!

Over the past year I've discovered that I love travelling so much! I can really say that now, when I was younger I liked traveling, I knew it was something that was important to like, but I didn't love-love-love it. I was a bit scared of it and while abroad I would only ever do daytime activities and I would always make sure to retreat back to my hostel before it got dark out.

Maybe it's getting older and having a little more experience and disposable income but with each trip I feel more and more liberated, I'm probably more adventurous and open to new experiences while I'm traveling now and I'm constantly scheming about how I can go on my next vacation.

Marion Crepes, I read in my guide book this is the original place to get crepes in Harajuku and duh, you have to eat a crepe while shopping in Harajuku. It's the kawaii thing to do. But while it looks super cute in photos, the crepe was full of artificial cream and not very delicious.

I drew this while catching an episode of Bizzare Foods with Andrew Zimmern, tell me this doesn't look egg-actly like him. No word yet on whether this particular egghead has met his hard-boiled end during breakfast time.

This month I also got to work with the amazing Marks and Spencer team to create an illustration for their A/W 2014 press preview event where I got to live draw some of the media guest right into the illustration alongside Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth, Kate Middleton and M&S spokespersons Rosie Huntington-Whiteley and David Gandy.

They were also kind enough to outfit me in this amazing graphic print Per Una dress and little black patent t-strap heels. I felt soh kyute!

One of my absolute favourite photographers came to do a lecture in Hong Kong! Martin! Parr!

Speaking of traveling, it was on a trip to Paris where I was first introduced to Parr's work. I saw an ad for one of his exhibitions "Planète Parr" on show at the Jeu de Paume on the Paris Metro (ah, the wonderful exhibition ads in the Paris and London subways, how I love thee) and I just had to go.

After hearing him speak and explain his process a little, I don't even know how else to describe the man except that he's just soooo coool. Blog post to come soon!

I got to create a logo for my friend Nicole's brand new website Nic416.com, I'm so happy I got to help her create this portrait to use as a logo for her site and it was so much fun to make.

After every trip I always get post-vacation blues, I love being able to roam around a city all day, have travel buddies to hang out with all the time and meet new people and it can be so jarring to switch back to home/work mode. Good thing I bought a lot of souvenirs in Japan all complete with cute packaging like this sake juice box, it even comes with a straw. Weirrrrrd.

"We can dress up for our own pleasure, but we must speak up for our rights." - Naomi Wolf.

That quote is often how I feel about living in Hong Kong, we love our hedonistic pleasures here but we also have a lot of freedom and while we should enjoy them we shouldn't forget that this freedom is a privilege and we should make sure we stand up to protect it. I made this little sketch to support the Occupy Central protests that have been going on.

To finish off this month of Tokyo hopping and face-drawing, here is a favourite portrait from the live sketching job I did for Tiffany & Co a few weeks ago for their in-store event. The guest was even wearing the exact shade of Tiffany blue, how perfect.