Sketches / Prada Baby

Prada Baby, 2015.

First day back at the desk, an one afternoon sketch to help me get back into the swing of things. Inspired by the Sasha Pivovarova for Prada ad. I'm just such a fan of drawing shoes and little animals.

Off to make dinner now, sooo hungry!

2014 in Review

2014 in review.

1. Marilyn
2. Tod's / For Bagaholic Boy.
3. The Beermaid / For Hong Kong Tatler.
4. Vincent Van Girl
5. Fashion Week / For Lane Crawford.
6. Robert Mapplethorpe / Sketched on my London trip at the Tate Modern.
7. R.S.V.P. / For Hong Kong Tatler.
8. Go Places / Make Things
9. Nicole / For NIC416.com. Logo design for a friend's upcoming new website.
10. 5 Days in Tokyo / Shop the sticker + postcard set on Etsy.
11. Live sketches for Everybody Labo / The Hong Kong based skincare brand asked me to personalize the product labels for their media guests at their re-launch event with some live portraits. Check out some photos of the day here, and the bottles here and here.
12. Pradasphere / Shop the prints on Etsy.

Ahhhhhhh. Hi! My name is Kitty and I'm a 27 year old who can't understand the concept of time.
In my head in no way can it be 2015, that feels way too far into the future I remember exactly how January 2014 felt and it for sure doesn't feel like 365 days ago. "Where did this year go?" doesn't even begin to describe my sense of time diaspora.

So, for some concrete proof that I didn't spend all year looking at Instagrams of dogs in bed it's fun to look back on all the work I made this year. Did I get better? I definitely painted less and started to rely more on the quick ballpoint pen sketches which I then coloured digitally. I guess that's what style is, just something you end up doing out of habit. You do it more and more and become more confident at it and it's a positive feedback loop. 

Maybe it's because I did more traveling this year (yay!) but I remember each month so clearly, which is a nice feeling because usually when I look back on the year it's all one giant blur. Having something special to look forward to and remember every few months really gives a nice sense of division to the year.

The only thing I really regret is not having made one single Intro to Fashion History comic all year, it's a project I kept meaning to do but it's so easy to put off personal projects, especially if they take a bit of planning and researching. I'm definitely going to have to change that in 2015.

How was your 2014? Did it zoom by for you as well? Are you also a refugee of 2014 floating across the oceans of time waiting for the right to land in the land of opportunity of 2015? I wanna hear all about it!

Sketches / Pradasphere

Did you know Lorde was in town? Playing a secret concert for the opening of Prada's new exhibition Pradasphere in Hong Kong? No? Me either, but don't worry us plebes still got the chance to check out the fabulous exhibition housed in a temporary but glorious structure on top of Pier 4 in Central.

You've never seen the Lamma Island pier look so glamourous, the whole building got a Prada makeover with 'Yue Shue Wan' proclaimed in white letters on a sleek black background. And when you step inside onto the lush black and green checkered carpeting you are transformed into Miuccia's world and the brand's history starting from the 1970's onwards.

If it's one thing I love it's visiting fashion exhibitions.
Here's a few of the sketches I made at the exhibition, I love doing quick sketches while looking at the real thing it makes all the difference in making drawings with a lively immediate quality. After I got home I added a thin wash of colour in gouache and watercolour.

All these Prada shoe prints are available for sale on my Etsy shop, I'm also selling the set of original little sketches too, email me if you want to cop those.

Click through for the [IMG HEAVY] post with all the delicious photos from Pradaphere, warning-- you'll want to buy all the things.

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!