Merry Christmas! And a New Years Present!

 

Every year at Christmas time I play this game where I try not leave the house for as long as possible, this year is no different. But as least I've been putting my extra indoor time to good use and made some illustrations.

Were you naughty this year and forgot to send out your holiday cards on time? Fear not! There's still time to send out New Years cards and as a Thank You to all you lovely readers I made this free printable New Years 2013 card for you, featuring a cheeky socialite who's had a few glasses of champagne too many and I hope your holiday is just as decadent and wonderful.

Download the original hi-res version over on Flickr! Print out the image on cardstock and send them to your friends & family!

Speaking of Flickr, it's gotten so much better lately, I loved using it back in 2006 and then
but now I'm getting really excited to start using it again. Have you guys downloaded the app yet?

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If You're Thinking About Strong Brows

If you've been thinking about strong brows...like the Sartorialist has been or if you're an aspiring countess/mistress.
Frances Villiers, Countess of Jersey, 18th Century. Thomas Beach.

Through the James Jean Glass

Belinda through the looking glass.

I feel a little bit silly writing this post now seeing as James Jean actually came to Hong Kong back in October to promote his collection of beautiufl scarves, jewelry and pouches called OVM Accessories at the Harbour City Lane Crawford during the James Jean x BLITZ x Hypebeast event, but alas I took some nice photos and it would be a shame not to share them. That evening I wore a black kimono I got from Mee & Gee and felt silly swooping around in it like Severus Snape, also it didn't help that it was 5 days before Halloween.

1,2. This brave couple got Mr. Jean to sign/draw on their iPhone 5s!  
3. My friends, Helene & Belinda and I getting a photo taken with the artist himself, he was so patient and took the time to autograph and draw a little sketch for each person waiting in line.

1. The Blitz space at Lane Crawford was decked out in James Jean's beautiful illustrations.
2. Talented graphic designer and snazzy dresser Belinda Love Lee.
3. Me standing behind the James Jean painted glass.
4. Helene looking gorgeous in front of the covetable James Jean scarves.

Taking a Detour This 2012

Photos:
1. Wearing a vintage dress, a belt I got at a clothing swap, H&M ring and MAC lady danger lipstick.
2. A reaaally cool crocodile design by London/HK illustrator Kristopher Ho.
3. Taking a photo with celebrity guest Joe Ma at the Crocodile x Detour event.
4. Here I am with my nominated design 'A Celebration' on display!

I'm back with a new blogpost and this one concludes my Growing Up in Hong Kong project! Thursday before last, my parents and I headed over to the Oasis Gallery (that should really be in quotation marks because we all know that 'gallery' is really the hallway in front of the Central escalators) to attend the Crocodile x Ambassadors of Design x DETOUR opening ceremony. There were lots of celebs, models and designers in attendance, including Lisa S., Amanda S. and Joe Ma.

An aside: as a thank you gift for the nominated designs Crocodile gave us all gift certificates and I took my dad shopping for new shirts and then I felt really validated as an artist or whatever (I'm being silly and that sounds pretentious but I was just really happy and excited that some art/craft/thing I've made could be turned into something tangible I could give to a loved one, so thank you Crocodile!)

After the ceremony my parents and I had a delicious lunch at Green Waffle on Graham Street. And then I headed over to Wanchai to meet my friend Phoebe for the Detour opening night party happening at the former Police Station.

1st row: Checking out the Instax Love display by photographer Rraay Lai. / Inside the prison of the former Wanchai Police Station, although now a heritage building we heard there were still cops working upstairs.
2nd row: Relaxing on the grass balcony art installation looking out onto Gloucester Rd.
3rd row: A selfie from the Crocodile opening. / Beautiful illustrations of really good looking Hong Kongnese hipsters by the illustrator Little Thunder seen at DETOUR. She also painted the beautiful Virgin Suicide leather jacket I've been lusting after ever since I saw it at Rat's Cave.

Speaking of shoppables, I also recommend you check out Mutt Museum's little stall of vintage fabric cheongsams at the DETOUR Maker's Fair.

Polaroid taken at the Hawkerama stalls at the DETOUR exhibition opening.

To see some cool art and to visit my little crocodile make sure you go check out DETOUR on until Sunday December 16th, at the former Police Station in Wanchai and the Oasis Gallery in Central, the latter being where my crocodile will be displayed.

And, if you've missed any of my previous posts about creating my installation for the Crocodile x DETOUR event you can catch them in the A Celebration in Process blogposts.

60's Girl

As promised, I'm doing some hairstyle illustrations as suggested by YOU! On Facebook, my friend suggested I do the 1960's, so here's a quick little sketch I did with my Pentel brush pen with some watercolour on top.

Treading in the Thirties

I've been a fan of Guy Bourdin's photography since forever but he's sort of a gross man. I remember doing a research project on him in my History of Fashion Illustration class and he'd make his models crawl into scary places with rats and stuff and just generally be a dick about things. But never the less, I find his images fascinating, disembodied limbs and all, so macrabre yet glamorous. For this sketch I was also inspired by shoes from the 1930's, they can have such an orthopedic charm to them.

My portfolio needed some freshening up with some new pieces so I thought I'd make a new header for my blog since I've been neglecting it a little bit. But what was meant to be a header turned out to be more of a footer (get it? get it?), I might have to make new one with some heads and hairs instead (perhaps from another decade).

What's your favourite fashion decade? Especially for hairstyles. Say it and I'll draw it for my next illustration!

Team SEE-ZOO - HK's not-so-secret Secret Garden

On Saturday my friends Belinda, Helene and I packed our art-making supplies and headed up to the hills to a (not so) secret little park in the middle of the city. Nestled in the hills above admiralty the Hong Kong Zoological & Botanical Gardens is an oasis that plays host to over 500 animals, though buffered by the surrounding trees the city's signature tall buildings could still be seen and I felt like we were in NYC's Central Park. 

Before our sketching adventures I devoured a ridiculously delicious brie & roast beef sandwich from Habibi Cafe at Pacific Place. Then, we found a little fenced in area with some animal benches and a table and this is where we set up camp for the day. It was strange little enclosure, surrounded by a fence and we felt like the other animals on display.

Thanks to my friend Belinda Love Lee for photos 2 through 4, she's a wonderful graphic designer and photographer, you should check out the blog she runs with her British boyfriend, Digital Dating.

What are some of your favourite places to bring your sketchbook in your city? Show us!

Sketches | Hipster Dykes

This is nothing but a self-indulgent little sketch of dykes I'd like to make out with. I went over to Wanchai last night to pick up art supplies and organic food, first I headed over to Artland and whoa! Is that place ever overpriced, so I picked up a little sketchbook and left without anything else. I did manage to pick up some cheapy student gouache and a nice Pentel brush pen over at Art Shop down the street, here's a small list of art supplies stores in Hong Kong.

The Pentel brush pen I ended up buying is amazing! Usually I hate brush pens but this one has indivuial nylon hairs instead of the usual lump of felt and I think I almost like it more than using a traditional paintbrush. Life 2.0. The annoying thing is that it's not waterproof nor light-fast, which is why I scanned the sketch and coloured it on Photoshop.

Thank you to Fuck Yeah Dykes for the eye candy and inspiration.

Red Carded! A Pretty Illustrated Business Card Commision

HEY GUYS! Remember me? I'm been lying low lately as I've been busy drawing and trying out new vegan recipes which you may have noticed if you follow me on Instagram. This portrait of Remedy Rouge blogger Jin Wong is one of the things I've been busying illustrating. A couple of weeks ago Jin approached me to help her create some custom business cards and I was super excited and flattered. 

Jin was looking to have cards done that were both elegant and fun (which is perfectly her style). So, we started out with a watercolour illustration from a few photos Jin had sent me and we went from there. And after some window shopping on ASOS for a dress to illustrate, a few tweaks, font hunting and a trip to the printers we were done!

Below are Jin's pretty new cards all ready to be handed out, let the networking begin! And if you too are interested in having your own custom illustrated business cards that make a lasting personal impression, please don't hesitate to drop me a line!

A little bit about Jin: she's a media strategist by day and runs the fashion blog Remedy Rogue by night, she also created the lifestyle blog HK Girl Talk which is all about Hong Kong's unique culture. If you want to have a candid look on life as a twenty something young professional woman here in the city make sure you head on over to HK Girl Talk and have a read. Thanks so much for the commission Jin, it was a pleasure working with you!

Live on ZaoZao!

As I talked about previously, I've been working with Shop ZaoZao to get some of my designs online. It's been such a pleasure working with the ladies of the startup and I'm excited to announce my first listing is now finally live on the site!

There are 5 of these tops available and I've got 17 days left to get this design funded so it can go into production. Please check it out and help me spread the word! Thanks so much!

Photos by Helene Kwong.

Inspiration Scramble | Hollywood & Parisien Nostalgia

Happy October! Inspiration Scramble is the new feature where I share with you all of my favourite links, articles and inspirations. Inspired by all the link love posts, I realized I spend sooo much time on the internet and come across some many gems it would be a shame to waste them. So I'm going to share the best of them here with you guys!

• Not one but two very beautifully illustrated zines about Paris. These illustrations from Priyanka Pandit make my heart ache and ache for Paris. When I was a student and very frivolous with my money, I used to go to there every summer, one time I even spent a week wwoofing in the South of France. Hats off to Iveta K for the tip, she's also an illustrator and a beautiful one at that.

• Just Tell Me That You Want Me. A roaster of cool hipsters team up to cover my favourite band Fleetwood Mac on this tribute album. I'm especially slayed by the Best Coast song. Via my friend Esther.

• Greta Garbo is the best, and why Kirsten Stewart is my favourite. Scandals of Classic Hollywood and Friday Bargain Bin are my favourite features on Jezebel.

• The legendary photographer Cecil Beaton was a compulsive scrapbooker. Did you know that? He'd be a star Pinner if he was around these days.

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• Cool retro letterheads from everyone you've heard of.

• The Gloss on why it's so hard to bring your own lunch to work like a big girl.

• Danielle Meder, one of my favourite blogger and illustrator on the joys of the unplanned career.

• An Andy Warhol quote for artists who are feeling discouraged.

 

Some Lace and Fabric Flowers

Alright, alright, so it's still a while until Mid-Autumn Festival, but I've already eaten a million mooncakes and I've been dying to try out this little circle layout so it might as well be now.

I have some exciting news! A few months ago I was invited to join Zao Zao (早找) which is a new Asian online pre-retailer, it's kind of like Kickstarter for fashion designers, there's a curated selection of designers and they each upload their own designs and customers can pre-order on the site. It's a cool new platform where fashion and tech meet and hopefully it'll also be a great way for emerging designers to connect with customers and for customers to discover and support new talent. I'm so excited now that I can finally say I have a stockist!

So last week my friend Helene and I went on a little photoshoot to take photos to put up on the site and here are some shots and outtakes from the day, stayed tune to see the final photos and to shop on Zao Zao!

The design I'll be uploading is the black Dolce lace top, created originally for the Redress Ecochic Design Competition which happened earlier this year. If you followed my old blog you'll probably have seen these before but I was inspired by the idea of 'Memory & Forgetting' and below are the inspiration board and sketches from the competition.

The opening party is this Wednesday and it's happening at Kapok in Wanchai, please stop by and if you see me come say hi! That same night is also the Social Media Week Blogger talk "What makes a Great Brand/Blogger Partnership" which I'll also be attending! I'm excited to go, they've got some really great speakers and I'm also excited to meet some other bloggers as well! Anyone else heading to the Social Media Week events this coming week?

Photos by the wonderful Helene Kwong! Thanks so much for helping me!