Witchcraft + Bondage + Flowers = My Entry for HKYDC 2013

All week I was scrambling to finish my entry for the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designer Contest. It was strrresssssful, at one point I didn't think I was going to finish; why do I have to procrastinate every single time? I never learn. But I'm all done now and I went into the HKTDC office in Wanchai today to hand in my package. I'm not going to hold my breath, from the little peek I got in their office everyone's looks amazing! I know you're supposed to be all think-positive these days (it's the postmodern thing to do) but I seriously doubt I'm gonna get picked. But anyways, the theme that I chose was Tasseomancy (the fortune telling thing, not the band although that's SO GOOD too, I saw them too long ago at the Poor Pilgrims festival and it was a hazy night of magic. Toronto I miss YOU). I was also inspired by leather bondage gear and by the Artist Lulie Wallace. I liked how the inspiration and theme boards turned out, and if you see a disconnect between those and the final designs it's because I am an idiot and did the designs first and the inspiration board after, WHO DOES THAT? Don't do that. Unless you hate yourself and want to make everything difficult.

 

Do you guys ever enter competitions? Got any tips or tricks to increase your chances of getting picked? Share them with us! Or do you belong in the Bruce Mau camp who think competitions are bad for the soul?

A note if you're interested: MakeAGIF.com was the only site I found where you could make really big gifs and it lets you select all of your images at once, I highly recommend it. Speaking of gifs, here is my favourite gif with a kid hugging it out with his piñata, little dude is right: violence is never the answer. 

Lastly, if you guys enjoy reading the blog, PLEASE SUBSCRIBE! 
Thank you for reading and have a great weekend!

The Secret Art of Happiness

Sorry I haven't posted this week. I've been busy designing and illustrating an entry for the Hong Kong Young Fashion Designers competition, cutting it close the entry is due in 4 days and I've got nothing finished yet. This week, I've been dealing with health issues with my thyroid (again) and the anxiety that comes with it.

Found this nice quote by Mikao Usui while fooling around on wikipeida, it fits this week.

The secret art of inviting happiness,
The miraculous medicine for all diseases.
At least for today:

Do not be angry,

Do not worry,

Be grateful,

Work with diligence,

Be kind to people.

Every morning and evening, join your hands in meditation and pray with your heart.
State in your mind and chant with your mouth.
For improvement of mind and body.
Usui Reiki Ryōhō.

The founder,
Mikao Usui.

Growing Up in Hong Kong

I could kiss this baby, but I don't. I'm so happy to be finally done my DETOUR 2012 piece. After a mini breakdown and a forest of paper I'm ready to pack and deliver it to the HK Ambassadors of Design tomorrow. There are a few pieces in the installation and I hope people will take the time to explore the different objects when they see it in person. Most importantly, I hope the piece inspires a sense of delight and nostalgia when people recognize objects from their own childhoods. I wanted to share with you some of the different elements:

• the child: the paper mache figure is in 'Nian Hua' style, images of these chubby kids would have been ubiquitous during Chinese New Years. The school uniform was inspired by a photo from a childhood birthday party.
• airplane badge: replacing the school logo on the uniform, the airplane symbolizes the 1997 mass immigration rush that affected a lot of Hong Kong families, I distinctly remember  tearfully seeing my cousins off at the airport and in a few short months also moving away with my mom to Abbotsford, BC.  
• test papers: clenched in the child's hands. Excessive school work is a part of the reality of growing up in Hong Kong and one of the major reasons why my family and I emigrated.

So, that concludes my first foray into the art world. I really enjoyed working with all the different materials and had a lot of fun fooling around with the finished pieces. How real does the 'gai daan jai' look? It's almost good enough to eat. 

If you are interested in my earlier process with this piece, check out these posts. And if you're in town make sure you check out the DETOUR show in November which will be held at the Former Wanchai Police Station. x

30 Day Drawing Challenge | The Rose of the Orient

For the 30 Day Drawing Challenge I've decided to stop taking the themes so literally and instead use them as a jumping off point to see where my imagination takes me. It's so much more enjoyable this way and I think the illustrations come out much more pleasing and more to my style. For Day 17: Favourite Plant, I thought flowers and then remembered this beautiful photograph I saw of Anna May Wong on Pinterest. I did the sketch on paper with Chinese ink (how fitting.) and then coloured it on Photoshop.

Anna May Wong is such inspiration both style and career wise. Did you know The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong made U.S. television history as the first show to feature an Asian-American lead, Anna played the titular role as a art dealing detective (total babe!). Sadly, the show is presumed to be lost so we will probably never see her wielding a magnifying glass, but in the meantime feast her eyes on these beautiful old portraits of the star.

That last video there is such a gem! Her voice is classic. Here is a longer version of that Chinese Costume Party video in it's full 1930's racist technicolour (dis)glory.
So who is your favourite old Hollywood screen siren? 

Camping In Hong Kong | Ngong Ping

Last weekend I went camping and all was perfect for those two days. We rode a cable car, ate some sushi, saw a few cows, pitched a tent, said hi to some stray dogs, ate some vegetarian food and helped a lost girl find her hostel. All this and more photos AFTER THE JUMP.

30 Day Drawing Challenge | Inspiration

It's been eight months and I'm back on that 30 Day Illustration grind but with a scanner this time! It's Day 16 and the theme is Inspiration, which I've been finding plenty in books:

• It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be. It's got some good advice and it's easy to read. It got it for free during the Forever & Again clothing swap, it was my first one and I got waaaaay too excited and brought home way too much crap.
• A short fast read is nice since I've been snail reading Patti Smith's autobiography Just Kids since I bought it in Taipei back in June. The book feels magical and I want to read it slow and savour it.
• Lastly, I just picked up Nice Girls Don't Get the Corner Office from the library the other day, the title is terribly cheesy but I skimmed it and it seems like a interesting read. Did you know the book was actually made into pilot that never aired?

You can see my previous entries for the challenge on my old blog.

Girl Stays Home All Month, Makes Baby.

 I've been hanging out at home all month listening to Fever Ray, watching Bones and putting together my paper mache project for Detour 2012. It's been slow going and I never go out, choosing instead to call up my friends and sob about how I never meet anyone cute to make out with; this is my life. It started out rough, had a breakdown after the armature I made with cardboard, masking tape and scrunched up paper ended up looking horrific, snapped out of it (thanks mom!) in time to realize I only had 2 weeks left until I had to deliver the baby to the organizers. Since, I've been crafting hard, paintbrushes blazing, leaving trails of paper mache lumps and the living room too scary for visitors.
 

After making the armature, I made some paper mache clay, this place has a good professional recipe, but what even is joint compound? So I just used toilet paper and the worst smelling white glue, using the back of a spoon I spread it over the taped foundation. Then I very poorly and impatiently sanded the dried structure smooth less lumpity-dumpity.

Next, I painted her body and hair. Put together the cake with painted paper, plastic plates and scrap plastic. The candles are a favourite, made with rolled up cardboard (I had fun posing with them pretending they were real cigarettes), then I painted them and added embroidery floss for the wick. The icing is piped paper clay from the Jusco $12 plaza. 

Making her outfit: I actually really liked this part, I stayed up all night sewing the little embroidered patch to go on her uniform. I used a back stitch for the border and a satin stitch for the airplane, this place is awesome for embroidery stitch tutorials.

 

There's still more paper to be mached, stay tuned to see how it goes!