I ♡ Brown Lipsticks

Hello guys from New York City!
I'm here again this summer in one of my favourite cities in the world, I love being here in during the summer months so much. This year, I'm taking two continuing education classes at The School of Visual Arts, Intro to Animation - where I made this little gif, it was my first time working on a Cintiq!

Since being in the States I've been having so much fun playing with the makeup looks that are trendy here, hellooooo nude, brown and mauve liquid matte lipsticks and super defined brown eyeshadows. I've been obsessed with watching makeup videos while I've been here, so this little gif is an ode to all those Youtube gurus and to those much coveted Kylie Lip Kits. True Brown K?

On the other days, I'm also taking an etching class, I love the hands on aspect of print-making so much and wished I got to do it more in Hong Kong.

With all these different art activities, museum hopping and picnicking by the Hudson river on the weekends I really feel I like I'm at summer camp. It's been so nice to relax here and experiment creatively after a busy year. I'm so so happy.

Hope you guys are having a great summer too! Don't forget to take some time off for yourself and learn something new.

Keep up to date with me during my NYC summer on my Instagram @kittynwong.

#theartassignment / EYE GIF

Kitty N. Wong, 2014.
It Makes Me Feel Good to Look at You. Pencil and gouache on paper.
Animated GIF.

I made this GIF for PBS's The Art Assignment, it's my new favourite Youtube show and I feel so happy to be living in a time that something like that is being made and distributed. Making this GIF feels super relevant as I just went to see 'Her' last night, what a beautiful melancholy movie. I absolutely loved the art direction and the video games in the movie, "Perfect Mom"!

Are these eyes not unnerving you a bit? I like how after she blinks a little bit of mascara is left behind on her lower lid. It makes it feel so lifelike, the paper on the whites of the eye gives an allusion of depth and with 'Her' fresh in my mind, maybe even adds a sense of artificial intelligence to them. 

The theme this week was the 'Intimate, Indispensable GIF'. My eyes are probably my most indispensable body part and what I think about most when I think about me. Apart from the obvious visually dominated world I live in as an artist and illustrator, my eyes are especially important because they represent a journey of change and self acceptance. Having gone through and still dealing with hyperthyroid Grave's disease, one of the most obvious symptoms for me were the protruding of the eyes which at the beginning I was so very very self-conscious about. But now after 3 years, on a good day I can sometime say that my eyes are one of my favourite features about myself.


What is your most indispensable body part? Take a look at the video to see artist Toyin Odutola's GIF of her most essential body part.

Sketches from PFW | Chalayan Changes Clothes

Hussein Chalayan F/W 2013. Pencil and gouache on cardboard.

Ah, what a horrible day. I started a small fire in my kitchen this morning. I left my Diva Cup boiling on the stove thinking I would come back to it but then got distracted with an illustration, when I came back all the water was gone and the thing was literally on fire. I was so scared and it left ashes absolutely everywhere in my kitchen. I spent the day wiping everything and it still looks like Industrial Era London in here. 

It kind of ruined my day and I wasn't up for any serious illustrating, so I just did a quick little gouache sketch on cardboard, so commitment free.

There are some really fabulous gifs floating around on the internet of the Chalayan show (apparently it's just Chalayan now, took me forever to find it on Style.com 'cos I kept searching under H). I feel like we really are living in the golden age of the 'gifs' as a medium (see Vine, all of Tumblr and work by illustrator and fellow Ryerson grad Tara Dougans). Except this gif here below nearly gave me a seizure flashing non-stop while I was typing out this post.

Gifs by Errolson Hugh. Photos via Strangeline.

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!

歡迎光臨

 Welcome to my new blog!
My name is Kitty and I'm a fashion designer/illustrator based in Hong Kong. 

I'm mostly going to be  posting about things that I make and things that inspire me.