Drawing Mr. Toast...

 This piece is mine!

Gallery 1988: East opened Dan Goodsell's Drawing Mr. Toast show April 5th. At this show, we could buy the art off the wall and take it home immediately, so I bought one.

Happy Halloween!

I hope you have a lovely Halloween weekend, just like this painting depicts by Scott C.

The Picnic.

Mai S Kemble...

CSULB friend, Mai Kemble has completely revamped her website, started a facebook fan page and added an Etsy store. Definitely check out, and buy, her whimsical and adorable illustrations.

perfectly flawed...

Opening today, Hanahou Gallery in New York is holding Stina Persson's solo show Perfectly Flawed. How I wish I could go. Although, Stina's news blog does say new cards will be available soon!

paperfahsion x penelope+coco...

Saturday was girls' night out in Little Tokyo. I RSVPed to a launch party early, then roped my cousinish and my sister into coming with me. I also made my cousinish wear fake eyelashes. Simmichiko would be proud.

Penelope+Coco had their Spring 2011 preview party at Hold Up gallery. In conjunction, Katie of Paperfashion did watercolors of the boot collection.

She also created signage for the party and even details like the little RSVP reply.

Such a great night out with family, food and fashion.

PS. The food from The Gorbals was delicious. Especially the lobster and squash soup!

Renior to runway...

Saturday, I had a fabulous LA day. I began the day running errands in Manhattan Beach. Afterward I drove to West LA to have lunch with friends at the Santa Monica Marmalade Cafe. I had the Maramalade Omelette, and the toast was perfect.We walked to Menchies for some yogurt. It was perfect weather for dessert and a short walk.
Tammy and I walked a lot more when we went to the "Renoir in the Twentieth Century" exhibit at LACMA. It was an amazing collection with a much larger compilation of works than I anticipated. I'm inspired even more by Renoir now that I've learned a bit more about his work. I rushed off to a family dinner with my visiting cousins. After playing with the kids and dodging model airplanes, I picked up Connie and her boyfriend to go to Gallery Nucleus for Line of Style: Fashion Illustration Spanning the Globe show. We made it to the gallery at 10:30pm, we missed the runway fashion show and I totally missed my friend, Kathria. Congratulations to her for winning the raffle though!One of our favorite pieces was definitely this large watercolor on handmade paper by Naja Conrad-Hansen. I also liked this little piece by Ohgushi (above) and Connie liked the series by Stina Persson...
Of course, to finish off the night we had some drinks and dessert at Phoenix Inn on Valley. It was an exhausting and visually satisfying day.

tessar lo: year-in-review...

tessar lo posted a beautiful year in retrospect on his site...

thank you paperfashion & coach!

i won the Coach Holiday Blog-a-Day contest on Paperfashion.
i can't wait to frame Paperfashion's Coach holiday print, and see the Coach Claire Chain bag!

click on the image to go to her etsy shop and buy prints. a print of any illustration on her blog is for sale too. have i mentioned that Katie is an amazing illustrator yet?

Thank you Katie! Thank you Coach!

see other Paperfashion posts here.

prints i bought for me...

last month i bought two prints within a week. yesterday i received the tessar lo lapin lapin print. i already framed and hung it up. i was ecstatic to find a hand written note from tessar lo in mailing tube as well; what a nice guy...
i also have this print i need a frame for. Its by kathryn elyse rodgers of paper fashion. she's an adorable fashion illustrator. she's so good with color.
click on the image to see her etsy shop and get a print of your own!

mai kemble for "i can speak bully"...

i always had much admiration for my illustrator friends at CSULB. i'm a graphic designer and not much of a character designer. Mai S Kemble is an exceptional watercolor painter and children's book illustrator. This is for the cover of her latest book "I Can Speak Bully" by Kevin Morrison...
Mai was interviewed on the Big Illustration Party Time podcast. i believe you can download or listen to it here.
you should also check out all of Mai's adorable illustrations on her site here, and this is her blog!

ps. i love this peter pan themed piece she did for her family; definitely go see her work.

laugh factory...

i'm not an illustrator usually, but as a freelance favor to a good friend i did some mixed media images for the laugh factory website...
these guys are my favorite...click here to check out the rest.