Piccolo Jewelry

Here are some pho­tos of Pic­colo Jew­elry I worked with the tal­ented folks over at Globe­craft Memories!

They are mak­ing its debut at a trade show…

My part was sub­mit­ting the vec­tor images, like the but­ter­fly in the top left cor­ner. They were cut out in a mate­r­ial that design­ers could apply enamel pow­ders & assem­ble into jewelry.

The color & tex­ture the design­ers came up with is so creative!

I’m happy to have been a part of this new excit­ing prod­uct line for cre­ative peo­ple

From Hugo Movie, a Portrait

We watched the movie Hugo to see what the fuss at the Oscars was about.

I loved the char­ac­ter of Jeanne. Here’s a sketch of her from my “Portrait-a-Day” project. I added color and tex­ture after­wards in Pho­to­shop. Adjust­ing things is the fun part  

The movie’s visu­als were stun­ning, lots of browns & blues. Great movie!

We watched it on a pro­jec­tor, but it’s overkill. The pro­jec­tor is the kind that is used for audi­to­ri­ums & takes up way too much room in the liv­ing room. Time to downgrade!

 

How to define your style

I love design­ing + illus­trat­ing in a vari­ety of styles.

This exer­cise below helps nar­row down what res­onates with you.

Exer­cises like these help spot recur­ring themes in your favorite art­work, wardrobe, home decór – even favorite films. 

I’ll play along with you, below… 

1) Col­lect ten of your favorite images.

This was the hard­est part. I’m sure these will change the next time I do this exer­cise…
Mine are cer­tainly var­ied!  (above) — from Illu­mi­nated Man­u­scripts to Hello Kitty. Most were picked by how the image made me feel. Like when I went on a trip to Wash­ing­ton D.C., I saw the Van Goh (left, the green one with flowers) It’s stun­ning in real life. Or I’m nos­tal­gic for vin­tage Japan­ese manga. I read a lot of these as a kid. 

 

2) Ask your­self, how do the images relate to one another?

They show restraint; either they have lots of color but not much detail, OR they have lots of detail but less color/limited color palette. All are styl­ized in some way. Envi­ron­ments are unre­al­is­tic & ethe­real. There’s soft shapes, curves & undu­lat­ing lines. Lots of nature too. Maybe it’s time to go to the Sequoias again…

 

3) What five words describe the images you selected?

 

fem­i­nine, intri­cate, dis­tinc­tive, styl­ized, emo­tive

 

I hope this exer­cise is help­ful to you! I’ve learned a lot going through it. And here I thought I was going to have more real­ism in my selection!

It’s hard to have per­spec­tive when you’re so up close to it every day.

 

That Elephant Clearly Dyes Her Hair

It’s been awhile~!

I’ve been work­ing on children’s book illustration. 

Here’s a rough sketch & color ver­sion of a book cover.

News on an entirely dif­fer­ent project—

I’ve been work­ing on a children’s book – a project that’s lasted these past months! It’s painted entirely in Pho­to­shop. It took longer then expected to com­plete cause it’s in a new style. I’m so happy with the great response it’s been get­ting from the few peo­ple I’ve showed it to (they check for mis­spellings) It was a Photoshop-or-die! sit­u­a­tion, so now I’m much more nim­ble with dig­i­tal paint­ing.
I love you­u­uuu, Com­mand Z If only I could apply you in real life. Think of all that mid­night snack­ing that could have been set right!

I sweat like a pig in a fac­tory farm when I spot a mis­spelling on an already-produced project. That reminds me…
Time to look over the book again for boo-boos! I hope to release more news soon~

Fruit Basket Pen Sketch

 A Sketch a Day!

I’ve been draw­ing a por­trait a day — some­times I like to mix it up, by draw­ing hands or copy­ing Mas­ter Draw­ings. Have to use it or lose it
This was sketched with a Micron Pen.

Whitney Houston, Owl always love youuuuuuuuu

…in the Body­guard. ♪ ♫ ♬ That movie was so pop­u­lar when it came out!

Happy (Late) Valentine’s Day!

I like to cel­e­brate Valentine’s Day Decor sales the day after.

I Left my Heart in San Francisco

Over the week­end I attended a memo­r­ial ser­vice for Paul Robert Mitnik…RIP Paul!

Paul was Joe’s (my guy’s) Godmother’s Father.

Dur­ing the ser­vice, I ended up draw­ing Paul from his wed­ding photo he took at San Fran­cisco. The same sailor hat he wore back then was placed on top of his urn. They played “I Left my Heart in San Fran­cisco” by Sina­tra, it was a beau­ti­ful service. 

It was my first time meet­ing Joe’s God­mother, so I was a lit­tle shy to give the sketch to Melody — los­ing your Dad is in the top ten worse days ever — but at the end I did end up giv­ing it to her through some encour­age­ment … she smiled & liked it, so I’m happy for that. 

This took place in Apple Val­ley, the wide open spaces of the desert was gooor­geous. I live next to the ocean, so it’s such a con­trast in environments! 

Going to any Memo­r­ial Ser­vice makes me renew my New Year’s Res­o­lu­tions  

Before I ride off in the sun­set, I’ll keep in mind to enjoy the ride by doing more of what I love.

*turns up Sina­tra songs & croons along

Sophia Artist Trading Card

It’s been awhile since I’ve drawn an Artist Trad­ing Card —

Draw­ing on a small sur­face area is faster, but the detail is tricker. The next 20-min por­trait will be on a large paper with char­coal, it’s good to mix it up

 

 

Stan: Hello Sophia, you’re look­ing younger every day. 

Sophia: Hi Stan, and that’s a beau­ti­ful toupee you’re wear­ing. Great, now we’re both liars.

Craft & Hobby Association Show 2012

I went to the Craft & Hobby Asso­ci­a­tion Show at Ana­heim. Craft-apaoolza!

It was fun to see such purdy things & visit Globe­craft Mem­o­ries’ Booth with prod­uct that I rec­og­nized work­ing on! It was Globe­craft Mem­o­ries’ Pic­colo DIY Home Décor Debut~

(pho­tos by Joseph Med­ina. Above, Hozi Berger’s expres­sion in the right-hand cor­ner is great! haha — Below, it was awe­some meet­ing Mae Lewis in person)

 

Here’s the progress of the Pic­colo Brand Identity:

First a sketch, then it’s nar­rowed down before it’s refined in Illus­tra­tor. Here is the cur­rent Pic­colo logo with dec­o­ra­tive ele­ments that may be used in Pro­mo­tional items like Cat­a­logs, etc.

I loovvve the sophis­ti­cated color palette, picked by Mae Lewis & Sum­mer Spedowski. 

I worked for the Children’s Mar­ket for a long time, so it’s always refresh­ing work­ing in some­thing other then pri­mary colors, haha!

Lincoln Sketch

Lincoln’s Birth­day is com­ing up real quick! This sketch is part of my year long project to draw a 20-minute por­trait a day.

When I used to per­form at piano recitals, my teacher said that it was much harder to per­form a song every­body knew, because if you screwed up peo­ple would know

I wanted to start sketchin’ famous peo­ple when I had more time to prac­tice my draw­ing, fur­ther down the road — but it’s fun to see where I can improve. Happy B-day, Mr. Lin­coln! ♥