Ice-Cream Monster Toon Cafe

I cook up a little fable story along with this illustration. HE! HE!!

Once upon a time, the forest is inhabited with many gorgeous and colorful animals. The bunny however for some unknown reason, doesn’t have any color. Although she has a generous and kind heart, no beautiful creatures in the forest wants to be friend with a plain boring creature.

One day a beautiful phoenix arrives at the forest. Everyone, including the little white bunny is captivated by its unearthly beauty. The phoenix however isn’t a happy creature. It cries often. No one seems could make her smile. One cold winter evening in the middle of a party gathering, it suddenly bursts into fame. All the forest creature are horrified. Where the beautiful phoenix was once stand, now it’s replaced with a pile of ashes.

Illustration Friday - "Glamour" I drew this from a life model in a figure drawing section. It happens to fit the theme of this week's IF.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)

He is one of my most admirable composers. Friday, January 27 is his birthday. This year is the 250th anniversary of Mozart’s birth. Doodling on the computer, while chatting with mom on Chinese New Year Eve ... the sketch is done in photoshop with WACOM ... yup ... still working on my digital traditional drawing style.

Dear all,

Alina and I want to wish you a HAPPY LUNAR NEW YEAR!!

Tonight is New Year Eve on the Eastern side of the planet. Since Alina can't be home with her family for the New Year dinner, I will post this new year greeting as my little way to start the celeration with her.

She did this piece in Photoshop - a little experiment to create oriental ink style in the computer. About Alina's hair, that's a traditional chinese hair style for little girl.

Post the drawings early in the morning ... just have time to write little story about it this evening. Visit Lake Shrine over the weekends after my friend told me about it - a lovely place where it has a Court of Religions honoring the five principal religions of the world. A portion of Gandhi's ashes is enshrined there at the Mahatma Gandhi World Peace Memorial. One of those little charming peaceful spots hidden in the middle of a busy city.

Chinese New Year is around the corner. Cat is consider sacred in many cultures. In the Chinese mythology, big cat such as lion is considered to be holy. They respresent honor, power, and righteousness. There is an ancient Chinese story about how the fearless image of the lion protects a village:

A long time ago a strange creature appeared in China and horrified and ate men and animals. The fast and fierce creature was called 'nien' (or 'nian'), which sounds like the Chinese word for 'year'.

Draw this with Wacom. I try to create a traditional style drawing with the computer. The subject is a National Geographic portrait.

I happens researching on cats for a work project this past week. Here are some quick sketches of kittens.

Chinese New Year is one of my favourite holidays. I associate it with some of my happiest childhood memories. I love the family get together sharing good food, and celebrate the begining of a new year with hope and joy. Though I will not be able to celebrate the holiday with my family this year, I am trying to celebrate the holiday by putting my joyful memories on paper.

Top: Life drawing over the weekend

Bottom: Outdoor mall in Valencia