Eeek, I can’t believe it’s been almost a month since I’ve blogged! April always seems so busy. Work has also ramped up considerably. And it doesn’t help that Hong Kong has also started to turn unpleasantly humid and warm, with frequent thunderstorms!

I completed two new prints in early April and they are now available in my etsy shoppe:

English Rose (pastels + pencils + watercolour)

Mei (pastels + pencils)

I haven’t had much time to draw this month but I have gone back to markers to re-work this print, which I hope will be ready soon!

The One Red Robin Facebook page also celebrated 100 likes in April by giving away an Art Print. I’m so thankful for the continual support (despite my lack of creativity this past month!).

And finally, in April Jodi of Art by Wiley featured One Red Robin on her lovely blog. Thank you Jodi! You can read the interview here: Art by Wiley – Interview with Jhoanna Monte Aranez

Nothing like a long-weekend at home to inspire some creativity!

As I mentioned in my last post, I picked up a set of pastels recently. I had two sets of pastels back in high-school and managed to fill 3 sketchbooks with portraits! It was my favourite medium. The Easter long-weekend was a good excuse to spend more time re-acquainting myself with pastels. Yes, they can get messy but I love the way you can easily blend them and build up layers, and how the texture of the paper comes through.

A quick face study:

And another portrait in progress:

And finishing off the portrait from my last post. This one is a mix of watercolours, pastels and pencils:

Hope you enjoyed your Easter break too!

Thanks to those who entered the giveaway for two copies of the “Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids” book! It was fun reading through all of your favourite crafts as a child. It brought back good memories as well as providing lots of ideas for crafts to do with my girls :-)

Thanks to Random Number Generator, we have two winners!

Congratulations to Deb and Fiona!! I will both be in touch with you shortly to get your mailing addresses.

I’ve been able to fit a little bit of time to do some drawing and recently picked up a set of chalk-pastels. These were my favourite medium to draw with back in high-school and it feels good to be re-acquainted with them again. Currently in-progress:

I can’t believe it’s Easter already! I love the message of Easter – of hope, of new beginnings, of death and of new life, and victory. Wishing you all a happy Easter!

I keep forgetting to blog about all the cute stuff I’ve found in HK! One of the things I love doing is going to the book store and picking up a magazine by e-Mook. I have no idea what theses magazines are about as they are in Japanese, and they are sealed shut so you can’t flick through the pages, but they usually have a cute tote bag inside for free and unbelievably cute covers.

I’ve picked up a few issues previously (and therefore have some really cute tote/shopping bags!) and this is the latest one that caught my eye:

It’s a magazine on Japanese artist Ado Mizumori’s work. Ado is an actress, comedian and singer and had her own kids TV show in the 1970′s where she sang and painted (with both hands!). It’s hard to find a lot of information on her work on the internet (that is in English) but you’d have to say that her nostalgic illustrations must have been a huge influence in what has shaped ‘kawaii’ art.

These are some of the products that have featured her illustrations:

And Ado in her studio (don’t you love that she’s sitting on a toadstool-stool?!):

I understand that Ado is about 70 years old now and still exercising her creativity and doing what she loves – that’s inspiring!

When the lovely and uber-creative Jenny Doh asked me back in 2010 if I’d like to be part of a new book she was working on about crafts for kids, I was surprised, delighted and humbled. And even more so when I glimpsed at the names of the other mums/bloggers/crafters who were also contributing to the book – many of whom I looked up to for many years and was greatly inspired by.

So it was quite a warm-fuzzy-happy feeling to actually receive the finished book in the mail a few days ago and hold it in my hands. And this one is definitely more endearing to me since it also features my two daughters!

Hand-in-Hand: Crafting with Kids presents craft projects from 20 mums who blog and craft – many of whom you may know or follow already:

Amanda Soule, Maya Donenfeld, Ali Edwards, Pam Garrison,
Nicole Spring, Abby Glassenberg, Dana Willard, Samantha Cotterill,
Cindy Hopper, Jessica Okui, Carly Schwerdt, Jackie Boucher,
Merrilee Liddiard, Jean Van’t Hul,
Kristin Zecchinelli, Ella Pedersen, Beki Lambert, and Rachel Faucett and Jenny Doh.

The projects range from decorations, books, to toys, cushions (and even stilts!) – all projects that kids can make with adult assistance. So you’ll find that the instructions are easy to follow and understand, and that the materials are easy to source. What I love about this book is that it also presents how each contributor encourages creativity in their own children and what they do to foster a creative life.

I flicked through the projects with my daughters and they are keen to give a few of them a go. They were also thrilled to bits to find themselves in an actual book!

The project I contributed is a simple Owl cushion that can be either machine-sewn or hand-sewn and can be embellished to your child’s content:

You can pre-order Hand-in-Hand: Crafting with Kids on Amazon now and it will be officially released to bookstores on April 6th. You can also watch a cute video Jenny made about the book on Youtube here: Hand in Hand: Crafting with Kids by Jenny Doh

To celebrate the release, I have two copies to giveaway thanks to Lark Crafts!

If you’d like to enter the giveaway, please leave a comment on this post on: your favourite craft activity as a child. Please submit your comments by midnight April 2nd and on April 3rd I will randomly draw 2 comments and announce the winners. Please leave only one comment per person :-) This giveaway is open to all no matter where you live on this great big planet!

Thank you to Jenny for the opportunity to be part of this awesome book!

I’ve never been very good with purely digital illustrations. I had a Wacom tablet previously but just couldn’t get used to it. I have great admiration for illustrators who can do all of their work digitally.

On the weekend I decided to give it another try and downloaded ArtRage Studio Pro. I had read some good things about it but mostly I wanted to try out their range of paper backgrounds and drawing tools. I commandeered hubby’s Wacom Intuos tablet and starting playing.

I think I have a lot more practicing to do! It was fun sitting with my girls whilst all of us played with ArtRage (me on my laptop and they were on their iPads). It was quite strange seeing a 5 year old know how to work layers on her drawing though! ArtRage is quite easy to use and I really like the different tools that are available and how real the brush and paper textures appear (although it was a little slow at times and crashed my laptop once!).

I will always prefer an actual sketchbook and pencils and markers over digital tools – I feel like I have more control over the work and it’s also a lot more portable! But I think I’ll keep experimenting with digital illustration too.

So happy it’s Friday! Is it just me or has this year just been completely exhausting!! Feeling drained by Friday morning seems to be a recurring theme. And it’s only March!

But I’m still buzzing about the wonderful opportunity with Gorman! Feeling very blessed about that and a lot of other good things that have happened this week. And also, have you heard that Gorman are opening their first store in New Zealand on the weekend? (and I’m secretly hoping they open one in Hong Kong too!)

I’ve had some very small slices of time this week to sketch and draw, so the above are currently what’s on the go in the sketchbook.

Yup, still loving the pink and purple hair :-) May have to buy more pink and purple markers!

Hope you’ve had a good week so far. Bring on the weekend!

I mentioned in a previous post that I’m big fan of Gorman Clothing and after seeing their recent Autumn/Winter 2012 collection, I was inspired to illustrate some of my characters in their clothing. Soon after posting up the illustration, Gorman contacted me with a request to use the illustration on their website and I was OVER.THE.MOON!!! How could I say no?!

So after some further refining of the illustration to clean up some lines and smudges, I sent the image through.

And this morning, I woke up to find a lovely email from Freya from Gorman letting me know that it’s now up on their website!! <insert massive girl squeal here!!>

One Red Robin on Gorman website

My illustration will also be used for the invitations for a new Gorman store opening in the Asia-Pacific region!!

Thanks so much to Freya and the team at Gorman for this opportunity. I am beyond excited and grateful. <insert happy dance here>

Visit the Gorman website now to see!

I’m a big fan of Modcloth. I’ve got a few of their cute dresses in my closet – but I’m always tempted to add a few more every time I visit their site!

This sweet dress – “Shades of a Seascape” – caught my eye:

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And soon, it ended up in my next illustration :-)

How’s your weekend been? Mine feels like it has flown by in the blink of an eye. My parents are here for a few weeks and we (especially my girls) are having a great time with them. We’ve had an awesome, warm and sunny weekend here in Hong Kong too, as Spring finally makes its presence felt. Plus we’ve had friends from Melbourne visiting! It’s been nice to be a tourist again – lots of walking and eating!

Have you seen the Autumn/Winter 2012 collection by Gorman yet? I love it! A striking mix of colours, patterns, and textures. If only it had been available here in Hong Kong during our very cold (and gloomy) Winter!

I previously did a drawing based on a dress from Gorman’s previous collection here. I follow Gorman on Facebook and saw photos of their runway show at the recent Loreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. It was exactly the inspiration I needed to get my sketchbook out.

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I had so much fun with this illustration. I hope to do more!

And thank you to Gorman for kindly sharing the sneek peak of this illustration on their Twitter feed and Facebook page :-)