I had a lot of fun working on these illustrations. Since I haven’t had the time, and don’t have all the stuff that’s needed to make softies, I decided to draw them! I’m secretly hoping I’ll be able to turn them into actual softies sometime in the future :-) The softies were originally illustrated using markers and pencils.

Mail Bear:

Bunny Beats:

Art Cat:

The Art Prints are now available in my shop: One Red Robin Shoppe on etsy

… you spend so much time on something, you start seeing them everywhere you go.

Yeah, that.

Bit of haphazard photoshopping and mid-week fun :-)

More practice with portraits.

This was a quick sketch with mostly markers:

I’ve been wanting to try coloured paper as a base and finally found some. This is my first attempt. Pastels + pencil:

I’ve been spending more time drawing faces and trying to get the shades of skin-tone right using pastels and pencils. I’ve tried to create more contrast – I like how she’s turned out but she’s still not quite where I want to be in terms of shading. More practice needed!

Pastels + Pencils + Cut Paper.

So happy to be drawing again!

As mentioned in the previous post, our recent visit to Guilin, China, and the current book I am reading on China’s ancient history/mythology (called “Romance of the Three kingdoms”) really inspired me. The result is this recently completed drawing, inspired by the character (heroine) in the book, Diao Chan. Read about her here.

Pastels + Pencils + Cut Paper.

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’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!