Inspiration and fulfilled dreams

I started this blog at the beginning of 2010. Even though I have spent most of my adult life promoting other people, I found putting myself out there a terrifying experience. But I was encouraged by all the wonderful blogs out there. One blog in particular, an open sketchbook, by Suzanne Cabrera grabbed my attention. On 4 January of this year, Suzanne wrote an entry which contained the quote below. I was so inspired by this post that I made my first comment in blog world. And I wrote:

"If I knew I could not fail then I would have the balls to promote my new blog; I would draw every day; and I would launch my own PR company. I have been procrastinating about all of this for months! Although blog is up! ;-):"



I am pleased to announce that I have not only maintained this blog but I have also just this week launched my own PR business.

Suzanne kindly okayed me to pass on this great quote, and I would love to know what you would do if you knew you could not fail? Hopefully, you will be inspired as I was to follow your dream.

Freckles

Oh how I wish I had freckles, just a smattering across my nose.

Carrie Chau - my favourite artist this week

I've been dying to share one of my favourite artists with you - Carrie Chau. Carrie was born in Hong Kong (and believes she was an alien in her past life)! She paints really cool strange characters. I adore her work and have a couple of her cushions in my home and a (creepy) clock. Her material can sometimes be dark but it is always interesting. You can buy her paintings on her website as well as more affordable items such as bags, t-shirts, cards, cushions and wallets

My love affair with watercolours

I have a love/hate relationship with watercolours. I find them difficult to use as they're a little unpredictable. I've been practicing with them by painting landscapes - another challenge to me. And have not enjoyed the process at all. But yesterday I used them in a face, and for the first time, I have to say, I really liked using them!

New faces - my creative space

Last week I did the sketch below and told you that I would play around with it. And here are the results!

The original sketch.

In stripes, THE fashion story for 2010. I'm stripe mad - I have five stripey tops and two stripey jumpers so I'm very happy!

I'm kinda liking this blonde version of the sketch.

I adore the orange and grey together.

And this teal blue and grey is good too.

A little Italian flavour, inspired by watching The Sopranos all weekend.

And finally, this one is for an old friend from Scotland who now lives in the US and who bought this sketch!

I'd really appreciate your feedback on whether any of these would make a good print.

Congratulations to Cole & Josephine!

The winner of my first giveaway is Nicole from Cole & Josephine! I put all the names of everyone who commented on my blog into a straw hat this morning and my lovely boyfriend pulled out the name! CONGRATULATIONS to Nicole!!!

When you have the chance you must take a look at Nicole's blog and shop on Etsy. Nicole's paintings (in her own words) emerge from her vivid imagination in dreamlike pop surrealism. The works are filled with girls and creatures that are both meek and brave, fragile and strong. They focus on the blur between reality and dreams, that instant when the petals dancing in the breeze make you unsure if you are awake or asleep. Her art is really lovely!!

Make sure to look out for another giveaway next month! Watch this space March 8th.

Happy Valentines Day!

Have a wonderful day!!!

I will announce the winner of Lola tomorrow!

Kung Hei Fat Choi!!!

Happy Chinese New Year! The year of the tiger starts tomorrow and I wish you all a prosperous new year.

Red lanterns decorating the ferry pier on Lamma Island.

Chinese New Year is full of traditions. The colour red is everywhere as it symbolises prosperity. People here will not cut their hair in the first three days of the new year because it is seen as cutting away your good fortune. And they won't dust or sweep as this is seen as removing good luck.


The island is full of flowers for sale for Chinese New Year, including these gorgeous lilies I bought myself (white) and pink ones from my lovely boyfriend. The flat smells amazing!

Dim sum and then some

The dim sum ladies on the island

Morning from sunny Hong Kong! I got up extremely early today so I could have dim sum for breakfast to ease the pain of getting back to work on a presentation that I have to do tomorrow. Cha siu bao and ha gow are my favourite, which is basically pork bun and little shrimp dumplings. Yum! This food definitely makes everything seem so much better.

I was working on the presentation yesterday too - it's a toughie - 30 minutes! But stopped for a little break to do this sketch. I think I'm going to play around with this sketch later today....watch this space.

Remember to enter the COMPETITION! Details are in the blog entry below.

LOLA notebook giveaway!

To celebrate Queenie Bee achieving over 1000 page views in only six weeks, and to thank my lovely followers, I am giving away the most popular item in my Etsy shop - the LOLA notebook. Lola is a spiral bound A5 notebook and is valued at US$14.

All you need to do is make a comment on my blog between now and Saturday (you can be a new or existing follower). I will then put your names into a hat. Then on Sunday, I will pull out a winner! If you mention my blog on your blog or on a Twitter post then you will get two entries in the hat!!

The competition is open to anyone, wherever you live in the world.

Best of luck!!!

What on earth is my niche? Do I really need one?

Lola art print - A4 size - US$20


Lempicka in red art print - 4 1/2 x 4 1/2 inches - US15

NEW - Curvy girls rule art print - 71/2 x 8 1/2 inches - US$15

Today has been a struggle. I am struggling to take good photographs of my new and existing prints. Above are some of my new photographs and they all look like I am standing on one leg! I am also struggling to find my niche and whether it is important or not to have one. As you can see above, my work is varied!

I get inspired by everything I see and do. I get really excited about something and then I start creating. But then I find myself going off in too many directions. I'm a natural yellow positive personality who will give you five ideas rather than one. But the problem is I have no niche!

What on earth is it? Do I even need a niche. My background is marketing so I feel obliged to have a niche. But does it really matter. I see artists and handcrafters all the time with niches... ;-( but I don't have one!

But then this morning I came across this from SCRIBD:



Maybe I don't need a niche after all.

What does everyone else think?

Mad Men and Sunday sketches

I've had a very lazy weekend. We've not done very much because I was sick yesterday and today it has been raining heavily. So this afternoon, we watched a little of Mad Men. I'm still not sure about Mad Men. While I love the sets and clothes, it's all a bit slow for me. But it's a nice way to spend a lazy afternoon and I did a little sketch inspired by the 50s clothes.

Have a colourful weekend!

I have a very buzzy day today! I am doing some copywriting for a client so I need to concentrate on this, which means no creations! ;-(

BUT, as I don't want to not blog today (yes I am obsessed) I thought I'd share these pics of the gorgeous flowers you can find on the island. I have no idea what they are, if they are completely native to Hong Kong or even if they are WEEDs. But one thing is for sure, they are very beautiful.

Note - I have no photography skills so forgive the quality of the shots and the composition!

Have a great weekend!

Sunny new prints for a sunny day

Today was a beautiful day! The weather is changing, and it is now sunny, warm and fresh on the island, which put me in the mood for creating some summery sunny prints.

Sorry

A few people have told me that they tried to leave a comment on my blog but it would not allow them to. I thought it was a glitch within Blogger but I now realise it was how I set my blog up. I am so sorry. Anyone can now add comments to my blog not just those with Blogger accounts.

A frangipani flower, Koh Samui, Thailand

This week's art class - colour!

Just finished Roz Keep's art class on the island. I haven't drawn anything for about a week so felt out of practice but desperate to start drawing again. I've been having withdrawal symptoms! I have even been dreaming about drawing and creating things. Does anyone else experience this??

Today, we learned all about colours, which I can vaguely remember from art classes about 20 years ago! And while it may seem extremely basic - it is so good for me to learn the absolute basics again otherwise I would cut corners by using paint straight from the tube or pair colours that really don't work together.

And I even managed to squeeze in a little sketch of the fishermen's village. The water is REALLY that colour!

Fishermen's village, ink and watercolour, 2 Feb 2010

Singapore, Urban Sketchers and a Sale!

I've just come back from a lovely trip to Singapore where we were visiting friends. I didn't take many photographs so I thought I would illustrate Singapore through sketches from the Urban Sketchers blog. The Urban Sketchers blog is also my recommended blog of the week.

This picture is by TIA and it is of the bridge in the centre of the city near the Fullerton Hotel.

This picture is of Sentosa. By TIA too

This sketch is of Tan Quee Lan St and is by Quek See Hong

The sketch above is by Quek again and is Hullet Road, Singapore

You can find thousands of sketches from great cities and countries from all over the world, including Singapore, on Urban Sketchers. It's a brilliant site to get completely lost on, it's updated daily, if not hourly, and the art is just amazing.

*****

And, lastly, I got a sale while I was away!

This trio of nudes print will be winging its way to the UK this week.

Thank you for buying!