time lapse #18

time lapse #17

just a quick pop-in to let you guys know that i've edited/updated my adobe portfolio just in case anyone is here for the artwork. there's a tab on my blog called "Artwork" that'll take you to it any time, any day but click here for the link just in case you're lazy!

time lapse #16

museum adventures | Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art

hey guys, it's been a while. i have been preoccupied w school & work & projects but it's finals week & i'm FREE. i had been DYING to go to the Vincent van Gogh: His Life in Art exhibit at the MFAH since i heard about it, but i decided to wait until after my classes were done, so that i could focus on them. but i'm done w them & i finally went to the exhibit!!!

i didn't really take many pictures of the exhibit itself, since it was pretty crowded when i went. i went w my friend daniel & we awkwardly shuffled around to look at Van Gogh's paintings & drawings while trying to not run into the crowds of senior citizens that were also there for the exhibit

real talk, the exhibit was okay i guess. there were some reproductions in the first room, a timeline of Van Gogh's works in the next few rooms but i had much more fun in the companion display: Van Gogh Up Close. it's like an interactive room for kids, families, etc. & there are set ups for photo-taking, for drawing, & more

daniel & i took some photos in the interactive spaces & drew some sunflowers in the art-making area

all in all, i had a blast. getting to see works of van Gogh that i had never seen before was great & inspiring & getting to go to Van Gogh up close was a terrific experience. going to the exhibit was a great way to kick-off my summer

block review (ahhhh!)

what is block review, you may ask?

well lemme tell you all about it! basically, it's a portfolio review day where you find out if you officially get into the graphic design program or not. at the University of Houston, you've got to take Fundamentals of Graphic Design, Colors Materials + Methods, Introduction to Typography, & Intermediate Graphic Design before you can go up for Block. the assignments/projects that you do in those classes (& some other ones, should you choose to include them) are the ones that you put up for professors to see. sure, some of your professors have already seen your projects but all of the design professors are "judges" so some may not have seen your work before. also, you could have redone the work from previous semesters bc they weren't good enough to put up for Block

so when you take these classes & you feel ready (or it's just time), you sign up to go up for Block. then on a certain day, you come to campus w all these things that you need & your projects, & set it up in one of the designated classrooms. now, this sounds easy but it was a lot more stressful than i'm making it sound. anyone in design would agree

this was my wall: 

this semester, there were some complications. there was a football game on the Thursday of Block Review so we couldn't really park near the art buildings. many students (including me) came Wednesday night in order to set up & then came back on Thursday (if we could manage to get parking/get dropped off/etc.) after 4 pm, to see if we got in

luckily for me, i have a great friend, Kevin, that drove me to campus, helped me set up (as much as he could), & kept my stress levels down as much as he could. i stayed downtown overnight & in the morning, he took me back to campus just to check on my stuff (i was worried people would mess w it or something would fall before Block Review). then we spent the day away from campus to keep my mind from freaking out. 11 am was when the professors came to judge & they were finished around 4 pm. we came back to campus to 1. find out if we got accepted 2. take down all of our stuff

i was so anxious about whether or not i got into Block that i didn't even open my envelope. i spent my time taking all of my projects down & people kept coming in & asking if i got in or not but i kept saying "i haven't opened it yet." finally, after taking all of my stuff down, i ran into a group of students that also went up for block. they asked me again if i got in & told me to just rip off the band-aid & check. so i had one of them do it for me. & i found out that i had been accepted

the graphic design program at the University of Houston generally accepts 24 students a year. that's ideally 12 a semester & this semester (Fall 2018), 10 students- including me- were accepted. i was in disbelief that out of 30+ students, i was one of the ten that got in. but i am so excited to have been accepted alongside these amazingly talented graphic designers

so starting Fall 2019, i will be in the Graphic Design Block program 

time lapse #15

time lapse #14

time lapse #13

time lapse #12

newest designs

it's been a while since i've shared any of my drawings on here (though i do share them a lot on all of my social media which is all on the right hand side of my blog) so i decided to show you my latest work from this week. i guess hurricane harvey just gave me the time & boredom i needed to actually work on something. i put a lot of time & detail into these & i hope you guys love them as much as i do

hurricane harvey | #houstonstrong

i don't think there's anybody in the U.S. that hasn't heard about hurricane harvey by now. it's devastating floods have claimed at least 30 lives so far & have displaced many families. some areas had to evacuate but many areas in houston were unable to. there are so many many people living in houston alone that it would have been more dangerous to try to evacuate the whole city. the traffic would have been impossible & w the roads flooded like they were, it would have been deadly

as someone living in texas, i have been cooped up in my house for the past few days. my classes have been cancelled until after labor day. that means i will have been off for a week due to the flooding. i've been monitoring the waters outside of my house bc i've been worried that we would get flooded. luckily, the waters have not reached my street yet but just outside of the neighborhood, the water has covered the roads, curbs, & grass. i watched people fill up bags w sand to try to make a sand bag barrier at the entrances & exits of the neighborhood. i saw a mom carrying her toddler, who was wearing a life jacket type of thing just in case. i saw a man help a family evacuate in his truck, & a woman crying

as for me, i am blessed that my house is not flooded, that the street immediately outside my house is still visible, & that my family is safe. i may have been cooped up in my house but at least i am able to be in my dry, safe, house. i spent my morning designing these images bc i felt like i just had to do something

if you guys could share my images, or any images that would raise more awareness about the effects of hurricane harvey on my city, on my state, & encourage people to donate their time, food, clothes, money, etc. to causes that are helping houston/texas, i know everyone in this city would appreciate it

if you have twitter, click here for a thread of places that you can donate to that aren't the red cross

cali shirt | DIY

when i go thrifting, i like to keep an eye out for plain shirts that fit me in a cute way (& aren't completely hideous) so that i can do my own designs on them. i usually just use sharpie or paint. recently, i came along a plain dark blue long sleeve shirt & bought it. i did some research (on pinterest, etsy, etc.) to find inspiration. i decided to go w a cali-girl theme since i was born there

i used a mixture of fabric puffy paint w regular acrylic paint bc i knew that puffy paint doesn't help when you're trying to do neat letters. in the upper left of my shirt, i had a circle inside of a circle. the inner circle says "cali" while the outer circle says stay golden. the sleeves say "west coast" "best coast" which i liked since it rhymed (& is true). on the back of the shirt, i decided to draw the state of california w palm leaves in it

FRONT:

BACK:

painting all of this on the shirt took me about 2-3 hours while watching gossip girl. i really like the end result, although i don't think i'll get to wear it any time soon w the weather in texas

"pixel forest" exhibit by pipilotti rist | MFAH

i think by now, everyone has seen pictures or has taken pictures at pipilotti rist's "pixel forest" exhibit at the museum of fine arts- houston. it's the one w the hanging balls of lights that change colors. i've been dying to go ever since the first post i saw of it & allison & i finally planned another day downtown to go to this exhibit

the exhibit was not as exciting as i thought it would be (bc after you see it, you're kind of like "now what?") but it was beautiful. the "pixel forest," along w the "worry will vanish" exhibit on the walls make for a vibrant & breathtaking space in which viewers can relax & just lose themselves in the beauty. for more information on the exhibit itself, click here

so everyone comes to the exhibit to take pictures & why would allison & i be any different? we had to do the best we could since we could not have flash on but i think some of the photos turned out great (plus i went back & edited my favorite photos)

it makes me so happy to see beautiful, changing, interactive work like this that people can really enjoy. there has been a lot of hype about the "pixel forest" & as part of the art community, i think that the positive response to the exhibit from the viewers is really special

BEHIND THE DESIGNS | think-sweetpea

do you guys remember my old post about partnering up w my friend on think-sweetpea.com? well i've added some new designs that i think ya'll would really like! seeing people wearing my designs make me so so happy & it would be great if there were more people wearing them

BEHIND THE DESIGNS:

i created a mountain design for a shirt a while ago but recently, i created a back design for that shirt. a lot of my church friends bought this design bc christians are suckers for shirts w bible verses (i'm not saying this in an offensive way- i, myself, am a sucker for bible verses). i hand-wrote the quote: "though the mountain may crumble, you will not [isaiah 54:10]" 

think-sweetpea has a collection of black pride clothing so i wanted to design something that sort of fit along those lines. i decided to do something more inclusive (since i am asian) & i ended up w this. it's a simple design that sends a message & hopefully other people will help spread the message when they buy the shirt

i've been in an art funk lately so i followed a lot of artists on twitter to get inspiration. i don't remember what i saw that made me want to draw medusa, but that's what i set out to do. at the beginning, my drawing was just terrible. but i tried again & again & the final product made me so proud- proud enough that i wanted it to be on a shirt. i actually ordered this shirt for myself bc i liked it so much (although i ordered it w the design a bit bigger)

so. ever since i learned to use illustrator, i wanted to do a line art version of myself bc it's a big thing on tumblr i guess. i chose this one picture of me dressed a bit punk-like & i made this design based off of it. the hair & the nose ring were hard but i love how it turned out

lastly, my newest design. i've been binge watching switched at birth. in the show, there is a character, bay, who is an artist. she is obsessed w frida kahlo & in one of the episodes, she went to mexico city & met someone who knew frida. i had also been on twitter & saw a frida kahlo tattoo design so i thought, wow i gotta do something frida-related. so i finally sat myself down & drew this while watching switched at birth

SO HEAD OVER TO THINK-SWEETPEA.COM & GET YOURSELF ONE OF MY DESIGNS BC IT'LL MAKE ME THE HAPPIEST PERSON ON EARTH

chalkboard paint | DIY

my last post was about me being resourceful & making a cute thing for my friend using what i had. well here's another DIY kind of thing that i did today

i had this glass clock thing that didn't work so i took out all of the mechanical stuff & the hands of the clock. i was left w a glass disk w a hole in the middle, so i wanted to do something cool w it. recently, i had bought chalkboard paint but never used it yet so i figured i could try it on this

supplies needed:

• something to paint on/decorate
• chalkboard paint
• chalk

so i had my sister paint the glass disk w the chalkboard paint & the next day (when it was finally completely dry) i started the design. it's hard to draw neatly & cleanly w chalk but i did my best. i did another henna-type design bc that's all i've been doing lately but i really like how it turned out so yay

megan's birthday present | DIY

hello hello hello. i wanted to share this artsy thing i did bc i'm happy w how it turned out. so. i wanted to do a cute/thoughtful thing for my friend's birthday so i figured i'd do a box w little things that she would like. however, i didn't have any cute boxes so i decided to be resourceful & decorate a box

supplies:

• small box
• large paper bag (from abercrombie)
• scissors
• tape
• spray adhesive glue
• permanent marker/black ink pen

steps:

1. cut the bag so that it can be laid out flat
2. find a section of the bag big enough to cover certain sections of the box
3. cut it out so that it can fit on the side of the box (it can be a little larger- you can always trim)
4. spray the adhesive glue on the box (use tape if necessary)
5. put the plain/blank side of the section of the bag onto the glue & let dry
6. continue to wrap/glue bag until it covers the outside of the box
7. trim any extra edges & tape down any loose flaps
8. decorate the box w the pen/marker

after finishing the exterior of the box, i decorated the inside. the first thing i did was paint over anything in the box that i did not want (there were words & decorations already). then i cut out paper balloons & glued them on. i wrote "happy birthday" & put stickers to spell out her name

then i found put the little gifts inside

included in the box:

• mickey & minnie mouse tsum tsums
• pink beaded bracelet
• dreamcatcher necklace
• little homemade keychain
• pins: harry potter, tangled, the beatles, pink floyd
• card/note explaining stuff in the box

she went gaga over the hand-designed "henna" on the outside of the box & absolutely loved the little gifts. she really likes hand-made/thoughtful kind of gifts so it was pretty perfect for her

think sweetpea | t-shirts

there is so much excitement inside of me rn. do you remember one of my past posts talking about a shirt design that i did for my friend's shop/site (thinksweetpea)? well as of today, it's also mine! 

amalia's products consists of some black pride shirts, a lot of caps, & DMV (D.C./Maryland/Virginia) influences but now, there's a new collection. the "stay weird" collection is my baby. it's all of the designs that i have created for the site, including some of my drawings

check out the collection if you're interested in purchasing any of these t-shirts (& use discount code TEESFORME for $16 tees or SWEETTHANG for $5 OFF of your cart)!