Patience

Well.

I've been steadily grinding away at the artwork for the "geisha" t-shirt I'm making. It's at that point where it's not so much a matter of skill or talent but just putting in the time and energy to finish it up. There's a lot of little details that can be really time-consuming. Here's where it's at right now:

Going to change that hair ornament to be more silvery and add some details to it. None of these colors are final either.

I like how the pattern on the sash came out. I spent a lot of time fussing around on the tiger but I think I'll have to leave it close to this, since the details won't be visible in normal size anyway.

The pattern on the kimono is far from finished. Also, the color of it is far from final. Just blocking in some random colors to sort of get a feel for how things will look.

I hate watermarks by the way. Honestly, I was getting frustrated working on some of the details and frustration lead to boredom so I decided to take a breather...

They had this exhibit at the Asian Art Museum called "Seduction" and it was focused on the theme of "the floating world" in Japanese art, particularly prints. I did go through the whole museum though and I was pretty overwhelmed. I took 453 photos on my phone and I left about 45 minutes before closing. It was a pretty immense collection. Here's just a few things:

One thing I like about visiting museums and looking at works from the past is that it reminds me just how much patience it takes to really create beautiful things. I imagine how much time and skill each artist put into that piece of work and it reminds me to exercise patience as I work on my own projects.

I also finally got all my portfolio projects in print version. It was kind of a lengthy process. I shopped around and most print shops wouldn't do what I needed for less than around $50 a book. Which I thought was kind of ridiculous. So I tried this online service and there was a mix-up with the formatting, then I had that week or two where I didn't have access to my files, then I got shipped a damaged book X__X. But in the end it all worked out and I added all my fabric swatches and technique samples to the respective books. 

So I'll be searching for a new job and in the meantime I'll be working on my t-shirt project. And when that's done I'll continue back on designing these 2 collections that I had ideas for. Also: business cards-- I will be making some of those. Other than that, I've been just enjoying life and also doing a lot of reading and catching up on my TV as usual.

Bad time to wash the car but I'd rather have water spots than bird poop.

I finished American Psycho and I have to say some of these scenes in it are some of the most depraved and disgusting that I've ever read. But all in all, it was not a bad book and it was pretty entertaining as well as thought-provoking. For me, I sort of looked at it more as an exploration of what happens to the individual who is drowning in a culture of materialism and narcissism. The individual human gets lost and at the end they're "just not there."

My sentiments exactly...

Been continuing on 48 Laws of Power and well... other shit that ain't none of your business.

I'll be back with more!

Over the hump.

I hit a speed bump in my workflow a couple weeks ago. Spilled coffee on my laptop. Repairing it cost me $800. But anyway, it's back and it's working just fine, all the data still intact so I'll pick up where I left off.

How many fingers is he holding up? @_@

But yeah there was that. There was a speeding ticket on the Bay Bridge x__x. There was a printer who messed up in printing two of my portfolio projects. Just a bunch of crap to deal with, really. 

The break gave me some time to chill though and I had been so work-focused I hadn't been going out and having fun and relaxing. Got to catch up on my reading and all that.

Was able to get my old MacbookPro from '07 to work again by replacing the battery and getting a new adapter. Keyboard is busted though, so I had to use it all ghetto with an external keyboard haha... Might get it repaired when I have another $200 or so to shell out.

In the meantime, other than that I managed to finish the base croquis for 2 new collections I'm working on. I'm taking a different approach with the drawings for this and just drawing all the designs using one pose. It's a long way from completion though. Just started gathering visual inspiration too. Will blog about it once it's further along in development.

Anyway, I'm only just now starting to switch gears back to finishing up the t-shirt collection. here's a snapshot of where I left off.

I'm probably not going to stick with that gradient fill for the lipstick. Just wanted to block it in so I could see the shape.

The final version will be in full color and there will be at least one color variation. Right now I just use grayscale as I work on it so I can see everything more clearly and it's easier on the eyes when I'm staring at the screen for hours.

So yeah it's just a matter of time before that little t-shirt collection is done. In the back of my head I'm still kinda mulling over whether or not I still want to do the print-on-demand style of selling or if I wanna just get them mass-produced now and try to sell them that way. I'll make a final decision once the time comes though. Been reading a lot too, right now I'm alternating between The 48 Laws of Power and American Psycho (which I swapped with a friend for my copy of The Tao of Wu). I'm more of a non-fiction guy but Psycho is pretty interesting so far when you read it not as a 'slasher' story but try to look at it more from a psychological perspective and commentary on consumerism, conformity, and affluence.

'Till next time.

Welcome

Welcome to my new website!

First of all let me tell you how to get around.

My Portfolio contains my projects that are edited, polished, and ready for presentation. It's a narrowed down collection of my best work from school and focuses solely on my major in fashion.

Right now you're reading my Blog (if you don't know what a blog is you need to get out from under the rock more often..) where I write informally about what I'm currently working on. I'll also be talking freely about non-work related thoughts and ideas.. y'know a little slice of life.

If you're curious about me, you can find out more under Bio.

And lastly, the Gallery is a link to my deviantART page. As of right now, I've had the page for 10 years (I started posting on it when I was only 15 years old) so there's a lot of work there. I will continue to post to that gallery my rougher work and non-fashion related work. So if you're interested in checking out some of my older content or want to take a look at my non-fashion work just check it out!

Now onto my first real 'update':

Yup.

Been talking about it so much over the past few years but I kept getting sidetracked X__X School, work, BS, etc... So anyway I'm finally gonna push through with this t-shirt collection. There's only 5 designs with each design slated to have at least 1 color variation for some variety. 

For now I plan on selling them through a print-on-demand (POD) service that has a free storefront for me but in the future I hope to sell everything directly and using manufacturers that offer more options (like all-over printing and customized tagging).

Anyway I'm finishing up the artwork for the last design and then I'll begin setting up the shop!