Lunch break sketches

This week,  at a rare free noon break, I went out for a all carb + coffee lunch at a cafe near by work with my sketching pal, Sansu. Sansu is a talented lighter at day and an even more awesome talented illustrator/storyteller at night. I love going sketching with her, for she naturally carries this 'relaxed' approach to drawing, the world seems so much fun and full of unpredictable stories through her eyes! 

Like during the lunch sketching this week, as I was struggling to 'relax' to sketch, I set my eyes on this lady sitting at the table next to us, her look attracted me - elegant and delicate face features, long, lean, and straight neck, arms, and body posture, but wearing a very bulky thick wool sweater and a pair of big running shoes.... with all these thoughts, I scrambled a drawing of her .. for a longgg time.... then I looked over to see Sansu's sketchbook, she had filled pages of lovely fun sketches, and, that lady. 

To my surprise, as usual, how she saw her was so differently than I:

Don't you just love it? I am dying to know who this lady is through her eyes, and, that guy next to her, with the super man sign!

More of her sketches from the day: 

and of me!

Check out more Sansu's artwork here and here!

This Friday - Art to Heart: Philippine Typhoon Relief Fund Benefit Concert + Art Auction!

This Friday night (3/21), 7:30~11:30pm, at The Uptown in Oakland,  a benefit concert and art auction will be hosted to raise funds for those affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan/Yolanda in the Philippines. The event is organized by a group of people in art, animation, film, and video game industries who care and focus on long-term aid in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan.

Many film makers and artists from Pixar have contributed their original artwork to the auction, including Pete Doctor, Ronnie del Carmen, Dice Tsutsumi, Ricky Nierva, Paul Abadilla,...,and many many more! 

And, certainly, ROUND ROBIN - me, Daniela Strijleva and Katy Wu, are back together, contributing our original bookplate paintings to the auction! Please come by and join the fun and help on the good cause!

The event is at: 

The Uptown
1928 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland, CA.
$20 cover (Ages 21+) 

Sea Ranch

The past few years, we've been joining our great friends for Thanksgiving at Sea Ranch. It's a lovely community settled along the coast of the Sonoma county. The style of the houses in Sea Ranch are consisted in bare timber wood frame structures and sidings, with an idea of blending in with the natural landscape. Walking along the coastal trails, you'd see herds of sheep grazing on the yellow meadow, wooden houses hidden next to spots of dark wind-shaped trees, waves pounding onto the shores with herds of sea lions lounging on the rocks, fog moves in and out of the coast...time seemed to be capsuled here,... especially, when there was no phone nor wifi reception. Here are some sketches I did during the last Thanksgiving, and a few from the past years.

Sketches from 2013

2013 felt like a blink of an eye - I had a baby; learning to be a mom; I went back to work, dove in and out of different projects; then, my baby is now becoming a toddler... time flew in a blink of an eye speed. I'm still learning to be a mom, an artist, a responsible person,...my ambitions only filled a few pages in my sketchbooks in 2013. Clearing out my desk, 2014 shall be a fun productive year!

Happy New Year 2014!

Wish everyone a wonderful 1/1 and all the best in 2014!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to every mum and mum to be!

Only have I had my own child, I've begun to understand how much love and effort had my mum put into raising me...it's definitey one of the most special experience I've ever had so far in life - tough and sweet at the same time. Cheers to all the super mums out there! 

Here are a few sketches I did over the past 3 months.

a Friday tune - heylo belayed 2013!

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It's been 3 months since my delivery - what a trip to the other side and back! Finally, I picked up pencils and brushes again, tried to get my mind back to the surface. It felt great! This is a painting I composed a while ago with the "One-Maverix Auction" auction piece, but didn't get to finish it until now, it's a little bit different from what I initially planned, but the same idea as a tribute to the California summer fields.

Year end: Fall like Summer, Winter like Fall

On the last day of 2012, here are my year end tribute from S.F. As usual, the weather was unusual in S.F. comparing to other distinct four season places - Summer was chilly, Fall was sunny and warm, and we've been having colorful winter sky with double rainbows now and then! It's truly a subtly beautiful city… Happy New Year 2013! 

 Fally-Winter

Summery-Fall

Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays Everyone! 

This year has been quite a year for me and my husband with challanging work and personal projects, we've been non stop hecticly busy but happy. And especially, now we are expecting a baby boy soon - in a few weeks in the new year! Nervously and excitedly, we can not wait to welcome the new member of our family!

We'd like to share the happiness with you, and wish you a fun and relaxing holiday break wherever you are, and whatever you do! And all the best in the new year! 

  

a Friday tune

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a Friday tune

press 'command' + 

Heylo, it's been while since I last posted,...it took me some time to recover and recompose myself after all the great adventures with ROUND ROBIN in the last few months... So now, I finally feel more rested and ready to go again ! This month, I've been going back to join my friends painting on early Friday morning before work, we'd meet up at 7am and go painting outdoor or do surface study indoor for 2 hrs, the goal is to study the scenery or objects and express them with 'efficient' paint indication,.. needless to say, it's very challenging for me ! it's nice to do something very different from in-studio illustration and a great training and reminder for the eyes... it's been a lot of fun and so much more to learn ! Have a great weekend !

ROUND ROBIN promo video is up !

I'm very excited to announce that our ROUND ROBIN promo video is up !

For the past 3 months, me and the Robins have been working hard on making this promo/making-of video for our new book, and the up-coming exhibitions with Galerie Arludik and Rare Device. We hope it will help introduce you to the ROUND ROBIN project and to our creative process. 

To make the promo we've worked closely with many talented and brilliant people. Their expertise and generous help has made it all possible. We'd like to give credit to:

Editor and Original Music - Zach Johnston

Motion Graphics - Craig Foster | Zach Johnston

Camera - Tony Kaplan | James Robertson

Producer - Elizabeth Thiers

A special thanks goes to the talented Zach Johnston, who not only edited the video and animated some of its charming motion graphics, but who also composed the original score! If you haven't seen his work, check out the beautiful animated Sketchtravel short, which he collaborated on with Dice Tsutsumi. 

ROUND ROBIN upcoming events:

San Francisco -

ROUND ROBIN 3 booksigning and exhibition at Rare Device 

Sat. 5/5, 3~6pm. Exibition of bookplate paintings and prints, show through the month of May.

Paris - 

ROUND ROBIN Exhibition at Galerie Arludik 

Exibition of all 45 original paintings from the three books plus 30 bookplate paintings. Exhibition opens on 5/29, reception on 5/31, 18:30 ~ 21:30.

ROUND ROBIN 3 at Rare Device !

Finally, the exciting news ! ROUND ROBIN 3 will be out next Saturday, May 5th ! 

To celebrate the launch of the book, our wonderful local San Francisco host, Rare Device, is holding a ROUND ROBIN 3 book signing and gallery opening for us from 3~6pm. Please come join us then !

Along with the books, the gallery will be exhibiting our new 15 original bookplate paintings (4x6"), and 10 selected exclusive gilée prints (10x12") from ROUND ROBIN 3. The exhibition will be up from 5/5 to 6/1, 2012.

Rare Device has moved to its new location at 600 Divisadero St. at Hayes St. in San Francisco, the new space is lovely, full of sunlight, and as always, full of wonderful gems of design products, books, and art ! 

Also, once agian, our amazing display artist friend, Asaki Oda, is designing the all new window display for our exhibition, and it'll also be up at Rare Device on 04/30. Below are some sneak peaks, work in progress shots !

We hope to see you soon next Saturday, 5/5 !

( Check out our dedicated ROUND ROBIN blog for more updates this week ! )

ROUND ROBIN 3 - the making of !

From this month to the next, before our ROUND ROBIN exhibition with Galerie Arludik in Paris, three of us will be taking turns reavealing our new artwork from the up coming ROUND ROBIN 3 ! Please take a look on our dedicated blog here. 

Katy Wu

Daniela Strijleva