Revisiting some old artwork from 8 years ago and trying to see how and if I’ve changed as an artist. It’s been an interesting journey to say the least. 

Based on a Le Dynasty Vietnamese Queen’s hat/crown and totally ran away with it. Lol!

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When I’m not illustrating, I’m graphic designing!

Here is a design collaboration with VGX Design (project director and the biggest paper geek I have ever known). 

The business card is specialty printed on silk with spot UV. The client is a painter by trade and initially wanted his logo to contain multi-color paint splatters. MANY concepts later, the logo became a Resplendent Quetzal, the national bird of Guatemala, to reflect his heritage.   

Colorizing old photo for fun… It’s a lot harder than I had anticipated!

I spend most of my time doing graphic and print design nowadays. Once in a while, I get to be able to design and illustrate (and practice my non-existant photography skills)! This gatefold wedding invitation was tricky but very fun to work on! 

ALTA stuff I’m re-working/doodles

Kimono by Liza Dalby

“In the sixteenth century, the nobility ceased to be the sole source of fashion inspiration. Playgirls (asobime) – multitalented, trendy ladies who led rather public lives (sometimes glossed as ‘courtesans’) – wore their kosode belted with long tasseled silk cords. The cords, called Nogoya obi, were woven according to a style then popular in China, roped about the hips six or seven times, and tied in a looping bow.” (Dalby 37)

“Playgirls also did their hair into Chinese chignons, initiating a fashion for women to put up their hair. In previous ages, men had been the ones to oil and arrange their tresses. Women had favored long straight locks, or perhaps a simple ponytail.” (Dalby 37)

“Late Edo fashion for women was undeniably restrictive. […] Hairstyles for women had developed into the elaborate comb-studded coiffures familiar from woodblock prints. With such a coiled oiled structure on her head, a woman couldn’t even sleep freely. Finally, the practice of applying lead- and mercury-based whitening cosmetics, originally a custom limited to the noblility, had now spread into common popularity. By the nineteenth century, being fashionable was truly hazardous to a Japanese woman’s health.” (Dalby 50)

Thought it would be fun to create a series showcasing nth century fashions of the Sinosphere (aka the East Asian cultural sphere/Confucian world, countries culturally influenced by China). I decided to depict middle to upper class women and avoided royalty, concubines, dancers, and so on.

If I am able to find adequate references, I’d like to do a series for the Indosphere (India-influences on Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, etc), Pacific Islands, Middle East, etc.