Omg, so much to catch up on

But first thing's first...apparently new PIXAR stamps came out today! And they are, of course, adorable! For those of us that still use a pen and paper to write to the people we like (although, unfortunately not as often as we'd aim to), these are a perfect to elicit a smile as soon as the mailbox is opened. (Please note the correct usage of elicit vs illicit.). :)




In other news, my second drawing class was fantastic; thanks, Will Bonner! Though it was a little painstaking, I finished this pastel drawing of wine glasses that represent my mother and her 6 sisters. I hope to put it up in my house somewhere. It took ~20 hours, which is way longer than I ever worked on any piece before, but I'm very pleased with the result.




Because it was such a great experience to hang out 8 hours a week with a small group of people, I made my teacher and the other regular students sketchbooks. This was a great exercise for me, since I hadn't done a Japanese stab binding in a couple years, and it allowed me to use some paper that was cut incorrectly (it was cut on a bias, so the corners don't meet up when folded).

I also made each book specifically for the person: Will's was a collage since he does abstract work and once mentioned to me that I had a dangerous way with color! The end pages were of a stone-like, but a modern pattern, because he often referenced how cave people made art...with whatever they had!

Robert's was steeped in natural images, since he said once how he liked to go on hikes, and he took some lovely pictures on them, from which he drew. He also tried something different each class, so the style of paper used on either side of the cover was very different, but still in keeping with the nature theme.

Shaun's book was all in blues, because during the whole class he only used one palette. He was very deliberate and patient (much more than myself), but his drawings had a kind of dreamlike quality. I wanted to make him something with Japanese papers (he's half, like me), but that was monochromatic and powerful, like his drawings.








I have other things to share soon, but I want the people who are receiving them to see them first. :)

Last week of first drawing series

Here's my last drawing for my class at Pratt. I loved it so much I'm taking another--8 hours/week of drawing! Very exciting. If you're looking for a good and relatively inexpensive class, I totally recommend taking from Will Bonner. He does a great job of encouraging, advising, and challenging his students as well as enhancing everyone's own unique creative expression.




I think this was some small girl's first communion dress. So sweet! It had a bunch of lovely lace, but there's only so much one can capture in 3 hrs.

Ha!

Yeah, I bet you didn't think I'd post again so soon...and usually, you'd be right, you smarty pants, you. However, I was sneaky and kept some images secret...'cause it would have exposed a surprise for one of my biggest fans (which is totally reciprocated)...my mom!

So here are the images for the ridiculously late mother's day card My brother and I sent to my mom...










Yep, it's a pop up! So fun! And the flowers are a collage of cutouts from different kinds of Japanese paper I often use in my bookbinding. :)

So, so long

Well, according to my own blog, I haven 't posted in over 2 years! Shame on me! Not like I had a good reason or anything...when I look back at the December of 2008, I remember only being 6 months into a project that would eventually become the subject of my dissertation; I had just turned 30; and was pretty much freaking about the direction of my life in general.

So lots has happened in the meantime, unfortunately not much in the way of art or crafts, but I'm already on my way of changing that. The biggest, of course, is that I can now be accurrately introduced to people as Dr. Pang, which is weird 'cause that's also my mother and uncle's name. Guess it must run in the family. So yeah, 7.25 years later I can finally say I'm "not that kind of doctor", a statement that is officially declared on a tshirt of mine (thanks, Dad!).

So let's just say that I am currently "taking some time off," which could be, rather accurately, interpreted as an undefined period of unemployment...but so far I'm loving it. I was walking down the street to the local coffeeshop (shout out to Cloud City), and had a fleeting thought of "Gee, is this what well-rested feels like?" In any case, while I had a lovely time in HI for two weeks, partly catching up with family, partly playing tourist, I also have punctuated this period of my life by taking a Drawing Fundamentals class at Pratt Fine Arts Center. I've been loving it. So much so that I convinced my parents/benefactors to patron another session where I will be drawing 2x a week, 4 hrs per session. I am SO excited. In any case, I thought that as my first entry back, I should post my drawings from class. :)




Week 1





Week 2- first time ever trying to draw reflections. My teacher Will Bonner (who I like very much) keeps saying just draw what you see. He also was like, where's that reflection in the wine bottle? I told him that since I didn't draw the bottle behind it, I didn't put it in. He was like put it in, so that's why there's a ghost bottle behind the wine bottle. A riveting story, I know.





Week 3--I actually didn't originally put in the reflection of the pear in the pitcher 'cause I didn't know what it was. Once it was pointed out to me that it was the pear, I was like, oh, yeah, it may make more sense if I put that in.




Week 4 and 5--Will decided that a group us should work on the same drawing for two sessions. So yeah, this is a sum total of 6 hours of me looking at the same thing...and the damn thing still isn't finished...mostly the bottom third or so. The top part is about as good as I could make it. This is the first time I've ever tried to draw fabric. Will came around to me and was like, you should just draw what you see, and I was like, I can't get the background quite right. And he was like, oh, so you mean it's hard and don't want to put in the work, huh? ;) Yeah, so I like the tough love. Turns out there aren't a lot of "tricks," mostly it's just looking at the same thing over and over trying to figure out what you missed. In that way, it's a lot like science. :)

See you real soon! (yeah, I know, you'll believe it when you see it.)