Piggie the Gatekeeper

Story brewing...

Quotation Time!

"Early to bed and early to rise makes a [wo]man healthy, wealthy, and wise."
~Benjamin Franklin

Alex the Great and Horse Bucephalus

In 344 BC, Alex the Great tamed horse Bucephalus.  More than 2000 years later, I drew them.  :)

No Such Thing as Mummy!

"Just exactly where are we?"

Earlier, I did a piece on two young Minoans.  I thought it would be fun to do a similar piece, except to switch the setting to ancient Egypt.

No Such Thing as Minotaur!

Exploring the Minoan Maze.

I made a sketch for this piece a few months ago.  I even had a version started where I used a black brush pen to outline everything.  But before I colored that version, I thought that piece was too static, and I wanted something with more depth.

Sketchbook Doodles – Minoan Brothers

I did this in a coffee shop in Novato, California.  (I kept referring to the place as Oakland –– because I flew into the Oakland airport.  Little did I know I wasn't really in Oakland the entire time.)

Cathedral Building

"Your characters need to grow up if you want to do Junior Series or Middle-Grades."

This was one of the many advise I got from mentor Cecilia Yung, Art Director at Penguin Young Readers Group.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.  I love to read Junior Series and Middle-Grades and would love too to illustrate for these books.  This is why I started reading and studying many of the illustrations of these genres, in addition to working on my picture books.

Medieval Knights Can't Have Puppies!

It is every medieval knight's dream to have a dragon.  Or slay a dragon.  Dragons are tough!  They spit fire; they roar; they are a man's man type of an animal.

But a puppy?  Medieval knights can't have puppies! 

When the three knights of Mountain Thunder found a puppy gone astray, they decided against all odds to keep it.  Who knew this little 8-pound fluffy buddy would lead them to such trouble?

What were they thinking?

Medieval knights can't have puppies!

Or... Can they?

Picture Book: The Secret of Babylon

As I revamp my portfolio, I am keeping several things in mind, many of which were advises given by my mentors, fellow mentees, agents, keynote speakers, etc.  I cannot begin to express my gratitude to SCBWI, which helps me tremendously on becoming a better storyteller and artist as I embark upon the journey of children's book writer/illustrator.

What 10-Year-Old Maple Wanted

One of the advice I received from the SCBWI mentors was to create more black and white illustrations for a slightly older audience -- so that I can explore the field of books for young readers in addition to picture books.  My characters in my portfolio tend to be very, very young –– so I was advice "to not be afraid to make my characters grow up just a tiny bit."  :)

The Minoan Prince and His Pet Dolphins

Going to the local Starbucks is supposed to help me concentrate on finishing one of my projects.

The podcast I was listening to got me very distracted, and I ended up conceptualizing on a story of the life of a Minoan prince.  (The name of the podcast series is The Ancient World by Scott C.)

Alex and the Gordian Knot

In about 333BC, this famous Alex conquered and ruled the Western world: Greece, Persia, Egypt, Palestine, Phoenicia, Babylonia, Assyria, Asia Minor, India... He started his military conquer at 19, and he died at 32.

Most of us barely make any big accomplishments at 32.

Research Process

Since my passion falls both in illustration and in history, a lot of hours are spent daily doing both. Once again, the wealth of free accessible information (in my case, the local library) serves as a critical part to my research and creative process.

Here is a chart showcasing my work process:



While reading and research are done mostly at home, I enjoy drawing in different local coffee houses. If you catch a girl drawing and sipping coffee and has a small wheel-luggage with her, that might have been me. I like to carry some of my reference books and my art tools with me at all times.

Here is a piece done last week:



Happy 2012, everyone! Wishing you all a great year to come. ☺

Eureka~ Newton's Moment

Marco Polo

In reality, unless I am wrong, I think Marco Polo was a kid when he started traveling east accompanying his father. Well, then this would be a shot of him traveling back home. =)

A Little History of the World

One of my all time favorite books is E.H. Gombrich's "A Little History of the World". Most famous for his book "The Story of Art", Gombrich is a gifted story-teller and has the ability to sprinkle magic to engage readers. "A Little History of the World" is written for children, but I would recommend it to anyone who wants a brief and entertaining overall understanding of history.

For fun, I started drawing a comic based off the summary of the book, and here are the first three pages.

Dance of the Minoans

Bull leaping is a major sports or rituals of the Minoans of ancient Crete.

8000 BC Life of Our Ancestors

Homo Sapiens gathered nuts and berries and hunted animals for food.

Winged Bull Travel

Riding a famous Winged Bull of Assyria on a time-travel journey.

The Musician of Ur

A Sumerian boy playing the Golden Lyre of Ur,
once upon 4,550 years ago.