pixelraccoon

now live from london

2010-10-02T10:48:00.000-07:00

Hello again, it's been a long time. I'm now blogging from London, where I'll be honing my graphic and illustration skills in Central Saint Martins for the next 3 years or so. Expect gallery postings, shopping hauls and lots of work.

Catch ya in a bit, cheers.

it's a you and me house

2010-03-10T02:03:00.000-08:00

It was our anniversary recently, and here's the design of a wall mural that I created for the occasion! I'm so excited to paint this on her wall, we just gotta find the time to do it, and find the right shade of orange for her blue wall. Doing the tree in Illustrator almost blinded me, but I love how it turned out all old and woodcut-print-ish. I presented her with the card and a can of paint over a romantic dinner at le Bistrot du Sommelier, and had chef Patrick create a special dessert of chocolate profiteroles and strawberries for the two of us. Yum!

Birthday Girl

2010-02-11T00:34:00.000-08:00

A digital painting for Apple's 21st birthday, commissioned by a friend. I really enjoyed doing this piece despite all the late nights spent making sure everything looked perfect, and I loved how toe symbols and colours come together so beautifully to make up a painting that speaks about its subject. My favourite part of the painting is her dress - Isn't it a dream? I used Mark Ryden's The Apology as a guide and just wingged it with the red silk underskirt and green brocade, and I'm loving the finished look. The "doorway" was inspired by Venetian windows and Magritte's The Mask, and painted to look like it was merging with the sky.

I'm going to continue doing paintings like these.. maybe portraits, or just different elements all put in together like a jigsaw. Anyone up for a portrait of yourselves?

We've got some catching up to do

2010-01-27T07:44:00.000-08:00

I know I've been a little on the quiet side when it comes to updates, and I swear it's not an excuse when I say that I have literally been working almost around the clock on various projects, one of which I am very excited to show you all! It's a piece of commissioned artwork for a girl's 21st birthday, with a very dreamy, romantic theme that is just what I love to do. I can't put it up here yet since it's meant to be a surprise present, but I promise that you'll be the first to see it as soon as possible!

As for daily designs and weekly work, I will do my very best to keep up, and post at least twice a week. I'm new to this constant-updating thing, so sometimes I get carried away with running all over and forget that I have to post! Till next time, my fellow raccoons, and there will be more work posted up here very soon.

Beauté!

2010-01-18T01:57:00.000-08:00

I ADORE this girl and her perfect, perfect drawings. http://www.garancedore.fr/en/tag/illustration
I love her life, her style, her writing, her drawings, this post is just full of love. She makes me want to run away to Paris and draw portraits for a living. Maybe I'll meet her there someday.

Glitterati

2010-01-12T07:11:00.001-08:00

After much thought and much exhaustion from doing more work than what I'm used to, I've decided to turn Daily Raccoons into Weekly designs instead, and with more time I'll create better, bigger works. I'll be posting my weekly designs every Tuesday, starting from next week,
and next week's theme is Sea of Love, inspired by one of my favourite songs by Cat Power, whose concert I'm going to see tomorrow! I got so excited I even made glittery cat ears on a headband.

Monday Morning Muffins

2010-01-10T20:16:00.000-08:00

Hello my forest friends, I didn't post a Daily Raccoon yesterday because Bunny and I were busy making muffins and watching documentaries on Egypt. To make up for it, I'll post some links to a few awesomely inspirational websites, and this link to my carbonmade portfolio just in case anyone's feeling generous enough to spread the love.

For times when you know what you want, but don't know how to get there,
ThinkDesign - 50 Great Illustrator Tutorials and Tips
Noupe - Vector Illustration 60 Illustrator Tutorials, Tips and Best Practices
Smashing Magazine - Useful Glossaries for Web Designers and Developers

For that after-lunch hour when your brain feels like a scoop of icecream,

Inspiredology

Clients from Hell

Covers by Fwis

Comcast Town

For people who used to try on every shade of their Mom's lipstick,
COLOURlovers

Daily Raccoon: Marie

2010-01-09T01:44:00.000-08:00

Day 4: I've always wanted a redheaded girl. I've been doing some digital painting work for a client, and a few nights ago I put Marie together in my sketchbook, then decided to give her the red hair I always wanted as a colour study for the painting. I love how the colour of the paper gives the drawing its warmth, and that sassy look in her eyes.

Ignore the spider, I have a weakness for them too.

Daily Raccoon: Lonely Bunnies

2010-01-08T08:13:00.000-08:00

Day 3: And I'm tired already, but still not giving up. I know that better work will come, and that with practice, I'll be able to create what I want within the limitations of time. An exercise in efficiency! Anyway, pictures of these bunnies have been sitting around my computer for awhile now and were waiting to be turned into something else.

PS this is also for my own bunny, whom I have given up time with to work on other virtual rabbits, and who has never stopped being supportive even when I don't provide as many treats as I should.

Coming Soon

2010-01-07T06:52:00.001-08:00

Inspirational sites, colorlovers, portfolio, future projects, and what Pixel thinks of local design. Any other interesting topics you'd like Pixel to talk about? He'll be happy to chatter away, just leave a comment to let us know. Also: this Daily Raccoon stuff, what are your thoughts? Will we persevere? Will we crash and burn? Have you done it before? In that case I'd really like to hear from you. Don't be a silent floater, share the goodies!

- Posted from iPhone

Daily Raccoon: Face in the Sky

2010-01-07T06:26:00.000-08:00

Day 2: A floating raccoon because I have been wanting to create a banner for this blog but haven't had the time or mental capacity left after a day of work to undertake a banner. How do you guys do it? How do you have fun at your jobs, love what you do, and still have the energy at the end of the day to continue doing it? I wanted to play with colour with this one, not to use the colours that I would normally pick and still try to make it work. Now I think I should have used a brighter red, what do you think? Forgive the lack of sprucing on the blog, I will be getting to it, soon, soon.

Daily Raccoon: Handglovery

2010-01-06T07:37:00.000-08:00

Day 1: An anatomy of letters to remind Pixel that there are more to letters than the words on candy packets. I promise to take notice of fonts more, to find the reason behind their mysterious meanings and nuances, to be able to give a voice to text with my choice of typeface, and to be able to say more about a letter than "ooh, it pretty."

Reference: FontShop Typeface Anatomy & Glossary

I think I'll come up with a theme for tomorrow's Daily Raccoon, a theme for the rest of the week, and a theme for next week. Will it make this any easier? Most likely I'll be trying to follow a theme, then have something completely random pop into my head and spend the nest 2 hours fiddling with it while I'm supposed to be working on some other project. Yup, that's usually the case. I hope my boss (doesn't) find this blog - he'll then know the reason behind my silent screen-staring and occasional exclamations of geeky joy.

Everyday Raccoons

2010-01-06T07:26:00.000-08:00

Inspired by designers like Stefan Bucher and his Daily Monsters, and an article in Smashing Magazine about designing something every day, I have decided to devote my first half hour in the office every day and the last hour before I go to bed at night to designing something, anything. Being stuck in a full-time design job can kill a designer's love for design, and it's been making me antsy and annoyed that I never have the time to draw anything other than what my clients ask for. So this is an attempt, no, a promise that I will not let my creativity die, I will not turn into a cranky desk-lady who doesn't do anything else but work, and that I will do something colourful, thought-provoking, useful, or pure nonsensical, every day, just for the fun of it.

It may not work out, I may fail terribly and overwork myself to bits, but I am committing to it, starting today. Be gentle with me these first few days.