A little bit of Hot Pot for your home – Fine Art Prints

I decided to restock one of my favourite prints – reproductions of a watercolour piece I painted almost two years ago. Indeed, I am no longer in possession of the original, as I sold it last year! 🥲

I just realised that I never explicitly talked about which corner of my brain this piece sprang from. One, I am a nostalgic person, and this piece is an ode to hearty, cacophonous nights spent at steamy, smoky hot pot restaurants in Hong Kong. Because I love my friends.

One of the first sketches, plus me posing for reference lol

It is an on-the-nose depiction of Hong Kong as a melting pot; how I remember it and how I would love it to remain. And finally, it is an ode to food, and how it brings people together.

Hot Pot, 30 x 40.8 cm (outside 34 x 44.8 cm) prints, on Hahnemühle Photo Rag – €65
Currently 5x in stock. Shipping from Germany. Please follow the link to e-mail an enquiry!

I know it seems odd that I don't have an official set up for this, but I’d much rather personalise the delivery options as shipping prices are THROUGH THE ROOF at the moment!

I’m open to any kind of delivery option: regular mail, in person, etc. – possibilities are endless as long as we stay creative. I’ll pack the print nice and safe, but liability is limited.

Why and how I finally took a ‘Social Media Break’ (not life advice)

I’ve been aware of how much of a time-suck social media can be for a while now, especially after reading How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell, but found it hard to change my relationship to it. I even made a Youtube video (now privated) documenting my attempt at reducing my screen time, but did not manage to keep up this lifestyle change for long after that. 

So why have I suddenly decided to take myself off social media, and what’s different this time? 

In short: my parents came to visit, entrusted me with a bunch of new responsibilities, and I got overwhelmed. 

I realised pretty quickly that in order to fit all of these new responsibilities into my life, along with a new job starting soon, continued portfolio work & latent freelance career, taking care of my rabbits, hobbies, and really any house hold task you can think of – including an apartment make-over – I needed to immediately cut out any time-wasting entities, so bye bye social media. Finally, I had a reason bigger than my own wants and desires; a force stronger than the allure of needing to be connected at all times.

I spent a lot of time redecorating my place.

For 2+ weeks now I’ve been logged out most platforms and have deleted all apps off my phone, except for Youtube and Apple Podcasts (if that even counts), which I use as a kind of background noise while doing mostly mindless tasks, or for entertainment purposes when I’m done for the day. But even then I try to be mindful of when they take up too much of my time or distract me. 

Admittedly, I did log back into Instagram a at least once per week, just to let people know what was going on and that I wasn’t ignoring them. I also logged back into Twitter a few times to a) doomscroll out of boredom, and b) catch up on some news. Ultimately I found these behaviour patterns too time-consuming, and have been staying off the platform more consistently.

Maybe unnecessary side note, but in order to get the embedded social media links for this article, I also had to log back into Instagram – but it no longer felt like it was for my personal use.

2+ weeks really isn’t that long of a time, but it feels like ages – as if somehow social media has the ability to foreshorten time in digital space, and outside of it, you start to feel the actual duration. The internet moves fast, as they say. I’m noticing lots of periods of nothingness just by existing in the offline world, and I’m wondering – was this all the time I used to willingly give up? 

My screen time comparisons, from before I “quit” social media to a few weeks after. I think the difference is pretty extreme! The global screen time average is around 6.5 hours daily, which is almost hard to imagine.

Not using up my time scrolling / liking / being liked / posting feels very awkward. The word that comes closest to it is ennui – but it also feels much more like an itch. As if I’m itching for something to do, something to itch my dopamine-hungry brain with. Every now and then I itch to check Instagram, to Tweet, to scroll, but in the back of my mind I’ve already reached the conclusion that these actions will never truly satisfy the longing that I feel.

To be fair, I haven’t started work yet, so perhaps this ennui will lessen once I have a job. I’m curious to see if staying off social media will help me balance work / freelance / free-time / house hold chores. I know for sure that my time will be precious then, so maybe it’s not a bad idea to get a head-start on better time-management. 

Chair upholstery which I fixed in the most unhinged embroidery style ever, thrifted decor for my room. For new things I try to buy second-hand as much as possible, which is why my interior kinda looks a grandma’s cottage (which is fine).

So instead, I redirect myself to writing, my other hobbies, or one of the many house hold tasks I’ve bullet-pointed on a seemingly never-ending list. Really, I do not have any excuse to be bored! On the other hand, this feeling, this lull, is probably one I’ve forgotten how to feel for a very long time.

It’s weird because I’ve always had this frivolous dream of secluding myself in a forest cabin, away from the world, just so I can write and make art without a filter. True, physical separation from your usual surroundings is sometimes completely necessary, but that isn’t always possible, and besides, you can never run away from your problems. All along I had the opportunity to create the forest cabin around me – I just didn’t do it. 

My redecorated work space with thrifted floral curtains, thrifted planter, and a plant hanger which I crocheted :)

To be clear, I do not think I am now morally superior because of all of this. After all, how can I look down on a tool that has sparked and facilitated so many important social movements – from Black Lives Matter, to MeToo, to the protests in Thailand and beyond?

But revolutions need to be much more multifaceted than “participatory media structures,” as communication scientist Martin Emmer puts it, and besides, even the revolutionary needs moderated screen-time. I just know that this was a personal inevitability for me, because as well as taking a lot of my time, social media had the tendency to have a hold on my emotions. And who knows how many of my thoughts it has manipulated without me realising it?

A thrifted tablecloth with rabbits and chickens (! of course), a thrifted cart for my art supplies; sadly one of the wheels broke but it’s still standing, at least. The white IKEA Alex drawer, big enough for A2 paper, and one of the few more expensive items I didn’t thrift. Finally, learn from my mistakes: glass picture frames > plexiglass picture frames.

I feel confident that being more protective of my time and energy is one of the healthiest life decisions I can make, but I also know that it can never be more than just a phase. The reality is that I’ll still need social media to promote my freelance work, at least from time to time, and most likely for any future jobs.

But how can I integrate these platforms back into my life, without being sucked into the absolute time vortex that they are? To this end: I recently discovered that you can set time-limits on your apps via the regular iPhone settings, so perhaps that is an option for me. If you have any experience with this, feel free to let me know – PS there is a comments section beneath each of my blog entries!

I may be utilising these iPhone settings in the future…

And beyond that, especially if you have experience juggling a house hold, having a job, taking care of pets, kids, cooking, grocery shopping, etc, while also having a hobbies – I’m looking at you, working house wives and house husbands – how do you balance all of this? Have you found that staying off social media was helpful for you as well?

And finally, I know this is a trite question, but how do we connect beyond social media in the 21st century? It seems we get an overwhelming sense of our connectedness virtually nowadays, and I have to admit that I miss sharing the silly moments throughout my day with my friends, from the way my rabbits lie in their funny little positions to how I’ve done up my place. I feel isolated, kinda.  Sure, we can go out and talk, but that’s not always an option, and there will always be the need to communicate in a way that transcends physical and temporal boundaries: we’ve done it for thousands of years, after all, from caves to chatrooms. 

Even the rabbits got a rabbit room make over! The vinyl flooring is better for their feet and easier for me to clean / generally protects the room from damage.

It seems that this blog is the only sustainable way for me to keep connecting in the modern world, so I sincerely hope that you will continue to enjoy reading it!

Illustration for Spectre Journal, “Labor Noir” — Editorial Illustration process

I want to talk about how I created this illustration for the new issue of Spectre Journal; let’s jump right into it!

1 / It’s important to first know the specs. In this case it was a 8 x 10” full page illustration (300dpi, CMYK) with 0.125” bleed. The article talks about how the mafia and politicians oppressed and exploited waterfront workers, longshoremen, in 1930s Brooklyn. I had two weeks to finish the illustration. The art director was open to my ideas; I read the article a few times and highlighted some keys words and phrases in order to evoke some fitting imagery in my mind. I also collected many references photos of the subject matter and people mentioned in the article; I even watched some documentaries to get to know the mafioso (some of them are quite famous) and what life was life for longshoremen at the time.

2 / I sent two thumbnails to the art director. One was more detailed and narrative (1), showing the key “players” and events that the article deals with. The second was more metaphorical (2), showing the weight of exploitation “carried” by the worker. The art director went with the first idea (which is the one I also preferred), but asked if I could take out the three portraits in the centre of the image, and replace it with something less figurative, for example the scenery of the Brooklyn waterfront. This was a huge challenge for me, as suddenly, I was left with a big hole in my composition! But I agreed that the first draft was too busy, and I needed to challenge myself to bring more negative space and balance into the illustration (that this is something I need to work on in general).

3 / Amending the composition: I tried two different things here. The first was to incorporate the waterfront and a bit of the Brooklyn bridge. I liked how it looked in the thumbnail (see: composited thumbnail), but somehow, when it came to drawing the final, it looked too stiff, too technical, which didn’t fit into the organic flow of the rest of the illustration. The second idea was to incorporate only the waterfront, and have the steam flowing out from the cargo ship mirrored as an abstract shape in right hand portion of the image (see: final drawing). In both cases, I drew the original parts of the first draft, and the “new parts” separately, then composited them in Photoshop (it’s helpful to work with a light tablet here). The figures in the bottom left were also composited, in part, because I ended moving them up, and an extension of their bodies needed to be attached.

4 / 5 / Final drawing: this was simply a matter of tracing over the composited thumbnail and all the amendments I had made, enlarged to the correct size. For the pose in the top left corner of the illustration, I had two friends pose as a reference for me. At the end, I chose to forgo the bridge, and the AD approved my final drawing.

6 / Final texture and colour: for texture, I used some marks I’ve made with different media (charcoal, watercolour, graphite) that I saved in a folder a while back. Not all, just a few! Through some serendipity while screen printing throughout the week, I discovered that the ink washed out from my screens left some pretty interesting ink splotches in the bottom of the tub; I photographed and used this for the water in my illustration (you can already see it in the “final drawing” above). I scrubbed the tub clean afterwards, of course!

I decided this year that I wanted to start incorporating more texture into my illustrations in order to add visual interest without spending too much time drawing detail by hand. For colour, I decided right from the beginning that I wanted to work with a limited palette: blue, grey, and some sepia and brown tones. I also knew that I wanted to have some elements in the image that were not lined — like some of the smoke and the “crowd” in the bottom right corner. This, again, for balance and visual interest. After shading, I added a layer of halftone to some parts of the illustration — it’s something I’ve been doing for a while now which I think adds a distinctive look to my work ;)

7 / The AD was happy with the result at the end, but just wanted to desaturate the blue a bit in order to give the illustration more of a “noir” feel. Here’s the final spread, courtesy of AD Gabe Berlin:

The issue is available here and the article can be read (via subscription) here.

Developing concepts for a political editorial illustration – my process

As outline in my Art Goals for 2023 post, I would like to update my portfolio with more editorial illustrations, focused on current events, especially climate change and sustainability. I prepped myself by reading lots of articles beforehand, and yesterday I started with the first concept thumbnails. 

I decided on a landscape, kind of long-ish layout, as this seems to be the usual in online news outlets as well as newspapers.

In terms of composition, these illustrations will need to be more focused on their main concepts, less reliant on minute details filling in the background – which I am prone to do, it is both my strength and my weakness! I am making this judgment based on other editorial illustrations I have seen in this field. So, I slight shift in my style will be needed for this brand of illustration (I also wrote about this in my art goals blog post, linked above). 

Adjusting to this was not easy at all, and in total I took about 2 hours and 40 - 50ish minutes to come up with three thumbnails! And only two of them are related to the same topic (transition to public mobility in Germany) – the other one addresses both transition of mobility and transition to renewable energies.

addendum: in all fairness, I should add that this was my first time drawing again after the long winter break, so I was a bit rusty. The following days I was able to draft my ideas more quickly. 

Starting an illustration on the transport/mobility revolution in Germany, mostly based on this article.

Some takeaways: 

1. The beginning is always the hardest, but you’ll get into the flow. Hour one I was really struggling. By hour two I was super in the flow. Then by hour three, I was feeling my will break a little lol. 

2. I DO NOT KNOW how to draw bikes. A little trouble shooting was required (practice drawing bikes in different angles), but realistically I know that, if this were a client project, I wouldn’t be able to stray too far off the path. There’s no time for crash courses – just make it work. By the way, I found this video by Robert Laszlo Kiss very helpful in explaining how to draw bikes from different angles, and I’ll probably apply this technique to other subject matter in future. 

3. It’s super important to take BREAKS! I’m not just saying this to be your nice auntie, I’m saying this because it’s part of the strategy. Your brain needs down time to process the problem, and to solve it later. In my breaks I…

• took a nap

• had my meals / snacks

• did 15 minutes of yoga

• played my keyboard 

• played Sims 4 lol (but only after I was done working for the day)

All together my breaks were about 30 - 40 minutes a piece, in between the one hour long phases of work. Perhaps you might think, “Damn, 2h 40m is not a lot of work AT ALL” – and it isn’t, but, it was focused, undistracted work, and I think that’s much more efficient than doing 10 other things while working. To be fair, if this were indeed a client project, I’d probably be pushing myself to work more, with shorter breaks, due to the extra fire under my ass.

** please bear in mind I also have house hold tasks, groceries, pet care, other freelance/admin tasks, and sometimes English tutoring to attend to, and I also consider this work **

I also have a rule of not working past 6.00 - 6.30PM (unless it’s tutoring English) because, otherwise, I really have trouble sleeping. Work = my caffeine

4. Soothing study sounds: listening to calming ambient music or even these café sounds help me focus without becoming terribly stressed out by the surrounding silence. I think it’s “proven” that ambient music helps with studying/focused work, but don’t quote me on that.

5. Shifting but still working towards the goal: As I mentioned, by hour three of work I was feeling my will break a little, and my hand was a bit sore, so I focused that time on learning more about the topic I was trying to illustrate (via podcast, articles, educational videos, etc). In total, that brought me to 3.5 hours of “work”. 

6. Pretend you’ve actually been hired: it’s easier to come up with a concept by taking an existing (ideally un-illustrated) article and creating a visual for that, rather than illustrating a broad topic. Bonus: the specific can be universal – as long as it’s not too specific. For example: an illustration on the transport/mobility revolution in Germany, if created in a way that leaves room for interpretation, but is still clear in its messaging, has the potential to be applied in other contexts. 

7. How detailed should the thumbnails be? In my thumbnails I try to achieve a balance between clearly communicated ideas + not too many details. That means: proportions and “recognisability” have to be quite accurate, so the client (if there were one) would be able to understand my idea. I can’t allow myself to fall into the trap of wasting time on details. A few written notes on the side could be helpful, too – much tidier than in the examples I have provided, mind you!

( Something I’m not 100% sure about is if it’s customary to create two or three initial thumbnails (in a client project context). For most of my client projects so far, I would literally just do one concept for each illustration, and the client would decide from there. These weren’t for newspapers or political topics though, so I’m not sure. I’m practicing with a process that includes three thumbnails, just to be safe 🤷🏻‍♀️ )

Anything I missed or you would like to share? Feel free to leave a comment below ~

My ✨ art goals for 2023 ✨

1. Have an illustration published by a (major) news outlet.

This has always been a somewhat superficial goal of mine – I say that because it seems like a cool thing to tick off of my “illustration career mile stone” check list, but I won’t be completely heartbroken if it doesn’t happen. 

Some actionable steps to take in order to achieve this goal: 

• Update portfolio with relevant (political, current events-related) illustrations. I will be working with a topic which appeals to me but is also very relevant: climate change and transitioning to a more sustainable future. I’m aiming for 4 - 6 works. If you are interested in reading further, I wrote about it here: Developing concepts for a political editorial illustration. 

• I’ll need to freshen up my editorial client list, and quite possibly reach out to some old, but hot 🔥 leads.

OMG, old video alert! I made it private because I stopped cold-emailing, but the info seems relevant now.

Ultimately, I realised I had this goal because I enjoy learning and sharing important information, and sharing this via illustration. And how illustration can draw attention to critical social issues, make it more digestible, or else present it from a different perspective. So, either way, if I get published or not – at least I’ll have new pieces for my portfolio which are totally aligned with my values.

Side note – it has happened a few times that a client stumbled upon an illustration I already made and then simply paid me for the licensing. Anything can happen!

2. Cozy watercolour illustrations featuring forest goblins and faeries 

I realise this is almost a complete 180 from the above, and also a topic I have never featured in my current portfolio… but I grew up reading fantasy picture books, and I love a good fantasy read even now. It’s a dream of mine to create a cozy little fairy tale escape. 

My goal is to create at least 4 pieces, so it can feel like a substantial part of my portfolio, not just a one-off (though if this ends up being a one-off venture, I won’t be too hard on myself – it’s OK to explore). 

3. Style changes – incorporate more texture, rely less on lined elements and details

This applies more to my editorial / client projects. I realised that, if I want to be taken seriously in the editorial field, my main concepts need to be more focused, with more room for negative space, less reliant on details. More minimal, but not necessarily easier – it can be hard to come up with strong ideas! Especially for me, I rely heavily on detail and I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a conceptual illustrator. 

Second point, texture: first step would be to create some textures using different media (e.g. charcoal), scanning those in, and creating a texture library I can use for future illustrations. It seems like a fun technique I haven’t used much in my work, and I reckon it could be a quick way to add visual interest in my backgrounds if I’m not going to be drawing them by hand.

Wish me luck! 
What are your art goals? Feel free to share in the comments!

2022 recap: “bad” year for freelancing, good year for life

Compared to 2021, I wasn’t very busy with client projects this year. On the one hand, it felt a little unsettling, but on the other hand, I know from shared and conventional wisdom 😉 that most businesses, freelance or not, go through their ups and down.

To recap, here’s what I worked on in 2023:

• For most of the year, May - October(!) I worked on this Sex Education Brochure for WienXtra, an Austrian organisation that, in cooperation with the city of Vienna, provides information, education, events, and leisure activities for children and young people. The reason this project took so long is not the amount of work I had, but rather, limited resources / man power on the client’s side – so everything was slower than I’m used to. I wish I had better prepared myself for this, but I enjoyed working on this project all the same.

This chapter of the brochure talks about consent.

• So, because of this, I had more time to work on personal projects, for example this “Raclette” piece, which I finished in October: 

• In November - December, I exhibited the above piece, along with some others, in the St. Gangolf church, Trier. 50 artists were invited to take part in the exhibition, Inspiration: St. Gangolf, to celebrate the reopening and renovation of the church (you’ll see in the pictures that Jesus himself was still going through… his face lift 😉). I actually ended up selling one of my pieces, “Hot pot” – which was a rewarding, but also kind of sad?! It felt weird to say good bye to a piece which I had worked many hours on; like saying good bye to a part of myself. But I feel reassured that it’s staying in a nice new home now!

Video of the illustrations in St. Gangolf church, Trier, and Jesus under construction lol

• Side note – I hope you don’t mind me pitching myself – most of my works are available, on demand, as prints! Yes, even the sold works. All you have to do is ask about the artwork you are interested in, and I’ll give you a size and price from there. 

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• The last official project I worked on this year was typesetting for this photo book: Transatlantic by Tom Klein (a photographer and fellow creative of ours in Trier).

Why 2022 was this a good year “for life”

I suppose you can guess: I had more time to pursue personal goals. For example, I did a 30 day Cantonese learning challenge, followed by a 30 day reading challenge, followed/paralleled by a 30 day yoga challenge. 

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What I learnt from all of these challenges is that it takes small, but consistent steps to keep yourself going. Even on my worst day, what is the smallest thing I can do to keep X habit going? And I think that helped me a lot. 

I also realised that I love learning languages, not just Cantonese – so this year I’m adding Thai, Ukrainian and French to the list – but keeping it small and manageable, of course! 

Final Reflections: no art on a dying planet

As the year came to a close, I realised that there is much more I would like to do in terms of climate activism. We are moving much too slow in terms of reducing C02 emissions, transitioning to renewables and public mobility, and ultimately avoiding climate tipping points. Huge props to fellow illustrator Holly Exley for her tireless activism + sacrifice, and confronting her audience with this issue.

The next step for me is to attend the big demonstration in Lützerath on the 14.01.23 – this German village will be destroyed and dug up to make way for a new coal mine – which will ultimately stray us far, far away from the goal of limiting the global temperature increase to 1.5°C (as laid out in the 2015 Paris agreement). Activists are trying to prevent this from happening.

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The science and facts are clear. So, my question to you: if you are not (or cannot be) on the streets, what will YOU do to help mitigate this disaster? Are we going to keep applauding from the sidelines, waiting for young people to fix this?