Lilacmoon

When I went home to Chicago this summer, I did something I never really did before. I actually ventured out and hung out by the lake near my house. It is a short walk away from our front door, through a dirt path that leads to the neighboring apartment complex. They have a huge lake, very quiet too. I don’t know why I never went out there. This summer, I decided I wasn’t going to be idle at home. So few times, I took walks with my grandma and chilled by the lake. I hope she wasn’t too bored while I was sketching this. I remember her asking me, do I think my previous engineering education is wasted? 아깝지도 않니? Not at all, I answered her. It is one of the very few things I’m very certain about. And one of the things I hope it is true. She wanted to disagree with me but I was very sure. Without that college experience, I don’t think I would be where I am right now and be the kind of person I am now. Sure, I am not in some bunny suit performing an acid bath in labs where lead pencils aren’t allowed (imagine that!) right now but that doesn’t mean the education and experience I gained are all in vain. U of I is where I grew up, and nobody can take that away from me. Ain’t nobody gonna back me down. :rolleyes:

This is a watercolor sketch while I was chilling underneath a palapa at Palm Beach, Aruba. Don’t hate me.
It looks like it didn’t take a long time to sketch this, but actually, it took me awhile. I was I guess too conscious of people around me. It was very windy, too, that the sponge that comes with my little travel-size watercolor palette flew away and disappeared. My sister and I looked for it but no luck. She was more worried about it than I was. Anyway, there were quite a lot of people in the water and lots of people taking walks right by the waves but I decided I didn’t want to bother including them in my sketch. All I wanted to capture was the peace and quiet I felt lying on the beach.

Sketchbook time!
i originally cut out shapes from some textured aluminum foils that chocolates were wrapped in but later i found that they were not necessary, too distracting to the stripes. well, that was the whole point of this experiment, to use those foils as an inspiration but i’m fine without them.

and i used gouache! it’s been months! the border is a paper cut-out, and the highlights on the chocolates and the dots are digitally added.

another sketchbook experiment.
The three leaves are pretty leaves I picked up while waiting for the Golden Gate Park bus with Matt and Richa, the bus that never came. They were really vibrant and saturated reds but they are no longer. Richa took a picture of me putting one of those leaves inside the zip pocket on my KangaRoo sneakers. Where is that picture, Richa?

I digress. I had to Photoshop the leaves’ saturation to get more variety and stronger focal point. The clouds, the text and the ribbon borders are digitally added. Do you recognize the chenille ribbons? That whole travelling concept came about just randomly. I got the leaves on that photography expedition, so naturally I had camera images in my head.. then I thought I would do something along the lines of “show me the world” but then it evolved into “bon voyage.” I just let my inspiration run its course.

I’m not particularly happy with the result. Something wrong with the color scheme and the drawing of the cameras.. But I enjoyed the process and that’s all it counts. I had fun. I am not going to analyze too much what’s wrong with it. So there.

So.. today, I explored the Hayes Valley of San Francisco. There were lots of fun stores, shoes and clothing stores. Matt described the area as “not as snobbish as Fillmore Street.” Anyway, there was a store I particularly liked. It was True Sake. Matt pointed the store out from across the street and said that that was the store where they sell kome kome, sake I’ve tasted in Ouzumo and fell in love with. I’ve had it few times in Tsunami and failed to find it in local grocery stores. (Matt didn’t tell me before that he asked the waitress at Tsunami where he might find this sake, while I was gone to the ladies’ room. Apparently, he was considerintg it as a surprise gift. He’s sweet, eh? )
Anyway, so I rushed across the street and found kome kome on the shelf. Yay! Matt suggested I should ask the guy there to give me a recommendation based on the two sake I know I like and try something new. So I did. I told him I like kome kome and umenishiki nama ginjo (i think that’s what that was), which are both sweet and light, to me at least. So he picked out a sweet, citrusy one called Ichinokura Junmai “Himezen.” He also told me about The Joy of Sake, which apparently if I like sake, I must go. (Anybody want to join me?)

I’m all excited about sake now. I always wanted to know about the difference between ginjo and dai-ginjo. Now I know. I learned from Sake World. Maybe someday, I will be a sake connoiseur.

How do I like this himezen? I like it very much. It is smooth, sweet and just citrusy enough. Me approve.
What can I say, I like sweet drinks. Definately desserty, like kome kome.
Did I get kome kome? No, because I wanted to have another excuse to visit the store again.

By the way, it irks me when people pronounce sake as ’sakee.’ Brrr..

SFGate has a nice article on why San Francisco is so foggy these days.
To tell you the truth, I very much dislike San Francisco weather. Doesn’t feel like summer at all.. I hear my family and friends in Midwest, Korea and Japan are sweating. Here? Believe it or not, I often wear long coat and a scarf. ^_^

Thanks Matt for the link.

Another item I’m adding to my mile-long wishlist..
A sporty dress from Adidas.

I think it looks cool.. not because a certain J-pop artist wore it *cough*.

A wonderful Japanese illustrator I found out some time ago but never had a chance to share it with you guys:
tanji.jp
She does a lot of digital works and relies heavily on texture.. which I love!

So, while waiting for the bus, Matt, Richa and I stopped by a cool store called Planetweavers on Castro. They had some pretty pottery stuff and stationeries. There I found these cute cards and I had to get some!
 
These are the two I got. They are done by a Tokyo artist named Minoji and are sold online at Kamibashi. They also sell yuzen papers. Pretty cool site!
Anyway, amazing how I live just up the hill, and didn’t even know there was a cool stationery store like that within walking distance.

This is a piece of fabric I wanted to get on ebay but lost. It sold for more than $50 (!).
I bidded when I was on my trip to Portland. I was so mad and sad at the same time. I just think it’s so cute and unique. Love the colors too. But I was outbidded just few seconds before the auction ended.
Still sore about it..
Times like these, I want to design my own fabric patterns. Hmph.