Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale!

Finally its here! I will be going to the Renegade Craft Fair Holiday Sale in Chicago! I am pretty nervous and excited. I've never gone this far to attend a craft fair. Hopefully everything will go smoothly.

Lazy Days

Right now the weather in Michigan is getting to be not too hot or not too cold. Its the perfect weather to get lazy and fall a sleep or just .. sitting around .. haha .. so I printed this comfy sofa of mine in bright red to remind me. Wake up sleepy head!!

Multi-color Prints, Registration

I use 2 methods for multi-color prints. The one I used for "Oink" involves 2 plates for 2 colors. This method allow me to do multiple editions and re-use my plates.

The other method is the suicide method. Which only involves 1 plate. Its called suicide because there's no turning back. You carve the plate till there's nothing left. So you can only produce limited amount of the design, and only have 1 edition.

Both methods requires registration (line-up) which I suck and hate. But I've finally came up with a really cheap method. If you want to use multiple plates you have to make sure they are the same size. Once when you put the first plate down. You mark the corners with a pencil. Just 1 dot on each corner. Then when you're printing the second plate you can match up the corners. To be able to match up easily and without smudging I use a see through (clear) ruler. I tape the ruler down. Then line up the dots of one side. Then I can place my plate down without too much fuss.
Its hard to see the dots but they are there. Here's a picture with the ruler and the dots lined up.

After lining up the dots I lined up the plate with the ruler and the top left corner dot, and print.

This print is still in progress because it takes soo long to dry. I will put the entire process with more pictures later. I hope this help you guys out there that are poor and trying to find a cheap way to get things lined up :) ~~~Have fun~~~!!!!

Sorry Folks, Its Been A While

Towards the end of July and at the beginning of August was extremely busy for me. I moved and finally had the day at the Detroit Urban Crafts Fair. It was a great success, my friend Faun and I both made more $$$ than we expected. So, since I've sold out all my oink prints. Now I have to print a new edition. I thought I should share my process once again. Its so messy, but I love it.

This is the 2nd edition of oink

1. After I carved out the linoleum plate with the linoleum cutters.
2. I scooped out the ink red and white to make pink with my palette knife.
3. I rolled the ink on to the brayer and transfered the ink onto the linoleum plate.

4. Placed the linoleum plate on to the paper. Tried to center as much as I can.

5. Then flip the whole thing over so the paper is on top. I placed a paper towel on top so the brayer won't hurt the paper. I used the brayer to apply even pressure so the ink can transfer to the paper evenly.6. Tada! Here's the first layer of pink. They all rest on the drying rack for about 3 days to be dry enough to add the 2nd color.
7. Before and after the 2nd layer is applied.

You can find more prints on rainyprints.etsy.com!

Hello Dino card

My original idea for the dinos .. for the note cards.

First Attempt with my sticker machine!

I had fun making these dinosaur stickers. They look so happy hahah!

Evil?

Illustration Friday - Rain

Yey! Rain rain rain, I just love rain. Definitely a perfect topic for me hehehe. This is another version of my business card. I did it for a fellow etsian on Etsy. I had an older version that was brick red. I like both.

Yummy Cup of Coffee

Can never start a day without it! Get it on Etsy!

The Big Apple

I was hungry one day and craving for an apple. So I did this! Wouldn't it great if there is that one gigantic apple on an apple tree. Get it on Etsy!

Yarn Yarn Yarn

This piece is inspired by my good friend Faun and my dearest grandma who used to knitt everything (clothes, lunch bags, backpack, purse ... you name it!). Lately I've noticed that there are just a tad bit more people that knitt and loves yarn than I thought there ever is.

Ummm ... do I need to say more?

Shameless Rain Drops

Here they are!

I love Painting

These are the paintings I did last year and this year. I did 2 colorful ones then thought I should explore the potential of my colors first. So I moved on to a series of monocromatic figure painting. I love painting! Its so much fun and sooo relaxing!

Illustration Friday - Angels and Devils

Well, I thought this watercolor I did a couple weeks ago does fit the subject this week. My puppy Toby and my kitty Ruphy. When they sleep, they are angels. When they are awake, they are little devils!

PS. Sorry for the orangy spots. They do not appear on the painting. Kinko did a horrible job scanning it and they over charge!!!! I hate Kinkos!

Some More Watercolors

Here are some more watercolors I did in May. It was the end of the semester I was really stressed out. So I tried to have some fun with "The Crying Crocodile". It is a humorous piece about a crocodile who pooped on him self and cried him self a river. Yep, I almost went crazy. I really enjoyed this tho!

The size of the painting is 12 by 18 inches. It was painted on a coldpress acid free Jack Richeson premium watercolor paper (140lb). Its proudly presented on Etsy!

Lady In Blue

Here's one of my watercolor painting. Playing with blue and purple and it was lots of fun. The story for her is that she has turned to stone after she had her heart broken. Her heart and soul has left her body and became a blue fruit.

Good Morning!

Here you go ladies and gentlemen. Its called "Good Morning". Believe it or not it's inspired by the movie "Silent Hill". It was a great movie with a great story, but it was just scary and bloody that I have to end the day with a happy note. I just wanted happy thoughts. Forgive me!

Illustration Friday - Robot

This is my robot. her name is Kiki 3000. Everyone needs a model of her in their own homes. I would like to get one for my mom and for my own apartment. Only if she really exists ;P

The Ups and Downs

Do you ever feel like things just don't go your way? I've been having some problems with my status as a foreigner in USA lately. My international student advisor screwed me over and now I have to pay the price for what he has done. In order for me to reapply for a document that he lost, I need to pay $160 for the processing fee. Not only has it caused me lots of money, it has also left me a lack of documentation to apply for my practical training. I can only apply for the practical training before the semester ends. This means I am not going to be able to make the deadline.

Thankfully, I still have my beloved bf to cheer me up with everything. We were going to get married in August, but due to all these problems with my status, we have no choice but to get married earlier. I just wish my parents will be able to come and visit and join us through the whole process. Of course there will be no wedding, because we're too poor .. haha .. but I still feel lucky, because we truely love each other. We'll just have to worry about the complicated laws and papers for this issue soooooon.

Yeah ... things seem to be a bit shitty right now, and just when I feel really down ... this showed up! The lady who bought my print has posted it on her website. I felt so proud and so encouraged. I just want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH SILVIA! I truely appreciate this from the bottom of my heart! I also want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH to Stephanie too!

What a girl wants

Well .. I did this one when I lived in a horrible apartment last year. The tiny crampy dirt bathroom inspired me to make up my dream bathroom. I finally printed it last week. It just makes me say ... aaah ... thats nice .. And yes .. its proudly presented on etsy.

Sheeps

Can you say .. sheeeeeps?

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt is my favorite artist. I thought it was fun to make my own version of the kiss. Its proudly presented on Etsy.

Illustration Friday - Spotted

They were all spotted in the zoo ....... ..... ...... they will be in etsy too.

Old Animal Prints

These are the prints I did last year. Both prints were inspired by my mother. I've been living here in the States for about 5 to almost 6 years now. I do get home sick a lot . And since I am very close to my mother, I miss her the most among everything else. The Rhino print named "Mother" is a suicide print. Which mean you carve up all the linoluem until there's nothing left to the plate in order to create the different colors. Its and edition of 8.

The piggy "Oink" is a 2 plates print. I lay on the pink first with plate 1 then the brown after with plate 2. An edition of 6

Moby Dick and Moby Jane

This is what I've been working on for the past 2 days. The piece is called "Moby Dick and Moby Jane". I've always liked whales, and I envy them for being able to hold their breath under the water for sooo long. Its about 10" by 12". I am taking this with me for the artist market in old town of Lansing MI in June. I hope people would enjoy them as much as I do.

Err, abit embarrased about my work table. I definitely need to upgrade that lamp. Can never work with out my trusty radio!


Ahhh, work in progress .... This is an edition 7 .. it started out 8 but I messed up 1, so I guess lucky number 7 will do.
This is the linoleum plate. When you heat them up a little .. it cuts just like butter!

Some prints from this edition of MD & MJ will be put up in my etsy shop once they are completely dry. You're all welcome to come look! And thanks for reading.

Oh, by the way, my friend Faun is also going to join me with the art sale in June, you guys should definitely go check out her site!

Some changes with the URL

Well, from now on it is rainyprints.blogspot.com instead of rainprints.blogspot.com. I just thought it would be easier if they are the same to my etsy account.

Not listening ....

This is me not listening but doodling in class. I am having such a hard time in my painter 9 class right now. It makes me feel like my brain will explode. But on the other hand, I am quite impressed with the computer side of art. I can't wait till my own wachom comes. By the way, that blue thing on the upper right is supposed to be popping vein. Its an asian comic thing >_<.

Illustration Friday - Speed

I am not the fast lane type ^^: so this is my speed. I've been pretty busy and will be till the end of May, so yeah ... I am being a bit lazy for not coloring it. Sorry .. (This was done on a 6"X2" book mark).

Process and results

I've been print making for about a year now. I took a class for it once and fell in love with it ever since. I definitely want to take the class again. I know from the bottom of my heart that I enjoy the process more than seeing the result. Is it bad for an artist wanna be to say so?

Digging up the linoleum with the same motion over and over is never boring. I can say it's probably my favorite part of the whole process. It makes me not care about the world for a while.

This piece is called "Mother Nature." It's one of my favorites. A little experiment with rolling on different colors all at a time. Quite messy but fun. It's my lazy way of blending the colors.

This is my first "blog"

Da di da, don't really know what to say. My head is comlpletely empty right now for words. I feel extremely uneasy and somewhat scared. This seems like another type of commitment. I guess .. we'll just have to see what/how this is going to turn out. Please don't expect, and please don't push. I just want to play and not care.