One Drawing A Day: 1/13-1/20

Continuing my drawing a day 2019 challenge, here’s all the art I made from 1/13/2019 to 1/20/2019.

Monday

Collab drawing with my sister about our gaps XD!

Tuesday

Playing with Clip Studio.

Wednesday

WIP background art for my Wolf WIP comic ;P

Thursday

Feed me plz

Friday

Drawing banana trees for my Wolf WIP comic. Can you guess where the setting is inspired from?

Saturday

More banana trees.

Sunday

Character sketch for a WIP graphic MG novel.

Song of the Week:

Kingdom Hearts 3 is coming out next week. After 13 years of waiting. Can you. I just. Wow.

One Drawing A Day: 1/7-1/12

Continuing my drawing a day 2019 challenge, here’s all the art I made from 1/7/2019 to 1/12/2019.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

(Missed Thursday -ie I didn’t like the doodle I did for it so I made two to make up for it on Friday…- Here’s the doodle anyway just to prove that I still am drawing each day. It’s just horrible XD!)

Friday

Sketch of a character from a comic I’m working on.

Saturday

Sketches from the comic I’m working 😉 Hint. It takes place in an enchanted forest.

Sunday

Another shot from the comic. Here’s a chapter page.

Song of the Week:

I can’t get over Spider-man: Into the Spider-verse. If you haven’t seen it, it’s amazing. Also, here’s my song of the week. Probably my favorite song from the soundtrack.

One Drawing A Day: 1/1-1/6

Every year, I attempt the #1drawingaday challenge. Every year I fail. But this year,  I was convinced to try it again by a wonderful interaction with @IsabelWriter09. Her portfolio—which is amazing and you should out check out here—profiles her attempts at the drawing a day challenge. The idea of reflecting on 365 days of art seems so exciting, so, yeah, I’m going to try this again.

While I’m not going to post everyday on social media—honestly, I think the reason why I never finish is how long it takes to shot and compose posts of the art after I complete the works—I’ll keep track of the drawings I do on my blog, either on a weekly bases or on a monthly one.

Here’s all the art I made from 1/1/2019 to 1/6/2019. Leggo.

 

Monday

January didn’t start yet! But I did do my last drawing of 2018!

 

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

(my first watercolor of 2018. Yayay!)

 

Sunday

Song of the Week:

Fairy-tale Remixes

So I’ve decided to do remixes of fairy-tale princes. Here’s the first one, Asante Cinderella. It was the last illustration I finished in 2018 and I love it!

I knew Cindy was boss when her D-Link in Birth by Sleep was getting slippers for the ball.

2019 Resolutions in Books: #7-9

Book Resolution #7: Find the joy in finding yourself, even though the pain and rediscover who the people you love are, even the parts of them you think you already know.

-Wow. Just wow. This is a book that I still think about at random points after reading it. Because it just doesn’t leave you.

-Gorgeous writing

-The characters here are flawed and full of love and real

-At one point in the book, Julia says that she hates her mother and loves her at the same time. And that’s how I felt about Julia. I absolutely hated her and loved her. She felt so real and I felt so helpless watching her that

-Take time to heal, whether that’s through therapy or another form of self-discovery.

 

Book Resolution #8: Be kind but also know when to put yourself first.

Reasons why I love GRIM LOVELIES 

-A contemporary fantasy set in Paris with witches and fashion and YES!

-Best friends to lovers. My sweet sweet trope

-Lush, sinister setting. Like, dang. That got dark

-Another book I worked on that was just a joy!

-Anouk is so sweet, but she can collect bodies. I need more sweet YA MCs who come for the kill when the killing needs to be done.

 

Finally, the last one and probably my favorite read of 2018

 

Book Resolution #9:Accept your actions, your faults, the parts about yourself you love, the parts you hate.  Learn to forgive yourself. And learn when forgiving others is an act of self-love rather than for them. ALSO TRUST NO—*is dragged away by a cane*

-This book

-this book

-THIS BOOK

-brilliant writing

-brilliant characterization

-Everyone is flawed, everyone is beautiful. Everyone is messed up. Everyone is the worst. And that’s okay.

-I knew the twist. I knew it and I still walked straight in Tiffany D. Jackson’s trap. That is a thriller. That is something that even knowing the con is being conned and it’s done wonderfully here

-if I’m sounding incoherent that’s because this book left be breathless, heartbroken, shocked, and amazed.

-I LOVE THIS BOOK.

 

Seriously, my review for this book on Goodreads:

Like. What else could I say after that read?

 

Read about my previous resolutions here :

Resolutions 1

Resolution 2-3

Resolutions 3-6

 

 

2019 Resolutions in Books: # 4 – 6

Book Resolution #4: Learn to distinguish between all the Saints and Misfits in your life, and how you fit in other people’s lives as a version of each.

 

This resolution is based on SAINTS AND MISFITS by S.K. Ali

Reasons why I love SAINTS AND MISFITS:

-Janna is literally hilarious

-like so funny. And so smart, and clever, and just so wholly herself so when you see what pain she’s burrowing inside herself, it breaks your heart because it’s like girl, you are so brilliant and bright and no one should have power over your light

-love the writing

-a look at sexual assault that is heartbreaking and healing

-Yes. Religion in YA. I love seeing this Muslim girl be true to herself and her faith as she sees it

-It grapples with the issue of loving your community but also critiquing it and knowing that those questioning are an act of love and good faith. Seriously, the ask Imam portions were some of my favorites!

 

 

Book Resolution #5: Murdering people to get revenge on them for destroying your family is great and all, but the best revenge is your paper

This resolution is based on The Winner’s Kiss by Marie Rutkoski

Reasons why I love The Winner’s Kiss:

-She did it. Marie Rutkoski did it and I will never be the same.

-First of all if you haven’t read the WINNER’S CURSE series. Where have you been! Yes, it’s taken me until now to finish but that was because even after getting the last book on release day I was too afraid to read and see how it ends.

-How foolish. How foolish of me. Because this book doesn’t just deliver. It earns out! Everything seed planted comes to fruition. Everything you didn’t expect, everything you could have expect, everything more.

-Arin and Kestrel are OTP. Plain and SIMPLE.

-HATE TO LOVE has never felt so real. Also, one day I will do my TED Talk about how THE WINNER’S CURSE serious is one of the few that does slave romances (WHICH I HATTTTTE) right. The shifting power dynamics, the questions of consent and cultural awareness to the fantasy world she built. It’s all here folks. It’s all on the page. But for now, hold my drink.

 

Book Resolution #6: Laugh more. Be who you want to be. Don’t be afraid of changing.

This resolution is based on Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli

-I finally read this after watching the movie 6 times (okay at least 4)

-Love Simon. This book is joy. Pure joy. It’s hilarious. I love it. It’s joyful. It’s just great. That is all.

 

Read about my previous resolutions here 

 

 

2019 Resolutions in Books: #2 – 3

Resolution 2: Be bold, be brave, be unabashedly me

This book new years resolution is from Ruined by Amy Tintera.

Reasons why I love this book:

-Heroine who literally gives ZERO fs

-but is also so fleshed out and well-rounded that you love her messiness

-sizzling romance. Whop. I need a fan.

-My beta boy Cas out here representing

-I felt like I was 2000s high school Liz sitting in the library reading a delish Fantasy and just so immersed in it!

-Great writing

-loved this whole series which I read this year!

Book Resolution #3: Bake more and share the joy

This resolution is based on THE VANDERBEEKERS AND THE HIDDEN GARDEN by Karina Yan Glaser

Reasons why I love THE VANDERBEEKERS AND THE HIDDEN GARDEN

-This book is pure joy

-Harlem feels so rich and full of life

-The writing is great

-the characters are so real and fun.

-this was the first book I worked since I started working in publishing and it was such a beautiful lovely experience

-I adore the Vanderbeeker family!

Book New Years Resolutions: Part I

The New Year is almost upon us so here’s a countdown to all the books I read and loved this year and what they taught me to do better in 2019! I’ll be separating this posts into 9 parts throughout the New Year and into 2019 so keep a tab on to see all my favorite reads from 2018!

 

Note: these are books I read in 2018. It doesn’t necessarily mean they were pubbed that year.

WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST

by Jason Reynolds

Reasons why I loved this book:

-Succchh great writing

– Ali, Noodles, Needles and literally every single character in this book feel fully fleshed out and real and whole. I love them all!

-Needles

-Needles is my heart

-Black boys who are happy and whole and flawed, and growing, and free to make mistakes and have joy and live and this book is everything

-Just a really fun book that made me smile and feel happy and whole

NEW YEARS RESOLUTION: Be there for my peps when they need me but also learn + let go of those relationships that have driven their course  

Also do more #SketchyReviews

This is the drawing I did while listening to the audiobook of WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST. Which is also a brilliant audiobook. I loved this book. I love these people. If you want joy and happiness, pick up this book

Yes Noodles is reading Miles Morals. Because Jason Reynolds wrote—see what I did there—okay so go watch Spider-man: Into the Spider Verse because its  amazing. You’re welcome.

 

I painted you

I’m still taking inspiration from older pieces. Here’s something I wrote inspired by this monoprint. I still remember all those hours working on the press, lining up the layers, inking the acrylic plates. Sigh. I miss print making…

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Poetry and Art

It’s always strange interacting with old projects in new ways but sometimes it can be a joy. I illustrated this in sophomore year of college and earlier this week, I wrote a few lines inspired by the imagery.

Here’s the piece and the poem.

I surprisingly, don’t hate how the poem turned out! It makes me think that there are so many ways to engage with old work, to be re-inspired by past projects. What past projects have inspired you?