If Ever You Knew Love ♥

If Ever You Knew Love is a pre-Valentine's Day group show I am a part of! My fellow OCAD Illustration friends Miki Sato and Alex Davey are also a part of this show (plus a bunch of other great artists and illustrators)

If you are in Toronto, love art and would just love to come out of your nook this winter...please come to our group show happening at Sadie's Diner on Tuesday, February 7th 2012, from 6.30 pm - 9.30 pm! Bring your date! Your friends! Anyone! See paintings about love! Surely, your love will be happy indeedy!!! (Especially if you buy my paintings!! ^_^)

For the facebook event page of If Ever You Knew Love, click here!

Sadie's Diner is at 504 Adelaide Street West!

Happy Early Valentine's Day ♥ Hope to see you there!!

You, me, and our lively adventure

Hello there :)

Here is the first illustration of 2012. It's a happy and colorful piece!

I was asked to participate in the submission for a Valentine's Day show (Wish me luck!) and here's what I came up with!


Since the theme is love, I wanted paint something fun, lively, and positive. I used acrylic, pencil, and colored pencil in this piece (sans sandpaper in a long time)

2012 is looking up! ♥

Illustration in Tokyo

Since I'm in Tokyo, the land of art and design, I thought it would be a great opportunity to check out work by Japanese illustrators and artists.

Illustrator Takayuki Ryujin recommended me to visit some local galleries with some illustration works. (Thanks so much for the tips!)

So first I visited Tambourin Gallery ...


They were showing works by 3 illustration girls: Maru, Mine, and Nutsco under the name Kimochiiyatura. Their group show is called 'welcome to our Que rico room'.


It was a very fun, lively show with many tiny framed paintings with a home-like theme. What is interesting is they have interactive art so the audience can participate in sitting in the middle of a mountain of their handmade cushion dolls. (I also bought 1 alpaca named Percival!)


They have also asked audiences to fill out forms and take a polaroid photo as a keepsake, which was very fun! I took one as well! They were very nice and friendly, I enjoyed talking to them :)

The second gallery I visited was Gallery House Maya .


The illustrator whose work was showing was Michiyo Tokuda-san. Her work was mixed media of fun food inspired theme.




Despite my broken Japanese, she was kind and sweet enough to spend time talking to me and explaining the details of her work. Her work has a mixture of whimsical, colorful, and decorative elements that I love. Her work is so beautiful, I am happy I get to chat and share point of views about illustration with her.

Overall, it was a fun and totally inspiring day. I am glad I visited both galleries and made new illustrator friends across the globe. I feel very inspired to paint more and illustrate more! Go illustration!

New Illustration for Valentines's Day!!

Valentine's Day is coming up! I've had a chance to make a new illustration for a Valentine's Day show at Sadie's Diner called "It Had to do With Love". Please check out my work if you have a chance, Sadie's Diner is at 504 Adelaide St. West at Adelaide and Portland in Toronto. This piece is called "Irasshaimase" and the theme is Maneki Neko, or Japanese beckoning cat welcoming love! I really enjoyed working on it! Last Tuesday Feb 9th was the opening, Thank you to everyone who came out to see my work :) I really appreciate it, you're all so sweet! Also, big thanks to Lisa Vanin, Al and Katie for allowing me to create a fun work! And...Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!!! I hope you all will have a fun day full of love, I know I will! ^_^