Tarien, Pierre & Pepper 12:38 AM

I received a request from a lady in Pretoria to make an illustration as a first anniversary gift to her husband. It's a great commission to do and it became even better as I received more information from the one year wifey. She described her husband as patient, caring and full of love for her. He loves coffee, technology, and as young tatooed 'dominee' he has a passion for the youth. She's an art teacher loves proteas, birds and painting. They also have an awesome little dog called Pepper - I love little schnauzers! Their photo's were creative and full of love. They're a good example of a cool modern happy couple living in my hometown. I like it. So I made them an illustration reflecting their vibrant little unit and added some loose elements they could use for personalised stationary. No more Woolworths cards for friends birthdays. It's been a pleasure!

Hot-potting in Miaoli 11:08 AM

We went to have some hotpot to end the weekend with that one last nice meal ( It was before the summer reached this melting heat). Hot pot is one of the Taiwanese's favourite meals and you see lots of restaurants with the steam rising up from all the individual tables. It's basically your own pot with a flavoured soup or stock that you cook your food inside. Our choice was a spacious and 'modern' (please note that it doesn't necessarily mean tasteful or cool) all you can eat buffet. So first you can choose your pot's flavour - for example kimchi, traditional chinese herbs or miso. Then you go and dish up! Trays full of vegetables, meat and seafood are available containing known and unknown bits to cook in your pot. There is a sauce counter where you can mix your favuorite ingredients to dip your food bits in when you take it out of the hotpot. My favourite would be a mix of soya sauce, garlic, a touch of vinegar, coriander, lime, fresh chilli and spring onion all mixed with the original dipping sauce. Yum! It's so social to sit around a table cooking your own food. After being to full to eat the soup too - it's desert time. I chose the ice desert - basically a bowl full of shaved ice that you top with all different fruit purees, conserves and jellies and add some condensed milk to round it off. Delish. What a nice evening out. I can understand why it's so popular! I need to lie down now.

May-hem 11:36 AM

If you've missed my blog in May - I'm happy to hear that :) I've had a crazy deadline month. I first received the email on Tuesday the 16th of May. I had to illustrate about 117 full color drawings. Right. Start with the roughs - they need to be finished a week later. A few days later word came through ALL illustrations full colour had to be finished in 10 days time! WHAT! Right. I drew, and drew and drew - and I taught in between - it was actually really good to get away from my lightbox and be active with some kids. I had no free time whatsoever. I finished 4pm SA time deadline day. I had a shot of vodka, and then I cried. The relief was huge. The next day I had a work hangover - and couldn't relax, so strange. The whole process was really awesome in an insane way :)

So here are some examples - it's all the easy drawings - the rest were actual scenarios with different events happening - to appear on my website soon!

Ting pu tong in Qiazhong 12:02 PM

(I don't understand in Qiazhong)

One of the reasons why I love living in the area that we do is fresh shopping. We live in Qiazhong in Banqiao - it's a bit of a ghetto area - not as in dodgy - the Taiwanese don't really do dodgy. It's just old school and not very developed. So on a morning like today when there is a hint of sunshine in the sky I jump on the scooter and drive to the 7 eleven. It's a hundred meters from my house - but hey - I'm doing this Taiwanese style. So at the 7 eleven I fax my late internet payment, put money on my travelcard, put money on my phone and get a cappuccino.

I drive to the little market ( in a few seconds ) and there I buy fresh veg. Mmm what do I fancy today definitely some beansprouts. We need lettuce, an onion - oo oyster mushrooms yes please, a carrot and some tofu - soft tofu today please. That will be ebai san - 130 NT - R32 not bad. Then I stop next to the chicken and other knick knacks lady for 6 eggs - R8. I drive around the block - o jay, a nice a new drink station opened - they sell the best drinks here - from ginger and sweet potato milk tea to fresh granadilla juice with little jelly blobs inside.. next time.

I stop at my favorite omie for some garlic, coriander and some friendly exchanges that we both try to understand. Just one more stop for bread at the family mart - they have the darkest bread - well it wishes it was brown - it has a slight brown tinge to it - so we go there specially. That's it - ready to make some noodles - I bought some freshly made noodles before - no dry noodles - and we don't even say the word 'instant' in Qiazhong thank you very much. I zip home hoping that the internet is reconnected so that I can enjoy my coffee (that's currently hanging in a little bag on my scooter) in front of my favorite blogs.

My Da Dun Fine Arts Competition entry. 12:19 PM

It's a big competition - with 11 categories - big prize money, and foreigners are encouraged to enter. I've decided to draw a tea house. The theme of the competition is crossing cultures - what better way of doing this than over a cup of tea. Jiufen is the perfect place to gather needed inspiration and reference. I doodled the idea I had in mind, rounded up all materials needed - that in itself is a process - trying to mime brown gummed tape to stretch water color paper with is not that easy - and off I went.
I first did all the color work - traveling with the art board on my scooter - painting in different places, it's great! The tea house close to my house is my favorite spot with just enough going on around me that I can focus. The line work was the bit I enjoyed the most - and added that over the color. Off to the framers and sent off with the entry form. Fingers crossed.

Spirited Away in Jiufen. 2:55 PM

Nestled on a mountain top and decorated with rows of lanterns, Jiufen is a great little town to visit. The crowds are insane over a long weekend though, and we went back again during the week to soak up some more of the magic of this town. This generally includes exploring the maze of alleys of steep steps whilst enjoying delicious snacks bought at the stalls on the way. My favorites was the huge mushrooms - barbecued with butter and spice - served cut up in a little cup and the prawn balls served with pickles - yum!. There are some fantastic tea houses dotted throughout the little town with up to 5 floors of beautiful booths, nooks and crannies to sit in and enjoy some traditional Taiwanese tea.

There are too many things to take in at once and for creative inspirations I decided to focus on one thing at a time. So, Spirited Away it is - Jiufen was part of the inspiration of the film. Apparently Mr. Miyasaki visited the little village on a mountain and was charmed by it. I'm not surprised - it is wonderfully charming! I've compared some of the scenes - have a look for yourself! I've included a quick drawing I did there too.

Taiwan retro. 11:17 AM

Retro is not big here. In this restaurant it's a different story however - the owner is a serious collector so his restaurant is a perfect showcase for his huge collection. There are so many signs, photo's, objects, packaging and toys that you don't really want to sit down and eat your meal. It's fascinating - it's all Taiwanese, with some fantastic Japanese influence from the time Taiwan was still ruled by Japan (1895-1945). I loved the beauty products, the cigarette boxes and prints - the children's toys were pretty damn scary though. I will definitely go back there to take in more detail.

The food was really good too, the spicy cauliflower with black bean, tofu and spring onion was my favorite. You can't have it all though - like most eating places it all still seems quite makeshift and some water ( no idea how retro the water was..) seeped into my boyfriend's loafer while were having lunch. Haha..

Ps: My sketchbook scene is from a street scene (very typical) in the area.

I've started. 12:50 PM

My next exhibition is poking it's head out somewhere in the near future. I'm planning to sell some original artwork
as well and not just digital prints as before. So the planning is completely different.. I can't just redo anything that
I don't like and I need to plan a bit more meticulously before I just start drawing. I've started with a little robin,
a bit of a daily project - drawing a student in each of my classes every day, as well as a peaceful tea scene from
Jiufen. I had to trace the scene on a new page as I do the coloring and line work separately - without a lightbox -
what a pain! I forgot how tedious it is working with tracing paper.. So we went to find the little art alley in Jonghe
in search of a lightbox - and the art material shops is just amazing! It's just huge and filled to the brim of all art
material imaginable. Massive calligraphy brushes and all materials have every brand in every shape and size
available. Anyway, off to work on my new big shiny light box.