Pfffft, so posting regularly was a habit that went out the window. Baby steps it is.
I have also had some issues with my email lately, so if you’ve sent me something and not heard back – please try emailing me again!
I recently had the good opportunity to illustrate for Oscar Wylee for their opening in my local shopping centre. It was an absolute blast meeting everyone and drawing for them, and I’ve posted some of my favourites to my instagram. It was my first digital live drawing session, and hopefully the first of many. The Oscar Wylee team were very well organised and accommodating, and an all round pleasure to work with.
Next month I’ll be at the Impact Comics Festival in Garema Place, Canberra. It’s been a while since I did a comic book just for me, but I’m steadily chugging out a comic at the moment. More news on that to come soon!
I recently discovered I miss blogging, or at least that doing things on the blog isn’t as scary as I remembered it to be.
One of the goals I’ve set for myself lately is to do more finished paintings, as opposed to the many – and extremely useful – rougher studies that I’ve mainly been posting on instagram. This painting isn’t exactly finished, but it’s as close as I’m going to get for now. So far I’ve been pretty successful all year with my goal to draw something once a day (posting those daily drawings – not so much). This portrait was completed in Clip Studio Paint, which is a change for me as I normally prefer painting pieces like this in Corel Painter. The Carp, a painting I did this year that I somehow managed to forget about, was painted mostly in Painter until my computer had a fit, the file corrupted, and I finished everything in Clip Studio Paint.
The Carp Digital, 2017
So. More regular painting, experimenting with new production methods and – in the background – I’m working on a few comics. It’s been a while since I wrote my own comics, without a theme or a concept ordered by someone else, so this feels a little like starting from scratch again. Now that I’m thinking of blogging again, it feels like I’ll have a legitimate excuse not to do so so often!
i’m back! in truth i was back two weeks ago, but wordpress ate my last post.
I’m going to be at Goulburn Comic Con next Saturday – hope to see you there!
In the meantime, I participated in the 100 People in One Week sketch challenge last week. I managed to smash them out in three days…and now I need some recovery time!
The sketches began on the bus home…
When I ran out of subjects on the bus, I started staring into cars and along the road
There were the after work studies from photos, too
Such as from these shots from Canberra Dart Tag games, referenced from photos by Callan ODonohoe
I had a bit more trouble getting into morning studies on the bus
there are some people who just stand out. they were easy to remember a good nine hours later, and i had no issue colouring them in then
but it really was a test of memory
On one particularly lucky morning (my second of the week), I got 60 people in one sitting
Plus another night time study of an awesome friend for International Womens Day
It’s the new Lunar New Year this Thursday (February 19), and happy new year to all who celebrate it. This year will be the year of the Sheep.
Growing up as a Chinese kid with a huge extended family, receiving 红包 (Red Packets, pronounced hongbao, or angpow) packed with money was an absolute favourite thing for all us kids every year, although perhaps less favoured by the adults who had to give the money away every year. I remember at least one of my cousins teaching me a not particularly polite New Years Greeting: 恭喜发财，红包拿来！(Happy New Year, now hand over the cash!) I also distinctly remember being told off immediately for repeating it.
For those less familiar with the tradition, Hongbao are red packets that married people give to children and unmarried adults on the Lunar New Year, among other special occasions. Anecdotally, as someone from South East Asia, I’ve always seen the money given as notes in the envelope and it hasn’t bothered any of my family whether the money’s been in odd or even numbers. You might also give someone a hongbao when you’re attending their wedding, or when they’ve just been especially good to you.
Now I’m finally at the age and social status where I have to think about giving, rather than receiving. Living in Australia and not getting out much, I haven’t seen the sheer flurry and variety of hongbao that I used to see in Asia handed out around this time for adults to give eager friends and family. So I thought I might share some of this new experience with all my readers and friends with these hongbao designs for you to print out and use for your own.
Please feel free to download and use these templates – cut out the hongbao to fill them full of presents for others, or give the templates straight to your friends, family or students who might be interested in making their own! Or use these designs as the starting point to create your own!
I am more than happy for you to use these as you wish as long as it’s not for commercial purposes – and I’d love to see any hongbao you make from it.
Downloads
Continue reading for previews of all the hongbao styles – or download straight from the text links here if you already know what you want:
All files are designed to be printed on A4. The template hongbao have been designed to fit all common Australian currency notes, although they should be able to fit most non-Australian notes too!
The traditional red packet
DIY Hongbao 2015 – Black inkwork on Red
We’ll start with the traditional red red packet, in bold black in red. If you have gold ink available, feel free to trace over any of the lines or calligraphy to make your red packet that much more outstanding!
Big disclaimer on this one: Please only print this on coloured paper!
Please don’t print this on plain white paper to use as a hongbao.For one thing, this design looks great printed on brightly coloured paper, particularly if you’ve got some stunning red paper that isn’t quite the same shade of red as the design above. The other reason is, giving someone a white and black envelope stuffed full of money is, within Chinese culture at least, usually something only done at funerals. Although it might be something to consider if you want to give it to someone you especially hate at New Year, along with awkward silences and confused memories. (Though if it were me, I wouldn’t be giving money to people I dislike. Whatever, bonds of family. Take that, blood ties!)
DIY Hongbao 2015 – Black inkwork on printing onto coloured paper only!
