pilarcat’s

Initial sketch of illustrationfriday : red. Sometimes it’s fun to compare a sketch to its final piece. You can see the pattern of your thinking process.

My initial sketch for pavinees.com’s new theme. I wanted to have something decorative and freehand at the time. The hand drawn looked fun to do in computer and the execution was pretty good with my favorite colors-yellow and grey. But then, I suddenly got bored and realized that this style would not work for a web that would stay for a year before I update it again. So I just left this idea and turned to a much simpler theme with black and white, classic colors that would not compete with all the bright palettes in most of my works.

Anyway, it’s fun to sometimes flip through your notebook and see what you thought in the past.

It has been raining since last night here in Bangkok. When it rains in the morning, my mind always links back to the time I woke up with the sound of drizzle outside my apartment in Seattle, to my bright yellow raincoat I wore everyday and to my umbrella. Not the actual umbrella though. It’s the one on a page of my calendar I did in class years ago. Its concept is ‘Happiness is around us, just grab it!’ I think it’s suitable for the rain city like Seattle. Well, although it’s quite annoying sometimes to walk on street with rain pouring down on you, at least you can say that raindrops help a lot in cleaning all the dust away and you can see the world more clearly with perhaps a sight of rainbow after the rain.

I like the feeling after the rain or even during the drizzle in Seattle because you can smell fresh air and you can see the trees get greener…

and you would think that it’s not always raining after all.

I want this book!

Just released on September 6, Seven Hundred Penguins, a collection of Penguin’s cover design, totally thrills me and I can’t wait to get hold of one! Actually, I read only a few of Penguin’s books but I do admire all of its cover design, especially Penguin Poets. See the actual book at my favourite blog, acejet170.

There’s also another one I’m interested. It’s Penguin by Design: A Cover Story 1935-2005.

I drew these characters years ago. The first one is for my friend who is a novel writer . The second one is supposed to be myself with glasses and book in hands. The last one comes from my screen name pilarcat or maewpilar, the combination of my real nickname and my spanish name got from a Spanish teacher whose class I took once in university (everyone got his or her name, it’s quite pretentious to address some Asian faces with foreign names but at least you are urged to practice some words though.)

I have these bookmarks available to download and print (if you ‘d like) in my site page I hope I can do more of this kind of illustration.

My portfolio site’s new theme. This time I just keep it absolutely simple. I like thin line on white background. It gives me the feeling of clean and airy elegance.

sanrio or Hello Kitty is a brand that my design teacher talked about often as an interesting case study of how one can transform simple cuteness into commercial world and expand its popularity throughout the world. Just cuteness wouldn’t make it so famous if it doesn’t come with its depth. Hello Kitty has detailed record of her origin For example, She was born in 1974 in Cambridge. She has a twin sister Mimmy. She likes to bake and she can play piano etc. No wonder that we would think she’s one of our friends.

I feel a sense of simple childhood whenever I see her cute face. I don’t like the fashioned Kitty though, with all the sparkling accessories and high-heeled shoes. I understand that she has to have modern look to catch the world but I still think Kitty with just simple red ribbon is much much cuter!

The picture is of plastic Kitty box on Japanese background from a book called Japanese Patterns.