Illustration

Hello all! I hope you’re all having a super weekend! Poor Mario has been pooing and vomiting for a few days, but it seems like he’s getting so fingers crossed that he recovers soon. I’m not sure why he’s been vomiting as normally it’s the odd hair ball here and there. This time though we think he’s eaten something rotten when he’s been out and now whenever he eats he throws it back up. Today he looks like his usual self although it’s hard to tell as 90% of the time he’s lying around sleeping!

This evening I’ve spent some time developing work from my sketches. I’m really pleased with how they’ve turned out as well as I normally don’t focus much on type and image together, so it’s been really refreshing to do work which is slightly out of my comfort zone.

I particularly like the one above; it just summarises how I’m feeling right now. I’m sure that everyone goes through it: that feeling of impending doom of what you’re going to do career-wise. And it’s pretty stressful as it makes you really freak out about who you are and your identity. Lately it’s been playing on my mind and the more I obsess over it the more I become so super focused about it everything else becomes oblivious. However, I also feel that we as individuals carve out our own paths and lives. In this vast and crazy universe we cross paths with people who will teach us how to be better human beings, guide us to gain more knowledge about an interest, share and exchange knowledge for our own benefits. Somehow we’re all connected to one another like the stars. I believe that I’m in control of my own life and what I want to do I should just do it. You make your own luck is my mantra at the moment.

I need to constantly remember to be kinder to myself and not be so harsh. I feel like this post was an explosion of thoughts that’s been running through my head over the past couple of months. It’s really good to use art as an outlet for this too: get my thoughts together, draw and write them down, come back and revisit it at a later date. Then make a final piece about it is what I’ve been doing lately and I’ll definitely continue to use this process as it’s working well for me.

Thanks so much for reading this and I’d love any feedback about my work!

By
Illustration

Apologies for the lack of updates as I’ve been quite busy at work and I’ve not had the time to make any new artwork. So I’ve spent most of this weekend drawing, drawing and drawing- just spending as much time as I can with my Faber-Castell pens and my sketchbook. And you know what? It’s been great. I love just doodling and not even think about it or over-complicate it if that makes sense?

So the illustrations in this post has a lot to do with social anxiety/ anxiety in general. I know I have anxiety, or at least some form of social anxiety (no formal diagnosis as of yet), and when I was thinking about the quotes to coincide with the illustrations they really related to me. I started writing down some short phrases in my sketchbook and it sort of turned into a mini series (see below), which I like as they are.

I’m going to continue with the series and see where it goes- it’s almost therapeutic just to draw these thoughts down.

I’ll keep you all posted with some more new sketches. For now, have a super weekend!

By
Illustration

I’m honestly not the one to be telling everyone about my birthday, I’ve never made a really big fuss about it. Especially over the last few years I’ve been happy just to have a small birthday- nothing too big, just celebrating my birthday with my friends and families.

On Tuesday I’ll be 30- not sure how I feel about it yet. Those two digits still feels quite alien to me. Who knows, maybe on Tuesday I’ll be crying at work or I’ll happily embrace it and see it as a milestone to everything that I’ve done over the past few years. In my early twenties- just after I had graduated- I had no idea what I wanted to do in terms of my artwork (direction, style, medium). You assume that you’ll have everything all sussed out, like, knowing where you want to be career-wise. It’s not that easy though. Things aren’t that simple or clear cut. As I hurtled towards my mid twenties that feeling of dread hit me like a brick wall. Has anyone else experienced that? That constant thought of ‘I should really be settling down now to a secure job/relationship/buying a house/getting that pension sorted out’ etc. By my late twenties I was like, ‘Fuck this. I’m going to do what I want and I’m going to be happy whatever happens’. I’ve found that trying out different options out meant that I could sift through what I liked and didn’t like, which I think was probably the most important steps I’ve done. Because as much as people/professionals will give you advice, it’s really up to the individual to choose their own paths through positive and negative experiences. But then you look back and realise those kind of things makes you a better person. It’s taken me such a long time to have a positive mindset, accept that what I want to achieve will take time, and appreciate the small things in life such as taking time out to learn a new recipe or read a book I wouldn’t normally go for.

So to celebrate this momentous moment I’m having a 30% discount over in my Etsy shop. See below for more details:

I’m looking forward to spending time with people I care about (and being fed as well which is nice). I hope you all have a super weekend! Birthday treats start as of now!

By
Illustration

Hello all! I hope you’ve all been well and not been stressing out with Christmas… I have no excuse to be slacking with blog posts, but lately I’ve been caught up with things so updating my website hasn’t been much of a priority. Juggling daytime work and fitting in illustration/blogging sort of takes its time from my daily schedule… I guess I still need to get the knack of blogging and to start planning out blog posts in advance- all in good time though!

Lately, I’ve been pretty busy with private work: I recently designed a good friend of mine her wedding invites and RSVP cards; they look amazing as well and I’m so happy with the way that they’ve turned out too (photos coming soon in my portfolio section). My cousin asked me to do an art print for her friends as she went travelling with them almost a year ago (see below).

christmas-prints

 

I like the way the artwork has turned out and it’s made me do something slightly different, but with my own style to it. My plan is to start drawing more real life objects, buildings and people- still focussing on animals too- but I feel like I need to expand my portfolio i.e. showing a range of  skills and techniques.

Think I’m going to stop here as I’m off to bed pretty soon.. yes, it’s an early start… 6:00am to be exact!

By
Illustration

✳︎✴︎ Copyright 2009-2024 © Jo Cheung Illustration. No reproduction or use of content without express permission. ✴︎✳︎