Isabel's Blog

Author: Isabel (Page 3 of 4)

Junk food

May 20, 2014 / / 0 Comments

isabelfoo-junkfood

Why everything that’s supposed to be bad make me feel so good? Everything they told me not to is exactly what I would.

Once, I read an Uberfact that listed the top foods that give people cancer. It was basically a list of (junk) food that I love most in life. Sigh.

I’ve been too distracted and/or unmotivated to do the junk I set out to do at the beginning of the year. I find I’m most productive when I’m happy, which is rarely, which in turn sucks (I did do the food icons above in a short-lived moment of quasi-contentment).

Though in this past week, despite living in a shitstorm of personal drama (much of which I brought on myself), I’ve come to terms that things in my life need to change, including Getting Things Done (GTD), because damn it, it’s almost June and I can’t live like this anymore (GTFO).

Work it bitch! (goals, due prior to September 2014)

  1. Illustration portfolio: update website to feature projects that I could submit to magazines, websites, for (small) freelance spot illustrations
  2. Stationery illustration: design and illustrate a few cards for my friend Sam’s business, Have & Hold Design
  3. Design portfolio: eventually update my design portfolio to include recent projects, in case I need to find a new job at some point

I’ll write a post about my actionable items later. I think just writing these things down and prioritizing them is a good step. I decided this after a coffee with my friend Ed on Sunday. He made me realize I need to figure out how to present my work better. At first I just wanted to curl into a ball and cry about how I’m a shit designer/illustrator, but I know I just gotta put in the work and be better. I just have to figure out how to take a step back and actually do this.

Succulents, pt 1

May 19, 2014 / / 3 Comments

isabelfoo-to-succulents-1250180

I’m not really sure why, maybe it was the frigid winter, or maybe it’s my maternal instincts kicking in (ha!), but I’ve been kind of obsessive about plants lately. It probably started with me finally filling my silly aquaponic aquarium with fish and plants this year (back in January of last year I ordered a Back To The Roots Aquafarm from Kickstarter). We got some Neon Tetras from Chinatown and my mom gave me some spider plant babies.

What fascinated me is that the spider plant babies are offshoots from a plant I gave my mom for Mother’s Day in seventh grade… so 17 years ago. I guess the spider plant is super easy to take care of, and each time it grew runners and offshoots, she’d plant them too. She gave me a bunch and they’re doing great, so I decided I wanted even more plants.

I got a succulent from IKEA, an aloe from Canadian Tire, and now I’m trying to revive the lemon balm and the Flaming Katy we had from before. Ever since I learned that you can start new plants by snipping a part off and leaving the clipping in water, I’ve been seeing what I can do. Propagating plants appeals to the cheapskate part of me because it’s like I’m making more plants out of nothing 🙂

Anyway, two weekends ago I ordered some succulents from Grow Something. I got around to potting them in cactus soil last night! That’s the photo above. The glass jars are drinking glasses I stole from Thai Air and Air France flights, the clay pots were a dollar for three from Dollarama, and the pitcher was from Value Village (as I’ve mentioned in a previous post). The only thing that sucks is that our condo faces north, so we don’t really get too much light. I hope the weather warms up so I can put them on the balcony.

PGH

May 8, 2014 / / 0 Comments

isabelfoo-pgh-1240761
isabelfoo-pgh-1240766
isabelfoo-pgh-1240774
isabelfoo-pgh-1240784
isabelfoo-pgh-1240790
isabelfoo-pgh-1240796
isabelfoo-pgh-1240801
isabelfoo-pgh-1240833
isabelfoo-pgh-1240834
isabelfoo-pgh-1240837
isabelfoo-pgh-1240974
isabelfoo-pgh-1250050
isabelfoo-pgh-1250087

Some photos from our road trip last weekend!

Dave and I peaced outta work at midday, drove the five hours to Pittsburg, and had a fun weekend visiting PA. We stayed at an Airbnb in the neighbourhood of East Liberty and walked to the downtown area for the Jays games, so we got to see a fair bit of the city (for such a short stay). I really liked the working-class feel of the ‘Burgh. The locals were generally very friendly, even though we were repping blue instead of black and gold (we did get chirped a few times though).

I particularly liked Saturday morning, where we got coffee at Cafe Voluto, walked down Penn Ave, through Allegheny Cemetery, then made our way to The Strip (where we had brunch* at Bar Marco and donuts at Peace Love and Little Donuts), and visited the Andy Warhol Museum (more on that later), and finally to PNC Park.

We saw Jays lose the first night and win the next. It was a great weekend, just like old times when Dave and I used to take road trips all the time.

 

* I hate brunch but Bar Marco was good

Today’s gonna be a great day

April 26, 2014 / / 2 Comments

 

Dough by RachelleValue Village haul

(Disclaimer: I’m sick so this post is going to pretty lazily written and probably not even spell-checked)

Saturdays are pretty awesome. I got to sleep in a bit, had a Dough by Rachelle brown butter glazed donut and a macchiato from Sam James, and bought a bunch of junk.

Dave and I were in The Junction on a failed secret mission. We ran out our parking meter time at a used book store that reminded me of an episode of Hoarding: Buried Alive. We didn’t buy any books but we did enough pack-ratting at the Value Village on Bloor.

Above is part of our haul. In the housewares department I picked up: a weird “Good Morning FATHER” mug ($0.69), a Dynaware brown floral dish ($2.99), a patterned milk creamer ($3.99) that I’m going to use as a planter for a small jade plant,  four small plates with a blue wheat field pattern ($2.49 for four), a beige mug with blue rim ($0.69) and a little yellow glass pitcher thing ($2.49) that I find adorable.

Not pictured: 24 books from the 28 book Time-Life Good Cook series. Dave will probably do a post over on his blog, but each book was $2.99 with every 5th book free (though the cashier forgot to account for this, so we’re gonna go back next week and get our $12 back). The books we’re missing are Candy, Dried Beans and Grains, Preserving, and Wine.

Dave and I mulled over whether or not to buy all the available books for about 20 minutes (mostly because we weren’t sure where to put them in our tiny apartment). We obviously bought them anyway, but whenever I buy things like books I can’t help feeling a little weird inside. There’s something about buying more stuff that gives me a tiny existential crisis—I can’t help feeling bad for whoever has to clear out all my stuff after I die.

I don’t like being attached to stuff (but I am) and hoarding stuff (but I do). It’s an icky combination of feeling bad about my attachment to mortal things and being scared of dying. Oddly enough, buying housewares doesn’t phase me!

On a lighter note, I think I figured out the Hoarding Life Cycle: Hoarder buys junk from Value Village, hoarder dies amongst their junk, relatives find hoarder’s body weeks later and then donate all the junk to Value Village, cycle repeats.

Free your mind

April 13, 2014 / / 0 Comments

IsabelFoo-blog-officedesk

An old coworker from my first real job used to take home dummy books we’d get as paper samples for his kids. I started doing this too, for my niece(s). Tonight the older one was colouring in one of the blank hardbound books. She looked up at me and said “I want to draw something, but I don’t know what to draw!” which was funny because that’s exactly how I feel most days. Being creative is hard! I never really know what to draw. I told her to draw her favourite things, which is sorta what I do myself. I kinda wonder what other people do to get over creative block.

I didn’t go to illustration school. I’ve just always loved drawing (thanks to my sister, mother of the munchkins AKA the nieces). But now with my “goal” of doing “real” illustration work, I’m wondering if I should do something to be more legit? Should I take classes? Or at least read a book? Do I need this, or can I just send out my website when I’m ready? Advice?

Above is a work in progress from this past weekend. It’s very meta, as you can see.

Go Jays!

April 5, 2014 / / 1 Comment

FOMO-hotdog3

Here’s one of my first animated GIFs of my own making! (It’s pretty dry, but hey, I don’t know how to use After Effects). Dave and I went to the Toronto Blue Jays home opener last night. The nights before the game we’d been watching the Jays play in Florida, so I just came up with this grilled wiener as my own way of supporting the home team. One of my favourite things to do when eating street meat is to spell my name with the mustard. And as any aficionado knows, nobody puts ketchup on a hot dog!*

*JK: I fucking love putting ketchup on hot dogs, and Dave yells at me every time.

Love life

April 4, 2014 / / 0 Comments

isabelfoo-insta-workingtitle

I saw this in a book at Working Title in Yorkville. Our boss had taken me and B to some artsy book stores in January this year to get inspiration for the art books we’d be working on in the upcoming months. I’m usually not crazy about inspirational quotes but I think these are some pretty good tenets for living a good life.

Dragon’s Back

April 3, 2014 / / 0 Comments

isabelfoo-hk-dragonsback-1230044 isabelfoo-hk-dragonsback-1230134 isabelfoo-hk-dragonsback-1230132

While we were on vacation over the Christmas holidays last year, Dave and I decided to explore the less touristy / expected parts of Hong Kong. We went on a few “hikes” (in quotes because they weren’t very strenuous). One of these hikes was on our penultimate day of the trip, to Dragon’s Back in Shek O. Named ‘Best Urban Hiking Trail in Asia’ by Time Asia, Dragon’s Back is part of the 50 km Hong Kong Trail that connects five country parks.

The weather was gorgeous that day, and the path is pretty popular. There were lots of folks walking the paths with us. Dave and I had hiking boots on, which came in handy as some of the paths were surprisingly steep and rugged, considering there were children and old Chinese grannies hiking along with us. At the first peak we snapped a whole bunch of photos, because the weather was nice and the view was even better. We made our way to Shek O Peak and then back down to the bus route (less scenic than the way up) because we’d only left for the hike late in the day and the sun was starting to set. We didn’t make it all the way to Tai Long Wan  (Big Wave Bay) so maybe the next time we’re back in Hong Kong we’ll get to explore more.

Being aimless, having goals

April 1, 2014 / / 0 Comments

DUMPS-CH-soupdumpling_2

It’s April already. I feel like I’ve frittered the first quarter of the year away because I haven’t done the things I set out to do at the beginning of the year.

One of my goals was to produce an illustration portfolio with the wishful intent 😛 to do spot illustrations and possibly editorial illustrations for big magazines. I haven’t really done that, but I have done some fun little things for my aforementioned side project. Another side project I’ve been working on the last two weeks is with my friend Danbo, these dumpling illustrations. Well, eventually they will be a series of different kinds of dumplings. So far I’ve just got this one, of Shanghai soup dumplings. Dan’s going to code a micro-site because he wanted to practice his skillz.

I think the biggest hurdle is doing a BIG illustration. Something epic! The dumplings series will help, so instead of blogging about it I’mma go draw some pierogi and ravioli.

PEACE!

PS: I’m not crazy about the spoon being all floaty like that, but damn it, I don’t want to draw a hand!

 

Strut strut strut

March 21, 2014 / / 0 Comments

Last week I finally enrolled in the Skillshare class I’d been meaning to take, Simple Character Animation by Fraser Davidson. My  coworker and friend B and I have been (trying to) do some silly animations as a side project (ironically/not ironically named Fear of Moving On), where I do the illustrations and he animates them in After Effects, but I had literally no knowledge of how to do anything in After Effects. So this was a nice way to start learning and I got to make this lil’ guy:

Isa walk

« Older posts Newer posts »