Bird Illustrations
I make an annual zine for my family and friends called Bird News, which has led to me illustrating a lot of birds over the years. I enjoy trying out new styles and techniques every time, and I tend to use tools such as Procreate, Illustrator, and Photoshop in addition to hand sketching.
House Portraits
I love illustrating houses, especially adding the little touches that make a house into a unique home. I've drawn a lot of my own homes, my family's homes, and some commissions. I love incorporating textures and using a bolder graphic style.
Food Illustrations
I also make an annual recipe book over the holidays for my family and friends, which means that in addition to birds I tend to illustrate a lot of foods. I've used these illustration in recipe books, made stickers, and made little postcards of my favourite elements. I tend to use tools such as Procreate, Illustrator, and Photoshop in addition to hand sketching and watercolour.
Lettering and Patterns
With text / lettering I find I am always trying to add some element of dimension, whether that ends up being texture, shadow, overlay, or a 3D effect. As you can see from some of these examples, I particularly love drawing names by hand and then adding gradients and dimension to make them pop.
I am also really interested in designing digital, transformable patterns inspired by traditional handcraft techniques like block printing or sashiko embroidery. These patterns could be used for surface decoration, wallpapers, or even printed on fabrics.
Portraits
In 2020 I took a class on self-portraiture and followed a prompt to design a self-portrait that embodies where you are from. I illustrated myself in a classic Dorothea Lange pose (she's from my home town and one of my favourite artists) using the colour palette of a Richard Diebenkorn painting (another Bay Area artist I love). It's one of my favourite illustrations because the prompt was such a fun challenge.
Maps: What I Know About Home
I was born and raised in Oakland, CA and it is a place that has very much shaped what I know about art, what I find beauty in, and how I think about the resilience of nature and the community. Right now I have a vision for 30 or so collages featuring various symbols of Oakland, made of maps of California and the East Bay.
Other Illustrations
When 2020's sheltering-in-place began in the Bay Area, I decided being stuck in the house was a great time to get more comfortable with digital design, illustration, and different software. These are some of the illustrations and GIFs I've made using Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, mostly created in my first few months of learning new techniques.
