NYT SundayBiz illo-Lonely Cubicle

I have a piece in the New York Times Sunday Business section today. It's about loneliness at workplaces. The saying "no man is an island" by John Donne came to mind when I was brainstorming for ideas. 

Color version

B/W version

I deiced to make the girl much bigger when I went into final. I think it makes a nicer composition and helps to emphasize the uneasy and repressed feeling of being trapped in the tiny cubicle. 

Big big thanks to AD Minh D. Uong!!

Scary birds for NYTimes letter page

I drew some scary birds for today's New York Times letters page. Scientists have been doing research on bird flu by engineering H5N1 in labs. The mutated virus is highly transmissible and deadly. Some argues the risk of these virus escaping the lab would lead to fatal epidemic.

 It was one of the "sketches by 230pm, final by 6pm"gigs. I felt like reincarnated after sending in the final and really needed to indulge myself. So I went to Korean Town and had some delicious soup and seafood pancake yesterday!

Big big thanks for AD Alexandra Zsigmond!

Happy Dragon Year Poster for McDonald's

FINALLY I can share this! I did this exciting job back in June 2011 and it has been a long hard 6 months observing the non-disclosure agreement. I was contacted by Benjamin Milam from Leo Burnett  to develop a design for the McDonald's vestibule poster and trayliner celebrating the Year of Dragon. I want to do it because the project seems like a perfect fit. 

I think Leo Burnett did a great job with the type and design.

 

Asian Lunar New year is an important holiday which brings together families and friends as they welcome a new year filled with hope and optimism. The idea of lighting red lanterns was chosen to express the festive mood and the spreading of good luck and blessing. 

 

Flowers are a huge part of Lunar New Year, I drew some Chinese peony (symbolized prosperity and wealth) and Chrysanthemum (symbolized longevity) in this illustration. 

I have been told that usually advertisement clients are a pain in the neck - greater money comes with greater restrictions, but not with this project. I enjoyed much creative freedom and was given a lot of insightful feedbacks. It was a great pleasure. Big thanks to producer Benjamin Milam, AD Jason Fisher and all the designers and good people at Leo Burnett! 

龍年快樂，身體健康，萬事如意，恭禧發財！

Happy Dragon Year!

I drew a really really fat cat

How could life be possibly better than drawing a REALLY REALLY FAT CAT and be paid for it? This is a piece I did for PLANSPONSOR Jan 2012 issue. The phrase AD SooJin gave me to work with was "sorting out complicated things and getting it straight".

I once baby-sitted a really really fat cat for a summer. He was a 30lbs mixed maine coon named Pinkus. He had the coolest attitude, love to eat and occasionally ponder about life with a cigarette.

Wingchun

I was happily invited by Ryan Gattis, the author of KungFu High School, to participate in the "The Art of Kung Fu, Myths and Legends" show presented by ISM to celebrate the Year of Dragon.

The show pairs 16 artists with 16 newly reworked Kungfu myths by Ryan. My myth is about Yim Wingchun, founder of the Wingchun fist. Wingchun is known for her beauty and sold tofu for a living. A notorious bandit forced her to marry him and the only way to get out of the marriage is to beat the bandit with her art.

The opening reception is 7:30- 9:00 pm on Jan 20, 2012 at Meltdown Comics Gallery in Hollywood, LA.

My original drawing of Wingchun will be for sale! (16"x20" pen, brush and ink)

The Breast Labyrinth

Here is a piece I did for the Cincinnati Magazine about the new and improving technologies in breast imaging and cancer detection.

"I love radiology because it¹s like an investigation: the patient presents

with certain symptoms, and imaging is a big piece of the puzzle." writes the author Mary Mahoney, MD.

Big thanks to AD Megan Scherer for this fun and challenging assignment!