Category: Art & Illustration

Painting and Sketching Edmonds Classic Car Show

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My First Classic Car Show!

I’ve never been to car shows, after all, they are sleek, metal, muscle looking vehicles that I really never cared much for in life. I’m a driver but it’s just a medium to get me from place to place. However, I can also see how some people could be enthusiasts for cars just like I am for stationery. Therefore, as an urban sketcher, I thought it would be interesting to join Seattle’s Urban Sketcher’s September outing to Edmonds to capture the Classic Car show!

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And of course, it rained that morning.

Nevertheless, I still wanted to go, because it’s been a while since I’ve participated in an urban sketchers outing, and I’m starting to think my watercolor arms are rusty and falling off! I ended up being overly ambitious and taking WAY too make art supplies than I need—a sketch pad, a sketchbook, watercolor, thermos (for coffee), small stool, and my new iPad air (for some digital sketching). Continue reading →

Vendor Day 2017 adventure at Daniel Smith

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Well, that came out of nowhere! When I first arrived at Seattle and started going to all the art events at Daniel Smith, I keep hearing the word “Vendor Day” that is supposedly a VERY special day I should not miss out on.

So once a year Daniel Smith organizes this huge event inside their mothership store down in SODO and invites 20 or so vendors of well-known art supply brands: Strathmore, Winsor and Newton, Faber Castell, Davinchi, you name it all. We were warned about the place becoming very packed as the day goes on, so Swagatika and I grabbed an Uber and arrived at 10:00am prompt!

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At the door, you are handed a “passport” sheet of paper that allows you to collect the initials of the artist/seller at each vendor booth. With 12 signatures, you are eligible to enter the random lottery of amazing art supply prizes!

It’s not entirely untrue to say we’re acting like kids at a candy store, but we’re giddy with excitement and giggling all the way (we’re 27 and 30, respectively.) At each vendor booth, there is an artist or the representative from the brand showing us a demonstration of the tools. They even let us play with their brushes and colors on all types of paper!  Continue reading →

USK SEATTLE – Ballard Locks

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Look at all of us enthusiastic urban sketchers, please disregard the gray clouds.

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Finally, I was able to make it to Urban Sketchers Seattle’s monthly outing, and this time it’s held at the iconic Ballard Locks. The Hiram M. Chittenden Locks is a set of locks located at the west end of Salmon Bay (I love all these confusing sounding names). I’ve only been here once and I remember it being equally windy and gray.

Swagatika and I arrive a bit late, but we can already see the large group gathering from afar before everyone disperses. I anticipated that there won’t be many places to sit, so I opted for a more portable urban sketching setup (watch the video of my USK set up here.)

The lightweight foam board and the postcard-sized paper allows me to stand easily at any location without much stress on my arms. Continue reading →

Daniel Smith Social Watercolor Play Day

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The coolest thing about moving to Seattle is that I’ll soon be able to participate in many cool art events here. The best perk is living in the same city as Daniel Smith Art Supplies in downtown! Kate from Seattle Urban Sketchers invited me to go to Daniel Smith’s Mothership event: Social Watercolor Play Day.

Swagatika and I had to take the bus and walk on foot for 15 minutes through a creepy industrial (wasteland) before finding the factory-like store that nestled nearby 1st Avenue. It was worth it.

We were led to a gallery/classroom space at the back of the store where people are already setting up their table. Daniel Smith provides us Canson 100% cotton paper, mixing palettes, some brushes, and the ENTIRE line of their artist’s extra fine watercolor. (Cue heaven music)  Continue reading →

USK Seattle – Meadowbrook Pond

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I attended my first urban sketchers’ meetup since moving to Seattle! A charming little pond and park that is located in North Seattle. The air in the morning was cool and damp, but a welcoming change to the dry ashy clouds a few days ago.

I always say that the Urban Sketchers organization always feels like an immediate family no matter which city I go to. Kate, the host of the ad-hoc weekday meet ups, welcomed me warmly. I’m also surprised at the attendance rate of the meet up despite it being on a Friday. It seems that Seattle is filled with art enthusiasts!

Since I’ve yet to acquire a sketcher’s chair, I have to find a location with support for my sketchbook and watercolor set ups. The railings inside a pagoda are perfect for my purpose. I used a Pocket Painter and my beloved Rosemary sable & squirrel mop to do a watercolor wash.

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However, there is only so much green scenery an urban sketcher can take. I decided to draw my next subject: a colorful pagoda with bright green and red roof! The installation is quite eye-catching among all the grass and leaves. Thankfully the light drizzling stopped when I had to change location (perching on a large rock.)  Continue reading →

2017 Hobonichi Unboxing

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It’s here! It’s finally here!

The sun was bright and the sky was clear as I happily skipped my way to the Post Office to pick up my Hobonichi order.

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“Shoes?” The lady behind the counter asked as she processed my yellow box

“Um…yeah.”

“Girls and their shoes~” She replied

Girl, you have no idea. Sometimes it’s hard to explain one’s stationery obsession with someone who’s not interested in this hobby 😉 I was grinning from ear to ear as I carry my prize all the way home!  Continue reading →

Welcome to Penguins Creative!

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A Stationery addict and lover of all things colorful. At Penguins Creative we celebrate Hobonichi, planners, writing tools, stickers, washi tapes, watercolor, and creative journaling. Put those all together to create memorable pages of your life each day!

“The starting point of discovering who you are, your gifts, your talents, your dreams, is being comfortable with yourself. Spend time alone. Write in a journal. Take long walks in the woods.”

– Robin S. Sharma

Traveler’s Notebook Caravan in Taiwan

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I’m BEYOND envious of everyone in Taiwan right now. Midair’s Traveler’s Notebook is holding a special exhibition in Taiwan along with the celebration of their 10th anniversary. Traveler’s Company Caravan designed a series of items that are inspired by local features of Taiwan! For a stationery addict like me, it definitely evoked a serious sense of nostalgia and excitement. I NEED TO OWN THEM ALL!

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In Taiwan, there are a lot of shops that treat TRAVELER’S notebook with care and respect, and there are a lot of good foods and heartwarming people, making it an attractive place to travel.

They collaborated with Eslite Bookstore for this special event. Unfortunately, this collaboration also allowed them to kick up the price of the items a bit. Eslite, why are you taking all of my money.

Continue reading →

Daily Hobonichi: April 06 – 09

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I decided to start sharing some of my Hobonichi pages here along with some anecdotes that goes on in my world filled with stationery. Let’s start this series of post with my adventure to New York over the weekend for a company tour hosted by AMA Emerson.

(Since this is late night impulse post, please excuse the grayish, scanned version of my pages. Guys, daylight is definitely the ONLY time to take pictures)

The Hobonichi challenge for April 6th was peppers, so I decided to draw both variety that dominates my life: chili pepper and bell peppers. Before you ask, this was done in very saturated watercolor to achieve that marker effect!

Stressin’ out on the day before the company tour at Tumblr, Thinx, and PSFK at New York. You know you’re stressed when you start using “stress” too much in a single sentence. As always, I took a 5 hour ride on the Megabus to New York immediately after work. The journey was slow and excruciating. I feel sorry for the guy sitting next to me though, he is so tall, he literally have to contort his legs in a weird position to get his whole self into the seat. Then he stayed in that weird position for hours…

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NYC Urban Sketchers Portrait Party

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I’m in New York City again! A spontaneous decision brought me to this bustling city for the long weekend (and away from freezing Boston and its -16F temperature…). Since I’ll be missing my weekly meet with fellow urban sketcher (USK) friends in Boston, I immediately check to see if there are any drawing sessions with the NYC group.

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Boy, am I in luck! This weekend the USK meet up in New York City is holding a portrait party. To sum it up, everyone take turns being the live model for 10 minutes, and at the end of the session, we will each have created tons of portrait drawings of all the participants.

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I’ve always been daunted by drawing portraits and people because I’m not very skilled with proportions. My biggest problem is to even get the ‘creatures’ to look ‘human-like’ LOL. However, this portrait party is just too big of an opportunity to miss, so I signed up for it anyway. Continue reading →