A New Favorite Inspiration

Welcome new & old panda followers!

This is not a post about my own art, but more about an artist and a book and an insight into what/whom inspires me most and helps me learn and fuel my drive to continue on this path of life that is called: ART.

As many of you all know, I am an aspiring author/illustrator of my own children's books. I have not yet published one yet, but trust me, I am getting there. There are just so many things to do in between and it's a bit hard, I admit, to make the right decisions on which path I should walk down next. (More on my many stories and brainstormings of my own children's book ideas in a later post, I promise). Felicia Hoshino is an artist that I recently discovered in my search for a job at many of the amazing indie publishers in CA. Her art is gorgeous and reminiscent of Hayao Miyazaki movies and brings the culture of Japan that I love reading about in the mangas I own and read online. 

I just received in the mail the other day her most recent children's books, Sora and the Cloud, and let me just say, it is amazing, aesthetically and emotionally. The story is not only simple, endearing and heart-tuggingly perfectly conveying of a childhood filled with imagination and adventure, but it really is so well written. I struggle myself with how to simplify my own manuscripts and decide what to leave out and let the pictures speak in place of words. But I just am amazed at the amazing skill she has at foreshadowing and symbolism with the syntax and kerning of the words to the page and the imagery that leads you from page to page and back again. It is really a story that comes full circle and it really was a joy to read and the study. 

I will keep this book at my working desk side for weeks (months) I'm sure and use it as reference in writing my own stories and illustrating my own storyboards and illustrations. Hoshino is my new hero and I hope this post gave you a bit of an insight into what influences me and what art I am looking at to teach me what 4 years of schooling could not. :3

I didn't want to spoil the book for anyone so I just took a pic of my favorite spread in the book, although i LOVED all of them. LOL. it was hard to choose, but I really admire the great POVs in this book. Note taken. ;]

Love, Erica.

p.s. le sighs. It is an inspiration and a burden/promise that reading books like these leave me with.  Inspiration to keep creating  my own art and writing my own stories. A burden   of a reminder that I still have SO much to learn and a long way to go before I can achieve such finesse and recognition with my own artwork. And a promise to myself to keep striving to get as good as I can get and BEYOND! :D now on to my night's work. ;] Yes, I keep a very weird and late schedule, but oddly it works for me. :3 Missing my partner in crime tonight and all nights I spend away from him, my pandaboy.

Something really cool that I'd like to talk about. TATTOOS!

Good Evening/Morning Panda Readers & Followers! 

Yes, it is insanely late/early to be posting, but not like that ever stopped me before. I work equivalent to a bat. I work and am more focused at night when there's not something as tempting as daylight and sun and beach and beautiful walking weather outside my window to tempt my distracted mind already for the pleasures that are living life OUTDOORS. Hah!

Well, this week was busy mind, body and soul-wise. My lil' sissy-in-law came into Sarasota to spend some time w/ my bf and I. The first half of the week was so rainy and messy, we really couldn't do much else but go out to the movies and eat out. But we went bowling and towards the end of the week, the weather cleared up and became so warm, we got to spend an afternoon on the beach! Water was warm, and so perfect, though a lil' murky from the leftover debris from Tropical Storm Debbie. And we finished the week off at Universal Studios/Islands of Adventure. We made sure to say hello to Harry, when we were there. ;] 

But amidst all the fun-having, life living activities this week I did get a lot of applications sent out to a surfeit amount of anonymous companies over on the west coast and mid-west. I'm so eager to just MOVE and get to where I want to be right now, that I got a lil' ahead of myself. I found some more clarity, as I seem to have been doing ever since I graduated in May, and re-wrote some of my art goals. I am now going to focus more on creating more and better art and trying to work on projects that will cross into many different genres. Too obvious of a goal you think? Well, I will admit I've been a bit jumbled as of late and to just focus on my art and projects is really a bit of peace of mind, because I've been making all these plans for everything else in my life, I just need to tell myself to sit down and draw/paint. :]

Now, to the point of this post. I recently drew up a tattoo design for my cousin, Alexandria, a couple months ago. And she just got it done a few days ago. I did an initial b&w sketch of it and did a few color variations. But this is the final tattoo, and I'm okay with how it turned out. I'm not quite sure if it was even possible to needle the wispy, misty lines of my sketch thinner, but probably not, a needle can only be so thin while holding ink. But considering that it is not on my back, but hers, I am very satisfied w/ the results, but still question and would like to see the portfolio of the person who inked it for her. lol. Whatevskies. At least they evened out the sizes of the sun-star points, still wish they could have found a way to emphasize the 3 stars like in the sketch, and thinned the lines for a more stylized swirl in the middle. That is my critique of it there, but I'll shut up now, because all in all it turned out beautiful. And I'm so excited/awed that she used my design in the end for a permanent piece of body art. WAY COOL!

Love, Erica.

p.s. Until next time!