Xiao Hong Lin

Chinese Zodiac Calendar 2011

2011-01-19T10:05:00.000-08:00

This is the rest of the calendar. I think what is left is the cover that say Calendar 2011. This year is the rabbit year. I think we are going to make another image of a rabbit and incorporate some Chinese New Year design into it too.
Check out my twin sister’s blog @ http://xiaomeilin.blogspot.com/

IF- chicken

2011-01-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

This was a fun project that my twin sister and I came up with. We saw that a lot of people are making their calendar and selling it, so we thought it would be cool to make our own. We came up with the Chinese Zodiac theme. We also want the design of the animals to be like Chinese paper cutting. Instead of having it all be red color, we have colors that matches each animals, so overall we will have a colorful pastel-like tone calendar.

I thought this particular month, August, match this week’s topic, chicken.
So happen that our birthday is in August too.

Do you know what Chinese Zodiac are you?
(My twin and I are the powerful and mystical dragons.)

Check out my sister's blog @ http://xiaomeilin.blogspot.com/

IF-phenomenon

2010-12-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

It’s an assignment to create an illustration for Greenpeace calendar. Greenpeace is the leading independent campaigning organization that uses peaceful direct action and creative communication to expose global issues such as the threat of global warming, destruction of ancient forests, deterioration of our oceans, and the threat of a nuclear disaster loom large. Greenpeace is actively working to address these and other threats.

Such organization as Greenpeace help us understand these world wide issues and what we need to do to help this planet. It is also quick scary to believe that some people does not believe in global warming. It has been happening for a long time and today it is hard to pretend that it is not.

Postcard

2010-12-05T17:03:00.000-08:00

It is part of a contest to create a postcard for the minors that my school is promoting. I picked the Japanese Minor. I decided to use digital to create this traditional watercolor painting of Koi fish. I want to have this Japanese theme and not to be confuse with Chinese painting, so I added the cherry blossom there.

St. Partick's Cathedral

2010-12-05T15:27:00.000-08:00

I visited the St. Patrick’s Cathedral between 50-51Street and 5th Avenue. It's my first time visiting this cathedral and it's really huge. The architecture and the design are really amazing. This is a great place to show you a sense of scale between the people and the architecture. Since the design of the Cathedral is very detailed, this helps to train you in your composition. This help you to decide which parts of your drawing need to be detailed while the other areas can be less detailed.

IF-prehistoric

2010-11-13T18:21:00.001-08:00

A fun day at the Museum of Natural History. We looked at the dinosaur section and draw from it. The assignment was to turn the dinosaur skeletons into robot-like, referencing James Gurney. I feel like this assignment matches this week IF’s topic. It is amazing to think that these giant creatures exist once on this planet.

IF- old-fashioned

2010-09-24T17:53:00.001-07:00

Nowadays people own many pairs of shoes and we can easily replace our old shoes with new ones.

But…what happen if it’s the shoes that you love or those shoes that cost you a lot of money? Will you still throw it away? Well, you don’t' have to, you just have to do it the old fashioned way. You can always go to a shoe repair shop. You don't have to feel like you waste a lot of money when you have to throw away a very expensive broken shoe. You can pay a reasonable price to a shoe repairer and he can fix your shoe like it is new again.

If their craftsmanship and skill, you will be amazed that it cost you that little money. This person is a shoe repairer at my neighborhood in Brooklyn. He sets up his shop outside on the sidewalk. He was really immerse into his work and craftsmanship. Many passengers also stopped and took a look.

IF- old-fashioned

2010-09-24T15:53:00.000-07:00

The topic for this semester's painting is “emotion.” I didn’t want someone to pose the same-old facial expressions to express happiness, sadness, anger, etc. I want it to be candid and genuine. I was lucky to capture this man in his (probably) 60s or 70s helping a woman fix her shoes. I have taken another shoe repairer before him but I find him more interesting, probably because he is much older. I admire his concentration, craftsmanship, skill, and his strength. He was really immersed work that he didn’t look up once or notice that I was taking pictures of him. His craftsmanship also attract many passengers to stop and take a look. I like this sketch because it was the moment that he was about to hammer the nail into her shoe. He shows his skill, strength, concentration, craftsmanship, and professionalism. My “emotion” painting is about a man who is in the moment of doing what he does best, simply a shoe repairer fixing a shoe. Just like an artist is at the moment making art. That real and true feeling.

IF- Caged

2010-08-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

It was one of my projects where I have to come up with a concept about freedom/Iraq War. The professor has a paper with few pictures on it and you suppose to select 3 items and a theme. My items are the cage, American eagle and Iraq flag on the Eagle's face. The eagle was caged and now it's free.

Landscape

2010-07-24T13:24:00.000-07:00

It's one of the final projects I have to do in my digital painting class. We could paint any thing we want and I really like to paint landscape, so I came up with this scene. A place that is beautiful, peaceful, and calm, yet it can be fun if there are people.

IF-trail

2010-06-10T17:54:00.000-07:00

In my Book Illustration class, we have to do a book dummy for our own story. This is the copyright and dedication page. Rex is leaving a trail of footprints and pieces of eggshell.

Book Illustration

2010-06-10T17:29:00.000-07:00

These are some of my sketches from my book dummy. My book is about a boy named Christopher who found what he thought to be a rock but actually it's a dinosaur egg. When the egg hatches, a baby dinosaur named Rex is born. They quickly became friend. Christopher tries to hide his new friend from his father (an engineer) who is busy building his machine for the big air race. Christopher juggles between taking care of Rex and helping his father out for the race. Will the father and Christopher win the race?

Linocut_Time Statue

2010-06-07T20:34:00.000-07:00

I really like this composition because it looks simple and　elegant. I find it interesting that both the elements, butterfly and time. are moving elements but because they are statue, their beauties just froze there for us.

Linocut_LUCK

2010-06-07T20:25:00.000-07:00

For this piece, I want to come up with a simple composition. I also want it to be Chinese theme. So I decide to draw two koi fishes in a pond with lily pad flowers. The Chinese character mean Luck. Koi fishes is said to be good luck. My professor joked that the two Koi fishes represent my twins and me and that we are lucky to have each other.

Designing with Type

2009-06-12T15:21:00.000-07:00

This some of my old assignments i did for my Designing with Type class. The first two, he gives you a typeface and a topic and you have to illustrate that. (Ex: Futura Black, Tension). The third one is Directional Comprehension Project where you could illustrate any word with the given direction. (Ex: Upside down, i pick the word "Tree"). At time i just put the word upside down but my professor said, you could make the "T" look like the trunk and the "ree" like the leaves. So that the word actually look like a "Tree". :)

My Logos

2009-06-04T17:52:00.001-07:00

In the Designing with Type class, i am really grateful that he taught us so much. After his class i really like working with types. He taught us how to make our own logo, business card, letterhead, invoice, poster, the layout and many more. Above are my hand drawn logos. I did some using Illustrator but i think hand drawn is more unique. You are suppose to use the initial of your first and last name but my twins and i have the same first and last initial so i ask my professor if i could use my first and middle initial. I create some of the best works in his class. :)

Designing with Type

2009-06-04T17:39:00.001-07:00

This is some of the work that i did for my designing with type class. The top one is using type in Illustrator or make your own type and illustrate the words that was given (ex: Hate, Mountain, God, Art..) The bottom one is another project where i have to use type to make a pattern (like a fabric-like pattern). This was pretty hard because the whole did not do a good job at first. Even he said it was difficult to do but at the end, some of us came up with good designs. Mine was the first he noticed when he critique. I got scared that i did it wrong but he said he really like it and it looks like a pattern. :)

Self Portrait (Designing with Types)

2009-06-03T12:39:00.000-07:00

This is my second self-portrait, designing with types. This is definitely a more complicated one because it takes me a long time to find the right type that fit my features. I really like this because it looks simple, just black and white (since my first work was in color). I really like to work with types or make layout with types, it’s really fun and you could make amazing work with typefaces.

IF- Cracked

2009-05-29T03:26:00.000-07:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is "Cracked". So i came up with some kid playing baseball and it broke into some one's window and hit the fish tank. I want to illustrate this cute little goldfish scared/shocked reaction. The baseball basically cracked the fish tank (little goldfish home).

Hawaii

2009-05-29T03:13:00.000-07:00

This is one of my recent project. We could choose to illustration something about Anatomy for a textbook or illustrate something for a product. Since i love chocolate, i choose to illustrate a painting for Hershey's cacao reserve chocolate bar (single origin). My theme is Hawaii. Actually i use Illustrator to make the chocolate bar itself with my painting but i did not have enough time to finish it.

Hollywood

2009-05-29T03:11:00.001-07:00

This is a project where we have a paper with short articles and we have to choose one to illustrate a spot illustration. I chose an article about how New York City is like Hollywood.

Sketch 04

2009-05-26T22:10:00.000-07:00

This man was really fun to sketch. He was moving but i was able to draw him. I think he is a professor or a businessman because he was writing/grading something. I think the face did not really look like him but i did have enough time to put a lot of detail in. :)

Sketch 03

2009-05-26T22:04:00.000-07:00

I know that it is really hard to find someone not moving on the train and able to draw them. I found this girl, she didn't move. The bad part was, i think she didn't feel well, you could tell by her posture. Well, i felt bad while i was drawing her. :(

Sketch 02

2009-05-26T21:59:00.000-07:00

It was a quick drawing. I know the face has little detail but i like how it came out. I was kind of scared if he turn around and saw that i was drawing him.

Sketch 01

2009-05-26T21:51:00.001-07:00

This is one of my quick sketch that i did while i was riding the train. I think it look like her. lol :)