Ferry Building Cowgirl Greamery

Nothing better than a cup of handcraft blue bottle coffee and sketching for the day. 

Cowgirl Greamery cheese shop at Ferry Building, SF. 

Alamo Square, Six Sisters Victorian Houses

Right before join the new company, I got a little getaway to SF at a regular work day. no crowds, no traffic. Just me and a perfect nice sketch day.

Trip to SoCal

Friends and I had a last minute trip to SoCal since their baby is with Grandma & Grandpa in Taiwan. It's been a while that we go on a trip together ever since little Jamison was born. 
We felt young again! We went for the taiwanese food and some ocean breeze. of course some sketches.  

Santa Barbara Court House

Monks statues at Hsi Lai Temple (西來寺)

Thanks Patrick & Carrie, I had a blast. and we all miss you baby Jamison. oxoxoxox

USK Taiwan 2012

I visit / see my family once a year. Either I go back to TW or they come to US to visit me. It has been 7 years now. (wow, time flies..) This year I went back home and had an awesome quality of time with them. Families and Friends are just like my backbone that provide the ultimate supports. I feel I am blessed and loved. Every second bit of it. :)

It has been 2 years already since I attended the travel sketching class at PAL (w Steve Curl). I finally have the little (still not much) confidence to reach out to the sketching group in Taiwan and ask them if they would have sketching events during my visit. Professor Carton Chen was the one that organized the USK Taipei event (dedicated for me! super!) and we had a great great time. Not only I felt the honer to draw my hometown but also with a group of people shared the same passions and interests. :)


The traditional house - san ho yuan (three-section compound) in Taipei. It's rare to be seen in such space-limited, high-density population Taipei city nowadays.

The city park behind Guandu MRT station.

Space Shuttle Endeavour

Can you imagine how awesome when a laying-down-kinda-skyscraper aka retired space shuttle is slowly crawling through your neighborhood and you can see it by just peeking out your house window? Oh well. I cannot physically experience that awesomeness but I certainly can celebrate its achievements to all human beings by using my own way.  Drew it down! :) 

This sketch was done while doing its last historical flyover from north cal to south cal in september, 2012. 

Sketchcrawl SEP & AUG 2012

We were heading to Half Moon Bay for september south bay sketchcrawl. Thanks for Pierre's van ride so we could chat a little bit on the way to there. It was a perfect, not-too-windy day with lots of sunshine upon our shoulders. There was some boats selling fresh fish, crabs. Not too busy until we left around 3 pm, the in coming traffic was just bad for about 10 miles.....

First sketch: Half Moon Bay, Kayak co. "Getting ready"

Half Moon Bay, Kayak co. "Pre-training"

A quick 5 mins boat drawing.

Sketchcrawl on August, 2012.

This time we went to Stanford Mall @ Palo Alto for some sketching. Dedicated members: Conni, Pierre, LuLu, and me. Here are some results:


Kate Spade Store

Louis Vuitton Display Window

Vista House, Crown Point, OR

This Vista House at Crown Point Oregon is the main entrance if you are going to Multnomah Fall. You can get a very nice view of Columbia River from the top of the building. 

Fun Facts: Edgar M. Lazarus was the lead architect at the time. Vista House is an example of German “Art Nouveau” architecture. 

Crater lake, Eugene, Portland

This labor day was quite pleasant that I can join my friend, Carrie and her bf, road trip to Oregon. Here are some highlights of the trip:

Inside the car: Tim was the only driver of the whole trip. We 2 girls were either chi chatting or sleeping. Ha. Thanks Tim. 

Phantom ship is actually really small compare with the Lava island (Wizard island). Carter lake is super blue. I only have like 5 mins to complete this sketch. Not bad I think. :P

It's kindda hard to spend time on sketching if you travel with friends aren't into drawing. I use thumbnail concepts to captures some interesting scenes or places that we went to record this wonderful memory instead.

We also went to Multnomah Falls (35 mins away from Portland) on Sunday. it's sooo pretty. The 2 tier falls could be as nice as Yosemite Fall I would say. especially the bridge in between. Pretty sure it has been seen in plenty of movies. My hardcore-disney-fan friend just pointed out the new Cars theme at California Adventure has this bridge and waterfall in it. Maybe SolCal gangs can double check that if my friend is correct. :) 

The Kite Runner

I must confess that I don't read novel or fiction book nowadays except for graphic novel or art related books. The last "book" in general I fully finished was Diary of a wimpy kid 3 by Jeff Kinney. (Yes, I know, they are at book 7 now...geesh) But if you ask me what the last novel I read was actually "The Kite Runner". (I have 30ish pages left, almost there.. woohoo..)  I love the story thus far and kinda feel sad in heart a bit. Don't know why. Maybe the way Khaled Hosseini describes the story was so close to real life that not everything has happy ending or is perfectly stated. But, that's also the beauty of the life, isn't it?  Let's embrace it. :)

I am glad he lives in San Jose and is willing to do a lot of FREE public speakings to inspire people here or around the world. Luckily I attended one of them and got his kind words and autograph! I'll keep up the good work. :)

Gnome Gnome and Gnomes

This pass weekend I got a chance to revisit friend's grandpa grandma's house. Last time when I was there I haven't started my sketching yet. I always admire their decorations in the house, yard, and kitchen. I'm usually just taking pictures around the house, but this time I asked if I can sketch their back yard. 

There are so many gnomes around the front and back yards. I tried to fit as much as I can in my sketch........ and luckily they just repainted them.... love the vivid color. Feel like living in the fairy tales.... :)