SKETCHBOOK GEMS

Sketchbooks are like a timeline of my life unfold. There is a large pile of sketchbooks/ notebooks/ journals (to me they are the same thing) sitting at the bottom of a bookshelf. I counted them and there were 65 of them!!! From the dates I put on the book spine, it seems I first started in 2008. The year I got into the School of Design at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. (Time flies…)

Obviously, in recent years, my sketchbook pages have lots of dogs, sometimes I draw at home, but to be honest, more pages are filled when I was waiting for customers in a market day or in a PAWTRAIT event.

"DOGS EYES SPEAK" is a series of monotype drawings that I have been developing for quite a while, but never once published in any channel yet. A year ago, I was making a mini monotype portrait for a customer, she didn't like the capture and she came back with a comment, "The eyes of my dogs are more soulful". I was terrified because I had no clue how to improve it…

I made a lot of sketches and practices trying to capture the "soulful" eyes of dogs. After many rounds, my customer finally was very happy about the improvement. And I was inspired to carry on as a body of work exploring dogs' eyes. 

Sketching my family remains the most precious part in my books. Even though my sketching skill has a lot of room for improvements, every sketch is a special moment that means the world to me. 

My sketchbooks are also filled with quotes and insights, like this particular memo, so inspiring. "Sensible people keep their eyes GLUED on wisdom…" Scrolling instagram endlessly and meaninglessly consumes my time, how I needed this reminder, guess what, from THE BIBLE! 

Also check out my latest dog portrait commission availability here.