MTangDesigns

    When I woke up this morning, I was so excited to go my chinese brush painting class because I was really looking forward to coloring my Tibetan Prasol (Umbrella) from last week.  Unfortunately, my teacher wanted me to stick with his plan, which was to paint the squashes and autumn leaves.   Anyway, I did want he wanted.  Sigh!!  I guess I have to wait till next week then.     I got to pick the leaves and squashes I wanted.       I arranged the leaves and squashes a couple of times and found out which arrangement I liked the most.     This is how my chinese brush painting came out.  I didn't draw the yellow leaves because I didn't have enough time.

  My daughter and I went out to get her friend a birthday gift at the last minute.  We picked this cute Mickey Mouse.  The truth is... we picked Captain America.  When we got home, we couldn't find Captain America in the shopping bag.  I checked my receipt and saw the item was bought.  I went back to the store hoping that the cashier had it.  Luckily, the cashier was very nice.  She let me take another one after I had showed her the receipt and told her what happened.    I decided to upcycle a Trader Joe's brown bag.  I just measured how much material I need, cut the bag and folded it in half.  I drew the Mickey Mouse's face at the front and tail on the other side of the bag.  Then, I used washi tape to tape the sides.  A cute handmade gift bag was born!!

    I'm so inspired by all the creative souls from Instagram.  I woke up early on Saturday morning and decided to visit my Chinese brush painting teacher whom I have not seen for 2 years or so.  The truth is.. I feel like I need to improve my brushing painting skills.  During the class, I drew two pictures.  One is inspired by a kimono and other one is Tibetan Buddhist art.     I saw a belt for a kimono from the Fumika.Ikemoto website.  The pattern is so beautiful that I couldn't resist and had to draw it.     This is one of the Eight Auspicious symbols in Buddhism.   It is the Tibetan Parasol (Umbrella).  I can't wait till my next chinese brush painting class to fill in the color.

This is a picture I did awhile back but I never got a chance to post my painting.  I used a picture from the original Brothers Grimm's Little Mermaid.  If anyone knows who is the artist, please let me know.  I would like to give the artist credit.  I feel my version of the  Little Mermaid has more of a Disney influence.  I am pretty sure my influence comes from watching a lot of Disney movies.      I love work-in-progress pictures.  It is like watching a child growing up.       I love the Little Mermaid's hair.  It took me some time to sketch out the hair the way I wanted it.      I used soft pastel for the sky and the clouds.  I am very happy how the clouds come out.     I used color pencil to fill in details of the hair.       I used acrylic for the flowers.       Needless to say, I am very happy with my paint...

I am really blessed that I work at New York City where I am surrounded by beautiful and interesting shops, landmarks and people which I get my inspirations from.  I try to take a short walk during lunch time whenever I can and look for inspirations. I decided to visit the New York Public Library on 42nd street since the Rose Reading was recently re-opened again.  Boy.. it was a pleasant surprise!  The ceiling paintings are so magnificent.  I don't think my pictures do it justice!  If anyone lives around the NYC area or visits New York, I would definitely recommend to pay a visit to the Rose Reading Room at the New York Public Library. The ceiling of the Rose Reading Room. I definitely would love to study here. The ceiling of the hall way on the 2nd floor. This gate is on the 1st floor right next to the gift shop.  I wish I can go through this door and see what's hiding inside. The shadow of the gate.  

I started bullet journaling 2 weeks ago.  I am still new and very excited about learning different spreads for bullet journals.   While I was researching different weekly spreads, I stumbled upon an article, Pre Planning 101, from Boho Berry's website.  After reading the article, I rethought about what do I need the system to do for me. After giving some thought to the question... I decided that I want to have a centralized place to keep track of my family's schedules, expenses and art creations.  Most importantly, I want the system to be efficient.  I decided to set up all 4 weeks in one shot which will make planning future events much easier for me. Since Halloween is in October, it makes me think of witches.  One of my favorite Japanese manga is Sugar Sugar Rune, which is the story of 2 witches going into the human world to compete to become the queen of the magic world.  Therefore, I decided to use Sugar Sugar Rune as my October theme. ...