more crose ups.

closeup1

i've been putting in some serious hours in the workshop lately.  i just want to up my drawing and painting skill another level before i work on anything new.  i feel like im ready to start on a new body of work.  


also my friend akira gave me a mixer and im finally a dj for hire. i have all the beatles records and one temptation record. very limited. weddings, sweet 16, or art openings- holla:)

i really enjoyed reading this article. great story, and great working with director katie mathy.

 

man, i never screamed so loud watching any video! japan's dream team flew down to korea to battle gambers crew. gamblers is my favorite crew, but im going to have to give this one to japan. you might want to watch this in slow motion.

so i've always been a huge fan of publikat and stylefile. really honored to find out that they were releasing a book on illustration and asked me to be a part of it. there is some really amazing stuff on this book.  they ask 20 artist from around the world there definition of illustration  and art.  

kenichi hosine
os gemeos 
tomer hanuka

daniel schussler.  

lastly this is a sketch i did while working with 3ll last year. im going to submit to the brother sink. my friend jason alexander is starting up something really cool. everyone should submit

also, i just found out i got 5 pieces in the next communication arts:)  

moleskin 2

here are some more sketches from my moleskin.

her name is erin. the purple hair makes her look like paramore. 2 sittings.

her name is daniella. i wasn't planning on painting so i didn't bring my paint set. but when i saw the model i wanted to run to the art store and buy some paint. such a great model to work with. again 2 sittings.

quick head study.

here's my contribution to the hi fructose show at copro.

cattaragus

this is a commish for damian over at rolling stone. im hoping that they'll hang it in the center of the office, so every time they're in need of an illustrator i'll be all in there grill. this is a portrait of his girl. in every picture he sent me she was making a cat pose, so i painted her with her cat and a cat woman figurine.


aslo i found out how breakdancing made it's way to cambodia. it's great to see someone being deported able to make a positive impact elsewhere. we are 40 years late........... they should have deported kk earlier:)

ranscape

recently i've been painting quick landscapes on my spare time. I was exicted to get call for me to illustrate a landscape with no figures! I've never did something like that, but i figured all these quick landscapes studies i've been doing would help me out.


the art director told me to add some last minute changes.


in other news my friend julienne hsu got her mfa. she's the first person out of my graduating class to get her mfa. im really proud of her!

lyfer

this illustration is about new life. the art director wanted me to illustrate synthetic generation of life.
this is what i came up with.


in an unrelated story. usually when you hear about cambodians on the news it usually evolves around the starting of trg or asian boys. peap sent me this news clip of him in action. it's great to see positive stuff like this on the news. you might remember his stuff on hi fructose 7.

moley moley

these sketches from my trip to cambodia. my goal was to fill up the whole moleskin while in asia, but there was just to much things to see. sadly this is all i painted while over there.





also did a quick video. going to send it to my sis to get it souped up.

done

i had a blast in portland and seattle.
it's finally time to head back home.
special thanks goes out to kirsten
and a millllllion thanksssss to the homegirl skye hwang!!!!!!!

seattle

if anyone is around seattle tomorrow you should swing by roq la rue.



to get an idea of what this new body of work is about you can check out these interview

with amanda and arrested motion
so drop by and say hi to stella and i.


2312 2nd avenue
seattle washington, 98121
206 374 8977

and young had said yo!

korea was the coldest place i have ever been to. hands down the best bogogee i've ever eaten. and everyone there seems to have the latest fashion........



it's been said that nobody can compete with korean b-boys on a technical level. i found out there secret. it's the kimchi. i was doing non stop air flares after this pic was taken.









also i just got a copy of hi fructose 10. thanks annie and atta for the feature.

yourland, myland, thailand!

i really cant thank this guy enough. he's my friend from way back who i've haven't seen in a decade. dude showed me around some amazing places, ate some amazing food and stayed in some amazing hotels. so thanks for everything tom!!!!!!!
cambodia is great for experiencing culture and thailand is great for vacation. when you step into thailand you notice right away that it's more developed than cambodia. sometimes you forget that your in thailand because of all the europeans there. i honestly felt like i was back in europe in some places.
i thought an elephant painting was crazy, but honestly i wouldn't be surprised if the elephant started doing the headspin.  you see that hook they are carrying, that would make me doing anything too. 















bangkok.  now i understand why yoko tanaka moved here.  too bad she was switzerland when i was there. 






my hotel in koh chang.  i was told koh chang is the least touristy island in thailand.  i wanted to go to a island where i could just relax and paint.  


here are a few shots from loas.

thailand got no beggars at all, but once you step out of it then they come running toward you.

holiday in cambodia

cambodia was amazing! it was truly a life changing experience. a majority of the time i stayed in small villages with no electricity, refrigerators or toilet. i hate to admit it, but the first couple of days i was a diva and bath with avian water. but after a few days i said eff it and experienced the culture to the fulliest. I got violently ill for a couple of days, but it was worth it. cambodia has so many children beggars. everyone told me not to give any children money, but once you see there face it's kind of hard to resist. the first day i gave a kid 2 bucks and he started crying. i looked up and there was a herd of children running after me. the city is filled with people and beggars. the villages have no beggars, just a bunch of kids who wants there picture taken. the only thing i hate about cambodia is the mosquitos. my uncle died from malaria so when i got bitten i was scared shitless. i slept with a thick mosquito net, a hoodie, beanie, thick paints tucked in my thick socks. I even used 40 percent deet, but somehow i still got bitten over 20 times.














me putting in work.










kids in cambodia are so grown up. village children usually start working at 5 years old. here's a kid pouring water in her tub with no parents in sight.








i started to paint at prey sar and a few minutes in a bunch of kids started to crowd up. i let them paint with me, and the hardest thing was to tell them i had to go. the look on there faces when i took my paint and brushes back was painful.







this is my dad's village prey taten. I stayed here about a week. a very peaceful place. when i walked threw the village people would come up to me and say do you remember me? a few thought i was my dad.

i tuck in my pants in my sock because of the mosquitos and red ants. not a fashion statement.














her name is chaquon. i told her not to tell anyone i gave her money. a few minutes later her whole family was asking me.


eating at restaurants like this is probably the reason why i puked all over the river.





here's a preview for my next post in thailand. me battling the famous youtube painting elephant.

leaving like sunday morning.

this is going to be my last post before i leave to asia, so i'll try to make it a long one. im coming back early february and ill update with tons of pics. Just finished my last painting for this year. in la at jefferson and 11th street.

There are tons of things that im going to be missing out on. One of it is the dream to reality fun raiser. The show is to help out a fellow dreams to reality member. Alvaro Sanz is going threw hard times in spain so we wanted to help him out in his times of need. The show is going to be january 17th at nucleus gallery. I want to thank nucleus for giving us the space and everyone who kindly donating a piece for the show. It's not easy to email people in this economy and ask them to donate a piece to someone they don't know. So we owe you guys one. here's a little history on us.





this pic was back when parts of bergamont station was being built. parts of bergamont was a graffiti yard.





me, twisto, and the legendary yepso in sf back in 99


and here's the one man who we are trying raise money for.














I don't have many pics in my archive, but that's a little history on dreams 2 reality.

when i land back in la, im flying straight up to seattle to my show at roq la rue feb 13th.

so merry christmas everyone and have a happy new year!

simmer down now.

i was told to simmer down on my stylization and my colors. This illustration is geared towards children, so i tried to follow the directors guide lines and make things normal. this was heavily art directed so when it was over i painted over everything because it looked too pretty. i felt like it needed to be more raw to work. still trying to make it more grimy, but this is how it looks now.
oh and here's the sketch i wished they picked.

brucelee!

im pretty sure this is fake, but i can't stop watching this!

nucleus!

everyone around the area should make it to nucleus tonight! my good friend david jien will be making his debut showing.
this guy is the mother fn truth! his work is really mindblowing!!!!!



also, i want to thank everyone who featured me in there blog all these years. i appreciate that very much!
this is the second time someone emailed me saying they featured me only to find out the piece was not mines :)
this is another artist study on my family portrait piece. does anyone knows the artist? i think he did a great copy.
adam's blog

lite em up!

i've done about 400 matchboxes since i've started school. for my show at roq la rue im planning to do 10 paintings and 300 matchboxes. 100 matchbox per frame. i've never had so much at one point that i've become really attached to them. i know it's a hell of a lot of matchboxes, and i would stop doing them if i felt like i was repeating myself. but i like the new directions they are going, so as long as they continue to evolve then i can't stop:) they are super fun too. im planning to show a small series at this year miami art basel too.

nunnery

this is an illustration for spiritual and health magazine. the article is about a western lady leaving the life of a city girl and crossing over to become a nun. this is my first oil illustration ever. recently i've been doing all my personal work with oils and using gouache and acrylic for commercial work, but when john contacted me he sent me reference of all my oil paintings. with the quick deadline, i used straight cobalt dryer as a medium. here's one of the sketches that the art director liked. just added do thats and it was a go.