Farewell 2013, Welcome 2014!

2013 has been SOME year. 

       I finally figured out my own "style" and figured out what direction I really want to go with art wise.  Life is still kinda taking detours but I think I'm figuring it out slowly but surely.
I graduated PCA&D in May.  Successfully had my senior show and displayed my 16 greeting cards that I worked so hard on.
     Moved back home with my parents and slowly learning how to motivate myself to do art without school forcing me to.  (I'm still working on that!)

        For tax purposes, I was looking at all the stuff I bought for Haruka Illustration and it's been an expensive year.  But I feel like I finally laid the foundation to really begin as a freelance illustrator.

       I'm going to start 2014 with a fresh start.  I'm going to really make my move as a freelancer and make money doing art.

       2014 is the year of the horse (and I was born as the year of the horse!) so I feel good luck/vibes coming! I'm really excited to make something great happen.

I want to consume myself with positive spirit and be inspired as well as be inspiration to others!

Welcome 2014!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone! 

Since school ended, I'm back home so I was able to spend Christmas with my family again.  We basically just eat all day long and do nothing. 

I did decide to bake cookies today.. and had a LOT of fun.

(sometimes I wonder if I should start a food blog)

I never got to do stuff like this as a kid because my mom hates baking.  And since I had an entire day off, I thought why not.  I was feeling extra festive. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their holidays! :)

Happy Halloween!

A year passed since I started blogging!  It only seemed like a few days ago...

This year I decided to challenge myself on making a full pattern since I've never done that.  I always get discouraged because I never knew how to go about it.
So I forced myself to go through it this time and I struggled but I had a lot of fun!

I started with traditional media for this one:

Inked on coldpress watercolor paper and water colored in each character.

I actually didn't have a specific pattern in mind when I drew these characters.  I just thought of anything Halloween and just drew them out.

Then I took a photo and erased each background for every character in photoshop

Then the hard part: arranging them on a canvas so they flow nicely as a pattern.  I'm glad I finally made myself do it because it was kinda fun and I'm so happy with the outcome.  I'm sure if I practice enough, I'll get better at it!

A few variations:

I made this one for fun earlier:

This is what I really enjoy about patterns -- That you can take each character and make a whole new pattern with it. :)

Overall, I'm pretty sure I'm going to make an entire portfolio with patterns.  This will be addicting.


I also started a spoonflower account! http://www.spoonflower.com/designs/2537972

Pet cards!

Here's more drawings of dogs! I can't get enough of them.

I've been forcing myself to draw my friend's pets so I'll actually get myself to practice.

 This is Julius's dog Leon, the miniature Aussie

This is Lynne with her dog Yeou, the super skinny Shiba Inu

It's National Dog Day!

I was cleaning my studio space some more and I logged onto twitter for a quick break -- and found out it was national dog day!!

I HAD to draw a dog to celebrate!

Maybe I should make it a goal to adopt a dog on next year's national dog day :)  

So here's mister Black Labrador Retriever: 

red cheeked cordon bleu lovebirds

It's been about 2 months since I moved back home and I've been slooooowly but surely cleaning my room.  I finally got it to the point where all my art supplies are in my room and my desk is clean! I was ready to do some watercolor paintings but as I was looking through my computer I found the red cheeked cordon bleu I wanted to finish.. so I ended up finishing this digital illustration instead!

p.s. the red cheeked are the males. They're so cute :)

It's been 4 years...

I recently did a pet portrait of a friend's dog and I realized I haven't even drawn my own dog yet!

And this August is the 4th year since she passed away and it brought back feelings as I looked up some old photos.
I absolutely love dogs and not only that-- she was like a sister to me.

I'm saving up money so I can adopt a dog in the near future. 

But for now, I hope my baby's happy in doggie heaven. <3

(Yume means dream in Japanese)

Thank you everyone; I'll miss everyone in Lancaster!

A lot happened since my last post.  Senior show, graduation, moving back home... I'm still living in boxes right now.  I wanna unpack asap and work on art already!!

But I did want to make a post thanking everyone in Lancaster and my family for helping me with the move and all the time I spent with my friends in Lancaster.  Everyone grew to me like family after the 3 years and I felt so blessed.

I think my body feels wrong or something cause I've been having trouble sleeping lately. haha.

But enjoy this Thank you card I made for my senior show! It's done all digitally.  (I'm going to make an etsy shop soon with the cards, I promise!) 

First published children's book: The Magical Starberry

I'm super excited that my first children's book is up on amazon!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Magical-Starberry-Haruka-Takahashi/dp/1484194683/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1366939947&sr=8-1&keywords=the+magical+starberry


This entire book has been experimented on so just getting it together has been super difficult but I think it was well worth it.  I ordered a bunch of these to sell at senior show too so get your signed copy then!
More information on PCAD's Senior Show: check it out!

A few posters!

Since I'm an officer for SOI (Society of Illustrators) student chapter at my school I've been making a bunch of posters so I thought why not share them.  I actually spend a little too much time on some of these. haha

Cut paper process

So I recently picked up this method so it's been lots and lots of experimenting this semester!


I make everything at half size of original.  I make a tight drawing, flip it, trace it on colored cardstock paper, and then cut it out.  Then glue whatever pieces together and draw in the small details!  This is always the fun part for me.

Then onto photographing.

For this page, I decided to give it a digital background instead of cutting out all the trees.  (because of time! Or else I would've cut those trees out!)

I also added a 'canvas' texture to this one.

This one's still a work in progress so the colors will be changing.


And who knows if I come up with a different process again!  I'm always experimenting.  

Lovesauruses

Happy Valentines Day!

This is one of my really graphic illustrations.  So for anyone who knows me, they know I'm obsessed with Stegosauruses.  I normally color them in teal and pink but I went for a "little boys color scheme"


Make it a nibble on hearts and feast on chocolates kinda day!

Guardian of the Moon

Guardian of the Moon
Mixed Media
10 x 14

This was a piece I submitted to the Society of Illustrator's Student Competition.  It's all cut paper on painted wood. 
I ended up having to rush the gluing part so it could've been neater...
90% of the stuff I do are experimental so it's always tough trying to scope out how long stuff would take.  But I'm extremely happy with this piece and I'm definitely going to keep working this way. (Though I'm sure it's going to take me a few days for my hand to recover from this piece... haha)

Darker theme than my usual stuff.  I needed a little break from sugar, pink and cute animals. haha.