Illustration Friday - Zoom

For this week's Illustration Friday topic, zoom.

Chungking Mansions, Hong Kong

Here's something I drew a while ago, the infamous Chungking Mansions of 36-44 Nathan Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong. I rather like this Time.com description, "the great sleepless citadel." Apparently 5000 people live in it's 17 storeys. I thought I'd post it since last time I visited I was surprised to see that it's been cleaned up and repainted almost beyond recognition.

New Print - The Red Ribbon Shop

Within this tiny space the ribbon seller trades his wares. The Red Ribbon Shop is inspired by a market on a hill in Hong Kong.

Available here.

Illustration Friday: Tree

Something for this week's Illustration Friday topic, tree.

My encounter with pictures of the Floating World

A couple weeks ago I went to a lecture and demonstration of Ukiyo-e (pictures of the Floating World) and Japanese woodblock printing at the Victoria & Albert Museum. It was free so there's another reason to love this museum.

Look at this super precisely laid out printing setup.

A place for everything and everything in its place.

At the end of it all I got to have a quick go at printing a little piece of Hokusai's The Great Wave. I guess I'm not destined to be a great printmaker.

My attempt. Haha.

Here's what the professional did.

The beautiful print by the pro.

For more about ukiyo-e and some examples, here's a page at the Victoria & Albert Museum website.

Old toys in a Beijing market

Old toys in a Beijing market, by Janice_Jong.

There is so much fun to be found here. The more I look at this the more things I like - the little safes, that blue bus, the table-tennis playing kids, the weird polka-dot lady robot...