Xiao Mei Lin

SKETCHBOOK

2011-04-10T20:23:00.000-07:00

These are some sketches I did recently inside my sketchbook. I use brown ink to do most of my sketches now, because I am trying to get better with lines and force myself to be confident when drawing. Ink is the best medium to force yourself to get better because it unforgiving. I combine all the sketches, so my post doesn’t run down to the pages.

The second and last page is obvious that I put different sketches next to each other. The first one is actually a composite of three sketches. The tree, street light, and the building (The buildings is actually two different buildings that was drawn in the same page inside my sketchbook. I accidentally merge the two building because I drew them too close to each other.)

The documentary class I have is very fun. I get to go different places and drawing on site really give a different feeling to my drawings, compare to the model studies I get in class. The models studies in class are often stiff and “Posey“, however on site, the people are constantly moving, so you drawing also reflect the life in them.

IF: Toy- Ballerina Doll

2011-03-30T01:56:00.000-07:00

I had just finished this painting. It was perfect for this week’s IF topic. This is a self-generated project. The painting is about a ballerina doll that possessed human emotions. She is upset because she couldn’t dance unless someone wind her up. She is sitting in front of this hand-size mirror. Beside the reflection on the mirror, I want to show through the body language that she is unhappy. To show the size different, i add probs like buttons, marbles, and a huge teddy bear. The teddy bear also have emotion, he also had a sad expression.

Size: 12"x16"

Digital: CS5 Photoshop

Life Drawings

2011-03-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

The same model that has the awesome costumes and hair. This class really give me the opportunity to just draw and relax.

Medium: heavyweight rough vellum paper and graphite pencil

Life Drawings

2011-03-18T16:51:00.000-07:00

Continue on the life drawings post. I use heavyweight rough vellum paper and graphite pencil to do these drawing. I usually use mechanical pencil to quickly and roughly measure out the proportion and the movement of the figure. Then I go over the line with the graphite pencil. I am still working on the values and the feature of the faces.

Life Drawings

2011-03-04T20:03:00.001-08:00

These two are some of my life drawings from one of my class. They are 20 mins long. The model had on an amazing costume. She wore a cape, Lolita dress, holding an umbrella, and had amazing curly golden locks. You probably would not see all that in these drawing but I hope I can get better at contrast, value and the anatomy figure.

…more coming!

ABC 123 Children Book

2011-01-10T18:59:00.000-08:00

This ABC 123 children book is collaboration with my twin sister for a school assignment. The theme of the ABC is to use different animals for each alphabets and incorporating the numbers as well. We were required to do four finishes each. I choose to do the first four letters of the alphabets and numbers.

To see the other four artworks, please visit my twin sister’s blog @
http://www.wflead.blogspot.com/

To see the complete layout, please visit my "illustration/painting " page.

sketches

2010-12-15T18:10:00.001-08:00

... St. Patrick's Cathedral

2010-12-11T21:32:00.001-08:00

More sketches on St. Patrick Cathedral. I went back to the church again with my class and this time we focus more on doing small thumbnails and playing with scale and composition to bring in more drama. I also added more details to some of my previous sketches I did from my first visit to the church.

Model Painting Session

2010-12-11T20:29:00.001-08:00

A painting I did for one of my class. I decide to crop the bottom half of the body (due to unwanted comment and troubles). I really like the exercise; I really got to understand how to apply paint and also knowing more about oil painting from this exercise. It was a fun experience and scary at first. I was thinking to myself how I am going to finish an oil painting in 4 sessions? Plus we can't sketch the figure out first; we had to lay everything out with brush. Hahaha!

St. Patrick's Cathedral

2010-12-02T17:09:00.000-08:00

A drawing I did on set at the St. Patrick's Cathedral between 50-51Street and 5th Avenue. I really enjoyed the trip, and the architectural design was breathtaking. It took a lot of patient to draw part of the church and I can't imagine the people that design and built it. I learn a lot about scale and relation between the structure of the church and the people. I had a lot of fun with this assignment. The sketch is drawn with a micron pen. I hope I can go back and get another chance to work on my composition, perspective, and scale

THE HIGH LINE

2010-11-11T19:07:00.000-08:00

This is some thumbnail sketches I did at The High Line for my documentary class. The assignment is pretending our client is The High Line and does a billboard promoting the High Line. I basically drew the building and the cityscape.

Sketches

2010-11-06T21:01:00.000-07:00

Pencil on rough vellum paper. I did the sketches for my Friday workshop class. I think these are the greatest models I ever have. That's why I like that class so much. Still need to work on the values and face…. Hahaha!

SKETCHES!

2010-11-03T23:24:00.001-07:00

Some of the figure drawings I did in my workshop class. It was great just drawing for three hour and not worrying about anything.

PAN-PAN

2010-11-02T17:27:00.000-07:00

PAN-PAN is a character my twin sister and I came up with together.

Name: PAN-PAN
Height: ?
Hobbie: Destroy things.
Food: Candy, chips, soda, chocolate
Personality: Like to get in trouble
Music: rather sing to himself
Statue: In a relationship (Pandie)

To visit my twin sister's blog, please click on the link below

http://www.wflead.blogspot.com/

IF - THE TIME I SPENT AT THE CENTRAL PARK ZOO

2010-10-30T13:03:00.000-07:00

This is my first time going to the Central Park Zoo; I had a lot of fun and saw a lot of cool animals. I saw snow leopard, monkeys, dolphins, polar bears, seal lions…. The trip was part of my documentary class and I was able to do a few sketches of what I saw.

Sketch from Workshop Class

2010-10-24T21:37:00.000-07:00

Some sketch i did at my workshop class. A great class to study the human figure, anatomy, shapes and value. I had a lot of fun drawing in that class, no pressure, just draw....

Sketches

2010-10-23T16:05:00.000-07:00

Some of the sketches I did in my workshop class.

IF - Prehistoric

2010-10-23T15:52:00.000-07:00

Sketches at the Museum of Natural History

These are some of the sketches I did during my trip at the Museum of Natural History. The assignment is transforming the dinosaur into something else like machine, car, robot, etc. I had a lot of fun with this assignment.

I thought i use it for this week's IF topic.

Die Antwoord

2010-09-27T18:32:00.000-07:00

Recently I finish this assignment for one of my class. This is a portrait of a hip-hop group from South Africa called Die Antwoord. The sketch is in black and white pencil. After painting it in watercolor, I did some touch up in PS and added the flying type in AI. It was a lot of experimenting and I am happy with the result.

Mixed Media: Pen/ink, watercolor, and digital
Material: Watercolor paper
Finish: 10.5”x8.8”

South Street Seaport - THE PERKING

2010-09-23T22:52:00.000-07:00

I drew this during my trip to South Street Seaport for my ILLUSTR AS DOCUMENT ARTIST class. I found this view and perspective to be very interesting. I was trying to capture that moment and spontaneity. The objective was to show scale, so that why I chose to have the comparison between the ship, lamp and the people. I am still practice with marker and hoping to get better at putting precise lines.

Sketch!

2010-09-18T21:20:00.000-07:00

Some sketches I did recently. I try to practice with a micron pen, to teach myself to draw fast and precise. I need to learn to put the eraser aside.

BUY PRINTS!

2010-06-04T19:28:00.001-07:00

You can now purchase my linocut prints at

http://www.xiaomeilin.webs.com/apps/webstore/

ALL MY WEBSITE

2010-05-25T21:00:00.000-07:00

Feel free to visit my websites...

http://www.xiaomeilin.com/ (official website)
http://www.xiaomeilin.blogspot.com/ (here)
http://www.xiaomeilin.webs.com/ (new website)
http://www.wflead.deviantart.com/

My new website

2010-05-25T20:57:00.000-07:00

http://www.xiaomeilin.webs.com/

IF - Early

2010-05-25T20:47:00.000-07:00

"SPRING"

LINOCUT ON NEWSPRINT PAPER

ARTWORK SIZE : 4"X5.5"

Since i saw the topic for this week is "early", the first thing i thought of was the project i had just finish. Lotus is a special flower that blossom early when the sun rises and close up when the night fall and sink back inside the water.

IF - 05.16.2010

2010-05-16T23:20:00.000-07:00

Pen/Ink, and oil on gesso brown board

Just finish this assignment for class, and thought it's a great piece for this week IF topic. I thought the watch and calendar are necessary item for depicting time (in a sense "life"). The eye suggest what we perceive as reality.

BATTLE

2010-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

BATTLE
Digital Painting
CS4 Photoshop

" ROCK N ROLL"

2010-04-18T16:51:00.001-07:00

Jerry Lee Lewis

Size: 6"x9"

Acrylic on Hardboard

Screamin' Jay Hawkins

Size: 6"x9"

Acrylic on Hardboard

IF- Pioneer!

2009-12-29T14:46:00.000-08:00

Oil Paint
Hardboard Panel 10'' x 14''

(Color Comp) http://xiaomeilin.blogspot.com/2009/05/color-comp-coca-cola-label.html

I done this piece just a little while ago and it was my first oil piece. I thought this piece goes well with the theme. Coca Cola is an iconic drink and the name is known around the world. When my professor from school gave an assignment about product design, the first product came to my mind was Coca Cola. It was a very fun experience.

2009-12-22T19:08:00.001-08:00

Visit my new website at

www.xiaomeilin.com

FOUR SEASON!

2009-12-22T18:52:00.000-08:00

"FOUR SEASON"
CS4 Illustrator
5.5"x17"

IF - CAUTION!

2009-08-27T12:17:00.001-07:00

WARNING - CONGESTION !

CS3 ILLUSTRATOR

(PLAYING WITH TYPE)

The Illustration was suppose to fit inside the square box but i decide to alter the square and play with the border to make it more dynamic and fun.

OLD SKETCHES!

2009-08-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

Playing wth TYPE

2009-08-04T21:50:00.000-07:00

IF - Drifting

2009-06-26T00:57:00.001-07:00

9'' x 12''
Acrylic Paint

This is a collaboration with my twin sister, Xiao Hong, who was very busy and unable to draw her idea for this week's topic, so she was kind enough to help me with my piece. Basically this is about someone who wrote a message and put it inside a bottle and let it drift in the ocean until it land on the beach.

“Drifting …almost like it was forever… until it land on the beach.”

You can also check out my sister’s website and check out some of her work for IF.

http://www.wflead.blogspot.com/

IF - CRAVING!

2009-06-11T22:17:00.000-07:00

"My new baby brother"
9'' x 12''
Painter X and Photoshop

The topic of this week is "craving", so I illustrate this story about this little boy named "Tommy", who is struggling that he is no longer the only child. He is feeling jealous because now he has to share his parents' love and attention with his new baby brother, "Kyle". He want to show his parents his new super hero outfit, but they are too busy putting the baby to sleep. I think a lot of children experience this before and many parents can also see their kids went through this too.

ME!

2009-06-03T12:30:00.000-07:00

Self Portrait Poster
Adobe Illustrator
Designing with Type

This is a poster of myself, I did this all in types using Illustrator. I purposely choose the narrow rectangular shape, so it draws your eyes from top to bottom instinctively. The purpose of this project is to learn how to promote yourself, designing with typography, and C.R.A.P. (contrast, repetition, alignment, proximity). ~Haha. I learned a lot in that class.

ROOT OF KNOWLEDGE

2009-05-31T19:47:00.000-07:00

Acrylic Paint

Illustration Board 9'' x 7''

This is just a color comp, not a finish painting. I struggle a lot on this project because we have to come up with the theme and title of our choices. The painting must be memorable and believable. The concept has to be effective and mean something. I have no problem painting but it was tough when I have to come up with the theme and title. The tree represents the growth of knowledge. There are lanterns hanging on the tree that symbols "knowledge" and the people represent those that give us the knowledge that we have. I chose a dark background so that the colors of the lantern create different light sources.

IF - Cracked

2009-05-28T19:16:00.000-07:00

Acrylic Paint
Hardboard Panel 9'' x 12''

When I first saw the topic was cracked, I thought of a broken hourglass with sand falling. The hourglass represent "time" falling in space and I chose to use a moody sky because I think it work. It is about the feeling how sometime you want to stop time and stay in that moment longer, but time will not actually stop in real life and the sand falling through the finger represents that. You can’t freeze time just like you can't hold on to the sand with your hand because eventually, it just falls between your fingers.

DESIGNING WITH TYPE

2009-05-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

COLOR COMP - Coca Cola Label

2009-05-25T22:08:00.000-07:00

This is a color comp for one of my assignment. I want to do a color study and work out the value before i do the finish on oil. This was a very fun assignment. The professor gave the class two choice for this assignment; package design for a product or something to do with anatomy. So i chose to make an illustration for Coca Cola. I did this color comp because some of my reference were black and white and i thought it would be easier for me if i figure out the colors, instead of struggling when i do the finish in oil paint.

Sketch at M.O.M.A

2009-05-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

I drew this at the M.O.M.A while I was working on my assignment for my art history class. At the same time while I was drawing him, the guy was drawing someone in the museum also. This was a one min sketch and I really like how some of my quick sketches come out more freely than other drawings that I spent a lot of time on.

Drapery Study

2009-05-21T16:47:00.000-07:00

I was trying to get a better understanding of value. I think it came out okay, but I still need to get better at it.

IF - SEED

2008-05-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

This was a school project that we had to do and the professor took the theme "seed" from Illustration Friday.