watercolour inspiration + DIY Bubble Lamp

I've been wanting to make stuff and post on my blog forever but work has been crazy lately (I'm practically sleeping there) so it feels like it's been a longgggg while my friends. But here I am, back again - this time with some inspiration from other sources. I have to admit that even though I love drawing, I really don't know that much about art AT ALL... I can probably count on one hand the number of artists I can actually name (uh... Picasso? Van Gogh?) and I have to say that I sadly don't know any art techniques... I just... experiment and make it up as I go along. So lately, I've been really amazed at artists who use WATERCOLOUR because I don't know how to paint. 

Since I have been a work-zombie lately, I've been much more prone to observe art than to make it. So here are two sources of inspiration that have amazed me lately. The first is actually from a style look-book that I picked up for free at MONKI (a really cool European clothing store). Aside from an awesome clothing collection, the look-book also featured different artists and even had a DIY idea for a BUBBLE LAMP. I'm totally going to make one for my permanent home in the future but for now, I thought I'd share the idea with you all... so I took photos of the instructions haha.

The look-book also came with a free art poster by a UK artist named Laura Laakso. I think she uses watercolour and pen for her drawings... I love the chilly winter style of her illustrations and I think they're fabulous!!! I put the poster up under my own little doodle frames (which by the way, have verses written in them now... also sources of inspiration for when the going gets tough).  =)

 My second piece of art inspiration comes from PageONE, an English bookstore in HK. Last weekend, I spent more than an hour in there by myself, wandering through every section just looking for books to catch my eye (yes, I was judging them by their covers, bahahaha). I ended up buying a book called Smile, please by a local HK artist named Jeanie Leung. She's a girl who had a job in finance but then quit to become an artist (that's inspiring in itself! haha). Her picture book is all about finding contentment and one's identity - I feel like it's really more of a story for adults and I really liked its message. I also liked the book because the characters kind of reminded me of the fat-faced cartoon people that I draw. 

Just looking at the pictures inspired me to try watercolour painting so the next day I went and bought watercolour paints... and today, I FINALLY had a little time to experiment with them. Honestly though, I had no idea what I was doing and it was really hard haha... I think I'm quite impatient when it comes to painting even though I know it takes years of practice and I can't expect to be good at it right away. I ended up just making a giant green blob on a piece of paper... haha PAINTING FAIL... but at least I made up a quote to write on my green blob and make it look half-decent. Do you like it? (ironically, the quote I thought up is all about patience). haha. 

Anyway, I hope you were also inspired by these artists... I expect you all to go make your own bubble lamps now.