Over the summer, I participated in the Intro to Architecture course at Columbia University GSAPP. Here are a few images from some of my material studies. I chose to work with thermostat cable.

Finally got around to posting this one. Sorry it took so long!

“Chasing History”
Client: KoreAm Journal
AD: Michelle Woo
June 2009

In context:

And the finished painting from May:

Thanks to a tutorial by Dani Jones, I’ve created a portfolio specifically for viewing on mobile phones! I personally have an iPhone and find it annoying when I can’t look at someone’s artwork because their website is Flash (including mine), especially when I’m bored waiting somewhere or I want to show someone else. This makes it so much easier to share on the go.

m.kaitlinchoi.com

For the Spring ‘09 issue of Hyphen, a well-designed, fun, and informational non-profit Asian American magazine. The illustrations depict Asian American family statistics. AD: Erica Loh

In context:

Thanks Erica! The infographic looks great.

I also just completed an illo for the next issue of KoreAm Journal so I’ll post it up when it comes out.

[You can see the drawing for this HERE.]

I decided to paint a younger Vonnegut with brown hair so that it didn’t turn out to look like a portrait of Mark Twain (with his white hair and mustache) because he looks so much like him. In addition to their resemblance, it makes sense that there have been comparisons between the two writers. Vonnegut was apparently a big fan of Mark Twain, and even named his son after him.

On a technical note, this marks the first time that I’ve drawn and painted curly hair. It was tedious, but fun and not at all as intimidating as I would have thought it to be in the past. It’s also the first time to paint a birdcage, a typewriter, an ashtray.

I’ve been working on this painting since the beginning of February. It’s definitely been a learning process. I’ve painted in oils before but it was mostly copying from a photograph or two.

It’s been a conscious decision to finish this oil painting before I begin a new one, to take what I’ve learned to make the next one go easier, faster and hopefully better. I’m also hoping to take what I learn and apply some of it to when I work in gouache. I tend to render a lot and go darker in oils, but keep everything flat and light in gouache. I want some kind of happy medium between the two.

Probably the most important thing I’ve learned so far: don’t use pencil underneath. My professor told me that and so did the book The Complete Oil Painter [highly recommended!]. Pencil is practically impossible to cover and it shows more over time as the paint layers become more translucent. Oops, I already started painting before I knew that.

However, I’ve rediscovered drawing with a plain ol’ No. 2 pencil - rendering more, making more of the decisions there. In the drawing for this painting, I didn’t go into detail on the face or the demons and I’ve been having to figure it out as I paint them. It would have saved some time and frustration if I had worked it out first. As a result, I’ve been pushing to make my drawings more detailed. It also helps that I’m having more fun with it than I have in a long time.

I hope to have this painting done before the month is over.

Even though I’m enjoying oil painting, I need a break from it. [Not a break from stripes though - they're currently my obsession.]

I’ve been wanting to do a portrait of a writer for a while now and thought this would be a perfect time to finally do it.

I chose Kurt Vonnegut because I’ve read more of his books in the recent past so his writing voice and drawings are still vivid in my mind. He’s definitely an interesting character and I just knew I’d enjoy making an illustration of him. He also happens to be the opposite of the Asian girls I’ve been drawing lately.

The birdcage is an homage to Mr. Vonnegut’s screen prints.

I’ll be painting this in gouache.

I’m taking what I thought would be a painting course. It’s turned out to be a conceptual illustration class and this is for the first assignment, to illustrate a state of mind.

So here I am.

I’m still learning how to build a website so I thought it would be best to get a blog up and running in the meantime.

I hope to be updating with things that I’m working on and things that I find of interest.

You can also find me on Flickr, Twitter, Illustration Mundo and DeviantArt via the links to the left.