Gung Hay Fat Choy

Ripley wishes you a Happy (Chinese lunar) New Year, it’s the year of the dog.
Which is pretty much every year, around here.
My friend Armand Frasco asked me if I might be doing a drawing in my Moleskine for the annual event and I told him that I most likely would. So if you haven’t been over to Moleskinerie today, you should take a look at his China links.

Drawing details:
This was drawn and painted in my Cahier-sized Moleskine, which I mentioned a few days ago. So this drawing is actually 15″ x 10″. I used watercolor Tombow markers for the details on the dragon to save the time of using a small brush. Ripley was painted using my regular tube paints, plus some colored pencils. I added the banners after the dragons using my brush pen, but then looked at it and realized that white banners looked rather bland. At that point there was no choice but to add the color in Photoshop after scanning, or I would have smeared the ink.

Comments

  1. Hashi
    January 27, 2006

    Very cool! Are you going to the Dragon Parade on Saturday 4th? I think I will.

  2. Lin
    January 27, 2006

    VERY VERY FUN!! And a happy Chinese New Year to you and Ripley!

  3. Karen
    January 27, 2006

    Hashi, yes I think we probably will if work things don’t interfere …

    Thank you, Lin, and a happy one to you, too!

  4. joyce
    January 27, 2006

    Wow, I love this! Ripley’s got a dragon tongue there! Really a neat page—did the large book have the thick sketchbook type paper?

  5. Karen
    January 27, 2006

    Joyce, no, unfortunately it’s as thin as the journal paper, so I gessoed the paper first before drawing and painting so it wouldn’t bleed through. But I like the large size.

  6. Liveavatar
    January 27, 2006

    Both the dragon and the dog look so happy! Ripley = cheerful dragon dog.

  7. James
    January 28, 2006

    woha the dog is so nicely done, tho the tongue looks a lil bit too long!

  8. Marie-Dom
    January 28, 2006

    beautiful “illustration”. I love your dog. You did a wonderful portrait there.
    MD

  9. deb
    January 28, 2006

    I love this. I think I will head down to Chinatown this week.

    d

  10. Detlef
    January 28, 2006

    You’ve really excelled here – the compositional aspects are grand, great balance almost shaped (either knowingly or sub-consciously) to resemble Ying and Yang. The mix of strong colour in the top half and more muted palette down below. Top dog here!!

  11. Jan
    April 3, 2008

    Everytime I come back and look at your work I am truly amazed. You give me the drive to keep painting. Thank You!

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