Finished this piece with my newly bought gouache tubes. A bit weird though, having so got used to watercolor. This dark bird has a fantail and I wonder how it feels being amid of colorful flowers. Hmm ain't black is one of the colors too?

Yesterday, I bought this huge book, some sort of encyclopedia book of natural organism on earth. I love painting birds, flowers, butterflies, and I want to know what I paint; name, species, breed, and their natural habitat. And while finding this book brought thrill and excitement to me, there is one section of this book that I want to get rid of… for good. The reptiles section, that is. Oh God knows how scared I am of those things, so I asked hubby to glue all the pages that has snakes and worms picture in it, and poor hubby, he had to go through all six hundred over pages to filter out those haha.
This is a yellow-bellied prunia bird, found in South East Asia. I adore the yellow-bellied with a contrast darker shade on its head and back.

Always wanted to start drawing something in monochrome, and since I have this brand new blue acrylic ink, why not?

I took these pebbles from a beach in Nice, when we visited Europe in October. Hubby looked at me strangely, unsure if he heard it right when I said I wanted to bring home these pebbles haha. Now I wish I brought back more pebbles, so many things I want to paint on them ^o^ Painted two of them a few days back.

Lately, I've been obsessed with balcony design. If you're living in an apartment without a backyard, that little outdoor space is definitely a private oasis for some fresh air.

Since our flat isn't ready yet, we still have almost a year to figure out how we're gonna design it. Hmm I'm thinking… lots and lots of fairy lights haha and it's gonna end up looking like an all-year-round Christmas day :p Aah but one thing for sure, I want our balcony to be decorated with flowers.

Another part of the house I really like (other than balcony) is window sill. You can place flower pots on it, or candles, and it will look gorgeous.

~ One of my favorite, lily of the valley ~

Many cute florists in Japan, didn't matter whether I was in a hurry or not, I always stopped by and just looked at all those fresh, lovely flowers.

~ 8 August 2008 ~

~ 19 October 2008 ~

:: Aoyama Flower Market ::

December 2005
:: Painted this for my dad, as a gift. He likes orchid, and I could see that orchid is his passion ::
~Oil on canvas~

:: Mom's favorite painting ::

.: Original post can be read here :.

Two paintings below are from photos, taken at Disney Sea, the second time I went there. The first time was with my fullcast friends in Summer 2007, it was a hell lot of fun. The second time was when my mom visited Japan in January 2008. We went there with my brother, just the three of us. Inside, I was so... thrilled to see a HUGE garden full of various kinds of tulips. So amazed *yeah my first time to see so many tulips, my fave flower* that I asked my brother - not really a fan of nature beauty - to take a lot of pics of me with the tulip garden until he grew impatient sheesh... If I went alone, I would love to just stare at those fabulous tulips and... just be there!

:: Oil on Canvas ::
80 x 60 cm
~February 2009~
.: Tulip Garden at Disney Sea :.

:: Watercolor ::
24 x 32 cm 
~May 22, 2009~ 
.: Disney Sea :.

.: The original post here :.

:: Watercolor ::
~May 19, 2009~
.: Orchid :.

:: Watercolor ::
~May 21, 2009~
Orchids in the Backyard

I love Sakura and going to hanami (cherry blossoms/sakura viewing) was exciting and fun. The paintings really don't do justice here. You should feel the atmosphere at hanami. So alive.

These paintings were drawn from reference photos that I took when I went to hanami with my friends in the year 2008.

In every watercolor book, there is this mini project where you can follow the step by step of how the artist accomplish their drawing. So I followed one of the mini projects and here's the result.