Julia Kuo's Blog, page 4

ICON, Portland

ICON Illustration Conference occurs every two years and is full of great talent. This year ICON was held at the Portland Art Museum.

I spent most my high school and college years pouring over Giant Robot magazines. Giant Robot started out as an Asian American pop art/music/culture zine, and eventually became a group of gallery shops. At one point there was even a GReats restaurant!

I was trained very traditionally as a kid, copying classic paintings in watercolor and oil paint. But when I started reading Giant Robot, everything changed. I’d never been so obsessed with anything before. Young artists like Kozyndan, Souther Salazar, James Jean, Seonna Hong were all making a living drawing the coolest paintings I’d ever seen. I started driving down for gallery openings once I learned how to drive! (I was probably a terrible teenage driver, sorry Sawtelle Blvd) 

Giant Robot magazine is no longer in print, although some of the galleries and shops are still around. While I didn’t end up going into gallery art, many of the Giant Robot artists have since crossed over into illustration and other forms of commercial art. To go to a conference now and realize that hundreds of people in the same room know who James Jean and Yoshitomo Nara are is surreal. And to hear Souther Salazar speak about his little creatures to an admiring, packed audience is even more amazing. I think it’s a good sign that I’m in the right place =)

Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum

I went to the Chicago Botanic Artists’ monthly sketching session. The group usually does still-life type drawings over the winter, but warmer weather means going outside! I found an oak tree, and a field trip of elementary school kids found me. They were very sweet and encouraging. “You’re doing a really good job!”

The Field Museum

Sketching with TK and VF at the Field. The flying fox and squirrels exhibit has what looks like a crushed taxodermied squirrel…it’s a little creepy. Should we tell someone about it?

Fun facts from wikipedia! 
Wombat - found in Australia in a variety of habitats. They are a nocturnal and solitary animal, digging tunnel systems for their burrows. 
Indian Flying Fox - a type of fruit bat. Its diet consists of eating ripe fruits like mangoes or bananas or licking nectar from flowers. 
Goliath Beetle -  at 2.4-4.3 inches (for males), they are among the largest insects on earth. Their first pair of wings are for protection and the second pair are actually used for flying. Males have the Y shaped horn on their heads for fighting. 

The Field Museum

A nice sketching session with TK and VF before heading off to C2E2 and getting some snazzy stickers.

Because it’s always fun to look these up and find some fun facts via my pal Wikipedia:

Crowned crane - The grey crowned crane is the national bird of Uganda. These are the only cranes to be able to nest in trees, thanks to a long hind toe that can grab onto branches. These cranes will inflate that little (red) sack under its chin as part of a breeding display. 

Hog Badger - A “near threatened” species mostly found in Thailand and north-east India, as well as other parts of southeast Asia and southern China. 

Tammar Wallaby - Found in southern and western Australia, this is the smallest wallaby (about the size of a rabbit!) I thought this was especially interesting: “ The tammar has several notable adaptations, including the ability to retain energy while hopping, colour vision and the ability to drink seawater.” 

The Field Museum

Sketching at the Field with the biggest group ever. Good idea/bad idea?
We loved looking at these little delicate creatures and their spindly, long necks! 

The Field Museum

Sketch session at the Field with TK. I guess that the drawing style I tried out at Banff is coming out in my sketchbook; I’ve never sketched like this before. It’s fun to get value with pen without looking messy, but I should probably look into more ways or maybe a brush pen so that I don’t develop carpal tunnel.