Yuka's Blog

Burnie Fuchs (1932 - 2009)

2009-09-22T19:02:00.000-07:00

One of my heroes just passed away.
His name was Bernie Fuchs.

He passed away on Sep. 17th at the age of 76.

I actually had a chance to go see one of his gallery shows last year in Telluride, CO. I bought tickets to fly, but couldn't find any affordable place to stay since Telluride is a popular vacation spot for rich people. So, I couldn't go, but I ordered flowers from a local flower shop there and sent them to the gallery for the show's opening.

According to the woman who helped me find the flower shop, he was a little surprised to see flowers from a fan who he never met or even heard of. He still accepted them, and the lady said she also gave him my e-mail address. I was excited and thought I might receive an e-mail from him one day, but it never happened. He could have already beeen sick at that time. The lady still made my day by letting me know that the Bernie Fuchs got the flowers and my e-mail address from her.

I lost my chance to meet him forever, but I still have the chance to experience his beautiful paintings in person and I am really looking forward to doing that.

If you would like to know more about him, click here or here.

Birhday

2009-09-06T12:23:00.000-07:00

It was my 28th Birthday yesterday.
My husband took me to the Cheesecake Factory.
Look at this decoration! :)

Back in California

2009-08-31T08:24:00.000-07:00

We are in San Jose now!

It's really hot here every day!
According to my husband (who lost 10lb in 3 weeks while I was gone), it got much hotter the day I arrived.

According to my friend in Cleveland, it started raining right after I left.

So, my husband said...

"Ohio cries when Yuka leaves,
and California smiles when she arrives."

LOL

He can be such a corny bastard sometimes!

This is now a favorite restaurant of mine.
PLUTO'S specializes in salads.
We usually order salads with one kind of meat and seven different toppings.

Yum yum...

Flowers are blooming like crazy here! :)

Good bye Cleveland

2009-08-31T08:16:00.000-07:00

One lady from AG offered me a ride to the airport.
Zipper really liked her, and she really liked him too.
It was really sweet of her to offer.

Thank you so much! > G

Last day at work

2009-08-31T07:18:00.000-07:00

Time passes so quickly when you're having fun.

Can you believe this?
Two ladies from the conventional team organized a surprise farewell party for me!! I had no idea! Donuts, fruits, cookies, bagel, muffins, quiche...

Thank you sooooo much!!! > Connie & Cynthia ♥

This guy even baked blueberry muffins! :D
It was surprisingly good.
Thanks! > J

This lady made this delicious bite-size quiche.
Thank you! > T

My two bosses.
Thank you! > D & J

...and THANK YOU for everyone!

I had such a great time at American Greetings this summer.

(This was my way to say "thank you" for the team.)
(This was another way.) I was there for only 10 weeks, but it took me a few extra hours to clean and empty my cube.

Good bye American Greetings!
Good bye Cleveland!
I would love to be back one day!

Musical "She loves me"

2009-08-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Another weekend, I went to see a musical called "She loves me" at a small theater called rabbit run theater. It was a cute little theater, and the show was great! The main character was performed by one of the card planner I worked with at AG, and I went there with couple other people from AG too.

Thank you! > E & D

Photo with the star of the night.

You were great! > B

Museum and Chinese food

2009-08-25T19:59:00.000-07:00

This one weekend, I went to the Cleveland museum of art with my friends.We had no idea, but they had the Asian Family Festival Day!
And then, we went to a Chinese restaurant.

It was so good!

We had a good time.

As you see, we really had a good time! lol
V & G

V & Me

They are awesome! :D

Dave & Buster's

2009-08-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

2009 Summer Interns
(Not all of them. Only some.)

American Greetings took all the summer interns to a place called Dave & Buster's one day. I had no idea what kind of place it was at first, and then someone told me that this place is like Chuck E' Cheese's. I thought I was too old for that, and wanted to stay at work, doing more card planning. However, my boss and the mentor encouraged me to go, and I did.

I am so glad I did!
As you see in the photos, I had lots of fun!
(...and tickets!)
My new friend Aletha gave me her tickets so I have enough tickets to get THIS!
A pink poodle note book! :D

Thank yoooou Aletha!

ICHIRO

2009-08-02T08:25:00.001-07:00

A HERO from JAPAN!

The Seattle didn't win...
but ICHIRO was still awesome!

It was very exciting to see him.

Indians vs Seattle Mariners

2009-08-02T08:13:00.000-07:00

This one day, the AG took all the interns to an Indians game.

I am not a huge sports fun, but it was alright. I sure enjoyed seeing ICHIRO, having three hot dogs and BEER! :D

(It was a dollar-hot-dog day!)

ICHIROOOO!

Flowers

2009-08-01T12:50:00.000-07:00

Weekend project! :D
Wait and see what I am going to do with these flowers.

Farrah Fawcett

2009-08-01T10:45:00.000-07:00

Farrah Fawcett
by
YUKA

...I miss my scanner and the wacome tablet!

Dancing

2009-08-01T09:28:00.001-07:00

V & G
Dancing

My old (age) goofy friend

2009-08-01T09:06:00.000-07:00

We are such good friends!
Aren't we? >Garth

LOL

Farmer's Market

2009-07-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

I also went to the farmer's market last week.
Yes, it was a very hot day!
Can you see Zipper's cute pink tough sticking out?
It was such a fun day!
(I am very sure you can see that from this pic. lol)
I met a few people from AG at the farmer's market.
One of them actually recognized me because of Zipper.

This was the fanciest pop-corn I ever had in my life!
Soooo yummy! :)

Sushi Rock in Cleveland

2009-07-19T12:41:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, I went to a restaurant called "Sushi Rock" in down town Cleveland. According to my friend, this is one of the best sushi restaurant in Cleveland. However, the interior decoration was more impressive than the food for me.

Shrimp appetizer was so good!
...but it wasn't Japanese.
This was more like a Chinese dish.
(I like Chinese food, but I usually go to a Chinese restaurant to have them, not at a Japanese restaurant!)

Sushi was alright.
Well, their Uni (sea-urchin) wasn't so good.
The salmon was good though!

BIG!

2009-07-13T17:43:00.000-07:00

Look what I found at AG last week!

A HUGE CANDLE! LOL
(Yes, it is my Venti cup right next it.)

And here is Zipper.

This huge candle was just sitting on a table in the hall way at AG. I have no idea what they needed this for...but it made me laugh! :D

China Town in Cleveland

2009-07-06T18:51:00.001-07:00

Yes, this is it! LOL
No, not really...but this is one of the two Asian supermarket in down town Cleveland my friend took me to on some weekends.
This store was big enough and I found Chinese, Japanese, and Korean groceries here.

Yum yum...

Tyfun Thai Bistro

2009-07-05T08:40:00.000-07:00

I still can't forget how good this was!!
This was a seafood curry steamed in a banana leaf bowl.
Soooo good!! I hope I will have a chance to go back to this bistro before I leave Cleveland. You must try this if you live close enough to this address:

815 Jefferon Ave.
Cleveland, OH44113
(216) 664-1000

Sailor Girl

2009-07-01T19:28:00.001-07:00

Sketch time~
Enjoy the summer!

Zipper sleeping at work

2009-06-24T17:59:00.000-07:00

Here is Zipper sleeping on his new panda-bed on top of the dog cushion I bought for him.My good friend/ex-roommate gave me this very cute panda cushion. Thanks! > BIN The teddy bear was a sweet gift from Zipper's new friend Terry. Thanks! >Terry (Terry also let him borrow the white monkey.)

Yes, Zipper is spoiled quite a bit.

Flowers

2009-06-24T17:53:00.000-07:00

I also got this waiting for me in my cube.
Thank you Susan! :)

Ice Cream + even more welcome

2009-06-22T16:42:00.000-07:00

Someone made these balloon ice cream and paper corn for the "ice cream social" to welcome me and Zipper for their teams! :) We also got a bag of welcome gifts. Yummy treats for Zipper, Starbucks gift card (w/ nice design) , note pads, and somebody's favorite pen!

How can you NOT love these people? :D

The Welcome board

2009-06-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Isn't this the sweetest thing?
This is the welcome board I found in my cube on my first day at AG!

They even had a toy for Zipper!

American Greetings

2009-06-20T18:11:00.001-07:00

Here is my dream company.
American Greetings

Arriving Cleveland

2009-06-20T13:41:00.000-07:00

I finally got the photos to show! :)This is just out side of the airport.

It was such a pretty day.

Here is everything I brought with me to Cleveland.

My hotel room.

My First Poodle card!?

2009-06-19T20:19:00.000-07:00

I get to plan and design a poodle card now! :D
Of course it has to be a girl poodle, since there is no such a thing as a boy poodle in the greeting card industry,according to my boss!

Oh well, one day...!!

One day...I will make a poodle card which is not white or pink! Hah!

My First week in Cleveland

2009-06-12T18:58:00.000-07:00

It's been two weeks since I left San Francisco. Too bad, I can't upload any photos of Cleveland yet, but I will as soon as I find a way to do it! My first week here had been great! Well, except the fact that I got really sick on Thursday night...

Here is the summary of my first week in Cleveland:

1st day : Arrival / Saturday

Zipper was such a good boy on the airplanes!
I only had a couple hours to pack before I left because I went to see the new PIXAR movie "UP" and it was worth it. If you still haven't seen it yet, go see it ASAP before somebody spoils it for you! It is such an amazing movie.

2nd day : Getting ready for work / Sun

There is a mall within walking distance from the hotel I am staying at. The neighborhood is quite nice, especially for Zipper. Lots of potty areas for him!

3rd Day : First day at work! / Mon

I took a cab to work. It wasn't cheap, but I got there 40 min before the orientation started. So, I was just hanging around in front of the building, letting Zipper smell around, and took some photos of the building and the logo. Apparently, this old cranky security guard didn't like it, and he sent one of younger (well, not so young, but younger than him) security guards to talk to me.

Oops...am I trouble?

No, I wasn't, but it scared me for a second.
I didn't want to cause any trouble on my very first day at work!

Anyway, I did attend my orientation with the other interns, and found that most of them are from Cleveland. Some of them have done this before, and the girl sitting next to me at the orientation told me that this was her 4th year there! I felt very lucky to be there on that day.

I met my first boss and she is just awesome! Can you guess what I saw in my cube on that day? I can't wait to show the photos, but I found a "welcome board" with everybody's name and artwork on it! They even had a tiny board and a toy to welcome Zipper, too. So, I'll be working in a "Juvenile" team for the first few weeks, under this awesome boss, and my sweet team mates.

I got a ride home from my other boss the same day. She even took me to TARGET and a grocery store before she dropped me off.

People here are SO NICE!!

4th day : 2nd day at work -first meeting & first assignment- / Tues

I attended my very first meeting! It was more like a lecture class, and one of my bosses was teaching it. She is very knowledgeable, and I learned a lot about paper stocks and printing techniques (finishes) which was very exciting for me. By the way, Zipper had a two visitors during that meeting. Someone I met at the meeting knew about Zipper before I was introduced to her, too. Thank you Zipper, for making my life more fun and sweet!

I also got my very first assignment on that day! Yay!
My first assignment is to "plan" (design) a "baby's first" card. That is all I can say right now, but I thought this is a perfect assignment for me.

Can you believe that people I will be working with threw an "ice cream party" for me? They did! Someone even used balloons and papers to create "balloon ice cream", too! And I got more gifts, including a Starbucks gift card and a bag of bone treats for Zipper.

Like I said, people here are SO VERY NICE!

5th day : 3rd day at work / Wed

More meetings to attend, more people to meet, more and more to learn about greeting card design and business!

6th day: 4th day at work / Thu

More meetings. More assignments too! I got my second and the third assignment.

Starting to feel wired in the afternoon. (I thought I was too hungry.) I was going to have dinner with my friend (ex-roommate) that night, but couldn't. I started to feel even worse in her car, and asked her to drive me back to the hotel. She told me to give her a call if I would need something, or need help.

I got really sick. I won't talk about the details, but really sick... so, I called the front desk first. Unfortunately, there were no doctors who could come to my room and see me. So, I decided to go to a hospital. My friend came back right away to pick me up, and we went to the ER of the nearest hospital together.

Long story short, I picked up some kind of virus!

7th day : Fist sick day at work / Fri

Since my sickness was caused by viruses, all I could do to get better was rest, and maybe drinking lots of water and ginger ale. I at least got medications for nausea, and people at the hospital were SO NICE too.

8th Day : Sat

I was feeling better.
My boss and people from the front desk called me and asked me if I need anything. It's been a week in Cleveland, but people are just SO NICE here.

Well, this is my first week here in Cleveland.

Graduation!

2009-06-05T13:44:00.001-07:00

Thanks for everybody!
Especially to the photographer KEY! :)

Textile Class - Last Day

2009-05-31T21:30:00.000-07:00

It was a fun class! :)
I would love to do the textile design (prints) again.

Thanks for my talented classmates, and my teacher Lina.

I can't believe that this was almost 3 weeks ago!

Textile Final

2009-05-12T03:10:00.000-07:00

These are the swatches I made for my textile final.

テキスタイルの授業の最終課題用に作った物です。

Call for Entries for AAU students & Graduates

2009-04-29T23:00:00.000-07:00

I thought I should share this information with others.
If you ever drew or painted him as a model, try to enter your piece! :)

Good luck.

Zipper

2009-04-26T23:32:00.001-07:00

Today's Zipper

Lucky me!

2009-04-19T16:12:00.000-07:00

I bought 2 books at the AAU library on Friday.
Lucky me! I always wanted to get all the "Illustrators" books from the Society of Illustrators, but the old issues were never easy to find for an affordable price. Thanks, AAU library!

Easter Gift　（イースター・ギフト）

2009-04-10T22:16:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter to you all! :)
I made a personal Easter card and used it as a part of the gift bag design. I used Illustrator to make the image, printed it on 90lb Matte paper, and did the die cut by hand. The concept is Zipper saying "Hi" behind the Easter eggs. I had lots of fun making these gift bags for my good friends.

Starting from this post, I am going to write in both English and Japanese.

(The following is in Japanese)

今日から二カ国語放送（？）でお送りいたします！
英語が苦手な方もこれでOK（＾０＾v

今週の日曜日はイースター（復活祭）です。日本ではそれほどメジャーじゃない祝日ですが、アメリカではほとんどのお店がお休みになる日です。詳しくは、こちらをご覧下さい。とにかく、そういうわけで今回も愛犬ジッパーをモチーフにカードを制作致しました。そして、そのカードを市販のギフトバッグに入れて、チョコレートエッグを中心に色々詰め込んでみました！これを日頃お世話になっている学校の先生や職員の方達に贈ったのですが、とても喜んで貰えました♬こういう物を作っている時が一番楽しいかも。

Zipper T-shirt

2009-04-06T01:06:00.000-07:00

Color Samples. Which one do you like the best?

Zipper 02 - 02

2009-03-31T21:31:00.000-07:00

I changed colors for this one to match with the first one (Zipper 01). This looks more retro than the first version, and I like it.

Zipper 02

2009-03-31T00:35:00.000-07:00

Yes, Zipper is a tea-cup poodle (Means he could fit in a tea cup when he was a real puppy)! I didn't realize this before, but now I see them in the smaller size, that one hair on the right side bothers me. I may either take it out completely, or add a couple more on the other side.

Zipper 01 - w/Thicker Outline

2009-03-30T20:11:00.000-07:00

I took an advice from my friend Yan, and made the outline thicker. I think he was right. This looks better! Thank you, Yan! :)

Now, I need to work on the letters.

Zipper 01

2009-03-29T18:50:00.000-07:00

Practicing with Illustrator.

I tried to use limited flat colors to finish this, for prints.
Letters may need to be changed.

Visual Note 01

2009-03-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

This is the page I finished today, for my textile class. I got an inspiration from this image in the center, and did the thumbnails around it. I like the very last one I did, which is the one on the bottom right.

Textile - Heat Transfer Printing

2009-03-26T00:06:00.000-07:00

I enjoy my textile class a lot. These are the swatches I made by using a technique called "Heat Transfer Printing" and I loved this technique!

View

Splash

Autumn Leaves

Violet Circles

Flower Flakes

Need Help! - Business Card

2009-03-22T01:49:00.000-07:00

I need feedback from you!
Please help me with my business card design!

The time is around 4am, and I have been working on my business card design for at least 5 hours straight by now. Am I even on the right track? Is my design too childlike, or unprofessional? I would like to know what other people think, so please give me any comment!

Thank you for your time.

NightLife

2009-03-20T12:50:00.001-07:00

BAD girls! BEER at a museum?!

Well, this was last night (Thursday night) and we were there for what's called "Night Life" at the Academy of Science. This is such a cool idea! You can enter for $10 (Normal fee for adults is $24.95 during the day) and listen to music, eat, drink, and enjoy the museum with the help of alcohol! I want to thank my friend Annie for letting me know about this.

This is a photo of my friend Candace and I waiting in the line to get into the Rain Forest exhibit. Zipper could get into the museum no problem, but couldn't enter this area. This is the only area he couldn't get in, and it was total understandable. You don't want to bring anything unusual into the rain forest area. We had to finish our beer really quick too, before we got in!

We saw so many amazing things there, including the Sea Dragon. They are extremely sensitive to cameras, even without the flash! I saw a guy taking a photo with his iPhone without the flash, and made one twitch!
( ※I got this photo online.)

So, NO PHOTOS! You don't want to become the "lucky" one to kill one!
They cost $3800/ each!

Isn't he gorgeous? I love sea dragons! They are so beautiful!

Prototype

2009-03-20T12:43:00.000-07:00

This is a quick peek of what I am going to make for this coming Easter. I bought the plastic gift bag from Ichiban-Kan, and put some chocolate eggs, and a sketch of Zipper. Now I have to finish the illustration in color, and find a perfect ribbon for this.

Pastel

2009-03-16T21:57:00.000-07:00

I just found a bunch of pastel drawings I did a couple years ago.
This last one is done in pastel and the photoshop.

Pastel makes a lot of mess, and makes me sneeze a lot, but creates very soft and warm effects which I like a lot!

I think Gary Kelly and Mark English are the two true masters in pastel. THEY ARE JUST AMAZING! I was very fortunate to meet them in person and pick their brains.

http://www.illustrationacademy.com/GaryKelley.htm
http://www.illustrationacademy.com/MarkEnglish.htm

I also like what Gordon Silveria, my former instructor does in pastel. He does wonderful pastel life drawings! Unfortunately, I couldn't find the site to show his works...

Textile - Flowers

2009-03-08T19:10:00.001-07:00

This is the latest assignment I did for my textile class.

Technique : Pro Reactive Dyes

...and then, I used a technique called Photographic Silkscreen to do an overlay, by using opaque white+ a tiny bit of yellow paint.

Painting directly onto the fabric was a lot of fun! :)
Now I need to iron it, and then crop it to make a textile swatch.

Textile - Eggs

2009-03-07T22:15:00.000-08:00

Technique: Silkscreen
Printed : 02/27/09

Sketch from an artist friend (Ben Seto)

2009-03-07T18:53:00.000-08:00

Such a great hat!!! :D
He draws very cute Anime/Manga style girls.
Thank you very much! > Ben

You can check his other stuff at http://www.blacksheepcomics.com/ and
http://benseto.blogspot.com/2009/01/my-master-peice-prime.html

Self Portrait

2009-03-05T02:25:00.000-08:00

Painted in 2008.
Instructor : Kazu Sano

I had lots of fun creating this piece.

Looks very different from this water color piece, right?

Poodle Girl

2009-03-03T00:03:00.000-08:00

I haven't decided how to color this yet, but I'll probably use Illustrator and Photoshop, just like the "Egg Girl" I did for Easter.

Pink Hair

2009-02-28T17:54:00.000-08:00

I like painting girls hair pink, even though I have never seen a girl look good with pink hair in real, I would love to see it someday.

Egg Girl (for Easter) #1

2009-02-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

I drew this girl for the Easter.
Happy Egg Day! (Why Eggs, anyway!?)

I used illustrator first, then photoshop for touch-ups.

CowGirls!

2009-02-26T22:43:00.000-08:00

I did 2 really rough sketches for the GDG (Girls Drawing Girls) Blog! (It was the weekly theme.) I am still practicing with the Wacom tablet...

Welcome to Yuka's Bolg

2009-02-25T04:15:00.000-08:00

This is a blog about my art works, inspirations, and other fun stuff. I am very excited to finally start this blog. Thanks for looking!

Yuka's Blog

Burnie Fuchs (1932 - 2009)

Birhday

Back in California

Good bye Cleveland

Last day at work

Musical "She loves me"

Museum and Chinese food

Dave & Buster's

ICHIRO

Indians vs Seattle Mariners

Flowers

Farrah Fawcett

Dancing

My old (age) goofy friend

Farmer's Market

Sushi Rock in Cleveland

BIG!

China Town in Cleveland

Tyfun Thai Bistro

Sailor Girl

Zipper sleeping at work

Flowers

Ice Cream + even more welcome

The Welcome board

American Greetings

Arriving Cleveland

My First Poodle card!?

My First week in Cleveland

Graduation!

Textile Class - Last Day

Textile Final

Call for Entries for AAU students & Graduates

Zipper

Lucky me!

Easter Gift （イースター・ギフト）

Zipper T-shirt

Zipper 02 - 02

Zipper 02

Zipper 01 - w/Thicker Outline

Zipper 01

Visual Note 01

Textile - Heat Transfer Printing

Need Help! - Business Card

NightLife

Prototype

Pastel

Textile - Flowers

Textile - Eggs

Sketch from an artist friend (Ben Seto)

Self Portrait

Poodle Girl

Pink Hair

Egg Girl (for Easter) #1

CowGirls!

Welcome to Yuka's Bolg

Easter Gift　（イースター・ギフト）