Ninja vs Penguin

Ninja September 22nd, 2009

My dear friend, Ophelia Chong, is celebrating her birthday today!

Happy birthday, Miss O!!

She’s got a lot of spunk, is bursting with creativity, and makes some truly breathtaking work. Ophelia’s work can been seen in Raygun, Interview, Bleach, Lava, Strand Releasing, Slamdance, LAIFF, Outfest, Workbook, CSS Artistry, Lemon Poppyseed, and 1,000 Artist Journal Pages. In her spare time (what spare time?), she writes for KCET and shares about her life in Los Angeles.

If you’re not familiar with her inspiring images, take a gander here.

Das Rheingold
Collage with Titian’s painting David and Goliath

The Commencement of the Fall
Collage

Crane
Collage

Flying Boy
Printed on An ad from 1953
Vandercook Press and wood type

BangPowBang — Female
Printed on an image from Official Detective Stories Nov. 15, 1937
Vandercook Press with wood type

Boys of CSS
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets
Vandercook Press with wood type

O in White
Printed on found ephemera
Vandercook Press with wood type

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Tags: Birthday, Collage, Illustration, Letterpress, Ophelia Chong, Photography

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Ninja November 13th, 2008

Ophelia sent a smile my way and lifted my spirits with a link to the Booooooom Project #5: Free Encouragement. For this project, Jeff Hamada teamed up with Design For Mankind to create a gallery of  anonymous, encouraging messages. To participate and get details of the project click here.

Superlove,
Ninja

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Tags: Booooooom, Design For Mankind, Jeff Hamada, Ophelia Chong, Smiles

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Ninja November 7th, 2008

Thanks for your thoughtful (and concerned) emails! I’m still here. I’m still alive. ^____^ But a few things have been keeping me from posting:

+ being really busy with work (bleh, boring, but true)
+ taking an Anatomy night class at SVA (yay!)
+ being sick for quite some time & seeing a slew of specialists (early morning appointments, giving up vials of my precious blood for testing, getting poked & prodded = foul mood)
+ being overly sleep-deprived = being cranky, sarcastic, & a giant bore = I go into hiding mode because no one wants to be around me when I’m all miserable (I don’t even want to be around me)
+ trying to get some personal art work in (mostly unsuccessful)

My apologies, my dear readers. And HUGE thanks to Penguin for holding down the fort in my absence & putting up with (& still loving) me.

A quick update as to what I’ve been up to:

In October, I went to visit my dear friends, NC & Tim in LA. While there, I took in the sights, checked out Art Center, celebrated Stefan Bucher’s 35th birthday, & met Ophelia Chong. It was such a dream vacation. Blue skies, sunshowers, & some of the sweetest folks ever.

Oh, yah, & we stopped by LACMA, too.

In more recent news, the breathtaking Ms. Tanya Dakin (model/photographer/Suicide Girl) is allowing me the honor to paint her in the buff (as in she’s posing nude, not me sitting nude while painting). My college friend Tony was kind enough to set up our online introduction—a thousand thanks, Bing Chi Ling!

As always, thanks for checking in & stopping by our humble blog.

Cheers & have a lovely weekend,
Ninja ^______^

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Tags: LACMA, Los Angeles, Ophelia Chong, Stefan G. Bucher, Suicide Girls, Tanya Dakin, Thoughts, Tony Yang

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Ninja May 2nd, 2008

Meet Scott Campbell, affectionately known as Scott C. He is known for his alternate cover for The King of Kong: A Fistful of Quarters DVD, his contributions to Hickee, Flight, Beasts!, Project: Superior, and his daily Double Fine Action Comics on the web. He also art directed the upcoming Brütal Legend and Psychonauts.

Scott C. is having his first solo show at the comics emporium, Secret Headquarters in LA. The show runs until May 29.

Opening reception
Cute Hunter
New Paintings by Scott C
Saturday, May 3
8 to 11 p.m.

Secret Headquarters
3817 W. Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Thanks for the tip, Ophelia!

Related link
+ Visit Scott C.’s blog

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Tags: Cute Hunter, Exhibits, Ophelia Chong, Scott Campbell, Secret Headquarters

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Ninja March 21st, 2008

It feels like it’s my birthday all over again. This week, I’ve been receiving such wonderful, thoughtful packages. Really, thank you!

NvP reader, fellow Daily Monster OS participant, and all-around nice gal, Tiffany Nelson, sent me this precious, sterling silver origami penguin necklace that she made. I’m incredibly touched. It’s just beautiful! Thank you so very much, Tiffany!

At one agency, I had the pleasure of working for Mr. David Wish (he was my studio manager). Then at another agency, I had the privilege of working alongside him. We spent so many late nights at the office. Not a very pretty time in our lives, but we’ve shared a lot of fun, laughs, and cups of coffee with each other. Now David works at CLI (one of my printers/proofers), and he hand-delivered my Daydream Believer proof. I love the smell of proof paper. Danke, David!

I first met Ms. Ophelia Chong through NvP, and the more I get to know her, the more inspired I get. She is a funny, talented lady who is very generous with her time. 谢谢你 for sharing your projects with me and for this sweet care package. Mango dofu? Haven’t had that in a while!

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Tags: Daily Monster, David Wish, Ophelia Chong, Prints, Tiffany Nelson, Vector

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Ninja March 13th, 2008

How much do I adore Ophelia? That girl is quick (+ full of surprises). Check out the collage she made.

Related links
+ Visit Ophelia’s web site/portfolio
+ Check out Ophelia’s Flickr

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Tags: Adobe Illustrator, Collage, Ophelia Chong

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Ninja March 5th, 2008

The winners for the hair letterpress prints are:

Ray + Stephanie

I will email you to get your mailing addresses. ^__^

Cheers,
Ninja

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Ninja February 25th, 2008

Ophelia Chong & I are joining forces again! Here’s a peek at our next letterpress collaboration—a bit belated toast for this Chinese New Year (the year of the rat).

Here is my pen sketch.

And here is the charcoal drawing that will be used for the letterpress plate.

I can’t wait to see what she does with it! Serif or sans serif type? Metal or wood? Oh the possibilities.

If you missed it, here is our first letterpress collaboration for your viewing pleasure.

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Ninja February 20th, 2008

My collaborative letterpress prints with Ophelia just came in! And oh, the colors!

The multi-talented and uber-nice Ms. Ophelia Chong cranked these puppies out with love on her Vandercook press. They are simply gorgeous! THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH, OPHELIA!!!

Spreading the letterpress love
I’m going to give out a letterpress print (one of the larger prints featuring Ophelia’s hair and her signature wooden type) to two NvP readers. Just leave a comment with your name and email address. The drawing ends on March 4. The two winners (chosen at random) will be announced on March 5.

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Ninja February 8th, 2008

I got less than 4 hours of sleep, but I’m now quite caffeinated. I’ve got a huge, goofy grin on my face over the thought of my first collaborative letterpress print! Well, ok, first letterpress print, ever. The lovely Ms. Ophelia Chong wrote me saying that she loved my hair portraits, so I offered to do one of her. When she sent me her photo, I knew I was going to have fun drawing. She’s got this chunky, layered look that I’m quite fond of.

I couldn’t really make out much detail from her photo, so I made some of it up. ~__^

Ophelia is getting the plate made as we speak. As for the print, she will print out the hair in one color, then add a layer wood block or metal type in another color. To top it off, she will then run the first prints through for a second color.

THANK YOU, Ophelia! ^_______^

Yay,
Ninja

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Tags: Letterpress, Ophelia Chong, Prints

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