A little bit of inspiration from MAKE|THINK
Ninja October 12th, 2009
A mashup of 20 designers from all walks at the 2009 national AIGA conference, MAKE|THINK, in Memphis, TN.
Music by Rachel Beavers
Related postsNinja October 12th, 2009
A mashup of 20 designers from all walks at the 2009 national AIGA conference, MAKE|THINK, in Memphis, TN.
Music by Rachel Beavers
Related postsNinja October 8th, 2009
My dear friend, Mr. Stefan G. Bucher of the Daily Monster is celebrating his 36th birthday today. If you haven’t already, check out his impressive portfolio and latest book.

Happy Birthday, Stefan! I’ll spare you the singing and give you some birthday punches later. ^____________^ Have fun at the Make/Think Conference!
Related link
+ If you can’t go to the Make/Think Conference, see Alissa’s live blog with photos
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 ^______^
Penguin October 11th, 2008
We got in late Tuesday night. Our flight was delayed about an hour and a half, but we did make up some of it in the air.
The first night, we just kind of settled in and watched Planet Earth: Seasons in BluRay.
In the morning, we woke up to this:

The view from Nancy and Tim’s balcony is amazing. They’re such gracious hosts for letting us crash at their place.
I could really get used to weather like this.
After a quick breakfast of french toast, we went to the Amoeba:

This is a crazy large music and DVD store. They sell tons of used stuff. It’s not a place where you go to browse, but to go in with a plan to find something cool and obscure.
Continue Reading »
Ninja October 8th, 2008
The talented triple-threat (designer, illustrator, writer), Mr. Stefan G. Bucher, turned 35 today. Stefan has been a good friend to me these past 2 years, & he’s been kind enough share his work & keep me company during the wee hours of the morning (seeing how we share similar sleeping schedules).
Today, NvP had the pleasure of celebrating Stefan’s birthday with the man himself!

Before entering his cool apartment, we were greeted by his flock of festive flamingos.

Oh, and here’s the birthday boy with plushy monster number 80. I commissioned Wenny to crochet this little guy, after all she did such a bang up job making amigurumi versions of us!
Related postsNinja May 3rd, 2008

Related postsFailure is never as frightening as regret. Don’t worry. It’ll all work out.
– Stefan G. Bucher (from his book 100 Days Of Monsters)
Ninja March 30th, 2008
Here’s the trailer for Tarsem Singh’s The Fall. Beautiful imagery, fantastic landscapes, and vibrant colors. For this alone, it’s on my list of movies to see. ^__^
Googly Films logo and The Fall logo by Mr. Stefan G. Bucher.
Related postsNinja March 19th, 2008
I’m on a bit of a portrait roll.
Stefan kindly volunteered to be a victim for one of my hair portraits. But he’s got pretty good bone structure, so I figured why not? I’ll just ink his face. The hair portrait will have to wait for now.

It was a lot of fun, but I went a little overboard with the shading in the face. I think I just aged him… @__@
But I’m not afraid to bare it all—good and bad—to you guys.

Photo by Tim Moraitis.
As you can see, Stefan’s a lot more cheery and youthful in person.
Happy inking,
Ninja
Related links
+ Daily Monster book launch party Flickr set
+ 36point’s short on Stefan’s monsters
Ninja March 17th, 2008
On Friday, I got a happy package in the post—the AIGA’s Fresh Dialogue book. I keep pinching myself. This is incredible—one of my illustrations is in this book.



Haha, I can’t believe that Ze Frank asked if I was dating a Suicide Girl.
Much thanks to Mr. Stefan G. Bucher for including me in this lovely book! It’s an honor, really!
^___^,
Ninja
Related link
+ AIGA Fresh Dialogue 23 Event
Purchasing link
+ Order your copy of Fresh Dialogue 8: Designing Audiences ($11.53 USD)
Ninja March 7th, 2008
Ooo, Mr. Doyald Young’s new book, Dangerous Curves is now available for purchase from his site!
In Dangerous Curves I have attempted to show both emerging and expert designers how, in an age of computer-dominated design, the designer can turn to their very own hands for both inspiration and solution. The only way to create a logotype that is truly unique is for the designer to transcend the limitations of the available fonts and typefaces on the market. Dangerous Curves provides a roadmap for that very worthy endeavor.
—DY
Take a look


Pencil Comps. Seasmoke wine was featured in the 2004 movie Sideways.

Pencil sketches for Eclat typeface.

Tehru Oraoka monogram exploration.
Related links
+ Visit Doyald Young’s web site
+ Doyald Young on his five mentors
+ Stefan G. Bucher interviews Doyald Young (STEP magazine)
Purchasing link
+ Buy your copy of Dangerous Curves here ($100.00 USD)