Christina Ung Blog

Avatar Illustration

2011-12-23T10:28:00.001-08:00

Here's an illustration inspired by the 2009 AVATAR movie! If you were following me on Twitter, Facebook or Google+ last night, then this isn't anything new.

Last night I pulled up an old sketch to work on. I posted up snapshots of my progress on twitter, google+ and facebook as I took the sketch to final. Here it is:

Here's 2 version of the final illustration.

And here's the one I decided to go with:

Let me know if you enjoyed this post by commenting below.

Cheers, and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

~Christina

P.S. Let's connect!

Finance Illustrations for MoneySense

2011-12-09T13:44:00.000-08:00

I did a series of illustrations for MoneySense's booklet, "Guide to the Perfect Portfolio". Here are some of the the images below,

Here are 2 of the images in fuller view.
The first one is about Keeping your portfolio in balance & the second one is about Dividing your equity and and fixed-income investments into many categories or asset classes.

And for those who are interested, here's my process work for the two images,

Hope you enjoyed this post!

Lots of love to you,

~Christina

Freelance Illustration: Illustrating for Businessweek Magazine

2011-11-16T17:38:00.001-08:00

Working with an Illustrator..

Ever wondered what it would be like to work with me? For this post, everything you see is exactly what I give to my clients when working on an editorial illustration assignment. To demonstrate, I'm going to use the PUMA illustration I did for Businessweek's article, "Puma Is No Longer a Sneaker. It's a Lifestyle"

PAR 1 After reading the article, I come up with a bunch of sketches. I pick the best three, refine them and send it off to my clients. Here's what my clients typically get from me:

I usually like to write down the key concepts from the article that I'm trying to depict beside the image.

PAR2 After the sketch has been approved, I move forth with the final illustration. Here's a detailed thumbnail layout of my work progressing from rough to final:

And here is the final illustration:

That's all. I hope you enjoyed this post.

Lots of love to you,

Christina Ung

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, please let me know by sharing and commenting below.

Little Miss Sunshine

2011-10-07T17:28:00.001-07:00

For those of you who follow me on facebook, you've seen me post up my process work over the last couple of days. I hope you enjoyed watching me as I took this poster to completion. Here's the final image. A poster tribute to the Little Miss Sunshine musical that premiered at the La Jolla Playhouse earlier this year.

If you would like to see the process work, you can look for the posts on my facebook page.

Have a great weekend and Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!

~Christina

American Workers don’t have the right skills to get a job?

2011-09-29T14:39:00.001-07:00

I stumbled upon an article this morning on CNN Money called, "Unemployment claims fall to lowest level since April". The article reports that "14 million people remain unemployed in the United States." What's shocking is...

There are 3 000 000 jobs that are unfilled in America. CNN suggests that problem may lie in the fact that most Americans do not have the right skill sets to get a job.

I find that hard to swallow. Because I personally believe that most people are overqualified and it's their job that stops them from reaching their full potential.

And this is what I want to convey in my image diary this week. I wanted to show the disconnect between a man's potential and the job he actually performs.

But now for some really GOOD NEWS..

To all freelancing illustrators. If you want to learn more about the industry, I highly recommend you check out NOOK COLLECTIVE. The same teachers that taught me all I need to know about illustration and how to run a freelance business are holding seminars in the Toronto region.

My best advice to any artist is to continue to grow and learn so go check them out.

Cheers,

~Christina

The Top 7 Money Disorders

2011-09-16T09:13:00.001-07:00

Last week I blogged about one of the top seven money disorders that I illustrated for MoneySense Magazine earlier this year. Today, I had some time so I thought I would post up the rest.

The main illustration is financial incompatibility which are money secrets that destroy couples. Here was my take on it:

And the Canadian Version :)

The rest of the illustrations also depict specific behavioral patterns and beliefs that hinder people's ability to make sound financial decisions. Since there are so many, I've posted them all together from process to final:

I hope you enjoyed this post. Have a Fabulous Weekend!

~Christina

Financial Incest

2011-09-08T21:58:00.000-07:00

Financial Incest is 1 of the 7 money disorders that I got to illustrate for MoneySense Magazine a few months ago. It's what happens when adults force their children to take on unreasonable financial responsibilities.

My concepts (Here's how I typically present them to my clients):

And my Progress work:

I hope you enjoyed this post! There will be more from this particular series next week.

And yes, I am back to my regular schedule, so I will be posting here often again. Thank you all for the patience and support you've given me this last month while I battled a very enduring deadline.

Have a fabulous weekend folks :-)

~Christina

The Unreliable Super Hero, "Published"

2011-08-04T09:44:00.001-07:00

The Unreliable Superhero was one of my favourite images from my Thursday Image Diary Series. For that reason, I finished it off and here it is! The illustration also ended up getting published by Atlantic Magazine which makes me all the more happy.

And of course, this post would not be complete if I didn't show you my process work:

I hope you enjoyed this post. Thursday image diary is on hold for the time being as I'm working on some tight deadlines and attending some courses out of the country. I hope you'll bear with the lack of updates for a bit longer.

Cheers and lots of love to you.

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: Is Wealth Hereditary?

2011-07-21T07:48:00.001-07:00

It is believed that some people are destined to be rich while others destined for a life of struggle. If wealth was hereditary it would look something like this…

Now, wouldn’t that be nice ;)

~Christina

**Thursday Image Diary is about putting aside 1-3 hours every Thursday to draw & scribble to my heart’s desire. These images represent my own personal feelings and my interpretations of events. **

Thursday Image Diary: Carlos Santana

2011-07-14T15:35:00.001-07:00

Ladies and Gentlemen.. Carlos Santana!

~Christina

**Thursday Image Diary is about putting aside 1-3 hours every Thursday to draw & scribble to my heart’s desire. These images represent my own personal feelings and my interpretations of events. **

Nostalgia: 12 Items We Miss

2011-07-13T08:01:00.000-07:00

Earlier this year, I worked on a series of illustrations for Vita Magazine for an the article Nostalgia: 12 items we miss. With these images, I had to focus more on style and capturing the essence of an item versus coming up with something conceptual. If you're interested, here's my process:

Item #1: Le parfum Eau folle

The art director sent me this for reference.

My sketches:

Process work:

And the final image on it's own:

Hope you enjoyed this! I'll post more process work from this series when I get time.

Cheers,

~Christina

FIESTA

2011-07-10T16:41:00.001-07:00

Fiesta, Illustration for Vita Magazine

For all you vintage lovers, the next few posts this week are dedicated to you..

~Christina

My Workspace Studio

2011-07-08T12:03:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday Everyone!

Here's a post just for fun. It's a photo of my studio and where I create the majority of my illustrations. On my desk is my favorite image; the 1950's Vogue cover by Irving Penn. It's not the original photo. Actually, I couldn't find a large size poster of it anywhere so I inked it out myself and extended the body.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Have a FAB weekend!

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: Bird Girl

2011-07-07T17:08:00.001-07:00

Thursday Image Diary: THE HAPPY KING

2011-06-30T17:45:00.000-07:00

This week's image diary is The Happy King. Enjoy.

~Christina

**Thursday Image Diary is about putting aside 1-3 hours every Thursday to draw & scribble to my heart’s desire. These images represent my own personal feelings and my interpretations of events. **

Wired Magazine Process Work

2011-06-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

I had the opportunity to work for Wired Magazine earlier this year. The article was about the myriad of gaming platforms available these days making gaming all the more demanding and addictive. The client wanted an image that had a lot of movement and energy. I knew absolutely nothing about games and I only had less than 2 days to execute the image, but... the project sounded absolutely fun and so I jumped right on it.

Here were my initial concepts. I sometimes include notes with my sketches to my clients. You see this here.

The Art Director went with the head concept with the game elements surrounding it. Here's my process work from sketch to final:

I created two colour variations of the final illustration. The red one went to print.

Hope you enjoyed this post. Bye for now.

~Christina

Cat Vogue: The Process

2011-06-27T17:04:00.000-07:00

I thought you might be interested in the process work for Cat Vogue. When I drew the cat, I actually had no idea what I was going to do with it. Sometimes, it's nice to just go with the flow.

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: The Tea Party

2011-06-23T20:03:00.000-07:00

Reflecting on all of the tragedies that took place this year; the earthquake in Japan, the Joplin tornado that hit the U.S., and the Civil war in Libyan… it's easy to fall into utter despair. However, in wake of these unfortunate events, it’s very heart-warming to see people come together from all over the world to provide relief and support to those in need. This week’s image diary is about celebration and making the most of life’s worst case scenarios.

~Christina

**Thursday Image Diary is about putting aside 1-3 hours every Thursday to draw & scribble to my heart’s desire. These images represent my own personal feelings and my interpretations of events. **

Thursday Image Diary: Abundance

2011-06-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

The universe has so much to offer. Whatever we want or desire can be manifested... we are living in abundance.

~Christina

Note **Thursday Image Diary is about putting aside 1-3 hours every Thursday to draw & scribble to my heart’s desire. These images represent my own personal feelings and my interpretations of events. **

Thursday Image Diary: Bee Beard

2011-06-09T20:38:00.003-07:00

In the moments of sudden happiness, sadness, excitement, shock or pressure; has your body or mind ever betrayed you? Those fleeting moments you wish you did something but could not? Well, you’re certainly not alone ;)

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: Ice Cream Man Pillow

2011-06-02T15:59:00.000-07:00

I've been so inspired by all the bohemian & floral textiles this summer. For those of you who follow my blog religiously, you know I'm a sucker for decorating. This evening, I made my own little pattern and I combined it with my favourite "Ice Cream Man" illustration to create a make-believe pillow.

Unfortunately it's not real but definitely something that I would love to bring to life in the near future.

~Christina

RRSP Illustration series for Canadian Business Magazine

2011-05-31T14:50:00.000-07:00

Early this year, I did a series of illustrations for Canadian Business Magazine about RRSP. The article was about how to start building wealth and outlined some key tips about growing your RRSP. I did a total of 7 illustrations for this assignment but I'm only going to pick 2 key ones for this purpose.

The main illustration needed to provide an overview of the article. Basically, how to "Turbocharge your RRSP". Here's the process work for this particular image:

The final illustration on it's own:

The next illustration accompanied the following text, "It's okay to focus on your home for now." This part of the article was about home mortgages.

The final illustration:

When tackling any project, there is a lot that happens behind the scenes. Editorial illustration is not just a pretty image, it's needs to work with the text and usually conveys information or a message to the reader about the article. I like to use Microsoft Onenote to brainstorm and organize my ideas and sketches. Here's a screenshot of one of my Onenote pages from this project.

Hope you enjoyed this very long post (sorry, I couldn't help myself!). My next post will be Thursday's Image Diary. Bye for now.

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: THE EGO

2011-05-26T18:43:00.001-07:00

"The word 'I' embodies the greatest error and the deepest truth, depending on how it is used. In conventional usage, it is not only one of the most frequently used words in the language (together with the related words: 'me', 'my', 'mine', and 'myself') but also one of the most misleading. In normal everyday usage, 'I' embodies the primordial error, a misconception of who you are, an illusory sense of identity. This is the ego." ~Eckhart Tolle

Currently reading "A New Earth" by Eckhart Tolle which was the inspiration for this week's Thursday image diary.

~Christina

Thursday Image Diary: Innocent?

2011-05-18T20:28:00.001-07:00

Things are not always as they appear at first glance. Sometimes it's the important details that we wish we didn't miss ;)

I'm heading off on a short vacation so I posted Thursday Image Diary a bit early. I will be sharing some more process work that I did with Canadian Business Magazine when I get back next week. Check back soon!

C

Thursday Image Diary: The unreliable Superhero

2011-05-13T10:20:00.000-07:00

The Superheroes we read about in comics and books are always depicted as charming and courageous. But what if that were not always the case? What if they were just ordinary people who enjoy lazing around and once in a while, get distracted with other things…

Hope you enjoyed this post. Blogger was down yesterday so while this post is a day late, it was drawn and ready on Thursday. And if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you probably already knew ;)

Have a great weekend folks!
~C