#pandaerica

I’m super happy, almost giddy about this pet portrait. Here’s why…swipe along for an interesting tale about mistakes can turn into wonderful opportunities for creative solutions. 💜 1. Final cleaned up digital scan 🥰 2. Close up zoom of digital art file 🔎 3. Zoom out of actual illustration 🔍 4. The illustration IRL (in real life) 🥸 5. The final presentation with a flap splash page on top. I haven’t cut/taped a presentation page on a piece of art since Don Brandes’ advanced media class back in college. 🤓 6. I mounted the water soluble crayon and colored pencil illustration on Strathmore recycled sketch paper to a thicker card stock and glued down the lavender construction paper die-cut on top because guess what…? 7. The original had the dog’s name spelled incorrectly!!! 😱🫣 8. Quick behind the scenes showing a looser study of Rhodey’s head in my sketchbook. Comparing the two makes me want to paint and draw WAY bigger from now on. Something I was forced to understand every day at college was how much more impressionistic scribbles and looser mark making can look. You can only achieve that kind of free flowing movement and looseness when you paint and draw BIG. I drew that study of Rhodey’s head in like 30 or so minutes. So freeing, so quick, & it looks amazing and fun (IMO, in my opinion). 9. The culprit prep ink sketches I was practicing at 100% scale a few days before I sat down to work on the final…clearly I was distracted that night…that pesky random “D”! Who the heck is Rhodney?!? 🙈 10. I swear I knew Rhodey’s name from the get go. Y’all saw my post of the original sketchbook explorations, right? 😳 Long story short, I would like to thank that erroneous N because it made the final illustration like 10000x better!!! Don’t you agree? 💜 • • • #PandaErica #kidlitart #petportrait #dog #dogsofinstagram #gooddog #crayon #colorpencil #constructionpaper #beautifulmistake #lifeofanartist https://www.instagram.com/p/Cqc5rshOmKM/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Some work in progress shots of Erica's next narrative painting from her original picture book dummy, 'Weird, But Good'.

ebook production is not actual book and print production ahaha

1. “Do you eat rice with every meal?” No. 2. “Do you eat dumplings with chopsticks, dude?” I use a fork. 3. “Oh—!” 🥢🥟 Tonight I’m finalizing some interior vignettes for my picture book dummy, ‘Weird, But Good’. Growing up as a 1st generation Filipino-American in Kissimmee, FL in the 90s, I inevitably was asked obnoxious questions like these. I think I was more offended by no one knowing I was Filipino and not knowing what that meant more so than kids and people auto-defaulting my ethnicity to either Japanese or Chinese and that being the extent of their guesses. Their ignorance between these distinctions annoyed me. As I grew older I understood it was kind of unfair of me to assume kids were just plain dumb and/or mean for not knowing. But those experiences still left an impression on me. It still made me feel somewhat alienated despite being a first-born US citizen. Now though, I don’t care so much what people think of me because I’m more confident in who I am and it’s enough that I know myself more so than if others do. But I wonder if kids these days still can relate to this kind of frustration I experienced. I get the feeling they do, but the scenarios are likely presented differently. Bottom line, it sucks to feel different and weird and apart from the crowd when you so much want to be accepted and included. I think these are the feelings I want to convey in my story and I hope kids and their adults are interested in reading it, and you too. 😬 • • • #kidlitart #POC #wip #workinprogress #sketch #pencildrawing #art #illustration #processwork #childrensbookart #picturebook #PandaErica #FilipinoAmerican #1stgeneration #90s #ethnicity #identity #acceptance https://www.instagram.com/p/Bxge1qVHk7z/?igshid=17ruxik7l2f5w

Making some significant progress in my original picture book dummy, ‘Weird, But Good’. Lyon, a Filipino-American boy, is about to change his mind about a certain new girl. 🙄 • • • #PandaErica #Lyon #characterdesign #sketch #boy #picturebook #kidlitart #graphitepencil #ninjashirt #fauxhawk https://www.instagram.com/p/BxGXpWLHefd/?igshid=18is85pmnfow7

Looking through my summer sketch book since I’m only 2 pages away from filling it up. Here’s sketch from the beginning of June while I was on a plane to Hong Kong. ✈️ • • • #PandaErica #sketch #sketchbook #summer #plane #planeride #longplaneride #AsianVacation #kids #sleeping #naptime #graphitepencil #friends https://www.instagram.com/p/BnZpDwLAcAG/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=17lc85m8ea4b7

To me love is... pigging out on a home-cooked steak dinner, chilling out watching the winter Olympics, passing out early with a full belly, and waking up early just to roll in closer to the man I love an extra 30 minutes before I have to consciously roll out of bed the following morning. I honestly can't say my bf and I are the most romantic people--meaning we don't go around proclaiming gushy, flowery announcements of our unending, eternal love, we don't buy extravagant gifts and I don't doll myself up nearly as often as I should for him. We've always been pretty laid back, down to earth people who value experiences more than possessions. But even the more low-key moments we spend together end up being the most satisfying, loving memories. Here's to the 8th artificial holiday spent with @tek_gahsun and knowing that there will be many, many more. 💘 • • • #PandaErica #dailydoodle #valentinesday #4panelcomic #love #boyfriend #girlfriend #relationships #penandink #coloredpencil #artistsoninstagram #kidlitart #comic

I never grew up with a childhood memory of tubing down a hill on a snow day. I can only imagine how fun it could have been though. As an adult I find myself wanting to check off things from my imaginary childhood list of things I feel I missed out on. Do you have things you want to do as an adult that you never experienced before as a kid? 🙄❄️ • • • #PandaErica #kidlitart #winter #snow #sketch #dailydoodle #winterfashion #kidfashion #tubing #pinwheel #snowday #playinginthesnow