Skip to content
Zara Gonzalez Hoang Illustration
Menu
  • Work
  • Books
  • Sketchbook
  • School Visits
  • Freebies
  • Newsletter
  • About
  • Shop

Home

RECENTLY

Been thinking a lot about shopfronts lately. I’ve been (slowly) working through a replay of a shopfront drawing session @sarahdyer_illustrator did on her Patreon a year or so ago with some images from @the_shopkeepers. It’s really been a great way to loosen up and think about what makes the fronts of shops so interesting. When I was at home, my sister gave me these amazing handmade watercolors from @casakhyma so now that I am back in the studio I had to try them out with a little sketch. Not sure how lightfast they are, but the colors are beautiful and I love the texture they have when they dry. Thanks @candida612 ❤️ I’ve been working through replays of live drawing sessions from @emmacarlisle_ Patreon. This one with apple pickers was really fun. What’s this? Two sketchbooks in a row? And yellow?! Yep, but this one is a little different. (And yes, i color-code my sketchbooks - anyone else?) I took some time off of book work and spent the last month working through sketchbook challenges from @emmacarlisle_ and @sarahdyer_illustrator Patreon. As someone who normally draws from imagination it’s been a fun challenge to draw mostly from reference and figure out how to make it interesting to me. There is a lot more in this sketchbook I’ll share later (and in the other sketchbooks I’ve been working in) but I have to say im so inspired and energized by this month of working in my sketchbook, I can’t wait to take what I’ve learned and bring it back into my book work. I started this book on January 1st. Didn’t think it would take me 6 months to finish it. Lots of good memories in it though. A comic workshop I took with @comicsworkshop and @robrosmo making an ode to my new hair. A sketchbook workshop I took with the Smithsonian museum that was very fun. Doodles and doodles and doodles. Ready to start a fresh book tomorrow. I’m always looking for decent paper to mess around with that isn’t ridiculously expensive (like the watercolor paper I use for books) but still acts enough like it that I get the effects that I’m going for and can try things out. I’ve tried non-cotton watercolor papers but I just don’t like them. I found a cotton mixed media paper from Strathmore and tested it out today - a roll of it is 1/4 the price of a roll of watercolor paper and it’s not bad. A bit more texture than I’d prefer but definitely workable, especially for the price!

Monthly(ish) ramblings about illustration and books





  • instagram
  • twitter
  • dribbble
  • email
Copyright © 2022 Zara Gonzalez Hoang Illustration