Dear February :: Letter No. 8
Updates, new work, studio stories and reflections.
Dear Letter Drop readers,
How’s your February going? Happy New Year to those who celebrate the Lunar New Year! Koreans celebrate our version of the Lunar New Year, Seollal, one of the year's biggest holidays. On this day, we eat a bowl of rice cake soup called tteokguk, and everyone who finishes a bowl gains one year of age. I might have gained 1.5 years of age since I had extra tteokguk. I couldn’t help it because it was too delicious!
It was a good weekend to spend with my closest people and share memories of Seollal. I’m reminiscing the good old days when kids in my family (including myself) used to dress up in hanbok and visit our grandparents. We’d come back home with our pouches filled with money they gave us as a gift, wishing for our good luck.
Hope you all had a good start to February/New Year!
What’s New
Love Day
Another big day we all celebrate in February is Valentine’s Day! I made this artwork about the innocence of love, thinking how the emotion of liking someone (or even myself) is so complicated yet simple that it is impossible to hide.
I wrote a post about my work process for creating LOVE DAY, so check it out if you want to know more about it!
Kids 100
My Kids 100 project is still going! I have a few drawings on my wall, and it makes me super excited just to imagine how a hundred of these will look together on the wall. Some of you on Instagram have shared warm encouragement and compliments about the project, and I really appreciate them. More drawings to come next month!
Bluesky
Bluesky is finally open to the public! For those on Bluesky, find me @cindysykang.bsky.social ! I’m now only on Instagram on Bluesky, and no longer posting on Twitter. Looking forward to connecting with you there!
📍Cindy Kang Studio
Last Sunday Sketchbook, I wrote about my color studies on temperature. I used a lot of scrap paper and my sketchbook pages to experiment. If I plan the study so strictly, like the layout of the page or what experiment to do first, etc., I find it distracting. So, I experimented freely on my sketchbook with many color tests and drawings without any set rules.
I learned some great lessons on colors. Come read more on Sunday Sketchbook!
Also, another Sunday Sketchbook post on the work process of LOVE DAY is here.
In the meantime, I was mostly working on new artwork and a book dummy. Sometimes, it’s hard to focus on one thing for a long time, so I switch back and forth between writing and painting. All of my work happens at the same desk though, as my desk has a multi-purpose right now. So I’m thinking of getting a drafting table for painting, hoping to reduce the mess, but will it double up the mess? 🤭
💌 From January, To February
I’ve never been this excited for the Lunar New Year. Not only because I love the celebration but also because it's the actual start of the new year. I was thrilled to dive into February, or to be more accurate, to let January pass by. Last month, I had to take time off without any of my own intentions due to various reasons. When things I can’t control keep piling up on me, they get so heavy that I slowly fall into the swamp. The frustrations swallowed me up to the point I couldn’t focus on anything.
I wrote about the ways I overcame the creative block in January’s Illustrator Stories. The dark phases are sadly inevitable, but that ironically means it’s nothing to be sad about. After I tried the things I mentioned in the post, I found peace of mind again and got motivated to get things done in February.
I hope this month is going smoothly for all of you, and that whatever you wish to accomplish has stepped much closer to you. I'm sure you're trying your best, and everything will turn out right for you!
Sincerely,
Cindy