If you’ve been following my work for some time now, you already know how much I love doing portraits of beautiful women–and how I love referencing foreign models. I’ve always wanted to do a portrait of Russian model Sasha Pivovarova, because of how young and innocent she looks, and how she stands out in the sea of anonymous-looking models. (Plus, I just only recently discovered that she’s an artist/illustrator herself! How cool is that?)

As with most of my portrait work, capturing Sasha’s likeness alone took me hours of sketching, erasing, and tweaking! There comes a point when I feel like I’ll never get the subject’s face right–that crucial five-second pause where I decide to either keep going or start from scratch. But most of the time, I find myself facing the enemy head-on, and persevering to finish what I’d started. I hope I get better over time!

I was surprised this piece took a slightly haunting, gothic turn. It still has that romantic feel, but darker. This is officially the first piece I’ve finished for my upcoming exhibit, and I’m so excited to see how everything turns out!

I’ve broken the silence of my too-generic-looking office desk by sprucing it up with my personal style. It’s a mini-project I began a couple of weeks back…

Since getting my feet wet in fashion, design and interiors, I’ve gravitated towards three styles: romantic/glam rock, vintage kitsch, and modern minimalism. I wanted to give my cube a look that had pretty much all three (also inspired by the quirky, rock-chic home of Meg Mathews, which we ran in this month’s issue of Real Living). And so, the anchor piece–a plastic, white neo-Baroque picture frame I bought at a discount at Dimensione (not the exact one up there), holding a lovely illustration by Tanya Ling for LV (cruise 2009); a few of my Taschen Icons series books (loving them for the pops of color they give!); and a cheeky orange splash coaster from the local Me&U shop.

Not pictured–a white capital “A” (sans serif, to be sure!) decorative wooden letter, snapped up at Cubao X’s Vintage Pop right before they shut down. Sniff.

Possible additions to the group: a blank, white, vinyl Munny figure which I currently share with B. Still contemplating whether or not to put this into the mix–for all its simplicity, it ain’t cheap. Wouldn’t want this stolen! And another thing I want safely nestled here–a Diptyque candle in Feuille de Lavande, which has been, sad to say, only gathering dust at home. Perfect for those extra-stressful overtime nights! Speaking of, I’ve never actually seen anyone burning scented candles in the office… Hmmm.