Category ∝ Art
Herro! I am very happy to announce that I have a shop page up already. Yay!
hazelong.com/shop
Well, it’s not really a shop but every product links to RedBubble where you can see all the merchandise with my art on it. Initially, I was quite hesitant about this cuz if you think about it, it’s quite petty. Haha.
My redbubble page at redbubble.com/hazelong
I mean you do a few designs, put it up in Redbubble where all they do is market a bit, manufacture the merchandises(shirts, phone cases, stickers, calendars,etc) and they give you a cut of the profit. The cut is about 5 USD for every tshirt sold, a dollar every greeting card sold and so on. In return, you have to promote Redbubble with your ass off. I mean it, if you don’t promote, no one knows about you. It’s like expecting people to know exactly what page you are at in a phone book. And as a web developer, why should I drive traffic to this other website when I could sell it in my website. My website deserve to get the traffic and I deserve to get full profit right?
Not really. It all boils down to passiveness or laziness. By doing the art and publicity for them makes this a passive income. If I do everything, I won’t have time for any other thing. So I guess I am forfeiting part of the profit for more time on my hand. But if you are not doing anything else other than selling your art, it’s definitely more worth it to build your own brand and shop. Sure, it’s more difficult in the beginning to get the traction going but it’s worth it in the long run. Unless of course, you are lazy. :p
In the beginning, it was really difficult for me to even create a collection of design or art. I have this habit of only launching things when they are perfect, in the end I almost always ended up not launching or doing it in fear of the heavy commitment involved. That or I simply taroh and launch it half assed, ignoring all criticisms of it cuz I hate it myself anyway. I ended up with a solution of setting a deadline, and focus on getting the quality that is acceptable for that particular time frame. Then I won’t go crazy and expect to build a mountain in 3 days when I can build a really pretty tree house in 3 days.
And initially when I first launched my first collection, I was demotivated cuz there weren’t any sales. I know, I read beforehand in Redbubble’s forums that if you sold something within a week of uploading, its a miracle. If you sold something within 3 months, that’s darn good. But then the sales start trickling in and now during festive seasons, it’s peaking so I am very happy.
So if you are thinking about trying Redbubble or Society 6, do bear in mind that you need to do alot more than create oh-sum art. Promoting is a big part of it. Here’s my promotion strategy, if any :
- Facebook photo album upload
- An upload of a design everyday in Instagram, tied to Twitter
- Blogged about it
- Posted in RedBubble forum
- Reddit it
- Pinterest each design
- Created a shop page
And some more promotion, if you are thick-skinned enough to do it. I just can’t. I promise I will do it the next collection I upload. I just need to kick myself to do it.
- Submit to art/design curated websites/blogs
- Post in more art and design forums
- Upload to 9gag, fourchan
Just realized if I can’t get myself to do it, I could ask someone to do it on my behalf. 
Recently I painted an iPhone case for Michelle’s birthday. Actually it was Yuki’s gift to her. She managed to find a clear iPhone case that is stiff enough for the paint job. If you are interested in painting your iPhone case, get cases that are reasonably hard. Those cases that are flexible will cause the paint to chip when they flex. This is kinda good, plastic and stiff.
I prepped it with a plastic primer, you can get those at hardware shops. Rust-o-leum is a good brand to start, a light mist of spray is what you are looking for. It creates the sandy texture on the plastic that helps the bonding between plastic and paint. I just use regular acrylic paint for this.
Question : do you think that my art are too morbid? Haha.
List of Tools you’ll need for this project:
- Ribbons and Laces
- Dishwashing SpongesU
- Fabric
- Old photo frame
- Stapler, Scissors, Blade
- Glue
- Pins – optional
- Masking Tape – optional
Steps
- Cut sponge to be thinner, about 2 cm thick. Dismantle the photo frame and throw away the glass. Remove the backing.
- Apply glue to backing and stick the sponges on to the backing
- Place photo frame on the fabric and cut it to be slightly bigger
- Face the fabric down and place the new backing with all the sponges you glued earlier on it. The sponges should be touching the fabric. Wrap the fabric around the backing and secure with masking tape. Then staple the fabric into place.
- Once it’s dried, fit the backing to the photo frame and secure it. You may have to put it where the glass once were.
- Take some ribbons and laces, they should be thick enough for your hairclips to clip on. Drape them diagonally over the photo frame.
- Staple them into place
- Use ribbon and glue around the photo frame to cover the unsightly ribbons and staples from step 7
- Poke pins into your sponge backing and your organizer is done!
Happy craft day!!
Like everything I do, its in a reverse order. I want to bike someday in a KSR. That’s about the only bike short enough for me. Do I have a bike? no.
Do I have a license? no.
So to start, I got my own helmet. Nice start right. Not even sure if I will end up getting the bike. Hehe.
Anyway, I saw some cool airbrushed helmets online and I thought I would look great with a Transformers Autobot Bumblebee helmet. Everything must be yellow. Even the bike. And of course I planned my outfit already. Now.. a bike.. errr…
I shelved this project many times. At first I tried doing it with airbrush, it was a complete failure. I couldn’t get it done with masking, nor was I good enough to do it freehand. I kept it outside my house and it collected lots of dirt and dust. The glue from the masking melted into the rubber, bad bad bad.
And to top that all, I have forgotten where I placed the visor, rubbers and styrofoam I removed so long ago.
After months of sitting in dust, I finally took the liberty and slapped some acrylic on it. OMG, it was so much faster with brush and acrylic. Still the details were a pain to duplicate for each side.
This is all painted with acrylic and I am hoping that the factory I always send my car and gears for repainting can slap a huge amount of lacquer on it to protect the paint.
Turns out it costs only 40 bucks to lacquer it. Good connection helps! Really helps. Let me know if you need to repaint your car, I can recommend you this factory. Usually if you send it to car workshops, they’ll still send to a factory. And money get wasted on the way. Doing direct is the best!
This is how it looks after lacquer and all the parts in place. So proud of my bumblebee helmet. Hope you get to see it on the road soon enough. Just look for the smallest bike where everything is YELLOW!!
I’ve recently decided to try out RedBubble, a platform where artists and photographers alike can sell their products to the mass public. I wanted to do a series of 12 designs each and see how they fare in redbubble.
My first collection is typography! I love typography and enjoy researching all the quotes that I could feature in my design. My designs are all available for sale as t-shirts, prints, posters and iphone cases if you are interested in purchasing.
How can you help?
I will never shamelessly ask you to buy my products unless you really want to. However, I shall shamelessly ask you to help me by clicking on the like button just below each picture. That would help me alot and give my designs the exposure it needed for sales. 
Friends don’t let friends apex early
I have a serious passion for cars and everything fast so this design is for like minded rad people out there who are addicted to speed.
Check it out
Breathing is too mainstream
Who doesn’t have friends who are so hipster they don’t listen to mainstream music or watch mainstream movies?
Check it out
For the end of the world spell, press CTRL ALT DEL
I got inspired to create this after listening to AI in games spouting funny quotes. This is one of them from World of Warcraft.
Check it out
Don’t mock me, mortal!
Can’t remember which game this is from… but I know some Orc King said it. Lol. It has nyan cat and Nyan rules. forever!
Check it out
When you come to a fork in the road, take it
This one comes from KY, cuz I ran out of quotes. I didn’t really wanna do “If you are like a boss, then I’m like a god”.. This is so much better. The quote is from Yogi Berra.
Check it out
I have the universe on me
Some point in our lives, we are bound to feel so tiny when we think of being drowned in the population and being part of a massive universe. This design is something I did to console myself, somewhat.
Check it out
I am a peacock, I need to fly
Ever since I watched The Other Guys, this quote as said by Mark Wahlberg is stuck in my head. Can’t get it out of my system. Now it’s time this get stuck in your head.
Check it out
I am not sloppy, I am an artist
This is something I understand. For all artists who are usually splattered with paint and what not, this is the perfect disclaimer for your t-shirt or workspace.
Check it out
Insert witty quote
For all the people who are tired of quotes, as I was one point in time when I was creating all these.
Check it out
Instaglam
Everyone loves instagram. :3
Check it out
Love is Overrated
Or is it? Can you spot another set of word in this design?
Check it out
Photogeek
For photographers and camera lovers. The cameras featured here are the GoPro, Leica and another generic camera.
Check it out
Oh and check out my profile at http://redbubble.com/people/hazelong
Thank you very much!! Hugs hugs
Most holidays, I stay coped up at home facing the good old Apple but this year’s Raya is a series of eat-athon & photography. Ever since I got my new camera, we’ve been to photography excursions in our garden where our outside cat shit. Good fertilizer.
Of course, we took the liberty to go to parks for photography as well.
The awakening of the Civet
Right before the holiday start, I rushed to finish up my latest painting for a mini exhibition. It’s gonna be sold together with Vinn and Michelle’s(my new staff!) paintings in Mojo Cafe. This particular piece is done on canvas, with paper pulp texture to hold the graphite and inks.
On one of our never-ending meals, what a term .. we do need to eat continuously for the rest of our lives anyway. Cis. Sometimes my brain is not up on par with my intelligence, I am telling you. Anyway, we went to Taman Desa’s Japanese BBQ. Not yakitori kind but just plates of food raw meat for you to burn and drop in the charcoal. Occasionally some may end up just nice and lands on your plate.
This place has delicious food. However, they are pricy. One plate of meat cost 8 bucks and has less than 10 slices of meat. If you really wanna fill up your gastronomical space, it might cost you 60 bucks.
If you head to the place later than 8.30, you get to wait for a long time. People are usually spending more time cooking and trying to get the waiter’s attention instead of chomping down their food. And they usually arrive in hordes. Which is what I like bout the place, the atmosphere is like a party!
I think we had Ba Kut Teh consecutively for three times already. And most of the times, I had to be dragged out of the bed and into the car. I can never fathom the idea of eating pork and only pork soup with rice for breakfast. What an indulgent start to a day!
Speaking of which, we went to movies too. I should take more portrait photos then you will know who are ‘we’. But the photos always end up being deleted due to my picky quality control, as if I am a pro :p
While waiting for movies, we hid in Mbuji and Pacific Coffee House to avoid the heavy influence of our inner shopaholics. It didn’t work very well, shopping was inevitable. Have you seen the photo of KY in a ladies’ glittering flats? Horrendous.
I do love tea time. It makes me feel British and who doesn’t love to play pretend.
Our escapades in food hunting brought us to Jalan Sayor where we debated over which crispy tofu stall is better. There are two of them and the one that has clippings of Chui Ling and her show on the mobile stall are the one that is lacking in texture. The other one is so crispy and flavorful.
I managed to take a cheat shot of a girl with a headphones. Street photography is difficult in the sense that they always notice you noticing them and taking a photo of them. She was looking away anxiously as I pretended to just browse my photos with my screen tilted. Good feature for peek shots like these.
Almost every day I paint my face and did my hair. I think I lost some of my confidence back when I couldn’t have a good photo of me taken. And also my ever protruding chin. Now that I have a camera AND braces, me confidence are slowly coming back. Funny how small issues like this can affect a girl so much. I would like it to be otherwise, but it is what it is.
If you do not know him personally, you should know he is a clown. that doesn’t stop. talking.
