itsvivieri blog

People often asked me where do I get my inspiration from and how do I draw? The answer is I find inspiration from what I see in real life or in the internet, from my surroundings. I don't follow the correct steps to draw. A lot of the times I just draw based on what I see, following the shapes of the photo reference or objects, which is why it has been very hard for me to make a tutorial video. But don't be disappointed yet, I am definitely working on a way to make a tutorial :)

In the meanwhile, I hope you enjoy this doodle session with me. Feel free to grab your own sketchbook and follow along. In this video, I am also trying a new sketchbook that I bought from Kinokuniya in Malaysia. The paper is not a paper that is specifically built for watercolor. However as I see the paper is a little thick, I thought it can be use for my daily sketches/doodles. In the video you will see how this sketchbook hold the watercolor, Copic Marker and color pencils.

Oh btw the sketchbook that I have is "Sketch A5 Book by A'Zone Corp". :)

It's the monthly favourite edition! I haven't been doing this for a year (!!) and I really missed it. I'm thinking of doing this monthly favourite again, but maybe after the pandemic is over. There is nothing much going on in my life right now because I barely go out. In fact I have only went out 3 times for the past 4 months. How do you guys holding up during this pandemic? I hope you all are doing well. Stay safe everyone!

These May to July favorite memories:

1. My Birthday Presents - May is my birth month. I like to draw the presents as not to forget it. When I looked back at this journal, I will remember the people and how they celebrated my birthday with me.

2. Engagement - I have never mentioned it in any of my social media - Instagram, Twitter or Youtube. But from this subtle drawing of Tiffany box, I'm not sure if people actually get the hint? ^^ On the day of my birthday, my boyfriend visited me and proposed to me. He brought me for fine dining (not something that we do usually!) and bought me the ring. People that know us in real life know that we are not a flashy couple and we don't like to spent our fortune on something that is not a basic needs. But at the end, it was a really pleasant day.

3. Mom's visit - It wasn't often that my mom travel alone to came and visit me. I was really happy that she did. We went to Botanical Garden, Genting Highlands and spent some days shopping. Now that I live in Singapore, I hope my mom will visit me again after the pandemic is over. We can go to some new places together.

4. Fanart of the movie The Dark Phoenix, Aladdin and Spiderman - there are no other words for these movies. I love it!

5. Little shoes for my niece - It was SO cute! <3

Hi everyone! The days have been especially slow ever since the pandemic and lockdown. It really makes people just want to relax at home. As we slowly fall into a new set of routine, I just thought of sharing my journal planning with you guys. Although the video might have been there for quite some time but I am still using this bullet journal from Muji as a planner and it has really helped me to stay productive. Especially in this time when you can only stay at home most of the time, the days just seems to flew by and suddenly it's already the end of the month. Don't you agree that it is really important to keep things in check once in awhile?

In my bullet journal, I like to note down the important event/days and things-to-do. As I'm working full time, I mostly do my planning in a weekly format. This way I won't beat up myself if I don't get to do my checklist in a day. I also like to track my habits especially the old habits that I want to end, as well as new habit that I want to build. I like to keep my planner simple so if you have a book or a paper, grab it and let's do this together! :)

Hello everyone!

I hope you have been well and doing great. I know I haven't been very active here. A lot of things have been happening since the last time I blogged. I remember early last year, just right after my boyfriend moved to Singapore, I had been very occupied with job hunting and was overwhelmed with my emotions, stress, anxiety, etc. Despite the stereotype of busy working life in Singapore, I had always wanted to try and have a job there.

Early 2016, I was offered to work in Singapore but I rejected it because at the time I was very anxious with the thought of moving to another country by myself... and let me tell you, I regret it! So when my boyfriend had a job offer, I pushed him to leave (even though he was very sad that he has to leave me). Anyway after many interviews, anxiety, sleepless nights, I finally had a job and moved to Singapore in October 2019. Since then, I was busy trying to settle down and get back into some kind of routine. However, after living in new housing just for few months, I have to move to another housing area. It was only in February/March that I finally feel that I have fall back into my routine.

This announcement was supposed to be released early last year but because of all the things that has been happening, I hope you don't mind that it came "a little" late. I decided to open my own YouTube channel because I realise people have been curious about my drawing and painting process. On my YouTube channel, the main focus will be about my art, drawing process, tutorial, art supplies, etc. I also plan of showing a little glimpse of my life such as studio vlog, but I think that will depends on how interested you are in that type of video.

Without further ado, you can find my YouTube channel "itsvivieri". I decided to share my earlier video here but if you would like to see my latest video, please please head over to YouTube link down below! One of my goal in 2020 is to create more videos so you can expect more content in the future! Hope you enjoy watching my videos and I will write to you again soon. Stay safe! :)

Some of the inktober collections from 2018 that I really like. I was able to do it for 31 days without any skip and I was proud and happy with the result too. Instead of going with the official prompt list like how I did in 2017, I decided to create my own list. The theme revolved around girls and their pets/animals. While doing last year Inktober, I received so much love for it which makes me think of doing some portrait or/with pet commissions. Will you be interested? Please comment if you think I should do it or if you have other request instead. :)

These are my top 5 favourite. You can see the full 31 illustrations on my Instagram or Twitter.

Other than the top 5, I really loved these as well. Which one is your favourite? Let me know in the comment below :)

Art Supplies:
- Bockingford Traditional Watercolour Paper (Cold Pressed)
- Sakura Koi Watercolour
- Micron pen

Hello everyone, it’s me again. Two posts in a week! Can you believe it? Hehe. I’m trying to catch up with all these Monthly Journal edition that were supposed to be done last year. 2018 was very eventful for me. I started to be more open with the idea of accepting commission and I also started children book project. 

1. Youtube - Before the year came to end, I finally open my own Youtube channel. I still am pretty unclear where I'm heading with this channel, but editing video had been quite exciting.

2. Posca - I bought some Posca on stickerrific because I saw some pretty illustrations on Instagram using Posca and it looked very nice??!

3. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - oh I love this movie. Anything related to Harry Potter actually.

4. Robin Hood - It's cool. 

5. Innisfree - Christmas gift I received from my colleague (Innisfree Jeju Volcanic color clay mask [vitalizing] and Innisfree real color nail no. 74).  It’s quite funny how I bought Innisfree for my colleague and I received Innisfree as well. Hehe.

6. Christmas Cat calendar - a little gift I received from Stickerrific. I love how they always give a little gift with every purchase.

Art Supplies:

- Faber Castell Polychromos in Deep Scarlet Red

- Copic Sketch Marker

- Sketchbook (no brand)

Dear friends, how are you doing? I am just back from my holiday - I went to my hometown to celebrate Lunar New Year for 2 weeks and decided that it might be a good time to took a break from drawing. And so, instead of bringing my watercolour tools, I just brought few colour pencils and one sketchbook. Even though I didn't draw much during my holiday, however I made it a mission to catch up with the monthly art journal edition that I should have posted regularly every month. I sketched and doodled the journal in my hometown and only coloured this once I'm back in Malaysia.

1. New Dresses - I bought so many new dresses this month. It's crazy! I seldom bought new clothing so it is very surprising that I ended up with this new dresses at once. But in my defence, two of the dresses was on sale. I wore the white dress during the Lunar New Year celebration.

2. Brown Jacket - My mom bought this for me during her visit to Malaysia. <3

3. Mom's Visit - It's been few years since the last time my mom came to Malaysia. We went to the Botanical Garden because my mom love flowers and gardening. Although the garden was not as per our expectation, however mom was quite happy with the change of view.

4. 10k followers on Instagram - I never thought that I will ever reach this number. I have always told myself not to bother with the number but now that I reached it, I feel kind of scare and excited at the same time. At some point, I even felt that I don't deserve this number. Anyone feel the same? Nevertheless, with this number, there is higher expectation which makes me work harder to improve my skills which I think is a good thing too.

5. KLM - It's my first time flying with KLM airline and what an exciting trip it was. Their service was very good and satisfying. Also, I was really impressed with the safety demonstration they showed in the monitor. I think it was done with stop motion animation. In the end, they showed thousands (or even more!) of the illustrations and it was really inspiring for me.
Art Supplies I used for this month art journal:

Hey everyone, welcome back to my blog. Hopefully you are doing fine. I know it's already the new year and I have missed so many months of my monthly favourite edition but oh, it's better late than never right? Also, I would rather document this while I still remember it rather than trying to store it in my brain and forget about it in the future.

These July and August might be the most exciting months for me in terms of my art journey.

1. Draw This in Your Style challenge - by now you are most probably tired of me talking about this challenge. But the reason why it end up at the top of my list these months because I feel like I finally found my art style while doing this challenge and trying not to copy the original character (which I unconsciously tend to do because of my skill at drawing realistic portrait). It also pushed me to go out of my comfort zone and learn character design. 

2. New Project - if you followed me on Instagram, you might have seen some random drawing of bird, crab or lake in my IG stories. I have made it a secret until now. I was actually working on my first professional work - a children book! How exciting! I was never one to have the confident on my art but this month I decided to take the plunge when I was offered this project. Right now I am almost done with the illustration and I cannot wait for it to be printed!

3. Canson Mix-Media spiral sketchbook - I ran out of sketchbook at the end of 2017 and I haven't bought a new one since then until I found this sketchbook. I was never a fan of spiral (am still not!) but I decided to give this a go because it's A5 size and I have heard many good reviews about Canson brand. I would say that I love the unique texture of this sketchbook and how I can just tear the paper into pieces easily if I wanted to. If you are interested to know more, I plan to review this sketchbook in my next Youtube video.

4. Faber Castell Polychromos in Deep Scarlet Red - I was curious of how good this pencil is and decided to bought the red colour one when it was on sale at Stickerrific! I sketched this art journal with this red colour pencil and I would say that I really love how smooth and soft it felt when I draw with it.

5. Holbein Artist Watercolour in Burnt Umber - My first artist grade watercolour. Bought it in burnt umber colour because apparently I love to use earthy brown colour in my illustration and the one I had with Sakura Koi is finishing soon.

6. Arto hot pressed watercolour paper - This is my first time trying hot press watercolour paper. I love how smooth it feel and I think it will work great with gouache. I may do some time lapse video illustration with this paper in the future, we shall see!

7. Doodle Value (Friendship) - Doodle Your Future is a non-profit organisation that helps orphaned and children. I was very honoured when they reached out to me to join in their doodle value draw this in your style challenge. The idea is to choose a doodle drawn by the children and redraw it in our style. All of the children's doodle are so lovely and I was having a hard time choosing it but I decided to go with the Friendship value. They chose my illustration as one of the winner and it will be published in their Little Doodlers Value colouring book. Although I may never see the book, however just the thought of those children colouring my illustration is enough to make me feel all happy. It is during this time that I know I have made the right decision to keep pursuing my dream and I hope I will have more opportunity in the future to impact people's lives in a good way.

8. Cream Custard Bun - I went to Malacca with my boyfriend and cousins this month. We had a "food trip" and from all the food that we ate, I will say that the Cream Custard Bun is my ultimate favourite.

Art Supplies I used for this month art bullet journal:

One day, I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw few artists started to post their drawing of another artists' character. However, since I was busy with my own 30 drawing challenge, I did not really pay attention on it until I realised it was actually a new challenge event.


The idea is to redraw other artists' character in your own style. It does not have to be exactly the same in expression or pose but it still has to look obvious that you are drawing that certain character. This event quickly became popular and I just cannot missed it as more and more beautiful characters are being shared. When else will I have the chance to draw other artists' character without the fear of being stamped as copycat! But other than that, I thought this challenge is very good at pushing me to attempt drawing those characters I would not dare to draw otherwise, such as curly hair, darker skin or colourful hair.



As a contribution, I did shared my own character to be redraw by my IG followers or other people.


These are some of my favourite characters to redraw. For more redraw illustrations, you can head over to my Instagram here.



Characters I redraw in the photos above were by lovesoup, procrastiartist, mia.minerva, thiswhimsyme, lanajay_art, feefal, lealalicorne, jessbernadetteart, luceferous, mrserable.

On June 2018, I started my own personal challenge which I called it 30 Fashion Drawing Challenge (note that I did not mention it as 30 "days" drawing challenge, because it's not. Although I did try to post a drawing every two days.) I originally did this challenge in an attempt to improve how I draw clothes. It kind of failed on the halfway through it though because the community just decided it is a right time to start the "Draw This in Your Style Challenge" event and I just cannot missed it! (haha). I will talk about this event in my next post.

Anyway, even though I kind of failed this challenge, I was glad that I did it. Apart from getting better at drawing clothes, this challenge also made me realize many things about myself. I realized how I ran out of ideas very quickly during the challenge but I can always came out from that struggle by keep striving through. It also taught me to manage my time better. As I am working full time, I have only 1 or 2 hours (at most) to draw at night, which can be a great challenge. I also need to squeeze some time to take photo of my drawings in the morning before I went off to work because night time is just impossible to take good photos if you don't have a good light. However, I quickly fall into certain routine during this challenge and it definitely prepared me for the daily Inktober challenge. 

These are some of my favorites. You can always see the full 30 drawings on my Instagram. :)

Art Supplies I used during this challenge:

- Sakura Koi watercolor

- Bockingford Traditional Watercolor paper (cold press)
- Pigma Micron pen

Ever since I started to take my illustration more seriously and consistently, I started to spent much more money investing on it. Art is an expensive hobby for me. There are many times I thought of giving up on this dream of being a full time artist but I know my heart will not let go. Ko-Fi is a platform where people can support creator/artist/musician/etc. by buying them a coffee as low as $3. I registered on Ko-fi website without much expectation, however if you decided to support me there, I would be really grateful. With your support, I would love to buy a new art supply to try on. For more than 2 years, I have only been using watercolour but I would really love to try my hand on gouache. You can find my Ko-fi account here. If you cannot support me, that is totally fine too. :)

I bought 2 items this month and feel pretty much broke. The first one is the Pentel Pocket Brush pen. I have seen so many artists on Instagram using this brush, especially Heikala (and I totally fall in love with the way she outlined! Definitely have to check out her tutorial videos) and thought I should definitely check it out. Problem is it is a damn expensive for a brush pen. After thinking over it for few months, I finally bought it. I haven't try it yet because.. well, I always have this kind of thought that expensive things are meant to be used only in special occasions. So. Anyway, I will make sure to put in some review in the future.

The second item is Adonit Pro 3. I decided to buy this stylus after feeling sad of not being able to buy the new iPad Pro with stylus and pretty much regret it the moment I brought it home (talked about bad decision when you are feeling emotional). I had actually read so much articles and blog reviews on which styluses worked the best on iPad Air 2. However, in the end I went for this Adonit Pro 3 because I just cannot find the other series that were recommended in the articles. Anyway, the stylus itself was actually working fine if you are looking for a casual usage or if you are not using iPad Air 2. However, it is quite a struggle to use for drawing which is why I would not really recommend this series for drawing purposes.

Art Supplies

- Muji Note A5 (Bullet paper)

- Buncho Fine Tech 0.3 Black Pen

- Sakura Koi Watercolor

3. My big sister was expecting a lovely daughter. It was very weird but a loving moment nonetheless because we used to grew up playing dolls as if they are real babies, talking about how many children we will have and what will be their names. And to witness how it is going to be a reality is just so surreal. Also, note on how my face lifted up in the drawing. It was because I got to touched the baby when she was moving. My sister said the baby always stopped moving the moment people touched my sister's belly (even my brother in law and my mom didn't had the chance to experience it yet!). So imagine my surprise when the baby finally started to kick the moment I touched my sister's belly. I would say it wasn't easy though. I talked to her a lot, trying to get some responses and even singing and playing some songs. And, it works!

Art Supplies:

- Muji Note A5 (Bullet paper)

- Buncho Fine Tech 0.3 Black Pen

- Sakura Koi Watercolor

This spread was inspired by the movie - The Greatest Showman. It was such a good movie. I think it touched my heart deeply because for some times, I have been thinking and struggling to follow my dream. I want to make it happen so badly but on the other hand, I am afraid. Ever since watching this movie, I have work even harder on my illustrations and I have become more open with the idea of opening commissions. There are some of other plans that I want to do in the future (but it's a secret for now, don't want to jinx anything!). Fast forward since January 2018 (it's October now), I have seen improvement on my illustrations which I feel so happy about. I hope I will continue to improve in the future.

Another thing I mentioned in this spread was my first draft sketch of Baby Lulu. Baby Lulu was my first ever sticker and illustration/design/artwork that I sell to public. And this draft was actually made when I was just mindlessly drawing. It's funny how sometimes the drawing that you made mindlessly will turned out to be a good idea.

You can download and use this sticker on LINE messenger by searching "Baby Lulu" or just click on this link.

Art Supplies:

- Muji Note A5 (Bullet paper)

- Buncho Fine Tech 0.3 Black pen

- Stabilo Point 88

You can download these sticker set from LINE store. Enjoy! x

Art Supplies:

- Fabriano Sketchbook

- Sakura Koi Watercolor 

- Buncho Fine Tech 0.3 Black pen

- Adobe Photoshop

New month, new journal. I combined the journal for June and July 2016 because there were nothing much going on in life.

From left to right, top to bottom:
1. Sparkling Wine | This was my first time tasting a wine. It was good and somehow made me feel like a high class people (ha ha!). But too bad I will not be able to drink wine too much because it causes me headache. And I read in article that it may due to having anemia. Well, I am not entirely sure on that.

2. BBQ Town

3. Apex Water Brush | Bought a new water brush. Oh how I love water brush! Anyway, this brand was cheaper than the popular Pentel brush and I thought it did a really good job. I bought this Apex and Pentel at the same time but my Pentel brush is already out of use after few times of usage because the "hair" just start to fall down. It annoyed me. However, taking aside my bad experience, I still think it is a good brush (there are many people using it!). Maybe I will try it again in the future.

4. Lexis Hibiscus | I guess this is as far as I can get to enjoy "Maldives" in Malaysia. I love the resort. It was very spacious and beautiful. There is mini pool and sauna room in the hotel room!

Art Supplies:
- Fabriano Sketchbook
- Sakura Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Sketch Box
- Apex Waterbrush
- Buncho Fine Tech 0.3 Black pen

Also, noticed the little birthday cake on the word May. That is because May is my birth month. It is always my most favourite month, well, because it's my birthday. 

From left to right, top to bottom:

1. Sakura Koi Watercolor Field set | This was a birthday present from the boyfriend. I decided to went for this brand because I have read many good reviews on this. Apparently, it is a good brand to start with if you are a beginner. I also like the idea that it can be used as watercolour or gouache depending on the water level. And it's just good because it's travel compact. The watercolour set comes with a water brush that can be sealed with water inside so you do not have to go through the hassle of bringing water when you decided to paint outside.

2. Victoria Secret "Very Sexy" | Another birthday present - this was from my cousins. To be very honest, I wasn't a fan of perfume because of the strong scent but this perfume is fine. And the scent makes me feel like a grown up woman (ha ha).

3. Belgian Chocolate | Birthday present from my close colleague

4. "Dog" Food at Betty's Midwest Kitchen, Malaysia | This is a very unique name for a food. But it was pretty delicious and addicting.

5. Tumblr | I'm finally reopen my tumblr. Although it's no longer at xiaoxiaovie.tumblr.com as per the journal, I have changed it to itsvivieri.tumblr.com

6. Snowflake | I love this dessert ice cream A LOT!

7. Bockingford Traditional Watercolor Paper | This was the first watercolour paper that I used and I'm still using it until now! That really said a lot about how small my illustrations are.

8. Fabriano Drawing Book | I bought this book thinking it will be suitable for watercolour drawing because of the thick paper (talk about newbie mistakes!). Although it did handle water quite well, but the water will not behave as how it will in an actual watercolour paper. Overall, I still really love this drawing book. I may repurchase it in the future for sketching instead.

9. Captain America | Why are the Chris so handsome? (just let me swoon here!)

Art Supplies
- Fabriano Sketchbook
- Sakura Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Sketch Box
- Sakura Koi Waterbrush

November 2016 :
1. Sumoboo - went to this very cute dessert shop in Jakarta. They offer many cute-looking ice creams and the store was just so cute. A good little shop to take photos! hha.
2. Doctor Strange - this movie was so amazing. I still can remember how the story went and even all of the scenes.
3. Fantastic Beasts

Art Supplies
- Fabriano Sketchbook
- Sakura Koi Watercolor Pocket Field Sketch Box
- Pilot G-tec-c4 Gel pen, 0.4mm

Hi guys! So I decided to have my own blog because I would like to have some space to share my thoughts in a more detailed way. While I have always been more active on Instagram, however I don't think it is an appropriate platform to share a very long post. Don't you think so?

I plan to use this platform to share my illustration, behind the scene like how or what tools I used to draw, work in progress, some bullet journal and just my life in general, my feelings (well, lots of feelings I guess). I hope with this blog, I will be able to reach out more to you guys because I realize I have never really build engagement. It's almost like I'm living alone in this internet world.

So if you think this is a good idea, please comment and let me know your presence. You can also give me suggestion on what kind of post you would like to see (or read).

Cheers guys! and please have a lovely day. :)