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Where did we park? ... North of Dallas is a super suburb city called The Colony, and it has a bizarre "entertainment village" called Grandscape. There's a ferris wheel, a surfing pool, movie theatre, bowling alley, and a ton of restaurants. The atmosphere is kinda cozy and fun, but I also feel baffled because there's such a contrast between miles upon miles of cookie-cutter houses and this flashy dreamland bubble. It's so out-of-place...it reminds me of Edward Scissorhand's castle or The Gold Saucer in Final Fantasy 7.

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Night walk. Nose: meet fire hydrant

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Fluid cats. I've got prints on my Inprnt

The style is inspired by an art activity from preschool that I’m fond of. The teacher had us make a bunch of big scribbles with a black marker on a sheet of those old continuous form papers. The intersecting lines created a jumble of shapes: some were as big as a quarter, with both pointy edges and bulby curves; others were tiny, just a thin sliver, like a fingernail clipping. They all fit together like a puzzle.

Next was the really fun part: filling in the shapes with crayons. I was fascinated by crayons because of their breadth of colors and names. I felt like the dwarves mining the gems in Snow White, like I was coming across a trove of treasures. Macaroni and Cheese, Periwinkle, Burnt Orange...

After all the shapes were filled in, the scribble of black lines transformed into a colorful patchwork. Now that I think of it, I wonder if the idea was to imitate stained glass. But what stood out to me as a kid was the exciting feeling of discovering something that was hidden but is revealing itself. It takes dedication and time to catch that kind of feeling now.

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Sunset skating

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Near my uncle's place in Taipei.

Everything is squeezed and jumbled together. Concrete, billboards, temples, apartment buildings, skyscrapers, cars, scooters, bustling people, tropical plants. It's ugly in a fascinating way.

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Dotonbori, Osaka. My family and I went to Japan on vacation in 2015, though it feels much more recent. The streets were so clean and organized, I don't remember seeing any trash or even a pothole anywhere. The buildings in Dotonbori looked like plastic Legos stacked together.

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Somewhere in Barcelona.  I went there with my classmates on spring break during a study abroad in college...13 years ago! We went to a candy shop near here, I think.

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I love the high republic and your art is so amazing. The pieces are absolutely gorgeous and really bring the characters to life! I’ve been looking through the rest of your art and it’s all so pretty!

Thank you for the kind words! I came to adore many of the characters as I painted them.

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Marchion Ro in my sketchbook. He was an option when I wasn't sure which characters to draw in the creator copies of the book. I've still got Loden and Reath available in my shop, and I've opened up international shipping. :)

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Loden Greatstorm

I have a few copies of The Chronicles of the Jedi in my store, each one with an exclusive character drawing in the front page. I've also set up shipping to a few non-US countries.

A collector showed me that on the copyright page, there is a sequence of numbers; a "1" means that these are first printings. It's very cool to learn that.

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Loden Greatstorm

I have a few copies of The Chronicles of the Jedi in my store, each one with an exclusive character drawing in the front page. I've also set up shipping to a few non-US countries.

A collector showed me that on the copyright page, there is a sequence of numbers; a "1" means that these are first printings. It's very cool to learn that.

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Orla Jareni and an earlier drawing in my sketchbook. I like her wispy hairs. This one found a home, but I've got more copies of The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi in my store! Each one has a pencil character drawing in the front page.

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Elzar Mann

I've got some copies of The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi on my store. Each one has a pencil character drawing in the front page. US shipping only.

I prob redrew this one like 5 times, I kept thinking of a better pose. Luckily, the paper is very durable though I had to fixative the surface first because the paper is so smooth.

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Reath Silas

I'm selling a few copies of The High Republic: Chronicles of the Jedi. Each one has a graphite character drawing in the front page. US shipping only. yihyoungli.com/store

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Frodo and Gandalf. I adore those movies. I gave these to a good friend. Earlier this year, I resolved to be more comfortable with drawing pencil portraits. I learned that a light touch goes a long way--just barely tickling the paper with the pencil. And then when the framework is down, I'll drive to scribble town.

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Alternate sketch for The Nihil leaders. Marchion Ro, Lourna Dee, Kassav Milliko, Zeetar, Pan Eyta, and Kara Xoo. I definitely had in mind those anime openings/endings where the characters are standing in a group shot. Editor: Harrison Tunggal, AD: Stuart Smith, additional art: Alberto Buscicchio

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A few cover sketches for The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray. AD: Scott Biel