I watched the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters tennis tournament in Monaco this week, on the most beautiful court I've ever seen.
I spent a day watching Tsonga, Djokovic, Ferrer and Cilic in the sunshine and with the sparkling Mediterranean in the background.
Merveilleux!
A lovely visit to Kew in London this week, with sunshiny picnicking on the lawns...
The geese were very tame (or maybe just hungry), but with lovely shiny feathers!
I absolutely adore the Palm House, with its Victorian architecture and glorious hothouse splendour. The wrought-iron staircase is rustily beautiful.
Last weekend we went to the Joshua Tree National Park, and I fell in love with the hot desert air, the tiny delicate flowers, and the freaky weird, but gorgeous trees...
It was like being in a prehistoric land, I expected dinosaurs behind every boulder.
The desert flowers bloom around about now, and finding them was a joy.
I illustrated a branch of plum blossom for the Spring launch of the new aloof mannequin from Bonaveri, for their China showroom. 
I kept the colours bright and the line crisp, to create a calm and beautiful backdrop for the elegant new mannequins.
My illustration is influenced by traditional Chinese painting, but I tried to give it a modern feel. I started with pencil sketches of the flowers, and then drew the line in dip-pen and ink, finally adding colour in Photoshop. 
Here are some sealions sleeping happily, drawn during a visit to Santa Cruz this week.
This weekend we went to watch the Golden State Warriors play the Detroit Pistons in Oakland. I've never been to a basketball game before, but it was amazing fun, and it's possibly the fastest sport I've tried to sketch!
Go Warriors!
I've just installed a display in the artspace window next to Alleycat Books in the Mission in San Francisco, on 24th and Treat. I wanted to create the illusion of looking into an interior, playing with various layers and dimensions.
I drew an illustrated black and white backdrop of a Victorian parlour, looking through to several more rooms. I hid little details in the drawing to create stories: portraits, a lady by the fire, a statue of a rabbit, a cat’s tail, a stuffed bird under a glass dome. I played with depth within the drawing itself, and then added to it by hanging real framed pictures on the drawn walls.
The framed pieces are etchings of ceramics and a portrait, echoing the subject matter within the backdrop. They're full of patterns, creating a layer of patterned artwork on top of patterned wallpaper.
One of the difficulties was fighting the un-removable grafitti on the glass. By creating a detailed pattern, I hope I've managed to distract the eye!
Please go and take a look if you're around. It should be up for 2 months.
This week I went to Kepler's bookstore in Menlo Park to hear one of my favourite authors Laurie R. King talk about her new Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes novel. She chatted quite informally with another crime writer, Catriona McPherson, and I sketched them as I listened.
Afterwards I asked them to sign my sketchbook. What a wonderful evening!
My little succulents and cactii have suddenly burst into bloom on my sunny California balcony!
A very Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year to you all! Here's a little year of the goat card I did for the Keswick Foundation in HK. Love it.
Here's a video of me drawing a happy new year goat. It was made as part of the social media campaign for Pacific Place mall in HK. It's a visual pun on a traditional Chinese blessing about the rabbit's breath and the goat's eyebrows, which somehow translates to good fortune! https://vimeo.com/119728675
I did pencil sketches first to work out the order in which to draw things, how the goat should look, and the positioning of drawing and text.
This is how the final goat looks in ink and watercolour...
And this is the filming. I drew at my normal speed, but tried to keep it generally consistent, and the final footage was speeded up, and a soundtrack added. I've never done this before, but it was fun!
The Chinese New Year decorations featuring my zodiac illustrations are now installed in the Thomas Heatherwick designed Pacific Place shopping mall in HK. In the large atrium, there are banners and lanterns,
which are also featured throughout the mall.
My favourite part of the installation is the glass wall of the lifts; it features my illustration on a huge scale, and looks wonderful when you travel up and down.
They're also on the connecting mall walkway, over the main road,
and there's a pagoda with flower maze in the lower atrium, with an illustrated rotating display and each of the zodiac animals on the outer wall. 
At the back of this display are some Chinese-style screens made of wood. I love the way elements from my drawn illustration have been transformed into 3D.
There's a smaller pagoda also, based on my drawings, with information screens and drawings on each side. I really like the flowers on the floor!
If you spend a certain amount of money while you're shopping at the mall, you can collect a special gift at this lovely kiosk.
You can get two of these limited edition fine bone china dinner plates, with my zodiac illustration in a lovely repeat pattern!
And if you upload an instagram photo at the mall, you may win a pack of these wonderful pink and gold lucky fai chun.
I do hope you'll go and have a look!
I've just arrived in HK to do some promotional work for Pacific Place luxury shopping mall. I created an illustration about the celebration of Spring, for their Chinese New Year decorations.
I used red (a lucky & auspicious colour) and included all the 12 Chinese horoscope animals. It also features Chinese New Year elements such as peonies, plum blossoms and pine trees.
The PP website features the design in a pink + brown colour combination.
There'll be all kinds of fun events at Pacific Place over Chinese New Year, so if you're around, please check it out! I'll be taking some photos of the decorated mall this week, so you can see those soon.
It's the year of the goat, and I especially do like drawing goats...
I haven't featured any maps recently, so I thought I'd show this map of Sicily I did for Conde Nast Traveller in the UK . I painted it a while ago, and I like the way it's placed in the page, giving it lots of room to breathe.
I also thought I'd show my rough sketch for the map:
You can see how the outer shape of the sea around the island has changed, and a few things, like the distance scale, have moved, and that I removed all the tiny outer islands. The final map became more streamlined, and focussed on the important elements. The bright Mediterannean colours were wonderful to paint.
A friend gave me a lovely bunch of flowers, and I was inspired to do a watercolour sketch. White flowers are always my favourite. 
I visited the Victoria and Albert museum this week, and pottered about the ceramics galleries thinking of ideas and doing little sketches.
If I could only go to one museum in London per visit, it would definately be this one. My head is filled with teapots, birds and butterflies...
Here's to 2015 being the year for becoming the person you always hoped you would be, and for achieving all the things you know you really could...
This is the first print I ever made, and the one that continues to inspire me. A winter rose, by me, aged around 4 years old.
I'm visiting Palm Springs, for a post-Christmas break, and the clear desert air, and surprisingly chilly nights are crazy beautiful...
Hope it's a cosy and restful Christmas for everyone this year...
Love to all, see you in 2015,
Mariko x
For this year's Waitrose Christmas magazine in the UK, I drew images that would be used as backdrops for the hampers special photoshoot.
I created the illustrations, but as I couldn't be on location, a specialist did the physical chalk drawings onto boards on my behalf. I think they turned out pretty well! 
Pick up a copy in any Waitrose to see them all!
