Pages from my Sketchbook

Otahime

Here is my Otahime character design, and I must say I really like it! It took me foreverrrrrrrrrr. I finally strapped myself down yesterday and painted till my eyes were watering and my insides blended into one giant organ. I’ve been working on her for months now, so it feels really good to complete it. Anyway, now I have to bring my Urashima design to this level … grumble grumble. I really want to wrap up this project soon, before my workload catches up with me again. I have some downtime for a bit so I better take advantage of that! Today I will start working on the prop/environment design of the sea castle, I’m going to do my best to finish it by the end of the week.



Ever since I came back from the Imaginism Workshop, I’ve been insecure about my work. It’s like I have all this information in my head and I’m trying to incorporate everything into what I already know, and therefore questioning and rethinking my every move and second guessing myself, but I think I finally found a happy balance. And I have Neil Gaiman to thank for that. Last week, I came across this very cool kinetic typography video and it really inspired me. A designer took an excerpt from a commencement speech he gave to the University of Arts and animated some words to it. Check it out here. You can also view his entire speech here.

In other not-so-funny news, I broke my iPad last week. I had a get-together at my place and had too much to drink and felt like showing off my angry birds skills to everyone. Whilst running up the stairs I totally tripped and fell flat on my ass and my iPad shattered into a zillion pieces. Sniff. The reality of what happened didn’t hit me until the next morning … Let’s take a moment of silence for it.



Oh and after that I bought the new iPad 4. Ahem.

Last week, I also got a bunch of new albums from some really cool bands. My indie music collection just gets bigger and bigger! Yay! I now have music by Beach House, Class Actress, Melody’s Echo Chamber, Memoryhouse, Porcelain Raft, Solid Gold and Phédre. Yes, I love Dream Pop. I definitely recommend getting Aloha Moon by Magic Wands, I had their entire album on repeat while painting yesterday. It’s good “making art” music. Here’s one of their songs:

Let’s talk French Macarons

So several weeks ago I attended Comic Con in Dubai and it was awesome! I didn’t get a table this year AGAIN since the spaces just filled up so darn fast! Boooooo! But I did meet one of the sexiest men ever … Manu Bennet who plays Crixus on Spartacus. OMFG I don’t think I have ever been this close to such a good looking man before. Before meeting him, I was telling my girlfriends I’m totally going to flirt with him, but of course once we were face to face, I froze. He’s SOOO handsome in person, it’s unreal. I couldn’t stop blushing and smiling! Finally, I managed to mumble, “Can I give you a kiss on the cheek to make my sister jealous?” and he replied and said, “Can I kiss you?” and that was it, I was on Cloud 9. I will never wash my right cheek again. Sigh … ♥




Anyway, back to reality, I’ve been working on projects with some intense deadlines. One of the books I illustrated is finally published! It’s called Sara and Hala and is an environmental story for children. Here is a small preview:




Lately, I’ve been experimenting like crazy trying to master the French macaron and I think I finally did it. After about 8 tries, I made the perfect macaron. And no, I don’t eat them since they interfere with my paleo lifestyle, but are certainly great gifts to give friends! So pretty, no?




And finally, I end todays post with some kitty cuteness! My little Bella and Toni sharing the bean bag.

Urashima

I finally got around to finishing my character and it took a lot longer than I expected, but hey at least it’s done! I actually finished it a while ago but I’ve just been tweaking at it for a week! Anyway, I think I’m somewhat happy with it for now, I just need to step away for a bit and then come back to it.


The little tortoise still needs some work, sigh …


Other than that, I’ve started reading this awesome comic by Warren Ellis, called “Fell” and omg I love it! The style of writing is so trippy and Ben Templesmith’s art is just awesome with his dreamy/grimy art style. Love it love it love it! There’s only nine issues though, so once I’m done I’ll be moving onto Transmetropolitan next, as I haven’t read that yet *hangs head in shame*.

Speaking of comics, I’m starting to get really annoyed with The Walking Dead lately. Not only are the issues taking FOREVER to come out but the show is starting to suck too. Will Game of Thrones start already!?!?! I need some good TV, please.

Yesterday I watched The Croods and omg I freaking loved it. LOVED IT (Am I clear enough?) It was adorable, simple and just plain awesome! There was no stupid villan with a British accent, no annoying commercial-radio songs by Katy Perry and no weird tonal shifts. The art was just artgasmic and the creature design was so freaking cute! I. Must. Go. See. It. Again.

Have a good week, everyone!