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Just sit back, relax & have some popcorn! Oh wait and some hot wings! You will find random ramblings by me decorated with doodles. Enjoy your stay!
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Greeeeeeetings Everyone!
How are you doing? Preparing for the weekend? It really started to snow here and I have to say, it's a pretty sight, but where was it when I wanted a white Christmas?!? Ah well.
When I was reading (skimming) through the articles on my Google Reader a few days back, I came across an article by Jenny Lawson aka The Bloggess. I always read her posts, which are hilarious, honest, inappropriate and straight to the point. It's really peeking inside her mind and I love it! The Bloggess, initiated the The Traveling Red Dress movement in 2010 and picked it up again a while ago with the The Traveling Red Dress - revisited. Her story is inspiring to say the least and her story inspired many others to share theirs as well. Just have a read please ^_^. And yes, to state the obvious, it started with a Red Dress. It's bold and daring and well...I mean how often can one wear a big red dress other than if you had a costume party or something? I do not have a big red dress...so I painted one!
Claire...I'll show the ones with flowery petals another time! Couldn't get it right when I started painting hehe.
No matter who you are or what you do, every girl has a
Little Diva inside of her. And I'm not talking about a lady in haute couture loaded with jewelry and an attitude...no. I'm talking about a side that knows she deserves nothing more than the best. A side that knows she is beautiful and loving no matter how she looks like. A side that accepts her flaws and isn't afraid to be who she really is.
...this side often hides though. Responsibilities, disapproving looks and words can be a pain in the ass you know.
So in short, the Red Dress has become a metaphor for the fact that everyone should have their moment. That moment where they can fully embrace who they are without being judged. And it doesn't matter if it's silly or weird or not sensible...if it makes you happy...what more could you ask for? Simplicity at its best right? So eat that cookie if you want one, roll in the grass if you feel like it, wear those earrings if it makes you feel beautiful, wear bright eye shadow if it makes you feel colorful and happy. I could go on and on, but the point is that you don't forget who you are and share a bit of your own sunshine with the world. A lot of people hide behind their own clouds already anyway.
I visited the
Facebook Page and all those little comments just made me happy. So many people are offering red dresses and/or photography skills just to make someone else happy and give them their moment of Fabulousness. I love how the World of the Web can do this and when I read another article about
The Bloggess and her Red Dress Movement...I was inspired even more.
Strangers helping Strangers. Social media is a powerful tool indeed.
I hope that one day I can twirl around in a big red d
Ciao Ciao!
Finally an Etsy update for you guys! My shop is up and running! For now I added a few prints and greeting cards in it, but it's a start right?! They make lovely gifts for e.g. birthdays or...for yourself. Plus, the cards can be easily framed as well. So far most people don't want to part with their print haha.
I will slowly add more products like original art, buttons and magnets to it. I will tweet about this and mention it on my Facebook fanpage. I will mention it on my blog every now and then as well, but if you really want to stay up to date, make sure you'll "stalk" me on there as well hehe. Of course if you are an Etsy person, you can add me in your circle.
All prints are on high quality matte photo-paper, glued on heavy card stock and comes with an envelope. They are also all signed and shipped in a sturdy envelope.They come unframed as this reduces shipping costs and you can frame them however you like.
Have a browse around, if you know people who would be interested, pretty please refer them to my shop. Ooooh and one request, I'd love looooove it if you would pin it onto Pinterest if you like the illustration and you collect illustration images. I am kinda addicted to that site (maybe I should leave the 'kinda' out of my sentence...) and to see my images float around there would be so cool. Next to that, it's such an easy way to collect and share inspiration.
Like I said, there will be more things available, like prints of a special illustration that I did for my latest column. If you haven't seen it yet...please click on this
'Magic Word' and share it with others please. People shouldn't stop dreaming ^_^.
I added a permanent tab for my Etsy shop above. If you click it you'll be magically transported to it!
Now...I shall watch a movie! Enough laptop for today! Till next ramble everyone!
Hey Everyone!
How’s the New Year going for you so far? This post is a bit of a ramble. When I was still studying I always dreaded the months after Christmas and New Years. Time always seemed to go soooo sloooooow, but now, I really had to take days off for the holidays and the new year started quite busy! I did (and I'm still doing) a lot of reflecting and organizing and it's funny (sort off)...I thought I got things pretty clear in my head regarding my blog, but I realized I wanted to switch things up again.
I mean I have two blogs now. This one and
TJ on Illustrations. The people who follow me on Twitter and Facebook know I’ve been sharing my older columns on a new writer’s site called
Expats Post. I’ll tell you more about this site another time! My second blog is like a diary where I let you all peek in my brain and give some insight in how I perceive and experience the Illustration World. It's really focused on the writing element, whereas this blog...this blog is a true arty ramble blog. I like to keep it that way.
I’ve been pondering what I want to do with my blog and how to keep it interesting for you and myself. Well, the
cupcake tutorial and
‘appelflappen’ recipe got a lot of great feedback, so I will be adding more recipes and simple tutorials. Fun times! Next to that, I’m also discussing a side project with my sister. We've been planning to do something for quite some time now and we're finally setting things in motion. Fun times again, but more on this soon!
You know, ever since I have my
fanpage, I started to draw even more. I've increased my drawing by adding a doodle or two each day on my fanpage. Usually sketch work, but it keeps me drawing every day, no matter how little the drawing is. I was thinking to upload it on my blog as well, but I don't want to be all spammy and otherwise I'll be spending my entire day uploading and promoting my posts! So every now and then I will add sketchwork here (like I did in this post), but do follow me on FB as well, if you want more frequent little bits of art by me ^_^
I'm working on a series of paintings that I can hopefully show you over the next couple of days as well. Plus! My Etsy will be up and running! I can't say 'again' as I never used my Etsy store, but this shall change soon.
See? The year started busy, busy! Is there something you'd like me to share my thoughts about? Questions you'd like to as
Hello HelloEveryone!
Thanks somuch for the response on the cupcake tutorial (previous post)! I was pleasantlysurprised by the amount of people that read and liked the post! I will have morecupcake tutorials soon and from this I shall expand to other tutorials *evil laugh*
You know, Ithink that this is the last post for 2011...I need to take a few days off andre-focus and prepare for the Holidays. It really feels like it has been only a week ago, that I wished you Happy Holidays in 2010! I think I also have my first new party header where my characters had skin tones. Goodness!
HappyHolidays
and have an Awesome 2012!!
I know Iprobably already said 'Thank You' many, many times, but I shall do it again, because withoutyour support and readership I wouldn’t be here! Really, a huge thank you forjust following me on my journey. I hope it inspires you to just work hard & chase your owndreams. You can make a difference for yourself as nothing is impossible, you can make it impossible by thinking that it is!
I’m reallycurious to what 2012 will bring! Commission requests are already coming in for2012 and I have a feeling that I have to put a commission stop soon. You will be notified when I have to do thisthough, but if youdon’t have a deadline and you don’t mind waiting a bit longer for yourcommission, then by all means, e-mail me if you have questions, want to knowprices and so on ([email protected]).
With this,I shall leave you! I’ll be checking in on my Fan page every now and then and post random doodles. I gotta keep on doodling!
Hello helloo!!
Hmm that was said in a weird opera voice...in my head anyway.
So, no recipe this time, but a drawing tutorial! A while ago, I got asked by the lovely Marieke Bos, if I was interested in participating in a creative project. It's for the site Swap-bot and here lots of creatives swap handmade goodies with each other. The group Dutch Swappers magically transformed the month December in an online advent calendar and every day a creative swapper reveals his/her gift.
And yes, you guessed it right, today is my day and I decided to create a quick tutorial on how I draw my cupcakes ^_^. There are really just a few basic lines and by switching up the expression you can create a new little cupcake in a few seconds. This is the first time writing a step by step tutorial and I will record a short video how I draw and paint it soon. However, the quality isn't THAT great. I will re-upload it soon again. My laptop shut off while I was saving the tutorial, so I lost some of my editing. Not a big deal...until I noticed that the file had become corrupt. The horror. I had a deadline to upload it a bit after midnight on December 13th, therefore I couldn't re-create what I had, so this tutorial is a quick version.
If something doesn't make sense, do let me know. I can keep this in mind for when I create the right version of this tutorial. I have another way of drawing a cupcake and if you guys like this one, I'll show you the other one as well.
Oh! I do have a cupcake recipe for you guys soon...hehe. Until then, don't forget about the
Limited Christmas Cards and my
Zazzle shop.
Have fun trying it out and if you drew it and want to show it...let me know! If there are enough cupcake doodlers, I will create a folder on my Facebook page so people can post it there. I'd love to see it :D Feel free to experiment with the frosting shapes and faces. I'll show lots of cupcake examples soon!
Ciao ciao!
Hey Everyone!
Here is the second update! As you know my Zazzle shop features a bunch of my designs that you can get as present. Quite a few people bought a TJ design and I couldn't be more pleased knowing that there are people over the world opening their present and seeing a TJ illustration! How cooooool is that!? Zazzle makes a lot easier, but an important element is lost and that is you aren't getting a typical TJ package ^_^.
Okay, come closer...this is an important post as you have to be quick with deciding or notifying people to get cards.
I added a bunch of designs in my album 'For sale - Cards and Prints' on Facebook and please read the added information so you know the amount I have of each card. The cards have a little extra like snow or a pretty dark red glitter detail that you won't get when you order from Zazzle. I have more designs waiting and I'll add these tomorrow.
So as the other designs aren't added yet, the information is for the Christmas cards only. Each Christmas card is EUR 4,-. Shipping costs for one card is included. If you want more cards, EUR 2.50,- will be added to the total amount for worldwide shipping (the weight of the package knocks it in a different shipping category -_-). Sneak peek!!
If you want to get a Christmas card(s), this is what you must do:
1. Visit the album and decide what you want.
2. Email me at
[email protected] with the
name of the design,
amount of cards,
your paypal address and your
mail address. People from the Netherlands can pay me with their regular bank account as well.
3. I'll send you a Paypal invoice or my bank account information.
4. After payment, the cards will be shipped the next day or even the same day if you're lucky!
That's it! People living abroad do have to decide fairly quickly as it takes more or less a week for a package to arrive. So if you order the cards before Tuesday you're on the safe side and you can mail the cards to whoever you want. BUT! If you want to send a TJ card to someone and you're not sure if it would be on time, you can provide the message & address to me and I'll ship it directly to the person...just an extra service for you guys ^_^.
Enjoy your weekend and Happy Buying!
Greetings Lovely People!
Something new for you to read: A recipe! Yes, a lot of you know that I love to bake and I bake more than cupcakes hehe.
I wrote the recipe down for my friend, Bill Friday, and figured to post it on my blog as well. I haven't got those in-between pictures though, but I think this recipe is simple enough to go without that.
Whenever I make this recipe I use apples that have been on the table for a while and no one wants to eat them anymore. I don't have exact measurement for you as I don’t measure the cinnamon and sugar. Older apples are naturally very sweet.
Of course you can make your own puff pastry dough, but as I'm known to be lazy, I buy packages with puff pastry sheets. This is a quick snack and since I don't have a lot of time to bake complicated things, I go for an easier solution ;) Each package contains of 10 square sheets.
All in all, a very easy and tasty snack. So let's start!
Ingredients for the fillingApples - I usually use 4-5 medium sized apples for 40 small pastries (2 packages of puff pastry sheets)
Cinnamon
Granulated sugar
opt. vanilla sugar
opt. sultanas
Extra sugar for the topping.
How to- Peel and cut the apples in small cubes. Place it in a bowl and add the sugar, cinnamon and if you want sultanas. Exact amount can't be given as it really depends on the natural sweetness of the apples and to your own personal taste.
- Cut the puff pastry diagonally, so you'll get triangle shaped pastries. Add a bit of filling, pinch down the sides with a fork and then give it a wash with milk. Lastly, sprinkle granulated sugar over it.
- Bake it on 190 Celsius/375 degrees for 20-23 min. Of course you can create other shapes if you want. When the pastries are golden brown, they are done.
Buon appetito!! You can eat it warm or let it cool. They are best eaten on the same day. The longer you wait, the less crunchier they will become.
Extra thingies1. You can mix granulated sugar with a bit of cane sugar for extra crunch.
2. You can also skip the milk and add a wash with water or egg.
3. Regarding the cinnamon/sugar. Personally, I don’t like overly sweet things, so I just add a few teaspoons of sugar and a few shakes of the cinnamon jar. If you add raisins, keep in mind that this gives its own sweetness as well.
4. Left over cinnamon apples are perfect over ice cream, in yogurt etc. 5. The longer the apple mixture sits in the bowl a syrup will form. I usually add a tablespoon of cornstarch flour to the mix to absorb a bit of syrup. But you can't prevent it from happening, so make sure to leave this out of the pastry as much as you can. No soggy pastries please!
Ciao Everyone!!
Hope you had a lovely Thanksgiving! Quick update here regarding my Zazzle shop: It has been refilled! Well, there are lots of other designs in it, but I updated it with a few new Christmassy designs that you can buy as cards and key chains. I will add more products to the shop in the next couple of days. I figured to just update now instead of waiting till all is in the shop...time keeps ticking away. Plus, Zazzle is such a pain in the butt to add products too, so breaks are needed and...if I'd wait any longer I'd fall in my old routine of waiting till I have loooots to show you!
So if you want to send out cards and get small stocking fillers, now is the time :D Just keep in mind to check back as I will add more products. Also, somewhere in the next couple of days, I will add a few card designs and original paintings in my Big Cartel/Etsy shop as well. I wanted to do this today, but something went wrong with my print order, so I haven't made the cards yet. These cards will have a special TJ touch, so they are slightly different than the ones in my Zazzle shop. More on this and prices later, otherwise too much information for you too handle hehe.
Don't worry! I will notify you when the originals and cards are up in my personal shop. But for now Zazzle awaits you! If you know people who would love to get something with the designs I have available now, do let them know as well please.
If you don't see an item with a specific design, just let me know and I'll create one. There will be another post soon regarding my personal shop, but for the new Zazzle products, I will add a note on
Twitter &
Facebook. If you want to stay in the loop, follow me there please!
And now you can stare a bit more...
Hello hello!
You know, I've said it a few times before, but one of the biggest things I'm grateful for since I started blogging are the people I've met. The fabulous Cher...she is one of the friends that I keep close to my heart and I when she surprised me with a poem. I was lost for words. You can meet tons of people across the web, but some really are just true gems. I was so honored by this and I want to share it with all of you! I strongly suggest to check out both her blogs AskCherlock and Poems by Cher. Cher is a brilliant poet and writer. Her poems take you to another world and her posts are always filled with interesting thoughts. Whenever you've visited her blogs you leave with a sense of content, knowing a bit more than when you came there. Plus! She always have a little comment for you! You're not talking to thin air. Cher is an absolute pleasure to know and I don't think I've come across anyone sweeter and caring than her. I'm sure that everyone who meets her, feels the same way. I just love her ^_^.
La Danse du Jour
For our very own TJ Lubrano who allows us to see life through her eyes.
Parting early morning sunlit curtains
She sails through an open window,
Shimmers like crystalline dewdrops
Floating lithely above far away fields
Colors of lavender, yellow, and pink,
Rainbow through hues of indigo blue
She alights upon grass to twirl and whirl
Arms swaying, fingers reaching skyward,
An overture to her delicate ballet with life
She laces on and on through thickets of rye
Then wheat, then lush greenness, and soon
Symbiosis of being one with whimsy and
Mystical, magical, colors occurs sublimely
For today is her Danse and through it
Her mind absorbs each dollop as art and
When morn has ended, she will draw upon
Her visions and paint with supplicant joy
Copyright © 2011 Askcherlock
Everyone! *twirls* Isn't it beautiful :D? Every time I read this, I am so happy! I can't even put it in words haha. The above painting I gave to her as a present. It just belonged to her. Thanks so much again, Sweet Cher!
Have a lovely week guys! And in case you haven't read my column yet...you can find it by clicking the magic word. This time I talk about a
Treasure Chest...
Ciao!
Hello!
Hmm it seems that I am blogging quite frequently lately haha. But that aside, I have some excting news to tell and some of you may have seen it on Facebook yesterday!
Susanna from Trade Your Talent and I will write a...children book. Well, I will illustrate it haha. I can ramble about it here, but I'd rather have you visit the blog and hopefully you decide to follow our journey over there. The posts on that blog will cover various subjects about finding an app developer, creating character sketches, what we find fun to do, what we find difficult etc. Some posts will be from her alone, some will be mine and some will be combined, like you can see in our first post. Hopefully it will be of interest for people who want to start something for themselves too! To find the blog just click the image below ^_^.
Meet Migwi the Monkey!! :D
Everything is still in draft mode, so hopefully seeing it all change and grow will be fun and interesting for you guys!
Writing/illustrating a children's book is one of the steps that I want to complete in my second year as illustrator. I could wait till a project falls in my lap or that I start when I'm signed by an agency...however, I know that sometimes you just have to act pro-active. The story is there, the illustrations are floating around...we are willing to invest our time and energy in this....so why wait?? We believe in our project and to me that's all that matters.
But! Getting signed by an agency is another one of my goals! And in order to create a great promotional package I will join the Zero2Illo challenge '
4 Week Promotional Mailer Challenge' I already joined a Zero2illo Challenge in the past, but my thesis took up way too much, so I had to stop after 5 weeks. However now...no more pesky thesis! Not that I have all the time in world though, but this challenge is too interesting to set aside.
Big Thanks to Jonathan and Lea Woodward for giving everyone the change to develop and grow as an artist! *bows*
Till next post everyone and have a fabulous weekend ahead!
Ciao!
This post is going to be super short (my definition of short...)! I am working on my to do list and I still have a few things to finish! Yes...I am shocked as well, but first...
HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!
An oldie for you to see! I started out with several designs for Halloween and then...commissions popped up and I had to put my own project aside. Bummer, but I will finish them and add them to my standard collection. You know, It's funny to look at my characters before I started to add skin tones. I drew this a year ago!
So without further a due, the winners of my giveaway are...
1. Ms. Judie from
Rogue Artists2. Ms. Flameheart from
The Fire in My Eyes3. Ms. <!--[if gte mso 9]>
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Anastasiia from Anastasiia-KuCongratulations! I shall contact you this week if I haven't contacted you by the end of the week...email me at
[email protected] please.
Okay! Gotta run again! Stay tuned for the next post where I either tell you about a new exciting adventure that I'm working on OR I will tell you in short what my next steps are for the upcoming months!
Feel free to tell a random story if you want or you can also check out my new column
0 Comments on The Scary Winners are... as of 1/1/1900
Ciao Everyone!
First! My column, TJ on Illustrations, is up and I will post the new column every Friday. I will do more of these types of posts over there as it’s also like my personal diary type of thingy, but less rambly. To stay up to date, do hope over and subscribe. I promise, you won’t be disappointed ^_^
Okay, with being official and all, I knew that I had to come up with a more solid plan. You can’t just say ‘Oh I will start a business and sit back and relax or skip around being happy’ No. Next to that, my budget isn’t big, so I looked into other ways to get myself more noticed and get to know other creative people. That was my main focus point, to let others know that I’ve entered the Illustration World! What’s the point in being an artist if no one knows about you?
Quick doodle
I'll the most important things in a nutshell, because I can’t write every little thing down. It would probably bore you to death. This year has been all about being seen, getting noticed, working on more commissions and researching lots of things.
There are a lot of free portfolio sites and I signed up for several of them. Sounds good huh…but the real deal is that you have to keep them updated. I did pretty well for a little while, but then more projects and commissions started coming in and well…I started to update less. You see, when I registered as a ‘
one lady business’, I got a few responsibilities, like a quarterly VAT registration and an hour registration. The horror. I had to set up my own administration and it takes some time to get used to it, because you don’t want to get in trouble with the Tax people.
Even though I didn’t update as much as I wanted too, I did have an increase in views and in subscribers. Though a
Big Thank You goes out to everyone who shared and re-tweeted everything I did!! This played a huge part as well.
The Frosty Ladies (2011)
Next to this, I also signed up for Zazzle, Etsy, Redbubble & Society6. I did mention
Zazzle last year, but the reason why I never mentioned the others on my blog is that I didn’t have anything good to sell yet. Or at least not good enough in my mind. I kept telling myself to schedule more time for personal projects, but with my already existing commissions and the fact my grandad got sicker…I really had to juggle with my time. I did my best to keep an eye on my time management, sometimes I just didn’t have the time to do everything I wanted to do. I will have a shop soon though, but this will be in a different post :-)
I started to use my Twitter and personal Facebook account for work and staying in touch with people. And you know, I did get a better view in interest when I created my fan page. Next to this, it also makes sure that I keep updating more regularly (
0 Comments on Tales from an Illustrator: Reflect and Move Forward. as of 1/1/1900
It is party time! Yes. My birthday has arrived again. Can you guys believe that another year has passed again! Goodness. I know I can't. I will reflect back on last year in another post. Hopefully it will be interesting for you to read and see how things went in my first year as illustrator.
Of course I can't let this birthday pass without a little celebration! Yes, my friends, there will be a...
Doodle Giveaway! (closed)
This time I'll be giving away a few prints. The ones you see on the picture are examples and you can either frame it or send it as a card.
And yes, this means that there will be more winners! Three to be exact and each winner can choose one print. The options will be given when I contact the winners! So if you want to join, the rules are as follow:
1.
Comment on this post and have a cupcake...okay. the cupcake is optional haha.
2. Be
a follower of this blog, my Facebook page or both. I will check this as these giveaways are also little
thank yous for supporting me on this adventure I'm on!
3. For
additional entries, you can share my blog and/or Facebook page with everyone you know. The more people that are a part of my little world the better as it means I can make more people happy with my art :D. Just let me know where you shared it and how many times, so I can keep track of how many times I have to add your name to the Magic Hat.
4. Just for fun...as who/what will you
dress up if you are celebrating Halloween? Even if you don't have a party to go to, but you would dress up what costume would you wear? I am...curious haha.
I will announce the winners on Halloween, October 31st at 8pm my time.
Last, but not least...a big Happy Birthday to my lovely friend, Kim from
Soggydog Studios! So lovely that we share this lovely day together.
This is it for now! Have a great day everyone and till next post.
Ciao Xoxo
Hello Everyone!
So, it took some time tofinally write a bit about my trip to the UK and meeting Claire, The Doodologist! I had a few things to take care off while I was fighting off a cold, unfortunately the cold got worse when I got caught in the rain last Sunday -_-'
One of the designs that was quite popular. It seems that there is a cupcake madness going on haha.
I had so much fun and thetime flew by so quickly. It still feels pretty surreal that I’ve actually met alady that I’ve known for two years now. And you know what...she isn't THAT crazy hehe :D (Sorry Claire, but you're not...). Meeting her was so much fun and it only made me realize even more how important it is to know someone who can relate with everything you’re doing and going through andwho can gives advice and listens to the things you have to say. I will write more aboutthis in a column soon!Now on to the North West Vintage Fair! It wasan interesting event. I didn’t expect people to buy something at all, but they did! I wentinto the fair with a blank mind and when the first people showed interest I waskinda shocked and didn’t know what to say! You know when you’re behind the computer,you can easily freak out when you get a cool email or when people showinterest. You can take a bit of time to let it sink in and then you respond ina normal way. In real life you can’t really do this. I’m not a salesperson, butwhen you stand there you kind of need to ‘sell’ your work through words and byasking questions. It’s a new switch for me and definitely a learning point if Ido another one in Holland! I am very glad to have done one with Claire though,made it less scary ^_^.Look at our pretty table! Giant Crayons and Pencils courtesy of The Doodologist.
The really need their own spotlight. Kids love them haha.
So sad when I had to leaveagain and you know I seriously needed a few days to switch back to Dutch. Whenpeople asked me a question, I replied in English *sigh* But Claire and I talked about a lot of fun things and lovely things for in the future. I foresee lots of fun things and in time you shall all know about it.
In 10 days, my first yearanniversary as a full-time illustrator will arrive! Now I can never forget whenI made the official switch as my birthday is attached to it. I cannot believethat a year already has passed. So much has happened and I am taking a bit oftime to reflect on it and see what I need to change and what goals I will setfor the second year. That’s why my posts are a bit scarce lately as I'm doing a whole lot in a short amount of time and even though I have the best intentions to do every thing I have on my huge to do list, in reality it doesn't work out all the time. So I need to stay realistic, but more on this in another post!Gosh. Lots of rambling is ahead of you hehe.
Now everyone…please visitmy
Hello hello!
How are you all doing? This time I have a few little updates for you guys and one big one! A few illustrations made their way to their new owner, so for the ones who aren't following me on Facebook, I shall add them here. If you are on Facebook and want to stay up to date a bit quicker, do become a fan of the little world I have over there!
Update 1: The Afro Rainbow Lady from last post has been sold and is now in the hands of a very proud owner! It always makes me super happy when I see how excited people get when they get their illustration(s). I just know that they arrived in the perfect new home. Prints of this Lady will be available soon.
Update 2: The last giveaway winner also received his package and to see what I created...just click on the picture and you will see more pictures! I've snapped a bunch of pictures before I wrapped it up. Hehe. The winner was mr. Garry, who is a wonderful writer. You can read some of his great articles on Broowaha or on his blog.
The Land of the Lost Words
I think you can browse around the folder even if you don't have a Facebook account. If this is not the case, do let me know. The theme was inspired on
writing and I added a bunch of anime influenced characters in it. The ones who know Studio Ghibli might recognize this.
Update 3: A bunch of colorful Parrots made their way safely to their new owner as well! And yes, they are an addition to the ones you see on my header. I am slowly expanding that colorful world. I wonder what else is hiding there!
Parrot Madness
Now my most exciting news! I will be heading to the UK for a week! I'll be visiting
The Doodologist aka Claire Pitt. Regular readers know who she is as her name pops up every now and then. For the ones who don't know her, just click on the above link or if you want to read more ramblings by her please visit her blog.
We will be standing at the
North West Vintage Fair that's being held on 24th & 25th September. It's my first fair, so I am a tad nervous, but very excited! We'll have some goodies for sale and will be chatting about our work. So if you're around, do pay us a visit. It would be so lovely to meet you!
Enjoy your Sunday and see you when I get back! Anyone who has questions about artwork/commissions, you can still email me at
[email protected]. I will get back to you after my trip.
Last but not least...do behave okay? I am watching you...hehe.
Ciao!
Hello Everyone!
Goodness. Time flies! I seriously thought only a week had passed since my last post. Err...sorry about that!
First of all, a big hello to all the new followers! Lovely to see you here. Don't be shy to share stories, thoughts or ask questions. Second of all, big Hugs to my sweet & awesome friend Tricia from Tershbango. She got married last weekend. I'm so happy for her!
Now...what have I been up to? Well a bunch of things haha. There are a few packages on their way to their owners and I'm still in the process of updating and organizing a lot of things, so to update you all with vague rambling would only confuse you. Once I've organize my mind and the illustrations arrived safe and sound I will write a big update post (maybe two...)! Are you getting scared...? Hehe.
Things like new projects, new illustrations that I need to edit and to share with the world and so on. Keep an eye on this blog please! Some of you are more on Facebook and if you want to stay updated there, do visit my fanpage (if you haven't already hehe). I update my page with quick sneak peeks, notes or questions, so for quicker updates that's the place to be! Everyone is welcome to share thoughts, ideas and ramblings as well. Looking forward to see you there ^_^
This was a sneak peek on my page.
It's now edited and the original plus prints will be up for sale soon!! Excited!
I have a question: What are your favorite elements about Halloween? The parties? dressing up? cats? ghosts? pumpkins? Scaring people? I will do a poll on my page as well, but you can also comment below if you want to share some thoughts regarding Halloween. I'd love to hear it and see what I can incorporate in new illustrations. So please put your Witches & Wizards Hats on ;)
Yes. My mind is already drifting towards the upcoming holidays. I can't help it. I caught myself singing
Jingle Bells &
Dashing through the Snow several times already...
Hope you're all doing well and to everyone who lives in the area where Irene passed by...hope you're safe and got through it okay!
Till next time everyone.
Ciao!
Hello helloeveryone!
My firstcanvas done with watercolors arrived safe and sound at its owner! I figured itwould be nice to see the difference between my usual watercolor paper andworking on canvas.
Some of youknow about the Three Venetian Masks I painted a while back. I love Venetian masksthey are mysterious and often full ofdetails. A friend really loved them and asked if it was possible to have it oncanvas as well. Well almost anything is possible, so I said ‘Yes of course!!’
So Ire-painted it on canvas with...watercolors! I haven’t got the usual in-betweenpictures. I kinda forgot to keep track of it. This is what I used:
I probablyshould have taken a picture without both finished pieces hehe. Ah well! Next tothe standard things, like brushes, pencils/pen, eraser, paint (which I forgot to add in the picture), I used four extrasteps.
1. I retraced the original painting on tracing paper (that's the transparent drawing you see above)
2. I primed the canvas with Watercolorprimer from Schmincke (the white bottle in the back)
3. Then I retraced the painting on the canvas by using Saral transfer paper. (the red box on the left)
4. Finally details are added with acrylic ink in white, black and iridescent gold. (the three little bottles in front of the primer.)
Standardcanvasses are prepped with a universal primer, suitable for most paintings.However I found that watercolors didn’t really ‘stick’ with this universalprimer. So after some research I found a watercolor primer for canvas. A verygood product, easy to apply and it dries fairly quickly. You needto add 3 thin layers on your canvas. After drying, you can start painting.
Saral transfer paper in graphite. I love this! A whole new array of possibilities has beenopened with this little roll of graphite paper. This medium makes transferringdrawings very easy as you can transfer it on e.g. canvas (obviously), wood, ceramic and so on. The graphite lines dissolve in water. Warning: make sure thelines aren't too thick (so not a whole lot of pressure while you trace yourdrawing) as it will influence your paint color, because the lines give too much pigment and add a touch of greyness when it dissolves. Most people don’t want that…
The actualpaint process was a bit tricky
Hello hello Everyone!
How are you all doing? Things are pretty hectic for me, lots of small projects to finish and hopefully I can share a bunch of new stuff & updates with you all soon! In the meant time I thought I'd share
a piece of my column here as well. It's a little story about the tools one can use for an illustration. Let's start!
…
Sorry. Wrong beginning!
Once upon a time there was a piece of paper. This piece of paper wanted to express itself with an image, a thought, so it soared down through the Clouds of Memories and held on to a memory. But having this memory wasn't enough. It started to float through the Pencil Woods and got marked with soft lines. No. This wasn’t enough either. The little paper wanted more and floated further. On its journey it passed the Inky Meadows and the image got marked even more. The memory became more clear. However, it still wasn't enough. The paper wanted color. It wanted depth. So it kept on floating and the wind brought it to the River of Jars. The River was surrounded by little Brush Bushes with little Flower Pans in lots of different colors. The Flower Pans, sparkled and glistened in the sun. The paper floated towards the bushes when there was a soft movement within the bushes and eyes opened. It turned out that the little brushes were tiny elegant creatures, with soft hair and sparkling golden eyes. Some went to the jars in the river, while others went to the flowers. Splashes of water on the paper, while drops of colors flowed through it. Brush strokes here, brush strokes there. Tiny details here, tiny details there. What once were just a few lines was given life and told a story. It was here to stay. Forever captured on a piece of paper. I was a bit in a storytelling mood. Haha. But you can pick out a few of the tools that I use from that little story. I won't add the entire column here as I want to share something else. So if you like to read it all please click the
Magic Button. If you want to comment, but don't have an account there you can share your thoughts here as well ^_^.
What I wanted to share with you is the following. Mr.
Jim Brandano, is a professional photograhper from the States. His pictures are beautiful. So when you have the chance do browse around his blog! He asked me if I was up for a little collaboration. Of course I was! He sent me a few pictures and I could choose one as an inspiration to create an illustration. I love sunsets so I picked the following:
I just love the deep red orange in this one. Okay, this is what I created out of it! Oh. Do enlarge the picture please.
What do you think? It has darker mysterious vibe I think. But when I saw his picture, I immediately imagined elegant flying creatures in the sky. So I stuck with that ima
Hey everyone!
How are you doing? Enjoying the weather so far?
Today I shall tell you about a project that I've done a while ago. Whenever it's possible I shall tell you bits and pieces of the things that I'm doing. Sometimes I can only tell you more when the project is finished as things need to be kept a secret ;). For this project I collaborated with
Blogcatalog and created a bunch of avatars for you to choose from when you create an account. I personally like it when you have different types of avatars to choose from, especially since I often wander around my imaginative world and pretend to be a superhero hehe. So if I can switch things up when I want, I am happy.
Here are the currently available avatars:
Let me just tell you, I could have created a whole lot more! You can easily choose a personality that suits you. I added some snapshots for you to see, plus a few avatars in a bigger size. I hope you like them as much as I do.
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Before I do anything else, it is time to announce the winner of the Giveaway!
*drum rolls*It is
Alejandro from 'Raising Amelie'!!! Woohoo. Congratulations! I shall contact you as soon as I can. A bit about Alejandro...he is a man with many names and personalities. One day he is Darth Vader, the other day he is Superman. I kid you not. He has a personal blog with lots of stories and Amelie is his cute little princess. He is really cool and I always have to laugh when I read his comments, even when he's serious. Yeah, I can't explain why. I just hear a funny voice in my head
(Sorry A hehe). Do visit
his blog when you have the chance ^_^.
I thought it would be fun to share some drawings from the past with you. I cleaned up my drawings folders and came across a few oldies. Well, I sort off clean up as I just made another pile hehe. I probably have a bunch more though. These drawings are done somewhere between 2001 and 2006.
I haven't got a lot of colored drawings from when I was younger. Correction, I don't think I have colored drawings. The thing is, I walked around for a long time, thinking that I would mess up my drawings if I colored them. I really believed that I couldn't do this and felt more comfortable working with pencil alone. Oh how things changed over time haha.
In the past, I really just re-drew art work. Nowadays I use it only as a reference to create my own drawings. Yes. I watched a lot of Dragonball and Dragonball Z. Let's just say, I watched a lot of anime. Hehe.
Heey everyone!!
Okay, first of all you can still join the Giveaway and in order to do so please click this Magical Button and comment on the that post. If you comment here, you won't be added in the giveaway. The winner shall be announced on June 21th, 2011! Next! I proudly announce that I'm an official columnist for the site
Broowaha!
Edit: I have my own column now, which you can find here, TJ on Illustrations. I will post something regarding the illustration business every Friday, starting next week. I will post some of the articles here as well as you need an account to leave comments there. So for the ones who only read my blog, this is the place to be. For the ones who are interesting in writing and connecting with other writers, do check out Broowaha. It's such a fun & friendly community. You won't be disappointed.
So now it's time for the flash story! A while ago, I was participating in another writers community and before it vanished into thin air
( I have nothing to do with it...) I spent a few fun weeks with other writers. Every week there were 5 prompts to choose from and you got critique and feedback on it. This story won :D. So exciting!
As soon as Tess opened the door, Sandy burst in.
“Oh my god! Tess!”
“What? What is it?
“Oh my god! Really, you never gonna believe what happened”
“What! What has happened” Tess had all sorts of drama visualized in her head as they walked to the kitchen.
“Really I was shocked…”
“Come on! Just tell me!”
“There was a theft in the CupCakery Bakery!”
“There was a theft in CupCakery Bakery…oohkay this is shocking because…”
“He only stole the tops!”
“The tops? What tops?”
“The tops of the cupcakes!”
“Really? Only that?”
“Yeah! Apparently he said, ‘why steal it all, if you only like the tops’, marvelously said I think”
“Dude’s got a point there. Want to have some tea?”
Sandy just kept nodding with a big smile.
“But how did he do this? How was he able to only steal the tops?”
“Well, he had a special spatula and with one swift movement…” Sandy made a demonstration, “…he could place it under the frosting and scoop it right up. Oh yeah! The other end of the spatula made it possible to slice of muffin tops. He liked those too. They are crunchy.”
Tess tried not to laugh, this was the strangest story she ever heard. “Okay the muffin tops I can understand, but why the frosting?”
“He liked the swirly patterns.”
“I see. Well I guess that makes sense.”
“I guess that makes sense indeed too.”
So. Who wants a cupcake now :D?
Hope you liked it as well & Till next time everyone.
Ciao! *waves*
Hey Everyone!
I am back and it is...my second Blogoversary today! Hooray!! So yes. This means another giveaway. But first, I just wanted to start with a BIG thank you to all again for the lovely support you gave me on my previous post. I read every single comment when I was feeling down and your lovely words cheered me up quite a lot. I couldn't thank you enough. No need to worry, I'm doing okay ^_^.
Sneak peek at a larger painting I did for my friend Tony Berkman.
It's one of my faves. Fishies everywhere!
So the moment all of you have been waiting for
(probably not, but okay haha). The winner of the previous giveaway is............. Congratulations
Hanis! I believe you choose an underwater theme. I shall contact you or if you read this and you haven't gotten an email yet, feel free to send an email.
Now! Let's go to the other giveaway ;)
2nd Blogoversary Doodle Giveaway (closed)
I can't believe another year has passed. So much happened in one year, from quitting my studies, being a official artist, meeting lots of new friends. Are you guys ready for the next year???
- Feel free to subscribe to my blog, like my Facebook page or both.
- The winner can decide what theme he/ she wants. Illustration will be around A5 size.
- The winner shall be announced on June 21th, 2011! So check back if you join the giveaway.
If you want to join, just let me know in the comments below. Also, when I reach
100 likes on my page, there will be a giveaway as well. There are quite a few ways to obtain an original a la TJ! Fun stuff ahead :D.
This post won't be filled with updates or ramblings just yet. I need to reorganize a lot of stuff haha. Oh before I go! Have I showed you below illustration? I can't recall now. It was for a giveaway over at the Self Exams Doodles page! A little boy who loves pirates :D. He has it hanging proudly on his door now!
See yer here, there & everywhere! Arrrghhh...
My lovely friends,
My grandad passed away yesterday evening. He had been sick for quite some time and it seemed that with each time he had to stay in the hospital a piece of him went away. A proud man who refused to accept that he was sick. From the outside, he wasn't the same man that I used to know, but when he smiled or made jokes, I know he was still the same man on the inside.
It's strange, I had a strong feeling to see him yesterday and when I did, it was a shock to see how thin he had become in such a short amount of time. He truly was just a shell of the man he used to be. I knew he wouldn't be around for much longer, you could see how tired he was of fighting for his life. Shortly after we left, my dad got a call that things gotten worse and we head back. He became even thinner in the 2 hours that I hadn't seen him. It's bizarre. To see him, lying there, so silent, sick, but peaceful, was so surreal.
I'm grateful that he didn't suffer and when I was in the hospital, it was difficult. A part of me wanted to run away of all the sadness, another part of me wanted to stay. To hear the nurse say, that he's dying, I couldn't believe it. To hear the words 'He's gone'...I have no words to describe how that felt.
My mind is filled with memories, My heart is filled with love.
And even though my Soul is filled with tears, I know that with time it will get better.
He is in a better place now and I know he is out there, somewhere.
Watching over me and my family.
I need some time to give this space. I'll be back soon and then I shall announce the winner of the giveaway ^_^. As always, thanks for sticking with me on my journey and to the ones who already knew about my grandad, thank so so much for your love & support. It means the world to me!
xoxoxo
Ciaooo Everyone!
First of all, I got such a lovely response on my previous post! Thanks to everyone who read it & left a wonderful comment! Also big thanks to the ones who shared it with others.
Meet the
Deadly Gorgeous Ladies. Yes. This will be a new series of mini paintings. I created the ones above for a friend who is an excellent writer, mr. Bill Friday. Do visit his site when you have the chance,
It's Always Friday.
For the ones who don't know it yet, I have a
Facebook Fanpage! I
(finally) created one as it's an easy way to keep everyone up to date with short rambles, new illustrations, sneak peeks and other news. While I tell longer stories on my blog. On the page I can also ask quick questions or feedback, so everyone can get creative there. There's a 'like' button in the left corner of my blog.
Okay, I do have a favor to ask from you. There is a review page in the menu on the FB page. I would love to have a review from the people who have an illustration by me or who has worked with me. You would really help me out with this as I try to build up my customers/client network. I think it would be like an extra motivation for future clients to commission me as an artist ^_^. If you don't have an artwork by me (yet) and you want to say something about me as person, you can do that as well haha. Thanks so much in advance!
Doodle Giveaway! (closed)
It's giveaway time again! Do a little dance everyone ^_^. This time
no real rules as last time a lot of the participants were already subscribers hehe. If you're not, I'd love for you to subscribe to my blog or like my page or both. However, I leave the choice up to you. The winner can choose out of the following subjects for an
A5 illustration (give or take):
pirates, underwater, anime, pin-up and creepy cuteness.If you want to join, just leave a comment on this post with the subject of choice and I'll use the
random.org site to pick the winner. I'll announce the winner on
May 31th (2011, just in case you were wondering 2012. Hehe.)There will also be
giveaways via my Facebook Fanpage, so if you miss your chance here, keep an eye on the page, because you can have another chance soon! Warning: There will be a giveaway when I reach 100 likes...
Pink Fluffiness for the little princess of my friend Paul Groom This is it! For now anyway. I've so much to blog about as I also got a new award fro
Yes. Ever since I started blogging, it has been a magical journey and I can only imagine how it will be in the future. For now, I'm just enjoying the rollercoaster ride and I wanted to thank everyone who is joining me!
A big hello and thank you to my new followers and to everyone else, thanks so much for commenting and sharing your thoughts with me! I appreciate every single one of you. As always, for better view of details, do enlarge the picture.
Even though the destination is unknown, never be afraid to embark on a Magical Journey.
It's a Magical Journey for a reason. Just take a leap of faith, enjoy & learn from it.
What do you have to lose ^_^?
This painting was for the last Self Exam Doodles giveaway winner. He loves anime & Studio Ghibli and wanted one inspired by that. Studio Ghibli is known for magical and strangely interesting characters and I tried to add a few anime elements in it. I do like how it turned out!
No stories this time. I have a huge to do list where I'm slowly, but certainly crossing things off. Therefore this post will be a bit of a ramble post again.
I got a blog award! I have to admit I kinda forgot about the blog awards. but that doesn't mean that I don't appreciate it and I'm honored that people think of me in a world filled with awesome blogs. Thanks so much
V! V's blog is called
The 'half-baked' Music Snob and the subtitle is
'Art, Music, Weirdness and I'...what's not to like about that :D. Do have a read when you have some spare time. It's filled with musical& arty musings! The award is called
'The Versatile Blogger' award and the receiver must pass it on to other bloggers, which I will not do as I simply can't choose between my awesome blogging friends. There are too many! I also need to tell 7 things about myself. I owe you this one as I need to go through some older posts to see what I haven't told you yet. The links to older quizzes are on the
'Who is TJ' page.
Next! I got interviewed by the very kind & funny
Tony Berkman from BlogCatalog. I think a bunch of you already read it, but for the ones who didn't, you can find it here
A Magical Treat Inside the Mind of well Me. Hehe. The interview was really, really fun to do and I hope you like it as well.
Last, but not least. I updated my
'Commission Me' page! You can see a menu in the side bar and there's a tab. I added lots of information. So if you ever want to commission me, have a read and see if I answered some of your questions
(there may be mistakes/typos as I still need to read i
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Shoot her an email, she answers those. :) She's awesome. You're not too bad either. You always brighten MY day!
I'm hoping for a red dress to get married in, but we'll see.
Just when I thought a red dress was just one way to attract guys, here you are, explaining the other side of wearing such a fantabulous outfit. You ARE a creative mind!
I think I'll wear one this week :D Truly lovely!
I love this movement and Jenny is amazing on so many levels!
I did!! and she replied :D I am happy haha.
You made me happy as well. Thank you so much! A red wedding dress...soooo awesome!!
Hi Nicole!! Thank you so much!! And I fully agree about Jenny. Amazing on many levels! Ciao!
Aww Melissa! Grazieee Mille! Jenny inspired it with her story and her philosophy behind it, so voila my post was born! GOOOO wear a red dress! You'd look lovely in it :D. I want one too!!
Xoxoxox
Ohhhh la la, she is so lovely and worth all the various head mutations to get her right.
Also love the inspiration for this post and that you created a red dress just for it!
Technical question: What red did you use for the dress?
I shall await the petal ladies, whenever they decide to show up for the party :)
Hahaha head mutations! I will do a quick post with the other versions soon, like a reflection of some sorts.
The posts came at the perfect timing! The dress was perfect to add in my Flowy Quest :D I'm glad it turned out well in the end. As for the red, I had Rose Madder, Crimson and Brilliant Red on my palette for the base colours. I added a bit of deep yellow and orange to deepen the color as I found it a tad too pink, so the yellow brought out the red I wanted. The orange did the same only slightly darker. For the shading I used a bit of Payne's Grey and black to the red mixture already on the palette. For the reddish purple detail, I added violet to the red mixture.
Yes! I will show you the petal ladies soon!!
TJ, hard to imagine you in anything but a red dress, metaphorically speaking of course. Enjoy the snow. We've been thankfully spared of it this winter. January and so far February have felt more like early autumn or spring. I'm loving every fleeting moment of it. Miss you at BC, but I guess there's no cure for that.
Oh definitely would like to see a reflections of red type post.
Ah the epic quest for flow! I was wondering if you have tried using the smallest brush possible, like a 1 (or smaller) and used a concentrated amount of colour, instead of using pens? Although I am a fan of pens anyways.
Ohhh I need new reds /sigh Will have to crack out the alchemy kit and see if I can recreate some similar looking reds, thanks for the info!
Oh petal ladies!! I need to some more flowery things soon.
I had never heard of this movement before! What a great idea. I do not really wear dressed, but if I did, I think mine would be puffy and red! You always have to make a statement :)
Ciao Ciao Jen! I don't really wear dresses either, I do have a few though haha. You would look awesome in a red dress!!Oh and pair them up with converse!! :D
NP! So sweet of you haha! I will run around in the snow later I think.
Aww :( I miss you too and the fun convos with everyone else, but BC, I won't ever return there. It's a closed chapter. I'll e-mail you in a bit! It's always lovely to you see you here ^_^ *waves*
Hmm for a few lines, the purple/red ones, I did use a stronger concentrated mix of paint. I did use a stronger mix on a different version for the skin, but I think the pencil line was too strong, so I didn't like the outcome. Maybe if I draw the lines with a watercolour pencil from the start? Or just a regular colour pencil? It should be a sharp pencil though.
The reds, I all mixed them together, but I didn't pay attention to what red I used more though. Sometimes more Crimson then more Brilliant Red. I do think I used less Rose madder as that gave the pinkish undertone that I didn't really want.
My smallest brush is a size 0, synthetic bristles but I think some brands have an even smaller sized brush. I need a few more for detail work!
You're going to be a Colour Witch again :D
Oooh flowery things for you too! I can't wait to see it!
Squeee! I'm so glad she saw your dress! I KNEW she'd love it. How could she not? It's so beautiful, just like the red dress movement, itself. Yay!
Sounds like a fantastic movement!! Thanks for sharing this. It brightened up my day.
*squeeeees along* I am SO happy too :D Such a simple note, but made my day haha. I love the movement! Remember...we are twirling in a red dress too hehe.
Hi Sujana and welcome!! It's such a great cause! Ah I'm happy it brightened your day :D *waves*