I colored some blank stickers with felt tip pens and doodled some simple patterns on them.
Now I use them to put photos on the wall and also on packaging. It’s sort of a fake poor man’s replacement for washi tape : )
Also, easy to make and fun to use.
This customized clothes hanger is a part of a birthday present for Dora. I wanted to give Dora something unique and handmade but also something practical she can still use even if she doesn’t like drawings on it.
I had fun customizing this wooden hanger, first I painted it two coats of white acrylic paint, then doodled little houses over it. It was easy and enjoyable, little project and I hope Dora likes her birthday gift.
Recently I got a pack of cheap erasers which I carved into simple and abstract stamps without a specific goal in mind on how to use them. It was fun and easy project to play with on a relaxed evening while watching to my favorite youtube channels.
I tried my new stamps out and made some patterns and cards:
I really liked that and then it occurred to me that by playing around with stamps I could easily and quickly make a simple poster. So I pulled out a 30x40cm pale yellow sheet of construction paper and decided on making flowery pattern. I was out of ink so I colored my stamps with plain felt tip pens and started stamping away.
The finished result looks like this:
I’m pleased with how it turned out and how fast this technique is. Next step, maybe getting some fabric paint and stamping out a white tablecloth? We’ll see :)
Hello Friday! It’s that time of the week when I share my personal, daily photos with you. Last week I took you to a walk through Zagreb downtown but this week I’ll share a glimpse into some of my creative endeavors.
So, sometimes I paint and draw on aprons yet somehow I never remember to take photos of my creations. So this time, when drawing on an apron I decided to photograph the entire process (as well as finished result of course).
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I did this apron for Maja, so I tried to come up with a drawing she might like. I decided on a little house and a home sweet home sign. First I did a sketch on fabric using my trusty uni-ball roller.
After that I painted the outlines using black textile paint and thin brushes. After the paint was dry I added purple details using Kuretake ZIG farbicolor pen. I got this pen from Arlen, it’s really great to draw with, it has twin brushes and like the black paint I used it’s permanent on fabrics after ironing. Unfortunate Kuretake pens are not available in Croatia.
This is how the apron looks finished and worn! I also made a little wooden friend to go with the apron. I hope Maja will like it.
A couple a days ago I got two lovely flower brooches from Drenka who took part in my swap! You can check out her blog here.
And yet another thing came in the mail this week, a copy of my book Life Is Beautiful. What’s the deal with that now, you might ask. Well, I put together a booklet of some of my older illustrations using lulu.com. I wanted to test their service, quality of their printing and shipping options. I self-published my first book via blurb.com and now I wanted to try something else. I must admit I love Lulu! Prints of my illos turned out beautifully, colors are gorgeous and paper on which they print is high quality. Their site is easy to use and they offer many,many more options than blurb. However, international shipping prices are really expensive and that is the main reason (well probably the only reason ) I will publish my next book via blurb. Why do shipping prices matter to me? Well, from my experience with the first book, many people wanted to buy a signed copy of the book directly from me instead of ordering it directly from blurb (which I totally understand). So, I had to order my books (that are printed and delivered from Netherlands) to Croatia, sign them and then ship them again to their new home making the whole process much pricier than it should be.
Anyway, I really love lulu.com and I hope they find a way to make their international shipping less expensive.
I finished this little painting (5×5 inch) last week but I haven’t took photos of it until today. What to say,I love photography!
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I wish you all wonderful weekend and see you all on Monday when my SUPER SWEET PRINT SALE starts :)
As I thought of writing this post I said to myself there must be another way to start it than saying I’ve been very busy. It doesn’t sound original or fun but it’s true! I’ve been very busy working on various projects, some of which I’m not yet allowed to share and a personal art project that still makes sense only in my head and will have to wait awhile until it reveals itself to the world.
However, I did manage to steal a little time to work on simple creative ideas. I’ve been doodling on glossy 200gms photo paper, using colorful, sparkly rollers and expressing my caffeine addiction love for coffee.
I got some cheap coffee mugs at a local store and I’d love to draw something on them as soon as I buy paint for ceramics. Now I’m just using them as props.
For some reason I can’t remember right now I thought it would be fun to make a watermelon necklace. I really love watermelons and pink/red/green color combo so why not? But, to be honest my every attempt to make jewelry only reaffirms my decision to stick to illustration because I kinda suck at crafting and lack patience to work on tiny details. I made this by cutting a round cork coaster in half, painting a watermelon on it, then making two tiny holes and putting soft wire through them. I’m using it a as decoration/some sort of mobile right now and will look for actual watermelon themed jewelry on etsy one day :)
I had more fun painting bears on cork coasters than making a watermelon “necklace”:
As January is coming to an ending I’m still keeping my motto for 2012. in mind and keeping myself motivated , creative and , yes ,very busy. I can’t wait until I can share results of more exciting projects with you!
So far 2012. has been very good to me. I spent December 2011. mostly planning, setting goals and writing so seeing my plans turning into reality so fast feels great! I’ve been very busy last couple of weeks enjoying new work opportunities, setting foundations for personal art project and redecorating my apartment.
I didn’t actually plan to redecorate my place, it happened quite spontaneously. On Monday I had a little incident involving spilled ink and pinkish wall which propelled me into some sort of redecorating frenzy and resulted with repainting walls (and some pieces of furniture) bright white, painting flowers on closets, cleaning like a mad person and rearranging art pieces.
As I mentioned before, on Monday night I spilled some ink on orange/pinkish wall in my computer nook and naively wanted to wash it out with water making an ever bigger stain. You know how it goes, the more you try to clean it the bigger the stain so I thought well, I might just remove all the paint and repaint the wall.
Removing the paint was pretty tedious and messy but, I believe, totally worth it because white suits my little corner so much better and makes it lot brighter.I also rearranged art pieces and put them above my desk, I have quite an Alkaline collection, 6 original pieces by Alkaline Samurai, photo print by Isidora and two of my own pieces.
Also, I repainted my little cabinet white and painted some pink flowers on it, now I call it sakura cabinet hehe.
Recently I made a little drawing of a bear on a round piece of wood so I thought it would be appropriate to display it as well.
Once I refreshed my computer corner I moved on to the living room and repainted my old wooden wall white. The whole room seems bigger, much brighter and more pleasant to be in.
I have a big, really old closet in my living room that I plan on kicking out very soon so I thought it would be fun to paint on it before it gets moved out. Years ago, on one part of the closet my Mom applied some flowery decoupage that I never liked so I decided to remove it. And I learned a valuable lesson, decoupage is hard and messy impossible to remove but also nothing that 4 coats of white paint and strategically painted blue flowers can’t cover up.
The rest of the closet got some new, blue flowers as well.
After that I painted my kitchen cabinets white as well and did A LOT of cleaning and I’m still in the process of cleaning and rearranging stuff just at a slower pace (it’s weekend after all).
Last weekend I felt like doing something fun yet simple so I played a bit with white watercolor and blue, lined paper getting subtle and understated drawings.
Before that I experimented with dying plain, white paper with coffee and spices to get interesting textures to scan and use as textures for layers in PS. I found my old high school biology homework and though I might scan it as well to get some “objects” to use as PS layers as well.
I also made some simple notebooks to fill with photo ideas, I’ve been writing and sketching so much I already have 4 little notebooks overflowing with ideas!
I rediscover how fun it is to paint on brown paper!
Other great things happened as well in first 2 weeks of new year. I got great news, my partner in crime art and all things awesome is coming to visit in early February and we’re planning to have amazing time together as always. I started looking for props for my soon-to-happen photo shoots and scouted some very inspiring locations. I went to much needed shopping for clothes as I realized my sartorial choices could be described by this. I started working on a wonderful commission and even though I’ve been seriously sleep deprived I’m having a blast! I have a feeling 2012. will be the BEST YEAR EVER!
How did your year start?
I made a zine! And it’s about bears!
You can take a peek at in a video below, or check out original drawings I used to put it together.
Here are five little things that kept me occupied in lately:
I made a small bear painting (5×5 inches) on canvas using deco paint pens.
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Also, I made some new DIY flyers/business cards. they are hand drawn and then photocopied.
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My mini Moleskine cover got a little face-lift. I decorated it with moo stickers with my own designs and with kitchy stickers from a local store.
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Today I kept myself busy cleaning my home studio. Here is a detail of a shelf with acrylic paints. It will probably get cluttered with other stuff pretty soon but for now it looks neat.
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I sorted through my humble collection of decorative papers to see which one will get used a photo backdrop next.
*stuff I made over the weekend*
*big doodle*
Sometimes there is nothing more relaxing than drawing a big pattern! I felt like I needed to get rd of some stress this weekend so I doodled this big piece (it’s 30×40 cm) and it was very therapeutic.
*messy cards*
In art, I love seeing accurately drawn, clean (and usually uninterrupted ) lines and I’m always striving to better the quality of lines in my work and to draw them with confidence. But sometimes, I also feel like taking a break from accuracy and control and just want create messy stuff : ) So, a couple of days ago I took a bottle of ink and dipped a grill stick into it and started drawing and making messy lines on cards. Later I colored them with crayons and ended up with fourteen messy cards, different than my usual style.
*gift tags*
I also made some gift tags using mini prints of my illustrations and ended up turning one of them into a key chain.
I doodled a little bear on a tote bag today and it says hello!