Illustration Station

A really nice illustrator friend of mine, Louise Kyriakou, showed me today a little nice new blog called Illustrator Station from illustrator Kim Fleming.

It is basically a blog that gathers all the opportunities and competitions around the world for illustrators. Definitely something that was missing!
Hopefully it will become a great resource in the illustration world!

THe iNCIPIT

A dear friend of mine recently started a project called THe iNCIPIT. Basically it's a sort of social network where users can "play" with stories.

Below you can find the link to the website but since it's still in beta version you can't access it without an invite. Also, the whole thing it's in Italian so you probably won't understand much if you don't read the language.
However, when the website will be officially launched I'll be collaborating with them regularly to produce illustrations that will go with the stories' episodes.
I'm very excited about this new project!

THe iNCIPIT

Here it is the only illustration I've done for them so far. The story is "Hansel and Gretel" but, as you can see, it has been completely changed: Hansel has become a ghost because of her sister!

Melbourne Organic Expo... cancelled

I received the opportunity to display some promo cards at the Melbourne Organic Expo which should have been held this year in October. So, between last night and today I realized a card design for the occasion but then I've just found out they cancelled the whole expo..!!
Anyway... at least I create something.
Here you go.

Sketches

Reading mind power anyone?

A while ago some friends of mine (well, actually my boyfriend and his friend) asked me to produce an illustration for their website so I did this. I think they kind of liked it but I guess they were thinking of something completely different and in the end they told me to do something else, more simple and graphic.
I think after this I definitely learned to ask questions before start a drawing for someone else. I can't read people's mind as well as I thought I could.
This was a useful lesson.

My next 5 years plan

I've been away from the blog for a while recently but this doesn't mean for sure I haven't done anything... actually I've been quite busy.

Today I've just finished this homework I've done for school. The assignment was to think about our plans and aspirations for the future and put them on paper. And since my written English (and spoken as well, sigh) it's horribly imprecise, I decide to make a drawing. I'm pretty happy the it... and this is something doesn't happen often.

I suggest to click on it and make it larger otherwise you won't be much!

Nice neighborhood

This morning I woke up and straight after breakfast I sat at my desk and did this.

I've never been very good with watercolor but it's such a lovely medium that I always promise myself to learn.
This morning I had a go and I had fun. That's a good start, I guess!

Digital Artist magazine

Last week I found out about Digital Artist, a magazine which is basically all about digital and traditional illustration. Awesome!
I've read three numbers so far and I'm looking forward to read all of them!

I really love the fact it's all about illustration and painting instead of including design as well, which is what almost every art magazine that I know does.
In each issue there are a lot of interviews of awesome illustrators (e.g. Meg Hunt and Victo Ngai, yaaaay!), tutorials and, finally, illustrators work process.
Everyone has a different work process and getting to know about how other people manage to get an illustration done is one of the thing I find the most interesting.

I must say, each process is not described accurately but at least it gives a general idea of HOW TO, which I think is good. For example I really liked the article in issue number 14 about how Simon Wild build a palette for an illustration. Interesting!

Because it's a British publication I decided to buy a digital version of it which is half the price. You can do that if you have an iphone or, even better, an ipad and download the application where you can buy single numbers. Otherwise the traditional paper version of the mag here in Australia I think it's over 10 dollars each number... gulp!

Today they are going to release issue number 23. I can't wait!!

Food for thought

Finally I finished my piece for the exhibition at the Saloon. The topic actually gave me a little bit of trouble cause I don't have this expression, food for thought, in Italian, my first language. So it took me a while to understand its meaning properly. So in the end I basically did something a little bit instinctive.

I didn't have much time so I decided to do that in pastels, which I reckon it is a very fast medium to use.
I'm not very happy with the background, that's because when I designed I didn't actually understand what I wanted to do with it so it turned out to be a bit messy and meaningless.
Anyway, this is it.

Sneak Peak

I'm working on my piece for the exhibition at the Saloon (already mentioned here).
This is just a sneak peak of my work in pastels.
It's almost finish... !

Stencil

I had a little bit of a play with stencil and symmetry recently... fun!

The Saloon art exhibition

First year illustration at Nmit will have a little exhibition at the Saloon, a new non-profit social space in Nicholson st, Melbourne.

It will be a very DIY exhibition organized by the students and basically just an excuse to have fun hanging out and put our work out there as well.

Exhibited artworks will all be about food and treats. The opening will be on 5th August from 6 to 9pm at 509 Nicholson Street, Carlton North.

If you want to know more about this, please visit the facebook page of the event.
Come and have a treat!!

Anya's ghost

Yesterday I received a parcel from Amazon and inside there was something really nice... "Anya's ghost"!! Finally!:D
I was so excited I started reading it straight away and a couple of hours later I was already at the last page!

The critic on the cover from Neil Gaiman says "A masterpiece!" and yes, it is!
It such a lovely comic about a girl named Anya who has to deal with the difficult years of High School and a ghost friend.

The author is called Vera Brosgol and this is her debut book. What a awesome way to start! She was a storyboard artist for the animated film version of Coraline and one of my favorite artist.

The drawings are amazing, the character is lovely (and it probably will remind you of your own struggle as a teenager), the story is paced and convincing.
So if you like comics just buy it and read it!
Let's support young and talented people!


Vera Brosgol website
Buy the book from here
Read the book's preview here!

Back... with a Website!!

Hello nice people out there!
I'm finally back! Last week I moved and this week I've also got internet again... yay!!
Because of the moving I haven't got a lot of work done lately and it has been also school holiday so let's say it has been a break... sort of, eheh.

Anyway, in this last two weeks I finally had the chance to do something I should have done a while ago... build a WEBSITE!
Well, actually my boyfriend built it eheh. What I did was to draw the menu's font and the animal icons... basically, the web graphic.

The software my website uses to manage all the images (add, remove, etc) is called indexhibit which I've noticed it's quite popular amongst illustrators and artists.
Personally, I don't think it's an amazing software (sometimes I just couldn't understand why that button was doing that thing in that place... also, there's just very little room for image's descriptions grrr) but it's free! So if you're just starting out and maybe you don't want spend extra money on the website that is the way to go.

Anyway, my website is simple, minimal and it's supposed to look nice. I'm quite happy how it turned out.

So here it is my new and official website. Click on the lion to go there and have a look... Hope you like it!

I'm moving!

I'm moving.
Therefore I think there no much left to say of why this blog hasn't been updated much recently... Surprisingly, moving house is always more tiring, time consuming and expensive than what someone thinks at first.
Anyway, obviously I can't get much work done because lately I'm too tired to seriously produce something. But by the end of next week I hope to come back on track.
Please, wish me luck!