Inspiration Friday: The journals of Anna Denise

Some time ago I wrote about my daily drawing. Anna Denise takes this daily-drawing-thing to a whole new level! Since 2007 she’s been keeping an art journal, and it’s so inspiring! I love the way she tells her stories, and the cute drawings she makes. And the best thing is: She doesn’t mind sharing how to start your own art journal. How sweet is that? Here is the start of a three-page tutorial, which discusses everything from how to choose your topic to the pens and pencils she uses. Great!

Now I’m not necessarily planning on starting my own art journal (never say never though), but I like looking at her blog nonetheless. It’s inspiring and funny to read. And hearing what materials someone else uses for illustrations is always interesting. I always learn a lot by looking at others and reading how they go about their work. Live and learn, I say!

(By the way: ‘No pictures?’ I hear you ask. Well, Anna Denise disabled downloading her scans of her art journals, so I’d better respect that. But don’t worry, you can see all her work on Flickr, right here!)

The making of… an iPad cover

Inspired by Laurie Wisbrun’s book about designing your own fabric, I deciced to do some of my own fabric-making. With the help of a DIY linocut and textile ink, I printed a piece of plain red fabric. Once I was finished printing, I decided to make an iPad-cover with my DIY fabric. As I was a little bit lazy, I followed a tutorial by The Cottage Home. After all, you don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, do you? And the great thing is: this is such an easy pattern to follow (unless you’re very tired that is. The second cover I made, I totally screwed up, sewing things on the wrong side and stuff… Sigh.)! You don’t need to learn fancy and difficult stitching. Oh, one thing I changed though: I used velcro instead of two buttons. Works just as easy. I say, have a go and have fun!

A story about mango

Mango is my favorite fruit. I hardly eat mango here because the supermarket mostly sells rockhard mango (made of steel, meant to be on the tree a month longer I suspect), or mango that is all mushy and way too ripe. But tonight I was eating a mango that was just perfect. Extremely juicy, soft, and so full of taste. As I was cutting it and then eating the rest out of my hand (as in, holding it so I could eat it to the pit), it reminded me of when I was little.

I grew up in Indonesia, and as is quite a normal thing there, we had a maid. Her name was Ira. She cooked us dinner, and peeled all the delicious fruits a country like Indonesia has on offer. I loved it all: starfruit, papaya, pineapple, rambutan, manggis… Western fruit is so boring and it gives a me red hot head, so I don’t enjoy fruit as much as I used to. I mean, seriously, where’s the joy in an apple? But anyway, back to the mango and to Ira. Because when Ira was in the kitchen peeling the mango, I was always right next to her. Why? Well, it wasn’t that I just couldn’t wait to eat a piece of mango. Oh no, it was because the best part of eating mango was when Ira finished peeling, and gave me the pit. I’d hold it with my hands, careful not to drop it (a wet juicy mango is just so slippery!), and start eating everything that was left, until there was no more fruit left on the pit.

So tonight, as I was standing in the kitchen, finishing peeling the mango, I took the pit in my hand. The juice was dripping down my arm as I was eating away. I suddenly saw myself as a little kid again, standing in the kitchen, next to Ira, eating away. It made me smile. Because 20 years later it’s still tru: Eating off the pit is still the best part of eating mango!

This week in pictures: 2012, week 19

What was I doing this week? I’ll tell you! I was: enjoying the bag Annemarie Hendriks from AHA made especially for me // really enjoying this bar of Tony’s Chocolonely // printing my own fabric // drinking Korean milk-tea with a Chinese girl // at the opening of my friend Olga‘s exhibition in a winebar and listening to music by Moo Music // putting inspiration up on the wall to help my designing-process of something exciting that I can’t tell you about just yet.

Inspiration Friday: Design your own fabric!

Some time ago, I purchased the book The Complete Guide to Designing And Printing Fabric (in the US it’s called Mastering the Art of Fabric Printing and Design) by textile designer Laurie Wisbrun. It’s so inspiring! Even if you have no plans of actually designing your own fabric, it still gives you lots of graphic ideas which no doubt will inspire you for any other project.

It starts out with explaining different kinds of prints and designs (floral motifs, ethnic, geometric and so on) and shows you many examples, which is a great way to inspire the reader. It gaves you practical information about texture, repeat types, composition and understanding color. The great thing is, this book really focusses on the practical side. You learn how to draw a basic pattern with paper and pencil, but Laurie also teaches you about making patterns in Photoshop and Illustrator. This is really great! It really helps you with everything you need to know to make a print you can safely send to a shop like Spoonflower!

What I love about this book that it covers all aspects of designing and printing fabric. So not only do you learn the digital stuff, she also teaches you everything about textile dyes, inks and paints. So if you’re not into digital art of you just like making a one of a kind piece of fabric, she shows you how block printing and screenprinting works. That’s not all! There’s also stuff on stencilling, different ways to dye fabric… It just goes on and on! And there are interviews with a number of textile designers, if you weren’t inspired enough already.

Once in a while I just pick up this book and pick a random page to read. Like I said, it’s even inspiring if you don’t intend to design fabric! The book can truly be called the complete guide, because that’s just what it is!