mercredi 21 mars 2012

Three fish, two books

Three posts in three weeks, incredible!
This is a drawing I did just for fun, because I wanted something easy to make and colorful. I like the way it turned out.



These are some of the last books I read. Murakami writing about his life as a writer and long distance runner. Very interesting. The Ahern book was okay, but not what I was looking for. It's about a teenage girl, and I have enough teenagers around already - I love them but I don't need to read about them on my free time!  Fun cover to draw, anyway:



Back to work now. I have begun to work as a sophrologist (kind of a relaxation therapist) and I have regular patients every week on top of my first job. That's great, but it takes time, especially as I'm new to it and spend a lot of time preparing.
Wishing every one a fine week!

mercredi 14 mars 2012

Bulls, rat and cinema


I made this for my friend Michèle. She wanted something with the Taurus, her Zodiac sign, and a surprise. She's also from the Year of the Rat, loves cinema and has a strong and resilient personality. So, here's the thing, and I hope she'll like it. I know I enjoyed doing it!

I also hope I'll be able to post on a regular basis. I draw and paint, it's the internet part that's posing me problems! I'm trying to find a good balance, to be able to blog and share without it taking too much time...
Thanks for the comments on my last post, especially in regards to my little dog. I miss him.

mercredi 7 mars 2012

Books, mice and faces

Last books I've been reading. The Franzen book took me a long time, it's big and I read slowly, often wondering why I wasn't leaving it for another book, but for some reason, I wanted to finish it, know where he was going with the characters.



The day I finished the book was the day I got a phone call from the vet saying they had found my little dog, who had escaped, and he was dead. He's been with me for only one and a half month and I was surprised how hard I took the news.
Now that I've darkened the mood... on a more fun side, here's a little picture from a project I'm working on :


I have some ideas for an illustrated story. I'm slowly working on them. I'm concentrating on the process and quite enjoying it.  Some pictures are difficult because I need reference photos to draw from, and sometimes I have to use several and complete mentally the missing parts to create the picture I want, and it's a little (a lot!) above my skill level...


And faces, because I try to practice regularly those.



I've not been blogging for a long time. I simply didn't have the time. I'll try to do more but I'm not sure the next months are going to be much better.
Anyway, best regards and thoughts to everyone passing by!

dimanche 15 janvier 2012

About fish, a dog and a cat

I'm sorry I've not been online much lately, I have not blogged at all, and it's been a long time since I've gone to admire my EDM friends' blogs... I'm busy, and trying to keep away from the internet as much as possible - but I miss blogging and being inspired by other blogs.


A little something I did this afternoon - first time in a long time that I take out the watercolor!
It's from a photo I've seen on the internet (not mine at all).
I think I will paint the background in black as in the original photo.
I've played a little with paint.net to see how it could look :


And I think I like it. That second one is watercolor + digital coloring.

Well, that's all for today, I'm afraid... I've done a few other things, but nothing finished yet.
I've got a new dog. He's 6 months old and quite adorable. My cat hates him (that is one of the things that keep me very busy!)
He's called Jack (I didn't chose the name). I'll probably try to draw him soon!

samedi 17 décembre 2011

2 books, 15 faces, one tree.

I've been reading the Binchy book for almost over a month, before, during and after my move from my old appartment to my new rented house. It was an incredible support as everything that could go wrong did during that time... But I had my book to go to everyday and it'll certainly remain one of my favorite books of all time.


The kids in Maeve Binchy's books are wonderful, so funny and natural, and the warmth and humor are just what I need these days.
The other book on the left was nice, seven little stories happening in as many countries. I tried to read a book  by Douglas Kennedy before that one, and quitted after going painstakingly through 180 boring pages. As soon as I got time enough to go to the library, I happily quitted. I don't think I'll try another by this author, it's just not my cup of tea.


I'm still practicing drawing faces, more so these last few days. Here are some I did between august and now. Like always, the more I practice, the easier it gets.


And this I did today. I'm not very happy with it but I needed to do something new, use colors, anything. I'm a little sick and able to stay at home and rest for the first time in ?? so it was great to take out my watercolors again. They were dusty!

dimanche 4 décembre 2011

3 books, a coffee grinder, keys and a bell

(Long post today - I will totally understand if you skip the words and look at the images only : ) !! I do that when I "read" Elle... )
I've got the internet again, and to my great surprise, I didn't really suffer from the lack of it - I was too busy to be bored, I think... I had it at work and it was almost enough.


Always time enough to read books, though. That's like breathing, I can't live without it!
On the left is Women who run with the wolves, by Clara Pinkola Estès. I've been reading it on and off for years. I like it, but I'm not sure I really get it. Maybe I will, in the long run.

I didn't like the illustration, until I tried to draw it. It's a Picasso painting and I don't like Picasso very much, generally. But it's funny, I started to feel really moved by these women and their ample body as I tried to follow their lines and feel the movement. That made me want to try with other artworks I don't get, see if it happens again. Because I love this painting now, I feel both the vulnerability and the power in these women, and I think they're beautiful, and this came only from reproducing them.

In the middle is a book by Arto Paasilinna, a Finn author I like a lot. I didn't like this one much, though, it was more a history of Finland, and not as fun as his usual novels.
On the right is a story that's hard to describe. I was attracted by what was written on the cover, I knew I needed to read it. It could be translated like this : "the little girls at the end of the road do you justice and they keep the fire." It's about women, rape, and fitting (or not). It's disturbing, , hard, often poetical, and it touched me like I knew it would because of those words.
The book title is translated (in french) from a poem by Voltairine de Cleyre called "We are birds of the coming storm". (I didn't know that poet at all, she wrote it in memory for the Haymarket Square martyrs, which I didn't know about either).


A few things I drew from my new place, which is nice, even if I don't have a kitchen yet, and some water damage in my living-room. But I'm so glad to have left the old place, I don't care (yet).
I even invited friends for Thanksgiving, and it was the first time I celebrated that, for it's not a tradition in France. But I've always loved the idea behind Thanksgiving, and I feel grateful to have moved at last, so we had a great microwave dinner! I'll do better next year, when I have a kitchen...

The coffee grinder in the drawing, I use to grind black pepper, it's a lot more tasty that way!

And I have a garden! It's very small, made of bad earth and rocks, and I'm learning that small is good, when you have to dig hard ground and break stones all over the place. Small feels very big, suddenly.

Now I'll shut up, and I'm going to have a look at everyone's blogs, now, I guess I missed a lot!

samedi 29 octobre 2011

Clair de Lune


I waited to post this because I really hoped I'd have something else to post with it... but it didn't happen. I'm moving out of my flat in 11 days, selling it a few days later, and I'm up to my ears amongst card boxes and piles of stuff. (is it among or amongst? I never know) 

So in the pic is an older drawing, now colored (view from my current place), and leaves I found in the neighborhood, some kind of wild grapevines.
Going back to filling boxes, now... See you next month, I hope, when I have the internet again... I still have it until the 9th, so I'll try to keep in touch with the EDM blogs!