2013 in photos - Personal Thursday #10

I've done this sort of posts in the past and I thought it's good time to bring them back :) I have not blogged too much this past year, even though lots of things happened in my life. I've been busy all year long and here's a glimpse of that:

January

 My bosses' dog (Tina) is my working companion. She's spoiled like a little brat!

February

 National Forests in Poland has got online cams which show birds' feeders during day and European bisons' (and other forest animals') haystack during night. My cats got quite frantic while watching the birds. They constantly checked if they can catch them from behind the screen ;) 

Forest cams website

April

 A super neat embroidery I've designed, prepared and supervised (aka I was standing next to a machine when it made it and I was sticking felt shapes in the right places and the right time). It's inspired by Polish folklore art.

May

 My love for corgis continues as I went to see a dog show just to stare at them :)

 I went on an illustration course to Kraków held by Fundacja Sztuki Nowej ZNACZY SIĘ and taught by Joanna Olech (a well known Polish children book writer and illustrator). It was great and I learned a lot :)

June

 This is IK (Idaliński Kot), a cat that often accompanies me to and from work/bus stop. She's super friendly and quite stinky ;) When I took this photo it was just after rain and she was totally wet. Which of course didn't stop her from jumping on my knees and trying to head bump me!

 It's someone's lost key/phone charm that looks absolutely as if I've done it. It was so weird to see it.

Painted new cat sneakers for myself to wear on a music festival.

July

 Music festival + beach = loveliness

(oh that background photobombing)

 You shouldn't see this photo because we were forbidden to take photos. Anyway - here's a human body from The Human Body exhibition (and there's me in the middle!).

In August I was working tirelessly on book illustrations. They were incredibly cute so it was a pure pleasure.

August

 Well, if you find this position comfortable then I'm not complaining...

 Preparing my cornflower tattoo design. I still haven't got it ready but I'm not in any type of hurry.

 I went on an art camp with my sister's art school. We went to Bieszczady Mountains and I went swimming every day (look at THIS and you'll understand). That's my youngest sister next to me in the photo :)

October

 The book I've been illustrating in June-August is ready! It looks fabulous. I will post a review + some WIP pictures for you to see soon!

November

 My silkscreen designs got into the next level. That's how I feel about them anyway :)

 Since some time (July 2013?) my Love and I have been a lot into craft beer. We decided to make a small "beer night" for my family. You cannot only drink popular European lagers all the time, can you?

 December

 Here's a size chart of all illustrations to one of the books I was illustrating in December. Illustrations were made traditionally - I would trace the shapes (and numbers!) onto watercolour paper and then paint.

I started Daily Sketches (3rd edition!) on the 1st of December. Right now I'm on my 54th sketch and it's as much fun as I've remembered it to be :)

Hope your 2013 was great but your 2014 will be awesome!

A.

Personal Thursday #8 and #9 - Cooking time

During those two Thursdays I did not create anything personal (though created lots of commercial stuff) - I did however cook a bit. Have I ever mentioned that I really enjoy cooking? :)
I don't really like to make basic food and all those Polish dishes that we eat on and on, in every home, every week, always the same - kurczak, schabowe, mielone, pierogi (oh I love them), kopytka, rosół, pomidorowa, ogórkowa and all the rest. I like cooking things that are weird or that take a lot of time to do, things that you don't really have time to do during the week. Or sweets. Oh, those sweets I could bake them everyday :D

So during Thursday #8 I made (together with my Love - it's his hobby too) those delicious stuffed shells.



Gosh, they were amazing. They took about... I don't know.. 2 years (?!) to make but it was totally worth it.

We've changed the recipe a bit because on that day there was a national holiday and all shops were closed. So for the stuffing we've used not only ricotta but a mix of ricotta, Camembert and standard cheese.

So if you have a whole day to spare - I recommend! My family was delighted :)

During Thursday #9 I was getting ready for my littlest sister's birthday party - spooky themed (she was born on 31st September). She has found somewhere on the web an idea for muffins changed into graves. They were quite fun to do :D

But since we were not supposed to eat them and I was in a really big need to eat sweets I also made those cute cupcakes.

They were sugar flavoured with sugar icing - exactly what I needed :)

I think I could share here some of other interesting recipes I've tried and recommend, why not? :)

A.

Personal Thursday #7

I have almost forgotten to show you those cuties! :)

Here you can see sketches for them -- click
And they are available, as a set, in my Etsy shop.

I have so many small pieces of watercolour paper like those ^ that I could draw little sweetnesses every day!

Hmm... I could say 'challenge accepted' but I must get ready for the holiday season. Will accept this challenge in December :D

A.

Personal Thursday #6

This week I was quite sick but I still wanted to create something for myself - not a very good idea! I decided to sew a tablet case made of denim (from old pants) + old scarf as lining + a little felt pocket for a screen wiping cloth.

I felt as if my brain was almost turned off. It was as if I had zero control in what was happening. Constant coughing and running nose were not helping me in this situation either. I should have gone to bed!

But I didn't and my tablet has got a new home now :)

Everything that could be sewn crookedly, attached on a wrong side or cut uneven - has been done so! But it's still cute. And the ladybug button is a sweet cherry on top of that cuteness :D

My advice for you - do not sew when you are sick.

A.

Personal Thursday #5

I feel like it's been ages since I drew something just for myself. And it was such a nice feeling to do so finally! No deadlines, no specific expectations - just drawing cats :3

This is a kitty lady lost in the woods. And she's been lost for a quite long time! But no worries - she can handle anything.

Maybe I could write an accompanying story?

A.

Personal Thursday #4

What, wait! But where's number 1, 2 and 3?
Will get back to that in a minute, promise! :)

Some time ago I've decided to dedicate one day of a week to my personal stuff. That would be one day that I would do absolutely nothing for my job, for my shop or for my customers - just personal projects. It's a time to try new things, new techniques or just watch movies all day without guilt and without this nagging feeling of everything being more urgent than myself. 

So let me introduce my Personal Thursday blog posts, where I'll show what personal projects I'm currently working on :)

***

It appears that those four Thursdays were just a warm-up for the true PTs - getting used to doing whatever I want, no matter what's on my to-do list can be quite tricky!

PT #1 - I went to sleep. That was exactly what I needed :)
PT #2 - I was reading 'The Magician's Apprentice' by Trudi Canavan. It's so hard to find time to read! Then I finished this cover illustration. I know it's not my personal project but after reading for about 4 hours I felt ready to do something not-personal :)

  
PT #3 - I was on a watercolour workshop that day - painting just for myself.

And this week it was Personal Thursday #4 and look what I did!

Some photos' quality and colours are dramatic - they were taken during night and there was not much I could do to rescue them...

This is a wedding gift that my school friend assigned me to create. It's still not a personal work but I could paint almost whatever I wanted and however I wanted. And it was totally new for me to paint with acrylics on a canvas, then add soft pastels and coloured pencils. Loved the effect, though!

That's all for this Thursday - I will show you new projects next week :)

A.