Królewskie Źródła

First thing: take a look at two sketches I did lately. The second one, with a cat on a beach, is already finished. It is the second design which should give me the job. I was asked to do sth more childish and no bugs included :D You can see the process at my LiveStream.

Here is a project for IF's/Children's Illustrator theme - mix of 'ahead' and 'dragonfly'. But I don't know if I'll manage to do it before month's end.. :(

Sweetie :3

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Yesterday we (my family) went on a little trip because the weather was so nice and we bought a new car 3 days ago and since then everyone is willing to travel all the time :3 So we went to Królewskie Źródła (Regal Mineral Springs). There is a fabulous forest there. It's a soothing place; soothing beyond imagination. Unfortunately, we came there on Sunday so there were masses MASSES! of people but only on the main trail. We took a different route and got relaxed and happy anyway :D

I took only few pictures because I have forgotten to charge camera's battery =.= My mum used the camera on the day before and I haven't checked if it's at least half full.

Those are my parents and my little sister. The medium sister didn't come this weekend.

Tina! :D

And again! :) It's hard to take pictures of her because she's afraid of cameras and cell phones, don't know why...

And something from the previous week - black and white monster making a mess on a desk :)


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Next princesses on their way and a fancy design

Today was a nice day - I finished another princess, the Japanese one, Kasumi. I have been making her for ages, at least it seems like ages. Or eons even! I've got lost in making leaves on trees and bushes and only that took me a long time...

So, since Kasumi is ready I have to add another princess to my daily routine. At the moment I'm making a Gypsy princess Drina and finishing the Venetian one, Allegra. The next one is Native American and I don't know her name (it will be something traditional, like White Cloud or Big Tiger) - the author of the text will choose it while writing a story, and that will happen after I finish the illustration.

Here is a sketch of the princess (the overall composition of the page was already approved - she will be sitting next to a totem pole and there will be another one near and some tipis and a falcon on the sky). I think I'll add more details though; I saw some interesting things while googling.


And here is the next princess, Nadieżda. She's from Russia and she's got a sledge with a bear (or bears) :D There is snow everywhere and she's having a ride.

I was wondering which hairstyle would be the best: the one with traditional "hat" and hair put loose or the one like Julia Tymoszenko, which is sweet and easily recognizable :3

The next princess comes from Greece and her name is Olimpia (probably "Olympia" in English). She reads stories to children and has a lovely dress! Oh, I love that dress so so so much! :D

You can see a concept of a centrefold (wonder if that's a right word, or if it refers only to Playboy :D) - when it's closed you can see the princess and Greek columns/patterns on both sides and when it's open you can see more of the children and mosaic pictures on both sides referring to stories she is telling. Probably some characters from Greek mythology.

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As I've promised in one of my previous posts - here is a design I've made to get a job as a designer (wow, that was so witty! :P) of the pictures you can see on children's clothes. By children I mean those little ones.

The designs are made using silkscreen, so there are only 3-4 colours to use + the colour of the background. I must admit that it was hard to choose which colours suited the theme the most and which looked the best when mixed together. Of course all of the colours need to be bright and sweet and hugable (is there a word like that?) :)


What do you think about my fancy design? The company will be looking for a designer till the end of April so they have not much time left. Hope they won't find anybody better than me *^__^*

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Earth Day and the most beautiful video

I rarely see videos and clips made so well and those which have so much to tell us. And this is one of those unique pearls :)

Some cuteness on the way

Today I had an interesting day. I visited a place where I may work as a designer of the pictures you can see on children's clothes. It sounds and looks very very optimistic but I don't know if I'll manage to do everything I have to do on time if I start working 3 times a week for 8 hours during my best time for creative work (morning and noon). But, whatever the disadvantages are, making designs like that is exactly what I like and it's a piece of cake. And it's fun :)

Still, few more people want this job and we have to make trial designs and the best, the most pro-children will win. I already have a sketch, now I have to get down to the final version. Keep your fingers crossed for me! (Maybe I'll show the design here when I finish it, so you can tell me what you think? Hm?)

Today I wanted to finish part one of a project I'm working on. As you can see part one involves a mouse-rat (it's not specified what exactly it is). And a cheese (that quite specified :D)


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A random fact about me - colouring pages

You probably don't know this and, I must admit, only few people do know - as a part-time job I make colouring pages :) I don't get too much money for this but it's just right to buy pencils, paper, paints and stuff (for example: I've spend the whole last month's payment from colouring pages on sunglasses - I'd call them quite expensive but it's important to care for your eyes if you're an artist!). So - it's not a big deal, it's just some regular pocket money :D And these money come easier than those from English/artistic lessons I give to children, so it's worth it *nods*

Something about the colouring pages:
All the colouring pages I make are based on a place and characters I've invented. In Polish it's "bajkolandia", so in English it's something like "fairy-tale land". In this place live at least 6 different families - squirrels, mice, birds, little people, pixies and faeries. They live in different houses in various parts of the Great Meadow. Children go to school and parents go to work (or stay at home and do some stuff; it's quite an idyllic place - they don't have to work ;)). Every month I put those characters into two situations that are familiar to children or may interest them. This month one of the situations is the Mother's Day! It still one month to go but it's better to do it earlier than do it quick just to be on time. The other theme is, not a second Fairy-Tale Land this time, a commissioned set of colouring pages with Forest's Spirits.

Here you can see the sketches I did today. It's the first time I did so detailed sketches on paper. Usually, I just get the initial idea while drawing on paper and I think about the composition and details in photoshop. I'm still wondering which method of thinking-sketching-more sketching-digitalizing is the quickest.

Here are the Forest Spirits - a symbol of some Kindergarten. I had to show the stuff they are doing from a song's lyrics (because the whole thing is based on some song).

And here are Fairy-Tale Land colouring pages. As you can see some of them are horizontal and some are vertical - when I start making them on computer it makes it a lot easier if I have decided beforehand in which way I want them to be. Of course the page won't look "complete" in all of the cases so I'll have to add some background or few details here and there to make it more interesting.

Making colouring pages is a nice work; very relaxing. I will get sure to do it all the time :)

And that's the end of a random fact! Hope you enjoyed it and get sure to find out more about me in the next episode! :D

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Japanese princess Kasumi - in progress

Japanese bushes :) some of them may change into sakura *nods*


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And after some time:


Looks neat, doesn't it? :) Now I have to fix the princess herself because she looks awful and it hurts to look at her... But first I have to find out somewhere how astonished and wide open slanted eyes look because it's hard to make them both like this \ . / and like this 0 . 0 in the same time!

Damn it! I cut my ankle while shaving! Again! And it hurts so bad ;_; When will I finally stop cutting those ankles?! (But I have an excuse - I was without my contact lenses and I couldn't see anything. Sounds like a lame excuse to me, if you ask :D)

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Animals in backpacks

Today was a weird day. At least it feels like weird now - I feel so tired because of the amount of work I did but I can't see any actual work done in front of me... I think I wasn't focused too much today so everything I did took me twice much time and was much more tiring than it should be.

Today I received a lot of e-mails from my publisher telling me what I have to fix/change/add/remove in the princesses illustrations I have already made. There's really A LOT of it! I wish I could think like she does and make perfect illustrations so there'd be no fixing. I hate to fix, if you ask me. Because when I show a work to somebody I already think that that particular work is good and I'm proud of what I've done. And when somebody says I have to fix this&that it feels like destroying what I've created... And I know it's a bad way of thinking :) But I just can't help that inner feeling ;P

My plan for today says I should do 4 more things before resting. But it's midnight here and I feel more sleepy with every minute =o= I'm desperate to do as much as I can, so I won't be stressed out when the deadline approaches but, I can't deny it, work goes much better in the morning. Lately. What takes me 1h in the morning would take me 2,5h now and that's soooo discouraging! It feels even worse when I think of it :D

The rest of my plan for today is:
- finishing a sketch for a next princess (Japanese) and re-thinking the composition of the Indian princess;
- making a colourful concept design( because I was told those made with pencils only don't show off well);
- making T-shirt designs on computer (I have them ready on paper and scanned);
- and making progress with Venetian princess (gosh, she's a pain in the ass x_X).

I think I will start each one of them so I won't feel ashamed of myself :D

And go to sleep... mmm... I'm so sleepy... =.=

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For entertainment: my youngest sister's (Zuu) designs made for me as examples of what I should draw :D


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Big ears and feet (chupacabra!)

Something from yesterday :) Now I'm not doing anything spectacular today. At least not in this particular moment - just some colour sketches and schemes, projects and concept ideas. I think this little creature is much more interesting :3

But hey!... What is the name of this little thing?! ... ?

JERBOA! (just checked :D)

*hello*

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Princess Nuru from Africa

Little serval on its way :)


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Mirabella again

I've started next princesses but I still haven't finished the French one's face :) Hopefully I'll do it today!


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Mirabella

Sneak peek :)


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