Yoohoo Noohoo!

So what’s new? Several things actually. So umm, yeah, and all come under one big umbrella: excuses.   Of not posting. Whatevs.

After freelancing for a couple months I land myself a new job.  Still on probation though, so I don’t wanna jinx it by telling where. Now, I am in charge of creating visual thingamagics (meaning: involving lots of Photoshop). On which I’ve been wanting to do for years, but haven’t really have the guts to actually brace myself and dive-in to the graphic designers pool (sans formal training and all). Listen, no matter how cliché this may sound to thy metropolitan grit thickened ears, dreams do come true dears. Somehow if you believe in what you do, someday other people will believe in you too. 

And open your third eye and see the beauty that is the universe. Energy never dies. So is Cthulhu, he just sleep in strange aeon and shit...

Okay okay, I knowww… Rant/chant over, Roger that.

New travel! Recently me, my sister, and her husband went to India. And it was INTENSE. Due to my laziness in posting travel stories (the unfinished Euro trip, and the not even-written last year summer in Japan with Jaz, etc) this time I decided to make a travel journal. Will post pics of the aforementioned journal soon. Promise. 

Meanwhile you could peek the photos here.

New works. As in drawings. Well, it is not really “NEW” new for I finished these babies months ago but just haven’t posted. (first pic is up, the rest will follow after this rather long banter. Yeah you have to scroll down darlings and work thy lazy fore fingers.)

New Work in Progress. On which the so called progress cometh slothly s-l-o-w… I owed this one to Frnss. Thumbnail to sketch took three months and so to actually finish this thing? All I can say is, hang in there buddy, I will try to finish it sometime this year. Anyway it's a drawing of Hedorah, his favorite kaiju.

New tutorial! With the death of megaupload most of my freebies and tutorials are no longer downloadable. So just mail me if you need one, and I will send it via e-mail if possible. 

New awesome blog find! I am currently swooned by the the all around awesome Katrina's blog;  puglypixel. I visit the blog daily for it gives me so much insight on blog visuals. Tons of yummy  tutorials and freebies.  Really like TONS! It even got me thinking in changing my blog lay out. Do also check out Frantic Dreams (fashion blog) and Sketchnote Army (blogname says it all)

New phone! With a camera! That actually works! (most of my phone are hand-me-downs, well including this one, but somehow I got lucky. Or perhaps my mom pitied the neigh crumbling sorry state of a phone that is my previous.) 

I planned to do a 365 photo project since I have NO excuse on NOT bringing camera daily. But kinda failed.  I skipped a couple days,  get caught up in work or forget to charge my phone and the likes. But I’m still doing it, and try to do it daily. Will make a blog/tumblr for phone pics soon. Why not instagram, say you? Well, I don’t use instagram. I use something else (yeah I know it’ available for android too now and bla di dah, and so what?)

New apps addiction: DrawSomething is super swag. I know I’m late and everybody else is practically over it. But I am late in any form of social media, gadgetry, gossips, what say yous anyway. And umm it’s so super yay! I mean you’d actually be able to communicate with some random strangers on the net through pictures only. How awesome is that? 

Yes I often click the create random game like A LOT, cause I am an impatient( little bitch) and I want to collect coins as much as possible (cheap also) so I can buy another set of colors and shit (yet greedy). I don’t have a credit card so playing as many games as possible is the only way. 

Sometimes you got people with skills, and loads of time you’d get “WHAT THE?...”  and you will laugh your ass off afterward. So it’s a total gain. Though I must admit there’s few times I sighed. I was obviously playing with a toddler, since my opponent can’t spell shit and draw whatever or just write absurd word and it’s just well… SIGH. I mean how the fuck could a random string of circles be a raccoon? I mean it’s just circle, circle, circle, and more circles drawn side by side and nothing else whatsoever, looks a lot more like a caterpillar.  Seriously. But the game kinda gives you a lesson in visual communication. Whether transmitting or receiving, you will have insights on how ideas formed and to better your ways to communicate ideas through picture. Will come mighty handy on my new job, won’t it? Or is this just another excuse for slacking off?

Anatomical Illustration: Juan Gatti and Roberto Osti

Okay, Juan Gatti, I hate you.... I mean as in the why-didn't-i-think-of-that-see-how-awesome-it-is kinda hate. I mean WHY?!!!  The aesthetics and the color combos of his collage collection of  "The Natural Sciences" (shown at Lafresh Gallery, Madrid)  just ringed too close (and loud, very loud) to my own heart. Gatti, a long time collaborator of Pedro Almodovar, created  these works for Almodovar newest film "The Skin I Live In" (see trailer here).

Enjoy his works, while I bang bang bang my head on the door.

Enter, Second Act, meet Roberto Osti. Now Osti has been around for years in natural-science illustration circle ( see samples here) . So when he decided to do some deconstruction, it was very convincing and gorgeous, of course. 

The Juxbox: Threadful Photography

Okay, let's picture boundaries in photography. Yeah, in your head. Go on. They're two dimensional, they preserve moments and yet transient, they're such a square. Alright, now threw that out the window. Yes. Out. The window.

And ladies and gentlemen, let us give a big round-up applause to Craigie Horsfield and Maurizio Enzeri, whose works crossed boundaries that created something  new and yet have  roots in a traditional domestic craft. Tapestry for Horsfield, embroidery for Enzeri.

I've chanced to Horsfield's works last year on me and my sister's last year  Euro trip. Before we head back to Eindhoven after spending the weekend at Zeeland, Oom Wim and Tante Thera decided to take us to a brief stop in Antwerp and go to MuHKA. ANd then BAM!!! Big ass carpets on the wall that just beyond anything I ever seen. Now THIS is MODERN ART bitches! I felt lucky, and thought that this could be very much our Bayeux Tapestry (dubbed as the first comic book, basically it is a loooooong embroidered cloth depicting events leading up to the Battle of Hastings, I know this from reading up another  comic; Bryan Talbot's The Adventures of Luther Arkwright).  

My photos didn't do it justice, really. Because the real works are textured and tactile and the images just sort of jump in your face. It was brilliant. 

 You  can read about the exhibition here.

Okay, now, Maurezio Enzeri. His works is something I stumbled on the Internet, natch This guy embroidered  photos straight-up  and it is wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Furthermore, this is something that we could simulate. Somehow. Work those fingers, boys and girls!!!

What I Wore and Whatnots.

Okay, here goes...

My previous post kinda reminds me of what I love in Dindie's daily drawings. And as we talked about wardrobes and stuffs via AIM during our working hours, she kinda nudged me ( don't need pushing, I AM that easy) into doing "the What I Wore Today" thing. So okay, I spend the rest of my working hours into doodling things. (Apart from working that is, Ahem! and a just tiny tiny bit of pinning, I swore!).  To be precise, I was designing my soon to be character or avatar or whatevs. I mean if I'm like gonna do this everyday, I should simplify things, right?

Well, I kinda SUCK on that.

Simple and minimal is HARD!!

Drawing attempt number one is the wardrobe I wore yesterday. I was soooo distracted it came absolutely  UNLIKE anything in the what I wore today flickr pool (do check, it's awesome!!! AND the very-own Gemma Correll is moderating.) I spend the night before and (even wake up) early morning reading China Mieville's. You had me at, Kraken. 

I have a special spot in my heart for seamonsters and the ever growing Cthulhu-spawned-lore. So as you can see below, I have my head full of fidgety feelers that I later inscribed  in little notes.
Like a proper maniac.

oh yeah I wear my Docs too

Okay this is attempt number two, I kinda like my outfit the day before yesterday. I even take picture of it with my Toy Digital Camera (dunno the result yet, apparently I forgot to bring the CD-ROM), so yeah next time. Since I went wayyy overboard on the first, I kinda try to down-tuned it a, ummm, lot. Which in reality what happened is kinda the other way around. The Sep 8 outfit is a whole lot quiet than the 7's (Colors! Everywhere!!! Except the shirt which is black). Before reading Kraken I was re-reading Clive Barker's Abarat series, the  book covers might kinda inspired what I wore that day.

Finally, this is What I wore Today. No, not another book It is mangosteen inspired. And this link is for the products I was raving about. It's local and OH so yummy, I swore! And Voila, a little me-ness. About time.

DESTINO: When Dali Met Disney

"Five O'Clock Shadows in Disney - Dali Land" by Todd Schorr

Destino is an animated short film released in 2003 by The Walt Disney Company. Destino is unique in that its production originally began in 1945, 58 years before its eventual completion. The project was a collaboration between American animator Walt Disney and Spanish painterSalvador Dalí, and features music written by Mexican songwriter Armando Dominguez and performed by Dora Luz. It was included in theAnimation Show of Shows in 2003."

more

Gorgeous, gorgeous!!!

Melange Oh My! (part 2)

On the second day in Vienna we chose to go to three museums in a row. Time saving in mind we opted to go in to the smaller ones first; The Mozart House and Haus der Musik.We weren't lost like we often did, but we were wrong about the time saving thing. Dead wrong. Despite the size both museums are really really time consuming, in a good way that is. 

We couldn't take pictures at the Mozart House but I really like the way they display things there; very concise and creative. You got to wear the audio guide for free with its very detailed and not-that-boring instruction and the maestro's music playing on the background while viewing the tidbits of his daily life. I got near the end of the  visit, and Requiem Mass in D Minor was starting to play, and the the museum management board and their cohort got me to shed a tear or two..... Anyway here's  'Amadeus' , go watch, it's good!

Awyea, you also got to see memorable parts of " The Magic Flute" in a aquarium-like stage with hologram people, isn't that grand?!!
As for the Haus der Musik I will just copy you the excerpt I've took from their website.

"HAUS DER MUSIK is an interactive discovery museum located in the heart of Vienna's first district nestled between St. Stephen's Cathedral and the Vienna State Opera. A host of interactive installations playfully communicate openness to new things, understanding and enthusiasm in approaching music HAUS DER MUSIK was awarded the Austrian Museum Prize for its innovative design and is located in the formerPalais of Archduke Charles. You will find all 67 of its new inventions here. A total of 5,000 square meters has been set aside exclusively for areas dedicated to a wide array of approaches to music, and most of all, to the experience of music."

You could sample all kinds of sound from winds,ultrasonics,  major cities' hearts, to the sounds of the sun and planets!!! There are also special rooms dedicated to maestros, it is Vienna after all dear friend! It's mighty mighty fun!

So fun that we lost the track of time, after grabbing get go grubs (big slices of donner-pizza near the metro station yum yum!!!). We head on to the mother of the legions of art museum in the city, the Kunsthistorisches Museum! The museum was nearly close so me and my sister we're running around the museum like crazy. If I have to chose one word to describe the museum, it would be: Grand.

Selamat Tahun Baru

A free desktop wallpaper (1024x768)  for you! Please click to enlarge. Feel free to share it with your friends, and a back-link if you'd be so kind : )
Happy Two Thousand eleFun Everyone!

Sketching Sleeplessness: Updates

My scanner broke. I had to take photos instead. Sucks. But hey! Made progress. Not too sure will make it on time though. 

Do forgive my imitation of a  a telegram, I am in the mood of  hypin' lost arts up.

"Sleepless with the Fishes" 

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"simmeTry"

"Medulla Serpentis"

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The Sketchbook Project

"Eye of The Beholder"

"PeelS"

Strange Sleepless Heart

Finally! Finished  errr second-ish and third piece for  The Sketchbook Project. The second drawing is right beside my first, and I thought they looked better when displayed together, so here goes...

And as for the third (*doing the chicken dance*). Ladies and Gentlemen I present you the testing ground, the get to know the paper piece, the why-am-I-doing-this-crap-that-took-so-long-to-finish...

Whadda messy bunch of mismatched mishmash! Skull? Check! Sad looking woman? Check! Leaves? Check! Octopus Tentacles? Check! "Strange Fruits" ? Check! Eye-headed Cherub? Check! Eggs in a nest? Check...errr what else? I started running out of ideas of what else to put in there, I had few but it will only get weirder, and weird stuffs are harder to draw thus took longer to finish and my I've already done too much damage to my butt. And so I asked my sister...

Sketching Sleeplessness

 I think I need to set goals for myself for I am not ambitious at all. I tend to except things as they come, which is good for most cases, career wise though it's very very bad. All my old bosses said that I am lacking in motivation therefore lack of ambition."  Well, no sir, is just this world is so full of a beautiful things ( el-neato scatterbrain excuse, no? : p)

I need some discipline, I am bad bad girl (I suppose to insert a Gaga joke here but I won't). Have you seen Julie and Julia? Awesome isn't it to be able to push yourself 365. The mere thought of it made my head dizzy enough. There's Project 365 if you want, but thank you I'll pass. This time though, I plan to do it in the future.

And so I decide to join The Sketchbook Project instead. What is it say you (lazy ass link-clickers)? If you join the project, you will receive a plain Moleskine Cahier to sketch on and they've only got two rules, "first, the book must be used in some way - no sending us back an empty book or a completely different book! Second, the sketchbook must stay within its original dimensions (because we don't want to have to provide an extra suitcase just for your book while we're touring the country). There's a third rule though it must be sent back before January 15, 2011. And in the Spring 2011, the books returned will tour around the States. There are already 10.000+ participants this year. How wonderful to be connected with so many people doing the very same project.

And there are fun themes you can choose from like "things found on restaurant napkins", "science project gone wrong" and "a record year of rainfall". Yet apparently themes filled up rapidly, for I can no longer find my own theme, which is "Sleepless", anymore. So hurry up before you miss your divinely  theme! 

But here's a downer, the Moleskine you will receive is no sketchbook material per say, the paper was too thin. But the good news is as long as the notebook stay in the same size, you could change the original paper and rebind it. Or you could just simply stick two pages together since there's no rule telling how many pages to be filled per book....
Jessica from Maken Art made a test  using several drawing materials to the papers, go check.

And now for the first drawing....

I'm such a messy person am I? Photoshop could hide the "noises" but no, let's leave that. Anyway this, picture tend to be "quiet"  compared to my usual works. Well, truth to tell, there WAS a full-blown ornamentation on the left side, but I found it t distracting in the end, so I blacked it out. I also managed to control my strokes ergo not ripping the hell out of the paper. See I learned one thing already. Moderation.

And next, the cover

I couldn't ignore the bark of the Baroque Dog no more. If you think this is heavily ornamented, wait till you see my next .

Toodle oo Doodle oo

Menjelang Kuyang

"Menjelang Kuyang"

pen, marker, A4 paper

 Baca lebih lanjut tentang Kuyang di sini

Sunday Book Scan: Faust

Among the black and white illustrators Harry Clarke is not as well known as Aubrey Beardsley. Of course Beardsley is the man who brought the whole shebang of darkness in Art Nouveau, but Harry Clarke's stylization is more to my liking. At a glimpse there's no discernible difference between Aubrey's work and Clarke. Look closely and you will see how Clarke deviate from Beardsley in regard on how he chose to portray his subjects. Clarke tends to draw characters with elongated body parts, huge eyes  and long lashes, while Beardsley drew somewhat  simplified rounded  human forms reminiscing characters from Japanese ukiyoe. At that I conclude, what Beardsley has taken Clarke gave back. Clarke's influences are traceable in 70s-80s Shojo Manga like the Rose of Versailles and Garasu no Kamen , and Japanese promising artists such as  Aya Kato (whose early works somehow, I suspect, influenced Camille Rose Garcia's recent works) and Takato Yamamoto. Isn't it great to know how much art inspires and evolves?

Enough with the name throws, anyway, I found this book in the corner of a used book section, as my other treasures this too is someone's garbage. Click pic to enlarge and enjoy its glory!

Title: Faust

Author: Johann Wolfgang van Goethe

Translation: John Anster

Illustration: Harry Clarke

Publisher: Harrap

Publish Date: London, 1985

ISBN: 0 245 54312 0

Return of the Raw

After almost two years, I finally decided to draw skulls again...

".....and my tears will one day blossomed"
Pen, marker, on paper
A5

Puti&Agung's artsy home

So yeah I skipped a Sunday. And almost two weeks of unblogging.  Since I sorta skipped paying the internet bill. Let's just say lately my money went to the "fun & games" part of the budget chart,  before I break into one of  Alanis Morisette's  song "I'm broke but I am happy yay..."

Okay now, as you see earlier this month, me and my buddies went to Batu Karas. And we sorta separated at Tasik, I continued my way to Bandung..... And when I need a place to crash Puti and Agung kindly invited me to their abode, even though we've only met twice. And later in the evening we decided to have ourselves a little party and invited Tia, Azho, Kutil, and Egiw. And that's when I learned the art of partying. It was sooooo awesome! 

Puti even gave me one of her own ceramic toadstool for me to carry home.... While other guests received mushroom plushies made by Agung. Aren't they just super? 

Anyway, what I wanna share with you in the first place are glimpses of their very inspiring home. Their lovely little dwelling is literally  brimming with creativity, you could find artworks and handmades in almost every nooks and crannies. I'm totally swooned.....

Sunday Book Scan : Alberto Vargas

First I have a confession to make. I have pictures of nude girls in my computer, lots of them. It's not jerking off materials, mind you, I simply adore the naked bodies of the female of the species. Most of the pics are the va va  voom pin-ups from the 50s where Alberto Vargas reigned supreme. 

I've been coveting this book since my first day working at aksara. Then before I could gather the money needed to buy it, the one and only copy of the book has vanished from the displaying shelf. Somebody had bought them I thought, even if the book was super-pricey, I really think it's worth every penny. But I was wrong. Imagine my happiness to find the book years later in a discount shelf for  almost a third of the original price! 

As always, click  pic to enlarge.

Title: Alberto Vargas; Works from the Max Vargas Collection

Author: Reid Stewart Austin

Publisher: Bulfinch Press

Publish Date: New York, 2006

ISBN: 0 821 25792 7

Work in progress: Art on Poskart

I got lucky to be invited to do a collective exhibition at Ruang Rupa by Miss V.  First I wanna submit my travel sketches, but printing it on postcard sized paper, wouldn't be as fun (they're in my journal, I usually made them while waiting for the bus, food, or whatever). So I decided to do something else. Here's what I concocted so far, I still need to do another to meet the requirements. The pieces are inspired by travel and foreign currency and so I dubbed them as "Ongkos Jalan". And Van Gogh's "Starry Night"  for the second picture.

The Juxbox: The Anatomixers

My fascination with the art of human anatomy probably started when I entered university. Without ever really knowing why, my nextdorm neighbors were always studious medical students whom everyone of them I often find perusing a hefty book while eating, gossiping, or bathroom going, et cetera.  It was Sobbotta Atlas of the Human Anatomy. Well that, and I began collecting metal cassettes, great bands like Carcass and Cannibal Corpse often depicted scenes of operations cover album or lyrics. 

Bloody hypertrophy of papillae spewing urethritis like urticaria

Septicaemia filled dermis scorched by acidic uric nocturia.

Verrucose urethra

Glutenous condyloma

Ureterocoeles excreting warm, decaying, cystic pemphigus

Gnawing at flesh with rancid uraturial lust.

Manifestation On Verrucose Urethra - Carcass ( from the "Reek of Putrefaction" (!988) album)

But, it was seeing Gray's Anatomy on a bookshelf (couldn't buy it, too expensive for me back then) that got me hooked totally on medical illustration so that every now and then I would google myself some. In a way these images bring back my childhood dream of becoming a Jolly Roger hoisting buccaneer. Ah enough yours truly, let us enjoy the works of modern-day artists who managed to dissect human bodies profoundly. 

First I present you, Valerio Carrubba. Like the great  Andreas Vesalius, Carrubba's stoic subjects were posed in front of a pastoral settings. As if having your internal organs exposed was just another day at the office.

Colorful Corners

my new pom-pom flowers from Miss V, aren't they just adorable?

 flexing the old rusty....

The Juxbox: Sofia Coppola and Ray Caesar

Great minds, they say, think alike.

I have been biding my time, say like two years, to watch Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette". And one glimpse of the blue paneled carriage just sweep me off my feet. This pâtisserie of a film is just  so girlishly gorgeous and my eyes greedily devours all of its the visual delights. But a nagging feeling of the deja vu  quickly followed. And I found a  man called Ray Caesar that could give enough answers before I sing myself to sleep.

You're currently catching my drift, I believe..... And yes there's more.....