JULY NOTES
Sometimes time flies by and sometimes it feels so slow. That’s how I would describe July, I feel like having all the time in the world, but then I remember that half a year passed and my progress on my yearly to-do list isn’t that great. Truth be told, my 2023 goals are rather ambitious and most probably not achievable in such a short time, nevertheless, I am trying my best. We shall see how things evolve along the way.
NEW ILLUSTRATION
Slowly, but surely I am working on my newest illustration. As shared in last month’s blog post, I have done the lineart for the illustration and was thinking of creating three versions of it with different mediums. The initial plan was to have a digital version as well, but decided to drop it in favour of a version using only dark ink, to keep it more simple.
For the mixed media version, I have used watercolour for the galaxy themed background, gouache for the flat colour layer of the girl and the window and on top of everything I have added details and the darkness of the space with coloured pencils. Lastly, I have painted the stars with white gouache in order to create more contrast. This version is not my favourite one, however it is a good start.
The second version is based only on coloured pencils and white gouache for the stars. I felt I had much more control with the coloured pencils and enjoyed the process more than the one with mixed media. That is not to say it was easy, I had to take breaks more often as my wrist and arm would start to hurt a bit. Rather happy with the final look.
The last version is the one where I have used only ink. This one was the most time consuming as I had to define all of the stars in detail. With shaky hands I got started on the process, which was both relaxing and nerve racking whenever my hand would slip. Many breaks were needed here as well, however the final result is quite nice. Let me know which of the three is your favourite!
FINDING YOUR MEDIUM
I love coloured artworks and would love to learn more about the various techniques. However, most of the time I feel like I ruin an artwork once I put in the colour, regardless of medium. In few cases, it is indeed only a phase until you build up the colours as needed, but sometimes I just end up not liking it.
I have beaten up myself often about this: “What kind of artist do you want to be if you don’t learn colour?”. It is true up to a certain level, however I am trying to change my perspective and think of it as my style. That does not mean I will completely give up on adding colour, but I will approach it in a more relaxed manner. There will be artworks with colour and artworks without, and that is perfectly fine.
MISC.
Books: În interior: momente de întâlnire cu tine însuți is a Romanian book that offers multiple essays on various psychology topics. I would love to be able to recommend this book to people who do not speak Romanian, sadly, it has not been translated. The author is a psychologist and psychotherapist who has a lovely way of phrasing things. Her approach makes you relate easily with the subjects that matter to you. Sometimes even if the information is not mind-blowing, the connections that are presented can make the difference. If I would live in Belgium, I would love having the opportunity to have some therapy sessions with the author.
Schoolgirl is a short book that illustrates the feelings and thoughts of a teenager girl during a normal day. It is quite a simple concept, but I got to relate so much to it, given the way the thoughts take place. You can start from one concept or thought and somehow end up to a completely different train of thoughts: issues with how her body looks, love, family, interactions with other people and so on. The thoughts never end, only right before she falls asleep. By going through this book, is like going through the mind of a teenager girl and all of her current problems.
I found out about The Wall from a random post on Instagram and when I looked up the plot summary on goodreads I was intrigued. I am a big fan of dystopian stories and lately I crave some new stories. The Wall is a story about a woman finding herself the last survivor in the world after a mysterious, invisible wall arises overnight. She is left together with a faithful dog called Lynx in a hunting lodge, where she was supposed to have only a short getaway together with another couple. There are no supernatural elements, just the peculiar wall, which makes the story itself even more raw and disturbing. We get to see what kind of decisions our protagonist takes and how she evolves and manages the obstacles that appear along the way. The action can be slow at times, but that’s just it. You don’t always have big things happening in your life, sometimes you have your routine and responsibilities to take care of. That is what makes this book so different than the other dystopian reads.
Movies/Shows: Quite a few years back, I have watched the two Battle Royale movies and recently I also wanted to show them to my partner. In the same theme as the book mentioned above, I really am in a mood for tense and dystopian scenarios. Both movies are rather old graphic wise, even so the message and atmosphere still gets across to the viewer. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but I enjoyed watching it. Would love to see a reboot, but there aren’t many chances as it could look as a rip-off of the Hunger Games series.
This past month, I also got to watch the new Barbie movie. I didn’t have any kind of expectations and was left with a nice impression. It was fun to see how certain elements were incorporated in the cinematic world and seeing the dolls come to life. The only thing I would have wished for is for the movie to have been a bit more on the lighter side. The movie does send a powerful message to the audience, however I would have preferred a more innocent and playful approach (maybe that’s just my inner child). In any case, it has been a lovely movie that brought back so much nostalgia.
Music: On the music side, I have a few songs and albums to share, that are very different from each other:
Torches - Foster The People (finally managed to get my hands on the vinyl version of this album ♥)
My Neighbour Totoro Soundtrack Collection (got this vinyl as present for my birthday and love it to bits)
Video games: Finally managed to wrap up Professor Layton and Pandora's Box and wasting no moment to move on to the next game in the series. As always, I love the wild stories that take place in Professor Layton’s world. Next to that you have cozy music, fun mini games, quirky characters and challenging puzzles. Not gonna lie, the puzzles can at times be difficult to solve and maybe even frustrating (looking at you sliding puzzles), so you might end up needing the hints the game offers or looking up a walkthrough. Most of the time, when you see the solution, you will be surprised how easy or obvious it was.
The cold and wet July flew by and I’m hoping that August will show us some more sun. At the moment, I’m enjoying a bit of a creative spark that makes me quite productive. Almost done wrapping up my latest artworks and eager to get started on my next idea, which is already sketched out. Will see you soon, until then take care everyone ✨🌿