Gift Bags

Someone's birthday is coming closer and you didn't had time to buy wrapping paper or a gift bag, don't worry this is a time when you can recycle your plastic bags.
All you need is a couple of plastic bags cut into circles (you decide how big you want it, Big needle and thread.
1: Put all your circle plastic bags in top of one another (don't worry about making them perfect):

2: Trace the area where you will pass the needle and thread:

3: Then of course pass the needle and thread :)

4:Cut your thread and trim your circles:

5: Put the item you want to wrap and gently pull the strings:

6: Ta-da!!!:

I love the top view

"There's a Lizard on my Leaf"

Today's ecollustrator is the creator of this piece:

It came in a clear envelope with a sheet of paper signed Jesus Leal Estrada "El Gambusino". I obtained this ecollustration when I was walking the streets of the Venice boardwalk, in Los angeles,CA. He's a regular so I highly encourage you go to his booth and please tell him to set up a website. His work is truly beautiful, I do remember he told me he uses the leaves from a tree called "Tampinzerano" the leaves are strong and fibrous which allows him to create great things like the lizard on my leave. Here are some more detail shots.

Not all memoirs use the written word

Today's book from my library to yours is:

CATHIE BLECK: OPEN SPACES a visual memoir and daily inspiration.
A memoir put together by Cathie as she explains what influenced her to be the illustrator she is today. As you read her memoir she will show illustration to prove her point. She grew up surrounded by nature and she shows that appreciation through her illustrations. The book was designed by Mark Murphy Designs, it is beautiful put together, so the pictures, illustrations, sketches and type is well organize. Cathie Bleck is one oF my favorite illustrators, her work is so full of emotion and movement, I love how everything comes together. Her medium is scratch board!(I tried once and it's so hard! very different because it's all inverse, instead of starting on white paper, you start with black. So you sort of bring light to the darkness)You can read about her process of her work on her website. And now here is the peek of the book:

The end pages

The beginning

beautiful illustrations

She shows her process throughout the book

Another of her illustrations

Beautiful book, you can actually order it at her page HERE 

Also I recommend to visit her WEBSITE and her BLOG as well.

Enjoy and see you tomorrow :)

"I would like to thanks my family and friends, my supporters, my blah blah blah"

It's been a good weekend for me, so I'm in a very good mood. :)
I submitted my blog to the delightful blogs directory and was accepted. Show your support by visiting it, rating, or leaving a sweet comment. While you there you should check out the other wonderful blogs they have listed.
Just click the icon and it will take you to my delightful blog page:

That is not all, I was also awarded the Kreativ Blogger Award:

This award was given to me by Davinah (thank you!) from the Daybysnap blog. Go check it out is a blog that always carry a smile on it's face , beautiful photography,  and motivation. The beauty of this award is that I must share 5 random facts about myself, so here we go:

1: I always carry 3 things with  me no matter where I go: My sketchbook, a book and  pen or pencil.

2: I'm half deaf, which sometimes gives me the ability to change your sentences from "want candy?" to "ants can see?" 

3: I love to laugh, anytime, anywhere, so yes when I'm older I will have more laugh lines than you.

4: Chocolate lover for life. 

5: I'm a big fan of flea markets, craft fairs, estate sales and garage sales. Good finds for cheap!

And now I must award 6 other blogs, so here are 6 blogs of close friends of mine, that update regularly. Now you can always see under my links all the blogs I highly recommend to visit, so check them out too, so much inspiration and motivation out there, I love it. 

1:And so on : The blog of Graphic designer Taryn who shares her quirky side by sharing videos, photos, images that will make you smile, laugh, think and surprise you.

2:Chadilaksono : The blog of a designer/ photographer/ cook that will share the recipes of good design, beautiful composed photography, delicious cooking, great moments in her life and share her finds in the internet.

3: Jawcooper : The blog of illustrator/zoolustrator who creates new creatures  that you wish really existed. She will blow you away with her amazing drawing and painting skills. Sometimes with the help of her assistant rupert she gives away free art

4: Mimsill : If you love children and landscapes you will love her blog is filled by both from her sketchbook that she takes to never miss a chance to sketch.

5: Chee-z : If you love all things cheesy this graphic designer/photographer/movie maker will be your best friend.

6: Jules : We like to call him the next James Jean with a twist of spice. A blog where you can see the process work of illustrator Julian Callos, who will make you drool with his painting, they are so good you wish you could eat one.

Cups mats

Today's D.I.Y it's very easy, all you need is milk cartons, a circle cutter, tape and a X-acto knife. We are making cup mats, so you'll stop leaving tea or hot chocolate circle stains on your furniture (my bad! but no more!). So just follow the simple steps as follow.
1:Here are the milk cartons nicely cut and ready to become cups mats.

2:Then tape your milk carton to your cutting board(or on top of a cardboard if you don't have a cutting board),place your circle cutter and proceed.

3:Now if you have a heavy duty circle cutter, you can skip this step, if not continue. My circle cutter works great in paper, but milk carton is thicker, so what I did is trace the circle hard so you'll leave an easy track to follow with your X-acto knife.

4:Ta-da!

5:Now do the rest and you now have cup mats!

6:Love them, use them or give them away.

Dialogue: The Fine Art of Conversation.

For the following weeks you will start to see my illustration references books that I have. I love to buy books form different illustrators and see how their illustrations have changed over time and plus seeing great illustrations inspires me and motivates me to one day have an illustration book with my illustrations or to be part of a collaborative illustration book. Today's "From my library to yours" I present you:

Dialogue: The Fine Art of Conversation:Inspirational Letters and Paintings.
This book was put together by Mark Murphy from Murphy design, you can visit his website HERE 
I love collaborative books, and even more when it has illustrators. The reason the book is titled DIALOGUE, has to do with the theme of the illustrations. The illustrators were encouraged to find a letter, note, receipt, document or anything that was given to them that included a handwritten note or a message that stuck with them --that they have kept-- and to illustrate that letter and the emotions it brought them. Some letters and their illustrations brings a smile, a laugh, a loss and a lesson. I quotes Murphy's because he describes it better than me, after all I'm not a writer:
 "You and I are emotional collectors of the past. Subconsciously, we're connected to these personal artifacts. We are physical packers of 'Stuff' that we do not feel comfortable of letting go. When we feel empowered and strong, we entertain moments to cleanse ourselves of these emotional objects. Maybe not? It's possible, we carefully plan the over-stuffing of our garages, closets, boxes and drawers full of things that make up our person. What do we do with all these cards, reports, love letters, notes from mom and dad, official documents, recipes, awards, and ticket stubs? All of us hang on to these things for one reason or another. Amazingly enough, we admit that these collections are deeply personal, loving, supportive and/or utterly ridiculous. We feel guilty throwing anything away that is handwritten. We keep the good with the bad, as we believe the thought, effort and time vested by an associate or loved one needs to be cherished. We keep the bad and incriminating notes, just in case. Our collected 'dialogue' move us through the tough times and makes us get tough during those challenging moments when no one seems to be around. We save to be remembered. Move through" Love it, Mark Murphy ladies and gentlemen.
And now the moment you are all waiting for, a sneak peek to the book.

Process

Everything has a process to get to the final result. And todays I want to share how I get to the final look on my illustrations, since I have never shared the way I worked, I always though I had an idea and illustrated and dive in ready to paint, but as I was working I realize I don plan it well. Here it is enjoy the tour of how I work. I recently turned back to my illustration style I did for my senior thesis in Otis College of Art and Design. Illustrating a whole story on one page. Here I did " The little Matchgirl by Hans Christina Handersen"


1: First I read the story and take out the most key moments of the story, then I see into how many frames I can fit the story into.
2: Then I'll do a very quick composition of the illustration. (this is all done in my sketchbook)

2: Then I'll do the bigger version in pencil.(This is my favorite part of working, the foundation of the illustration)

3: Then I'll inked.

4: And finally after figuring out the color palette, I'll paint it.

Ecollustration of the week: Think Positive

Think positive. Live Positive

Best way to live life I think, So I illustrated it on my archival box, so I can see it everyday. Surprisingly watercolors work really nice on paperbags. Love it

Archival box

Another D.I.Y Recycling project to organize yourself. An archival box, because my archival folder has no more room!.So much papers to keep and organize. So here I am, to show you how to make a simple archival box for your files.
You will need:
Folders of your choice
A box ( milk carton boxes are great size)
Paper to wrap your box (I'm using Paperbags).


1: Here's the milk carton box

2: Measure the sizes on the paper of your choice.

3: Here are my four sizes trimmed and ready to be glued.

4: You don't need to cover the whole paper to glued it into the box, just apply glue on the tabs.

5: The first side done! now let's do the rest.

6: Tada! this is how it looks done with my folders inside!

Now it's not really completely done because it needs an illustration. The ecollustration of the week will go on the box. So come back tomorrow to see the ecollustration of the week  that I have planned for this new archival box. Stay tuned!

Aimar Ecollustrado

Gustavo Aimar is the ecollustrador of the week. In his illustrations he creates beautiful collages from old paper, wallpaper, stamps and old pictures together with gesso, watercolor(wohoo!) and tempera. With that he creates  unique collages. Love his color palette and his playful characters. His illustrations have a strong sense of storytelling, which I definitely appreciate. Despite the soft colors the images have a strong presence. I really like his style, especially the way he draw peoples with unique eyes(round and uneven) he pulls it off really nice. Here are some of his illustrations that I love from his Flickr stream.

He has his own blog, even if you don't speak spanish, you can translate it to english with the google translator. I have done that for you HERE 
Check out his STUDIO too and SHOP as well!
Beautiful right? 


PS:He speaks spanish:from argentina.