Whirlwind of a Week

It was a whirlwind of a week last week...deadlines and an event over the weekend = No sleep, incommunicado, fatigue and crying spells (yes, I cry when I am so tired I want to rest but cannot, wouldn't you?).  It's far from over mind you, this week is just as filled although not as frantic.  I like to think it is well worth it and my efforts at planting the seeds will bear fruit down the road (and it better be soon, haha).

All this work, but where is the money?? It seems like I am constantly and endlessly being chased by bills to pay, unending home expenses, confronted by new things to invest into marketing and improving my work.  "I will get over that bump soon!" I like to tell myself.  And I believe it.  It is why I cannot stop and constantly push myself to work, work and get things crossed off that long list.  And I know that long list will get even longer the more people I connect with, it's a good problem I'd like to have.   That's my goal, isn't it? Now if only the day could last like 48 hours instead of 24 and I did not have to be plagued by insistent upper back and neck aches.

The highlight of the week was a wedding fair I had the chance to be part of through partnership with Thunderbird Resorts for their booth at the Themes and Motifs Wedding Expo at SMX in Mall of Asia.  I was tasked to create a piece of artwork that would be sent to a silkscreener and that would be used as a backdrop for the booths of their two resorts (Binangonan, Rizal & Poro Point, La Union).

Too bad though, the silkscreen makers here in the Philippines kinda "suck" at silk screening (or maybe there is a good one but we haven't found them yet, suggestions anyone?)  and they could not accommodate the large scale design (to cover the back wall).  So my artwork was not used as backdrop, but it wasn't put to waste though because I had used it to create the table place cards, menu, table seat numbers and label cards.

These are the mood boards I put together (just click to enlarge):

The artwork was all hand-drawn, imported into Illustrator and then colored digitally in Photoshop.

And here are the wonderful photos from the actual event itself (photo credits: Jocelyn Alberto-Henares)

This is the set-up for the Poro Point booth:

 

Beautiful, elegant set-up by Royal Flower Shoppe

 Of course, here are the menu, place cards, table 

cards I designed.  Love seeing them in print!  

 Cake design by Cake Concepts

That's an actual soon-to-be wed talking to 

me about my album artwork, so exciting!

Here is the set up for the Rizal booth:

Menu card, place cards and table cards designed by me :)

Gorgeous flowers by the Royal Flower Shoppe

Cake provided by Cake Concepts, see how they adapted my doodles 

and used it all around the cake, I was pleasantly surprised!

Sample cakes from Cake Concepts, I just love the 

flour-less chocolate cake!!! Super yummy!

All-in-all, it was a good event for me, no on-the-spot bookings but definitely a lot of interest generated + quite a good number of we will definitely get in touch with you to do our wedding album because we love your work! Yay! Of course, these are for weddings happening next year or the year after.  It's a good start for 2011 and 2012, definitely something to look forward to.

How was your week?

A Kiddie Wall Mural

Here is a wall mural I'm currently making...it's a FJ Cruiser and a Mini Cooper...it's for a child's room, and he is just crazy about cars..so cute :)

Do you see how big the cars are? Practically the whole wall for the FJ Cruiser.  Not quite done yet, but almost there, I'm quite excited to see the look on his face.

Inspiration Monday: The Meaning of Life

Today promises to be a busy, busy day but before I head off into work mode, I'd like to share this short video I found on Facebook, Posted by Santé et beauté pour tous.  I really love it and the soundtrack is just beautiful.  I hope it inspires and guides you....



The illustrations and the captions are from the book "Be Happy: A Little Book to Help You Live a Happy Life" (2007) by Monica Sheehan. The music is "Cuore di Sabbia" (Sand Heart) by Pasquale Catalano, from the soundtrack of the movie "Mine Vaganti" (2010) (Loose Cannons) directed by Ferzan Ozpetek

Lyrics

Be happy
Show up
Follow your heart
Find a new perspective
Have a sense of wonder...
Find people you love...
Set goals
Help Others
Dance
Pamper yourself...
Face your fears...
Go to a museum
Exercise
Limit television
Get in touch with nature
Lighten up
Get a good night's sleep
Read books
Buy yourself flowers
Don't compare yourself with others
Don't beat yourself up
Be open to new ideas
Don't focus on negative thoughts...
...Focus on creating what you desire
Make time just to have fun
Keep the romance in your life
Make a gratitude list
Love your Mother Earth
Want what you have
Be true to yourself

Just For Fun

Just a little night time, free flow doodling in bed last week on an old planner converted into a journal of sorts.  Trying out the caran d'ache watercolor crayons, stuff from my art box and some DIY stencils and alcohol spray inks ;)

Just playing and having fun and trying to see where this will go....

On the opposite page I sprayed my punched stencils (I don't have those punchanella strips and so I punched out a small strip of cardboard paper and hand cut the bigger circles - note to self to get those punchanella strips) with the alcohol ink I had available.  Those yellow flowers on the plant were blobs of spray ink that I outlined in black charcoal and just went crazy drawing twig like appendages.  The bird then came after...

Must do this again soon...

Art Supply Love

I found this pencil drawing one of my kids made some time ago, although not one of them seems to remember drawing it.

 It really makes me smile.  

I colored it in sloppily with my new Aquarelle Gel Crayons by Lyra - got the glitter colors.  It glides on the paper so smoothly and you can apply a wet brush on it to smear it like water color crayons. Love!

I put the drawing inside my crayon, pastel, colored pencil case/box -

when I open the case, that is what I see first - so cute, I really can't help but smile :)

I just love to bring this box around with me, its got an assortment of oil pastels, caran d'ache water soluble crayons, a mix of different brands of water soluble colored pencils, my precious Sakura Pigma Micron pens, my Rotring technical pens, charcoal and drawing pencils, erasers, Winsor & Newton super fine round brushes, blending sticks, foam brush, chalk pens, sandpaper...ah...I think I need at least a 4 level container so I can lug around with me my gel pens and Kurecolor and Touch markers.
 

Dreaming of adding Copic Sketch Markers, Derwent Inktense Pencils, Sharpie White Poster Paint Markers, Daler-Rowney FW Artist Acrylic Inks and Speedball Artist Pen Nibs, ah, i just drool...........

I love Art supplies. ♡♡♡

A Tale of Two Turtles

My kids brought home two Asian Box Turtles with them last summer after a short vacation in Roxas City.  It was given to them by one of their uncles.

Now that classes are underway, I have taken it my task to care for them while the kids are in school, making sure they have their daily dunk in the water (since their skins get so dry and scaly if they are in land all the time) and feeding them. 

I have become attached to them, talking to them and petting them (they like being pet under their chin and on top of the head).  Yeah, I never realized but turtles are totally cute.  They're so cute, I doodled one. 

They were named Leo and Fido.  The kids swore they were both male turtles, their uncle said so.  Leo belongs to Teo and Fido belongs to Enzo.  They even have personalities to match their owners, hahaha. 

One day last week, Teo found a turtle egg in his room! It was quite funny because we thought all along that the turtles were both male.  Teo's turtle Leo was female!!!

"Mom, we now have to change Leo's name!"

Hello Leona!

And the turtle egg, is in a bed of leaves and soil...we started researching what to do...hopefully it survives.

My DIY Calling Cards

Finally printed out my calling cards in a DIY project last night.  The cards incorporate some of my pen and ink doodles and colored in Photoshop.

I bought some nice Concorde Laid 220 gsm thick boards and printed my design out on my Epson printer, cut them with my Carl Shacut cutter and rounded out the corners with a corner puncher.

Voila!

I really like how they turned out.:)