Moleskine Passion Journal: Food

Okay... so Moleskine decided some years ago that people like me who adore Moleskine journals should spend even more money and created a new line: The passion journals.
These things kill me!
It's not like I am getting grabby hands with every special edition but I regulary use a Moleskine for notes, sketches and meeting doodles (and pretty much everything else) and "burn up" 1 per year. These look odd since my journals don't tend to be super artsy but.... actually only there for keeping my notes neatly in 1 place.

Anyways, the food journal definitely made my heart flutter. I hate the normal looking recipe DIY books and most layouts are either not detailled enough or too cluttered. Moleskine created a tiny thing of awesomeness. And I'm happy I got mine last week.

 That's how it looks on the outside- the usual fake leather is embossed and gives at least a hint about the pretty things inside. I mulled over the decision of customizing it but in the end it will stay like that. Or get a foil cover... still undecided.

 And that's how it looks inside... at least in my journal.

  I tend to switch between languages (why translate if you know what it means?) and doodling vs photos I made beforehand. I guess nobody will be able to read it properly except me. I decided to include only recipes I already made and approved. You know these recipe books where you find on 100 pages only 2 recipes you really love? Yes, pure frustration (I have a lot of these books...argh). So my book will stay frustration free.

 At the moment I'm still trying to gather everything I made over the last couples of years. Cooking on a daily base means: lots of recipes. The good thing is: I tracked every bloody day. So it's easy to "reconstruct" mostly everything. We still have to check a lot of photos I made since usually my hubby is my guinea pig and can hopefully remember the ones he liked.

 The only downside of the journal: The pages are soo thin. I really wanted to use color but marker will 100%ly bleed through and my pencils might be too hard for the surface. At the moment I stick to my Slicci pen but the ink is pretty much a disaster because it tends to fade and even the thin gel liner creeps through the page.

One of the ups: You have a double pouch in the back. If you have any recipes you simply want to store or stickers, labels, notes: That's your place. And there's plenty of it!

The food journal comes with different stickers and labels I might or might not use. I think an unhappy face won't make it into the book but some things might come in handy.

You can check all the different Passion variants on the official Moleskine page. Enjoy!

Holy...

... and that happens if something is sold out and doesn't go into reprint... the book actually costs only 10 Euros... normally. O_O

I hope nobody actually considers paying such a -addmeanwordhere- price. A book goes into reprint if you have enough people wanting it. The best way to get a publisher reprint something is pre-ordering. I know a lot people don't think about it but it's simple math. The more pre-orders the higher the chances the new bunch of printed books gets actually sold = publisher doesn't need to worry about having a huge pile of books nobody wants. Simple, huh?
That's theoretically possible for all books if the contract is still going on, it wasn't limited, a collectors item, yaddayadda. As always the universal laws of Murphey can hit every title but generally it should be possible.

I hope everybody had a good start this year. :) I certainly had. ^_^

Hikari No Densetsu- Tonkam

Anybody still knows Hikari? Good news for those who loved the old series: Tonkam publishes it. I already wrote about "Aishite Knight" and this is just another pretty old series some of the "older generation" of manga fans and ogling anime watches might know.

1 BD (manga) will cost 9 euro and I guess they will be as thick as Aishite Knight (which is.... very thick!). Volume one will be released at the end of this month. If you can read French and love Hikari: buy them. :D I certainly will buy the fist volume and write a review about it. Nothing better than some old-school charm.

books n cats

Today found Tretel sleeping like this. It's not really unusal but I still think it's a bit odd that a cat loves to sleep with a blanket. Btw I didn't cover him... he managed to cuddle under it like this on his own O_o Weirdo cat is weird.

But as you can see: Blissfully happy napping time.

I'm not in the Studio this week since I woke up with a stiff neck and a back like a 90-years-old granny. I have no idea how it happens but I 100%ly don't want to experience it again. Needing help to get a sock on your foot isn't funny :((((
Lucky me I still had some unread books in my... boards (not all books... the rest is spread over the whole appartment and a second and third board on the other side...  O_o).

And if you recognize ANY book and get like "Omg, she reads THAT?!" all i can say is "Yes!"... I love all my kitschy books, comics, my happy endings and the more or less classic bores you are proud to have finished anyway. It's my daily soap dose of freak and the best way to get my brain cells to go in stand-by for a while.

Btw a lot of authors choose the future-society-Orwell-Equilibrium-youth-strategy at the moment- seems we have a new old trend. I really don't mind but after the third you sit groaning on your couch and think "it's not really that creative... doh." ("Delirium" and "Matched" fall imo into that category) 

Shiver - Twilight without sparkling, vampires and DramaLlama

See my title -that's pratically the synopsis. :)


I bought the book by cover - i know you shouldn't do that- BUT it's actually one of the best of the last ... weeks. Suprisingly it's one of those stories that are unbelievable realistic by down-to-earth characters and a plot that is a lot more amusing and fascinating than fantasy stories tend to be. I wouldn't even call it a fantasy story although it includes werewolves.

As a child Grace gets attacked by a pack of wolves in the middle of winter. It's cold, they seem to be hungry and Grace's destiny seem to be obvious. But one wolves stops the attack.
Even as a teenage girl Grace can't forget the wolves although she should know better and be scared. She craves to see them every winter- especially the wolf who looked at her with those yellow eyes.
And there is Sam, who moves around Grace like the moon wanders around the earth but can't get closer. Till they meet in Summer- and finally the wolf and the girl find themselves in the middle of a relationship that is meant to last only that single summer. 

"Shiver" is a werewolf novel without all sparkling wonderboy and non-logical cutie-girl. I don't want to say Twilight is bad. It's just oddly unlogical and for my taste too happyendish-of-course-they-will-make-out-even-if-he-should-scare-her-to-death-sparkle-stalker-no-dates-in-100-years. I read all... so I can complain.

Anyways, hurray to Maggie Stiefvater, there will be a second book about Sam and Grace and if you happen to enjoy good stories with "realistic action" (car accidents, teenage rage and a lot of bites) and sadness you might like that book a lot.

all time favourite... rully!

I have no idea if I mentioned that book but it's one of my all-time favourites. If you like nerdy outfits, ridiculous behaviour and awesome writing you will love it.

You can read the synopsis at Amazon -though I would like to add that it doesn't even cover for 10% all the things happening in that way too thin book.
Hippie parents who explain the importance of pelvis muscle training to your fellow students in the cafeteria, wearing ugly clothes and doing water gym with 40+ ladies while you originally wanted to do Pilates are just some things everybody will keep in mind.

and because I won't stop annoying you with cutie-pie pics... just two of the kittens as well :)

Moleskine passion - the best ever!

was the first one I bought and the only thing I *loved* and which is filled on every single page. Which I never did. Like 10 old sketch-books are in my studio room but not a single one is as fully doodled as this one.

I have the Sketchbook mole as well but the surface is too smooth for my taste. It's good if you want to do scribbles but in the watercolor book everything looks better. It's like daily soap (sketchbook) compared to movie (watercolor).
The biggest problem is that those little critters are always shrinkwrapped and of course that means no peeking in. Umph!

Sketchbook:
-good for scribbles (i use a H-pencil...mechanical 0.3 Lamy one)
- good for copic sketches
- good for inks (pens look odd, real ink looks good... have to upload that sketch next time)


Watercolor:
- good for scribbles (you should put on varnish orhairspray though.. highly recommended!)
- good for copic sketches
- excellent for watercolor-ink-pencil-tombow-you get what i mean -sketches
- ... add more awesome details yourself

So 72 pages are mostly filled. With: project sketches, notes, tests, comics, doodles, Sir Bogard, surprisingly many full color sketches and and and...

color sketch... i can't show the whole thing because it's a concept o_O

the original stalker kitteh sketch

thumb pose sketches .. i did a lot of those and they helped a lot to find the perfect final pose although it might look a bit weird.


... and so i ordered two new watercolor moles. One as "Chubbible II" and one normal for practice sketches (which i really need, my light setting sucks :( ).

Amazon lowered the price btw. I can't remember how much it cost at Boesner but the regular price is something around 16- 16,50 Euro. Now it's something around 14,50 I think and if you want to try one: do it now. :)

And because it's Sunday and I still have a bunch of sketches to do I shall stop and shall work and shall NOT enjoy the sunny weather. umph.

my book-addiction

... just made me order three new ones. honestly i have no idea how you can surive without an EC card AND no Amazon. Thanks god, amazon is still my best buddy when i want to get books.
The crappiest feeling is when you stand in a book-store and can't buy the one and only your soon to be favourite 4-hours-not-a-minute-longer lasting book you just found. ARGGG!!!

It happened last week and i was so frustrated that I was even more angry when the nice You-sure-you-don't-have-finanical-problems-person in my bank told me that of course my new EC card will take two more weeks. And all because the retarted guy from my last appointment forget to delete three old zombie cards still walking aroud in the bank system (but not in my pocket). One good reason to switch the bank and to make a mass-order online.

For those who really want to read good reviews and are interested in some gems follow the white rabbit.

My Top 5 (of all I have and i have... a lot):
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks Of Nature
How not to be popular (honestly, read it, the book is AWESOME)
The Gargoyle
Colors: a natural history of the palette (it's lovely how the author manages to zone out every 1,5 pages)
Kitchen

books I just read (cropped list because I couldn't remember all and some in German):
The Splendour Falls (if you mentally delete the last 100 pages it's good and you'll love Rhys)
Beautiful Creatures
A Great And Terrible Beauty (that one was okay but i 100%ly won't re-read it)
The Thornthwaite Inheritance (too short :((... )
Rubinrot
Smaragdgrün
---add tons of comics here... of course... after a book fair... i couldn't resist---
Fragile Eternity, Ink Exchange & Wicked Lovely (last one is still unread but I already peeked in)
and some more...

looking forward to read:
Shiver
An Abundance of Katherines
Intertwined
... i just hope those books will be good >.<

Nata is visiting me on Monday. I bet she's abusing me as her private library again. And since I know she's gonna read this: Honey, only the paperback. And you have to bring my babies back.

Anne

Ps. Anybody read some of the books I mentioned?

Scary! ... or: Cool!

Today I started packing up my books since it's gonna be time to move soon (O__o; ). It looks even messier than before. I really wanna sort by series next time but I guess Ty won't want all my comics in the living room XD ... ok, those are a lot. Not as many as some years ago but still a lot.
Last time I was in Hamburg together with Sonja we started talking about the "good old times" and found out we both might be in the same Magic Knight Rayearth comic. Like... 10 years ago Carlsen and Co. still printed fanart they got IN the manga (I don´t know if only in the first edition).So today I crawled through my books and really. We ARE in the same book and even on the same page.

Left top is Sonja's art... bottom right is mine.

As you can see the comic was printed 10 (!) years ago. We both were around 16 and lived in different cities (not to mention we didn't know each other). Now, ten years later we work in the same office on the same projects.
Now how scary is that O____o

"You always see a person twice in your life" is a sentence often said in Germany when those things happen.

Sunday Office Riot

**flying office chicken** (the one with the sign.. the other chick is engelszorn XD )

It´s Sunday and I´m in the office. Unkind me dragged engelszorn along since we need to get stuff done for work and as always -if you´re the first part of a very long chain- ... if you don´t get things done the others have to wait as well.
It´s annoying. I´ve been reading the same texts again and again while cutting material and sometimes the dialoges are so crappy you just want to throw everything at the author and cry: "Why´d you do that?!"
Some passages get better... some worse. But again: I love my work. ... most of the times.

Read:

Loved the book to pieces.... best choice if you like history, love and a lot of utterly disgusting medical descriptions.

I started "The Graveyard Book" (Neil Gaiman). I know you can´t trust "Best book ever" stickers but this book bugged me. I still think "Neverwhere" was one of the best. This is my personal opinion. I so much which they would make a movie out of "Neverwhere". Would be higly intersting. Combine Alice in Wonderland and Re-Cylce, shake and mix well ... man, that would be awesome.

Paper Dreams

Paper Dreams... one of the books I waited for. Yesterday it arrived and again, since I ordered it in the UK, it had to go through the customs and was delivered in a shed paperboard package and a totally beautiful blue customs duty sack. >_>;
Ok, back to the book. It´s huge (bigger than A4, can´t squeeze it in any of my bags) and heavy (realized that yesterday while carrying it home). And it´s totally awesome and worth every Cent.


it´s 09:14 in the morning here and I just ran over the pages stopping here and there. Even if you´re not into Disney all the storyboards and concepts and color settings and interviews might be enough to love the book. It´s so interesting and as most people who suggested the book told me: "You won´t be able to learn nothing."


Alice. Totally different from everything you´ve seen on the screen and I guess that´s the most interesting part (and always the best part of the "The Art Of..." books btw): How did the characters look in the concept phase.
If I had time I would rummage through the book all day. But I have an appointment with a photographer (new author portrait... and geee, I am not the "the cam loves me-type" XD) and I still have to finish some illustrations. Crap.

Final thought: If you are into animation, Disney, concepts or just interested in spending a lot of money for a huge book: Buy it.
I just googled and saw that it´s much more cheaper on Amazon.com (listed price: 60.00, now 37.80) than Amazon.de atm. Not that I hate spending too much money on books, just a good point for those who order via .com ... here it´s already listed for 60-120 euro, so grab it while it is cheap.

Contest & Books

a little happy b-day contest like every year. this time only on deviantart.
The entry about it can be found here:
Contest

Good luck!

*omigosh... bouncing around*
I just found three new books I totally wanna read (and of course those will take AGES to arrive... hello three very long weeks).

This is... so far my top one of the three:

"After her boyfriend dumps her for her older sister, sophomore Savannah Delano wishes she could find a true prince to take her to the prom. Enter Chrissy (Chrysanthemum) Everstar: Savannah’s gum-chewing, cell phone–carrying, high heel-wearing Fair Godmother. Showing why she’s only Fair—because she’s not a very good fairy student—Chrissy mistakenly sends Savannah back in time to the Middle Ages, first as Cinderella, then as Snow White. Finally she sends Tristan, a boy in Savannah’s class, back instead to turn him into her prom-worthy prince."

If you know "Grimms Manga" and enjoyed the twisted stories this might be enjoyable as well... There have been a lot of "modern interpretations" of the old fairy tales (some good, most bad but all too weird to be forgotten (by me)), I hope this one is better than the last I read. I just hope so... I really do.

welcome to the club

I´ve managed to read mostly every book I have (which is surprising, I didn´t read that many within the last months also I bought some here and there). Weee! Now, if that´s not cool. The only problem is: Nothing left. I read some of the "old books again and mostly those are the books I really stick to.
But while working a lot I like to have "light lecture". You know Rosamunde Pilcher? Of course it´s mushy and predictable but that is the only reason why women buy it. A friend´s grandma once said: "I love those Pilcher movies, it doesn´t matter if you miss the last 40 minutes asleep, you know the end anyway."

I won´t read Rosamunde now (I read one and I felt too young for it o_o) but I read Nora Roberts. Nata and I guessed that she´s having a pimped 8ball for her plots or some pimped "which relation do they have this time"-dices. The difference between some books are *eventually* the location and the number of "goodlooking, adorable single brothers" and if you have an "evil person who shows up to make problems" or twoo shy people quarreling 120 pages before jumping into bed.

Of course every books ends with a "Will you marry me?" (and I still wonder if I missed some years inbetween the pages... thats real speed-dating). Did I spoil you? Oh what a shame... XD

Anyway, the funny thing about the books is that you have some stereotypes which can be found in nearly every book.
the main actor: goodlooking, has a little problem with himself but is allover very happy with his life
the main actress: very feminin, very independent, had some bad experiences with men in the past but got over it and decided that she won´t fall for another good looking... well, you get the rest
brothers: most of the times two, goodlooking as well (one outgoing, one shy, careful and secretly in love with a neighbour for AGES)
the old lady: likes to gossip, but very motherly. can be a neighbour or somebody from the staff

there are some less important parts which show up now and than but after 20 books i believe the biggest fun is finding all stereotypes and guessing who will marry who when in which upcoming book. I am kinda impressed. Nora Roberts squeezes so many "different" (ok, not really but different enough to be seen as books) plots out of those simple combinations. I wonder why I never thought about writing novels for middle-aged women. O_o

The main question: Why do I read it? Simply because I won´t be able to get into an Irving novel after 12 hours work. Or... Wilde. You have to read those books on a Saturday without any other plans. For the rest of the week I stick to my beloved junkfood and complain about a lack of plot. But oh my, I enjoy them too much to stop. It´s a bit like a literal car accident: You can´t stop reading even if you think it´s disgusting. XD

Books -review II

author: Wolf Wrisch
publisher: Knaur
language: german

The book got excellent reviews and that´s why I bought the book. I thought: k.... seems like you can learn a bit more about techniques.
This is my very personal opinion: Don´t buy it. Ever. I was so dissapointed. I didn´t wanna have lotsa pictures with techniques you never gonna use while doing illustrations. It´s more a compilation of different techniques for combining metal, acrylics, oils, pastels... whatever. I had no clue what the book should be called: Combine everything you find in your supplier´s shop or "Learn everything about material... except acrylics". The book is perfect for people who want to experiment with different materials... really. Artistic allrounders might be happy with the book. Artists who wanna learn how to actually paint: No way.
I have no idea what to do with the book... throwing away would be a shame. Hello ebay?


author: Lexi Sundell
publisher: F & W Pubn Inc
language: English

That book might be perfect for people who wanna learn how to paint photorealistic flowers. Sometimes I thought: "Well, she has to use photos.. can´t be!" If she doesn´t... total respect, most illustrations are truely beautiful and Lexi Sundell knows how to explain her steps well. I think it´s a good book to learn basic things about shading and why you might use color xy instead of the one you wanted to use.
The illustrations show how to work in a very neat and controlled manner of painting. I would even say: The book is good for beginners. Maybe the wrong theme since flowers aren´t that easy to do (except.. if you have a nice photo and want to adapt that), but basically totally okay.

What I liked most about that book and the previous books was the list of material and colors you need per illustration. Most beginners struggle to find the fitting shades and buy everything (like me.. except I strongly try to convince myself that I really need those ^^; ). If you wanna try out acrylics and follow Lexi Sundell step by step you get an overview, the color shades you need and which brushes. That´s good.
but again... the basic things like bristle vrs. other brushes was too short for my taste. Maybe I am really looking for a book made for total idiots but I think basics are too important to give only a short introduction.
*******
Regarding palettes: Three out of four authors favour the "wet-towel" palette. Why??? I mean, if I use colors, I put only a small amount on my palette, start mixing the final shade and put on new color if I need the shade again. The colors will dry on the canvas anyway, so what´s the point of putting a huge amount of acrylics on a wet paper/fabric if you could leave them in their tubes/jars. o_o??? You can´t even mix on that palette but have to put it onto your final palette anyway. Sense? Am I the only one thinking that´s everything but economic.

Mah reviews:
Buy Lexi Sundell if you like to learn "the neat way"... I stay with my messy technique. :)

books

I bought two books last week. Those are:




&



I had a look into both yesterday and I think those are for semi-advanced painters.
I favour the first one since Annette Dozier included some pages which explain the materials not only via text but also with photos which i think is very important. Especially if you have no idea where and how to hold the different brushes.
Both books have step-by-step explanations with text and photos but in the end I think it´s a lot of guessing and trying out yourself. I thought about using some techniques on my own, had a look on my own illustrations and decided to try it when I am done with my recent proejct (Kulla 3). It might be frustrating to try new techniques in the middle of a project. For both me and my publisher.

pro:
-good explanation of brushes
-good explanation of colors (for those who have a problem mixing and wanna stick to given colors in the first place)
-good explanation of light/shadows
-excellent explanation of grayscale-technique (never found that in a book before....)

contra:
-not for total beginners
-if you want to learn techniques you bettter attend a course, the books are as additional material helpful afterwards
-the books can´t solve general problems and they won´t talk to you when you´re stuck

I think I will keep them although they disturb me a bit with the "general techniques". I work totally different (and that´s not via accident but I learned it that way) and I felt a bit bad about it afterwards. Like.... "Am I doing it wrong all time?!" XD
oh my...