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!

My Favourite Photoshop Pencil Brush

One of the brushes I use most for concepts and sketches is the Pencil Brush made by Koifishsushi on Deviantart. You can find and download the little awesome sucker HERE.

Above is the sketch and final painting I did for Schmidt for "Fühlzwerge". And even right now I use it for new sketches almost on a daily base. I like the smooth but traditional feeling of the brush a lot and the sketch tends to look more alive.
The only other -but real- pencil that gives me the same feeling is the Blackwing but being a leftie I tend to smudge it horribly and that's one of the reasons I use it only when I really think it's worth the hassle.
Nevertheless if you are into traditional sketches you might want to check out the Blackwing anyway. I have all three versions and can highly recommend these. If anybody is interested in sample pics let me know. :)
AND if you buy these anyway because they really *are* that awesome: Get yourself a long point pencil sharper as well. You will regret not having one at hand if you need one.

A chair for (mostly) girls only!

First some nerd-news: I actually set up my old nano cube some weeks ago because my ramshorn snail (you can see that one blurred in the background) had some problems and because I had her since she was a tiny blob I decided to give her a single appartment without fishies and added two Brotia Pagodula. These horned beauties are a tad more critical to feed and keep but after one week we were suprised with 8 little babies... and a week later the other snail gave birth to 10 more. I was stunned since these are no hermaphrodites and I managed to get two pregnant girls. O____O

The babies are really tiny and I'm always scared to kill one when I clean the cube or the aquarium (6 moved over already because the cube is simply too small for 21 snails). I wonder how many will survive and grow up. At the moment they measure between 2-3 millimeters but. They only eat alga and fluid chlorella (that's the tricky part with these) and I'm still fiddling around with finding the right balance. Duh! Did I mention I love my water snails? Weird hobby I know but these critters are fun to watch when they eat and hover around.

 And something interesting for the girls: The saddle swopper. My old chair is still okay but I sat hours and hours on it, unmoving (except my arm), hunching over the table and with crossed legs. Really healthy *cough* The problem was: It's pretty unhealthy for the back and neck and legs and mostly everything. Since my hubby has a normal Swopper I knew this one would solve 99% of my problems. And so I bought one after mulling over it for quite a while. Honestly, that chair costs over 550 bucks so it's something you HAVE to decide slowly and probably check if you really need one.

 The design of the saddle swopper is ... like a saddle. That's why my hubby eg can't really sit on that thing. It's probably like sitting on a huge lady saddle for bikes for hours. He hurt and said it's probably not wise for a man to sit on that thing if you still want babies in your future. As a female it's nice to sit on that thing. One thing you have to keep in mind:

 Never crossing your legs again. At least not on that thing. Sorry for the awkward perspective... anyways, on the swopper you have to sit with open legs (so no short skirts in the office on that thing either).
Your pelvis gets moved forward and you end up sitting straight and use your back muscles.
In the beginning this might hurt like hell after some minutes (I actually got sea sick) but add some minutes sitting on it per day and get used to it. The good thing is that it has this awesome 3D spring. While typing I'm actually moving left, right, back, forth and don't sit still.

If you want to check out the details about the chair, click HERE. It's definitely a good investment and if you have a cheap chair you can switch to if you back gets too tired the better.
Otherwise ask me anything if you have any questions.

Random cutie pic: Tretel still trying to sit in his bed after it fell down from the side table. I'd say "success" since he still managed to look not that stupid.

I got myself for Christmas....

 ... obviously not Hantje. As always she's in her floaty boat watching lazily as I work... on comic pages. Actually the one you see is a reworked version of "anger a kitteh"... a page hopefully finished tomorrow. I so want to work on a snow page right now.

I got myself a Spyder4 Pro.
This tiny little stinker is essential for calibrating my screens. I have no idea if you ever had the chance to calibrate *your* screens but having a good screen also means you might want to invest in a buddy who helps you to see the actually correct colors. Nobody wants to be shocked in the final print version. Though I have to admit: If the printer messes up you'll end up shocked anyway. But it's a good start and for me essential.
IF you think "Oh shiny... me wants" check the Datacolor hardware. There are different versions of the Spyder. I had a OneEye before which was fine as well.

Tretel normally hogs the heater place. I am amazed he still fits in.

Big things that make life a lot easier....

I am currently inbetween game projects (though I still need to do 40 illustration sketches till January for one) and work (a lot) more on Chubs. The final goal is so damn close I could literally touch it... if I didn't have to paint everything. But... oh well... some pages take longer... some don't.
At them moment I have one of those "1 week for one page" thingies and it keeps unnerving me.

Anyways... when we started a lot of things were unclear. I had a rough plan of the cats' house but the more pages Lew and I did the more complicated it got.
Where's that cupboard? Where's the desk? If I have bird perspective will it look good. Should I zoom in? I had to do a lot of corrections because while drawing I realized the perspective sucked. Or didn't look right.

We decided to use Sketch Up. Lew was so patient and constructed the house up from scratch (isn't she great?!). We based it on the logic of the first comic pages and ended up with a pretty weird house probably nobody would built like that but it's cozy and I'd totally move in (if the kitchen was bigger...). Having a rough construction helps A LOT. If you ever decide to do something longer with a lot of interaction in one place you might be interested in using the (free) Sketch Up as well.

I still have to draw everything (digitally) and add a lot of details but the base is always correct and we can move the angle till the view looks perfect. It won't safe that much time in the beginning but the more I work with those screenshots the more I love it. Sketch Up doesn't love us back and is buggy as hell but that's bearable.

Artist= Vampire... We need no sunshine

I feel like being glued to my screens. I miss the sunlight, sports (actually got very very fond of my nearly daily training), I wanted to read books and reduce my coffee consumation which happens to be pretty much too high at the moment.
The working space looks pretty dark on the pictures but it's light enough to get no sore eyes. I have mostly closed curtains since the natural light bugs me too much and looking outside and seeing sunshine is totally depressing if you can't actually GO OUTSIDE. Arf. Vampire mode is not my most beloved mode at the moment.

Otherwise I finished the last corrections on the third board-game on Friday and it's coming out in Febraury already. If you like animals and to draw, laugh and make nasty fun of ugly doodles this will be 100%ly something you'll like.

So looking forward to get out again and see daylight.

Wacom Intuos Grip Pen- Review

 I think a lot of people know that you have a lot of pen variations for the Intuos (3 & 4) that slighty vary. I have the normal pen (above) and the even slimmer classic pen. The problem with those are not really a problem but can turn into one if you have a tendency to get tendo. As some people know I got the Cintiq (and send it back). BUT pretty interesting was the rubber grip I found in the package. And really... that was the best of the whole freakin package.

 The Intuos Grip is meant for Intuos 4 but really... who cares. So I ordered 1 package (2 grips for 17 euro.. totally okay!) and puzzled the grip onto my pen. And of course it works. And damn, it's really nice.

 

I have to warn everybody that you won't be able to access the keys on your pen anymore. Simply impossible. But if you're okay with it the hand relaxes a lot more. Actually what I personally always wished for- and somebody seems to listen to my prayers. ;)

The grip can be purchaed via Amazon. If you're not from Germany you'll get the detailled information on the German site anyway :)

*FOLLOW THIS LINK*

Wacom Intuos4 Grip Pen - Digitalstiftgriff (Packung mit 2 ), ACK-30002

As I said: 2 grips for 13- 18 euro (depending on the shop)

My rating: Awesome. One of the best inventions I got in my hands.