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.

oh my god.. why?!

... I am so stupid... why did I even think about the possibility that this ice cream book would have recipes with less than 1 million calories?! *faint*

Because I am in a poor painting mode today... something about my next favourite hobby next to reading: making a mess out of the kitchen and wondering why it's clean the next day :3

What I am talking about is this:



If you click on the book you'll be on the amazon page (German). Yes, it leads to amazon... folks, this book costs only 7 Euro and if you're not afraid of millions of calories this book is worth every cent. IF you're afraid of those calories: The sorbets are *okay* I've seen worse recipes.


So Ty wanted ice-cream for the week-end and I decided megalomaniacally for "Vanilla Superfudge". For those who don't know: It's those sticky heavy chocolate brownies half-baked chopped into vanilla ice-cream. BAD NASTY STUFF!
And since I still have not such a good feeling for cup measurements we ended up having TONS of the cream base. Urgg...

Anybody wants to come over and gobble down a huge bowl of Vanilla Superfudge?
o____O I should stop doing ice-cream. This will be my grave for sure.

are you...

... and active reader?
or am I talking to myself o_o

Sometimes I think you want something more interesting (which is kinda complicated because most things atm are in hush-hush-mode).

priceless

(oh my god, i hate the new formatting tools. it's odd! why blogger? whyyyy?)

transparent foil: 1.75 Euro (Crea Pop matte or something alike)

templates you can make out of it: tons

time you save for other things: priceless!

um.. a bit complicated to take pics of a white template on white background with zero sunlight. :/ *hmph*

okay, so mainly the biggest problem with sketches is that i really need those for everything and mostly i do a thumb-sketch before doing the final clean sketch that will be scanned and my base for the digital work.

problem: Call me stupid but i really stick to the height x width proportion and if it's not correct in my thumb i mess it up in my final sketch as well. So I came up with the idea of doing a template and thanks to my awesome bf who has everything in the depts of our monster-pax (for all ikea nerds: 3,5 meters, 70 cm deep and I hate-love it) I got a thick matte foil we seemed to have for ages. I printed out my original template in the correct size and since the foil is transparent the rest is easy. Mark the edges, cut with scissors, done.

If anybody starts making annoying sounds: guys, this one is really priceless. I know everybody tends to measure or take print outs for storyboards, daily comics or do it freehand, but a template is GOLD.

It takes some time to do one and I would suggest a thin, strong matte foil (mine measures.. .uh... 0.3 mm if I measured correctly) because you can still cut it with scissors and it's flexible enough to have a long life option.

As I said, some people might find this entry annoying. I didn't invent the wheel but I save a lot of time for the rest of my work. :D

And working with a ruler when you're in the metro is a bit complicated. The template fits easily into the back-pouch of the Moleskine (thanks for inventing that pouch... it's so useful).

Seven days after the whole sickness thing started: I can SMELL again. Wow! But coffee still tastes weird :( Crap!

:( unhappy(cat)

Working with bronchitis sucks. I complain a lot when I have a flue or a running nose but when you think you're climbing a mountain while painting it's even worse.
Anyways, thanks to my brilliant bf I got a wonderful new tool which will be shown off as soon as I find my cam (and breath again).

Sir Bogard Steps

of course I mostly forgot to make screenshots. >_> mostly 1 layer painting with the brush I listed in an older post.

Step 1: digitalizing the sketch
Step 2: painting the basic colors and shapes
Step 3: starting to paint details and shadow/ light

Step 4: starting to paint the goggles and the eyes

Step 5: adding more details and sharpening the edges

Step 6: Realizing my light setting is crap, starting to repaint the whole thing...happens always *sigh* (thanks to Dani for the optical hints)

Step 7: realizing the foot looks weird... repainting it in an even weirder manner... and just imagining that it's the reason why he wants to fly....

Blending the whole thing with brush in "burn" mode. sir Bogard still looks really relaxed.

Done... I guess.

me and google... me mostly going "whoa spooky"

Ty had the wonderful idea to implement google analytics.
Honestly.. for somebody who's a bit scared of facebook, studi.vz (studi-vz??), linkedin, myspace and -- add here what I don't know -- this is REALLY scary.
You can read what I do (or mostly what I would love to say but can't >.> ) and i can see... where you come from, what browser you use and after how many seconds you get bored.

Which is.. after ten seconds.
How long does it take to read an entry? Gods.. this whole thing makes me totally paranoiac and weird thoughts keep poppin into my head.
What google analytics gives you is a blatant analysis of your fails, watchers and readers, your habits, my habits, your love with firefox and that you seem to own DSL. It tells you where you fail, where you win and when your readers had some good time.
Your good time is mostly around midnight, 9:00 (got to work, eh?),16:00 and 21:00 o'clock btw. Feels like google got you? Well, me too :/

Obviously google analytics can't tell you and me when we need to pee, when we lament about something and when we feel good or bad. THANKS GOD!

So when we shut down the computer we might not be able to communicate but at least we know that we get some privacy back and because it's late and although tomorrow is Wednesday -which is my home office day (weeee!)- I will sleep now and google will stay outside.

Good night, we might see each other.. .around 9:00 I guess. o_o

What do you think about google analytics? Useful or scary?

I mostly finished my dog pic and will upload the inbetween steps tomorrow. As promised :)