A lesson in letting go.
I had breakfast.
Ha, you didn't see that one coming, did ya?
We thought we were lucky this year. "We'll simply just skip winter," we thought excitedly! But yeah, so, then, now, it actually seems like we're being hit with double the amount of happily blooming plants, trees, and grasses. Joy.
I've been feeling tremendously inspired these past few weeks. Inspired to read, inspired to work, inspired to draw, inspired to... cuddle with my new kitten MISO! AAAHHH!!!
This last weekend, the Stripdagen Haarlem took place in... Haarlem, a gorgeous town not far from Amsterdam. I'll devote a separate post to some of the artists I saw, discovered, and rediscovered while browsing the many booths and exhibitions, but it was a lovely day and I'm still riding the wave of creative energy it gave me.
What inspires you? Who inspire you (right now)? I'd love to know!
Hallo hallo!
Hope you're all well. In the past few months I've received quite a few messages (well, 3, which is a lot for me) with the request to do a post on how I create my digital illustrated journal pages, so I've created a little step-by-step here. First off, a little disclaimer: I am completely self-taught and have never followed any kind of course on illustration or Photoshop, so I am sure my process is a lot more painful and laborious than need be, but it's a process I've figured out over the course of a year and that seems to work for me.
For more information on how I lay out and draw my pages, check out my other tutorials.
Tools
- Your drawing, in black ink (I use Microns)
- Scanner (I use something like this)
- Wacom tablet (I use this one)
- Photoshop (any version, we're not doing anything special here)
Step 1: Scan, Open in Photoshop & Crop
The first thing to do is to scan your lovely black and white journal page into Photoshop (or something similar, I'm just very used to Photoshop). Before you do this, you'll have to make sure to thoroughly remove all pencil marks from your page. Some people seem to use some kind of magical blue pencil when sketching that won't show up on your scanner, but I use a regular mechanical pencil and that stuff is a b•tch to remove, even in Photoshop. So! Clean up! Also - if you're using a book like I do, make sure not to draw too close to the spine as it can be hard to scan properly. You then open the file in Photoshop and crop it to the appropriate page size like so.
Step 2: Levels & Clean up
The most important step then, is to mess around with the levels and clean up the page. You want your lines to look black and crisp and not purplish and messy. You open up the Levels menu (shortcut Cmd-L or Image > Adjustments> Levels). Excuse the preview, I've got the Dutch version of Photoshop, but the image you'll see will look something like this.
There are various ways of messing around with the levels, but I like to tell Photoshop what's what, by using those little eyedropper tools on the right. Use the white one all the way on the left to tell Photoshop that that yellowy background color is supposed to be white, and the black one on the left for the black line work. For me, this is usually enough to get some nice clear lines.
Then, clean up the image - which, by now, should be looking a lot easier. I love shortcuts, so I use the magic wand, select everything that's supposed to be white and use the selection tool to grab any bits that were left out. Delete (Cmd-X) and behold the whiteness.
Step 3: Layers & Coloring
While you're there, go ahead and make another layer with just the line work on it. Pick Select > Inverse from the menu, copy (Cmd-C), cut (Cmd-X) paste (Cmd-V) and voilà - you've got a clean background, and a layer with just the lines on it. This will come in handy when you're working with separate backgrounds (I'll show you later).
This is usually also the place where I start to think of coloring for my page. I've written more about how to pick your colors in this post, and my process is pretty much the same, but digital - which means you have an endless choice of colors. I like to pick three basic ones and drop a few swatches in a corner for easy use. I'll start by using these colors, adding them to some larger parts of the drawing with the bucket tool on the left (using the eyedropper tool on the left to sample the colors).
This is also where the various layers come in handy already - for example, the sky behind the little row of houses is on the background layer, while the colors of the houses in the foreground are on my first layer. It's much easier that way, and it prevents you from accidentally erasing any lines.
Step 4: Work it!
Looks good already you think? Nah, not really. Up close, the drawing's still a mess. Which means we've come to the most laborious part of the process. Just to remind you: there's probably an easier, faster way of doing this but I just haven't found it yet. To be honest, though, I quite like this bit and the attention it requires. It has the same meditative feel to it as coloring in pages by hand.
What you're going to do, is grab that little brush tool, and color in every white bit by hand, and clean up the lines a little more. Also, I like to add shadows to my drawings, so I'll usually pick one color darker than the color I've already added, and manually add them to the mix. Highlights may be useful sometimes as well.
This will take forever, so you better start liking the process, or find a quicker, less labor-intensive way of going about this. In any case: good luck! Here's a close up of
Step 5: Finish Up & Save
Six hours later, your drawing may look something like this (well, hopefully not, because I'd have to sue you for copyright infringement). Time to add some finishing touches! To make the page look more polished, go into the background layer, and add a little "drop shadow" to the panels. I know, I know, Photoshop has a function for this, but I like the uneven look of doing it by hand. Call me a masochist. I've also added a background behind the date here.
Then you remove your little color-swatch in the corner (or you can keep it), and save for... web, print, whatever. For web, you'll mostly only need a file with a 70 DPI, for print always go with 300 DPI at least.
Tadaa! You're done!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and please let me know should you have any questions at all! Also - if you're a more advanced Photoshop guru and have got some tips on how I could improve this process, remember, sharing is caring! So please do so in the comments below.
Thanks all! Enjoy your week!
Oh hai. What's up? Cool, cool. Me? Oh, well, it looks like I've got manflu, so I'm not sure I'll make it. Thanks for reading my last words, in case these are indeed them. You see, I was in Berlin last week, and my boss was there too, and he had the manflu, and then I got sick. I may actually be on the mend (and in London!), but probably not. It's probably lethal, as most cases of manflu are.
Anyhow. I had this whole fun weekend planned with dates, parties, and dinners, but alas. Every time I try to be Little Miss Social, I either get some kind of semi-terminal illness, or all of my two friends are busy (or don't pick up their phones, probably because they don't recognize my phone number). This weekend it was the former, though, so we took it easy. Bed, park, bed. Bed, garden, bed. We picked up a few plants from my dad and stepmom's garden (Mr. Floor did the digging, I did the pointing) and relocated them to our garden. The fern in particular is very special to me, as it's been in the family for as long as I can remember, was specifically mentioned as an exception in both the deed when my parents sold their house, as well as in the notary agreement when they got divorced. Pretty funny stuff, as far as divorces go.
I usually don't really have any issues with calling myself an 'artist' or 'illustrator'. It even says so on this site, doesn't it? And it's on my Twitter profile! Yet, when I was surrounded by about 20 "real" illustrators, I didn't really know what to answer. Funny how that works.
Click image to enlarge.
Every childhood has a trauma, and this one ranks pretty high on my list.
Basically, I was telling Mr. Floor about this sweater last week and because he was of course fascinated by the thrilling and dramatic story behind it, I decided to draw it for you. Yay for you. Enjoy.
© Anna Denise Floor
Last week, Mr. Floor and I went on a weeklong city trip to Prague (Czech Republic)!
The man had never been, and I hadn't been in about seven years and obviously needed a hit of art nouveau art and architecture after having moved out of my old beautiful art nouveau neighborhood of Ixelles in Brussels.
Prague did not disappoint. Even though one of the main art nouveau landmarks, Grand Hotel Europa was closed, we sought refuge in Cafe Savoy, and drank in the splendor of the Municipal Hall (or Obecni Dum). Mr. Floor also surprised me when treating me to coffee with an amazing view from the Hotel Golden Well.
We, of course, of course, had to visit the Mucha museum. I am a huge fan, and found the (tiny but full) museum absolutely amazing, although I must say I was a little creeped out by the nationalist work Mucha did as well (this angry girl has been in my nightmares). I also drew some buildings and we found out that Czech food isn't really our 'thing' (very heavy on the meat), but found an amazing Italian restaurant: Trattoria Cicala. The restaurant, filled with an eclectic collection of art and very friendly staff is apparently frequented by the likes of Morgan Freedman and Johnny Depp, which isn't BS - we saw the pictures on our way to the bathroom. BAM! So close to hanging with the famousses, us jet setters, we are. Oh, and now that we're talking food - THIS is the most romantic and surprising place I've ever had dinner. Go there. Do it.
Halfway through the week our legs were hurting pretty bad from all the walking, so to remedy the issue - we walked some more! The weather was mostly great, apart from one magnificent thunderstorm, and we scoped out most of the city on foot. Once Pesach was over, we headed over to the old Jewish cemetery. I had seen it on my previous visits, but it didn't fail to impress this time around and we sat for a while, drawing some of the tombstones.
On our final day (well, last full day, we flew back the day after), we had breakfast at Café Louvre (pretentious, and the food wasn't great, but the interior is nice), spent all day looking at art in the Veletrnzi Palace (part of the National Gallery), drinking coffee and sketching in the awesome museum cafe, Café Jedna.
I'm sure I've missed a ton of things we did in this post, but since we mostly walked around all the sights and parks, I didn't do any more drawing than this.
Do you draw a lot on your trips? How long will you spend on each session? What tools did you bring? I may actually do a separate post on this, so I'd love your input!
Last weekend was a fun one with lots of books (reviews to come!), terribly romantic walks, perhaps a tad too much alcohol, too little yoga, and some great music.
If you're looking for a sunny soundtrack to your life this spring and summer, may I definitely recommend Sunday Sun. Some of my favorite songs are 'Sunday Sun', 'Highly Respected Rebel', and 'Ordinary Love' - but to be honest, almost all of their songs are absolutely charming, fun, with a slight Beach Boys vibe to them.
What are your favorite books and albums right now? Please share in the comments!
Look what I did! I colored that stuff in by hand! Aren't you all excited? Yeah, so was I, actually, until I tried to scan this baby. Above: photograph, with realistic looking colors. Below: scan, with shitty colors that I got tired of trying to fix in Photoshop. Now, either my photoshop skills are deteriorating (hah! right), or my scanner is in need of replacement after a mere ten years of service. Yah, they don't make those things like they used to no more, do they? Now get off my lawn.
Anyhow, this was a little while ago. Because I was in New York for my birthday, of course Mr. Floor has to turn around and go to New York for work on his birthday as well. Always trying to one-up me, that one, un-bah-lie-vah-bah! ;-) In retaliation, I obviously proceeded to throw my own birthday party for my family on his very birthday, so I got gifts and attention on his birthday and was in NYC for mine. Having my cake and eating it, so to say, if only I ate cake. Nah, in truth, I was kind of sad and lonely and it was awesome to have them there. Awww...
Two weeks.
A mere two weeks I don't post to the blog and all of a sudden, you make me turn 30! There I was, minding my own (well, everyone else's) business in Brooklyn on a work trip - next thing I know, people are singing happy birthday to me (in Dutch!) and handing me shots of tequilla. I was absolutely flabbergasted. One minute you're enjoying youth, hotness, full of promise, and then next thing you know, BAM you're thirty. In hindsight, I probably should have seen this coming for a while, but you know, thinking about age is très mundane.
Nah. Enough with the hilarious jokes. I had a great birthday, and then had another awesome birthday when I got home w/ the fantastic Mr. Floor.
But! All of that has nothing to do with this week's journal page, which is actually a journal page from two weeks ago, but I was busy trying to stuff sixteen outfits into a broken suitcase, so I forgot to share. We gardened (may or may not have been my very first time, ahem) and it was actually really fun. Look at me! All domestic and stuff!
Last weekend was a good one, I got spoiled by my man, slept in, went out for coffee, cake, and vintage record buying. Also: I drew a journal entry! Click on the image to see it larger.
I know, yay, right? But I can hear (at least one of) you thinking:
What happened to the daily journal pages?
Sometimes people ask me what happened to my daily journal pages (on paper). Well, to be honest, after almost six years of doing daily illustrated journal pages (see them here), I was just kind of worn out. It wasn't exciting to me anymore, I felt empty, uninspired, even a little resentful. The daily drawing and sharing came to feel like a task. Another thing to do on my never ending list. With the crazy changes going on in my life last year and the months leading up to it, I just dropped it. I had nothing to say, and the things I did draw felt too personal to share.
When I started in 2007, the daily drawings were a way of getting back in touch with my creative side, to re-train my hand-eye coordination, to turn drawing into a habit. It then changed my life. I started drawing and sharing my work, I met other (closeted) creatives and collaborated with some amazing artists, I started working on my Etsy shop, got involved in the community, and finally started working at Etsy in my dream job where I can both be creative and feel inspired, use my intellect and OCD-style love for organization, and benefit from running a blog and freelance business on the side. Mission accomplished, and the daily drawings no longer felt necessary (and I'm a sucker for goals. I'm kind of like a dog, really, if you switch balls with goals, minus the drooling and hair and yucky smell. I don't like dogs). Kthxbye.
I let days, trips, travels, big life moments, go by without recording them on paper, and I didn't really care. I wrote some, got addicted to Instagram, did the occasional commissioned piece, but mostly just let it be.
Having fun again
And then I started missing it again, and now I'm ready to reclaim this journaling thing for myself again. That probably will mean that I'll do them in this new semi-digital format, as it's more of a challenge to me, and right now I'm inspired by doing this. I'll probably only do it on weekends only, not daily (unless I feel like it), but I'll make it a goal to actually do it. In short: I'm ready to have fun with this once more. So stay tuned!
While running I was reminded of one of my favorite Beatles' songs, 'Run for your Life'. Who said The Beatles were all love, peace, and harmony?
Hello my name is Anna Denise and I'm lactose intolerant. 75% of adults worldwide actually stop producing the nifty little enzyme called 'lactase' after childhood, and it's not really a big deal, but to Dutch people, not being able to eat dairy is almost like a death sentence. A dinner party death sentence, mind you, because it will turn any good, gezellige Dutch dinner party into a pit of despair and loss.
First, there's the obligatory fun little run through of all the foods you can't digest. Cheese? Mostly, no. Butter? Nope. Milk? Neh. Yoghurt? Nee. OHMAHGODCHOCOLATE? Yeah, I know. No.
Then: confusion. "Well, at least you can have goat cheese". No, that would be alright if I had a cow milk allergy. Lactose intolerance is an enzyme deficiency, not an allergy - different causes, different symptoms. I especially love it when people tell you you're wrong about this and insist they know someone who's sister has it and can eat goat cheese. while people can have different levels of deficiency, of course, I'm pretty sure that for me, it's a no go. I mean, it's ok. I didn't really care either, until my bowels exploded.
And finally, depression sets in, "but I was planning to cook you this really nice meal of butter, cheese, melted butter, cream, topped off with chocolate!". I know. I'm sorry. It sounds amazing, really (this is why it's best to give the host a heads up way in advance, and give them a list of things that are ok).
And while everyone in my life has since ran through all of these stages (sometimes twice), and have actually been very very kind and have cooked me totally lactose free meals since I was diagnosed, dessert remains an issue, as most desserts are traditionally dairy heavy. I myself have come to very much enjoy coconut/almond/soy replacements, but I understand not everyone does.
So! On to the internet I went and found me a little recipe. This vegan lactose free banana ice cream recipe is a life saver. Not only is the banana surprisingly creamy, it's also super easy to make (if you remember to freeze the banana on time). I wish I could remember where I found the recipe, so I could thank the authors for their awesomeness.
Enjoy, other 75% of the world, apparently living outside of Holland!
After a week of packing and painting, we've finally moved into our new home!
We're not sure how long we will be able to stay here (the house is for sale, we're not buying), but it's so nice to have a bit more room. Well, in theory, because to be honest, we haven't been able to unpack very much in between work and getting very addicted to sleeping in our new(ish) bed. Ahhh. Bed. I love you bed.
© Anna Denise Floor
Happy New Year, folks! It's not too late, right?
I hope you all had an amazing holiday break (if you had one), and that the new year has been treating you well.
We spent new year's eve in Israel, where we traveled around for little over a week (which was amazing, and more on that later). Today, exactly one year after my husband and I met, we're getting the keys to our new apartment, so 2014 is looking good already! I mean, the place has a garden (yes, I know my excitement is remarkable considering my track record of killing even the most robust of cacti, but wharves) and ROOM FOR A KITTEN! EEK!
Anyhow, 2013 has been the most life-changing year in my life so far, and I'm working on a longer comic to sort of digest it all, but with the traveling, moving, and baby-explosion (7 people I know produced a total 8 babies in Nov/Dec!), it's still in the works. I promise to get that done before my 30th birthday comes around, though!
I'm off to work - hope you all have a good time getting back into the daily grind as well!
© Anna Denise Floor
So then my colleague Ingrid and I had an epiphany and decided to wear matching sparkly tights to our office Christmas party and even though no one actually said so, everyone was of course very jealous. It is also probably the reason why my team won the gingerbread house making competition (we made a boat), and why our snow globe had dinosaurs in it and looked sparkly and badass. No, actually, I think that may have been my colleagues doing, as I was too busy laughing at my boss who glued his fingers together with superglue (he's alright, although he probably hasn't been able to access finger print protected iPhone for two weeks).
Anyways, I included the snow globe making tutorial in my drawing as it was AWESOME and super easy to do - big thanks to my colleague Jane, who was the mastermind behind the amazing party and this tutorial!
Did you have an office party? Any good gossip?