It really was fun, in the end. Both the festival as well as the OCD party.
The amazing Amy Ng from Pikaland posted these video's earlier this week and I think I've since seen all three of them at least five times. The video's show Mogu Takahashi's amazing sketchbooks. They're fun, full of color, joy, and child-like imagination. Also: yay! Video's!
I think I can safely say that I am now famous. I did two interviews in one month AND I was recognized by a fan in my local supermarket! Actually, that was my sister-in-law, and I went up to her as she didn't even see me, but she DID recognize me and talk to me. But the interviews happened! They're both in Dutch, so sorry everyone else.
Gratitude @ Allihoppa
I did an interview with Annelies from Allihoppa. I share my thoughts on drawing, form and function, on my process, and gratitude. If you speak Dutch, I definitely recommend following the Annelies' blog as it's filled with DIY tips, interior design inspiration, interviews, and craft!
Life & Work @ 101 Woonideeën
I also was interviewed for a new feature on the 101 Woonideeën blog, where Etsy makers talk about and show the spaces they live and work in! All of the lovely photos in that interview and this blog post were made by the talented Riley Salyards from Swift & Roe. I talk about my work, our house and the million things I bought off of Etsy that fill my house (I call it 'investing').
In addition to the amazing photos Riley took of my house and Miso she took some really nice photos of the studio and me at work.
Thanks Annelies, Riley, Monique, and Ingrid for making me feel like a rock star!
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.
Ever since I came across her work on Doodler's Anonymous, I've been obsessed with Emma Sylvie Fick's travel journals. Fick is a 22-year-old from Louisiana living in Serbia and teaching English on a Fulbright scholarship and sharing her European adventures with us via Tumblr.
The drawings are stunning, the narration interesting, and above all I love how the moments she chose to draw are just a little different from what you'd typically expect.
Travel isn't about seeing the famous landmarks, or visiting that one particular café - it's about all those little moments in between when you can look around, truly open to everything around you, and capture a sliver of what daily life must look like in that strange new place. She captures these moments beautifully and it feels like you're there with her, even just a little bit.
Visit Emma Sylvie's Tumblr here for a little mini-vacation of the brain.
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.
Set du Jet
I try not to complain about traveling lots for work, because to be honest - I love it. Sure, I don't always get to see much of the city I'm in, and I often miss Mr. Floor terribly, but I'm working my dream job, and I've got amazing colleagues who will put up with me dragging them along for a 2 hour walk along the Thames after working hours. I did feed her Indian food afterwards, that helped.
Lines
Married life is amazing. I know people often say getting married didn't change anything for them from when they were dating, but I disagree. Of course, I wouldn't really know, since Mr. Floor and I have been married for much longer than we had been dating before we decided to get married, but still. I feel connected, protected, loved. It feels very special that the one person I care about and admire most in this world, chose to go on this journey with me, and promised me, my family, the state, everyone, that they'd be there for me always -and vice versa. We've entered into a pact together, it's us now, no matter what this crazy adventure will turn out to be. I don't necessarily think getting married is the only way to make that pact, but it's what we did, and it's awesome. It also a great comfort to me when we're both busy with work and traveling, and it makes those shared moments together even sweeter. Like, we're building something here. This month was full of those sweet moments, like when we went to the Kröller-Muller Museum together, biking around the national park, playing in the sculpture garden. Or that day we spent in the sun, sipping coffee, reading books.
Nothing To Do
If you had gone to college with me, and had been so fortunate as to have been invited up to my room, you'd have noticed one thing, immediately: I keep lists. I used to have three big to do lists taped on the inside of my dorm room. One for study tasks, one for 'private' tasks, and one for long term dreams and goals. I was a very serious student and I guess being able to get up from my desk and cross a task of my list made me less anxious, but I don't feel like I'm very serious adult (heh, adult), and I still keep lists, just a lot less visible. Anyhow, we were going on vacation, and I finished every tiny little to do off my list and it felt awesome. You see what I did there? Turned this mundane and slightly OCD event into a story. And that's how blogging is done, y'all. Booyah (do people still say that? Probably not, eh?)!
Prague X Art
I tried to come up with a clever name for this bit, like a combination of the word 'Prague' and 'Art' but all I could come up with was 'Partgue' - but that doesn't mean anything at all, so that'd be weird. But yes, we went to Prague!
Not only is Prague one of the prettiest cities I've personally ever been to, it's also filled to the brim with art. Gorgeous art nouveau buildings everywhere. Mosaics for all. Golden cafés with Mucha illustrated menus and Jugendstil silverware. Pubs filled with dreamlike (or nightmarish) cartoons and graffiti. Large canvasses of naked women and poems for sale in a wine bar (65 kronen for a glass of Moravian red, canvasses: price on request). An Italian restaurant with an eclectic art collection (gifts? friends? family?), where well done copies of seventeenth century vanitas paintings are hung alongside Schiele-esque portraits of the maître, the obligatory painting of a crying gypsy boy, and a well done sketch of the Vlatava and it's many bridges. I drew a lot, photographed a bunch, and a week felt like two weeks.
Did you go anywhere over Easter? Let me know in the comments.
Also - follow me on Instagram here (and I may follow you back!).
I love this video about Alex Noriega's work. I started following him back when he was still making the most amazing comics and illustrations, and now he makes beautiful paintings, or 'emotional sculptures' on canvas.
I find this video especially inspiring, not just because his style appeals to me tremendously, but also because it shows that illustration and fine art (painting) are just various ways of visual expression. I've always struggled with the so-called divide between illustration or other applied arts / crafts and fine art, even back when I studied art history. From my own practice, it really didn't feel like abstract painting, making a zine, or designing a poster for someone were very different things - yet we would study only the 'fine' arts bit (I'm aware that this may be different at other universities). It's been great to see how that divide is being broken down bit by bit, even if it leads to people using pretentious terms like 'sequential art' to describe comics and whatnot. We're all artists in my mind, and we've all got a degree to which and a way in which we engage with this side of ourselves. A little bit off topic, but I feel the same way about the division between 'amateur' and 'professional' arts, which I know can be qualified but feels like it's often just used as a qualitative judgement.
Anyhow - yay! Alex Noriega!
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!
I'm thinking this could be fun on a tote bag, what do you think?
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!
It only took me about 2 years since that album came out to come up with this joke, and then another year to draw it. Now that's what I call cray.