The Sketchbook Project 2011

Anybody (not) heard of The Sketchbook Project?
Well, I'm participating too! Just couldn't resist. The thought of the book going on tour like a little rockstar, other people (people who don't even know me!) flicking through it... It's gonna be in a library! A real library!
And it were exactly these same thoughts that suddenly turned into fears when I found my sketchbook in the mailbox and it was time to actually draw in it. OMG! Other people are gonna see this! Scary!

So, I wimped out and left the first page empty... for now.


I'm quite happy with the second spread though. Trying to forget that it's not really my own secret sketchbook and just having fun with colored pencil (definitely one of my 784 favorite media!). Because that's what my assigned theme is supposed to be, anyway:

It will be fun, I swear.

It's just a pity that the pages are really crappy paper. Absolutely see-through crappy. Thus, I didn't draw on the backside of the first spread. Still need to figure out what to do with the in-between pages since I don't really want to leave them blank. Maybe glue in stuff. Any other participants reading this here? Did everybody else rebind their sketchbooks?

(I'm aware of the fact that the rules permit people to rebind the book with whatever paper they like, but I don't know how to do that and I probably would be too lazy to do it even if I knew.)

Oh, by the way, b/w copies of my 24 hour zine Miss♥information are available now here in my etsy shop, in case anybody's interested!


The original is in full color and it broke my heart to find out that color copies would make it way too expensive for a zine. Therefore, I plan to make the color version available as a pdf or something. I just need to figure out how...

Goldfishmaid

Eventually, one always reaches a point at which a painting merely screams "C'mon now, let me be, leave well enough alone". This one did. Even though I could go on and on fiddling about with it until complete dissolution of the paper, I guess it's time to let go after all. It's not perfect. But neither am I. I still like it.


I always admired Andrea Joseph's work. Recently, she shared a step by step documentation of her drawing process on her blog, which inspired me to practise my crosshatching a bit, too. I do love to draw with ballpoint pens. I also love to crosshatch. However, my main problem with these things is endurance. I'm simply impressed by Andrea's patience, it's truely enviable! (And, by the way, her zines are awesome! Check them out! ♥)


Also, I tried to trace the "Faber-Castell" on the sharpener with a white gel pen but the gel ink and the ballpoint ink engaged in some weird chemical reaction. Definitely not a good way to camouflage goof-ups...

Nondominant 24h zine

I like this one which is quite ironic because:
a) due to a very distinct tendency towards perfectionism and self-criticism, I hardly ever like what I draw and
b) I did this with my (very very nondominant) left hand with which I can't even write halfway legible.

I drew these two after my rather long "artistic break". I thought it would be easier to start with something drawn with my left hand to take the pressure off and overcome that fear of "Oh no, I need to produce something good!".
(It worked!)


Also, I completed my 24 hour zine! (Very typically, in the night of 31st of July... Why must I even procrastinate the things that I actually enjoy doing?!)
It will be available in my etsy shop soon. In the meantime, a sneak preview of the cover (plus the back side).


Of course, I'm always happy to swap my zines, if anyone is interested! (Just mail/message me or leave a comment!)

Time inside my head

(It's true!)

Unbelievable but still: I haven't got much to show in terms of sketching and the like because I've actually been working on my thesis. I mean really working, like, eight hours a day or so. Finally. Against great odds. Two weeks ago, my dear Vladimir (aka my trusty old laptop) suddenly didn't feel very well and started spontaneously shutting down its system approximately every quarter of an hour, so I had to go through the inconveniences of reformatting the disk, installing a new system (it was high time to get a newer version of Ubuntu anyway), finding drivers for our modem etc etc etc.
(And I'm still not used to the fact that the "close window" and "minimize" buttons are apple-style in the upper left now... ugh!)


After all that, I wasn't quite pleased with being stuck on the login screen after a reboot again last week. Only that it was my fault this time. I had played around with a xorg.conf file in an attempt to get the old wacom tablet working that my supervisor had given me as a "gift" some time ago (he frequently askes around if anybody needs *random old gizmo* because he's got a new one - very nice and generous and moneyed man!). Maybe I shouldn't play around so much with things that I don't really properly understand because, after that little experiment, my laptop didn't recognize any input device anymore. VERY incovenient. One of those moments of "Aaaaaaaargh!!! I want to die!".... "Wait, no. I want this computer to die!". I generally do not have an aggressive character, but I needed to scream, destroy a book (by repeatedly bashing it against a wall) and draw the following 1-minute-doodle-comic to keep myself from throwing poor Vladimir out of the window from the sixth floor.


Anyway, problem solved for the price of a sixpack of beer (long live cute bribable nerds!).
By the way, I'm saving the newest version of my thesis on at least three independent storage devices daily now.

Cinnamon insanity and killerprincess uniform.

Oh well, I haven't been a very good girl in terms of keeping up with this blog and stuff. I can't even say I've been busy drawing and making art or at least writing my thesis. I've got no idea where that month went, honestly, it's depressing.

Oh, but I did participate in a t-shirt screen printing workshop (part of the Four Elements Convention 2010) about two weeks ago. The first afternoon was dedicated to drawing the design and on the second we printed our tees. Although, for some weird reason, only two (including me) of the ten people came on the second day (I think they may have missed the shuttle car to the atelier because they were mostly the sort of people who come three hours too late). My design does not satisfy me 100%, though. I expected that there would be some kind of guidance or "teaching" for designing a t-shirt, but it was simply, "OK guys, you've got three hours to draw something that you want on your shirt. Here are some pens!". It was fun anyway, but had I known this before, I would have thought about it at home in advance. However, it's not too bad for a spontaneous thing. I'm just being my usual perfectionist self who would have liked to make the most of the rare opportunity to screen print. To cut a long story short, here's the result (The tee is even made of organic cotton and fair trade! Check out Zerum. They are a small Austrian label and led the workshop. They really rock!):


Also, I finished the first issue of my perzine Cinnamon Insanity, which I mentioned in my last post. Already approximately two weeks ago, actually. I've made 20 copies and then the typical insecurities crept in and I started wondering what to do with them because I didn't dare to show this to anyone. Ridiculous. So here it is, I've been brave and put some on my etsy shop where you can find out more.





Unfortunately, my lunch break is over. And because I'm a responsible, reasonable girl (since, err, yesterday) I'll go back to working now, after finishing my tea, which will most probably be cold by now (which is preferable anyway at these temperatures).

Zines, SciFi and Supernachmittag

I'm not dead (yet), don't worry. I just haven't really drawn a lot lately (that'd be fit for upload that is) because I spent almost all of my free time working on my first perzine.


I wanted it to be done until July, to have my mind free for the 24 Hour Zine Thing (which I highly recommend you participate in, too!). And YEAH! Ultimate Pwnage! It's basically done. I just need to scan everything and go to the copyshop for printing and cutting and stapling. It mainly consists of lots of silly illustrations (because it's me), cut+paste stuff (because it's a zine) and many, many pages of writing about my personal life and thoughts (which is why it's called a perzine). Here's an exclusive tiny sneak peek of some of the pages for my beloved blog readers:


Other than that, I haven't done much, apart from working very little on my thesis, freaking out about not having done much for my thesis, trying to update my webcomic relatively regularly, screwing up my sleeping-waking rhythm by spending my nights playing Bluff and the Battle Star Galactica board game with friends until after sunrise and wasting whole days staying in my PJs watching far too many BSG episodes at a time while consuming ridiculous amounts of iced coffee and hot chocolate.
In an attempt to be a bit more social (and leave the flat to prevent slowly going mad within these 12m²), I joined my sister and her friend at the Grrrls Night Out event last Saturday. It was a bit pricy, but Supernachmittag, one of the live acts that played, would have been worth the money just on their own (I wish they had played a little longer)! I didn't like the last act so much. They were making noise, and maybe, objectively, it was really cool, really artsy and really underground but it didn't make me want to dance at all, so for me, it was absolutely useless. There were hardly any people left anyway, my sister and her friend had left to have a drink elsewhere with others and I ended up feeling bored and a bit alone (and not being brave or drunk enough to chat up/join random strangers) so I left, too. On my way home I met a totally drunk guy who started talking to me about the football match. I'm usually something between frightened, annoyed and totally pissed off by drunk guys joining me without asking, but this one was kind of funny and the random and absurd conversation with him kept my mind free from brainfuck and depressing emotions (which for no apparent reason seemed to be stalking me that day/night) which I appreciated a lot.

Here's the only video by Supernachmittag I found. I swear, they totally rock (they do even more so live, if you get the chance)! Enjoy:

E*phi makes things

My other (relatively new) passion: Making polymer clay jewelry!
Just in case you find anything you'd like to buy, please contact me and I'll put it on my etsy shop. Also, if you would like anything customized or have any special wishes you feel I could fulfill - I'm always happy to take commissions! ♥

Food with a face: I love it! (No riceballs suffered to make these! Only 100% cheery, 100% vegan free-range creatures bred on my desk.)


I'm a bit obsessed with video games and all things geeky, in case you haven't noticed by now...


Afraid of leaving home without candy? Solution: Cake around your neck or cookies dangling from your ears!


Pendants for a sweet start into icecream season: (FINALLY!)


Kitschy earrings I made for my mom. These are the finickiest fimo things my little stubby fingers have ever battled with:


And some work in progress:

Reason #2 and #3

The next two pages of my new project. ♥

Reason #1

This is the first page of a new project called

100 reasons why I'm worth €13.95,-

I'm going to fill a 100-page journal with drawings of various parts of my body, with the aim to be as realistic as possible (which means, while I may simplify things a bit - ie. not drawing every single hair - I won't "fix" any imperfections).

I've been planning to do such a declaration of love and gratitude to my body for quite some time now. I got the moleskine sketchbook for this almost a month ago and kept hesitating, wondering if I shouldn't do something "better" with it and get a cheaper book for the project. But, wtf, what kind of a declaration of love is this, telling myself I'm not even worth 14 bucks. Hence the title.

Revolution princess-style

Yesterday, I finally finished my chapter on nitroxide theory and applications (noooo, don't fall asleep now, please! I promise I'm not going to publish it here!) and sent it to my supervisor. This means: only one chapter left to write! (and a short introduction and conclusion, but seriously, that'll be a piece of paramagnetic cake in comparison, right?)
Hah, I feel so good, just like I could do anything! Well, everything but sitting down over that tedious EPR chapter, though... *sigh* Much more like slaying some dragons and making a campfire and drawing random shit all day long.


Aaah, well, nothing better than some freshly roasted marshmallows with a drizzle of dragon blood. Wait... where did that prince go?...

More fun with watercolors:

Be a good girl: be nice to mommy, love your cunt, and don't give girl hate a chance!


I've been smart and used normal crappy paper instead of the watercolor-friendly type: Don't do this at home or your apples may turn into evil black holes.


And another edm challenge (#275): my uber-cool tube of toothpaste: