#Maurice is my favourite! i love the palette I picked for him and it will remain unchanged!

[imviotrash]

So I heard some people say that Soma looks a bit off in terms of colours in the new season, so I decided to use the colour palette that I have created for each of my faves and made a very lazy edit.

I always said I found the Weston anime colour palette too oversaturated, but maybe I'm the one who's actually oversaturating everything????

I decided to try with some other characters in natural lighting and apparently I just like putting characters in a toaster! In all honesty, I think Joanne is the closest I've gotten to the cannon, and that's simply because I headcannon him as Albino.

(Clover works hire me for your colour work!!!!)

[twistednuns]

December 2018

Iglo Veggie love with broccoli, buckwheat and black beans. Quick and easy.

The TEDxTUM event was pretty inspiring. I loved how they organised it and some of the speakers were amazing. Seeing all the cool stuff other people are working on actually motivated me to try and achieve great things myself. I'd like to learn about something new, start a project or volunteer.

Pick Up Limes videos.

The way Cher sings the word Memphis in her cover song.

Seeing Frank for the first time in four months. Having a good time at the Uncle Acid concert, getting a beer at Flex. Even though meeting him always causes some kind of emotional turmoil it might actually help to solve a few things I've been stressing over this time, for example that whole deal with Claudia.

Spending two hours in the kitchen on a Sunday morning. Preparing a summer and a winter curry. Pre-cutting salad. Listening to Tai Chi music. Baking these divine buckwheat chocolate cookies - absolutely delicious even though I forgot to add salt. Kinda healthy, too! It's grain-free (I even used groats) and I substituted part of the sugar with honey.

Gift ideas for rock collectors and mycophiles.

A spotted woodpecker in our backyard.

Dalmatian Jasper. Such a pretty stone.

Blinded by the Light. And a trip down musical memory lane. Making a nostalgia mixtape. Singing, enjoying the sound of my voice (as long as I hit the right vocal range).

Drawing owls. For hours. Using my Polychromos coloured pencils. I'm currerntly working on two owl-related projects, designing a logo for coffee roasters and making my friends' wedding invitation. Drawing owls like lovebirds is such a satisfying thing to do. Also: making my students come up with new ideas! Some actually drew some owl logos, too!

Tetris.

Reading books I don't understand. By people who are smarter than me. A very humbling experience. There is so much more to learn, experience and achieve.

Franzi's elegant coat and her ice crystal earrings. She's pregnant but she is skinnier than before and looks great. We cuddled up on a rooftop and had Kinderpunsch.

Practising The Pogues' Fairytale of New York for for karaoke night. I never hit the NYPD choir note quite right. My neighbours must hate me.

Taking a mental health day. Starting the day with baking cookies, making vegan sushi rolls. Reading, taking a nap. Yoga in the evening. Feeling really happy and relaxed. One of those rare inspired days when everything just falls into place. I kept revisiting beautiful places and memories during Shavasana. And I LOVE my yoga teacher more and more each week. So sad she is leaving the studio.

Taming your temper - tips for anger management.

Another coincidence. I wondered when the next Bilderbuch record will be released when I was looking at Mavi Phoenix at her concert - that girl is the female version of Maurice Ernst. A few hours later I found out that Bilderbuch actually had released a new album one day ago. WHAT.

Mirror tape.

Being a fluffy little red cat's human of choice. We sat in a cat café, no animals in sight. After a while a cat walked up straight towards me, sat down on my yellow scarf and kneaded it. Later she demanded attention and purred while I scratched her jaw. Apparently this was quite a rare occurence because she is said to be really shy and hard to handle. Weirdos unite!

Making Bhindi Masala, a vegan okra curry. Spicy and intense - delicious! Oh, and sushi rolls filled with avocado, veggies and fancy tofu/tempeh. Now I have a whole container waiting for me in the fridge.

Practising yoga for 20min on a gloomy Monday morning. Lighting a candle, drinking a cup of Ayurvedic Kapha tea with honey and lemon.

Tom, who inspired me to learn more about Ayurveda. And to rewatch The Darjeeling Limited because let's face it - Wes Anderson really knows how to make one of the poorest countries in the world look gorgeous.

We become what we think about. It's impossible to be successful without having a destination.

Quotations from Siri Hustvedt's The Blazing World: 1 / 2

"Smelling you almost makes me cum."

Running around with a fake septum piercing. I kinda like the look. I'm actually considering getting a real one but so far I'm fine with the clip-ons. The good thing is that you can't see the ring's ends anyway in that kind of piercing.

Spending time with the old friends. The best ones. The ones you don't have to speak to and it's still not uncomfortable. The ones you can be super weird around and they embrace it. The ones you can tell your strangest ideas and stories.

There is a new Turkish supermarket right around the corner! Fresh cilantro whenever I want! YES!!!

Heavy snowfall. It does look kinda pretty, I admit.

Many questions, not enough answers at the ESO Supernova exhibition/planetarium. / Making another cat friend over breakfast. / Seeing my foxy ginger lady Anika again after such a long time! / Orange marzipan lebkuchen and roasted coconut almonds (they taste like Raffaello). / Finding the perfect earrings and a beautiful head band at EDITED - The Label. / Performing Fairytale of New York live on stage with Manu. Being able to curse at somebody through song is perfect, I had a lot of fun. Also, he promised me his art teacher sweater as a Christmas present.

A knitting project with rainbow wool.

Making a clay sculpture for my mum. Taking it out of the oven at 80 degrees, wrapped in a dish towel like a baby.

The honey marzipan nougat bar from dm bio.

Meeting Manu at his office. Receiving the most awesome paint palette sweater as a Christmas present! And he let me spend a full hour in virtual reality! He has such an amazing programme which lets you draw in 3D and float around in space (with VR goggles). I'm absolutely fascinated and intrigued. Gotta visit him more often.

Meeting Tobi, Maike, Lena and Christian at Märchenbasar. Being drunk after some Feuerzangenbowle with rum (Pfeffi in Manu's case) and white mulled wine. Taking the long way home.

Buying Paulaner Spezi for my class. Supermarket trips with the kids before 8am. Schrottwichteln. Watching random goat videos and intros to children's series.

Having a drink at Goldene Bar in Haus der Kunst. Such a gorgeous place. I'm trying to get into a workshop on the museum's architecture at the end of January.

Making random people want to kiss me. Having no desire whatsoever to actually kiss them.

The Harry Potter round (on special request) at the pub quiz.

Reading Stephen Hawking's short answers to some of the big questions. I have to admit, I know nothing about physics or cosmology and at times his explanations were super hard to understand (fine, I probably didn't understand most of it) but I love creating a need to use my brain in uncommon ways.

Vivid dreams. About  dangerous skyscrapers (just different floors stacked loosely on top of each other), a kidnapping in a futuristic car by very glamorous gangsters, lesbians on a scooter trying to save me, travelling through Asia and the US with Sash, a sinking ship (but all the passengers swam back to the surface after a short period of unconsciousness), ATMs, fancy drinks, meeting strangers with beautiful eyelashes at a restaurant.

Discovering the Trouvelot astronomical drawings (1882) on the darkest day of the year, winter solstice. Watching the night fade away ever so slowly in the morning from the kitchen window, squeezing fresh oranges to make juice for breakfast. Bright orange and midnight blue is a great colour combination.

ASMRctica.

An article about a dear friend of mine appeared in Süddeutsche Zeitung! So happy for him.

Spending time with very old friends right before Christmas. Tobi, Sash, Michi, Yanic, Fischi and his wife... Playing MarioKart on SNES with Peter and taking weird selfies together. I had a very nice evening.

Managing to get a look at downtown Chicago during my layover. I uber-ed into the city centre (watching the skyscrapers getting larger and larger), walked around Millenium Park and along Lake Michigan. I spent quite a bit of time at Blick, an amazing art store, before I took the train back to the airport.

Arriving in Mexico in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. Seeing the city sparkling from above. Watching a bunch of kids beating a pinata well after midnight. Arriving in a beautiful artist's apartment in Condesa.

The Anthropology Museum in CDMX made it on the list of my favourite museums ever. I could have spent days there. I kept sketching some of the funny masks and Maya figurines. There were plenty of creepy tombs and skeletons, depictions of weird Gods, handicrafts and woodcarvings. It was just so interesting, probably because I had never seen a lot of South American / Aztec culture before and I love learning and exploring new things.

Christmas day in CDMX: sunshine, tacky glitter decorations, pointy balloons and spiky pinatas. Dancing, ancient smoke rituals performed by a Mayan community.

Mexican street food, especially the vegetarian street food tour with David. Meeting the Blue Corn Lady (her quesadillas are with cactus and beans and they're incredibly delicious). Flatbread, corn, fruit with chili and lime. Pulque and Mezcal. Finding out that the green salsa is actually worse than the red one. Tacos, Enchiladas, Tamales. If you go to Mexico just for the food you'll still have plenty to explore.

That evening with the pink sunset. Walking through the old used book store in Roma. Reading an interesting take on Lars von Trier's Melancholia. Meeting the resident cat.

Lucha Libre! Watching the luchadores, especially the small people in the second round. Laughing about the Mexican boy next to me swearing at the top of his lungs. Getting a mask as a souvenir.

Climbing the sun and moon pyramid at Teotihuacán. Getting a sunburn. Enjoying the atmosphere. It's a very impressive site.

Diving in Cozumel with Brooke-Anne (a librarian from Las Vegas who was raised by Mormons), Cynthia from Quebec and Lucie from Toulouse. Entering some coral formations underwater. Eating cantaloupe melon and chocolate cookies after the dive. Spending the evening with another Canadian, Jussi from Finland and that other dude from Puerto Rico. And some Indio beers.

What I loved most about Tulum were the ruins (right next to a gorgeous beach) and the health food restaurants (La Hoja Verde and Co.Conamor).

And this year I don't really have a good New Year's Eve story because I fell asleep at quarter past eleven in a little village west of Tulum. All alone. Could be worse though, I had an amazing year.

[jadesmithillustration5-blog]

Interview with Jenni Desmond

Jenni very kindly agreed to let us interview her and answered questions about how she started out as an illustrator, her work process, her most well known books, how commissions work and other general arty things that we were interested in finding out.  With her in depth answers she really helped to inform me about the children’s book and illustration industries which I'm sure will help me in developing my own career.

You do a lot of workshops with primary schools. What do you find interesting about working with children? As my books are for children it’s important to engage with my audience!  Sometimes they say funny things that make me laugh.  When they are enthusiastic about the book or about meeting me and I feel I can inspire them, they remind me why I am doing my job.  I would have loved to have had a visiting author when I was little and I think I would have been very inspired by one so I try to remember that.  (School trips also pay well!)

For ‘The First Slodge’ you collaborated with Jeanne Willis, as you have done on a few other books. How was it to work with her? Is it similar to editorial illustration? Do you have any influence over the narrative being written? I have no influence on the worded narrative, although I do try to 'write' a lot of extra information into the book with images.  I have no engagement with the author.  We met on email only a few months ago in fact and I've never met her in person.  She seems lovely though.  Everything is done through the publisher.  When I've done the roughs etc the publisher sends the work to her for the okay.

You’ve won both the 2015 Best Emerging Talent (illustrator) at the Junior Design Awards and the 2016 New York Times Best Illustrated Children’s Book. How did winning each of these awards effect your reputation as an illustrator? Did you receive any commissions as a result? I'm sure it does effect things.  It's always hard to tell how people found me etc but in the last year I have definitely become more well known and my job offers have definitely increased!

What is the inspiration for your drawings? Do you use reference images? Do you use your own handwriting for your fonts? I use my own handwriting.  I use reference images at the beginning when I am researching an animal character to understand what shape it is.  But then I just work from my head so I can insert the character without worrying about the shapes.  Inspiration mostly from my personal life and relationships.

Last year, you were awarded the Maurice Sendak Fellowship. How was it? What was it like working alongside fellow illustrators handpicked for this award? WONDERFUL, and we were treated so so well! The farm we stayed at was gorgeous and we had our own houses and studios and lots of engagement with sendak's original artwork and stories about him.  The illustrators were lovely and very interesting people.  It was nice to have the time to work in my sketchbook on my own stuff, I don't have time to do that these days- drawing is now work!  Which is a good thing.  Even though it’s a passion, it’s no longer a hobby.

What motivated you to go back and study the Masters in Children’s Book Illustration? What sort of things did you learn? Would you recommend it to anyone wanting to become an illustrator? I didn't do a degree in illustration so felt I needed some training.  It was very useful to learn the format of childrens books, learn about illustrators, be exposed to interesting ways of creating books, meet great people, improve my work.

How did you come up with the ideas for your non-fiction books? (The Blue Whale, The Polar Bear…) I was just looking around the internet one day and found some facts about blue whales.  I scribbled them down quickly with some sketches and then forgot about them until I showed the publisher, quite absent mindedly really, and she had the vision to turn it into a 4 book series.  You never know what nugget of an idea could spark into something, so it’s good to keep sketchbooks and things.

For The Blue Whale, did you adapt an illustration to fit the cover, or did you design it specifically as the cover? I had a vision of what the cover looked like from the start, it was one of the first sketches I did.  In the end it’s also the same image as one of the spreads.  But I always knew that’s what the cover would look like.  (though the boat was a fishing boat at the beginning.)

How have you worked out a balance between producing art and having down time? I used to go out to the pub lots and fill my evenings, now I mostly just work and then go home to chill.  I don't work at home. Ever.   Baths, cooking, watching films and hanging out with my partner occupy a lot of my down time.  I now go swimming every lunchtime which is good for the mind as well as the body.

Of the work that you produce, would you say that picture books are your favourite? Yes.  I love that they have a use and are not just images, they are characters, stories, things to hopefully inspire children, and they are also objects.  I do love books so it’s an honour to make them.

How do you go about promoting your work and exhibitions? Gah... social media? but I am not very good at it.  Mostly my agent does that stuff.

How did you come to be represented by your agency? Do they decide which work you should do? How do their fees effect your commission prices? I was represented by an agency called Bright a few years ago, they picked me up at my grad show.  I then moved to Penny Holroyde after being recommended her.  It’s important to have the right agent, who you trust, it’s almost like having an extra parent or something, who always has your back and is with you the whole way.  She advises me on what I should do.  Her main job is to negotiate contracts which are a mine field.  She will normally bump the fee up a bit which will normally just about cover her fees (15% plus vat).  For me having an agent is essential and wonderful to let me just get on with focussing on my work.  You can get a bit screwed over when starting out so do be careful with contracts, and use AOI for any advice on them.

Has it been difficult finding work as a freelance artist? Sometimes.  It gets easier the more well known you get.  And the better you get!  It’s important to keep working, keep improving, keep trying.  It’s a pretty tough career to get in to.  I sell things on etsy, which can be a good source of income.  In general, the pay as an illustrator or picture book maker is a bit crap.

In an interview with playingbythebook.com you said ‘I use music as a tool. I find that it transports me to my imagination.’ How so? I dance around in my head and then draw the characters dancing around too, which gives them lots of movement and life.

What inspired the move to London? Did you need more space than the studio you had in Brighton? I wanted to be in the thick of it I think, and most of my friends were here.  I'd gone to uni at sussex so had been in brighton for a while and I had run out of enthusiasm for it a little.  The space I can get in Hackney is def smaller than Brighton - hackney studio spaces start at about £180 for a desk so it’s not cheap!  I had a nice big space in south London (whirled art studios) when I first moved here and it was dirt cheap, I loved that place.  Sadly it’s too far away now.  But Hackney Downs is super great.

What has it been like to work with Enchanted Lion Books? What happens under a multiple book series deal like you have with them? Wonderful, it’s a small publisher, pretty much a one woman band, and she is incredibly talented and bright and creative and she pushes me hard with her expectations and perfectionist ways.  She's fantastic.  A multiple book deal basically just means that once I've finished one then it’s on to the next.  It’s nice to have the security of knowing you've got more work.  The contract will be the same financially across all four books.  

Do you find that thumbnails are particularly helpful in figuring out how a book will flow? Thumbnails used to drive me nuts and I thought they were the most pointless thing ever.  I've become more patient now though, and yes I now think they're helpful to work out the flow.  I am still inclined to draw the whole thing out bigger though, as I like to see what’s going on and then ideas can flow from things you weren't expecting.

It took you about two years to make The Blue Whale, is this considered a short or long time? Hmm... about average for writing and illustrating a book.  Just illustrating, I could do something in 4 months.  That's considered quick.  I'm doing one in 3 months at the moment, that's quite stressful.

How is your next non-fiction book about elephants going? I'm not properly starting until summer as I have two books to do first!  Argh...  I've done most of the research and writing though - elephants are the most incredible creatures.  I can't wait to start.

You’ve designed the covers for two albums: The Diver’s Curse – BD Harrington and Standing Pat – The Dixie Traders. Did you get given a specific brief for them? Yes I did actually, they both had specific ideas what they wanted.  I find working for private clients a lot more stressful than publishers as they are so keen to get it perfect but aren't quite sure what that perfect they are looking for is.  These covers were nice to do though.

Is it a conscious decision to have a fairly limited colour palette within each book? I just don't really like bright colours very much!  Except for bright blue and bright red.  I just do what I like, and use the colours that I like.  It's important to consider each colour that you use and not just use any old shade.

About The Tiger Protector for WWF you’ve said ‘it feels like a really important time to be creating books about endangered animals.’ Is creating work with a purpose and meaning significant to you? Yes!  I would do it even if I didn't think this though as I love to create art.  I have to create art.  But it is nice to have that too.

You worked closely with a marine biologist for The Blue Whale. Is making sure the facts are accurate a big part of your work ethic? It's essential when creating non-fiction.  I was paranoid about reviewers picking up on something incorrect.  Luckily that hasn't happened.  We weren’t going to work with one but I realised I was totally out of my depth when the editor kept asking if I was sure certain facts were correct.  I am not a biologist and I had no idea.  So I asked if we could get one on-board.

How do commissions work? Do you have a lot of freedom over the work you produce? Private commissions?  They tend to have a very rigid idea about what they want.  When I'm working with publishers we will work together.  I have the idea and do all of the backbreaking work, but I will constantly be back and forth with the publisher who will steer it in the right way.  It depends on the publisher on how much or little they will do this.  I don't really work with any publishers who are too pushy and in general I am left to do my own thing as much as possible.  But it is essential to be open to feedback and open to doing changes.  You can't get too precious about your work.

When you decided to become an illustrator how did you start getting your name and work heard of? My grad show.  My agent.  Social media.  Sending work out unsolicited.  It’s hard starting out.  You just have to keep plugging at it and keep producing new work and keep working hard.  I was working on my artwork obsessively for years around the time of the MA and after.  I found 2 years after I graduated was when I'd started getting into my grove and producing work I was happy with.  

What was your first commission, how did you get it? With Folens Publishers, an educational publisher in Ireland.  I sent my work to them (and loads of others who declined me) and they gave me some work.  I did loads of stuff with them in the end, for French text books.

To find out  more about Jenni’s work check out her website: http://www.jennidesmond.com/