Aleutie Studio

My January

2012-02-02T11:19:00.002-05:00

i was making on avarage one illustration in 3.4 days.

Hot Date Night at Home

2012-02-01T12:15:00.000-05:00

Ilustration Friday: FORWARD

2012-01-31T08:06:00.000-05:00

...that's the direction evolution goes, right?

IF: Twirl

2012-01-25T12:06:00.000-05:00

... And in a few years only that famous romantic twirl of hair remind us of Man of Steel.

Africa

2012-01-25T06:41:00.001-05:00

I spent quite a lot of time working on this piece. It is for an article about exploitation of Africa's natural and human resources.

Cutest and Funniest Pup Ever!!!

2012-01-24T20:54:00.000-05:00

Rose

2012-01-20T17:26:00.000-05:00

Since we don't have Illustration Friday this week...

Illustration Friday: Prepare

2012-01-13T14:14:00.004-05:00

You know how sometimes people around us go postal and we are sort of rooting for them, because we think that we can be next?

Visit my site to see more.

He just wants his stuff back

2012-01-12T18:01:00.002-05:00

Don't Tell Me What I Can't Do

2012-01-12T17:57:00.002-05:00

Can't agree more

2012-01-11T12:02:00.002-05:00

Illustration Friday: Grounded

2012-01-10T10:03:00.001-05:00

It's a rare case when I can actually remember how the idea came to me: Grounded -> man on the ground -> man can't get up -> man sleeping -> "Season of the witch" on TV -> Rip Van Winkle

Link Lovin'

2012-01-06T07:33:00.000-05:00

Some wonderful things I found this week on Internet:

Winter Mega-fluffness: Siberian cat Amur

I was very impressed by this news about a successful operation on separation twin girls, attached by heads: Rital and Ritag

For all you photographers: camera lens coffee mugs

Impressive DIY: decoupage on the ceiling

And this is a great idea how to createyour family tree on the wall

I really need this invention: Tether stemware saver

What can be cooler than surfing? a night surfing!

Look how beautiful ths is: Amy Eisenfeld Genser

This piece of furniture gives the whole different feeling to your time-out time-out stool

And for immature adults we have your social network shower curtain

Illustration Friday: Highlight

2012-01-04T15:22:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year, my fellow hamster!

Merry Christmas Everybody!

2011-12-23T15:11:00.000-05:00

And thank you for all your nice wishes :)

Illustration Friday: Sink

2011-12-21T12:54:00.004-05:00

Sometimes I just can't help looking forward to a global catastrophe.

How it's getting done

2011-12-15T18:25:00.000-05:00

Illustration Friday: Separated

2011-12-12T15:47:00.000-05:00

Every international woman of mystery knows that you should keep certain parts of your life separated one from another.

Captain Nemo

2011-12-09T09:55:00.000-05:00

I discovered a wonderful web-site, all dedicated to original songs from old Soviet movies: Pesnifilm. And there I found one of the most mysterious, mesmerizing and the most loved song of my early teenage years. This song comes from a not so great movie: it was a Soviet adaptation of Jules Vern's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea", titled "Captain Nemo". The movie was mediocre, but the score was great. And after I heard that ling-forgotten song, an idea that I was struggling for a good two weeks, finally took shape.

Here is that song:

And this is my illo:

Illustration Friday: Brigade

2011-12-03T09:02:00.000-05:00

Brigade de Cuisine family style: Well, here is your problem, Chef!

Illustration Friday: Round

2011-11-29T14:39:00.001-05:00

What do you mean "What's round?" You see: one round is often enough.

2011-11-28T13:07:00.000-05:00

My little Christmas village background will be seen in the next issue of "Le Proprietair"

2011-11-25T09:53:00.001-05:00

I can not find an origin of this picture, but I completely support the cause :)

And happy Buy Nothing Day!

Illustration Friday: Vanity

2011-11-18T15:20:00.000-05:00

This is what I learned thanks to the today's IF theme:

"Vanitas in art, a genre of still-life painting that flourished in the Netherlands in the early 17th century. A vanitas painting contains collections of objects symbolic of the inevitability of death and the transience and vanity of earthly achievements and pleasures; it exhorts the viewer to consider mortality and to repent." (Dictionary)

"Common vanitas symbols include skulls, which are a reminder of the certainty of death; rotten fruit, which symbolizes decay like ageing; bubbles, which symbolize the brevity of life and suddenness of death; smoke, watches, and hourglasses, which symbolize the brevity of life; and musical instruments, which symbolize brevity and the ephemeral nature of life. " (Wiki)

Cohiba

2011-11-16T12:45:00.002-05:00

Experimenting

2011-11-14T18:30:00.000-05:00

with light

IF: Silent

2011-11-11T19:13:00.002-05:00

Silent, but deadly.

IF: Stripes

2011-11-07T12:10:00.000-05:00

I don't have anything to add.

The darkest evening of the year

2011-11-04T19:26:00.001-04:00

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep

Athens map

2011-11-02T13:24:00.000-04:00

I've submitted another map to "They Draw and Travel": this time it's Athens, Greece (can't believe nobody did it yet!). Actually, I wouldn't call it a "map" per se - just a bunch of funny pictures, thrown together to express my wonderful memories about this city. And look: I made a spelling mistake again! Why wouldn't I?...

IF: Scary

2011-10-28T11:26:00.000-04:00

Illustration Friday's challenge this week is "Scary". Coincidentally, I have finished an artwork, called "No Mercy" this morning. Scary enough for ya?

Working step by step

2011-10-27T09:59:00.000-04:00

Some of you might be interested: phases of my work on an illo from a sketch to a file. Lana, you'll be interested, I know. This particular artwork is sort of PG 14, but I hope you'll be fine with it ;)

First I make a working sketch: all the principal composition, details and correction. Then I copy it into a fair copy: no eraser allowed on it.

I ink the fair copy with my favorite Sharpie pen.

Clean copy goes into a scanner and then I start to color it - usually in Photoshop, although I can't come up with any reason why I don't do it in Illustrator first, since I start with flat colors anyways.

But very soon I start working on rendering, so from this moment on - Photoshop it is.

And I also can go to Painter for a while, because my ancient Photoshop is not sensitive to pen pressure and sometimes I need to clean up or patch the lines. Here for example I use a pen and a tablet to white out the wire and add some fullness to the hair.

And now - Cybersexual Revolution has begun!

IF: Fuel

2011-10-25T08:21:00.001-04:00

What do I know about fuel? I don't even drive...

Friday5: Everyday Tasks

2011-10-21T14:41:00.001-04:00

It's time for Friday5 again! And my new illustration (which is already on my website) fits perfectly to the theme of the week: Everyday Tasks.

1) What everyday task is more difficult for you than it should be?

Brushing my teeth. Dunno, probably I have an outstandingly sensitive gag reflex, but I HATE to do it.

2) What everyday task do you usually put off for as long as possible?

~~Brushing my teeth.~~ OK, I don't want to gross everybody out. Cleaning the stove would be another miserable chore I have to do and put it off until.. Well, preferably - Sunday, when my husband can do it :)

3) What everyday task do you perform especially well?

Cooking. I just LUV cooking and I think I can say that I do it very well.

4) What everyday task has most recently been added to your every day?

Checking if the house plants need watering. I know, I don't do it very well, but I am trying to remember.

5) What everyday task makes the least sense to you?

Making a bed. If you have a bedroom where nobody go the whole day - why do you still need to make a bed? As one comedian said: "They told me that the bedspread would protect my bed. But nobody's attacking it!"

Gallery of Mythical Creatures Project

2011-10-18T08:03:00.001-04:00

For a long time I was thinking about making some sort of an art project out of different white frames. First I wanted to arrange a few empty frames of different sizes and different design, but all white on a white wall. But then I decided against it, because empty frames seem a little bit morbid to me. I don't know why. Looks like somebody removed all the pictures.

Still, I was determined to make that assorted white frames project a reality and as a first step I went to a dollar store and bought six different cheap frames of the same size. They didn't look pretty together, but it didn't bother me much.

Then I removed glass and everything else from the frames, laid them on a plastic poncho on a balcony and spray-painted them with white enamel.

Now the frames started to look like a part of the same installation. Although some of them required a few coats of paint. So with all the rain we were having, it took me three days, not a half an hour as I have expected.

Now I needed six very similar and graphic images to counterbalance the diversity of frames' designs. I generally like this trend with printing and drawing on book pages, because the text create a strong graphic background for and image, but as your normal former Soviet Union girl I absolutely can't stand when people cut books for craft projects. Especially when they cut old books and call it "recycle". How can I explain... For me it's like tearing a Bible for wrapping groceries. We do not desecrate books.

Fortunately, we always can use a scanner. Which I did. I scanned six pages from my big dictionary and layered images from Medieval books over them. I managed to get six low resolution images for free thanks to a generous collector, but if you want to make a bigger scale project you can easily buy similar images in a very good resolution from the stock sites.

And that's it, basically. Newt I spent a good portion of my Saturday morning arranging the pictures on the wall symmetrically (not an easy task!). But I am fairly content with the result, and my imaginary dining room now has some sort of a virtual definition: here, in front of the bestiary gallery, is the dining room, and further along the same wall is what we call a living room.

IF: Scattered

2011-10-14T10:01:00.000-04:00

Showing my old piece for Illustration Friday. The theme of the week is Scattered, and that was the most common critique of this illo. So: here it is.

Rules of the Internet

2011-10-12T10:10:00.000-04:00

I am translating dome of the Rules of the Internet for my Russian-speaking friends. English speakers: you can always Google them.

Выдержки из Законов Интернета:

3. Мы Анонимы
4. Анонимов тьмы и тьмы
5. Анонимы не прощают ошибок
6. Анонимы могут быть злобными, жестокими, беспощадными уродами
7. Тем не менее на них стоит мир
8. На самом деле нет никаких правил для комментирования
9. Нет также никаких правил модерирования - бан и ф сад
11. Все твои тщательно сформулированные аргументы будут проигнорированы
12. Все, что ты скажешь, может быть и будет использовано против тебя
13. Все, что ты скажешь, будет поправлено, т.е. переврано до неузнаваемости
14. Никогда не спорь с троллями - если ты споришь с троллем, значит, он уже победил
18. Все, на что можно навесить ярлык, можно ненавидеть
19. Чем сильнее ты это ненавидишь, тем сильнее оно становится
20. Ничто нельзя воспринимать всерьез
21. Оригинальный контент оригинален только несколько секунд, после чего он превращается в баян
22. Копипаста придумана, чтобы уничтожить последние останки оригинальности
23. Копипаста придумана, чтобы уничтожить последние останки оригинальности
24. Каждый перепост это перепост перепоста
25. С каждым комментом спор еще на шаг отходит от темы
26. Любая тема может быть легко превращена во что-то сврешенно не относящееся к теме
27. Всегда нападай на сексуальную ориентацию собеседника без пощады и без причины
28. Всегда подозревай, что собеседник на самом деле другого пола, чем представляется
29. В Интернете все женщины на самом деле мужчины, и все дети - замаскированные агенты ФБР
30. Если тема ебли не раскрыта, ты идешь ф сад
31. Ничего нельзя доказать без картинки
32. Не переставай учить албанский
34. Всё, что угодно, можно превратить в порнуху. Без исключений
35. Если что-то еще не превращено в порнуху, в скором времени этот непорядок будет исправлен
36. Единственное исключение из правила 34 это его цитирование
37. Анонимы НЕ ПРОЩАЮТ
38. В интернете нет девчонок
39. Котэй тоже сгодится
40. Один котэй ведет к другому
42. Ничто не свято
43. Чем чище и прекраснее вещь - тем приятнее над ней настебаться
45. РЕКЛАМА
46. Какой бы больной изврат ты не увидел сегодня, завтра ты найдешь еще круче
49.Изврату предела нету - нет предела изврату
53. Аноним по определению девственник

Fell stupid 2day

2011-10-12T08:41:00.000-04:00

Creative Tusday: King of Cupcakes

2011-10-11T07:56:00.001-04:00

This illustration was made for Creative Tuesdays where the theme of two week challenge was - you guessed it - CUPCAKE! This illo was created with watercolors and pen and then some Photoshop was involved.

Light, ribs and bicycle

2011-10-10T16:53:00.000-04:00

This is my second entering in A Bit of Sunshine's Ten on Ten. Enjoy!

1) I woke up as usual, a little bit past six. A little bit of cream magic in my coffee, please!

2) In an hour or so the sun finally got up. Slugger!

3) I checked out the results of my mushroom spores art experiment. It was inspired by the work of Resurrection Fern's Margaret Oomen. Who knew that some mushrooms drop not white, but brown spores? Not me...

4) Then I went for a quite long work, trying to catch good morning light. Look at this fall luv - awww...

5) My architecture sketching is very weak, so I am trying to use every warm day to go to the old town and sketch some beautiful buildings - not so beautiful on my drawings. Could you believe that I spent an hour on this?

6) I took this on my way home. Before living a house, I set my marinated pork ribs in the oven and left them under my husband watch. At this point I was starting to worry that the ribs were burned.

7) But they were OK, better, then OK actually. Those are the ribs from the yesterday's post - check out the recipe there if you are looking for something tres succulent :)

8) A little bit of meditation over the watercolores with no particular result. Except the fact that I fall asleep for a good hour. I blame ribs.

9) Some strong tee to wake me up. Rushing to the river to catch the good light again.

10) Although it was no reason to rush: it was too early anyways. And that is how I spent a good part of Thanksgiving.

Pork Ribs Marinated

2011-10-09T10:27:00.000-04:00

We couldn't find any turkey or it's parts in grocery stores yesterday, so I am marinating pork ribs for tomorrow's dinner. Actually, I prefer it this way :)

And since I always had authority issues, I semi-improvised the recipe. So let's here it for my Oriental-ish Pork Ribs Marinade!

1/2 cup or water
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1/2 cup of white vinegar
1/2 cup of sugar
1/4 of a pineapple, chopped
plus a lot of:
garlic
paprika
cayenne
black pepper

I am planning to let it marinating for 24 hours and then bake in an oven until heavenly. I bet they will give any turkey a run for it's money. Well, we'll see. Happy holidays, fellow Canadians and all good people who decided to join!

Old La Prairie

2011-10-08T09:40:00.000-04:00

I photoshopped the hell out of an old town of La Prairie. The picture is taken this morning a tabout 8-30 AM. Much proud of myself :)

IF: Contraption

2011-10-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Illustration Friday I learned a new English word today!

Friday 5: Book'em

2011-10-07T12:22:00.000-04:00

I missed last week Friday5, but now I am catching up:

1) What book did you struggle to get through but is something you’re glad you’ve read?

I never did it. If I don' like the book it means we are not for each other and I won't waste my time on it while I can read another book that does something for me. But I can get back to the book in a few years and see if something in me changed.

2) What’s a book whose popularity has baffled you?

"Twilight" series. Twice I tried to read the first book. So empty, so slow, so unimaginative. Gave up after 20 or 30 pages.

3) If you could make everyone you know read one book, what would it be?

Why would I do this? Books are like people: there is non that will be liked by everyone. For every person there is a book. I used to be a librarian, I know this much :)

4) What book have you liked less and less as time has gone by?

Good question. Glad to hear that it happens to other people. I was surprised and embarrassed to admit that Jaroslav Hašek's famous "Good Soldier Švejk" does not entertain and/or educate me anymore. It's sad, like loosing touch with a dear friend.

5) What book have you loved more and more as time has gone by?

"Huckleberry Finn" for sure. This is not a book for kids, no sir. I started to appreciate it way after my teen years were over.

IF: Hibernate

2011-10-06T14:56:00.000-04:00

I came to the general idea for this week Illustration Friday topic at the very beginning of the week, but it took me the whole 6 days and four or five takes to make it more or less right. Still: not completely happy, but it's Thursday already!

I am pixilated!

2011-10-06T11:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I went to cut my hair and I got such an unfortunate haircut (seriously: I looked like Hitler, people) that I run to our local hair shop this morning and made a Rosemary's pixy. Well, its super-short, but it's better then what I had before.

"It's not a gift, it's a curse" ("Hereafter")

2011-10-04T07:42:00.000-04:00

What annoys me beyond believe is "How to be (or stay or become) creative" tips. Dear people: if you are not creative, praise the Lord and go get your accountant license and make your family very happy. Seriously. Because, being creative is probably the least useful thing to have if you want to succeed in life. Being creative is necessary only if you already have a sweet job as an advertising executive of something. But if you don't - please, use that part of your brain for something good and practical: like remembering recipes or math.

Look at me: I am creative - no shit. Where did it bring me? I am up at 5 AM and I can't fall back to sleep because my head is exploding with the whole flock of new ideas I can't wait to try. I always have a number of projects in line and I have the same number of hours in a day as any person who doesn't have an idea generator in their brain.

Would anybody pay for my ideas? No. Most of them are totally commercially barren. Worse: the more intricate and original the idea is - the less probable it's commercial success. Because it is outside of the normal flow of life and nobody will pay for anything that doesn't support the normal flow of life. On the other hand - many would pay to the good and accurate accountant.

So, in conclusion: when you are raising your child please don't encourage him or her to be creative; insist on developing diligence and attentiveness, ability to stick to the plan and patience instead. Support developing social skills, make them do something with their hands. It's good when a person have a lot of friends and able to cook a dinner for them. It's even better if a pers can hold a steady job. To hell with creativity. Creativity make you jobless and constantly unsatisfied. And in most cases divorced three times. Cause I married an angel who can patiently endure my... ahem... lifestyle, and there are not many of them.

"It's not a gift, it's a curse", - Matt Damon said in that movie "Hereafter" (and by the way: when I am watching the movie I usually come up with a few better twists and endings which spoils the heck out of it). Same with creativity. When you feel not particularly creative: rejoice and go play outside. Your windows might need to be washed, carpet need to be cleaned. I know mine are.

Going away for a weekend

2011-09-30T10:11:00.000-04:00

Remember:

2011-09-29T17:15:00.000-04:00

“You never fail until you stop trying.” ― Albert Einstein

And looking forward to ...

2011-09-28T13:32:00.003-04:00

I am trying to be more commercial

2011-09-28T10:43:00.000-04:00

And I would really like to work for some travel magazine. Any ideas how to break in? I will appreciate any advice!

Sharpie Liquid Pencil

2011-09-26T11:45:00.002-04:00

I decided to do a little product review. I bought Sharpie's Liquid pencil with great expectations: first, because I generally love all Sharpie's products and second because I am just such an optimistic boob who has a tendency to expect too much from everything and everybody. So maybe it was partially my fault that I was disappointed.

What does the commercial really says? That the main advantage of a liquid pencil over a mechanical pencil is that it doesn't have a lead that could break. So if breaking leads is your main problem, liquid pencil could be for you. Although I would recommend that you just not get the lead out too far and don't push on it too hard. That might probably save you just as well.

But I for some reason was hoping that liquid pencil would give me a more smooth and even line that the regular graphite pencil can. Basically I was hoping for a gel pen, behaving like a pencil - completely erasable and in a graphite color. Is it? Nooooo.

In reality, liquid pencil gives a very uneven line. As you can see on the photo, the lines have very noticeable gaps. Actually, the pencil draws more or less without gaps only if you hold it strictly vertically, 90 degrees to the paper, which is not normal and not comfortable - at least for me. It is achievable if you hold it in your fist, like small children do. Which actually make sense, because those are the people who would have constant problems with breaking leads.

The "pencil" also starts leaking quite quickly - see all these smudges? Basically it behave like a cheap ball-point pen that leaves smudges on the opposite page after you close a notebook. And it can't be just my luck, because there were two pencils in a pack and I tried both - and they both behaved naughty: gap-y lines and smudges.

Disappointed at least. Wanting my money back to some point. Admitting that it might be my fault: I should not expect to much. Wanting to write to Sharpie: Dear Sharpie, redesign liquid pencil so it would look like a children product and you'll be golden. Make it red and glue Sponge Bob eraser to the top, because adults will not buy it anyway. Kiss, Julie.

Trendy Illo

2011-09-24T08:23:00.003-04:00

As you can imagine, it was a tremendous pain to achieve this effortless vibe and it took quite a few takes to finally get this watercolor blot look exactly right :)

IF: Ferocious

2011-09-23T13:57:00.000-04:00

Watercolors, crayons, roller pen

Porcelaine150

2011-09-23T11:49:00.000-04:00

I am trying out Porcelaine150 - porcelain air dry pen. Well, what can I say: the pen is a little tricky and not very agreeable: the line is nor very even and varies from thin to thick and from dark to lighter. You need to get to use to it and absolutely accommodate your design to the pen, not the other way around. Still, it's so much fun, especially it you have a lot of blank white dinnerware in your house.

Illustration Friday: Mesmerizing

2011-09-22T17:27:00.001-04:00

What? Guys got it :)

Watercolor, ink outline

Just wanted to warn you

2011-09-22T11:47:00.002-04:00

Misty Morning

2011-09-21T16:42:00.000-04:00

Did I mention we have a major spider problem here, on the South Shore? I know it looks all magical and beautiful on the pictures, but gosh I hate when the creators of these ephemeral artworks jump on my head and under my collar!

My boots

2011-09-20T19:48:00.000-04:00

I am experimenting with typography integration and for once - do everything on paper, no Photoshop involved.

Tiramisu. Easy-Peasy How To

2011-09-20T10:25:00.001-04:00

Two days ago I made my first tiramisu. If I knew it was so easy, I'd make it long time ago. This is a life lesson, people: some things look so intimidating, so grown-up, that you don't even dare to touch it. But after you make the very first attempt (with your eyes closed and your heart stumbling) you can't believe how easy it was. Why didn't you do this earlier? Like sex, for example. Or a tiramisu.

It turned out to be the simplest dessert I ever made in my life. It takes about 20 minutes to make, if you are not counting making coffee and sitting-in-the-fridge time. This recipe is for 5 - 6 elegant servings (or 1-2 portions for our family). Here is what you need:

EQUIPMENT:
mixer
2 large bowls
wooden or sturdy plastic spoon
a tablespoon
an egg separator with a cup
a coffee maker
a soup plate
a deep dish for the finished product - preferably rectangular
a coffee strainer
a refrigerator

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup of a strong coffee
250-275 g. pack of mascarpone (any cream cheese - like Philadelphia - would go)
4 tablespoons of sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon of hard liqueur (rum, brandy or cognac)
200 - 250 gr. pack of savoiardi cookies (ladyfingers) - it's about 17 - 22 cookies
1 tablespoon of a cocoa powder (not the sweetened instant mix, the real deal)

And this is how you do it:

1) Make a cup of strong black coffee. Put aside to cool down.
2) Separate 2 eggs' whites and yolks.
3) Beat the egg yolks with all the sugar. Use a mixer.
4) Dump the mascarpone in the yolks.
5) Gently but firmly mix the cheese with the egg yolks with a wooden spoon. At first it seems impossible, but in a minute they will give up and fuse.
6) Separately beat the egg whites and then gently mix into the cheese-yolk mixture. From now on we will call it "a cream".
7) You coffee should be a room temperature now, otherwise cookies will disintegrate. Pour the coffee into a deep soup plate and add a tablespoon of rum (or whatever you have in your bar).
8) Open the package of "ladyfingers". Take one cookie in each hand and quickly dip them in the coffee with one side. ONLY ONE SIDE OF THE COOKIE SHOULD BE DIPPED. DO IT FAST. Put the cookies in the rectangular dish WET SIDE UP. Yes, the cookies should stay dry on one side. Don't worry about it: they will soak up the cream while sitting in the fridge. Cover the bottom of the dish with cookies.
9) Generously coat the cookie layer with the cream. The cream layer should be at least one inch thick. I've overdid the cookies and got what you can see on the photo. Ideally there should be more cream, less cookies. Now rinse and repeat. I mean, repeat layers until you finish of the cream.
10) Put a tablespoon of cocoa powder in a small coffee strainer and sprinkle the entire surface of the tiramisu, gently tapping the strainer with your other hand. You can top your tiramisu with some grate chocolate if you wish.
11) Put your tiramisu in the fridge for 6 hours at least (go to sleep, go to work)

And that's all, ladies and gents. You are ready to impress the loved ones with your amazing culinary talent. I wish you luck, but I am pretty sure you won't need one. It's that easy and - dare I say - foolproof (although I don't see any fools around - do you? Of course, not). Tell me how it turned out.

Goodbye

2011-09-19T16:47:00.000-04:00

A little piece I created as a personal research. Although, there is not much of a new in the technique: an ink outline first, scanned and colored in Photoshop.

My New Pets

2011-09-18T13:19:00.000-04:00

Friday5: "Field of Poppies"

2011-09-16T11:40:00.000-04:00

It's Friday again and it's time for the next five questions from Friday5

1) This past week, what word would you have completed the “If I Only Had a _________” song title with?
Well... "If I only had a digestion of an ostrich" (I would probably enjoy my own cooking more...)

2) What have you recently seen that seemed less likely than flying monkeys?
Polite and professional service in Russia. Sorry, but it's true.

3) If you could have shouted “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” sometime this past week, when would it have been especially appropriate?
When I woke up in the middle of the night

4) Who has been your Good Witch of the North recently?
Internet. You guessed it: I have no life.

5) This weekend, where does the Yellow Brick Road lead?
To the islands, to the mountains to the apple orchard - hopefully.

My First Lasagna

2011-09-15T16:43:00.000-04:00

I sorta didn't take in a consideration that the pan for a lasagna should be rectangular and used my regular old handle-less fry pan. Well, I had to trim the noodles a little bit so they would fit the pan.Otherwise, it was easier than I had thought it would be.

Today's Feat: to Paint the Kitchen

2011-09-14T10:39:00.001-04:00

For some reason this paint takes not 3, not 4, but 6 hours to dry until you can do the next coat. I am expecting at least three coats need to be done for this dark of a color, which means I'll have finished maybe - maybe! - at 11-30 PM.

Illustration Friday: Boundaries

2011-09-12T18:52:00.003-04:00

bound·a·ry [boun-duh-ree, -dree]
noun, plural -ries
1. Something that you push.
-----------------------------------------------
(Aleutie's Dictionary)

Stone Egg and Arctic Trout Disaster

2011-09-10T23:20:00.000-04:00

This morning was absolutely gorgeous and I went to do some sketches of interesting buildings in the old town. For the reference I made a snapshot of the street view before starting drawing. This is a corner of St. Jean and St. Marie where I spent a beautiful half and hour sketching Old Fort restaurant.

And when I got back home I discovered a wonderful challenge of the day, presented by Rebekah of "A Bit of Sunshine". Today, on the tens of the month you have to take one photo an hour for ten consecutive hours and then post the photos to your blog. Well, as you see: it was fate. So I kept snapping pictures :)

This would be my lunch: a chicken soup. No, I am not ill or anything, it was just a very tasty chicken.

Love these Saturday's far-nientes in the chaise longue - pardon my Babylonian language-mixing.

It was almost a month since we returned from Greece and I am in the process of making a sort of travel scrapbook about our adventures. This sardonyx egg I bought on the island of Hydra.

Then we went grocery shopping and here is the loot.

We also bought two nice arctic trouts that I backed with carrots, onions and cresson.

And I know the blog etiquette: I suppose to tell you how tasty and wonderful it turned up, but it doesn't. It was a huge disappointment. I failed miserably.

So I tried to comfort myself with some tea.

And sorted out the rest of my vacation memorabilia (I am working on the Greece scrapbook now, but I still have France and Russia to go).

And here are some pretty things with pretty shadows under the pretty lighting.

Thank you for spending this day with me! If you want to see other entries, go to:

Meeting a red cat in early morning

2011-09-10T13:54:00.000-04:00

Friday 5: sleep deprivation

2011-09-09T20:08:00.000-04:00

When you’re having trouble staying awake, what are some things you do to make sure you don’t drift off to sleep?
What’s most likely to cause you a prolonged period of not enough sleep?
When you’re going through a prolonged period of not enough sleep, what parts of your daily routine are likely to change, and how?
Who in your life seems regularly to have not enough sleep?
In what ways does your personality change when you go through a prolonged period of not enough sleep?

And this goes to: http://www.friday5.org/

Natasha

2011-08-30T17:21:00.000-04:00

There is only one problem with my portraits: they don't really look like people they suppose to depict...

I draw and painted a portrait in a regular sketchbook and then added a paper texture in Photoshop.

Athens

2011-08-30T08:33:00.001-04:00

Hubby shaved off a beard that he grew in Greece, which means holidays are officially over.

What can I tell you about Athens? Athens doesn't look like a city where you can drink tap water. But you can! It doesn't look like a place where you can safely walk round without an armed bodyguard. But it is!

Way too many buildings in central Athens look like this. Run down, derelict, ruined. Actually, ancient ruins in Athens look much better then the regular buildings.

Every centimeter of walls is covered with graffiti, the streets are dirty and you really need to look where you step.

But from pretty much every building you have a magnificent view over Acropolis. This is the view from the roof of our hotel. It took us about half an hour to climb all the way to the top. Considering the weather (it was +37C every freaking day the whole week), it was quite a workout.

The Parthenon is partially covered with scaffolding and partially - with tourists.

Caryatides of Erechtheion look exactly as they do in every textbook.

A massive restoration project was started in 1975 and is going on. All ancient stone fragments are getting collected and reassembled, the walls are getting patched with new marble blocks (the lighter ones).

Woo-hoo! It was hot.

Researchers were scannng the pieces of marble under a huge umbrella.

Friday5: "Sticky"

2011-08-26T17:55:00.000-04:00

This is a new blog challenge I am trying out today. If you want to participate go to http://www.friday5.org/ and answer the questions.

1) What kind of magnets do you have on your fridge?

Little hooks and a timer, tiny sombrero from Mexico, miniature Dutch tile with blue image and "Danger: Crocodiles, no swimming!" sign from Australia. I also still have some magnets of my own production from 2009 - the year I was on Etsy. I should bring back a magnet every time I travel - I could use more magnets for all my recipes.

2) What’s your preferred type of glue?

It depends on a job I am doing. I wouldn't use white school glue on a shoe sole, or epoxy glue on a scrapbook. Would you?

3) When is it good to feel sticky?

Now, I can't answer this question. My blog is PG-13 right now and I would like it to stay this way.

4) What was the last thing you wrote upon a Post-It?

I honestly don't remember, because I don't use Post-its.

5) How much pancake syrup do you put on your pancakes?

As much as my plate can hold!

IF: Disguise

2011-08-26T16:17:00.001-04:00

Sometimes nudity is the best disguise.

Illustration Friday: Influence

2011-08-25T20:33:00.000-04:00

This month I went to Greece. I think will be under the influence for a long time now.

Elsace and Lorraine

2011-08-24T15:42:00.000-04:00

it's nice to be back

2011-08-23T15:55:00.000-04:00

Hello, world! We are back home from Greece/Netherlands/France/Russia. It feels like I was away for a year - no less. Actually it was almost four weeks for me. My apartment feels weird and funny, and I am having hard time trying to locate frying pans and tea cups in my own kitchen.

Too many new experiences too much information. My brain is overloaded and I feel totally lost. What the heck I was doing before I went away? Is it really my piece of work here on the desktop? Who should I call, who should I meet? What were my plans for the next month? But even more strange: when I look at my vacation photos I can't really believe that I just went there, that it is me on the picture: staying in front of the Acropolis, walking through Alsace village, swimming in Adriatic sea, eating herring in Hague, hugging my parents.

I hope it will get better in a few days, after I deal with jet lag and do all my four weeks worth of laundry.But right now it feels like I woke up after a very long dream and I am not sure if I am happy to be up and awake.

Yesterday's storm cloud

2011-07-22T09:05:00.001-04:00

Illustration Friday: Gesture

2011-07-18T15:32:00.001-04:00

Dear Universe: I recently realized that I want to be on the cover of New Yorker Magazine. Please, if it's not too much of a trouble, do something about it. Regards, Julie.

B-Day!

2011-07-18T10:31:00.001-04:00

My Birthday Party was as fun as it gets. Thank you, guys, for spending this day with us!

Morning Light

2011-07-14T12:37:00.000-04:00

Yep, I got a tripod for my B-Day!

Illustration Friday: Stay

2011-07-11T14:42:00.001-04:00

Lake Chat friday

2011-07-10T10:30:00.001-04:00

This Friday U-2 gave a concert at Montreal hippodrome. Smart people who worked around that area took a day off, because the whole city district was closed and messed up.

So we made a reservation at SEPAQ website and run away from the city. We went to Laurentides, to Mont-Tremblant park.

it was such a nice contrast to the hot, crazy city: mountains, forest, a few cars with canoes on the roof...

Then a deer came out of the forest. Look at these ears!

This is me, mighty proud of myself: I managed to get a very nice camping site, away from the road and close to the lake. We were staying at Lac Chat.

And here is the lake - so peaceful and pretty:

Barbeque!!!!

Seriously: it was the best barbeque in my life. I marinated the meet (pork) in carbonated mineral water with spices (new recipe: so much better then any kind of acidic marinade).

Then clouds started to build up...

We just had time to eat and hide away some stuff when a thunderstorm started with heavy rain.

We tried to wait till the rain is over and put everything in the car, but we fell asleep when it was still raining. And in the morning we found all our "dry" food scattered around by raccoons. I don't know how did they managed to open a well-closed container. The water didn't get to cookies, but raccoons did.

So we had some eggs and bacon for breakfast - no bread, no bagels...

here is how much rain fell down: this cup was empty at the evening:

Then we went to Chute du Diable (Devil's waterfall)

And to the trail La Corniche

And at the trail we run onto a deer and it just ignored us:

Here, I made a video:

A view from La Corniche to lake Monroe

And on our way back I was playing with a shutter sped on my camera:

It was a very, very mice little getaway.

I am your only true friend now

2011-07-04T17:21:00.002-04:00

From YouTube comments: "Dear YouTube, On all of your Metallica songs/videos, there seems to be a "dislike" button. We hope that the error will be issued soon.
Sincerely, Millions of metalheads".

Illustration Friday: Remedy

2011-07-01T20:01:00.000-04:00

I always wanted to know: what happened with that girl with a short skirt and a lo-o-ong jacket?

IF Midsummer Night

2011-07-01T05:39:00.000-04:00

In Ancient Times this night was a night of mystery. Young people lit bonfires, do long runs to celebrate old gods.

Me so smart

2011-06-29T19:08:00.000-04:00

;)

American Dream

2011-06-29T14:15:00.003-04:00

Dedicated to a golden era 50s - early 60s when American Dream was going strong, a middle class was growing, all men had good jobs, women knew their places, children were respectful, there was no AIDS, no hippies and everyone had a fallout shelter under their pretty little house.

Adventures in Solitude

2011-06-28T14:04:00.000-04:00

This song by The New Pornographers

inspired me to create this illustration:

2011-06-27T14:20:00.002-04:00

I saw old colored photographs of famous geishas from XIX century and they inspired me on this:

It is still work in progress. I fell that it should be more stylized, less realistic, more looking like a Japanese woodcuts.

My day in pictures

2011-06-21T14:57:00.014-04:00

Good morning!

It's very early, everybody's asleep in the neighborhood

I am having my coffee

...with a bagel, of course

Watching something on TV. Is it Tom Cruse?

Then I set my plants out: I took them inside the night before, because our building was treated against spiders

Wow. They spare no effort... and no pesticides

Looks like I am washing my windows today

Working at the car wash...

...working at the car wash, baby...

I have many windows

So when I finished up...

... I was pooped!

So I went to get something to eat. Here is our park

and a Quebec flag flying over SAQ

Rrrright, no mail. Canada post is on strike.

Got myself some sushi. I am sooo fabulous! Actually, it was the simplest and the cheapest option.

Turning on the air conditioner: it's +28C outside. Killing me.

I am adding a big fan and playing Marylin Monroe

To the drawing table! I have an idea in mind.

I want to draw a girl in 60s style with big rollers on her head

But the rollers turned out weird. So I add a little wig for her

And Photoshop the wig on the girl's head. Even weirder...

Add a little color and now it's obvious that the picture is going to the garbage... Well...

Getting to the balcony and checking on my plants. For god sake, you were alive this morning! Rrrr... Another date palm I am growing from the seed is dead. Only one rest.

My hubby comes home and we are having a dinner

And then we are going for a walk. It's me in the mirror :)

Here is our church (I never been inside but it's bells wake me up every Sunday morning)

Our park with a lake

An old building in the historical center of the town

And the town's logo

Jasmine is in full bloom... Nice!

Another old building (I don't live here, never I would live in a building with no indoors plumbing)

and now we are back and we are going to bed. Good night!

Dirty Little Secrets

2011-06-20T10:23:00.003-04:00

I stumbled across a very interesting internet community this Saturday: Post Secret. Some of the secrets, people shared, touched me deeply and made me look on some issues from the different angle. It inspired me to create this illo (although it does absolutely not reflect a generally sad and tragic feeling of the real "Post Secret"). Here is the drawing and the final illustration.

You can see that I changed the face a little bit and the position of the leg.

Illustration Friday: Launch

2011-06-17T11:46:00.001-04:00

This time I am early :))

Launch Party!

My usual way to make things: ink + watercolors + Illustrator + Photoshop. Hope you'll like it :)

Illustration Friday; Swept

2011-06-15T11:08:00.000-04:00

Oldie, but goodie :)

They Draw and Travel Map

2011-06-14T16:00:00.009-04:00

My map of Montreal was accepted today to "They Draw and Travel" blog contest. I am so very excited and proud of myself, and I want to share with you the stages of my work on this piece.

At the very beginning I decided to put some characters on the illustration - just because that is what I do: I draw people.

The map itself gave me some troubles. I had to deconstruct the real city map, decide which streets to take and which to remove, how big a fragment of the city to take and how to actually draw it. I did it in Adobe illustrator: plain and simple. Now I had the composition and moved to colors.

I started with the figures and then developed the main color scheme. I was dead set on using Montreal red (the one we have in the city's logo) - not necessarily the exact Panton, but at least something from the same family of colors. The dress on the girl is actually pretty close to it.

Then I moved to incorporating watercolors into the illustration, as I usually do. At first I was thinking about leaving the background white and use watercolor slashes to mark neighborhoods. The streets were supposed to stay gray or black. The result as really disappointing: sloppy and busy. So I inverted the whole coloring:

That has actually started to look like Montreal: the spirit of the city started to show through. All that multi-cultural, multi-colored, jazzy atmosphere. But I still wanted to try a black background: Montreal is a notorious night life capital of North America, it would be unfair to make it light and airy.

Now this looked exactly like Montreal! I spend another couple of days decided on which attractions to include in the map. "They Draw and Travel" asked for the insider's look at the city and requested places that are not in every tourist's guide, places that are forever. Not exactly Montreal's strong side, I would say. Honestly: we are famous for restaurants and stip joints, and carpe diem is our motto. If they ever say the truth, they should put it on the city's crest: "Come for European culture, stay for cheap lap dances!" No disrespect. I personally love it.

Still, there are some places that never go away. Our neighborhoods, Mont Royal, parks and gardens. At first I tried to embellish the map with a few famous architectural wonders, but later I decided against it. I love the Cross, and Oratoir and Olympic stadium tower, but they just didn't go with the overall style of the illustration.

So I made it as simple as possible: little icons, little hints here and there. I added the stars and put the compass to guide travelers, and even showed which way is the airport. I also made one exception for the clock tower at the Old Port: it looks so pretty. As usual, the biggest effort went into a fine tuning of a seemingly chaotic and random background (no, it's not actually chaotic no it's random). And voila - it was done: the streets were marked and quartiers were explained. I was mighty proud of myself.

Was even more proud after it was posted to the "They Draw and Travel" blog.

Illustration Friday: Shadows

2011-06-04T12:17:00.004-04:00

Shadows on the airport body scan betoken a lot of problems in the nearest future.

For a long time I was thinking about making an illo playing with with a security body scanner images effects. It turned out to be extremely difficult process: obviously, I don't have enough smarts to make it look really great. The image should be naturalistic and recognizable enough and still have some aesthetic quality about it. And I was experimenting with Photoshop layers and different ways to combine the parts of the drawing itself for quite a while without a satisfactory result. Still, I got an IF submission out of it.

Illustration Friday: Asleep

2011-06-01T20:03:00.002-04:00

Oh, yeah, baby: do not - I repeat - DO NOT fall asleep on the beach!

Grand Re-Opening

2011-06-01T10:44:00.002-04:00

My website is up and running after a major redesign.

I added a free downloads page for you to get some snappy wallpaper for your monitor (there is only one right now, but I promise to add more), the site is also connected to Facebook (please, don't be shy and click on the blue little square with F on it) - and that is the best way to get all news as quickly as possible.

Help me to spread the word: click on the "like it" button at the bottom of any page. To contact me you can use a form on the "Contact" page - I will answer as soon as possible.

Thank you for your interest, let's create something beautiful together!

Vous n’auriez pas vu Coco?

2011-06-01T10:26:00.000-04:00

J'ai perdu mon pauvre Сoco,
Сoco mon chien que j'adore
Tout près du Trocadero,
Il est loin s'il court encore
Je l'avoue mon plus grand regret
Dans ma perte si cruel
C'est que mon homme me trompait
Mais coco m'était fidèle

Vous n'auriez pas vu Coco?
Coco dans l'Trocadero
Co dans l'Tro
Co dans l'Tro
Coco dans l'Trocadero

Qui qu'a qui qu'a vu Coco?
Eh! Coco! Eh! Coco!
Qui qu'a qui qu'a vu Coco?
Eh! Coco!

Oh Coco que j'aimais tant
Il était victime d'un crime
Messieurs plaignaient mon tourment
Car il est bien légitime
J'ai beau crier le chercher
De la Bastille à l'hippodrome
Je n'ai pas coupé à Cliché
Je ne ferai pas ça pour mon homme

Illustration Friday: Soaked

2011-05-24T06:34:00.001-04:00

This time it's literal. And then some.

IF: Safari

2011-05-14T12:10:00.002-04:00