Flying postcards and more doodles.

Helloooo everyone!

How is it going? I know it has been a while since I posted, but I had to focus on a few pieces for my thesis and prepare for a meeting with my professors. The end is coming closer, so I'm quite excited and a bit scared at the same time. But I will be so happy when it's finally finished! Before I start with showing a few things I did lately, I want to address something else.

Postcards for Satori
I stumbled across a tweet from a very sweet mom, Melissa Lewis, who collects postcards for her little girl, Satori. Satori will be having a spinal surgery and as a surprise for her, her mom asks everyone who wants to join, to send a postcard. Well to bring a smile on a little girls face is just a postcard away! I created this small drawing for her:
It's a Fruit Fairy! I really hope she likes it! I saw so many tweets passing by of people who sent a card. I wonder how many she'll eventually get. I think it's an awesome project! If you would like to join, there's still some time left. Address can be found here. I wish Satori and her family all the strength for this surgery and that the recovery goes smooth!

Another 'Get well soon' drawing was for the daughter of 'One of the Guys'. I drew this for no reason and when I heard that his little girl was sick, I had the perfect reason to use this illustration! I'm very happy they all liked it!
Next two, are mug designs for my uncle and aunt. Man! Let me tell you. The design for my uncle was difficult. I couldn't transform my uncle into a chibi. He doesn't have a feature that I could use, so people could recognize him. It didn't matter what I did, he kept having a 'standard boy' head -_-'. Well I eventually created a design, only to hear that mom really wanted something else...*sigh*...so I created something else and here the chibi does look a bit more like my uncle. My uncle loves to read things and write stuff down, my aunt loves to shop and drink coffee. I kept the designs simple, have a look and enlarge it for better view!

When I get the mugs, I will show you how it looks! I have a few more designs waiting, but can't show them just yet! Also I'm turning several friends into characters hehe. I already started this with the birthday posts in October, but eventually I want to create complete character sheets of everyone of them! Here is another one. Sensi aka Turtle Girl.
This is a quick doodle of how I see her now. So Turtle girl can change in the near future (and I think she will..). I'm just penciling and watercoloring all my ideas on paper...catching all those images in my mind, before I slap myself when I think 'Ooh I will remember it later on...' and I don't remember them. Which usually happens, because my mind is working over time lately.

So I shall leave it at this for now. I do hope you liked the drawings. Oh yeah. Warning: Next post will be a wee bit longer, because someone asked me what inspires me to draw. Hehe, I'm just warning before hand ^_^. So you have enough time to get something to drink and eat...

Take care & Have a lovely weekend!
Ciao!

Random doodles & a short update

Hello again!
A quick note: First a big thanks to the ones who read and commented on the previous post! I didn't think I would get that many responses on it, but it's good to know that there are more people out there who are going through or went through the same thing and who shared their stories with me. Many thanks ^_^!

Man. She looks so sophisticated!

Okay, I'm in a small process of rearranging my blog. Nothing really big, but I will add a few pages. Thanks for pointing this out Claire! So you may think...what kind of pages?

Well, let's see, there will an 'About me' page. Here, I will also link to older posts e.g. the questionnaires I answered.

Second, a 'Want an illustration?' page...and ehm...*mind goes blank*...not sure what else. But you will see the pages magically appear under my header.

Why the change? Well, I just have the feeling that all the stuff on the side is getting a bit too crowded. I already added all the lovely awards I got from fellow bloggers under the 'Awards' page.

That cool French lady (well I think she's cool) is part of a bunch of faces & hair I did a while back. I will upload more drawings from this later. I do think, that in the near future, I will make a bigger change; an entire new look. Getting curious? Well I'm curious as well hehe. I'm brainstorming about a cool design and a logo. So I wonder what I come up with.

Enjoy the doodles and till next post!

This was actually for the New Years post, but ehm... I kinda forgot about it hehe

A Small Change, do you see it?

Hey everyone!

Thanks so much to all of you who read the previous post! Man, it was quite long and the doodles just made it longer, but I'm very happy with the positive response on it! I'm not kidding when I say that this positivity gives me more motivation to work on my thesis! Okay, a quick post for now. Do you notice something different ^_^? It's okay...take your time...

*.....an hour later...*

Woohoo! You saw it correctly! I have a new header. The snowy Christmas header was annoying me for quite some time now. So do you like it? I actually wanted to use the drawing below as a header, but I thought it was too crowded. Since I turn most people into chibi's, I thought it would be fun to have me, my sisters and little bro, on a header, but no. It didn't look good. Maybe it is because of the colors I used, or the cupcakes are too big, I don't know. All I know is that I didn't like it. I plan to change my header quite often, but you just have to stay tuned ^_^. Of course if you have any ideas, let me know!

My little bro is always sneaking away with cupcakes, brownies, chocolate chip cookies...
pretty much anything I bake ^_^

Well as I promised, this is a short post (sort of hehe). I thought it would be a good thing to do, because my previous post was...well...a bit long. I still owe you the story why I didn't choose an Art study...make sure you have your hot drink and cookies ready!

Ciao!

A look in the past: Studying...

Are you sitting comfortable and having something to drink? Good. So my thesis. I mentioned my thesis several times in my posts, but I never really mentioned what it is about basically…I didn’t want to bore you guys with the subject. But okay, some of you wanted to know and it slowly becomes a danger for future postings...so you all deserve to know what's holding me in its grip for the weeks to come...First, let me tell you a little bit about my school career. At the moment I study sociology for my Master’s degree at the Erasmus University. Before this I studied Human Resource management (HRM) for 4 years and I got my Bachelor’s degree. Here I also had to write my first thesis and this thesis was connected to a international project ( and a two week trip to Lithuania ^_^!). But okay, studying went fairly easy and I graduated at the age of 20. After graduation, I decided to go for my Master’s degree in Sociology. This study is like an extension of my previous study, so a lot of information is known to a certain level and therefore seeing resemblances in theories, understanding how society works was not that difficult. But now I'm at the end again and the final challenge is my thesis...

It seriously looks like I'm giving the finger to my laptop...that I didn't mean to do...

I can tell a lot more how the years of studying went, but I will spare you all the details. The thing that makes it difficult now is the continuing editing process. My first thesis wasn't that difficult to write, maybe it made it easier for me because I loved the international aspect of my thesis and I wrote it in English. For some reason writing in English comes more fluently for me than writing in Dutch...and I'm Dutch -_-. Either way, the rules for handing in the final research were not complicated at all. I started with the subjects’ individualization and globalization last year and after reading lots and lots of articles and theories, I came across one article from Julian Le Grand, that caught my eye immediately. Le Grand did a research about the motivation, agency and public policy of civilians, which he categorizes as Knights & Knaves.

In short, knights are altruistic of nature and knaves are self centered. A civilian has each role, but one can be more present then the other. This depends for example on generation differences. I want to combine these motivations with an up to date subject and I chose aging of the population. The main thoughts of my thesis is: how motivations could have changed over time and how civilians will support labor market participation of elderly and also why they wouldn't support this.
To do this, I have to analyze data and keep reading and keep analyzing information. After reading a bunch of things…again…I’m struggling with the definition and use of certain words. And it is important to get all of this straightened out now, before I really start with the data (Luckily I already have the data, thanks to my professors!).
But yeah, finding the right definitions, otherwise it will be a real pain in the ass, to edit it afterward. Don't get me wrong, I like Sociology and I find it really interesting to see how an individual can act like a society, but all these years of studying just really made me tired and I’m losing my motivation to study like I used to ^_^’…

Throughout the years I often got the question ‘Why didn’t you study Arts or did something with drawing for that matter?’. Well, this is a story for another post…I think this one is already quite long hehe (and I just stuck to the core elements haha!). But if you want to know more or have questions about something more specific about my thesis, just let me know.
Thanks for reading this ehm...more 'serious' post hehe! Hope you liked the doodles too ^_^! I didn't do something fancy with them this time.

Ciao!

A Fresh Start! Well...sort of.

Hey there!

Sorry that my first post in 2010 was a 'Technorati claim' number...hehe. I decided to go through all the things I registered at when I first started blogging and I found out that something went wrong with my Technorati account, so I thought let me see if I can fix it...otherwise I will delete my account there too. I guess everyone who starts blogging goes through that phase to register at all different sorts of sites to promote your blog and later on you know which you can delete and which are useful. So far only one site has been useful. Ah well, we shall see how this Technorati thing goes. On to more fun things!!

I hope everyone had a good start of the new year and that you're following your resolutions. That is, if you had any resolutions...

I don't really follow this whole 'new year resolution' thing, don't get me wrong. I do have goals and things I want to do, but I don't wait until the new year starts to work on them ^_^. I do admit that it is easier to get things in perspective or gain more clarity in what you want to do when a new year start. It feels like a fresh start even though nothing really new happens when you go from December 31st to January 1st. They are just days, only one is in 2009 and the other in 2010. So instead of writing the year different is dates, nothing really changes right?
Because of this 'clarity thing', I also finished every commission I had in 2009 before 2010 started. Again this feeling of beginning with an empty list, just cleared my mind a bit. You guys know what I mean? Not sure if there are more people who have this feeling.

So for my blog, I don't have big resolutions, goals or big changes for that matter. I'll just blog the way I always did and hopefully surprise you all with new content and interesting topics (hopefully the topics are as interesting for you guys as it is for me...). I have so many ideas and I shall share most of that with all you lovely readers. But I have to say that me posting new stuff shall be a bit irregular until I'm used to my new work routine. A new work routine? Yes. a new routine. The thing is, I need to finish my thesis asap! Wanna know why? Because it's a pain in the @#$% (yes fill in any word) instead of good learning process. So that will be my main priority for the upcoming weeks. First I thought to place the blogging aside for a while, but for some reason this didn't feel right and it takes my mind of things too. So I will post whenever I can, but I can't guarantee that it will be like every week or twice a week...

Wanna see how I will spend my days the upcoming weeks?

ZzzZzzZzzzz

Yes. I wonder how much work I'll get done hehe!

Thanks for stopping by and till next time!

Ciao!

My desk, a Natural Mess.

This is one for you Claire!!*does a dramatic gesture, just like a singer who is about to perform a super cool song* and of course for everyone else who wondered where I draw...but maybe Claire was the only one...

Well I'm not going to sing, but I will give you a sneak peek at my drawing area ^_^. I don't have a fancy drawing table...my desk is filled with a small collection of books, my drawing stuff and my school stuff. As you can see below (maybe a good idea, to click on the pictures):

Tadaa!! I give you my word, that it normally looks kinda like this.
Really. Not kidding.

I do like the color in my room. Really bright even in the darkest of days (Okay well, almost, I do need to switch on the light when it gets too dark...). I hand painted the large walls in my room (it is the attic)... When we just moved, me and my dad first placed a structure paste on both walls. My dad just smacked it on and I had a small 'shovel' and I brought more structure in it. After this, it was time to paint! The color, terracotta, is a warm orange color with a subtle golden undertone. I love this color. When the sun shines on it, you see tiny pecks of gold. Very lovely!

Too bad you can't see the subtle golden element of this paint...
but you can see a bit of structure.

Okay on to what you can see on the pictures! I have two wooden drawing models, I call them Jack and Jack jr....they like to act dramatic and jump in the air. A few of my brushes are in my "Ireland" mug ^_^. My 'Starbucks' mug holds a lot of pens. Funny thing, I can never find a pen when I need one, but I always forget I have a mug full with pens in my room -_-. Also you can see the watercolors I use and several mediums for watercolors (which I sometimes use). I have two wooden boxes where I keep more pencils and brushes, but since I only have one workspace, I have to clean everything up, otherwise...I can't work for my thesis. The temptation to draw the whole day would be too big! So I clean most of my stuff up.
Oh the books you saw in the first picture; well I have my cook books, drawing books and fiction books all together. As you can see, lots of 'chick lits', these are for my studies at how all these writers, write their stories. One of my own projects is a chick lit. So I want to see what styles other writers use and they are fun too read ^_^.

So I hope you like this tiny sneak peak of a part of my room haha. Oh! Another thing. It snowed today! I made pictures, just to show you guys some proof, but I forgot the cable to transfer the pictures to my laptop...yes. I'm so smart sometimes. I will show it you next time. I really hoped that we would have snow on Christmas...but the weatherdude already said that the temperatures will rise next week -_-'...seriously!

Just a random doodle...

I just brushed some water on paper and drew this with a watercolor pencil
blue, red and purple.

Take care!