New work for a beauty department of Twoj Styl magazine

It was a tricky subject to pull off in style, this one!

The picture editor emailed me about a new commission, stating that this one is not especially attractive as it concernes a foot peel, one that is really thorough so that it leaves your soles baby smooth and delicate for Spring but...it involves some unapetising elements that need to feature in the illustration for the article about a foot therapy called 'callus peel'.

I like a good challenge and after a quick exchange of ideas in our emails I sent this two illustrations which are now published in the April issue of the magazine.

Luckily the other illustration was concerning a sound massage so it was much more picturesque. Here is one of the sketches for the first idea, as you can see, we decided to feature an esthetician in the final version!

Back from Texas!

My sincere apollogies for such an extended absence on this blog but I've had some travelling to do. Some serious travelling at that, which invloved a 10 hours flight to Houston, Texas.

We had 10 days in there, it was +35 degrees and 90% humidity but it was great, even though very busy (we went with Simon for a portfolio review that is the biggest event of that kind for photographers in the world!) and a bit stressfull.

America has certainly made an impression on me (it was my first visit there and I hope not the last one!) - I liked people, the landscape, the architecture, even the weather (luckily a tornado occured in Dallas not in Houston while we were there) and... walking everywhere (we did not drive, I know, stupid or just plain scary - there were at least 4 lanes of traffic in every street in Downtown!).

The thing that struck me the most was a good design of signs and fonts everywhere, no kidding! and their art collections (we went to see a great Surrealists collection and a Richard Serra exhibition, all at The Menil Collection - both, Serra inside and outside of the building is in these images) fuelled by oil and Texans' passion for good art. Even our hotel had very interesting (in a good way of course!) photographs hanging in its corridors!

Another great experience was visiting a Rothko Chapel, Rothko being one of my favourite artists ever but it seemed that he must have had some bad time in his life while in Houston because all the 'rothkos' there were all very dark, sad and depressing. I would like to read some more abou it as it cannot be a coincidence.

Unlike my stay in Houston! I am sure that having Simon there with me helped a lot but if you followed me on Instagram you knew that I have posted at least a hundred happy photos from that trip!

It was inspiring, full of sunshine (even tough we got some sunburn while doing a 13 km treck through Houston suburbs) and positive energy. Let's hope we will be able to repeat that experience!

Penelope's new book

Waking up to a package from Amazon equals only to waking up to a bacon sarnie (preferably accompanied by a cup of freshly brewed coffee) courtesy of my husband Simon!

This morning it was the Amazon man. I had to get up for a client meeting anyway so it was quite timely but I had to wait with opening the parcel until I was back home again. And then I have devoured it just like a bacon sarnie!

It is a latest comic from my favourite French dessinatrice Penelope Bagieu. I have started following her blog many, many years ago (even before her first book was even published!) and it is still among my favourites. I have all her books in my home library (adventures of Josephine are my favourites) and this one does not dissapoint either!

I was in Brussels last week and this book was in all shop windows displays of the comic book shops there (of course not a sight of it here, despite an old alliance...) but I have managed to restrain myself as I knew that Simon has already ordered it for me! However I have not managed to restrain that well from the huge amount of Belgian waffles (surprise surprise, the REAL Belgian waffles do not have anything in common with a company of either bacon or maple syrup. Actually my fellow Belgians were really appalled by the whole idea - for them it is whipped cream all the way!).

I have not brought the book but I brought a massive cold. I have recovered now but last several days were quite a struggle for me. I am working on another editorial commission and I hope I will be able to post some more about it soon. Meanwhile - bisous!

From the desktop

I have found this image ready to post on the blog on my desktop, somehow I have forgotten all about it! I like the halo that scanning of a wet paper has created.

I am planning to do some illustrations inspired by the Spring collections soon as I am seriously craving Spring by now. I hope it is going to be a bit warmer by the time I will be going to Belgium in the beginning of February. It is just a week work-related trip but I hope it will be fun anyway.
I like the calmness of the home country of Hercules Poirot!

Thoughts (and Images) On Instagram

EDIT (as of February 2014) - I have suspended my posting on Instagram, after the scandal about them being able to sell and use your images without any kind of permission - I am still on the fence if I should come back to posting my images there (I have since joined Facebook but I am very careful with what I am putting in there even though my settings are switched to 'private'. I guess it should be a general rule of thumb when dealing with so called 'social media' - not to jump head in, think before you post. ) so that not to disappoint my followers (and I have some great ones!).

What do you think? Have you left Instagram or you just do not worry about such things?

Here is my original, enthusiastic post on this blog, before s**t hit the Instagrammed (with filters!) fan :)



I have too jumped on the iPhone bandwagon, finally.

It was really inevitable - I might not be on Facebook (which according to a good friend of mine is already replacing good old emails echange with its instant messaging) but not being on Twitter really felt like being cutt off from the world. At least that cool part of the world. Part of the world with MacBook Pros under their arms (in Marc by Marc Jacobs covers...) and with white earphones in their ears.

And then I have red Garance Dore's post (on her blog and I like her blog very much as she is one of the not so numerous illustrators who are also exquisite photographers) about her joining the Instagram community.


So I went to check out what it was, this mysterious sounding Instagram. Several hours later I have emerged from the Instagram world because the battery in my iPhone 4 was down to 5% (it has a big screen after all).

Usually I do not do communities. Communities oblige one to be a part of something and I am quite well on my own, thankyouverymuch. As a photographer I have never been on Flickr but the instantaniety of taking pictures with your crappy iPhone camera (have you seen it's performance in low light? Well, get yourself a SlowShutter app, baby) is very alluring. And then there are the filters. Oh dear, these vintage feel filters that will make a cute work of art out of the most awfull picture you have taken. Bliss.

Some people cheat and take the image with their 'proper' cameras, postproduce it and only then let it out to the outer world on their Instagram feed. I do not understand them. It is like esprit d'escalier! The whole appeal is that you take the images right here, right now and share them instantly. The filters reflect your mood at the time and then with one click of a 'share' button - plop, your feelings are out there in a one visual diary.


I like it very much, so in this year expect more of these on this blog!



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How I did it?

I was recently asked a question about how my illustrations come into being.

So I thought it might be interesting to show you an example (based on the illustration from my previous post) how the illustration looks like BEFORE it is being worked on. These are the rough drawings that were sent to the editor so that they could decide if that is what they want.

In the end a pose with some loose hair won and went into the colouring and background adding stage.

All elements are drawn by hand, then scanned and then coloured in the computer:

Oh, I could SO use some of that!

I am just back from an extensive trip to Poland and I have already managed to loose my Polish mobile card! What a nuissance, let's update the blog with the latest work (published this month in Twoj Styl magazine) and chant ommmmmmmmmm instead.....