Pikaland

Inspiration: Sketchbooks

Being left to my own devices without much distraction lately, I rediscovered the joy of drawing and sketching. Most of this urge came about after moderating a workshop led by Frane Lessac & Javier Zabala last week for AFCC – where I re-learned about monoprints, paint mixing (Javier carries pigment powder and various bases to create his own watercolor/gouache/acrylics) and a demonstration of how he creates his illustrations.

So just like my previous post on Moving Drawings, this time I’m going to take you on a short discovery through some of the sketchbooks that caught my eye online, starting with one of my favorites: Mogu Takahashi. I met with her again while I was in Tokyo last year and it’s hard not to be inspired by Mogu-chan – she’s one of the most hard-working artists I know, and she’s simply a powerhouse of ideas and joy. Just take a peek into her sketchbooks and you’ll be able to see what I mean (and oh, did I tell you? She makes videos of them. VIDEOS!) Watch and you’ll immediately want to pick up your sketchbook to paint:

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKpetekXRbw”][/youtube]

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKjRGzEsuJ8″][/youtube]

[youtube url=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTk63djjAl0″][/youtube]

I also bought a new sketchbook by Kunst & Papier through This is Ocean (they’re the only one that has reasonable international shipping rates!) via the recommendation of Leah Goren. I love her work, and have been reading her blog for whenever I feel a little overwhelmed with things – somehow looking at her sketchbooks make me feel a lot calmer. I can’t quite explain it – maybe it’s the colors, or maybe because it’s the breeziness in the way her illustrations are, that makes it really accessible.

Reading her posts made me realize that she also contributes to Books By It’s Cover (it was relaunched not too long ago!) which has a fabulous collection of sketchbook features. One of my favorites is by Alison Worman (pictured below, taken from the BBIC site). I just love how her collages and mix of medias create different worlds within her books! She majored in Fibre & Book Arts and her sketchbooks inspires me to not be afraid to mix it up a little.

So there you have it – my little round-up of what’s inspiring me this week! What have you been inspired by lately?

[Images 1 – 5 by Leah Goren, images 6 – 9 by Alison Worman via Book By It’s Cover, YouTube videos by Mogu Takahashi]

A quick change

Hi folks!

If you’ve noticed that something has changed here, well by golly you’re right. I’ve given the website a bit of a facelift (some of you have noticed that the site has been down for 24 hours a couple of days ago too!)

So far I’m still making small tweaks here and there on the fly, so don’t be alarmed if you see something weird going on about these parts. Hopefully I’ll be done in the next few days!

Making any sort of change to my website has always been a daunting task in my mind. There’s so many things that could go wrong, and yet there are many things that could go right too, especially once a change has been made.

It took me some time to re-grasp and refresh my CSS vocabulary in making changes to the website. A few years back I could change up codes without even bothering to make a mock-up beforehand! I did try going his route for a couple of hours before I stopped myself – I wasn’t going anywhere, and the design I had in mind wasn’t unfolding as I had expected it to. You know, by sheer magic.

So I fired up good old Photoshop and put my thoughts onto a tangible form, instead of winging it like I did before. And I got lucky because I got it all out on the screen in the matter of minutes. Tweaking the codes was so much easier once I had a visual reference to follow – I did myself a favor by extracting what I had in mind and to throw it out there. In fact it should have been the first thing that I did. Though I did sketch out some layout preferences, nothing beats a straight up mock up. Or the actual sitting-down-to-get-the-hard-part-over-it phase, instead of hemming and hawing around with nothing to show for it.

So here’s my thought for the week: put that hand on your canvas. Or click that button already. If you’ve been putting off making a change, no matter how small, think of this as a friendly reminder that it’s never to late to begin.

Go on, it’s your move.

Snippets from AFCC 2014

Hi folks!

Right now I’m still in Singapore for the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC), and I just wanted to leave you with a few insightful quotes that I’ve gathered from some of the speakers that has inspired me this year:

From illustrator James Mayhew:

A style is artificial. You should try to be you. Far better to be an honest illustrator who can be flexible about telling a story.

Children’s books aren’t just cute illustrations.

Illustration is an act of courage.

Never underestimates what would get a kid excited. Adults are the ones with the narrow worldview.

From illustrator Javier Zabala (read my interview with him here!):

It’s not just the techniques. If an illustration isn’t technically good, but tells a story, I’ll prefer it over an illustration that is masterful in technique but lacks emotion.

Illustration is communication.

Throw away your erasers.

And a few more from various other speakers:

“Typography & images can support each other in delivering a message. But they don’t have to say the same thing.” ~ Mariko Takagi, designer, author and lover of typography

“Publishers now think of themselves as entertainment companies.” ~ Eric Huang, Development Director, Made in Me, UK

“You do not need any permission to reach a global audience.” ~ Bill Belew, Social Media Consultant

“Seriously, do think about self-publishing your work instead of merely waiting for validation from gatekeepers.” ~ Fran Lebowitz, former literary agent with Writers House

I’ll catch up with you guys next week as I’ll be moderating the masterclass with Javier Zabala and Frane Lessac tomorrow!