IFN: Holes and other superficialities (Lovedoll)

This weeks them of Illustration Friday Night was suggested by BiteYourOwnTail. Check out her entry to this theme. It is great!



To see a more explicit version of my love doll click here.
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I can´t believe that this pic has been censored? Any explanations or ideas why? Because of the word "hole" or "lovedoll"? *lol

The Portrait Party 4 - Miriam Stella

Miriam Stella is one of the two portraits I drew during our vacation in Calpe. She writes that she´s a scientist, a reader, a gardener, a wife, BF, daughter, sister, aunt. Check out her blogs here.

My portrait of her:


The original pic showed her sitting in a diner. How I would have loved to exchange places with her. American diners are just places I always enjoy being at.

And this is the portrait she drew:


The portrait is very nice. I specially like how she did the background.

And the link to the original pic.

Thanks, Miriam!

EDM #125 - A Bird (ATC)

I have missed joining the EDM for weeks now. But here I go again:
This is another atc I made for a friend of mine. She´s a phantastic artist and it´s amazing what she can draw on these tiny cards with oil paint. Her nickname is cavewoman, as she lives in a house which is mainly built underground. She likes ravens and crows, so this is the card I made for her.



ATC: The only rule for these cards is their size (2.5 x 3.5 inches, the same as commercial trading cards, such as baseball cards and cards for trading card games, American credit cards sized). There are, however, certain conventions usually observed by those who make and trade these cards, such as the expectation that they be traded, not sold, and that they be created as unique works or small limited editions of prints. Artists generally sign and date the back, and may also include a title and contact information. The face-to-face trading session is considered an integral part of the concept, although many people find each other via the internet and trade by mail.

Peñón de Ifach (Ifach Rock) in Calpe, Spain

The Peñón de Ifach is a massive limestone outcrop rising out of the sea, with exclusive endemic plants and over 300 species of animals, including colonies of sea birds.



This is one of the 3 pics I drew in Calpe. No time for doing more. I was busy with the kids, swimming, eating or relaxing.

Illustration Contest: Moved to own blog!

I´m moving the contents of the Illustration Competition to its own blog. Participants have (thankfully) started sending in their work and I want to post all the images in the blog. As that would be too much for my own blog, check out everything here.

PS: The contents will be updated by tomorrow.

Illustration Contest: Kathleen York (First Entry!)

Kathleen York is the first participant to send in 2 images for the contest. I´m so glad that finally someone dared to join in. ;)



The designer said, she was thinking of submitting these two black and white subway drawings to show her style, and would do something more specifically geared toward the topic should she be chosen.
However these two images do fit the topic too. A subway train drives you from station to station and you discover or arrive at new places. That´s somehow like reading literature weblogs, you discover new places by jumping from one link to the next.
Kathleen agreed to the idea of visiting blogs being similar to stops on a train line, connected together. There is a line that runs through how you visit/access and find new blogs, a line of communication, a line of transport if you will, transport of ideas . . .
Check out her blog and her Flickr profile. Then you could also have a look at her Greeting cards and other drawings. Thanks Kathleen!

I´m looking forward to seeing the next contributions. Tomorrow evening, I´ll be posting a message from one of the publishers of the magazine.

Honey or Tar by CocoRosie

I just dicovered CocoRosie recently and I love their music. They gave a concert here in Munich just two weeks ago and being in Spain I saddly missed it. I hope I´ll be able to see them live some day.


(not the official video)

Honey or Tar
by CocoRosie

I undressed you with my eyes i have
Maybe even raped you
In the dark and eerie corners of my mind
I tucked you there
And touched you in a dream last night
Pushed you aside when you entered
My thoughts at the wrong time
I have sat up upon your lap and
Saddled my thighs around your hips like ropes
I rode you on a chair and in the shower
And all the while i clung heavy to your back
My desire deeply harnessed in your spine
While I squeezed you like a tree trunk
You may have been one
Sexless and comfort in your mind
Even barer than a child's
I'm riding recklessly through a thick and humid
Jungle growing anxious with the primal
Yearning that stirs
Deeply pulsing up toward the surface
Like sap rising or honey or tar

We are back from Spain

We came back home from our vacation yesterday late afternoon. Thankfully the weather here in Munich was as pleasant as the weather we enjoyed throughout the 12 days we spent in Calpe.
So today I spent the day visiting friends, having a long stroll around town and neglecting everything else. ;)
I´ll deal with all the email messages and other stuff tomorrow. I like to transit slowly to everyday life. :)

I was lazy in Spain and rather enjoyed the time with the kids than with drawing. I´ll try to scan one of the few sketches of Calpe soon.

It´s beautiful in Calpe!

Just a short up date:

The weather is warm, the beach is wonderful and we are enjoying ourselves.
The first week was a bit stressy. Our daughter had a cast and it was pretty hard to keep her out of the water. ;)
But it was even harder to find a doctor or a hospital to remove the cast - now that she had been wearing it long enough. We spent a long, long time driving from doctor to doctor, from hospital to privat hospitals, from city to city! No chance - even though we have a private insurance for her and in addition to that we had a normal family holiday insurance. So after all of them refused to take the cast off, I removed it by myself. Don´t ask me how I did this. ;)
(I used poultry shears!)

Now we are all enjoying ourselves and we can even relax (ignoring the animation programm) with our kids jumping around us.
See you soon!

We are off to Spain!

Wanna see my view for the next 12 days? Just click here!

I´ll be back on June, 19 to (hopefully) post a lot of images for the illustration contest.
Take care.

Happy Birthday, Benjamin (IFN: I think we're alone now)

Jazzbar Vogler is a bar in Munich which I really enjoy. For some reason I never managed to go there with my husband. But yesterday to celebrate his birthday we finally went there together and I experienced some of the happiest moments of the past years.
The live music was wonderful, the drinks were great and I enjoyed being there with him, spending some time together... just the two of us. I do miss the time we had for each other before we had kids.



This is a quick drawing of a dream Benjamin had described to me a few days ago.

IFN: I think we're alone now (suggested by baggelboy)

Illustration Contest: Links and Update

Martín Franco and Alyson B. Stanfield linked to the illustration contest. Thanks for your help!

graphic:DESIGN:basics has added a link too!

I´ll be on vacation from June 7 to June 19. I may have access to the net from time to time, but I´m not sure yet.
When we have returned, I´ll post an updated version about the contest. There have been quite some questions about the contest which I haven´t addressed yet in the blog and I guess there may be some more questions following now. So I´ll put all the information together in a new post about the contest in about 2 weeks.
Feel free to send all your questions to this address. I´ll answer them as soon as possible.

Illustration Contest: First participants!

I´m glad that now people are starting to show some interest in the contest. The first participants have said that they will send in some entries. I´m happy about this. I had already thought that I wouldn´t be of any use finding an illustrator or artist for the magazine.

So I have decided, as long as there won´t be too many entries at once, I´ll write one whole post about every artist who sends in some images. So hurry up and be the first to send in your winnig illustrations.

Black & White Tulips

I took this pic a few weeks ago in my mom´s garden. The two single tulips - one almost black and the other one white - reminded me of my blog title "snowflakes & blackvampires".

The Portrait Party 3 - Amber Forgey

Amber Forgey was the first who asked me to exchange portraits for The Portrait Party. Here´s her beautiful website and her blog.

My portrait of her:



And this is the portrait she drew:



I´m really having fun drawing all these portraits and specially seeing all the results. I like this one, because it is colorful and very flowery. That´s pretty unusual for me and I like to see different versions of me. Thanks Amber

Illustration Contest: Pro Bono DOES Work!

In my last post I wrote about an illustration contest. It is for a paperbook which will be published by a German literature print & online magazine called „spa_tien".
To find more participants I asked a few magazines, forums, blogs and illustrators where else I could post about the contest. I got some replies and suggestions. But then I was very surprised about quite some negative messages I got: Telling me that if I'll be making money off of this, so should my contributors. And no professional would participate!

• First of all: I´m just helping the publishers of the magazine to find an illustrator. There´s no profit I get from this (except I do hope to get a free copy of that book ;) )
• Second: The whole production is privately financed by the publishers. They do not earn a single penny from this. They all have their regular jobs and do this in their spare time! The book will be sold at cost.
  
• So it´s all voluntary service - even by the authors who contribute to the magazine and the book.

Today I received a wonderful message from Alyson B. Stanfield from Stanfield Art Associates. She said that she would be happy to post about the contest on her blog this weekend. Thanks! I needed that to hold up my positive commitment for the contest.

BTW: I would be happy about more links and specially about some more participants! :)