Guess who?

Guess which one is Benjamin?

Jerusalem

I can´t believe than I´m already blogging about our trip, though we haven´t even had a look at the city. 

Benjamin is blogging about the trip daily, so while he´s busy at the moment, I have a few minutes time for checking my emails on his mac.

Here´s a pic of a shuttle taxi from Ben Gurion Airport, Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. I forgot a brush so I had to use a Q-Tip for the color.

I´m off to...

this place for a week:

I´ll hopefully come back with lots of drawings, rest, etc.

Wonderful Portrait Exchange (And Another Contest)

Here is the wonderful portrait I received from Rama Hughes of the Portrait Party. I just love it and I think (hope) that it really shows me.

"the photo from which this painting of kerstin (above) was drawn has been used for so many portrait swaps that it seems like an icon to me now. i thought about asking for a new picture but i was curious to see how my version would turn out. kerstin's drawing of me on the other hand (below) took me by complete surprise. it's like a portrait of my daydreams!" Rama Hughes

If you want to have the chance to get one of these great portraits by Rama Hughes, just join the the happy birthday party contest. Everybody gets a chance and I have the honor of being one of the jurors.

Happy Purim!

We just came back from a Purim party. My son had no chance with his costume against all the princesses and dancers, etc. but it was my favorite one. Only one more girl which had a cool costume. She came as "death".

Juice Passion

Whenever I see a new little juice bottle, I just have to get it. The content isn´t that important. I do love juices (usually the pure ones) but if the bottle is nice, I´ll also drink smoothies and shakes. The best juice I´ve ever had was the orange juice in Amsterdam and freshly squeezed pomergranate juice in India.
I started a drawing journal a few days ago, mainly to get rid of the side-effects of this passion. As I buy the drink because of its outer packing I just can´t throw the bottles away. But I do not want to collect them. Now I can draw them and then throw them out. Woo hoo! You´ll find sketches of these juices randomly across in my journal.

IF: Heavy (Stark By Ich + Ich)

This weeks theme for Illustration Friday is "heavy". I haven´t joined the weekly challenge for weeks (or maybe months), mainly because I can´t find the Moleskine sketchbook which I used for IF and IFN. I guess it was time to draw into another one.

I discovered the band Ich + Ich at Dragonrope. I like the music. Actually it may be a bit kitschy, but I really like the words and the voices and the emotions the singers convey. I´ll be posting more of them soon.


Stark
by Ich + Ich

Ich bin seit Wochen unterwegs und trinke zu viel Bier und Wein.

Meine Wohnung ist verödet, meinen Spiegel schlag ich kurz und klein.
Ich bin nicht der, der ich sein will und will nicht sein, wer ich bin.

Mein Leben ist das Chaos, schau mal genauer hin.

Ich bin tierisch eifersüchtig und ungerecht zu Frauen.
Und wenn es ernst wird, bin ich noch immer abgehauen.

Ich frage gerade dich: Macht das alles einen Sinn?
Mein Leben ist ein Chaos, schau mal genauer hin.

Und du glaubst ich bin stark und ich kenn den Weg.
Du bildest dir ein, ich weiß wie alles geht.
Du denkst ich hab alles im Griff und kontrollier was geschieht.
Aber ich steh nur hier oben und sing mein Lied.

Ich bin dauernd auf der Suche und weiß nicht mehr wonach.
Ich zieh Nächte lang durch Bars, immer der, der am lautesten lacht.
Niemand sieht mir an, wie verwirrt ich wirklich bin.
Ist alles nur Fassade, schau mal genauer hin.

Und du glaubst ich bin stark und ich kenn den Weg.
Du bildest dir ein, ich weiß wie alles geht.
Oh, Du denkst ich hab alles im Griff und kontrollier was geschieht.
Aber ich steh nur hier oben und sing mein Lied.
Ich steh nur hier oben und sing mein Lied.

Stell dich mit mir in die Sonne oder geh mit mir ein kleines Stück,
ich zeig dir meine Wahrheit für einen Augenblick.
Ich frage mich genau wie du, wo ist hier der Sinn.
Mein Leben ist ein Chaos, schau mal genauer hin.

Und du glaubst ich bin stark und ich kenn den Weg.
Du bildest dir ein, ich weiß wie alles geht.
"O"
Du denkst ich hab alles im Griff und kontrollier was geschieht.
Aber ich steh nur hier oben und sing mein Lied.
Ich steh nur hier oben und sing mein Lied.

Tokyo In Sight!

Well, the title of this post may be exaggerated, but today I won in the lottery. Usually I play once or twice a year. But then Dorin Popa (a guy from Munich) started a lottery blog. Each week he buys a lottery ticket and if you have saved his address in your blog roll or comment on his blog you join the lottery automatically.

Of course people started fantasizing what they would do with the money. Me too. I was sure if I would win a larger sum, I would go on a holiday trip. The past days I have been thinking, reading and even dreaming a lot of Tokyo. Today night I thought to myself that if I ever wanted to fly to Japan, I would need to buy a lotto ticket. That´s what I did online at 3 am in the morning.
Today I won and if I do so a few more times I can book my flight to Tokyo. :) What a great year!
Actually I do not have any relationship to Japan and I guess I have pretty touristy interests in Tokyo, but the city is just too tempting. I think of Geishas, Sumo Wrestling, Bondage, Sushi, Cosplay, Craziness, Tea, Manga, Maid Cafes, Capsule Hotels, Ghibli, Samurai, Noodles, Electric Craziness, masses of people, weird stuff and lots more.
According to last weeks quotes I´ll just have to win another 35 times. :)

New Book, Hot Coffee, Empty Journal

Take an empty Moleskine Watercolor Sketchbook, a good book and a hot coffee and all of it will lead to a new idea:

For a detailed view click on the images.

Spider-Rama

Remember the Portrait Party contest I won? I finally drew the portrait of Rama Hughes. He´s a huge fan of Spiderman, so I tried to make a Superhero out of him. I couldn´t help but smile when the portrait was done. Somehow he looks more cute than heroic.

Usually I do all the portraits in black and white. But this one really screamed for color, so at least I added some shadows. I would love to add some color, but I have no clue how. And I would hate to spoil the pic. Any suggestions?

BTW: You can check out all the portraits I drew for The Portrait Party here!

Happy Birthday from SpongeBob!

Yesterday was my best friend´s Birthday. She wanted to have a childrens´ birthday cake from me. As she loves SpongeBob SquarePants, I made her a SpongeBob cake.

Happy Birthday, M.! I´m glad to know you.

When I make cakes like this, my patience wears thin, but this time I was rewarded for it: I drank two beers at the party yesterday night and for the first time in years I didn´t have a hang-over the next day. Yay for time consuming cake-making! ;) And it was fun going out to a party, which I haven´t been doing a lot lately.

Happy Birthday from Patrick & Plankton too!

Luv Thy Beast (Matt M. Cipov)

PS: If you order at Matt M. Cipov Etsy store you´ll receive an envelope full of goodies. Besides the booklet and the prints I had ordered he had added some cards, a sweet thank you note and stickers. Thanks Matt! It will be a treat doing business with you again.

© all images by Matt M. Cipov

Snow Studies By Matt M. Cipov

Benjamin blogged about "That Smirking Face" (a collection of Haiku and Haibun) today. I had ordered the little booklet at Etsy some weeks ago because of the wonderful illustrations. Actually I discovered it while buying Snow Studies, a mini print set also illustrated by Matt M. Cipov:

© by Matt M. Cipov

The set is great and I can´t wait to frame it and find a suitable place for it in the office. Today I checked back at his Etsy store and boy, my cart is filled with numerous sets of mini prints. I just couldn´t pass his zombie studies (1,2,3,4) and the nice boys. As soon as I have the next spare money, I´m going to have a gallery full of his pics. Woo hoo!

German PostSecret

I´ve told you more than often that PostSecret is one of my favorite sites on the net and I have to have each of the books published by Frank Warren.
Now a German PostSecret site has been launched. You can check out the secrets here and they even have an English translation.

"If my dad knew what I did with his brush ... It's his own fault, if he doesn't give me my pocket money."

Sebastian, who runs German PostSecret, sent me a huge stack of empty PostSecret postcards to distribute in Munich. I can´t wait to see more secrets online. BTW: Secrets in English are welcomed too he said.