because it's already in my blood vein.

world and us - artwork.

2012-02-01T13:47:00.001+02:00

From the early childhood, I always love to draw my own original characters.

When i'm still at high school, i remember i have one friend that want to make a comic book with me. We sketch, draw, discuss the storyline, the characters, everything.

We we're so excited with it. But because back then we have lot of paperworks, home works, this and that, we eventually forget about it, for that we grow up and take different path ( she's a doctor now).

Until one day, that i feel the urge to revive the characters that we both build many years ago.

It started when i look my old sketches that i have ( i always collect them somehow ) and i'm surprised i still have the sketches.

So here it is, the "revival" of original characters that we make long time ago. Too bad i already forgot their name and story. But i still remember that they both are like brother and sister. The blue one are really chatty, can't fly because it have a small wings, the pinkish are silent one and can fly.

both are a mix of squirrel, bird, and...uhm...butt? lol.

don't laugh, many people think we draw a butt-face animals.

I remember i have the idea from the old comic book that i love so much, pank ponk ( i can't find this anymore sadly ) and mokona from magic knight rayearth.

Maybe i will not, and never make a comic book out of it after all. But with this, i will remember it for the rest of my life.

how i work.

2012-01-28T08:15:00.002+02:00

I appreciate lot of great illustrators that not afraid of showing other how they work, and even give tips and tricks on doing it. It's wonderful for learning from them.

Honestly, I hate some illustrators that act arrogant and meanie with, especially, newbie. I still wondering why, but hey, people have they own personality and reasons so let's skip this thing for now.

Admit it,
we all copying other people's style and drawing at first. Human born and learn to do things by copying other people, and that's natural. Inspired by others are natural and normal.

It's what I call a study.

You copy it,
you study it,
you practice it,
break the elements,
explore it,
then put it in your own style
and develop it even more,
be playful with it,
be creative,
Do not plagiat. Please.

Plagiarism it's different ; it's not a creative and not a smartest things to do.

Truthfully, I believe that I still need lot of training, experiences, and keep on learning. But here I will show you my usual basic steps when i do illustration works.

The steps for every single people are different, It's best we try what's the best for us :

1. Sketching

Manual drawing ; yeah as traditional as it might seems - pencil and paper. I don't know why but doing sketches with tablet still give me a wobbly-sluggish feel, it didn't feel same with the traditional one.

I do a really rough sketches first, tweak it here and there, and usually leave it a while or a day, so i can see if there some error.

*This work like magic, if you do a drawing or maybe other things also - leave it for sometime or day. Sometimes our eyes are too tired or too used to it that we often didn't see any error. That's why it's nice to *give-a-break* to our eyes.

*Other trick to see error ; put your drawing facing the mirror and voila! you can see clearly if there's error or some unbalanced elements like the right ear are bigger than the left one, or the right *boobs* are slightly more bigger than the left...wait, what???

2. Inking

Still manual and traditional way ; with pen and ink. The permanent ink, i find out they mostly are paper friendly- it didn't *blot* the paper and eliminate the OMG-my-line-art-are-damn-ruined expression.

I'm not picky with paper, but i prefer the one that usually smooth texture - it's more easier later for removing the eraser debris.

There is something calming when I do bold-thick line art inking. It give some relaxing feel ; that's why i chose this style as the best for me.

After finalizing inking the line art , the fun part! ; remove all the pencil mark with eraser. Do it gently or it will tear the paper, and make sure the ink are dry already.

3. Scanning

Loud and clear, nuff said :p

4. Coloring

Finally we're going digital!

Tablet is your best friend here ; but for simple coloring I used my normal mouse. Just clean out the line art, pick a color, paint all areas, then after you finish for the first time, take a break again sometime or day. Duplicate - flatten it, adjust the color, and save it for further pleasure,

Done! :D

Upload it and admire your works.

freak show-artwork.

2011-11-28T15:23:00.001+02:00

Some week-ago, i bumped into some post talking about a really old movie called freak (1932). No, i don't think i have guts to watch it somehow it's seems too gore-ey-bloody movie ( i have a weak heart for this kind a movie ).

But then i get interested to search for the screen pictures of it and fascinate with how human can be like that. You see, all the actor and actress in there are a real people with bizzarre unusual features.

Freak show are like a normal circus with animals and flashy tents and so on. The differences are they mainly displaying this bizzarre *freak* people. You can read the article about it more here.

It may seems cruel, but this is one of the *fast* way for them to get a job, partner, friends and most of all, being famous. I read from some articles, not all this people surprisingly feel bad working like this, they actually enjoyed it being famous and how people interested on them.

This inspired me for making this artwork, how they are uniquely fascinating and strange at the same time, i pick the idea more from the cheerful side of the freak show.

For my personal opinion, they aren't *freak*. They are gifted people with unique features they got in one package.

Being different is awesome. :D

enlightenment and new kitty scarf.

2011-11-11T12:34:00.001+02:00

Recently i've been having a heavy artblock and felt that i'm bad at everything, I felt lazy.

I saw peoples are more fond of a high-end-fancy-complicated-tech-painting-you-know-i-paint-this-for-long-long-hours-y-know!

No, not that i said its a bad thing, i think effort plus hardworking are always the winner.

But every person have their own strength and weakness, and it's natural for it. A quote said that you can do anything, but not everything. You can't be good at everything, that's a thing that every person need to understand and accept it.

I just realize that until yesterday when i talked with my partner and remember a tutor said that than you try to "fix" your weakness, why not trying to grinding your strength instead?

There's must be some reason why you good at something, that you enjoy it more for doing so.

I know we always been taught that we need to fix our weakness and not showing it to other peoples. To be sarcastic, we must--can-do-anything! that's weird and unrealistic. Its true that its nice to tackle your weakness. But if you don't like or enjoy it however you try to fix it it wont be 100% nicely.

why?

it's simple,

because you don't enjoy it.

It's good to try and learn new things, try to get out from our comfort zone. Some of the new things will fit nicely into your enjoyment.

but what if the new one didn't fit? at some point it will frustate you and it will ended up making us feeling down, starting to blame ourself.

I learn that it's more better to trick ourself for "covering" our weakness by make the strength point more, that so good that people won't notice it.

How many artists there that we can recognize easily by their style? Do you realize that usually they have their own distinguish style that we make us say, hey thats his/her drawing! i know it!

All of this make me to think again and give me an enlightenment, to accept this. It leads me into new point of view, to make my strength more and "covering" the "weakness" while learn to fix it bit by bit, but not taking so much time and my energy for one that i didn't enjoy. Find some style that really suits your personality the best. Artworks should representing yourself, otherwise it's just a piece of lifeless works.

And i don't want a lifeless artworks.

And to be simple,

isn't drawing suppose to be enjoyable and as an act of expressing yourself? : )

**I've ended up with drawing one of my muse for the whole of my time ; cats! I got the idea for this drawing when i played with my parent in law's cats. they look really fluffy to cuddle and getting warm to hug! so here it is, a kitty.scarf :p

yudhisthira the wise.

2011-11-10T11:27:00.002+02:00

For my final project back then in University, i decided to make illustration for wayang kulit ( Indonesian shadow puppet ) storybook with the Mahabharata epic story as the base. It's been almost 5 years since, and a couple days ago i decide to redesign one of the character.

( the full set of the characters of Mahabharata )

( the five of the Pandava brothers )

This is Yudhisthira, the oldest brother from the five brother of the Pandava.
You can read more of it in here.

He is one of my favorite character in the story. He's wise, gentle, patient, and it said he never get angry ( ever! ). It's a really good character to idolize and follow eh? hard to be like that, especially for me :p

This are the progress before taking the final form of it. I took the style from the form of flat 2D shadow puppet and stylize it more modern looking.

So here is the final one that i used in my final project 5 years ago ;

And the final redesign that i made a couple days ago. I'm making it more detailed for the ornaments and accessories because in the real shadow puppet they usually have a decorative part really detailed.

barista coffee shop in Ambon.

2011-11-02T21:22:00.000+02:00

Couple month ago, my dear friend Evy & Victor who reside in Ambon, Indonesia, are going to open a coffee shop in there. They asked me to design a simple logo for their shop. We did a lot of brainstorming about the name for it since Ambon is a small island so the name should be easy to understand for local peoples. A complicated and uncommon name will make it hard to know what is it.

We came out with "barista" for the name ( A barista (from the Italian for "bartender") is a person, usually a coffee-house employee, who prepares and serves espresso-based coffee drinks - from wikipedia ) and decide not to make the logo too complicated also. Evy once a barista also in Starbucks. Along with Victor they both is a hardcore-coffee-lover, so the name really suit them.

A couple times exchanging the ideas, sketches, rough design, we both finally got the look for final design of the logo. I'm really pleased with the outcome and curious to see how it was later the logo in their shop.

After a lot of preparations, they finally open the shop this November the first. I am so excited and really happy for them, too bad i can't be there for the opening since i'm far away here ( next time ok! ). Sending love and prayer all the way there ( and lots of hugs ).

I love how they do their interiors for the shop, you can see their shop in Evy's blog here and how she felt for this exciting new experience here.

oh, and before i forgot to mention it, the miss barista herself is there with red apron,

say hello to Evy! :D

lumijinasi + birch forest mural.

2011-11-02T14:31:00.001+02:00

A while ago, me and my partner though about painting our bedroom wall. We decide to made the birch forest and add our personal signature icon also here, a cat and an artic fox! ; )

It's been a long time since i use a paintbrush to paint manually, so it's really exciting for me. For making a mural it's been one of my dream also since i decide myself to be an illustrator.

You can read the process for making this mural post here.

greeting from Finland!

2011-11-02T12:39:00.000+02:00

Hello guys,

I just move my blog from here, and this will be where i updating more about my works and painting related post.

Shortly about me,

I'm a graphic designer and illustrator also. I'm from Indonesia currently live in Helsinki, Finland with my partner who is a programmer and illustrator.

Salvadorkatz it's my signature name for all my works, and Lumijinasi is my collaboration signature name with my partner. I have my own daily blog about my personal life under the name Imaginasimaginatia here. Drop by if you have time guys ; )

( Helsinki Cathedral - Helsinki - by salvadorkatz )

Hope you enjoy my works and have a nice day! :D

love and hugs,
Maureen