2014, the year of the poster

Know why I have so few photos up these days?

Cuz it's such a bugger to connect the camera to my computer, upload and save the pics (and let's face it, edit the colours because no camera is perfect) and upload them to Blogger again. If I had the money, I would buy a WiFi camera right now. But I'm using that money for a week in Melbourne instead. So maybe I shouldn't be complaining.

I don't know if anyone still reads my blog, but if anyone is interested, I'm working on a bunch of megaposters at the moment. They will be displayed on several (I don't remember now, 15? 20?) university campuses around KL. So that's cool. I'm definitely gonna visit at least one of em to see how they turn out. That's why I love print. It's so exciting to see the end result that you have very little control over.

It seems that the year 2014 is all about posters so far. I've also just delivered a poster design for an exhibition in Rotterdam. If you just happen to be in Rotterdam (or if you live there even) between 31 January and 8 March, there is an exhibition happening in Belvedere called Shanghai Tan. A poster of mine will be up on display there. Pretty fan-friggin-tastic!

Unfortunately, I won't be able to see it in person as I'm only back in NL in April, but I'll make sure to get photos of it and post em up here.

Till the next time...

Summer activities

It is well and truly summertime with summery weather and summer temperatures!

Here are some of the things I've been up to.

After three years of living in Rotterdam and 5 minutes walk from the cube houses, I finally went in. It was very interesting for sure, but I don't think I would ever live there. Not because of the inconvenient shape and having to customise all my furniture, but because they simply don't take care of the damn buildings. The exterior is old and dirty, and the windows, as you'll see in the following pictures, seem to be cleaned "once every twenty years" as Irma put it (or once every six months, as Rik says is more likely).

 

All these photos are taken from the top floor, a sort of awesome guest space where you can play on the Ouija board quite comfortably or have some kinda weed smoking party. If you're wondering why Rik's panting like that, it was a very hot day yesterday at 31 degrees, and while the whole cube house museum is air-conditioned by one unit, this unit is located just under this room. Making this room supremely warm. You have to wonder how people live like this? Obviously with the slanted roof/walls, there's no way you can have an aircond up there ever, and if there are more hot days like this in a year, you won't wanna be doing your Ouija or weed there, would you?

Fantastic view though.

Warm days are perfect days for Fentimans.

We've been spending a lot more time in the park this summer because we actually have a pretty decent summer this year. And we have friends now who enjoy sitting in the park rather than sitting at a cafe. So here we are having some fun with a frisbee on a weekend, and a random visit during a weekday after work.

We also hang out on the Maasboulevard because it's beautiful at the water and it's so close to our house.

Rik's taken up skateboarding again ever since he's had nothing to do during the day and the weather's been so nice. The road along the Maasboulevard is nice and smooth so we headed there one evening before dinner to enjoy the fresh air. I was lying on a little grassy slope reading a book and every few minutes, there'd be this dude just gliding by left to right and right to left. It was like this:

Selexyz & Donner, the big bookshop in the city centre has changed ownership and changed its name to Polare. We were checking it out one day because I had a book voucher, when I saw this poster. Cue excitement and freaking out.

I hope he won't mind terribly if I bring five books for him to sign.

One of Riri's friends is going on a journey to she doesn't know where - I'm guessing it's some kinda soul-searching journey (where do people find the money for these journeys?!) - so Riri ordered a card from me. She only gave me a day to come up with this, so I'm a little ashamed to say but should admit that I copied this idea from someone from the internet. There we go. Please don't sue me - it's for a friend and I think your idea is really, really cute :D

Now that the updates are done, it's back to work.

Painting a Hari Raya greeting card

I hate greeting cards.

I was requested to make a Hari Raya greeting card for the company my mum works at, and at first I was very hesitant because I do hate greeting card designs. Meaning the cliché Hallmark, Memory Lane type greeting cards that companies send to clients and suppliers every festival. That's just not my cup of tea. And as I explained to a friend a few weeks ago, even cliché design is a style, and you need to be able to recreate that style as if it were an original style.

In case you haven't gotten it yet, I'm a bit of a snob when I think of cliché designs. But by golly, if I had a cliché style, I bet I could make a whole lot more money!

Anyway, as I was saying, corporate cards mean making standard designs, and I can't do that. Not I won't do that, but I really can't.

I decided to give it a go anyway, because beggars can't be choosers, and I could do with the money. I scoured the internet, and spoke to my Muslim friend over here (who buys cartoon greeting cards, so she was absolutely no help), and decided to go the calligraphy way and inject my own watercolour style.

Here's the process.

By the end of it, I loved it, but once I tried to give it the 'corporate' look, I failed miserably.

So it's back to square one.

I hate greeting cards.

Celebrate the summer, 2013

The weather has been so grey and pressing this whole week that I've been quite down in the dumps and just not in the mood for working. That's the great freedom of being a freelancer, isn't it? If I have to stress about getting new projects every month, I should be able to reward myself with some down time if I need it.

Anyway, I wasn't in the mood for work, but more specifically, it was design I wasn't in the mood for. So I decided to get started on the latest project for my webshop, my Summer Recipes series. It's a series that I can finally use my lovely typewriter for.

So I got started on some layouts and sketches for the first in the series, but then a friend's birthday gathering came up yesterday evening and we needed a birthday card to go with the present. As with all financially-challenged artists, when you don't want to spend on a card, well, you just make one yourself! And it usually turns out better than a store-bought card anyway. Just depends if the recipient knows how to truly appreciate a piece of art...

This friend's birthday is in the summer, so we decided to get her a summer-themed present and card. I drew a beach scene with all the typical girl's beach essentials, and wrote the message: "There is only one thing missing..." And she would then open the present and find a beach blanket!

I hope she likes both presents, because, really, a piece of artwork that I spent more time on than the actual shopping, is pretty much a present on its own, isn't it?

Because I liked the theme so much, I decided to reproduce it as a watercolour print, which is now available in my webshop. I repainted the card in stronger colours and I think this second version is an improvement. You can pick any message you like for in the balloon, as long as it fits ;)

Spray painting glass jars

Anyone who knows me well will know that I've always been into recycling and I can't stand the thought of throwing something perfectly good and useful away. I used to have boxes and boxes of still-useable paper for me to sketch or scribble on the back. The unfortunate thing was that I received so much more useless paper in the mail or from other people than I could use up, hence the boxes and boxes.

Since I moved to The Netherlands and started cooking, I've found myself with not only scrap paper to use up, but glass jars from sauces and vegetables. After washing and removing the labels, most of them are still good to reuse. So now I have a box of reusable glass jars without a use for them.

Then I saw photos of beautifully-painted glass jars on Pinterest, and I looked for tutorials on how to recreate those looks. Some blogs say to use acrylic paint but when I saw one which said spray paint was quicker, I jumped at that. Because I already had the perfect shade of pink spray paint that I'd bought years ago for my bike, and because I didn't have any acrylic paint to hand.

So last weekend, I attempted my first painted glass jar. Since I have about 30 jars, I can't possibly use them all myself, so I thought that if successful, I'd put them up for sale during Queensday for 50 cents or 1 euro each. Just so they wouldn't go to waste!

Apparently, spray paint on glass takes ages to dry, so I still don't have a final version to show. And I don't even know if it looks good as I haven't unwrapped the plastic around the jar in case I peel off some of the paint by accident.

So check back for the final result... hopefully it's worked!

Watercolour I

Did a spot of painting a few weeks ago.

PHOTOS: Rotterdamse Museumnacht

I think most of my intelligent readers can pretty much guess that that means: Rotterdam's Museum Night.

Museumnacht is one night a year when participating museums, big and small, organise special exhibitions and shows from 8pm till 2am. People who attend have to buy a 'passe partout', the all-entrance passport, to access all these museums.

This year was my first time to the Museumnacht and I was really excited about it. The passport cost € 14 and there were 50 museums participating. So in 6 hours, I'd better know exactly where I want to go.

I'd heard that a few people weren't happy with the passport this year being a blinking LED button badge because it was so environmentally unfriendly for just one night. Why not just a normal paper ticket? I tell you why. Because Museumnacht is only once a year and it should be SPECIAL. There will always be waste. So why not put this inevitability to some sort of good use? I am really quite an environmentalist for the common person - I recycle all my paper, I make an effort to keep glass aside for the special bins and I turn lights off and don't use water more than I need to. But sometimes, just sometimes, for a special occasion, I think we deserve to enjoy ourselves and splash out on something fancy.

Besides, I think the blinking LED badge helped to lessen queues and bring people together for one night. Biking around the city, seeing people marching along with blinking green lights, was really very cool, like we were all in one gang, with one purpose. And at the museums, all the staff had to do was look for a blinking green light, so we never had to stop and queue up.

Okay, so I'm ranting a lot about this, but it's because I think that sometimes environmentalists ask for a bit too much.

Anyway, the first place we visited was the Arminius, an old church which I believe has been converted into more of an event venue. It still looks like a church though, so I'm not too sure about what I just said. Maybe just forget this whole paragraph.

The entrance to the Arminius. All participating venues had a green light shone on the entrances, which I think was a great nod to the concept.

Outside the Arminius, the Rotterdam Archive Council were serving free 'crisis soup'. They apparently, conveniently, just discovered this recipe in their archives and had made it for participants. I didn't really like it, but I appreciate the gesture. Who would refuse free soup?

Inside the Arminius was an installation about NL waiting for the next king. The country has been ruled by queens for a few generations now, but after the current queen, it will be her son who becomes king. So this couturier guy and another artist/curator woman decided to imagine the water land with a king. At least that's what the booklet says, although I'm not sure I could relate that to the installation. It was very beautiful nevertheless. Anything set in a church is bound to be awe-inspiring, and this didn't fail.

All the headless dolls were a little creepy but very cool.

Next stop was the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen. It's a very famous museum, especially amongst the arty ones. Embarrassingly, I admit that I haven't been to see their exhibitions, but I have indeed been into the lobby, the bookshop, the play area, outside the restoration lab and inside their amazing library. Contrary to how it sounds, it's actually quite a huge area, with some art pieces as well, which made me think I had actually seen everything (what a noob).

I wonder how long she stayed like that.

Schrobbenmaster's idea of taking a photo.

Success!

Then onwards to the NAi, the Nederlands Architectuurinstituut. Or with the same initials in English, the Netherlands Architecture Institute. Bet you guessed that already though.

It was pretty crowded at the bar area where there was really good club music being played by a live DJ. And this really cool thingy in the picture above. It's not obvious here, but it's actually a kind of 3D video projection from the phone. It's like those Sith guys in Star Wars communicating with each other through some projection. It looks really cool.

Some exhibition on Dutch-made inventions.

Some Dutch rubbish bins.

Do you know Bob Ross? Apparently he's very famous here. To me, he is so uncool that he's cool. He's this white guy with a kind of small afro and he had a TV show teaching people how to paint in watercolour. He had such a slow, soothing voice and would describe things so... quaintly. Oh, what the heck, here's a YouTube link.

I digress, but anyway, this photo above is of the Bob Rush masterclass. I'd wanted to join it but this guy was so not Bob Ross. Maybe the clue is in the name?

Then a hop, skip and jump to the Kunsthal, where I'm proud to say I have indeed been before. It's an art museum. There was a band playing there called Roosbeef, who Schrobbenmaster wanted to see. And I do agree, their music was really good. Here's a link and I would recommend you guys click and listen. Such an improvement from the terrible folk music most Dutch people love.

After that, we headed to the Sonneveld House to watch another band. We had to wear plastic covers over our shoes to protect the interior which is from the 1930s.

It wasn't my kind of music and I was kinda bored and wanted to roll my eyes, but if you dig that sort of music, then I think it would have been pretty good. They're called Yes Please.

We decided to head back and stop at a few venues on the way, one of which was Het Schielandshuis, which was showing work clothes and denim, and had a very nice arty market in the attic, except that I didn't want to spend money, and those markets are never really as cheap as you would expect. Very good club music though.

And lastly, we went to Laurenskerk, just across the road from our place, who was exhibiting something about food. Except we were there at 1.30am and there was only this left.

I'm always drawn to rows and columns of books.

Some display on world celebrations. This one here is Chinese New Year.

All in all, it was enjoyable and really nice to be part of a big Rotterdam thing. I think I would definitely go again next year just for the atmosphere and for the chance of discovering something amazing.