diy sketchbook inspiration

With all these sketchbooks exchanges, I have been buying a lot of sketchbooks. And I starting to find them a little boring. With their black cover and off white paper. So I think I'm going to make my own sketchbooks. Here are some inspirations that I found for you and me.
I have recently discovered to work of Erin Zamrzla at her blog Erinzam.
I love bookbinding and she does amazing little notebooks that are sure to inspire great drawings out of us. Love her Japanese binding, the recycle aspect with the tags and bingo sheets, the different sorts of paper in the same sketchbook.
To make things even better, on her blog she explain all her process, and even has photos of her tools. No excuses now to buy already made sketchbooks, to your binding kits !

ps. Erin Zamrzla has also an etsy shop. take a look

moly x 70 in the mail

My moly x 70 is ready to go in the mail. I decorated my envelope again, just to make it more special. I think it's just more fun to send something special. Everybody who sees it, comments on it. People that deal with the mail are use to boring white envelloppe and I think they like seeing something different. Anyway it's fun to do and i think it completes the whole process.

Bye bye little moly 70 ! Hope it comes back... and with even better illustrations in it.

The Raven

I joined this new blog called "Notre club de dessin" (our drawing club). All the members of this blog are invited to create an illustration every 2 weeks on a precise theme. This time around the theme was Edgard Allan Poe. I love the work of Poe, all the macabre and the darkness of his stories. I was very inspired by the theme. I decided to do an illustration based on the story THE RAVEN. I am really about the result... and I think I will continue the theme and transform it into a serie. I'll keep you updated on the process.
Hope you like the piece !

ps: you can buy a print of this piece at my etsy shop
http://karodesign.etsy.com

moly x 70: final piece

So I have finished my piece for the moly x 70 exchange. Here it is. Hope you like it. I decided to go with a Alice in Wonderland theme, with white rabbits and queens of hearts. I'm really happy about the results, so happy that I'm bit scared to send it away in the mail. Hope it comes back ! ps: Don't be shy tell me what you think about the piece.

New Sketchbook Exchange: Moly x 70

I started a new sketchbook exchange with the Moly_x flicker group. They follow the adventures of artist groups from around the world as they exchange Japanese Fold Moleskine sketchbooks. I'm participating in group 70. Make sure you follow the progress of the group in the following blog. I got my japanese fold Moleskine sketchbook and I started my spreads. Here is a sneak peak of it ! I'm really happy on how it's going. I'll post the final result really soon.

sketchbook ... having fun with the xyron

Here are the results of the xyron creative station experiments made earlier today.
Came out pretty good !
What do you think ?

New gadget: Xyron creative station review

Last week, I was working on some illustrations. I wanted to clue images printed on tracing paper. But when I applied my dry clue on it, the tracing paper became all wrinkled and clued unevenly. I was very disappointed by the result. So I started searching for a better clue on the internet. While searching, I didn't find the perfect clue but the Xyron Creative Station, which was supposed to make instant stickers out of everything you put in it. It looked pretty great so I bought it.

Well I got it this week and here is little review on the Xyron creative station 5" ( there are bigger and smaller model but mine makes 5 inch wide stickers )

So it is pretty simple,
Here is the Xyron Creative Station


You can put 2 types of adhesives in it: permanent or re positionable. The adhesive comes in a roll and you have to place inside the machine ( mine came with the roll already in place and ready to use)
In my case, I am using permanent adhesive.



Here are images I choose to become instant stickers
In this case I tested images printed on tracing paper and delicate cut outs.
I wanted to see how the station will handle this 2 types of images since the glue stick has trouble with them.

Here are the images ready to go in the machine
You have to push them gently till then get in



Then you start to turn the handle and your pieces of paper go in the Xyron and come out like this on the other side:


There's little blade that you use to cut the piece of paper like this:



And here is the result


You then remove the plastic film and you are ready to stick the images




I was really happy with the results. Everything came out great. The tracing paper clued perfectly to my surface, no wrinkles. The delicate cut out came out great also. And everything is clued evenly. It is a very good alternative to spray clue. Since it has no smell, no drips, no making your floor sticky because you didn't place enough newspaper under your image.
As for durability, I'll keep you posted... will see if everything last.

ps: I wasn't payed by anyone to do. I just wanted to share my find with you

(Here is a video I found of the whole process if you want to see more. But since this is a scrapbooking device... most videos about the xyron are done by housewife that use it for scrapbooking and craft with the kids... very martha steward)

sketchbook exchange... in the mail

My sketchbook exchange with artist Sarah Atlee is in the mail. Now it is her turn. I just wanted to show you the envelloppe. I had a little bit of fun... with my mail art.

lomo in berlin

A few weeks ago, I went to Germany on vacation. And I took my dear Holga with me. I'm a big fan of lomography. Lomography consist of having fun with toy cameras, playing with accidents, light leaks, blurry images and dark corners. Since I work everyday with photoshop and I retouch images so everything looks perfect, I think it is fun to let go of that quest for excellence and control... and just let accidents happens. And my holga does all that. I never know what my film is going to look like. And the grain of the film is simply amazing... no digital camera nor photoshop filter can achieve that effect.
So here are 2 images I shot in Berlin with a kodak b&w 120 film. ( at check point charlie and near the berliner dom) I'm really happy about the result.
Hope you too will try a little bit of holga.

sketchbook exchange... ready to send

Here is another image form the sketchbook exchange with Sarah Atlee.
This is the last one I'll be showing you. Tomorrow, I'm mailing the sketchbook back to Sarah. It's her turn to have fun with it. Can't wait to see what she does with it.

ps: I also had some fun with the envelope. Just a little bit of mail art. I'll post a photo of it as soon as it gets stamped.

hello kitty disposable camera

A while ago, as a gift, I got this Hello Kitty disposable camera. I am a big fan of hello kitty and all her little gadget... so I was trilled with the gift ! To make everything a little bit more tacky, I decided to take 24 photos of my 2 cats. A cat with a cat ! I just got back the results and I just find it hilarious. Hope you like them!

Great source of vintage images

Here is a website that I have been using for a while. It is called Clipart etc and it has a great amount of etchings free of use. What is really great about this site is the fact that it has a great search engines. In addition, the images are groups by themes like People. Well I hope this will help you in your quest for great images.