Hobonichi Challenge

I discovered today that there is another challenge running this month other than the #29faces challenge. It is the Hobonichi challenge. Just like most art challenges, it consists in doing one drawing per day. The twist is that it needs to be done in a Hobonichi journal. I own both the A6 and the A5 journals. I use the A6 for daily planning and the A5 for journalling so I decided to attempt to do the challenge on the A5. I also would like to just use the fountain pen to do the drawings just to practice that technique.

Here is the drawing that I did for today:

Day 2 - #29faces

Day 2 - Bruce Wayne, Bruce Timm style

This is my offering for Day 2 of the 29 Faces challenge. I chose this picture of Bruce Wayne because this square jaw is simply stunning. Even though it looks very strong, it still fits in very nicely with the character. After all, it's the only element of the masked hero that isn't hidden by a mask.

29 Faces Challenge

This month, I'm going to take part in the 29 Faces Challenge. This is something I have both been dreading and looking forward to doing. I tend to draw animals more often than I draw people so as a consequence, I don't do people all that well. This is why I thought this would be a really good challenge to try in order to spend a whole month focusing on something that gives me trouble so that I can make some progress somehow.

The Facebook page for the challenge can be found here: https://www.facebook.com/29Faces/?fref=ts

The blog page can be found here: http://29faces.blogspot.com/

Here is my offering for Day #1!

I am a big fan of Bruce Timm's style, especially the animated series he worked on (Batman Animated Series and Superman Animated Series) and I thought it was a fitting homage to his style to draw one of my favourite superheroes of the DC universe.

2015 Hobonichi

This past year, I challenged myself to do a sketch or a painting everyday and in order to track my progress I have chosen to do so on a Hobonichi planner. I wasn't quite sure that the super thin pages would cope but they did and they did so beautifully well.

This year, I have decided to not do this particular challenge but instead, I will take part in any monthly art challenge that I can find. In February, I am going to take part in the #29faces challenge that consists in drawing/painting/sketching one face per day. This is going to be even more of a challenge for me since I'm not that good at drawing (human) faces. I'm really hoping to learn from this and to improve my skills.

For now, here are quite a few pictures of the best sketches I did in my Hobonichi this past year.

You can get your very own Hobonichi here!

Chewy

I have the biggest crush on Chewy so I had to do something about it...

Yogi Tea Wisdom

Those little Yogi Tea labels can sometimes give confusing advice...

Instagram

I have been posting quite a few drawings on Instagram (@evacita). Here are a few of the drawings I posted since #inktober. Feel free to follow me!

Decorating my Nerdmaids

Since I have received my two Nerdmaids, I have been using them a lot. Well, I have been using mostly the light one and I have added the Hobonichi Cousin for 2016 to Nerdmaid Dark and I'm waiting for January 1st to start using it on a daily basis.

I use my regular Nerdmaid for journaling mainly and I'm applying the One Book July challenge for the month of November. Since I'm doing more writing than sketching, I need to always have one pen at hand at all times. Until today, I had simply placed the pen inside the book and closed the TN with the elastic band and it was working although denting the inside pages a bit.

So today I went stationery shopping and I bought some self-adhesive pen loops by Leuchtturm. I had used them once for my dark brown TN by Morgan LeFae's Trinkets and it was working well.

I used some scrapbook paper that I placed behind the notebooks and where I attached the pen loop.

Back of the scrapbook page

So I went scrapbook paper hunting and after looking at many shops, I finally found some beach themed paper among all the Christmas paper. I also found some pen loops in different shades of blue (there were at least 3 different shades that I saw in the shop!) and I went to work. Here is the result:

And a last family photo for the road!

Hungry Kitten

#inktober -Day 31

Very last day of the #inktober challenge! I can't believe it's already over!... that was my first year doing it and it was fun. I will definitely take part next year!

#inktober - Day 30

#inktober - Days 28 & 29

#inktober - Days 26 & 27

Happy Birthday Jason!

A friend of mine called Jason celebrated his birthday today so I made him this painting.

#inktober - Days 24 & 25

Testing Halloween costumes...

#inktober - Days 22 & 23

#inktober - Days 20 & 21

Nerdmaids

A few months ago, I was feeling very low and I was missing the Ocean. Until I left the nest, I had been spending my life by the Ocean. Then, because I had to find a job and I wanted to travel, I left the Ocean to go to an island (England). I spent a few years there and then ended up on the continent.

This spring, I was beginning to feel low and as time went by, I was getting more and more depressed because I was missing the Ocean. I went to my favourite shop in town which also happens to be a crystal shop and I had a heart to heart with the lady who was working there. It turns out that we both had this in common: missing our Oceans. She had already remedied this and made a trip back home to recharge her batteries. 

Since I was a few weeks away from going back home myself, I decided to express my love for the Ocean by doing the one thing I could: draw. Of course, I had to combine my love of the Ocean with my love of all things Geek (namely Marvel's Avengers and namely Captain America). 

I had been admiring the works of an excellent illustrator called Melissa Ballesteros Parada. If you haven't checked her artwork, feel free to head on over to her FB page. She draws beautiful pin up girls that look both cute and gorgeous.  I am not usually a fan of pin up girls who look very intimidating and unapproachable but Melissa's ladies are quite the opposite.

Channeling Melissa's style, I drew my very first pin up mermaid or Nerdmaid as one of my friends calls her, and it looked something like this:

My mermaid or 'Nerdmaid'

Once I was done, although I was very pleased with the result, I decided that it wasn't enough and I had to do something more. 

One thing I love as much as drawing is stationery. My favourite type is something called a Midori Traveler's Notebook (TN). It's a type of leather cover with a system of elastic bands where you can attach 2 or more notebooks, so you can have one notebook per subject and once a notebook is finished, you just have to replace it with a new one.

The leather covers offered by Midori are hugely popular among many stationery addicts but the covers are either brown or black. So that doesn't leave a lot of choice for colour (or size, since the original Midori covers come in 2 of their own format: regular and passport).

A couple of years back, just when I was getting into leather covers, I came across an Etsy type shop (DaWanda) and one seller in particular was making her own covers and it was even possible to get a specific size custom made. I had one made so that it could fit large Moleskine notebooks. It was stunning. The quality of the leather was excellent and you could see that it had been made with love and dedication.

So when I created my mermaid, I immediately thought of this artist who had made my original cover. This artist is Morgan Le Faes Trinkets. I immediately contacted Monique (the artist who makes all the beautiful covers) and I asked her whether it was possible to reproduce my Nerdmaid onto a leather cover. I was aware that my painting was very detailed and that it might not be possible to get everything in. One thing I changed from my original drawing was to ditch the shell the mermaid is sitting on and to add a shell at the back of the leather cover.

During the process, Monique advised me that she had made a mistake with the background colour and she had forgotten the banner. She immediately redid the cover and I was extremely lucky to be sent both covers. I was so excited when I got the package that I took many pictures and here they are:

It's here!!!

Each TN was individually wrapped

Nerdmaid Dark

Inside cover of Nerdmaid Dark

Leaflet with some info about the TN

Leaflet with some info about the TN

Nerdmaid Dark with the elastic off!...

The Nerdmaid I had in mind!

Nerdmaid with elastic off!...

Inside cover of Nerdmaid

Both Nerdmaid side by side, looking gorgeous

Note by Monique with some extra goodies and replacement elastic bands and metallic bits

Both Nerdmaids and my original TN by Monique

Back covers

Sea shell at the back

Sea shell at the back

To say that I was pleased with the result would be the understatement of the century... Both covers look absolutely stunning and they both came with their hand made notebook.

I honestly cannot recommend Monique's work strongly enough. Not only does she use top quality leather and does amazing preparation and artwork, but the most important thing is that it is so easy to communicate with Monique and to share ideas with her. I am not aware of many shops that have the flexibility to accommodate as much as Monique does.

If this review tempted you to get your own cover or if you want even more info, check out the following links:

- Monique's blog: http://morganlefaestrinkets.com/

- Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MorganLeFaesTrinkets?fref=ts

- Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/MorganLeFaesTrinkets