Global Talent Search-Wall art ''Little Terrariums''

So, I'm writing this post on a night before the big reveal of Lilla's top 50...I know I wouldn't be able to do this 2moro. Why? 'Cos I'll be too nervous to even check the list, let alone write a post. A part of me says (the cool part) -'' so what, just chill, it's not like it's the end of world or something! You've never been one of those who panic and act silly!'' and then another part of me says-'' yes but this isn't just some competition, this is more than a competition!'' But you know what, neither is true...after all it's a competition which for it's goal is searching for a unique artist who's gonna be a great addition to Lilla's Studio. She knows what she's looking for but the road for so man of us doesn't end there!

I had to remind myself that I have some goals for this year and that entering GTS was something I didn't even know I was gonna do. But here I am, and doing it, no matter the outcome I know I have given above what I thought I could give for this specific brief and had I the chance of redoing it, I'd change nothing about it! It's the 1st piece I did that as the time is passing by I keep falling in love with more than in the beginning...usually I see stuff I'd love to change and I could have done it better...you know how the story goes!? :) But with this one I love it the way it is! The lettering part could always be better...but not talking about that now :)

I have already shared my process of how I got to my idea what I'm gonna create...and in my world of ''all things are possible'' I decided to put in a small terrarium an elephant! Elephant is huge, so this alone makes things without any sense, but not in my world...In my world I'm riding on an elephant who is my best friend and my place of comfort and peace.
This part was inspired greatly by Antoine de Saint Exupery's 'Little Prince' and the relationship little Prince had with the fox. There's a line there where the fox says to him:

“I am looking for friends. What does that mean -- tame?"

"It is an act too often neglected," said the fox. "It means to establish ties." 

"To establish ties?" 

"Just that," said the fox. "To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world....” 
― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

I thought that's so beautiful, cos ecpecialy in todays world people don't want any ties...people are afraid of relationships, of getting hurt. But the relationships are the most essential part of our existence! 

So I have tamed in my terrarium garden an elephant and I've become responsible for him and he is unique to me in all the world! :) Also it's our little world within a world...which leads me to my inspirational quote by E.A.Poe- ''everything we see or seen in but a dream within a dream..'' I thought this is so appropriate for my piece...a dream within a dream! 

Each day when I sit before my sketchbook or my comp. and I draw and paint I embark on a voyage which is far, far away, yet still here, part of this world. It's possible to do that, to be here but also to be present somewhere alse...I live a dream within a dream-every single day, and I LOVE IT!

Updates :)

Antoana Oreški ©2014

OMG, where do I start from?! It's been way too long since my last post and I've been soooo mega busy with, well, life in general, that I've just had not time to blog as well :( This illustration you see above was done months before for my dear friend's wedd as an invitation...she's getting married this Sat. on the 28th so 'will be thinking of you Ivana and wishing you and Hari an abundance of love and kindness towards eachother in your mutual life!!!' xoxoxox

She had me design a tank top design for her maid of honour too and so I wasn't able to show that one to anyone before the maid of honour has seen it this last Fri. :) so here it is: 

Antoana Oreški ©2014

I've been entering some competitions too and to my most utter astonishement won 2 competitions...the 1st one was the Hallmark's Competition called 'COOL 4KIDZ' where I've entered my jelly characters from Lilla's Bootcamp only redesigned so they are more suitable for the brief. Here's my winning piece-yay!

Antoana Oreški ©2014

and here are my other 2 entries that were more card oriented:

Antoana Oreški ©2014

I have to admit I was beyond happy for these guys to have won...I love the strawberry gang and am glad they received the love back :) lol 

Then I've entered another competition from Tigerprint with the similar brief and it was called 'Kids Character Design' for Marks & Spencer this time and I won-again! 

Antoana Oreški ©2014

Now I was over the moon, not being able to believe it, cos let's be honest...c'mon 2 competitions in a row (ok 2 months apart)...no way!!!?? Those who know me know I'm too honest and too naive like a child to pretend being 'surprised' by all this! I NEVER won competitions before! Apart from Epicase, back in 2012 but I was not the winner, I was the 3rd place runner up. My major concern was-I hope this is not my peak!?! I wanna continue to grow and learn and build on my unique style...so I pray this is just a begining and an opportunity for me!

Also I wanna share the work from MATS Bootcamp May and June assignment...the May one was about Editorial design on Meditation and people who have an issue meditating. We were given an article and this was my submision:

Antoana Oreški ©2014

I really had fun doing this one...my prof. or how my fellow Bootcamper Petra calls him Dr. Freud is one of my fave new characters! I'm begining to really LOVE my pieces and that's something I've learned to do in Bootcamp. Like Lilla always says-people buy your joy! I guess it really is the truth! :D

Antoana Oreški ©2014

And this is my June submission for Wall Art! I know it's not a proper wall art per say, but I had tons of fun creating it and have come to love it also in the end as I played a bit with the letters size as suggested by a fellow Bootcamper Kelly :) You can tell how much I appreciate our Bootcamp community and just love being part of it-it's priceless!!! And I feel so blessed :)

Hope I didn't tire you with so much catching up :) Hope there won't be ages till my next post!

All my love to you! xoxoxo

Ant

Our jolly March of Jelly at Bootcamp!

So here comes March and with it our new assignment from Lilla-Jelly!
What?! Yes, I was surprised to say the least and I thought to myself- 'Why?!' But we got the mini and I decided to embrace it and see what I can come up with, surely I would think of something! Then I and my girls got very ill so that didn't help my creative process, cos I had none at that point! I haven't been ill like that for 15yrs and now I could not get out of bed...it was awful! On top of everything I had 2 munchkins I had to take care of and for 2 weeks it felf like I have a mini pharmacy at home :) Well I managed to create some sketches and after my antibiotics kicked in I finally felt like I was on a roll...until we got the main assignment-bolt fabric! I had a feeling it might be bolt fabric but bolt fabric & jelly?! And all I had so far were cute & funny characters, so I worried they wouldn't fit the assignment but thankfully my fellow bootcampers helped me see a variety of placements for it...a bib, or a kids apron...etc. I felt relieved and I was on a roll again :)

So to cut it short this was my initial work:

Antoana Oreški ©2014

As you can see I used some bright colours and I still like them, but when we got our colour palette and tip on our 3rd Mon. from Lilla I decided to try it out and give the 'nugat' a go :) I tried it and then I ended up mixing some of her colours with some of mine and this was a result:

Antoana Oreški ©2014

I didn't have time to do a proper pattern so I just placed my icons arround and since we'll have April off I will work on it and on some more coordinate patterns too. The gallery will go live on the 25th March and I'll post the link then. Until then this is the final presentation for my March Jelly pattern :)

Antoana Oreški ©2014

My ninja strawberry says hello! :)

xoxox Ant

A long overdue Hello! :)

Well, hello, hello :)

It's been ages since my last post here, I feel almost like a stranger on my own blog :) Lol
So much has happened since my last update...my illustrations for Profil International were all finished in time and delivered to the publisher. I was so happy to know all the editors working on this project were more than happy with my work. Then on the 9th April I finally held my baby girl in my arms-Lora! She was just beautiful and healthy and I fell in love with her immediately :) She's now a fast growing 2m old baby and doing really great, a great sleeper/eater and a very happy smiley baby as you can see :)

As I got home from the hospital with Lora a few days after I managed to go check my emails and all, I found  another job offer from yet another Croatian Publisher. So after my maternity leave there will be plenty of work as I can already see-very exciting!
Meanwhile my eldest finished her 1st kindergarten year and had such an amazing year of making new friends. learning and adapting.So proud of her! And as the summer finally arrived here (as we had the worst weather in Cro as I can remember) we are ready for the beach & the sea and to enjoy these summer hols!

And to sum this post up...my 1st finished piece I managed to draw & paint after giving birth...and I really enjoyed working on it!
Wishing you all a great summer-have fun!!!!!

xoxoxox

Ant

Antoana Oreski ©2013

1st post in 2013 :)

Hello everyone!

I'm so sorry I haven't had the time to do a proper post earlier but most of you who follow my work on FB already know the reasons. I hope you all had a very lovely time with your families & friends for Christmas and New Year and that you all had a good start of the year!

I have had such a busy time for these hols working on 2 illustrations for postcards for American Greetings Interactive and then just as I was finished with those I was contacted by a Croatian Publishing house called Profil International to work with them on a project called Eduitainment, an educational book with multiple tasks for kids age 6-7yrs in Croatian language. After some negotiations I've decided to be a part of the project and the adventure began. However, I was on a rather tight deadline (30days) and had to do 19 full page/colour illustrations, 7 half page/colour illustrations, 2 b/w full page illo's, 1 connect the dots & find the animal illo and 7 full pages of 8 or more 5x5cm vignettas, some in colour & some b/w...

I must say I enjoyed working on this project very much, and the whole team was awesome and full of understanding. But towards the end I was feeling very exhausted and tired working 13hrs a day, cos my belly was expanding at the same time, my little munchkin growing inside-as you already know I'm pregnant and expecting very soon :) But I've managed to finish everything in time and all the team including the head directors were very happy with my work. So pleased that I was instantly offered another project, another educational book but this time it's a mandatory book for school-for 1st graders issued by our government. I had to decline the offer cos I no longer can work since my maternity leave starts this following Tue. but they asked to contact them after my maternity leave cos they'll have many more projects and they would really want me to work with them again :) So that made me very, very happy and pleased :)

Soo...looking back at this 2012 and how it began (working with American Greetings Interactive) and then entering Epicase competition randomly(a friend notified me of the competition) and winning 3rd place amongst thousands of entrants from all over the world only to finish the year by signing with a new client( Profil Publishing house) is more than I could've hoped or dream of! I'm feeling very blessed and thankful and I really hope this 2013 brings us all new projects and clients and above all it brings us joy and excitement about the future, rather than anxiety and worries.

I'm looking forward to being officially published this year and to be a Mom for the 2nd time :) I will try and post here and on my Fb page as often as I can but foremost I'm gonna enjoy being mommy to my 2 gorgeous girls :)


For the end, here's a little preview of one of the illustrations I did for Profil International you haven't seen yet.

xoxoxox
Ant

Antoana Oreški 2013 ©Profil International

Christmas Illustration :)

Hello all,

I really enjoyed working on this piece, maybe because I love this time of year and Christmas :) It's called 'All creation rejoices' cos on that special day all creation did rejoice! My little festive racoon in that Xmas ball decoration like 'air ballon' has decided to spread joy to all the critters in the forest, what a nice thing to do :)

Well I'm sharing these 2 pieces with you and I'm wishing you all a great weekend!

xox

Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Something tad different :)

Hello to all my blog friends and followers, it's been ages I know :)
Well for those of you who don't know yet I have had a very good reason for 'hiding' away :) Lol
I'm so proud and joyful to announce that in April 2013 I'll be a mommy for the 2nd time! Wooohoo! :)
And normally that alone wouldn't be a reason for not posting or working on my illustrations lately, but unfortunately my 1st trimester wasn't a glorious one, since I had early pergnancy complications and was bedbound for a month, wasn't allowed to to anything, and I really do mean anything! I'm still on some sort of therapy and still have to take plenty of rest but I don't have to lay in bed anymore and boy were those news awesome for me!

My sweet peanut is doing very well the Doc said so I'm just grateful and thankful to Him who's looking after both of us :) And to celebrate my recovery and the fact I'm able to sit and walk more I was working on a new personal illustration yesterday and am sharing it with you here today. It is inspired by my very brave and amazing friend Victoria and her funny story about a lizzard who's living in her guitar :) We might turn this one into a real proper story for kids, I think it would be swell :)

Hope you're all doing fine and I'm sending you all warm hugs!

xxx

Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012 

Three Piglets :)

Hello everyone!

I know I've been absent for a long time, it's summer here and I have been enjoying every second of it so far. Going to the beach every day with my family is awesome but tiresome too, at least we all have a good night rest after such a well spent day :)
I did however prepared something very summery for all of you. I have decided for the 1st time to turn one of my black & white enigmatic illustration into a proper coloured one....I like the result and would love to hear your thoughts on it too, so don't feel ashamed to leave me a comment! :)

I'm sending warm hugs to each & every one of you out there and wishing you a wonderful summer!

xoxo
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Custom 'painting'

So, I have finally made it, working on 3 projects at the same time was exhausting and a bit stressful...not that I didn't have fun working on them as I always do but I wouldn't like doing this just that often, I'm still just a human and day does have only 24h :) lol

I'm still not completely finished with my kid's pages but will be by tomorrow, and then I'm going back to try finish my logo designs, I have some cool ideas storming inside my head and if I don't get my hands on a piece of paper and paint soon I honestly believe they'll explode inside me (ideas, I mean) :)

Now back to this project of mine, it's custom made and I love working on such projects. I had a very tight deadline on this one and at one point I didn't think I will be able to finish it. It was one of those moments where you are going one direction and you realise there's something missing, like this work doesn't belong to you, you did it but you don't like it...it doesn't look bad but you're not happy with it...there's just something not right, you know?!

So what did I do? I boldly erased half of it (that I didn't like) not knowing what will I do and will I have enough time to repair the damage and I decided to rest from it for an hour or so. Then I started to look at some of inspirational artwork (illustrations, photos, animated movie shots...etc) and I immediately started to get one idea after the other...I just needed a fresh perspective on the whole picture and let my brain rest and feed on the imaginery food and I was back on track. Also I love doing photo referencing, nature itself is always so inspirational...and I think my lack of inspiration was caused by me being trapped indoors for days now due to deadlines and I haven't been spending time outside where real life was happening. And to make things worse, we've been having such gorgeous weather these past few days it's so painful to stay inside and work :(

Anyhow, here's my final work (just click on it to see it enlarged) inspired by this little girl's pics I received as photo reference and her personality I was told about, and she's very unique and different...so I wanted to do something different myself :)

I hope you'll like it and pls feel free to leave any comments, they're always very welcomed and appreciated! 

As always kisses from me! xxx

Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Children's Calendar 2012-Autumn!

My last page for kid's calendar is Autumn! I love this season of the year beacuse of the coloures and it's richness,the variety of  fruit and other yummy stuff :D Also December is a very festive month with Christmas as Bobo's favourite time of year and mine also :D
Thank you all for browsing thru my work and I'll be posting a few more posts on the calendar, including pics of the calendar as a final product.
Sending you all my love...
xoxox Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Children's Calendar 2012-Summer!

Today I'll share my 3rd illustrated page for kid's calendar 2012...it's the Summer page!
Yeiyiiieeee...we all love summer, and it's Bobo's most favourite season of all...he loves to swim and sunbathe and he really really loves stawberry smoothie :D His little inflatable boat with palm tree on it is where he spends most of his time during summer...I wish summer didn't end yet now :(
Hope you enjoy this page also.
xoxoxo Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Children's Calendar 2012-Spring sheet :D

Let's continue with my 2nd illustrated page for my kid's calendar 2012- Spring!
It's time of cherries and green coated trees, of multitude coloures and sweet smelling flowers! :D
Bobo is a true cherrie lover...those are his favourite fruit...don't you just love his gorgeous orchard :D
Enjoy xox
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Children's Calendar 2012!!!

Hello everyone!!
Today is the 1st day of me presenting my 1st children's calendar for 2012! I'll be starting with the 1st illustrated page for Winter...for the sake of protection I have min. it's resolution to only 72dpi, sorry guys but this is just too important to me :D I really hope you'll enjoy my 2012 Children's Calendar presentation which will last for a few days, as I will be posting here 1 illustrated page per day.
For more info on the whole project please visit my FB page where you can read all about it.
See you all tomorrow with yet another illustrated page!!!
Ps-I would love to hear thoughts and comments from all of you, so please feel free to leave one :D
xoxAnt

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Bobo the monster :D

Ok, so most of you already know I've been working on my 2012 Calendar project and my main character is my little monster friend whom I've decided to name Bobo :D He has deviated from the original sketch but in some cases, just because something looks great on a sketch doesn't necessary look great in colour...He might even end up somewhat different by the time I'm done with the whole project but for now I have decided to share this little illo of him as he is :D

Do not pay attention to the fact there's no background, this is not a finished illo, this is just a sample of my Bobo the monster :D

Hope you find him as cute as I do and pls feel free to leave a comment if you want to, I'm always happy to hear your thoughts on my work :D

xoxo

Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Sunday editorial sheets-'In the store' & 'Switched couples'

Soooo...I have included both illustrations this time so all you guys could have fun and play maybe while having a break...it'll do you good...come on!!! :D

So the top illustrations are from 'In the store' sheets and your job is to find 10 things which my little school boy bought with the money he got for his B'day! And the 2 illustrations below are from 'Switched couples' sheet and your job is to find 10 items which switched their places. Ready, steady......GO!!!!Go and have fun!!!

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Sunday editorial- 'In the store'

There it is - my 1st illo for Sunday Kid's pages featuring the brand new 'In the store' sheet...I must admitt it was challenging in a way, I really do try to spice it up a bit for them kids by swapping the items arround-in this case the muffins, cakes, biscuits etc. But I guess as in other things it will get easier and I'll get better at it with time and with each new illo :D Well, have fun and give it a try at finding out which 10 sweet items were purchased by my girl! :D

Cheers

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Sunday editorial :D

Antoana Oreški ©2011

TDAC Kid's recipes contest

Another work checked off my 'to do' list...so here it goes...my entry :D
Click on the image to see it in full size on TDAC blog!
xoxAnt

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Let's dance my little frog prince!

I've been soo mega busy this week...Tomorrow starts our annual Art Days exhibition & it will last for 3days, there's stll so much to set up...so this is a quick hello from me and just posting my new Sunday kids editorial The 1st one of September issue. Hope you like it!
xox Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

Editorial-Jalene & her animal kingdom :D

This is actually an Illo I did for my sweet friend Jalene from Florida. I used is as an editorial for Kid's pages I illustrate every Sunday. Hope you like it as she does :D
xoxox Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011