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!

Cuckoo clocks at Bootcamp! :)

As I've promised, an update on Lilla Rogers' bootcamp :) The 1st week has come and gone and we got our 1st mini-cockoo clocks! I was delighted by our 1st mini assignment cos I NEVER ever drew a cuckoo clock before-funny right?! But it's true :) And I decided to give my wacom some time off, at least when sketching/exploring, so I did a lot of pencil/pen/guache thumbs. Anyhoo...the atmosphere is awesome, I love seeing everyone's sketches, drawings, finished works...there's such a variety of styles and techniques. I love it! Everyone is so kind and supportive and just inspirational! This is gonna be an amazing voyage! So here are some of my doodles and details and I decided to turn one of my sketches into a coloured one in the end, cos I wanted to give myself a chance to experiment with different texures/colour palletes. It's all about HAVING FUN as Lilla says, so I did. And in the future I hope I loosen up even more and learn to have even more fun.

xxx 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

FINAL EPICASE RESULTS!!!

Hello all my wonderful friends and bloggers!

I'm so happy to announce that my Hansel & Gretel illustration came 3rd in the 3rd Epicase Competition! My heartfelt congrats to the winner from Russia, indeed an amazing and complicated work-well done! I would be lying if I said I wasn't hoping to win (I believe we all did who entered top 10) which is natural and good, but I'm not dissapointed at all. Very, very happy 'cos my illustration has now become a part of their retail art collection and you'll be able to purchase their products with my illo on it! How awesome and cool is that?! :)
When I reflect on how I've entered and expected really nothing out of it, and then to enter top 10 out of 1,214 works from all over the world, and now my work came 3rd-yeyieeee!!! Is all I can say and shout :)
Thank you all again for your precious votes and cheereing me on-truly means the world to me!

I'm sending you all warm hugs and kisses!

xoxox

Ant

Epicase competition results! :)

I have received such uplifting and amazing news today. I have entered a competition by Epicase a couple of months back with one of my illo's, after my dear friend Ni suggested I should try and enter. Today I got an email saying that amongst 1,214 works from all over the world mine entered the top 10-WOW!!!! :) Woooooohooooooooo! Can you tell how excited I am?! So the facebook fan poll starts today and I will shamefully ask for all of you my dear friends to help me out and vote for my illustration on their fan poll wall. The voting starts from 5pm and will last for a couple of days I think, till the 28th. Multiple choices are allowed as well. I'm not sure yet how many times you get to vote, I asked them this question so will let you know. 

I would love to at least enter the top 5 since my work would enter their collection then and would sell in their stores! :) Pls don't forget to pop over to their fb page HERE and vote!!!!

Thank you all and wish me good luck! :)

 xoxo

Ant

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

2nd piece for the Grimm Exhibition-Hansel & Gretel

Hiya guys,

been very busy and still am, so just wanna show you all my 2nd Hansel & Gretel piece for the Grimm's exhibition. I chose to illustrate the part of the story where Hansel is leaving bread crumbs behind so they could find their way home-but to no avail, since the birds are gonna eat up the crumbs trail :)
I was debating whether to illustrate this part of the story or the one where Gretel throws the evil witch into the burning furnace...but I decided upon this one, since to me the bread crumbs were always the highlight of the entire story :)
Anyways, hope you'll like it :)

Cheers,
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Hansel & Gretel-piece for 200yr of brothers Grimm exhibition

Finally finished my whole piece for the upcoming exhibition I told you about in my previous post :)

I'll do my best and do another one for the same exhibition if I manage to complete other projects with short deadline :) So without further ado here it is! :)

Your thought on it are always very welcome....

Have a great day everyone! :)

xox Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Sneak peak-My version of Gretel by Grimm :)

Hello, hello! :)
I have decided to share with you all what I have been working on lately. Meet my version of Gretel by the Grimm brothers! She's brave & clever...and even though she was scared of the witch who's was about to eat her little brother Hansel she had to be brave to overcome her fear and throw that evil old lady into the fire oven! Hansel & Gretel was one of my favourite tales by the Grimms therefore I have decided to do illustration/s of this fairytale for the upcoming exhibition tributing 200yr of the Grimm brothers. The exhibition will be travelling from Šibenik (2012) to Interliber (2012) to Frankfurt (2012) and finally to Bologna (2013). You can participate as well even tho you're a foreign illustrator and see their submission guidelines HERE.
I'm working on the whole piece at the moment so when I'm done with it I will show it to you guys.

Wishing you all a great weekend in the meantime!

xoxo
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

New Stribor's Forest illustration :)

Here's another illustration I finished for Stribor's Forest. Been very busy these last few days and even now I have to run with my other tasks. So forgive me for being brief this time and I do hope you'll enjoy my latest ilustration as the 1st two I did for Stribor's Forest. Just click on the illustration to see it in full screen :)

xoxo Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Happy Easter :)

I know it's a little belated but Happy Easter to all the bloggers, especially to all my blog followers!
And though Easter has passed, here's the link to my latest AGI Ecard, an Easter one of course :)
I wish I had time to do all this before but better late than never, right?! Lol!
So, I hope you had lovely time over these holidays and you're well rested and ready for the new Spring adventures! 'Till next time- when I hope I'll have some more exciting news to share with you all :)

xoxo Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Illustrations for Stribor's forest :)

I have been working on illustrations for Stribor's Forest lately and could not resist to show you the 1st two I made. I still have plenty of work cos there are still some to finish but I truly love working on this project!
This time I've decided to upload a few sketches too. Been drawing more than ever these past couple of weeks and I'm planning to keep up this tempo cos I really feel my hand got out of shape lately due to working a lot in photoshop :)
Any comments are always welcome and critiques as well, so if you have any input Re: these illustrations, pls feel free to share with me :)
Hope you all have a lovely weekend :)
xoxoxAnt

Antoana Oreški ©2012

 These are just photographed, but usually I scan them and start playing with the whole concept in photoshop. I have started new aproach when working digitally. Like I've already shared on Fb I have been doing my backgrounds 1st with design of the spread in mind and later working on my characters and other elements. This simplifies my work significantly and makes it more effective. Also I have been playing arround and learning more on how to apply photographs and certain textures and merge them into my work on higher level, treating the background as if it's a stage getting organized for the main actors to step on the scene :)

Well...slowly but getting closer to how I want my work to look like or better say it to look as it looks on the inside my head :) So, here are the final illustrations and I truly hope you'll like them :)

Antoana Oreški ©2012

Antoana Oreški ©2012

New Header and 'logo' :)

As you've probably noticed I have finally changed my Blog header, so yeyieee! :))
I have enjoyed indeed in the whole process of making my dragonfly girl and somewhat my logo character. I still have plenty of work making my real logo design and it's next on my list but I 1st wanted to finish this. So here it is with some blown up details...
Cheers xoxo
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2012

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

TDAC Eat Pretty Contest

Hello all!
I have been doodling a bit for TDAC newest contest called Eat Pretty. I didn't know which healthy recipe to illustrate, so for the 1st time I went to their website and decided to use one of theirs. As soon as I read the nutritions and healthy pros for this berry banan smoothie, my brain cells started to plot the funny story...and here's the result!
I really hope it brings smile on your faces and cheers you up for these following hols!
Kisses and hugs all :D
Ant

Antoana Oreški ©2011

My little new character- Enzo the frog :D

Well even though Enzo is still really my character in development or should I say work in progress, I wanted to share him with you. I have been playing arround and trying out some new techniques lately. I got fed up with my acrylics and have felt it's time to move on and follow my heart and have turned more to digital media. I'm still learning a lot and am still perfecting my style and all, but I do know what style and technique I'm going for in my head...so, slowly but I'm getting there. I know I love playing arround with different textures and patterns and it's just a matter of combining the two plus my linework I'm currently working on. Still, why not show something I have created along the way? Hope you find Enzo adorable as I do, 'cos I really do like frogs and find them funny but adorable. I'm weird I know!!! :D

Antoana Oreški ©2011