MATS Bootcamp is back!!!

Hello lovelies!

It's been almost a year since Lilla's 1st Bootcamp in 2014 and I was so happy I was part of it cos it brought me nothing but good stuff-and I really mean good, it changed my life arround!

And at the begining of January this year MATS Bootcamp started again-of course I've signed up again! :)
Our very 1st assignment was Edwardian brooches, that is, diary inspired by Edwardian brooches.
I didn't have time to start on my sketches until the 2nd week of Bootcamp, and I was really trying to stay away from checking all the work others were posting, it was very hard but I think the good thing was that I was swamped with client work so I kept myself busy :) These were just some of my inspirations for my final piece:

I wanted my diary to be feminine, classy and sofhisticate. I have been doing my 'cute' stuff for far too long and one of the things I wanna explore and get in touch with in this Bootcamp is exactly that-my feminine side! I don't want people to just think I can do cute stuff I wanna dig deep and be able to deliver strong, feminine, delicate and sofhisticate art too!

Now I know this takes practice like anything else but I'm willing to learn, to explore, and to work hard but also to have fun on this journey!
Whether I was successful you can judge yourself. I'm very happy with my end result. For now, that is :) It could always be better...but like I said, the most important thing is that I've had fun creating this piece (after a day of headache and feeling non inspiration on the matter) LOL

I knew I only have 2-3 days to start and finish my diary cos a lot of client work was awaiting me and I was even a bit behind on things. So the piece I submitted was not exactly perfect. I knew I'm gonna want to revamp my work later when I had proper time. I still think it's not that bad but little details were bugging me-like the layout of my floral pattern. It was a bit off in some places...the lady wasn't quite finished. The colours were a bit too pale, I wanted to make them even more bright since my bckg was dark. The gems were just a tiny bit smaller that what I wanted and the details in general...LOL

So here's my piece I submitted:

©Antoana Oreski

And here's my re-designed diary :)

©Antoana Oreski

Sending you all hugs from afar!

xoxoxox

Ant

Great adventures with little terrariums!

And I'm off into another adventure called GTS or Global Talent Search by Lilla Rogers. GTS originated last year along with Lilla's fabulous MATS (make art that sells) courses and it was a thrill to watch it, it was like Oscars but in the category of ART :) To be honest I never even dreamt that a year from then I will participate in it, but the path this year took me to MATS Bootcamp 1st and then I jumped into GTS as if the ride never stopped. I've been eagerly waiting for the 1st GTS assignment that landed in our email boxes on August 5th! And then I read the title- 'Little terrariums' and then WALL ART! What?! 'Oh, no!'- was my 1st thought...you see when you lack experience in a certain field it's easy to get frightened, 'cos the step into the unknown is always a bit scary...it's about trust and faith-trusting yourself that as an artist it doesn't matter what market you're creating for, you are good at creating and you can do it. And having faith that if you allow yourself to let go of fear you will find yourself in a natural flow of creativity. Letting go of fear and embracing the adventure releases joy into the creative part and joy mixed with faith moves mountains!

So I started to change my way of thinking and thought of possibilities I have with the theme...and then I thought to myself-'what if there were no boundaries, if it's the land of magic where all is allowed and there are no rules...what if I place into something so small as a terrarium something that is very much the opposite and could never fit in there if in a 'real' world, what if...' Cos when I was browsing thru all of the little terrariums on Pinterest they all looked so magical to me...like a whole another little world on it's own...and the idea was born along with the lines from a quote of one of my favourite writers E.A. Poe. I cannot reveal just yet those things cos I would reveal everything then but I will write a proper post on my GTS piece as soon as the gallery is unveiled. My aim from the beggining was kid's wall art cos that's where my strenght resides :) And I have chosen a very bright colourful palette to accompany my concept. I have battled with the lettering placement for 2 days however cos for some reason it didn't work as well as on my sketch...the lettering design itself I was pleased with tho. I managed to find a solution which I realise is not perfect but it's not the worst one either, and it'll be a great lesson for the future :)

Since we were asked to post our work only after the gallery is revealed I cannot post my piece here now but I will treat you with a little plant that didn't make the cut but I love it just as well :) it will find it's place in one of my future projects I'm sure...it's a little Orchid and I feel responsible for her just as Little Prince was responsible for his rose, cos in the words of Antoine de Saint Exupery-“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” 

xoxo 
Ant

Antoana Oreski ©2014

TDAC'S Glad Party!

This month I was also working on my submission for TDAC's Glad party and I enjoyed working on the recipes! I had some great help from our local chef Jasna who is the head chef over at Velo Caffe restaurant and she does some mean stuff overthere! :) So thank you Jasna once again, you rock! :) Here's my work:

Antoana Oreški ©2014

xoxox 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

Cuckooland :)

Yep, and this concludes our February assignment of Cuckoo clock covers for cell phone! I have had so much fun I think I might explode with joy on the inside :) Lol I'm a type of person who works well under guidance, I love guidance and I love learning new things. I can focus on the important things and not loose my focus on silly things, it's great to be under such awesome teacher such as Lilla Rogers! There's something in the way she preps you for the assignment and delivers each new step for you, not to mention her tips are of great value, I'm sure all at Bootcamp would agree with me! I have designed 2 covers in the end...1st one was the minty one below and then on the 2nd week I just had such inspiration I had to do the other cover I had in my head...so my crazy chicken space cuckoo was created as well :)

And then I was playing arround with bckg colours from Lilla's palette and these were done: 

I had such dillema which one to choose to submit to the Gallery...we're able to upload only one per month. Thanks to some of my buddies (Celeste) and my sister who made this task even more harder for me (lol-thanks sis-love you) hahaha I finally chose my fave...I was thinking 'which one would I love to carry arround as a cover?' so the choice fell down to: 

Antoana Oreski ©2014 MATS

Viola! My final presentation of the cell phone cover! I think I might upload it to Society 6 store along with all the other too...so if you're interested in getting one for yourself be sure to visit me at my shop- Antoana Oreski Illustration!

Cheers,

Ant xoxo

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

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 

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

It's bathing time Mr. Tiger!!! :D



Antoana Oreški ©2011



'Show Me the World' new Illo

Something new and some new techniques I've been trying out. Hope you like it :)

Antoana Oreški ©2011

 Copyright © Antoana Oreški