I ordered 100 MiniCards and used 40 of my images on them. All of them printed very nice and sharp.

I love the unusual shape of these MiniCards. Very cute!

MOO also gives you the opportunity to design the back of the card so I created the design with my avatar and details.

The cards came in a very sweet little white-and-orange box! Great design and very useful for a meeting or conference…

These little cuties will become a part of my promotional materials together with my MOO Notecards, Business Cards and Stickers :) Now off to work on my portfolio design…

See you! :)

Not So Black Bird

Acrylic painting on paper. Image size: 50 x 35 cm.

This is a beautiful starling Alex and I met last spring on the street in Berlin. This little birdie was sitting on top of a a wooden chair waiting for a treat. At first glance it looked totally black while being in the shadow, but the moment the sun came out, all of these wonderful bright colors appeared on it’s feathers… Not so black any more :)

I really enjoyed experimenting with the colorful background on this painting. It reminds me of a spring blossoming tree. Also trying out the combination of looser strokes in the background and little details in the bird’s feathers.

Hope you like it! Have a very nice weekend!

It all started on March 11th 2008 on Livejournal as Getting Creative Blog when I’ve written my first post. It is still there. Now that blog continues here, on my website, and I have some exciting things, articles and reviews planned for you.  I’m grateful for every comment, feedback and kind word that you’ve given me during these 24 month and hope to hear from you again in the future!

As I started my blog with the picture of me, I do that again on it’s birthday :) So here I am in Palma de Mallorca, Spain, on a very nice day one month ago…

Thank you very much to my dear husband Alex for taking this picture and for supporting me in my creative endeavors!

Hugs!

Oksancia

Girl and a Dolphin

vector illustration in my Istockphoto portfolio

While creating this artwork I combined shapes and brush strokes in one piece to get the bold look and to add the higher level of details. Rather pleased with the result :)

I was very happy to find out that this illustration was added to Istockphoto’s Vetta Collection :) Always great news! I’m working on something new and exciting at the moment and this illustration will be a part of it ;) More about that soon!

Little Sheep

Acrylic on canvas, 20 x 20 cm. For sale in my Etsy Shop!

It was a lot of fun painting this piece and imagining myself outside in such a lovely sunny day :)

I was also inspired by this cute and funny comic strip “The Barn” by Ralph Hagen. Love this sweet sheep! :)

Of course, my studio starts with my computer: wonderful iMac accompanied by my Cintiq 12wx…

…and there is also a sweet shiny white mouse on my table :)

All sorts of bright colors live in the tools I use while creating my artwork, like these felt pens and pencils…

… and these textile paint bottles …

The colors magically mix to bring other colors to life on my palette…

… then I put them on their places at the painting…

Everywhere in my studio you can find things that inspire me and remind of the sweet moments, like this little wooden man, who seems to have new mood every day…

… or this little mouse having a nap on my pillow (a gift from my Godmother)…

… or this glass star candle holder that shines softly in the evening.

One of the biggest inspirations is a view from our window filled with Dutch houses, backyards and, of course, the everchanging sky… This is what I saw yesterday!

The spring is gaining power quickly and starting to rule not only outside, but also in my studio: our little pine tree got new bright-green branches on its top :)

The first flower appeared yesterday among the tulip leaves in a bowl on my table… Hope there are more to come :)

This is it for today :) I promise to post more pictures and also photos with me in my studio very soon! Enjoy the spring!!!

Gold And Purple Winter Landscape

acrylic on paper, 35×49 cm

The assignment was to paint in complementary colors to those colors we see on the reference photoss. Loved it! I started in the complementary colors, but continued adding details according to my color feeling.

Pink Sky Landscape

acrylic on paper, 35×37 cm

Cold and crisp snow covering the ground and the trees against a cool pink sky…

Misty Winter Landscape

acrylic on paper, 37.5×50.5 cm

Soft pastel colors of the misty, snow covered landscape, illuminated my the rising sun…

The Fair will take place for the 47th time in March and will be packed with interesting events like  International Award for Illustration and Illustrators Exhibition. There will also be a place for every interest like  Illustrator Cafè and Translator’s Centre. I will definitely do my best to see and hear everything! ;)

At the moment I’m getting ready for the big event: creating a couple of new illustrations in different styles, updating my portfolio, browsing through the impressive list of registered illustrators, printing some paper goodies with my artwork for promotion (lots to do!) I consider this event a wonderful possibility to meet great artists, do some networking and get a lot of inspiration.

Anybody coming to the Fair as well? Please email me! I would love to hear from you and meet up! :)

Images source: Bologna Children’s Book Fair website

I really love the painterly way you can create subtle shadows and clear details on your charcoal drawings. As I still have only the drawings I created during my sessions of live model drawing and traditional drawing and painting techniques lessons, here are the two of more recent works I like…

Winter Landscape (charcoal on paper)

Portrait of a Woman (charcoal on paper)

Due to the fact that I started drawing and painting more frequently with traditional media and on much bigger sizes of supports, our living room is slowly turning into a proper art studio with all those finished and unfinished artwork around the room, stacks of new canvases and rolls of thick paper :) Maybe a bit messy, but, luckily, it is a really inspirational environment for me…

I made a couple of photos of my little studio and will be writing a post with a little peak for you ;) Here is a small preview – one of my charcoal drawings on the easel:

This is my second “vector of the week” on Istockphoto in 2 years! Yay! :D My first one was “Space friends” illustration about 1 year ago. Hope there are more to come! ;)