Our Little Postcard Swap

since the Mail Swap with Joyce of Monsterella Plush Art, we've been dropping each other emails every now and then. somewhere in our emails we've decided to have another swap, this time with postcards! here's the one I sent her

I added one of my brooches with a hedgie design (of which the photo is missing) since Joyce is into hedgehogs. I'm a newbie with using washi tape and haven't explored its many possibilities yet, so it's a bit conventional.

here's Joyce's postcard, among other things (Joyce is one generous person!)

I am looking forward to more mail/postcard swaps in the future, and hopefully with other crafters/kindred spirits.

Finished Poppet and a WIP

Poppet, watercolor painting by Bre

finally, i've finished working on Poppet. it's really hard to work with just b&w, thank goodness Poppet is a redhead! but i guess that's the magic of Le Cirque de Reves. and if it did exist, i want to be a reveur, an ultimate fangirl of the circus.

and now here's a sneak-peek at Tsukiko, Le Cirque de Reves' very own contortionist and a former "game" contender

Dark Knight Fever

The Dark Knight Rises nears its premier, and I'm dying to see it! Batman has been one of my favorite superheroes of all time (love his broodiness!), and Chris Nolan has made the storyline very interesting indeed. the cast of his latest installment is very intriguing also, especially since most of them came from his Inception movie.

i'm on a Dark Knight fever these past few days, and been drawing some of the villainesses from the series

Harley Quinn (sorry for the typo there), Mr. J's pet

of course who'd forget Selina Kyle aka Catwoman, Batman's sexiest archnemesis

A Drawing A Day16

Queen of the Sea illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day15

reading between breaks

a ballerina reading, illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day14

scared

a captured Siren, illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day13

a very fashionable eskimo

an eskimo huntress illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day12

here's to my Spring/Summer

SS illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day11

how i would want to commute in a slouchy coat

Commute illustration, by Bre

A Drawing A Day10

it was a busy week, the previous one. i wasn't able to draw daily, but here's one i was able to do last week.

and it's contagious

her smile, that is...

Contagious illustration, by Bre

Sneak a Peek: La Vie En Rose

a glimpse of my work area

here's what's i've been up to lately. one of friends, Vins of Tawambuhay, piqued me to create stationery items. we were supposed to be a tandem, with her coming up with the words for cards/notebooks, but haven't yet brainstormed on our project. one thing stuck to my mind though, her mentioning of La Vie En Rose. the phrase i found out has many possibilities, and here are some. 

i've yet to post the finished bookmarks here and on etsy, but i'd just like to share with you this WIP. thanks, Vins, for the inspiration!

A Drawing A Day9



enter the water-dragoness

 Happy Lunar New Year, everyone!


Water-Dragoness illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day8

it smells of love

Dorm Girl illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day7

stretching after a rehearsal

Prima illustration by Bre

A Drawing A Day6

i usually don't draw males, but we can make Mr. Catkin an exception 

Mr. Catkin, the Victorian gentle-tomcat illustration by Bre

A Drawing a Day5

 

"Imagination is more important than knowledge." -- Albert Einstein

 

how very true.

 

and now for A Drawing a Day5.

 

there is no winter in the Philippines, but it doesn't mean i can't be cold

 

 

Cold illustration by bre 

A Drawing a Day4

inspired by Degas

illustration by bre

A Drawing A Day2 and 3

Elven Lady; Day2

Grown Shishigami; Day3

due to technical difficulties i wasn't able to upload these last Wednesday, but here they are. with The Hobbit movie looming closer, i feel myself being drawn to draw elves once more. they are indeed a beautiful race. the bottom is an adolescent shishigami, you'll remember that i've painted a young shishigami before, and now he's grown.


all illustrations by Bre

A Drawing A Day

in order to keep my creative juices running, this year, i resolved to challenge myself to draw everyday. even small drawings (which i really like, especially at the office) will suffice. and here's the start:

illustration by bre

Craftpreneur Files: Noemi Manalang of Noomiedoodles

before the year ends, it's time for yet another feature on Craftpreneur Files. let me introduce you to a very talented fashion illustrator, Noemi Manalang and her shop Noomiedoodles.

hullo, Noemi. it's a pleasure to have you here at Craftpreneur Files. do tell us a little about yourself and about your work.

My name is Noemi Manalang and I am an illustrator. I just graduated fashion design in ESMOD Jakarta a year ago and now continuing my passion in fashion illustration. I own an online shop in Etsy where I sell my original illustrations, prints, cards and I also do private freelance commisions.

how did you start going about your craft business?

It started on a long summer break during college. During that time my best friend introduced me to this site called Etsy. I was so fascinated by the creative and crafty things people were selling there that I wanted to start my own thing too. So I convinced my mom to help me out with etsy's credit card thing and just started the shop.

lucky you to have a very supporting mom not to mention being so successful at young age. but where do you draw inspiration from?

For years I enjoyed having painting lessons ever since I was small. Back then I painted more in oil landscapes and still life. Then I got pretty busy with fashion illustration in fashion school. I used to watch clips by this famous fashion designer named Isaac Mizrahi do live fashion sketches in his online site. He was my inspiration and still, to this day in making something out of fashion illustration.

well i can't blame you for loving Isaac Mizrahi, i'm also look up to him for his works and not to mention his humor! you mentioned that you have a shop on Etsy. how's it been doing so far?

It's been a very exciting experience selling my art. But what I love the most is having the opportunity to show my art to a wide audience and making friends in the Etsy community. I actually haven't experienced selling locally since I've spent most of my life in Indonesia. Now that I am currently in the Philippines, I get to see the art scene here and know what's around. I'd love to give it a try.

i could see that your shop's got quite a lot of admirers and sales on Etsy, kudos to that! but were there any drawbacks you encountered especially when you were just starting out?

At first I was pretty skeptical and had issues on shipping original art internationally because it is very far away. Well, it has been going good so far. So researching beforehand about shipping and customs would saved me a lot of time in online selling. There I made sure to let customers know in my policy that shipping would take some time and to plan for some worse case scenarios too. I'm also learning to balance my time in doing different things in my business.

from all the projects you have done, what's the most memorable so far?

Every art project has been memorable to me. One in particular was just recently when someone emailed me to request a custom illustration for her first book cover. The publishing is still ongoing so I may not provide some details here yet. It's new to us both and we're excited for the outcome!

all artwork by Noemi Manalang

we're excited to know more about it too! we hope you'll be able to share it with us through your blog once it's done. any last words for aspiring craftpreneurs?

Always be resourceful. Make the best of what you have and keep improving. I think it brings up the creativity in you.

thank you for the insights you shared with us, Noemi! i'm sure many will be looking up to you someday, as you looked up to Isaac Mizrahi.

for more of Noemi's works, you can visit her wonderful blog Noomiedoodles, and her etsy shop of the same name here.