Santa and Friends Christmas Collection

Time goes by really quick. I still can’t believe that Christmas is another month away and in two months time it will be a brand new year. Where did all of the time go? I’m so excited to welcome Christmas every year, it is always the most exciting month of the year and what I love the most is the preparation, the vibe, the festivity and last but to least, the togetherness with your loved ones.

To celebrate this year’s Christmas, I’m also participating in launching a new Santa and Friends series on greeting cards and Christmas tags. I’m sure they will make your Christmas gift even more exiting than ever! They are available in both Christmas tags and greeting cards. Head to my shop now and get prepared for Christmas.

These cards are sold as a pack of 7 and 5, you can also buy them individually. This collection is available at www.inspirationneverends.etsy.com

Get 20% off in every purchases at the value of $30 and above.Enter this coupon code “XMAS2014” at checkout. Happy Shopping 🙂

Set of 7 Christmas cards – Santa and Friends

Christmas Card – Hey Santa!

Christmas Card – Mr. Snowman

Christmas Card – The Chilly Bear

Christmas Card – The Fancy Penguin

Christmas Card – Rudolf

Christmas Card – Little Elf

Christmas Card – NutCracker

Whim Online Magazine – Issue 7 Interview

No words can describe how happy I am. It’s my first ever editorial interview! I’m so pleased to be featured along with other talented people out there. It’s my interview with Sydney based online magazine, Whim Magazine for their 7th issue. Please check the Q&A about me, my work and my work process. Hope you guys are inspired! :))

Also, Please check Whim Magazine online blog here to get daily art inspirations: http://www.whimmagazine.com/

AyahBunda Magazine – July Issue

I’m always excited working on different illustration projects. I was asked to contribute in one of the Indonesian parenting magazine – AyahBunda. Check out this link to find out more about this magazine: http://www.ayahbunda.co.id/

I contributed in illustrating editorial pages for July issue. It was such a great experience working with them and I’m so glad that my illustrations can be enjoyed by a lot of readers. 😀

 

Vintage Girl Illustration

Drawing girls/women is one of my biggest passion. I think they are such beautiful creatures and I really want to capture their beauty in my pieces of artwork. I think, thisvintage girl illustration shows the elegance and the beauty side of a woman. And now they are available in my Etsy shop.

My Little Corner

I had always wanted to tidy up my small work space since a long time ago, but I just didn’t have time to do it until last weekend. I’m glad that I finally managed to make this happen. As an illustrator/artist, I personally need a cozy and comfortable space to work in.

Unfortunately, I don’t really have any extra room in my house that I can use for my studio and I can’t afford to hire my own studio either. So, I’ve been using a little corner in my bedroom as my studio. And finally, last weekend I had time to tidy this up and decorate a bit. I tried to utilise my small space to keep it simple and neat – hope it stays as is. The most important thing is that your space reflects your personality and that you would stay hours and hours enjoying your time there.

I’m giving away my original print!

Woot.. woot..

My birthday is coming very soon! And I would like to share my joy by giving away this print from an original artwork of mine – Girl with Native American War Bonnet (A3 size)

The rules are really simple:

1. Go to Irenne Tj – inspiration never ends FB page.
2. Like it
3. Back my blog post and leave your comment below.

Please note: The FB button below this post doesn’t work as a “LIKE” button to the Facebook Page.

“Enter” and “Like” now! This competition will end on the 28th of March. The winner of this competition will be announced on the 31st of March. Hope you will be the lucky one!

Mural Commissioned

Time flies..

It has been 1 month since my latest post…

I’ve been really busy working here and there. I didn’t even get the chance to enjoy my weekends for the last couple of weeks. I worked on mural commission for a beautiful cafe in Melbourne and also one in an office space. In this post, I’d like to talk specifically about my first mural project for a small cafe in Melbourne city. This cafe is called “Four of A Kind”, it’s located in Paramount building on Bourke Street, Melbourne. It officially opened a few months ago and it’s owned by my a friend of mine. I was so excited and thrilled when she asked me to do a painting in her cafe. Mural/wall painting was something that I had never done before and I was really excited with this great opportunity.

I did a lot of research on the internet to know more about the painting process. I watched video tutorials and asked for suggestions from my friends who had done it before. I just wanted to make sure everything went right in the first place. And it worked out well at the end.

I want to share my mural painting process to you and the aspects that you may need to consider before jumping into it;

1.  Measure how big the wall is. Keep this measurement as you will need this to start sketching.
2. Ask what the client wants in the painting. They will probably have certain things in mind, you may want to ask them to come up with list of elements for illustration. For example, an illustration of cakes, foods, drinks, coffees and so on.
3. Research different styles of mural illustration. Most of artist have distinctive styles of drawing. If you’re still new and don’t really have any styles yet, that’s not a problem. You can always refer to the illustration from your favourite artists or the illustration styles that you like.
4. Back to the measurement that you had earlier and start drawing it in a small scale. I used A3 size paper and pencil to start with. Start sketching.. Let your creativity flow!
5. As soon as the sketching is done, take some photos and show it to the client to make sure they are happy with the drawing concept.
6. Once they are happy, start inking it! This is the most exciting part for me because I would be able to picture it clearly.
7. After the illustration is inked, scan it and I personally did a bit of touch up in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. I love their handy tools! it’s really helpful!
8. Then save it as a JPEG image, so I have a digital version of it.
9. Connect your digital copy to a projector and project it on the wall. Projectors are really helpful to get the image as precise as your original drawing.
10.  As soon as I get everything set up, I started tracing and outlining the drawing with pencil and then start painting.

Below are some photos of the progress from sketch to paint and my timelapse video too.

 

I guess all hard work and time are paid off with the happy faces of my clients and their overwhelming responses. For me that’s more important than anything else!

Feel free to drop me any message for any commissions and any questions!

Cheers!

Art is Subjective

When it comes to arts, there is almost no right or wrong. People might like a certain style of arts and others might not. It all depends on every individual’s taste. Personally, I love a wide variety of art/design/illustration. At this stage, I can’t really decide what I like the most. Each of them are beautiful in their own ways. I’m currently in a process of exploring different kinds of art/illustration to produce since I love many styles. I love pencil drawing, watercolour, digital, ink, acrylic and mixed media. To be honest, I don’t feel like I have a strong style at all. I’m not sure if it’s a good or bad thing? There are times when I think that having a distinctive style as an artist is really important. In my opinion, this style represents the artist’s identity. When I see some illustration with a particular style, I can tell who the artist is… I think that’s pretty cool.

The other day, I met my friend who is an artist. She has been working as an illustrator/artist for almost 5 years and she has already had strong style on her work. I came to her and asked, “How do you determine your style of drawing? And when do you realise that you like a particular styles more than others?”. And her answer was, “What you need to do is to draw more! And the more you draw, at some point you’ll find the style that you really like and this style will be embedded in your drawing”. I guess that made sense to me and I’m trying to do a drawing exercise every single day now.

Below are some drawing practices of fashion illustration using mixed media (pencil, watercolour, colour pencils, blusher and ink) Feel free to give me a shout or feedback. 🙂

Ethnic Tribe Fashion – The Brazilian Kayapo Headdress

It’s been a while since the latest post on my blog. I finally managed to finish another “Ethnic Tribe Fashion” illustration inspired by the Brazilian Kayapo tribe and I’m very happy with it! With this colouring process, I wasn’t sure about the eyes expression at the beginning, which I thought looked a bit sad on the original sketch. So I decided to change it to look a little sharper. I also added a little bit touch on her face with simple patterns and lines that represent the Kayapo tradition/culture. According to my research, the Kayapo are known for their face and body paintings. The design normally varies from simple stripes to complex geometric patterns. They are generally in black or red, that symbolises their life stages and natural powers including muscular strength, sexuality and sensory abilities.

Below is my illustration of girl wearing the Kayapo headdress and necklace as her accessory. This print of my original illustration is available on www.inspirationneverends.etsy.com

Girl with The Brazilian Kayapo Headdress

I’m back with my project series of “Ethnic Tribes Fashion”. This illustration is inspired by the Kayapo tribe, the indigenous people in Brazil who lives in south of the Amazon Basin and alongside Rio Xingu River. A few weeks ago, i did some research about the next tribe fashion illustration series and I found out that National Geographic magazine featured Kayapo tribes in their January 2014 edition. I was amazed by their photos, attributes and accessories that they wore. They are absolutely beautiful!

According to my research about the Kayapo culture, their appearance is highly decorative and colourful with the use of face and body paint, beads and feathers. Most Kayapo women shave the distinctive V shape into the scalp and men ceremonially wear the flamboyant Kayapo headdress with outwardly radiating feathers that represents the universe which is also their warrior dress. I’m very impressed with their beautiful headdress and beaded necklace accessories which makes this tribe so unique and colourful.

I am now trying to portray the beauty of Kayapo through my pencil drawing and it will soon to be coloured.