jump

He's been asking me what I've been doing for the last 2 days. I'd say "stuff" or simply smile and nod, because it's suppose to be a late birthday present!

I've had this idea for quite some time now to illustrate some of Pedro's jumping photos through cutouts and collages. Hope he likes them as much as I enjoyed making them.

paper and scissors

Working on yet another illustration project in paper cuts and collage for someone special.

História primária - the book

For all those who wanted to see more... here are some of my favorite pages.

This is a handmade book: everything was cut out and pasted and the pages bounded in coptic stitch. This was the very first time I did any sort of illustrating and, although the very short period of time that I had for this project, I really enjoyed the creative process and also the drawing, the cutting, the pasting....

Senhor Alfaiate, the author of this beautiful story about primary school, put together a stop-motion movie to celebrate his blog's first year. Here, you can checkout the whole book as it's being flipped through the pages. 

I think we make a good team!! So now I ask: Senhor Alfaiate, when will the next chapter be published?

Postcard Swap

I decided to participate in a swap of handmade postcards promoted by iHanna. I was emailed 10 addresses and soon I'll be receiving another 10 postcards in the mail. I didn't quite know what to make but after my short experience illustrating História Primária, I decided to go with cut outs and old photos: I printed out the photos from this album and the lyrics to the Portuguese song Aldeia da Roupa Branca to go along. They are numbered from 1 to 10, according to the lyrics. Now off the post office to get stamps!

before and after

here

história primária

A sneak peek into História Primária.

the story about the book

about a month ago he calls me:

"...you know how Mary is always saying I should publish my stories? Well, her birthday is coming up and I want to surprise her with a printed book of my short stories. Can you illustrate the cover?"

meanwhile...

about a week and a half ago she calls me:
"... you know how I'm always telling Alex that he should publish his short stories? Well, his birthday is coming up and I want to surprise him with a printed book with his stories. Can you illustrate the stories and mount the book?

I said yes to both... but they don't know it!!

the mess

I know I've been away, but I have a great excuse for it. I'll be posting it tomorrow... can't wait!

PS: to my flat-mates: I'm sorry about the mess. I'll cook a nice dinner to compensate for it!! 

the process

step #1 Choose a photograph from one of my favorite books: Paris, mon amour (bought in Paris, of course)

step #2 Draw the pretty lady 

step #3 Embroid her with my favorite yarns on hand dyed linen.  

velório e gregório rimam com supositório

 

New years eve was spent with friends in a beautiful little country house in the middle of nowhere. It was so relaxed and fun. We spent most of our time eating, drinking and playing games, just as big kids would! I brought one of my zig-zag notebooks to tell the story.

PS:The polaroid was taken a couple of minutes after midnight! It's our first photo of 2011.

feliz natal

For all those friends who are far away and those who stay close by, 

for he who is always close to heart, 

for my family on the other side of the Atlantic and my family in the city by the sea,  

I wish you all a very wonderful and warm Christmas.  

our so-called tree

In the spirit of the season, we have finished our Christmas "tree": made from real wood, from some real tree; decorated with colorful lights, origami stars (# 88 on my list), candles and a very up-to-date Nativity scene with Mary, Jesus, Joseph and their cat and dog, because if they lived today, they would most certainly be a middle class suburban family.

about life, love and the earth's hemispheres

sometimes envy is the only thing you got: 

in Lisbon is't raining, it's cold and I hate it;

in Brasil it's sunny and hot and Pedro is bathing in the warm waters and tanning himself silly. 

Life isn't always fair...

forecast for today

Sad and grey morning with rain.

Hopefully at around lunchtime it will look like this.

And I'm sure the sun will be out in the afternoon!

hand drawn font

In between reading my thesis and embroidery, I finally drew up a proper font for this blog. I'm making some final adjustments. So what do you think?

boy in stripes

This is Carlos Manuel in his Sunday's best back in the 1950's.

ele e ela

Last night I water coloured the boy and drew the girl. I don't know what I'm going to do with him, but she's going to be embroider. The boy on the swing is almost finished: I bought some metal embroidery hoops to frame him and all I need is a pretty ribbon to hang it.  

Swing

It feels great to draw again.

I'm back!!

130 pages later and I finished my master's thesis. Museums will never be the same again!
Now I can finally treat myself to a single reese peanut butter cup that has been waiting patiently for me in the fridge for this moment. The strange thing is is, having been in total reclusion, it feels weird to get up in the morning and not have a 5 page deadline in front of the computer.
So to start off right I made myself another list: a short term list of things that will bring me immediate pleasure, like calling friends, watching dumb TV shows, restarting embroidery and going the the photo lab (I have a year full of film to develop!).
It feels amazing to be back!