A year is ending

Not just any year. It was a quite exciting year!!



Since two years, I have something that I call my 'Happiness jar'. I write down all the little and big things that made me happy in at some point and put them in that jar. Each year a new glass. I started this new tradition in 2013 because I tend to lose track of all the things I did or experienced and always feel disappointed when a year ends because I wasn't able to fulfil everything I intended to fulfil - or even if I did everything I intended to do - I still think I could have done more or could have done these things better....
At the end of the year I open that jar... and I get a warm fuzzy feeling that this year wasn't so bad after all ;) .



It is something I can just highly recommend!! I just have one rule: I don't put things in which I don't know how they will end. For example: Somebody contacts you for an awesome project and it even seems that it will be a very good paid job. You love the project, you love the client. But... first talks are not always how a project will turn out. The bigger the project the bigger the risk that it will in some way turn out totally different from assumed.... So this is a thing I would not put in my jar. If I would put it in e.g. in April and it gets cancelled shortly after I will feel stupid reading the note at the end of the year that I was so happy about it in the first place. I try to keep a lot of the small daily happy moments in it. A nice talk with someone you look up to, a good meal, something you did you never thought you would have the courage to do so, a perfect day, somebody on street telling you that you look nice etc. Even if you read about it months later it will instantly take you back to that moment. It is also good to mention that I mostly put in events and memories of experiences and not possessions. The later does not make as happy as the first things.



So there were many many things going on this year. I finished my Master with a masterthesis about birds, made some new friends, reconnected with some old nearly lost friends, grew my own vegetables in my own garden, was the maid of honour at my brothers wedding, moved officially to another country (with all the bureaucracy involved...), made my very first progress video, presented at a Behance Portfolio review which had a live connection to New York, visited Paris for the first time in my life and got myself an allotment garden for next year and re-opened my Morlo-shop... :) And these are just the big things... there were many small things which made me just as happy. Of course there were also lows but for me it is better (and I honestly think that is true for everybody else) to highlight the highs to have the feeling of a fulfilled live.

And for next year...


... ahh... I think of next year tomorrow ;)

Cute dolls or my shop is back

So I thought that I it has been long enough. I am still kinda freaked out by the fact that I finished my study. But it is time to get back on the tracks.
I will update my blog and facebook page more regularly from now on! It will be my early New Year's resolution.
And to immediatly break another promis. I won't have it about my final exam in this post but about my online shop!







Leslie, Jana, Abbie and Adrian :)
These four new Morlos are just a few of the ones which can be bought adopted in my shop! There are also some known faces from before the break which I took because of my final exam.

Maybe one of the will find a new home at your place?

Deadline is near

....for handing in my final exam! And you can bet that I am quite stressed out about it. Now it is just about finishing everything in time and make it all come together. That is also why I have put my shop (and designing the new layout for it) on pause.

I thought it is time to show you some sketches and wip's! Here we go:

What you see would be a sketch of a saker falcon, some sketches of blue-fronted amazon's and the 'under-drawing' of one and the nearly done illustration of the other blue-fronted amazon. They will be used for different things in my publication (e.g. introduction...).
The rest will consist of anatomical illustrations, in-vivo and isolated urogenital system and a manual of collecting the semen and inseminating. More details soon! ;)

Sign of life or... Happy New Year!

Didn't I tell you in the last post how things are planned but sometimes don't work out....?? Yup....so much about posting regularly again.
The reason is my final exam. Although I am moving on more slowly than I planned (again....hff) it consumes most of my time and now I even have to go faster.


At the same time I am working on a new layout for Morlo's World - the Fb page as well as the Etsy-shop - and some new Morlos. So I hope there will be some updates there as well.
Besides these things we are still working on our home. There are still the tiny (or last things) to be fixed e.g. painting the old stairs in a new colour or get the garden ready for spring as well as some tiny improvements in my workspace.
For the rest of the time I am just trying not to panic because I have to hand in my publication in about....MARCH allready. Can somebody hand me a paperbag...hfhfhf!!!



But here are - as some kind of starting the big update flood which I promised the last time - some hand drawings with the hand-skeletons. This is part of our Master and we had to draw many more hands to be abple to draw them okay in the future. Hands are a pretty important thing if you are going to illustrate in the medical field ;)

Hugo the Yeti-Morlo

This is Hugo the Yeti-Morlo! He was found by me at a little bridge ...

Yeti-Morlos love the cold. When it is warm they just want to crawl in a shadowy space (most often caves) and sleep. That is probably why I found Hugo living at/under a little brigde. It was cold, damp and shady down there.
It took some time until he trusted me enough that I could take him home with me. At the beginning he was really scared and shy but became tame when he realized I really cared for him.

Hugo is about 15cm tall. He loves to sit in a sheltered cave-like space where he gets the sensation of his old habitat. I hope he will find a loving home :)

You can adopt Hugo here:

You can adopt Hugo here in my Etsy-shop

If you are interested in my Morlos and want to stay up to date you can follow Morlo's World Facebook page!

Way too much happening right now!!

My mum always says " If something is going to happen it will be very likely that everything is going happen at the same time."

So true, so true (mums are always right anyway :P).

At the moment I don't know where to start with. It is probably the best to start with what allready HAS happened:





A new creation!! This is Albert the MORUNCULUS!! As you can see a Morunculus is a more or less further developed Morlo. They turned to the upright walk and clothing! :)
This ones name is Albert (best pronounced the french way). He likes waffles with strawberries in the morning and insists on having an afternoon coffee-break with a different cake every day. As you can see he has a bit of a sweet tooth (I already told him that if his pants don't fit him anymore he has to make one himself!!) But I got him interested in fruit so hopefully this will be a healthy addition.

I hope that I will be able to show you more Morunculi this year. Albert is what you could call a protoype. As you can see in the next pictures he is slightly posable but I would have liked it to be more. This one will not be for sale since he didn't fully turn out as I expected AND I always like to keep the first of its kind (Morlo, Mini/Baby Morlo and now Morunculus). So if you are interested in buying posable Morunculi stay tuned.

Now I will tell you about all the stuff which is happening right now:

Right now I am preparing for an exhibition in Germany (Halberstadt im Harz). My first exhibition *yeah* :D
It is the 'MoVo - Moderne Vogelmaler' (Modern Birdpainters) and everybody participating has the chance to win the 'Silberne Uhu' (Silver Eagle Owl) as award. I figured that it was time to dare to sign up for one or two competitions this (and maybe every) year. That was my hint in my post "This year will be exciting.

You are probably curious which drawings will be displayed :)
They picked

You can have a closer look at these illustrations in the blogposts Bearded Bird, The Blue Tit and Three little Puffins. I am very happy that three illustrations were chosen. The exhibition will take place in June and I look forward to tell you guys everything about it.


Due to all this happening it could seem as if my final exam has taken a back seat. But it's not like that at all. I hope to be able to post some more details about my project this month. Before (and after) that I will work my ass off to make everything go down as smooth as possible!!! :D

PS: Four more Morlos to come. All finished just waiting to get good pictures taken and descriptions written!!!

PPS: Got featured on Drawing Served with my illustrations of the skeleton and abdomen :) Thanks to the person responsible for that!

WIP - Three little Puffins

As mentioned in the last post I rarely have the time to write or post anything at the moment. I am very busy, I am sorry for my readers.

But today I couldn't resist to show you a little bit of a private project I am working on right now:



Still working my butt of for the school assignemnts, the contests and for my online shop "Morlo's World". Some new Morlos can be seen there soon!!

Lenny the Lemur-Morlo

Hello hello

Although I am very busy I managed to go on with my most favourite hobby:

The discovery of new Morlos!!! This little fellow was found by me in a garden center at the dutch/belgium border. The poor thing sat jittering and shivering in an excotic plant. When I knelt down he directly headed towards me and crawled under my winter jacket. I asked the owner of the garden center and they had no problem with me taking him home (I even had the feeling they were kinda happy about it).









Due to bad weather I wasn't able to take outdoor pictures, but since he loves to sit in a warm spot it didn't matter much to him he also loves to eat mango and pineaple.

You can adopt him here in Morlos World!

Stay up to date and like my the facebook page of Morlos World!! :)

Adopt us!!!

It has been seven weeks since Morlos World (online shop) was launched. But there are still so many Morlos waiting to be adopted by YOU!


Allan

Ella

Vanessa

Finn

Nathaniel

Sunny

Henry

Dexter

Stay up to date with Morlos World Facebook page

Announcement: Morlo - Online - Shop!!!

FINALLY!!!

It is there and will be officially opened at Wednesday the 19th of September 2012 at 18:00h UTC.

If you don't know what that means I have a world clock event here:
World Clock


Preview:

The first Morlos to be sold will be:

Henry the little green-blue Morlo

Ella the Bunny-Morlo

Vanessa the Deer-Morlo

Nathaniel the neurotic Morlo

First come first serve!!

If you are interested just click here: Morlos World

You can also connect with my Morlo updates via Morlos World Facebook page now!

NEW WEBSITE!

FINALLY:


Click it!!!

Old spot, new website!!

I know, I know. I started talking about making a new one quite a while ago (haha...). But (and this but ist a big one) there where many problems I didn't think of in the beginning.

First one was: I started to design the layout for my new website shortly after I started my Master Programme Scientific Illustration. Soon I had this problem: Where should I put my scientific illustrations?/How would I fit it in my really playful webdesign (sneak peak website)?
It took a while until I came to the conclusion that if I wanted to go on with scientific illustration I would have to be a little bit more serious.
BUT then I was a little unhappy: Should I just drop the idea (and the design I already put hours and hours of drawing AND ANIMATING! in)? Where would I put my Morlos? How can I be a serious illustrator and show my love for weird creatures and animation?
Finally it came to me (with the help of my boyfriend) that it would be possible to do both!

Two websites for two different things! This is my official (for clients) portfolio website and the other one will be more for me (hrhrhr).

And another but: BUT (since it will take a long time to revisit the design and change it into a Morlo dominated world) I will open my online shop before there is the Morlo website!!!!!! So stay tuned!! There will be a new announcment very soon!

NEW II.

May I proudly present you the second change for my web presence:

My new logo!!!



Next changes will be my new website (hopefully launching about a week or so) and my super very double tripple new Morlo-Online-Shop!!

Besides that I had my evaluation talk and I am still try to work as much as possible, although it is kinda hard because everybody is heading towards vacation allready (summer vacation yeah). If you don't hear from me for a while I might just enjoy some vacation days as well :) I would really need them.

NEW I.

May I proudly present you the first change for my web presence:



My very new header!!! (as you can see, my blog is changed in its colour as well)

It will be the first of a couple of big changes! Including my new website (hopefully launching in two weeks at the latest) and my super very double tripple new Morlo-Online-Shop!!

Besides that I am working my ass of for my study (we have a BIG evaluation-talk-with-everybody-thing next week), I discovered my love for quinoa and will have to say the last and forever big good bye to a loved person for the second time this year.
Last is also the reason why I am not totally in time with all my master assignments or the other stuff (a.k.a. website ....). But things like that are not important compared to big life changes and the new ways of thinking in which these changes result.

To get an insight

Although I am behind my study plan I am happy that I move forward. At least I finally finished the drawing of a Somso-modell. Nearly everybody knows it from school. In my school it was called Emma (it was female, the one in the drawing though is gender neutral ;-) ). It was so hard...since I have trouble with the 'big forms' it just doesn't get easier if you have to draw an already stylized plastic no-were-close-to-real-life-because-you-have-to-be-able-to-take-all-plastic-organs-out fricking puppet. But...after a lot of "you have to make something nice for you for every assignment" talk with my docents I decided to be guided by anatomy lessons and operation pictures (since body parts in formaline tend to look 'a lil' different than in real life)

But here is the result, take a look four yourself:

Furthermore I am busy to cross out stuff from my list. I will let everybody know soon when my website is being launched/the webshop opened.

Delays

Due to some serious private problems I had to stop working on my website and online shop. I am really sorry for that and hope that It will be up and running this month. But I learned that whenever you think you have everything set to start/do something life just doesn't go along.

But I am also happy to be able to show something from the workshop we had a few weeks ago:

Since we used the scapula we picked in the beginning for every technical workshop we had so far: another scapula!
Maybe I should explain why we always use the same motive. First: The scapula itself offers a lot of different difficulties: concave and convex forms, parts in the background, parts in the foreground and even some slightly transparent parts and different types of textures. Second: If you use the same motive for different technics it is very easy to compare them and find out which one you prefer for which pros.

You can compare it yourself:

I can say I enjoyed more than using the water colour technic :)

Workshop and Website

So, I was busy ....real busy...the guys in my house even thought I moved out because they never saw me in the last month....

Busy with finishing up my website...
busy with getting all the financial official stuff for my online shop done....
busy with my study...

The last two days we had a workshop arround certain water colour technics:

As preparation we made a drawing (left) of a shoulder blade (scapula) which we would paint (right) then in the method we got introduced to in the morning.

PS: The deadline for opening my online shop and starting my new website is set in april!! STAY TUNED!!!

Portrait and more

this is something I do while I study. We have the access to life drawing courses, nude models and portrait as you can see here :)

PS:
Hopefully more updates soon. I am waiting for my last stuff to arrive from the big bad tax office to be able to officially and legally open my online store :D I will announce it: BIG TIME!


PPS:
I finished the layout for my new website and just have to go through the process of programming and then it will be finished. Hopefully at the same time I can open the shop :D

I want more!

A happy new year to you all :) I hope all of you spent New Years Eve with people you love.


So, it seems from where I am now that nothing much happened last year and nothing much is moving right now.
But when I look back I am quite happy what I accomplished last year.

I finished my internship in Berlin and can look back on a lot of experience I gathered there.
My webshop got online and I made a lot of Morlos just waiting in my shelves to be sold.
I made my first website and launched it in may.
I finished my study (although with a delay)
made my first real book for it
and started my Master Degree Program in Scientific Illustration with just three other students in my class.

And that is where I am now. Not as bad as I thought in the first moment. Strange, how sometimes this stuff seems to be ages ago and you feel stuck although you are not. I bet everybody of you know the feeling. So it is good to have a break, look back and be proud about your accomplishments. Back then it maybe even seemed impossible and now they're peanuts. (hmmm.....peanuts....I am getting food, just one moment)

BUT



I want more...yes :) still....

At the moment I am working on my new website layout. Scientific Illustration is great, but I still have to get so much better and more important I have to get way faster. There are a handful of paintings waiting to be finished and even more Morlos to be made/finished/sold.....ahhh....yeah....Morlos. My online shop is still placed on hold due to German bureaucracy. But I hope it will REALLY open soon. My digital skills are getting polished or atleast I try to make them a lil shiny and I hope I can upload more of that stuff in future as well and I started a super awesome secret project what I hope will turn out great.

I hope everybody will have a great year 2012 (and NO, I don't believe our world will end then).

Hello Sunshine

Another Morlo....The first one with 'real' eyes! He lives in the garden of my parents and seems to be way more intelligent than the rest of them! He tried to communicate with me and was for sure the optimistic type :)
[link]



PS: My Morlo shop will open soon ;) Sorry to everyone who ever asked me if they are for sale. Yes, some of the shown Morlos will be for sale :) But I was kinda busy with my final exams and when I wanted to start it a while ago I found out I have to go through a lil bit of bureaucracy which kept me from opening it right away.
For all the nice people who are interested: I will announce the opening of my shop in my blog :) stay tuned!