Little Stories 59 : Random Nescafe Talk

I was making my hot nescafe in the late afternoon yesterday. My mom was there as well. She doesn't drink caffeinated drinks except in the morning, but I offered it anyway. "Ma, do you want to taste this?" She took several sips. "Why so pahit?" "Oh I intentionally make it a bit bitter, just like how my heart tasted, bitterness". :D...

Doodle : " Explore ! " Totebag

Hello !

I am so excited the tote bag I ordered is ready for the pick-up today ! 

I asked my mom's help to collect those bags far in Sungai Buloh, a place we both were not familiar with, using Maps in iPhone *well, it worked fine. But we were 2 hours lost in the factory area, a very crammed disorganized place indeed. Thank you Ma, for being very-very helpful.

*

This time around, I made something very personal for me.

I wanted to create something that I'll remember, as part of my 3 months - Reckless Life phase. I doodled a lot of random things in the past, not much of something that I really plan to do. So this time around, I tried to focus on illustrating something that I wish I did, solely on the personal passion of mine and random interests. 

As much as you can see, I really love to go to places. So I took a theme : travel, places, adventure, explore, etc. I love the emblem-vintage style, like the old badges they did in my dad's years *my dad used to collect badges and pins. So I did a lot of research on that as well. My research ideas came from a lot of Behancers and Tumblr posts. I printed several examples that I found and loved, and sticked it on my wall. I even watched the Darjeeling Limited and Moonrise Kingdom again so I can 'feel' it.

I drew it on my current favorite A4 Marker Pad by Daler Rowney, I love the smoothness of the thin-layered paper (70g/m) and I used my favorite Pentel mechanical pencil - because it worked as thin and dark as I wanted it to be. 

The illustration took several days, because I was stuck on things to add, and I had several arguments with myself whether certain part was needed or not, or should I draw raccoon or a bear, or whether I should draw local trees or whether the totem should be there or not, I asked several people around for their opinions as well on the little items, and finally post it on my instagram :

This is the first version of my attempt on drawing a simple compass, but I changed the design after my brother said he thought it was a water-flask. Phew.

I didn't want it to have local touches much, hence the fox and bear, also the same as the arrow, the totem, the flag with a pine tree picture and definitely the bon-fire. What is the purpose of exploring if I draw things in my area, I wanted to go as far as I can go - *or so I thought.

*

Next, was the scanning and the outlining phase, it took longer than I planned, because of the detailing part. I used Photoshop CS4 and an old wacom bamboo tablet instead of Illustrator, I am not going to argue about why I did not just vectorize it right away. I just love freehand drawings.

*

After the long phase in digitizing the illustration, I made a test print. I gleefully showed it to my mom, my sisters & brother - and shouted "Look at thiss !". I am nothing as cool as other super-awesome-illustrator out there, the child in me is ridiculously annoying sometimes. After several seemed-like encouraging words and "mehhh", they continued with their works. But I was still gleefully-excited and posted in my Instagram, again.

*

After that, I did some research on local printing company especially canvas tote bag - because I wanted to print something for so long but never had the courage to spend a bundle of money on one shot. I did it anyway, I found several companies, contacted them and asked for the rate and stuffs, chose one that I found reliable and trustworthy, asked for invoice,  used my little saving to pay half of the total amount, confirmed on the designed with digital mockup and waited for like 10 days before the pick-up day. 

*

So finally it is ready !

The illustration was screen-printed on a 40 x 36 cm hand-made canvas tote-bag.
It smelt like a totebag baked in a little lost factory in Selangor.
The material is a bit thick, which what I intended it to be.

*

And they are currently up for sale !

Price : 
$10 usd (International) / RM 30 (Malaysian)

Postage :
- International (depends on the location)
- Malaysian (RM 3), normal postage, or Poslaju by request (RM 6)

Payment :
Via Paypal or bank transfer Maybank2U

How to buy? :
Send a PM to my facebook page or ,
send me an email : azreen_31@hotmail.com or,
reply to this post with your email address as well or,
check out my Etsy.

*

Explore !

This Week's Findings 1

Interesting finding this week : Just Delete Me ,  it's a directory of direct links to delete your account from any web services. Knowing God knows how many web services we signed up in the past couple of years and how much information about you scattered across the internet.  * Take your pick,  a letter from David Ogilvy replying to his 18-year-old nephew, Harry. Harry...

Exhibition : Seni Asli, Matic KL

I went here unplanned and found a great exhibition currently held : Seni Asli - An Orang Asli Contemporary Art Exhibition and Sales, at MaTiC Kuala Lumpur.  There were a lot of beautiful wood-carved sculpture and masks, several art sketches, a lot of photographs and the Mah Meri's crafts. Nothing as I imagined Orang Asli's product would be, because the design was a bit modernized and influenced...

Doodle : This week.

Sometimes I got too many emotions mixed-up in my mind, and I don't know how to express those feelings. Those confusion and arguments got piled up and the easiest way to let it out is by doodling. Here is for the hari serabut early this week. This is all taken from my Instragram post : * Inspiration from : Celia Arellano, Kanak2 Angkasa, Red Indian and penyakit hati. Phew. Strokes definitely...

Little Things 88 : Introversion (again).

*why we actually need to explain ourselves ? o_o Another post on introversion, here is a link I found on Says :  How to Rock the Holidays with an Introvert.  This also came after a discussion with my brother yesterday while having lunch. He was talking about how one of his friend doesn't like to mix around with the gang for any activity. My brother thought everyone should at least...

Little Things 87 : Don't Inspire People

I always remind myself that I don't live to inspire anyone. I do what I do best and I do it because I can, and I expect myself to do more. That way it becomes more personal and much closer to me. In writing or reading or doodling or sharing, everything comes back to me. I am selfish that way *I really am, Sirius Black - bless his soul. I don't live to put up with other people's expectation.  It...

Book : Updates

Here is for a long post on books. I lost count of books I read this year : * I just finished reading Fearless by Cornelia Funke, the sequel to the previous one I read several months ago : Reckless. So it's another Jacob Reckless journey to the Mirrorworld, this time surviving the black Fairy curse and finding a cure.  I think it didn't hit me as much as Inkheart trilogy did and I...

Little Stories 58 : My Awan kena sawan

Last week for Eid, we went back to Pekan for several days. Like usual, I planned to leave Awan at my dad's house. While we were packing things up on the morning before we left the house, Awan sensed something and started to hide away. I had to capture her several times and with my brother's help, we managed to put her in a big tote bag *letting only her head out so I can still hug her while...

Reckless Life 5 : After 31 days

We will be forever in debt with everyone and everything around us. For those beautiful inspirations, for ideas and indirect lessons, for new thoughts and opinions, for never-ending fire that burns in our soul. We can't say thank you enough. These past few weeks had been very entertaining for my little-imaginative-part-in-my-brain. My little projects in this past 4 weeks : laser cut on...