FABRIC SHOPPING IN BANGKOK (OR: HELLO SWEATY!)

“Horses sweat, men perspire, women merely glow.” Well, I was “glowing” alot at Phahurat market in Bangkok at 33’C last week.

Last time I went to this market for shopping fabrics I went mental. This time, well I went mental too, just not AS mental;) Phahurat market (Little India) is a couple of narrow alleyways crisscrossing between different fabric-, sewing accessoirize-shops, cloth shops and tailors north in Chinatown.

Last time I went about nine or ten in the morning and it was so packed I could barely move. But it was still an experience walking trough then, when you think it can’t get narrower or hotter, a motorbike tries to squeeze trough and a homeless person with a karaoke machine follows. This time we went at about four, fortunately not as crowded then but still hot, emphasizing on HOT. I couldn't even wear my braid down, bacuse it stuck to my skin and tugged at my head! (The “Hello Sweaty”-thing is from a very failed pickup line a French guy tried to pull on me in Paris. Felt a bit sorry for him when me and my friends burst out laughing when he went for his own version of the word “sweet”. So of course we have been using that ever since when feeling… well, glowing.)

I acually ended up buying less fabrics  than planned, when you have tons and tons of stuff to choose from you end up just leaving because of the overwhelming amount of choices.

With the lace and ribbons I was on firmer round, I went to the same vendour as last time I was there, and I basically knew what I was looking for so those choises were easier. After round one we had lunch at a street kitchen in the midst of it all, a chicken curry and ice cold coke that we downed in seconds.

After lunch I spotted this huge yellow fabric rose to wear on my head. I think that might be filed under impulse shopping.

The fabrics cost me 40 baht a meter, which is about 6 kr. The lace was 20 and 10 baht, which is 3 kr and 1,50 kr. The red gingam I delivered to a tailor and got back a lovely rockabilly shirt-dress, for about 200 kr

If you ever go to Bangkok and are not too claustrophobic, I would recommend a visit at this market. I felt like in a candy store

BACK HOME:)

It didn't take long for me to miss dark rye bread and a proper cappuccino while travelling, even if Vietnamese coffee was amazingly good.

So one of the first things I wanted when I got home was that combination;)

And it's so light outside! We've only been gone for three weeks, but I notice the difference in how many daylight hours we have compared to before we left. Yay!

While gone I got a few new jobs from different publishing houses, so it's back to work Monday with renewed energy and creativity:)

And we will start editing the pictures and shots of film from our trip during this week too, just have to stop being jet lagged first;)

STILL TRAVELLING

I'm still on the road, our vacation has taken us through Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand, and we have enjoyed this marathon immensely.

This photo might look photoshopped, but it's the mirror of the outdoor sink of a rather social toilet on an island outside Hoi An.

This photo is not photoshopped eighter;) I AM actually sitting by a pool in Siem Reap working with a drawing for a publication, nipping to a cold drink. Whaaaaa:D

I feel so lucky that I am able to work from other places in the world as well as from my office. Travelling gives me so much inspiration! Even if it sometimes is a hassle not having all my normal office equpement, it somehow works out.

This trip has been a blast. Now we are enjoying a few more days in Bangkok before heading home.

It's going to be good to come home too;)

WORKING FROM A ROOFTOP IN SAIGON

Right now I'm sitting on a rooftop terrasse in Saigon corresponding to Norway about illustrations for new bookprojects and other tasks. I have the place all to myself, quite special in a busy city like this. We are surrounded by people at all times, so this is precious!

It's quite an experience that I can sit here and work undisturbed with the glittering rivers of motorbikes 11 floors below and a red asian full moon above.

The hotel is not even high class, just had this amazing oasis. Who needs Rex or Continental?:D

I think I'm having an Asia-moment;)

A publishing house asked me to look at a project to see if it's something I would like to work on, and I got asked to make illustrations for a text from a regular client, those are due in two days. (The text was very good by the way.) So that is my task for tonight.

I just discovered my cellphone is glued to the table with sticky rice, and I can see down into a park where there are about thirty or fourty zumbadancing Vietnamese working out in perfect lines. I'm not distracted at ALL, good workflow, yes yes;)

HA LONG BAY

We are already on our way to Saigon, but I wanted to post some pictures from Ha Long Bay in the north of Vietnam where we were about a week ago. The whole bay is on UNESCO's world heritage list, thousands of limestone strucktures, islands and caves. We stayed one night in a cute cabin at one of the djunks scattering the bay.

We visited one of the myriad of caves, and after the mystic lighting inside it was great to come out and have this beautiful view of the bay. Don't be fooled by the tropical look, it was really cold the first few days. Full jacket and scarf and all. (Until we left, when the tempreature rose significantly. Of course;)

I had to wear almost everything I brought, so my fashion sense and the colour mix of my cardigans I must say was interesting;)

I really recommend this trip to anyone visiting Hanoi, only go when it's slightly warmer so thay you can enjoy staying on deck. We had a driver take us to Ha Long Bay and back, and the drive itself was quite interesting if you like strange and random architecture.

COLOURFUL VIETNAM/ PHOTO EDITING TOOLS FOR TRAVELLERS

I'm in an epiphany about all the pittoresque sights and colourful things to photograph here in Vietnam! Good thing I'm editing along the way. That way it's easier to see what I actually have been taking pictures of as well, and don't end up with lots of the same kind of photos. And I wont spend hours, and days, back home going through tons of material.

I'm using my Nikon D40 with a Nikkor 1.8 50mm prime lens and use the SD card connector for my iPad. You can import and work with RAW or JPG, and I read somewhere that it's best to have the 64G version of iPad2 to be able to have a good workflow, but you have to check if this is the case with more techno-focused bloggers;)

The apps I'm using are a combination of diffrerent photo editing apps. Filterstorm for general photoshopping like curves, white balance and such. This app has so many oppertunities if you use a few hours to get to know the app. If you normally like working in PS with your photos, this gives you much more control and creativity than the PS app.

For something like PS actions I use two filter apps as replacement. Pixlromatic gives you some alright filters for quick editing, but the best one I've tried so far is PhotoStudioHD. This allows you to fine tune your filters so that you don't get the full whack of the filter, and can play around with more subtle tweaks. Love it!

If you want to work with text or do a wee bit of graphic design/typo-work, you can use Filterstorm and lots of other apps. (...that I haven't spent enough time with to give a proper recommentation for.) I have spent some time working with MoodBoard and find that this app suits my travellers needs best, together with Filterstorm.

For backup we are keeping the pictures and films on the SD cards, import the ones we find most interesting to my iPad where they are automatically stored in iCloud. (When I'm connected to a wifi and it's charging.) The ones I really don't want to lose I upload to Dropbox.

We are filming with a Nikon 5100 as well, but since there are no apps (that I have found so far) that allows you to import and edit in HD this will have to wait until we get home.

We are allowing the photographic and filmatic work we do on this trip to shape the end product, but we still have a ruff plan what we are going to do with the material we are collecting. So stay tuned;)

TRAVEL BLOGPOST

I'm in Vietnam:)

Last week went in a fury, didn't want to leave any loose threads for due illustrations. I even managed to have Friday off to make sure I had everything packed and ready before our trip, had some red wine and blue cheese with friends in the evening, and then wooooosh, we were off Saturday morning. On a million hour flight to Vietnam.

Candy pink seats makes waiting for the next flight less dull:) Bergen-Oslo-Bangkok-Hanoi.

I'm travelling with my boyfriend Roar from Katapult Media, and during this trip we are going to film, photograph and draw our experiences there. I even went to the extravaganza of getting myself a new Nikkor prime lens, thanks for help with research, Sushibird and SortEnke;) I went for the 50mm 1.8, and I'm soooooo happy with it!

For the moment we are in Hanoi and it's freezing:) It was quite a gamble about the weather, and we pulled the last straw, but it's still great to be on vacation. In two days we'll have summer when we go to Hue, and then later we'll probably miss the cold weather when we are sweating away around the Mekong delta;)

WHAT I DID TODAY

.....amongst other things.

I want a gnome to assist me in all the invisible tings alongside my job, so that just creating doesn't remain a luxury like it is now. Today I forced in half an hour with just creating. No paid task, just work with colour to see what happens. This way I can discover and develop and not get stuck.

So her hair in this picture is the result of that half hour, and then later all "invisible" (I won't call it boring because it isn't) work was done alot quicker because I wasn't moping around about not being able to just DO.

Yay to remember to just be creative:)

OFF TO THE PRINTERS!

This was something I didn't know I was going to participate in until last week, and now my work is already being printed and exhibited!

Photographer Hanne Cathrin Olsen runs a new art department at Allkopi in Bergen that opens Thursday this week. She sent me this peek at my printed illustrations today, they will be sold there alongside her and other brilliant artists' work.

Some of Cathrine's portraits are amazingly playful and full of life, with confetti and high hair all over, no wonder I like them. I love that my work is displayed alongside that much energy!

If you follow me on twitter you might have read about my praise of Turner 300gr watercolour paper used on the Epson printer there. I was stunned by the colours and quality of the reproduction I got! Looking forward to go over there and have a look at all the finished prints.

I'll have more information about the exhibited work tomorrow, this whole thing happened so quickly I haven't had time to promote anything yet:)

COLOUR TESTS

I sometimes test out different colours for backgrounds and characters in PS before I finish them up. Usually this makes choises of colour bolder if I’m not coragues enough colour-wize that day. And I spend less time trying to decide, which sometimes can be a hassle.

I drew the figures out last week, and spent too much time Friday deciding colours. So today things went much quicker after testing it out, and I ended up choosing none of the colours I first thought of;) So now the cover illustration I’m working on will be a pastel haven that will make the characters pop out more, compared to a less bold Paynes Gray gradient that I first thought of.

Back to the drawing board:)

GABBY YOUNG AND INK

About a year ago I discovered the sound of Gabby Young And Other Animals, and have listened quite alot to them, but completely neglected to check out their videos. Today this video inspired me to draw the picture above. (I’ll colour it in in bright and mismatching colours later;)

I’m loving it! I use music as inspiration all the time for when I draw, and this gave me lots of visual input as well. No wonder I like this video, it is packed with all the aesthetics I enjoy:D Maybe I should start playing the accordion.

MAGAZINE COVER

 
These are sketches for a magazine cover that I’m finishing up today.


The theme is “Writing”. My concept is to show the development of writing tools up though the years, and convey a feeling of enthusiasm towards writing.


Here is the half-finished product, now I have to complete the inking, let it dry, and then later today and tomorrow colour it in.

Have a great day at work! I am, my head fortunately is back in place after a good night’s sleep:D

THE WEEKLY MONSTER

In my job January is usually very quiet. But not this year! Yay! Only I was planning to take the first week off in 2012, after all the extra hours and no time off all December. But I’m so lucky that times are good:) The only problem is that I wasn’t quite ready to throw myself at new tasks just yet,  so I keep going to work with my head under my arm. (From too few hours sleep as well, cursed hailstorms hammering at my window at night.)
 
So this is me today:D I feel like a whale has parked on my head and is stopping me from being effective, hindering me juggling new tasks and completing old ones. But fear not! Coffee is at hand! (And my proper vacation is not far away:)

Now back to working with illustrastions for Nynorsksenteret and Elixir:)

TUPPERWAREPARTY

A friend of mine had lots of old pictures and frames, and wanted to buy illustrations from me that might fit them. So I packed a portfolio with drawings and prins of different sizes, and held my very own Tupperwareparty at her house;)

We used quite a few hours, but it was great fun to see the whole thing coming together.

It was quite cool to see how well the drawings worked with the old black and whites she wanted to keep.

They will be hanging somewhat like this, with a myriad of different shapes and colors on the frames.

I'm looking forward to see the finished project up on the wall in her house:)

ILLUSTRATIONS FOR COX/BT

 
This was a job I did mid December, about new year resolutions. It was a paper that came with Bergens Tidende one of the days after Christmas Eve when we were all still full from Christmas dinner;)



I especially love this one. This is me in Thailand before I discovered antihistamin.




Since this is my first blogpost in 2012; Happy New Year:)

KIMONO JACKET

I went fabric shopping in Bangkok two yeas ago, at Phahurat market in Little India/Sampeng Lane. I've turned most of the goods into tote-bags and other things I've sold at markets since then.

I had three metres left of a beautiful peacock print, both in green and red, and I have been trying to figure what to turn it into.

The green print in the picture above is another kimono jacket that I bought here in Bergen actually. I use it alot and figured I'd make another one just like it with my lovely Bangkok fabrics.

I traced the jacket onto paper and cut out new pieces from the peacock print.

I got this cupcake pin cushion ring from my friend at Christmas, it works perfectly! I thought it would be annoying being stuck to my hand, but it makes working much easier.

I started the whole thing around 12 the same day, and it didn't take long actually, I guess about three hours or something. I've cut the fabric that will go in the front, and I'm estimating finishing it up will take me about two hours tomorrow. Not bad for a first timer trying to make a jacket:)

A bit of flaky nailpolish to complete the look;)

I'm going to finish it up tomorrow, can't wait to wear it:)

GOODBYE CHRISTMAS:D

.....See you next year:)

Just wanted to post some more Christmas pictures, the first one out here is winter sky at Os outside Bergen.

Christmas eve at my parents' house with my sister, aunt and uncle and my cousins. My mum love setting fancy tables. Me too:)

And since we are such traditionalists; I wore a kimono jacket. I have a national costume (three in fact) but experience tells me that it's too hot and uncomfortable on Christmas Eve. I got the umbrella the same night as a gift from a friend of mine, perfect match! We did have a visit from Santa, but those pics are on my dad's camera which I borrowed since he was gone when Santa came;)

The next day I spent time with my presents;) This is a robo-tea infuser that I got from a friend of mine that always get me spot on.

Something tells me my interests lay in the open, because I got a 4 storey baking tray and a decorator kit, hehe.

And wooly things that doesn't itch! I love wooly things, specially the silk woven ones. I panic from itchy wool. Some of the more observant readers might question the baby cap, it's just my mum being desperate for grand-children and wants me to get started, by giving me subtle hints like this one;)

Haha, and I got a device to make square eggs:D Things I didn't know I wanted:D

In the middle of the picture above is the best present EVER:D My boyfriend got me a wand! Hahahahahaaaaaa! It controls my tv! It's a remote control for anything with infa red! Imagine doing presentations with it haha:D It has 13 different commands or movements you have to "teach" it. For now I'm only using it for the volume, channels, pause and on/off on the decoder and tv, but I'm going to hook it up to the stereo in my kitchen as well.

From three remotes to one SUPERB one that lets you pretend you are a wizard. I keep jumping around the living room waving the wand and switching things on and off:)

Now I want to watch Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone.