My stuff in society6 are in Free shipping this week

Society6 is offering free shipping of my stuff trough this link:
(form now to 12 April at midnight!!)

http://society6.com/anafonso?promo=NJPHHMWV3DJT

«ARTIST PROMOTION
From time-to-time we will give you the opportunity to run special offers on the products in your store. Each of these promotions will only run for a limited time. We will notify you via email and through the website when they become available.

Please use the link builder below to generate Promo Links to share with your family, friends and fans and they'll get FREE Worldwide Shipping when they order from your Society6 Store. Please note that this promotion is NOT automatically available on your Store, the promotion is only available once someone clicks on the link that you share with them.

Promotion expires April 12, 2015 at Midnight Pacific Time. *Free Shipping offer excludes Framed Art Prints, Stretched Canvases, Wall Clocks and Rugs»

instagram VS reality

Just a bit of humor before the weekend.
Though I'll show you a bit of the hard truth behind the beautiful 'Instagramed' version of my life :)
I dare you to notice the irony of the picture on my website where the thesis is represented by a book! now slowly turns your eyes to your left and be overwhelmed by the Ikea massive bookshelf I have to read. I also would like to appoint how excruciating it is for a visual brain to grasp everything that you've written in the present chapter. Slowly again... eyes to your right and laugh on the huge canvas were my paragraphs are merely thumbnails of a distorted story with almost no pictures! 

illustrator, illustrator on the wall, do you have any passion at all?

Press play (here) and keep reading :)

WHO are you besides the work we see online?
what's your passion?
For a long time I had my work on the internet to get commissions. Very professional site with my work under categories and those under submenus, tidy, organized, clinical.
All the personal info was on the "about"  - which is a lot of words nobody as patience to read :) really.
So my personal information was in other places like blogger, youtube, facebook, disconnected from my work.

Small story short to make my point: I posted in youtube a video of how sports were a part of my routine and were contributing to my work and a friend called me in to work at portuguese Bike magazine! This is a simple fact: in order to do what you love, just do it over and over and you'll be calling for more of it.
Paula Bonet also says this in a TED talk (here) Lets face it: We are illustrators, born to handle whatever is no that briefing, but... if you only let us work on what we really love ( to me is a mix of bike, running, pets, animals, nature...) damn!! I'll climb mountains for the best sunrise, skip hours of sleep to draw and express my passion for it and make you feel that.
So I've just put yesterday some more direct info about what I love to do in my site:
_In "about" there's the video where I relate running and drawing.
_I created a submenu "Work in Progress and Upcoming"
_Changed my wallpaper - my "home" landing page is my bike in a place where I like to stop for pictures when I go for a ride.Already I have friends saying the site it's more "human" they now recognize me: where I live, how I live this life, and how it reflect it into my work, they understand were pictures come from. They see a story connection. They felt emotion. 
I realize my site is now the storyboard of (and for) my life.

here's an example in  "personal project":
These are the projects I do to reinvent myself, my work and find the new themes I want to handle and places I need to go and research. 

Aside from the Pro Bono projects were the institutions specially demand for what they need, everyone of this projects have sports in common: "My Cmyk Personality" is a one year project where I drew every Tuesday of 2014 for a blog and a Facebook page, a caricature of myself and the way I felt in various occasions about politics, rain, sun, work, being a girl etc...
"Fanzines" show how I feel about Running, and this is the way I still need to go, to tell the world how beautiful life can be if you just... move! get some dopamine in your system to pump up the day.
2015 will be more of a bike year as my knees start to complain about long distance running and I start to be more conscious about the necessity to include bicycles in our lives... Bikes, Nature, Balance, Animals, Zoomorphic people... that's were I'm going.

Site update (new look and submenus)... and upcoming stunts :)

anafonso.com

«Before this year ends I have 4 books to put in the printer, an exhibition about animals and bikes for Summer and my PhD about Picturebook Design and Consumption.  You can find more info at my blog  and of course, the most actual info on instagram. I'am also planning on a routine WIP process of video recording and posting in my youtube chanel the making of these objects so you can see how to work with the materials I use, how storyboard changes, how sketches and drawings come together to make a book, or how to buy your own tote bag to see for yourself what you can improve in that product ;)

See you around.»

How to build your illustration store

My WEBSITE STORE (LINK) is now available for more than books :) This is quite an achievement for an illustrator how knows so little on Joomla!
How was this possible?
well, "with a little help from my friends":

Lívio (google+ profile) made this possible for me. He build it using PrestaShop, a free eCommerce software. I could never have found the way to put this all together in my website, but we did it.

Thank you so much my adorable Lívio.
Also, Inês, from Illustopia agency (link) had given me the contact of Francisco, who prints some really nice fine quality carbon prints :) and everything came to place.
Now here I am, ready to sell directly to you. 01_Step one: If you want a job done properly you just have to ask for the professionals to do their work. 
Final step: launch on social media.
Let me say this again: Get help from experts: You're an illustrator not a webmaster!
I started with a static store on my website, I then went to a failed store on Etsy, tried https://tictail.com/ and finally, I realized nothing is as professional as a store under your own domain. Ask for help. Pay for quality services and clients will come back and advice you to their friends. 

Portraits

This year I'm back to portraits. I was always fascinated by the exasperating "everything it's on the right place... still, it's not him/her!" Portrait is that ultimate challenge for a person who claims to have drawing skills.
I was attracted by this discipline since I was a teenager, then, in Fine Arts Faculty I had a really nice teacher (prof. Artur Ramos) that was really passionate on the subject and I got addicted! besides: «I'm an Aries, you know... no mountain to high and 'Challenge' is our middle name» :)

I drew and I learned to draw and to express what I wanted: notice how my long-face got from "serious-person-will-work-hard" to a simple "hey there" 
Anyway, I'm sharing this pintrest board I started today:(http://www.pinterest.com/anafonso_com/portraits/) to track the evolution and experimentation on different styles and techniques.
I basically made this folder to show a client what type of portraits I could do for her, but, when everything come together it was quite amazing to watch the diversity of digital and analogue possibilities.

I like both digital and hand drawing processes - In Lívio's portrait I really enjoyed the "non-drawing" process. it was all about volume and polygons and colors. Very detached from my comfort zone - playing with academic painting or line work.
Hope you like!

...and now on ETSY

I have a shop on etsy! It was quiet easy to upload the photos, You have to pay Etsy a small fee for each object you're posting there. Pick 5 photos with good light and definition and that's it.
I usually do close-up photos while working, so that gave me material to show details on the painting and process  I'm optimistic, hopefully this will be a good window for my work and a extra income. 

:) I sold a drawing on my first day.Hurry up and get yours!
https://www.etsy.com/shop/anafonsocom

20 Prints available & Christmas on the way :)

Meet The print!
It's a mixture between my sunrise photos and a deer that likes to ride his bike :) Hope you enjoy it.

You can buy this trough here: info@illustopia.com

my running and biking sunrise photos (link)
Exhibition photos on Facebook: (link)

Exhibition in Oporto: "Portugal ilustrado" 22 Nov,17h00

This drawing was transformed into a print and will be available at Oporto's Exhibition: "Portugal Ilustrado" 

Opening and comemoration of Illustopia Agency 4 th anniversary

 is 22 Nov,17h00 // Praça do Coronel Pacheco, 2

and you're Welcome!

__

Este desenho foi transformado em impressões e estará disponível na Exposição do Porto: "Portugal Ilustrado" 

A Inauguração da Exposição Colectiva "Portugal Ilustrado" Comemoração do 4º Aniversário da Illustopia é dia 

22 Nov. às 17:00 // Praça do Coronel Pacheco, 2

Todos são bem.vindos!

#zoomorphic ...again.

working on what I love, 

hoping this will open me more opportunities and doors

 to keep researching and winning lots of commissions on this theme :)

Autograph session this saturday

 

This Saturday I'll be in FNAC at Cascaishopping celebrating with Princess Pea their 3rd anniversary. 

We'll be launching the 2015 agenda with illustrations from Portuguese authors - I'll be glad to make a dedicated drawing/autograph in yours. 

Reminder: Christmas is close and FNAC is a bookshop! So... if you have any books of mine (besides the agenda) I will also autograph/draw on them. You'l leave with some presents ready to drop under the Christmas tree ;)

 ...just to let you know the links on the right are updated :) follow my zoomorphic drawings.

New Book about a Portuguese tale

New Book about a Portuguese tale - you can find it on the link.
http://www.wook.pt/ficha/frei-luis-de-sousa/a/id/15826008
I'll be posting again about the making of this one really soon, specially to talk about the cover... it was a challenge that I didn't got right at first attempt.
Illustrating is also being aware of what publishers needs and public can grasp. I made 6 proposals for cover, find the elected one on the link ;)

The Cheetah

After getting my hands dirty doing another zoomorphic creature it's time work it in photoshop. You can see in instagram how much distortion it had originally :) this was made with ecoline, color pencils, liquid corrector, waterbrush, ball point pen.


http://instagram.com/p/t5d8VNPKeR/?modal=true
https://www.facebook.com/ana.afonso.ilustra

2015 agenda for princess pea

Here's a peak into the 2015 agenda for princess pea. Don't be mistaken by the 2012 on the right... I had to put it in the old layout to see the proportions and colors.
I loved this assignment. Am I back to drawing animals? :) ...

Hashtag of the moment? #anafonso !! :) meaning...

I'm (also) on instagram.
I started to used it by April and now it's growing on me, it's easy to post and it makes sense to put together were you are alongside what you doing... so if you wish to know a bit more about my #WIP and whereabouts here's the link:
http://instagram.com/anafonso_com 

My youtube free hand drawing and photoshop painting for a book illustration.

Illustrating for a book on Portuguese literature/ Tales about Portugal history by Alexandre Herculano.
Here's my new video on "how to" illustrate. I use Photoshop to combine line drawing over a painted background. If you do this you just have to enhance some details to make it all pop out. Clean and simple. Funny thing is: the more you use brushes in photoshop the more you will lose the power of the real acrylics paint. It's a short video bu t very resumed. Enjoy. (link)

From drawing to published book

So, here's the new book with my illustrations. I had to leave my comfort zone to make this one, bye bye to curly girls and pets and smiles!!

This is a dark book about battles and death... it turn out OK. I focused on facial expression in battle more than describing how many where dying and how they died! There's so much bloody descriptions in words I just had to make lighter images and avoid the color red :) Really, it's amazing how Alexandre Herculano made use of suffering and patriotism to narrate Portugal history!
I had to do lots of research also. about the author (link here) and what kind of armors and garments people used - Pintrest it's just amazing for that (see the pins).

You can find the book here (and/or view 3 illustrations the editor shared):

The 3rd illustration is inspired by the narrative but mostly by this wonderful horse I found online:

No more print screens - here's the portfolio! :)

Print screens were  made while working for a Magazine Publisher - Motorpress.
I had the privilege to work there 4 months doing lots of different tasks for their magazines which are mostly about Sports and kids thematics: Bike Magazine, Ciclismo a Fundo, Sport Life, Ideias para Educar.
So I had Sports and illustration combined adding the plus of going there on my bike - about 6km that made me sweat sometimes, because when you happy and like sports it's very difficult to overcome the flood of energy Lisbon gives you when riding by the river... early morning, sun and win on your face it's hard to remember "Do not sprint, you don't want to get there smelly!! Do not sprint, do not s.... do not... sssssssspeeeeeeeeeeeeed!!!

So, here's the 4 months update on to my portfolio: http://anafonso.com/images/anafonso/documentos/portfolio_ana_afonso.pdf

print screen at noon_05

 

Sometimes you just enjoy what you do and you still learn something about a sport you love.

These are the times.