Wednesday, March 11, 2020

playing with tablet

I got a HUION, 19'' because Cintiqs are so expensive. Huion is cool but the screen is a bit fussy, it blurs the colours and it's not very bright, so I keep a normal monitor on the side to check how it's going for hues and small details.
Nevertheless, I had a lot of FUN trying the possibilities of this tool.
The amount of zoom and detail is almost infinite, so I hard to curb myself and remember I was doing a picture book and not an illustration / photo like.


The things you could do with it!! big gesture strokes were finally possible. My old wacom sapphire is now just a mouse interface :P
I tested brushed (and I'm still doing it) but soon, had to pick 2 brushes to do this book, otherwise it would look different from page to page.
Oh, I ended up hurting my wrist because I drew on it slightly more vertical than usual. but maybe I'm just adapting to it. Saw some forums and it's a normal thing to happen to beginners.
My drawings could be enhanced, composition was however I like it! This was the tool I needed. working become addictive and it was kind of magic to preform "extreme makeovers" on my drawings. Magic.

The book came out in march. I feel I still have lots to learn. 





Saturday, October 13, 2018

new work!


Just updated the site with works from this year :)
I loved to do this CD cover and the book for and old client.

Friday, August 5, 2016

Friday, January 8, 2016

My bag arrived :)



Yeah! From drawing to object! sucessful process 🎨
Great quality prints (small details stay on) and strong materials in construction fabrics.
I'm doing a lot in black and white because it goes with everything we wear ;) 🔸🔸🔸
Next time I'll try with Essdee scraperboard / scratchboard :)
https://society6.com/anafonso/bags

Monday, December 7, 2015

Interview on a Forest :)


 

Hi there, it's been a while! Here's a 2015 review and 2016 plans.This interview will give you a understanding of who I am and why, what I do with my work. 2016 is coming up with lovely projects and partnerships. Staring with the invitation from Margarida Brito to start up this #project6 of her.





4. When did you find you had that “art bug”, inside you?
_ Art, art... I’m still not very sure what that is, Margarida! but the drawing bug bit me very early.
If someone gave me paper and a pencil I would “vanish” from the list of worries. I was the girl who got stuck to a table, willingly, who was not to be heard and who went nowhere for hours. For the adults this is a blessing, and thus, they must have complimented me on my drawings or behaviour and that was that, I became addicted to doing better and better than before. This happened before primary school at my “borrowed grandmother’s”, Dona Adelaide.
When I arrived in primary school I could draw better than all my classmates (and better than those from other classes too – wow!), then I got a prize in a drawing contest from the local council in second grade and that’s how an Aries girl discovered an easy way to make her parents proud – and all there was to do was more of the same and I loved it.
Soon after came the labels and the expectations: “she has a gift”, “but is she that quiet? ah! she’s an artist!”... and the consequences: “What do you want to be when you grow up?” “- Artist (painting)”!
Like thousands of girls I also hesitated about my future in the famous trilogy ballerina/vet/artist... but I went by ruling out the possibilities: for ballerina I was too fat and for vet I lacked the cold blood when watching hot blood.
Artist?... Yes, please.

5. What’s this thing, illustration, for you? What was your driving force, until you got here?
_ For me illustration is... the daughter resulting from my affair with Drawing J
It’s the means of communication which allows me to reach people, old and young. Painting canvas didn’t work so I decided to paint books.
The driving force... I think the blame lies (always!) with my brother who brought home the DN Jovem issue [T.N. – a supplement, dedicated to “young people”, from one of the main Portuguese newspapers, which also held drawing contests] and asked me if I would like to send in some drawings. I was 17 years old when the editor “Manel” Dias (now retired and a friend from the heart and from running) called my parents’ home to know if it was really me doing those drawings. From then on, once in a while, I would win a book, or two, or three... and that was the validation I needed.
In painting the honourable mentions would add a line to the CV... in illustration, they gave me books, I would figure in the newspaper... and that was it, once again the parents of the Aries girl sported a proud smile. You cannot escape that.
Afterwards, once again possibilities were ruled out: in Painting I could’t get a valid professional route – one needed to have social competencies that a shy girl, like I was, just hadn’t developed by 23 years of age! Shy but stubborn – I knew that the way was through arts so I invested even more. I started a master’s degree in Drawing, for that has always been the passion at the base of it all. And I already had a foot in the door of the profession as I was illustrating school books... I could pursue an academic career... teach... Even before finishing the master’s degree I did a multimedia course, where I got my introduction to Photoshop and the ways of the digital world. From then on it was a matter of producing and bombard publishers. The shyness that didn’t allow me to have exhibitions in galleries was now the fuel to send emails and portfolios.
I was being given work and that kept on feeding this bug that keeps on biting me, increasingly harder J

6. What is your relationship with nature? What role does it play in your work and how do you carry nature into it?
__ It’s what you saw during our walk: Grounding. It’s a mother/daughter relationship. To be, in essence/To exist within it.
I want to make it proud of me. I want to be in it as a creature worthy of the energy it gives me. Could it be complicity and reverence what best describes this relationship?
Complicity because Nature is mother and religion. That poem by Fernando Pessoa about the hills, and the Sun and the moonlight [T.N. – “Há Metafísica Bastante em não Pensar em Nada”]? Nature is all of that for me. It´s everything, it’s the matter from where I have come, where I will go to, it’s part of me and I part of it.
Reverence because Nature gave me this body, a mobile temple which I take running, to commune with Nature If it gives me energy and provides trails in Monsanto [T.N. – A forested hill in the city of Lisbon] and mist by the river for me to recharge my batteries... I go! I go and I am thankful.
Its role in my work... Nature is the energy that makes me scribble on the sheet of paper and it is, literally, the paper I draw on. It’s the tree that gave me this sheet of paper! It’s the model of the things I draw, it’s the dazzling sensation, light, beauty, peace, force, magic, faith, tenderness that I try to carry onto the drawings. António Gedeão [T.N. – Portuguese poet] did this with the words. I want to reach that level with illustration.
That’s it, but now wait a second because this is all sounding too poetic... It’s just that, in reality, running hurts. It hurts for some 20 minutes before the endorphins kick in. And the drawing part?! Blah blah blah so nice? Yes, it’s true, but only after many frustrated drawings do we get something worth keeping! We have to have faith and endurance to pick from Nature and from ourselves what we want.

7. What role do you think illustration has, mainly in the children’s world?
Ui. Do we have time for a conference?
Nowadays illustration plays a very important role because we live in a world increasingly connected to visual communication. Homo sapiens sapiens semioticus J
In the children’s world, as you ask, illustration’s role is almost infinite. Ludopedagogic, mediator of affections, personal development, aesthetic education, ethics and literary... I don’t know if there is a list J I think we can say it has as many roles as the ones you can extract from the contents present in pictures or text and the haptic perceptions of the object (book or tablet).

8. If you were an animal, which animal would you be? Why?
WOLF. Because they are remarkable creatures, and because, as a matter of fact, I have worked every day to be more wolf than ape J
In order to understand this it’s necessary to grow up watching wildlife documentaries, read books such as “The Philosopher and the Wolf”, or “Mujeres que corren con los lobos” ... but ok, cutting a long story short: I would be a Wolf because both individually and as a group they are strong, loyal, indefatigable, runners, bashful, perspicacious, lethal, beautiful, scary, ghostly, ethically and aesthetically magnificent creatures.
Alright then, I could also be a shrew... just to de-dramatise.

9. Are you Earth, Air, Fire or Water? Why?
Can I be steam J?
It’s just that theoretically my element is Fire but in practice we are 70% water. So... mixing both what we have is steam! ... but I can also be electricity because at only 6 months of age I got a 220-volt shock (which left this scar on my lip) and up to today I always feel I have too many volts in my system :P

10. In your illustrations there is a strong presence of personified animals. Where does that inspiration, that reference come to you from? Have you ever thought about doing like Rita, an author’s edition?
It comes from many places. It comes from all the animals I loved when I spent my holidays in Trás-os-Montes, it comes from television... Do you remember watching Manimal?  The Littlest Hobo? Lassie? Black Beauty?... I think I am just one more person from the “National Geographic Generation”. I’ve read this somewhere – that there is a generation more worried with the planet precisely because it grew up in front of the TV watching wildlife documentaries. My friends from the 70s/80s crop will also remember the Arca de Noé shout: “Os animais são nossos amigos!” [T.N. – “Animals are our friends!” - from the early 1990s Portuguese TV program, “Noah’s Ark”] Back then, Humans had lost faith in their own species for the umpteenth time and transfered the myth of the noble savage onto the creatures of the Wildlife! I think we are reliving that today.
Ah, and because I am shy they also called me “bicho do mato” [woods creature, literally, we say that when someone is quite silent and keeps to himself] , and thus the identification grew, and grew, and grew... in my head, in times past, I was sure that I should be more (non-human) animal than Human Being. Being Aries I also had a fascination with fauns and later with centaurs, minotaurs...
The references came from all sorts of places: Egyptian Mythology, Enki Bilal’s comics and Blacksad’s books, Grandville, Charles Le Brun, “ Fábulas da Floresta Verde” cartoons, Beatrix Potter, they’re all in my Instagram in the “Zoomorphics” folder.
Author’s edition? Yes. I think about that a lot and I will do it. Part of my mission is to make enough profit to return it to the animals or give it back to Nature. As I haven’t yet found partners in the book industry who take this idea seriously (as they need the edition, storage, transport, marketing commissions)... what I have left is the author’s edition. I am working on it. 2016!

11. You’re a born sportswoman. What do you like doing the most and what moves you, in those challenges?
What if I tell you I only started running when I was 28? I was the black sheep of a super-fit family, and believe me that when you look around you and you have an elastic mother, a 1.80 m tall policeman father and a 1.82 m tall brother whose nickname is Schwarzenegger... really... a child gives up and resorts to having good grades and thinking “they got the looks I got the brains”. Emphasising our mirandese accent, I’m sill the “retchinxuda” [T.N. – Mirandese is a language spoken in northeastern Portugal. “retchinxuda” means “the chubby one”] for the closest family core. Luckily, even being chubby I enjoyed riding my bike here, by the river, and unintentionally I got the legs for what I do today aged 38... It’s been 10 years since I started running.
What do I like doing the most? To move! Feel the elements on the skin with the cold or heat that accompany them. I am happy hopping between trail, kick, bike, run, surf, paddle, kayak... each one has its charms and sensations which, in the end, lead to the same: that ritual of thanking for our body and being in communion with Nature.
The challenge is to feel good in my own skin and what moves me is curiosity: “can I do it?...”, “can I run a marathon without stopping?”, “will the river be calmer after that bend?”, “can I do this climb without dismounting from the bike?”, “will this wave allow me to catch it?”, “is it crazy to run at night in the forest?” and because the answers to these questions are so good, make me feel so alive, so happy, there’s no stopping.
Besides...I don’t really have a choice because if I stop I stagnate, I go crazy. It’s as if that steam (instead of coming out) would solidify and fall like rain inside of me and that rain is cold and acid and ruins my day. I have tested it several times and it’s not worth it. It’s better to take a few hours of the day to move than to go crazy a few more hours for the rest of the day.

Another challenge, this one conscious, is to photograph the sunrise every day and to put the photo on Facebook (or Instagram) to tell my friends “good morning”. What moves me here is the joy that comes from sharing the sceneries I catch and, of course, the likes! J




Sunday, July 5, 2015

freelance illustrator, awkward ateliers and John Ruskin

This Sunday I had the privilege to be in a Forest near home. We set up a hammock to read, draw and relax. This best part of a freelance life  - the FREEDOM to move and work where and when we want. Besides I have a aesthetic approach to nature in my work. I really like to take my references strait from the source. Like Ruskin said:


"go to nature in all singleness of heart, and walk with her laboriously and trustingly, having no other thoughts but how best to penetrate her meaning, and remembering her instruction; rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing . . . and rejoicing always in the truth"



"the imagination must be fed constantly by external nature"
John Ruskin
link


Wednesday, July 1, 2015

My illustration are out on July magazine

Nothing new if you follow my instagram, right?Anyway, here goes the visual work making of.
Everything was put out together from sketch to final file with a close feedback form editor and designer, so I really enjoyed this one.
It's really important that magazines can give you good info on the article: extension of text,  layout, colors, I even made small drawings to enhance and compose the page...
I made this for my former employer, so I guess it pays off to work in layout from time to time, we learn the process and we get to know the people you have to collaborate later on ;)
Like the manifesto: "life is about the people you meet, and the things you create with them"


I'm showing the history of these illustrations trough in my FB:
https://www.facebook.com/ana.afonso.ilustra/posts/10204580600143602?pnref=story







So they want you to do those beautiful white drawings in glass windows? BEWARE!! :)

Do you know those beautiful Posca drawings on windows?
 
It has become a fashionable, simple and intelligent way to get some attention in many storefronts. 


Artist, window, acrylic pen, if you know how to draw, what could go wrong? Everything!   I've completely failed the mission because of some minor details, so I'll just share it before you go somewhere and find something similar: 

  • 1_Check if the window is clean!  I started drawing in shadow but when the sun hit the glass I saw all the dust around the drawings and I could die right there. It's impossible to clean at this point because you'll just erase the art!
  • 2_ From where will the viewer watch your work? is it a crowded street? full of windows and light? well... everything you add up will just make a bigger mess. Check your image background - it should be as plain as possible.
  • 2 a)_ do you want people from the street below to see it? use a bold point pen!
  • 3_Check youtube tutorials, I haven´t found one yet but I will most certainly do one soon :)
  • 4_Keep in mind composition.  the blank spaces are equally important. They give space for the drawing to be seen. If you do everything with the same pen and pattern it will be doll and confusing.
  • 5_Do your homework - take references form othersPinterest and Google have the most inspiring examples link &; link and (just like art is supposed to) it seems soooo EASY. Well... it's not!!
  • 6_Comfort! Chose a clothing that will let you move freely and Food. This drawing take quite a while so you better have water and food with you. If it's a sunny day take a cap and sun glasses, it's not easy to look and draw facing light.
  • 7_If everything goes wrong?  ... and against your lowest expectations?  that alright. Just take the best moments with you and make a post about it. You can alert fellow artists and learn something on the process. :) I sure did.

Sunday, June 7, 2015

Books and Picturebooks DYI: some useful links to keep in mind while doing your book

Freelancing in illustration is no business for people who want to have a regular income and life.
Perhaps one day we can sit back and have some royalties working for our retirement plan, but let's be honest... in this industry things tend to be faster and faster, New books, new authors, new tendencies, new awards... it takes a while before the publishing community even realizes we exist, and odds are against you if you're not Saun Tan, Oliver Jeffers, Paula Bonnet.
It seems you're either a celebrity or someone close to nothing as an artist or author.

So, books are becoming more and more DIY projects.
It's not wise to keep waiting for the perfect commission to drop on our email, so we started doing the books and getting them in PDF for publishers to print and sell. Sometimes not even that... we just go to the printer and make an self-edition.

BEFORE YOU BEGIN:
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/

FONTS:
http://www.thebookdesigner.com/2009/08/5-favorite-fonts/

CROWFUNDING:
http://pubslush.com/
(Specially for books)
http://www.massivemov.com/
(Portugal)

(I will keep updating links feel free to share links and thoughts on comments)

Monday, June 1, 2015

My mugs!! when the postman becames santa claus :)


I feel like I've waited for long long time to get my hands on these.
It was worthy :)


Youtube short video with 3D: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwoc2yz6Jko


Society6 store: http://society6.com/anafonso/mugs

Wednesday, May 20, 2015

"The best" children's book of 2014 are...

Have you tried to find the best books for children of a specific  year?  Starting with a simple "googling"all we get seems to lead us strait to a shopping cart...  That's so annoying!
It's not the first time I'm confronted with this. In 2013 same thing happened and I feel like being overwhelmed by info about what's out there to be sold instead of what's really a good book.
So I've started to search independent reviews.
I'm leaving them here for you and me because My blog is also a place I use for my research and references. Here's what I've found:
Green goes for independent and Orange goes for publishers and distributors:


http://www.reading.org/literacy-daily/literature/post/books/2014/12/08/the-best-picture-books-of-2014
«Each year bookstore bookshelves are filled with the latest and greatest picture books, and throughout the year many readers try to determine their favorites. Many of the titles contain eye-catching illustrations and deep messages, most that will attract readers of all ages. Some are the creation of perennial favorites, while others provide tantalizing evidence that a new artistic talent has burst on the children’s literature scene. This week’s book reviews of favorite picture books from 2014 from the Children’s Literature and Reading Special Interest Group include ones you may have seen reviewed earlier this year, but these are keepers.»


http://www.dawcl.com/search.asp
The site looks very simple in it's layout but is really helpful with it's filters, also, the Awards Explanation  (http://www.dawcl.com/search.asp) made this one of my favourites.





http://best-books.publishersweekly.com/pw/best-books/2014/picture-books#book/book-10
I really loved this one, it's well organized in the information it provides, you can link to more info about illustrator and reviews on the books.



http://gretel.cat/es/node/84
If you understand Spanish this is useful - considering Spanish is the second most spoken language on the planet..
(Libros infantiles y juveniles recomendados por la crítica desde el año 2000 hasta la actualidad)



http://www.buzzfeed.com/mallorymcinnis/best-picture-books-of-2014#.od7QWRyDq  doesn't really says the criteria for choosing this 23 books, but there's a selection for your consideration.








http://www.slj.com/best-books-2014/picture-books/
Doesn't have much info or reasons for selection, or ages filter...

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=a9_sc_1?rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Abest+picture+books+2014&keywords=best+picture+books+2014&ie=UTF8&qid=1432129850
Of course you can also go into any online shop and search for "best picturebooks 2014", but that's a search that is going to be dictated by their stock and suppliers...











Tuesday, May 19, 2015

Questionário sobre a prática da ilustração (to be translated...)

A former student asked me to answer a questionnaire to one of the disciplines he is now doing to get is Master in Illustration. As I answered them I realized they are interesting questions to have the social networks. Here is the copy-paste
Como surge o seu gosto por ilustração infantil?
_ O gosto surge desde que somos crianças gostamos dos livros com imagens. Lembro-me de ficar horas a olhar para os desenhos e querer fazer algo assim tão bonito, copiava por cima, desenhava ao lado, usava papel químico...às vezes estragava os livros, em alguns ainda se vê o contorno a lápis.
Porque decide começar a fazer álbuns ilustrados?
__Não decidi conscientemente até 2009, foi nessa altura que entrei no doutoramento em Design Gráfico com a ideia de estudar a fundo todos os componentes e fazer melhores livros. Até 2009 foram os pedidos das editoras que foram ditando o que fazia. Postais e manuais escolares foram criando o meu portfólio e, entretanto, como o traço se adaptava bem ao género infantil começaram a surgir convites para ilustrar livros "a sério" por volta de 2004.
Em 2007 tive os primeiros contactos com o Indesign e a partir daí ilustrar e paginar foram conseguindo mais trabalhos até que em 2009 decidi tentar fazer da ilustração a minha única ocupação e trabalho a tempo inteiro... o que ainda não consegui.

Quais são as suas fontes de inspiração?
__  Depois de 5 anos de pintura e um mestrado de 3 anos em Desenho fiquei a preferir os desenhadores virtuosos: os Romanticos, os Simbolistas e os Pré-Rafaelitas, alguns Neo-Clássicos,  (ilustradores: John Flaxman, Arthur Rackham, Doré, Granville)
inspirações comtemporaneas: James Jean, Lars Henkel, Black Sad (a BD desenhada por Juanjo Guarnido) , Paula Bonet, Joanna Concejo, Pascal Champion ... tenho um board no Pinterest com esses autores: https://www.pinterest.com/anafonso_com/inspiration-illustration/
Fontes de inspiração são também a natureza e o desporto: viajar por aí para a correr, mergulhar ou andar de bicicleta enchem-me de ideias e fotos que uso nos projetos.

Os ilustrações reflectem o seu imaginário. De onde é que ele surge?
De onde surgem as personagens? E os cenários?
__ O meu imaginário não tem imagens, só sensações.
Todos os cenários e personagens encontro-os a desenhar. Ou seja, antes de estarem no papel não existem. Na minha cabeça não há imagens prontas para sair, há uma sensação de luz e emoções que quero transmitir e enquanto vou desenhando vou esboçando, apagando, refazendo, acentuando traços... é como se estivesse a moldar barro, mas com linhas!
Na internet e sobretudo no Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/anafonso_com/) tiro as referências necessárias. Não consigo criar do vazio, é preciso ter matéria - em geral preciso 5 ou 6 imagens de um leão no écran do portátil para compreender o volume, peso, textura, e só depois consigo avançar para desenhar o "meu" leão.
O que tenta transmitir com as suas ilustrações?
_Luz, beleza, paz, força, magia, fé, ternura... nem sei. Gostava de saber mostrar, como tão bem faz António Gedeão, o milagre das pequenas coisas. Contemplar o micro e sentir que fazemos parte de algo enorme e perfeito.

Sente que impõe o seu imaginário às crianças/leitores?
_Sim. Ao expor uma pessoa a determinada imagem, música ou filme estamos a emergir essa pessoa num ambiente que não é o dela. 

Acha que as crianças tem o seu próprio imaginário?
_Sem dúvida. 

Se sim, como reagem as crianças ao ser-lhes imposto um imaginário diferente do delas?
_Penso que absorvem o que gostam.
Essa diferença pode despertar a curiosidade ou a indiferença, não há como saber como vão reagir. O facto de não gostarem de algo pode causar o gozo e o riso, que é também uma maneira de aprender e usufruir da diferença. Em geral os mais pequenos divertem-se bastante com o que acham feio ou diferente.

Como lidar com crianças? Ou seja, que preocupações se tem de ter ao fazer álbuns ilustrados para crianças?
_Cada ilustrador e autor terá a sua resposta. Uns escolhem guiar-se pelos estudos que existem sobre a infância adequando o produto ao público alvo e outros escolhem fazer o que sentem ser uma proposta válida.
 
_A resposta que mais gosto dos ilustradores que tenho estudado são os que dizem desenhar para si. O Oliver Jeffers ou o Shaun Tan fazem isto mesmo e são celebridades da ilustração.

Que cuidados tem com as cores? Como se escolhe a paleta de cores?
_Tem de haver cuidado para conseguir uma harmonia cromática. Isso aprende-se vendo e experimentando.
Para mim sempre foi meio intuitivo, penso que a paleta é algo que o imaginário escolhe por nós, no meu caso, as tais sensações que quero transmitir, são doces, leves, redondas.. acabo sempre por ir para as cores quentes.
 
Gostar da Natureza leva-me para os verdes amarelados, o toque suave do pêlo dos bichos... ocres, castanhos, amarelo Nápoles, brancos e cinzentos quentes.
Às vezes a paleta é imposta: trabalhar a duas cores ou num fundo escuro... mas acabamos sempre por puxar pelas cores que nos são mais caras.
Para usarem no Photoshop, costumo dar aos alunos com uma paleta de cores dividida por pequenas escalas temáticas: cor de pele, cor de floresta, deserto, etc. Tenho a certeza que cada um de nós tirará dela resultados muito diferentes. Eu uso-a desde 2003, pois sei que o “tal verde” está à esquerda em cima, e o amarelo para os reflexos é o primeiro da linha...etc. tornou-se rápido e prático usar sempre a mesma.
Como se consegue saber a reacção que as crianças vão ter?
_Não se sabe.

Que contacto tem com as crianças?
_deixando de dar aulas fiquei com o contacto das crianças que são filhos dos meus amigos, dos sobrinhos, e claro, dos pequenos leitores que aparecem em sessões de autógrafos organizadas pelas editoras.

Como se reage quando a simplicidade e inocência das crianças gera um sentido crítico apurado?
_Com espanto e alegria, em geral têm ideias tão diferentes que eu nunca chegaria lá.
É engraçado perceber como eles pensam e projetam a sua personalidade. A cicatriz que tenho no lábio, por exemplo, para uma aluna era a asa de uma borboleta e para outro aluno era uma teia de aranha! Isto dito por um adulto seria quase ofensivo, entre crianças deu em risota e uns “nhééé” bem dispostos.
Acha o mundo da ilustração e do álbum ilustrado difícil?
__É o melhor mundo para se ter uma profissão, logo, sim é difícil entrar lá, estar lá, criar obra lá.

O que diz o público? Isso é relevante?
__Claro, em especial para as editoras.
 
Como autores, contudo, temos de evoluir pelo nosso caminho sem esperar o aplauso do público.

Segue tendências? Ou tenta sempre inovar mais e mais?
__Penso que não sigo tendências na ilustração, mas estou atenta às "modas”. Até porque a contra-tendência, um dia, será moda :)
Eu tento fazer mais e melhor, desenhar melhor, com outros materiais, experimentar softwares novos... mas numa lógica de conseguir melhorar o que tinha em vista fazer e nunca de estar a par das possibilidades... que são infinitas.

Falando de álbuns ilustrados para crianças, de uma maneira geral, acha que os ilustradores de hoje se preocupam em ilustrar para as crianças? Ou ilustram para si mesmos e para os outros ilustradores?
__Foi como disse antes: «Cada ilustrador terá a sua resposta. Uns escolhem guiar-se pelos estudos que existem sobre a infância adequando o produto ao público alvo e outros escolhem fazer o que sentem ser uma proposta válida. A resposta que mais gosto dos ilustradores que tenho estudado são os que dizem desenhar para si. O Oliver Jeffers ou o Shaun Tan fazem isto mesmo e são celebridades da ilustração.»
Pensando a favor do egoísmo criativo: será que Picasso inventou o Cubismo para o público?
Ilustramos para nós? Sim, temos de gostar do que fazemos. Existe também a ideia que algumas referências em certos livros (como os de Anthony Browne) que não são compreendidas pelas crianças se destinam a ser um “piscar de olho” ao adulto que lê à criança. Torna-se uma história para pais e filhos desfrutarem, cada um à altura do seu nível de interpretação cultural.

Acha que há uma preocupação na aceitação do trabalho de cada ilustrador? Isto é, os ilustradores preocupam-se com a aceitação do seu trabalho? E por parte de quem é que procuram essa aceitação?
__Em geral, os ilustradores preocupam-se com isso sim. A aceitação do público é vital para poderem fazer da ilustração um modo de subsistência. 
Antigamente estavam mais dependentes da aceitação por parte das editoras, hoje em dia já se consegue um contato quase direto com o público e com a gráfica o que origina muitos projetos e edições de autor independentes.

As crianças tem muita imaginação, basta um impulso para elas nos contarem uma história. Será que isso pode contribuir para um livro ilustrado?

_Sem dúvida. Os livros do Babar eram uma história de família que as crianças pediram ao pai que passasse a livro. Que melhor exemplo? :)

Monday, May 18, 2015

Wolf book

Site updated, just to let everyone know I'll be working on my book about a special wolf in Trás-os-Montes.This is something you can follow also on my Pinterest:
And see how it all started in Youtube » dummy book.
Can't believe how fast time went by! just realized the video is from October 2013!
Anyway, this Summer it will be published and you can follow the making of .

Thursday, May 7, 2015

the blank sheet of paper.. who's afraid of the big bad wolf?

the blank sheet of paper.. who's afraid of the big bad wolf? ...not me these days.
I just fear the ones I will not have the time to fill up !! 
It's great to end a project and to face the new task, new ideas. I remember the blank-canvas-fobia when I had to write. Or before evaluations in college where suddenly I had literally about 15 blank canvases to fill.


Helping the wolves with MY art? check!

This is a special blog. I started doing what is my childhood dream: To give back through drawing and help animals. It's not much, but is a profit I can spare because I didn´t need to make the product and ship it away :)

The message (and note to self) is:
We don't need to be rich to start giving.I always wanted to do this but I guess I was waiting for big profits to share and make a difference. But imagine: if everyone expected to be wealthy in order to start contributing and helping others... only 1% of the population would in deed help anyone :) !! crazy right?
So, if you are reading this ( and chances are you´re also a creative person or someone who believe in things like universal feedback and showing your gratitude through simple acts of kindness...) well? Just do it.
I gave 2 euros, if 100 people read this and feel the urge to do the same there's 200 euros going to help. Yes... this is a call to action (again).
I still haven't told the buyer his bag is helping the wolves in our country. I know he will be proud. The emotions I get from this are far to compensating. I was weeping as I did the transfer (...girl power overload of joy...) and it's great to feel you're the little drop of water. Small acts of kinds, Celestine Profecy, The secret, Whatever you believe in... we are energy I hope I just pumped yours to do that daily act of kindness.
Today's message? Don't wait up. 


I chose Grupo do Lobo, because it's a national organization here in Portugal that I've been following and I know they are going to give it a good use. In their site there's how you can help.
Choose your cause.
I loved this and I'm thinking of giving more, thematically I can make a bag with a Lynx, a Cat, a Dog ... and all sale's profit revert to the chosen association. Or an exhibition...
Possibilities are endless! Find yours :)



Monday, April 13, 2015

Must remember:

I'm so tired today. I assume I'am doing a "note to self" blog: 

"I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself" D.H.lawrence

Saturday, April 11, 2015

New mugs - free shipping only 2 days left

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»

Friday, April 10, 2015

Cmyk the artist Cat, by the way... did you know...




  • Pet owners are less likely to suffer from depression than those without pets.
  • People with pets have lower blood pressure in stressful situations than those without pets.
  • Pet owners have lower triglyceride and cholesterol levels (indicators of heart disease) than those without pets.
  • Heart attack patients with pets survive longer than those without.
  • Pet owners over age 65 make 30 percent fewer visits to their doctors than those without pets.
  • While people with dogs often experience the greatest health benefits, a pet doesn’t necessarily have to be a dog or a cat. Even watching fish in an aquarium can help reduce muscle tension and lower pulse rate.
    (link to complete article)
    This other article speaks in a more spiritual way about them and has some great insights on mythology: (link
So, I wanted to share a picture of our cat: this is Cmyk. We found her on the street and started to take her food. It was quite challenging just to get her trust and then to let us pet her. She's been with us a month and a few days. Everyday she see us pack and put on our jackets and she knows it's time to go to the atelier. She can run here, go over drawings, scratch a cloth board Lívio did specially for her and she's happy. Sometimes she's sleeping like this in our lap and it's adorable to be "pet by the cat" in such way. And when she purrs we melt down :)
So, I have to let you know those articles saying "cats are holistic healers" ... it's true. 

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

new mug, new fox

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»

Monday, April 6, 2015

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»

Friday, March 27, 2015

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! 




Friday, March 20, 2015

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 :)



«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.»


Thursday, February 19, 2015

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.