Tuesday 30 October 2007

My first doll ever | O meu primeiro boneco de pano



This is my first fabric doll ever. The good news is that its theme was "monster". It means that if my sewing is less than perfect (a lot less, I may add!) it actually contributes to the character´s mosntruosity. It´s for Penelope´s Illustration´s Monster Mash.


*

Este é o meu primeiro boneco de pano da minha vida. Felizmente a temática era "monstros": qualquer defeito que o boneco tenha pode ser atribuído à minha inexperiência... ou então ao carácter monstruoso da personagem. :)

É para o concurso Penelope´s Illustration´s Monster Mash.

Friday 26 October 2007

Rubberstamp II | Carimbo II



Another rubber stamp carved to be included in the treasure box I´m preparing for my niece. These are her initials.

Here´s something I forgot (and had to carve it again): always carve letters inverted. It´s so obvious - and still I forgot it. :)

*

Mais um carimbinho de borracha para a caixinha dos tesouros que estou a preparar para a Carolina. Desta vez, com as iniciais dela.

Ah... algo que me esqueci e que é muito óbvio: ao gravar letras, desenhá-las invertidas!

Thursday 25 October 2007

Making of




These masks look nice | As máscaras ficaram bonitas




That´s why I decided to post them as well!

*


E por isso ponho-as aqui!

Back to kindergarten days | De volta à minha Quinta Florida





There are some images I remember from kindergarten. Some of them remain with me as if they happened just yesterday... So this is something I remember doing there. It´s a very easy technique and probably the precursor to the airbrush or today´s ink spray: you put a little bit of ink on a spoon and then you spray it to the paper with the help of a tooth brush.

I decided to use some simple shapes: a tree branch and a bird. I had to cut masks twice because the first round ended up to be too thin to get a good image with those tiny ink blotches. I learnt by doing it that it is recommended to have a minimum amount of ink on the spoon, so that you don´t get big, splashy blotches.

It´s fun to use different colors on a shape: "spray" your first color, allow it to dry, and then apply your second color.

What do you think of it? Let me know if you have any fun kindergarten techniques to share. My niece will be visiting soon and I have to keep her busy! (and improve my collection of her drawings, of course!)


*


Esta técnica de pintura vem dos tempos da Quinta Florida, o meu jardim de infância. Não faço ideia de quem a terá inventado e não me lembro exactamente do tipo de tinta que era usada no processo. Mas lembro-me claramente de uma colher com tinta e uma escova de dentes que salpicava a tinta para o papel.

Fiz umas máscaras simples: uma em forma de ramo de árvore e outra em forma de passarito. As máscaras têm de ser bastante abertas, ou seja, não vale a pena enveredar por um desenho demasiado elaborado porque depois os pontinhos de tinta não conseguem ter a definição necessária para os detalhes.

Mesmo assim, é uma técnica muito fácil que pode dar resultados muito interessantes. Por exemplo, pode-se aplicar duas cores uma em cima da outra, desde que se deixe a primeira secar por completo.

Se alguém se lembrar de outras técnicas dos tempos do Jardim de Infância, partilhem-nas, por favor! É que a minha sobrinha está quase a chegar e tenho de a manter ocupada... já para não falar de que quero ampliar a minha galeria de desenhos dela!

Thursday 18 October 2007

Pecha Kucha Night - the images

Centro Cultural Ciudad Konex





Everyone was invited to draw or write something to put pressure on world politicians for the accomplishment of the Millenium Development Goals

José Maria Muscari

Jimena Nahon and her "Catalogue"

Dick el Demasiado

Wednesday 17 October 2007

Pecha Kucha Night - something like a report

Las Tuesday was Pecha Kucha Night here in Buenos Aires. It was in Ciudad Cultural Konex, a venue I had never been to before but is very appropriate to events like this one. Inside there´s a big patio with a bar and a shop. There were some exhibitions by different artists, some of then were also speakers. I was a bit scared that it would be a succession of designers promoting their work but it really wasn´t that way.

Well, I´m not the best person for remembering names, so for those of you who may want to know more about the artists, I´ll redirect you to the Pecha Kucha website, where more accurate info is available.

What follows is a small review of the presenters that somehow impacted me. Any lack of accuracy is due to my unjournalistic eyes and purposes.

The first presentation that really called my attention was by José Maria Muscari. It was about loneliness and love. His images captured an evening in Buenos Aires, a well-known city for its "movida", where people seemed to be at the loneliest ever, even if they had company. I really liked that someone actually took the time to be curious enough to work about being lonenly. He certainly isn´t the first one in art, nor the last one, for that matter, but it did appeal to me in a way other works haven´t. Maybe I just identified myself with it at this speciic point in time, but then again isn´t it always like this? Doesn´t someone enjoy something and sometime later realise it wasn´t exactly that good and vice-versa? Well, I did like it. I liked the images and I liked his presentation, which, on a second moment got connected with love.

Lateral Media Lab were also there. Their presentation was less interesting than the content itself. In that line of thought, they had a really fun device on the patio that everyone could try: with a little pointing devide, one could digitally paint grafitti on the wall. It even had the effect of the excess ink running down! Their work had a really interesting concept underneath, mixing technology, media and communication to have users interact with digital instruments.

One presentation that I really enjoyed was the one by Ants.tv. They showed some of their work in motions graphics for TV. They do the kind of animations that appear before ads on a given channel. I liked it so much, I admired them so much. I wonder how they do it. I really like the fact that their wonderful illustrations were moving. It´s a totally new dimension but they certainly deal with it well. I just wondered how they do it, it´s amazing. (Or so I think.)

There was a serial entrepreneur called Santiano Bilinkis. His stories were fun and inspiring, though I don´t have the entrepreneurship blood running in my veins.

Don´t be fooled by the lack of information Jimena Nahon´s website displays. I visited it and was a bit disappointed. So then, when I heard her presentation, I had low expectations and came out pleasantly surprised. She presented her work, a catalog of things. So she developed a catalog of things, basically clothing, shoes and beauty care. They make their own photographic productions for the products displayed, which adds up to the level of interest. The best part is that it ends up working like a source book for me, when I need ideas or images to start working on some idea. And I really liked the concept of making a catalog of everything.

There was Fernanda Laguna, who presented in the category "woman". I wonder why she was there, but her presentation turned out to be fun. I thought that suddenly 6´40´´ would be way too long and probably tedious, but although she didn´t present anything special, she made us all laugh. It was a good opportunity to learn some slang.

I just couldn´t finish this pseudo-report without mentioning Diego Golombek, a biologist and scientist. His presentation was fun and informing, full of great and intelligent jokes and references. I actually learnt something from it: he studies the mechanisms of time inside the living being (I hope I´m not saying anything wrong here, so if I am, Diego please forgive me). He mentioned that somehow people living in the poles did have a sense of night and day, even having 6 months of sunshine and 6 months of night. Somehow, the sense of time is embedded in our brains and our bodies. That´s what he talked about. This was one of the presenttations I wish were longer.

There´s still no date for Pecha Kucha Night in Buenos Aires vol.8, but I´ll definitely return.

Tuesday 16 October 2007

Pecha Kucha Night - Buenos Aires

In the words of its creator,

Pecha Kucha Night, devised by Astrid Klein and Mark Dytham (Klein Dytham architecture), was conceived in 2003 as a place for young designers to meet, network, and show their work in public.


Tonight it´s Pecha Kucha Night here in Buenos Aires. It´s my first PKN ever, so I´ll write about my impressions soon.


*

Esta noite é Pecha Kucha Night aqui em Buenos Aires. Este evento foi criado por Astrid Klein e Mark Dytham para servir como um ponto de encontro entre designers, arquitectos e artistas plásticos. Uma das regras principais é que as exposições feitas pelos participantes têm um limite de duração: cada orador apresenta 20 imagens e, para cada uma delas, tem 20 segundos para a exposição oral.

Vou lá hoje e depois conto como foi.

Monday 15 October 2007

Blog Action Day

Bloggers Unite - Blog Action Day

Today is Blog Action Day. Read my related post here (in portuguese).

*

Hoje é o Blog Action Day. O meu post está aqui, no meu blog pessoal.

Friday 12 October 2007

Rubberstamp | Carimbo



I read about this technique in a post in superziper and there was a link to this flickr image and knew that I had to try it sooner or later. I then remembered a set of rubberstamps one of my sisters had when she was little and how much fun it seemed to be to stamp stamp stamp. My niece is coming in November, so this little toy is already waiting for her.

I didn´t have the appropriate ink, so had to resort to an improvised technique: I dove a toothbrush into a little bottle of Ecoline and used it to ink the rubber. It´s not the same, but it is fun and looks ok. :)


*

Li no superziper um artigo que continha um link para esta imagem do flickr e soube imeditamente que tinha de experimentar esta técnica. Quando éramos miúdas, uma das minhas irmãs tinha um conjunto de carimbos. Carimbar como se não houvesse amanhã era uma brincadeira muito, muito divertida. De maneira que este carimbito já fica à espera da minha sobrinha, que não tarda me vem visitar.

Não tinha uma almofada tintada adequada, então usei uma escova de dentes para espalhar Ecoline na borracha. Não é a mesma coisa, mas não dava para esperar. :)

Thursday 11 October 2007

Illustration Friday


This is my first collaboration with Illustration Friday. This week´s topic is "Open". There´s a contest going on, so make sure you check all other entries. 25 entries will be chosen to be in a gallery exhibition. I´m so curious to see the other entries... and , of course, to see if someone votes my illustration!

IF rocks!


*

Esta é a minha primeira contribuição para o site Illustration Friday. Esta semana o tema das ilustrações é "Open". Contrariamente ao que é costume, esta semana há um concurso. De todas as colaborações vão ser escolhidas 25 para participar numa exposição na Califórnia. Estou curiosa por ver as outras colaborações... e saber se recebo algum voto! :)

Viva o Illustration Friday!

Monday 8 October 2007

About hyperlinks on blogposts

This is a post (actually, two) I wrote in my personal blog, in portuguese. I´ll translate and adapt them because I really feel this will become an important topic on legibility.

If you wish to read them in portuguese, here they are: "Chiii! Já chega!" and "Não sei se ficou bem claro".

When I was a kid, I used to enjoy reading encyclopedias and just browsing through articles. I would jump from one article into another, following the flow of the referral hand and the terms highlighted in bold.

With today´s technology these referrals between articles are made with hyperlinks and new articles are only a click away. This is great, but up to a certain point. And then it becomes annoying.

In my blog-reader routine I´ve noticed a certain growing tendency: authors include more and more hyperlinks in their posts. Not exactly as an extra, but making it the main message. Such as:

"I´m working on this sketch (link); I got my inspiration reading this (link) and this (link). I bought this medium (link) at my usual supplies shop (link). After my last attempt (link) I decided to go practice some yoga (link) and medidate on my next trip (link)."

This huge amount of non self-explanatory links adds up to a huge distraction in my reading, totally interrupting the flow of the story being told. I have no idea of what the author means about "this", so I´ll just have to click the hyperlink provided to have a clue and understand the context better.

The problem is that whenever I navigate away from the original article I was reading I am distracted from the content - which probably wasn´t the intention in the first place, very much the opposite. So, for now, I will try to keep my hyperlinks in my posts to a minimum and as much as sel-explanatory as possible. Like some paragraphs above: I´ll explain what the link is and the reader clicks it only if she wants. For now, this is my optimal solution, but I´m always receptive to (your) better suggestions.


*

Para quem quiser ler este post em português, que fala sobre o exagero das hiperligações nos textos dos blogs, aqui vai o link. Ou melhor, os links, porque são dois posts no meu blog em portugues, "Entre Lisboa e Buenos Aires": o primeiro é "Chiii! Já chega!" e o segundo é "Não sei se ficou bem claro".

Friday 5 October 2007

KaosPilots

I first heard of the KaosPilots from a friend of mine from Sweden. She went to this very different entrepreneurial-meets-management-meets-leadership-meets-innovation school. They´re now opening a new branch in Stockholm, the beautiful nordic city (my northernmost trip ever!). Check out KP´s website and find more info about it. School starts in January so make sure you apply for it by October 15th.


*

A primeira vez que ouvi falar da "KaosPilots" foi através de uma amiga minha sueca que frequentou esta escola de gestão, inovação, liderança e empreendedorismo na Dinamarca. Agora vão abrir uma sucursal em Estocolmo, a magnífica cidade-arquipélago, lá bem ao norte (o mais ao norte onde já estive!). Mais informações no site KP. Inscrições abertas até 15 de Outubro; as aulas começam em Janeiro de 2008.

Tuesday 2 October 2007

Briar Press Cuts

Briar Press Cuts is the place to search for ornaments and initials from old books. These fellows look for them, scan them and vectorize them for us. And, guess what, these goodies are free for non-commercial use! Browsing their collection is like time-travelling, so brace yourself and dive into it.

Found via lletraferits.


*

No site Briar Press Cuts estão disponíveis (já vectorizados!) capitulares, ornamentos e vinhetas retirados de livros antigos. Como se tudo isto fosse pouco, são gratuitos para fins não-comerciais! Apertem os cintos, senhoras e senhores, que o mergulho nesta colecção é uma autêntica viagem no tempo.

Encontrado através de lletraferits.