Nicole Volbeda

Tough Love

2012-02-14T23:06:00.001+01:00

Print ‘Tough Love’

A limited edition of 7, all signed and numbered. Why only 7 you ask? Well that’smy lucky number so be quick and get one for your love or yourself. Go to my online shop or give a shout here.

Price: €30 ($40)

Size: 22 x 15 cm, with extra space to cut for framing

Printed on heavy weight, high quality paper

Packed with extra care for safe delivery

Shipping costs will depend on country

*watermark will of course not appear on theprint itself

Cosmic View

2012-02-13T17:31:00.002+01:00

I want to share one of my all time favorite video's with you. ThePowers of Ten is a documentary made in 1977 and based on the book ‘Cosmic View’written by a Dutch mentor, Kees Boeke. The film shows the relative scale of theuniverse and it is mind blowing to watch. I came across this documentary a fewyears ago and it has always stuck with me.

Now I see more and more of this relative comparison stuff on the internet.Like this website which is fun to scroll trough.

Candy Colours and Wet Lips

2012-02-10T18:01:00.000+01:00

I'll be back soon with some big news! In the meantime enjoy this music video from the Studio Killers. I love it!

Works In Progress

2012-01-31T19:10:00.001+01:00

I've been working on a few projects simultaneously. Here are a fewwork in progress photos. I always find it interesting to see works in progressfrom other artists, you can learn a lot from them. So I decided to share a fewwith you. None of these works are finished though.

'God Save the Bee'
This is my first proper oil painting. Since I'm an impatient little girl, and knowing oil takes days to dry, I always chose acryl to paint with. Oh boy, did I have a change of heart. Using oil paint makes much more sense. It's less stressful. You can take your time, fix mistakes and the colour transitions are so much smoother compared to acrylics. Here's the w.i.p of my painting 'God Save the Bee'. Can't wait to paint the sticky golden honey. The photo's are shot at an angle since the paint wasn't dry and reflected with the light.

'Tough Love'

I wanted to make a valentine's card this year. I madethis little sketch in my book, inked it with an old fashioned ink pen and coloredit digitally. It still needs a little tweaking. For example I don't like howthe 'h' disappears behind the heart. I'll post the finished version on my blogsoon and make it available for order in my shop.

'Untitled'My second big acryl painting. Half way trough I started with my oil painting 'God Save the Bee' which made it quite hard to continue with this one. I've painted a bit more than the last photo shows but it's still far from finished.

This is a photo I took of a portrait that was hanging in the window in Utrecht. I have fallen in love with the portrait itself but when I took the photo I thought the reflection in the window made it even more loveable. I don't know who took the original unfortunately.

That's all for now...

Fotografía Mejicana

2012-01-17T19:45:00.001+01:00

I don't know a word Spanish so I have no idea if the title is correct. But here's some new stuff I've been working on. It looks a bit sloppy at the moment but I couldn't resist a sneak peak.

January Treasures

2012-01-11T18:14:00.000+01:00

The necklace I really HAD to have. Bought in London.

My new shoes. They will help me to learn how to walk on high heels.

I forgot to show you guys my christmas jumper. Found it in a vintage store in London.

I love these treasures. I bought a small deer skull. You can see it's antlers haven't developed yet. I'm planning to do something special with these old fotos.

I finally got around painting my vintage plate collection. Soon for sale in my shop.

My dear darlings!

Follow me on instagram for more awesome photos and sneak peaks of upcoming work. Nvolbeda is the name.

2011 Review

2012-01-03T16:26:00.001+01:00

2011 was a year full events, some happy,some not so much. I began 2011 a bit lost. I had just finished my ‘Holy Oak’film and did a wee animation job for Spoonfed, a theatre production in England.Then it proved to be difficult to find animation jobs. I had a fewopportunities but every time I had to turn it down since there wasn’t any moneyto pay me. I love animation but I’m not doing work for free! Feeling frustratedI started to realize animation might not be my big thing, or at least, not my onlysource of income. Confused that I was I decided to visit my good friend Lisa inNew Zealand. I spend a month there, having long talks and get my head sortedout. Coming back to Holland I knew things needed to change. I decided to followthrough with my long time dream and start my own shop and find a place where Icould work. This plan needed money to realize it, so I also looked for a side job.Trick ‘n Treats hired me and I’m really happy to work there (unlimited candyFTW!).

I hada few money related misfortunes but things started to change for the bettersince then. I had set a new goal for myself and found a workspace. I starteddrawing and painting again and sold my work at the Comic Fair. Applying fordifferent kinds of funding helped me to form a statement about my work. I stillhad the occasional ‘make animations for no pay’ offers but I’ve made one exceptionfor my good friend Steff. She needed animators for her project BB and it feltreally good to do some animation again. And being an animator too she knows howdifficult it is and she’s trying really hard to get us paid.

Nearing the end of 2011 a few thingschanged which had a big impact. The government decided to cut our funding,which helped us to pay our rent. Even with our side job we’re not sure if we’llmake enough money to pay our studio’s rent, let alone our own home. On top ofthat a few people left our studio and we need to find new people quick to keepour rent low (so if you’re looking for a studio space near the city centre of Utrecht,please contact me). So we’ve started the year 2012 with lots of uncertaintymoney and future wise. However I believe that’s every artists problem. It’s nota carefree career with a safe income :) and it’ll only separate the diehardsfrom the weaker ones. For me it won’t really matter, I’ll always continue to create.That’s what I realized this year. I really need it and it’s also the only thingI’m good at so I guess I’m stuck with that choice haha. I do believe howeverthat people have to realize art isn’t a hobby. It’s not something we do forfun, as you can see it involves some suffering too. But that discussion is foranother time.

After this summary of my 2011 it’s time forthis upcoming year that comes with its usual new year’s resolutions. I’veactually completed a few of last year’s list ( I hang it on my wall so I sawthem every day). Here are my new ones:

Happy new year everyone! I hope you’ll havea happy, healthy and creative year.

The London Life

2011-12-22T17:13:00.001+01:00

The London life is:

… the smell of mulled wine in the streets during winter.
… walking fast no matter where you go.
… expensive.
… clean streets however no trash bins anywhere.
… Booze Britain!

Maarten and I have been on a shortholiday, exploring London. It was my first time there and next to everyonetelling me it was super expensive I really didn’t know what to expect. It mustbe awesome since most of my mates in Scotland moved to London and almost everyonehas been there at least once in their life. And let me tell you, it is anawesome city to live, when you have enough money. Paying 14 pound for two beerand a wine (that’s € 17) is not something I would like to dooften. London is full of awesome, strange and one of a kind shops and I foundit really difficult to contain myself and not spend all my money on the firstday. Lucky we had only brought a wee bag and we couldn’t bring back much home.

Visit Highlights were;

The National Portrait Museum

The V&A Museum

The Hunter Museum

St Pauls.

I always keep a travel journey with me.I forget names so easily and we did so much those ten days it’s agood thing I’ve written everything down.

Day 1: arrived late that day in London.Took the train and underground to Tom’s place, made lasagna and he introducedus to the amazingly complicated (but fun!) game of Arkham Horror.

Day 2: Bought our week travel cards sowe would have unlimited travel options, which was amazing! You can go anywhereand not have to worry about getting tickets and it turned out to be way cheapertoo in the end. We strolled through Soho and bought some gifts. The first shopwe entered was a comic shop, such nerds we are. Went through West Minister andmeet up with Tom in Chelsea. Had dinner at Wahaka and had an afterdinner beer in the Intrepid Fox. After that we went back to Tom’s place and gotready for a party of a friend of his. Turns out it was the party of a friend,of the friend of Tom’s and we didn’t really know where it was and who would bethere. When we found the place the bouncers were looking very strange at us andthey searched our stuff and clothes which was a bit odd. Upstairs we didn’tknow anyone, we bought hell expensive drinks, and danced on this awful eightiesmusic. After a while we decided to bring out our secret ‘let’s get the helloutta here’ move and we ran to get the last underground back to the intrepidfox. Later that night we took the Booze Britain bus (night bus) home andencountered the drunken window cleaner and ‘I mean not FUNNY funny, more likeDEAD BABY funny’ girl. BOOZE BRITAIN!

Day 3: went with Tom for some shoppingin Bricklane. This is the epicenter of hipsters and I encountered a genuinehipster with blue eyebrows. They had amazing food though and we went from BOOZEBRITAIN to FOOD BRITAIN. After buying our amazing stylish Christmas jumpers wewent to Spittlefield market. Maarten and I continued towards St Pauls, millenniumbridge and China Town. We went out for dinner with Rachinta and Steff at a verygood Chinese place. Had a wee birthday drink with Rachinta and went back to Tom’splace where there was a housewarming/get together party. Stayed up till earlyin the morning with dancing seizures on dub step included. Happy days!

Day 4: Hung over, played Arkham Horrorall day. Traveled to Jeremy’s place later that night where we had dinner withhis sweet parents. After that we watched ‘Dead Ringer’ an amazing movie withBette Davis.

Day 5: Big breakfast by Jeremy and hismum! We got the Jeremy tour through London where we saw an animation expo offorkbeard, Tate Museum (which we had to evacuate due to a fire alarm), Southbank,tower bridge, Camden, primrose hill, oversee London by night. Had Japanese foodin Soho and visited the exclusive artist café the Phoenix. When we got back athis parents place we had celebration of his dad’s birthday and Maarten's and mineanniversary of six years together.

Day 6: felt a bit ill. Lucky wehad tickets for the musical Jersey Boys that day, so we wouldn’t have to domuch walking. Jeremy arranged box seats for us, which was so cool. Itwas our first musical and a very good one to see, all about the fifties andsixties. Walked around afterwards and checked in a hostel to spend therest of our days. We also went out for a movie that night. We saw that 50/50was showing and Seth Rogen was in it. We’re both fans of Seth Rogen and wereready for a good night of laughs. During the movie we realized it was a cancercomedy (you know, like those movies where a best friend gets cancer and dealingwith it). So instead of having a night of laughs the opposite happened and wefelt really sad when the movie was over.

Day 7: Museum day! After a big Englishbreakfast we visited the Natural History Museum, Science Museum, V&AMuseum. We had an (expensive) dinner at Angus and finished that day with ourfirst Imax experience. The only films showing in Imax were Puss in Boots andHappy Feet 2 so we went with Puss in Boots. The screen is HUGE! The 3D effectswere so intense I freaked out. I really didn’t know how I would survive throughthe whole movie with everything jumping in your face. It was so bad that I hada fear of heights watching the movie! And let me tell you, Puss in boots jumpsover quite a few roofs during the movie.

Day 8: A quick walk through the PortraitGallery before we would see Jeremy. The three of us went to see the FilmMuseum. It had a special exhibit of Ray Harryhausen so we saw all his animationpuppets, double win! We ate a big lunch at Wahaka again, or at least I had aBIG lunch. We said goodbye to Jemery who had to take care of Hugh Grant and hismum at the theatre (for real!). Walked trough Soho again, to Buckingham Palaceand went for dinner at the Hard Rock café (that’s our mac donalds moment duringthe holiday. You know some people go on holiday and visit all the stuff they know from back home like mac donalds? We try to avoid that but Hard Rock Café isour guilty pleasure). Had a stroll through Piccadilly and finished the day.

Day 9: Went to Nothing Hill to walkthrough Portobello Market. I saw so much furniture and taxidermy I would haveloved to buy and ship to Holland :( Unfortunately we already spend so muchand I didn’t want to be broke when I got back. We’ve met up with Tom and wentto this awesome spare ribs place, drank a lightning fast beer and saw the newSherlock Holmes that premiered that day.

Day 10: our last day in London. Wevisited the Hunter Museum which was full with jars of medical specimens andfreaks of nature. Went back to the airport after that. There was a Japanese restaurantwhere they had plates of food on a belt and you could pick up aplate if it looked tasty. And that was the end of our holiday. We arrived exhausted inHolland!

I also would like to point out that I haveflown without medication! I’m so happy I’m overcoming this fear of flying. Ittook a few years and lot’s of flying forth and back but it worked. This isgoing to be our last trip for a long time however. We’re expecting 2012 to be arough year and we decided to go on this holiday while we still could. Moreabout that later in a new post.

I also would like to thank my dearfriends Tom, Jeremy, Steff and Rachinta! You’ve made our holiday into this awesome, fun trip. You’re all amazing people and always welcome atours!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-21T19:02:00.000+01:00

Geek Time

2011-12-02T14:42:00.001+01:00

Some of you might know I’m a bit of ascience geek. Now I'm not claiming to be smart saying I like science (friends can say Ican be rather daft at times) and perhaps I might not fully grasp someconcepts in science, but I find it incredible fascinating to readabout social experiments, suspended animation, biology etc. Just thethings that could be possible in the near future are mind boggling.Just to imagine that we soon have our own jetpacks and 3d printersthrills me and that the person that's going to be a 1000 years old isalready among us (provided the person has enough money to keep buyingnew organs I guess) So this post I'll be sharing my favorite sciencethings.

In the category film clips:

Allthese video’s are from TED.com. Love that website and I oftenlisten to it while I’m drawing. Here are a few of my favoritevideo’s.

AlanRussell studies regenerative medicine -- a breakthrough way ofthinking about disease and injury, using a process that can signalthe body to rebuild itself. And although perhaps that doesn’t soundimmediately fun, think about people growing limbs back! That’sright! Did you know up until 5 years old that you’re able to grow apart of your finger back.

MarkRoth studies suspended animation: the art of shutting down lifeprocesses and then starting them up again. It's wild stuff, but it'snot science fiction. Induced by careful use of an otherwise toxicgas, suspended animation can potentially help trauma and heart attackvictims survive long enough to be treated. In other words, it mightbe possible to ‘pause’ your body and start it up later.

What'ssix miles wide and can end civilization in an instant? An asteroid --and there are lots of them out there. With humor and great visuals,Phil Plait enthralls the TEDxBoulder audience with all the waysasteroids can kill, and what we must do to avoid them. All my lifeI’ve been having nightmares about the end of the world and most ofthem feature an asteroid. Combined with the geek quotes this is areally fun piece to watch.

In the category books:

Elephanton Acid.

Awesome book about weird experiments in history. It’swritten in a fun and easy reading way and even those not interestedin science will laugh out loud because of this book. Questions like“Whycan’t people tickle themselves? Would the average dog summon helpin an emergency? Will babies instinctually pick a well-balanced diet?Is it possible to restore life to the dead?”.

Raisingthe Dead."Raisingthe Dead" is the story of the science of galvanism - named afterthe Italian scientist Luigi Galvini who had conducted the originalexperiments - a movement that investigated the theory of 'animalelectricity', a unifying vital spirit that animates us all, itsleaders believing that they stood on the brink of immortality. Whilethey ultimately failed in this challenge, their studies mapped outthe nervous system and made valuable and enduring contributions tomodern-day medical knowledge and understanding - from theorising theconcept of the modern-day defibrillator, and 'deep brain stimulus'which is used to treat personality disorders, to experimentalprocedures involving the use of microchip-controlled devices tobridge damaged spinal nerves.

Hope you can appreciate it as much as Ido.

Winter

2011-11-16T17:07:00.000+01:00

I've been away for a while, busy with work at the candy shop and the time I've left goes into work at the studio. But it's soooo cold! I have blankets, hats, scarves, hot water bottles and still I'm freezing. But I'll be back soon with more interesting updates!

Photo Frenzy

2011-10-26T19:34:00.001+02:00

Here's some stuff I've been working on.

A new design for reproduction

Photo of the blue King Fish T-shirt that's for sale (€ 15,-)

A study in pencil.

Ars Moriendi

2011-10-14T17:17:00.000+02:00

In the meantime I’m still creating newstuff to fill my upcoming online shop with. I even started painting on canvas,the last time I painted something was more than 3 years ago. It always upsetsme I can’t control paint and I guess that’s why I prefer to work digital (ctrlZ preserves my sanity). I always love to see other peoples work in progress(w.i.p), sometimes even more than the end result. So since it was my firstpainting in years I took a couple of photos during the process. I think it tookme 4 days to finish it, changing the colour of the background a billion times. Ithas a few gold details the scanner didn’t really pick up on. Now this one isfinished it probably will take another few years to recover and start the nextone :p

The sketch. A few different sketches were made before this final one which you can still vaguely see in the background. This is the phase I like the most. The raw sketch contains just the right feeling that often gets lost in the process of painting (due to my lack of painting skills).

The background colour consists out of many layers of different colours. I thought a dark red background would be nice but when I started on her skin and lips I realized that her bright red lips in combination with the red background made her more look like a Spanish hooker and that was definitely not what I was going for, lol.

Changed colours a thousand times by now. Everything was too bright so I went over the painting with a white wash. I never use a painter's easel altough I have one.

Almost finished. A few details are painted in gold like the halo. The banner has a gold wash to make it shimmer. I've made the edges of the painting gold too.

The finished product! Like always I only see the many little mistakes I've made in this one :) I also don't know how to make a better scan of this painting. Some parts seem blurred and you can see texture of the canvas, mehh.

Here it hangs on a wall and you still can't see the gold egdes lol. Damn my camera phone.

The After Life of the Holy Oak

2011-10-14T16:33:00.001+02:00

The animation ‘Den Heilige Eik’ (tl; TheHoly Oak) is doing great. I didn’t really get into sending it to festivals asit is a boring hassle. I don’t understand why the whole process submitting yourfilm can’t be done easier. Anyways the animation is doing great and it had acouple of screenings which lead to even more people asking if they could screenthe animation. So here are a couple of new dates;

Monday 24^th October, 20:00,Vogelverschrikker Festival in Valkenswaard (NL).
Sunday 30^th October, 17:00- 20:00, Allerzielen in Den Hout (NL).

The animation was also nominated in thecategory ‘Best Local Short’ at the Playgrounds festival. The nomination came asa big surprise and made us very proud and happy.

I’ve also a couple of new animation projectsto work on. When I get a green light and am absolutely a 100% positive I’ll letyou know in a new post. They’re pretty exciting projects to work on and can’twait to start animating again.

Dutchanimators and film makers, there’s SCRIPTDATING on the 5^th ofNovember in Amsterdam. If you have a wee idea for a film or animation this isthe perfect place to go to. You’ll get an opportunity to pitch your idea andget feedback and at the same time expand your network. I’ve been to the firstedition and I liked it a lot!

Tutorial Tuesday

2011-10-07T18:02:00.007+02:00

I had a few problems uploading this humongous image. Blogger kept resizing it and uploading it in different ways didn't help so I had to cut it up into 3 pieces.

Click on the image for full size :)

Photo Frenzy

2011-10-03T15:00:00.001+02:00

Cupcake Monday

There's a robot in my tea!

My new painting I bought in an antique store

Nima

Cat can build forts

Comic Art Fair Breda

2011-09-14T15:40:00.000+02:00

My day at the Comic Art Fair has been great.Me and my friend Bram Buurma took the train early in the morning so we couldset up our tables and be ready at 10am. Once arrived we heard from the organizationthat a few people had canceled and we could have an entire table for our stuffinstead of sharing half a table, which was a great start of the day.

My table

The location itself wasn’t greathowever. I’ve seen footage of last year’s Comic Art Fair in Utrecht and thatseemed huge! This year’s location was inthe Graphic Design Museum in Breda. It was on a lower level in the museum andthere weren’t any signs pointing towards it. I’ve heard from quite a few peoplethey couldn’t find it, which is a shame because there was so many awesome thingsto see and buy!

I bought some stuff from fellow artists at the fair and I wish I had more moneyso I could have gotten even more! I also purchased a very cute pin but it’s noton the photo :(

'Liefs uit Riga' by Aimée de Jongh and a postcard from Jan Cleijne

So it was my first time selling stuff on afair and I’m very happy I actually made some profit. I find it very hard tosell or show my own work but it’s fun to talk to visitors and every sell mademe smile. I definitely want to attend more fairs, especially as it would helpgetting Dead Ant.nl up and running. I’m still working on a proper webstore butfor now you can visit a temporary one. Everything is still at an early stagethough.

Here are some more photos of the day.

My zombie portrait made by Bram Buurma.

Bram's table

Bram in action

Happy customer :)

Deadline Fun

2011-09-09T17:46:00.000+02:00

Finishing up some stuff now. I hardly have the time to take photographs of anything. I do want to show these little babies though.

the sketches and the finished products.

I bought these lovely little porcelain saucers at an antique store. I painted two moody birds on it with gold paint. They're even dishwasher safe.

I also finished a very VERY basic webshop reusing some designs I had made for my website and blog. I'll have more time to work on a proper webstore after this weekend (I'm selling my artsy stuff at the Comic Art Fair this Sunday).

Go visit: mijnwebwinkel.nl/winkel/deadant/

The webstore will have fine art gifts made by new young starting artists. If you have something you would like to sell send an email to info@deadant.nl

Ok, back to work now!

New Websites

2011-09-02T18:53:00.000+02:00

I have my postcards for a few weeks now and I’m always carrying an example batch with me in case someone might be interested. So far I’ve sold a few to people and someone even took the time to send me a photo of my postcards in their new habitat.

Send by C. Alfayate-Scott

I’ll have a temporary web shop online soon selling my postcards, t-shirts, paper fortune tellers, and more. Hopefully I’ll have a proper web store in a little while. Furthermore I’m working on this big ass drawing I want to turn into an epic poster. I’ve changed it a million times already and it’s the first time I’m trying out some digital painting. I’m still not sure if I like it. It still misses the right melancholic feeling. Thinking of adding some jellyfish in the background or perhaps start over with the colours. What do you think? How can I turn this piece into the epic poster it supposed to be?

Sorry for f*ugly watermark and low quality but you'll get the idea.

There’s some ONOMATOPEE news! The new website is finally finished! It took a while and after months of silence project ONOMATOPEE is ready for a new and fresh start with better galleries, archives and info. The only thing it needs now is a proper url, however I don’t want to pay a lot for a host so if anyone can find me a cheap one I can finish the site properly J Until then we have to use: http://www.wix.com/projectonomatopee/welcome

The new topic is ‘What Would You Do With A Million’ and the deadline is not until the end of September. So If you feel inspired, creative or just feeling bored create something and send it in to project.onomatopee@gmail.com and see your work appear in the website. Don’t forget to join our facebook too.

To conclude this hyper fast post I’ll leave you with some eye candy from Brooke Shaden. She makes beautiful photos and I wish I could follow one of her workshops!

This last one looks like a dream I often have.

Festivals!

2011-08-22T12:50:00.001+02:00

I’ve been busy with creating some new material for the Kunsstripbeurs the last couple of weeks. I’ve made new drawings, ordered t-shirts and postcards, that kind of stuff. I have received some postcards this week and I decided to give you a little sneak peak.

Postcard €1,-

w.i.p

The Kunststripbeurs is the 10^th and 11^th of September at the Graphic Design Museum in Breda. There’s also the ‘B-movie, Underground en Trash Film Festival’, or BUTFFestival for short, going on in Breda. It’s one my favorite festivals celebrating the bizarre and the weird in film and performances. So there isn’t any reason to not go to Breda that weekend. And while you’re there, come visit me the 11^th at the Kunststripbeurs!


Kunst Stripbeurs, 10 & 11 Sept, 10:00 - 17:00, Graphic Design Museum. BUTFF 2011 teaser from BUT Film Festival on Vimeo.

New Comic Coming Soon!

2011-08-09T19:07:00.001+02:00

Postcards for sale

2011-08-02T18:22:00.000+02:00

Too Much Sugar

Lips

These two postcards are ready for sale for €0,80 a piece! The back has a nice old paper design with space to write and send. Give me a shout at info@deadant.nl or come and buy them at the Kunstripbeurs in Breda (NL) at 10/11 September. More cards coming soon!

And a little sneak peak...

With The Speed Of Light....

2011-07-27T22:50:00.002+02:00

Little updates so far, however.....

The animation ‘Den Heilige Eik’ is showing at the following festivals;
14th August at Kasteel Nemerlaer in Haaren (NL).
12-18 September at Incubate Festival inTilburg (NL).
17th September at De Kunstnacht in Den Bosch(NL).

W.I.P commission for an illustration of the Phallus Impudicus

I moved into my new studio last week. Andit did wonders for my productivity. Right in time! I got the great news I havea place to sell my art at the Kunststripbeurs 2011 at 10/11 September in Breda.This will be the first time selling my stuff at a fair. Exciting and yet a bitscary.

Project Onomatopee is getting a newwebsite. It has been quiet for some time now, due to summer holidays and otherprojects. I’m working on a new web design that makes uploading easier so it(hopefully) has a fresh start in September.

And yes, I’m still working on thosemillions other posts about NZ and stuff. So there’s much more coming soon!

I'll be back

2011-06-27T14:57:00.002+02:00

So I've been back in Holland for almost a month now and I still have heaps of work to do, so you'll have to wait for updates I'm afraid. However you can expect the following posts in a few weeks:

- NZ trip news

- NZ Road Movie episodes

- May and June Movies

- New drawings, t-shirts, jewelry etc.

- More lists like this one...

In the meantime I'll present you this lovely music video. It's one of the few slow songs I can bare to listen to. I love the video, reminds me of many things.

And in short news:

- I have a shared studio in July! Finally a place to draw, animate and create. It's a few streets from home so I can easily walk over there. Can't wait to work there.

- I've drawn a few more T-shirt designs.

- I found a few treasures this month, one of them is a sleeved purple swing dress and a big belly porcelain blue and white vase.

A quick NZ update

2011-05-02T05:48:00.000+02:00

A quick message (the internet at the airport allows everyone 15 min of free internet before it kicks you offline).

Well I'm, almost in NZ! My departure from Holland went smooth, Maart dropped me off at Schiphol. I was quite relaxt. I've been in the bodyscanner for the first time, weird.
Flight went ok. Quite some turbulence and "fasten your seatbelt" please. Watched 4 movies and a few series. Tried to sleep but I don't think I did.

Arrived at Singapore Airport. It was early and quite hot and humid. Weather outside is rainy. The airport itself is super awesome! A free cinema, butterfly garden, ponds with koi, lounge area's, game rooms etc. I feel really jetlagged now :( My next flight leaves in 5 hours or something. Gonna look up my gate and fall asleep.

Thank you all for the sweet messages! They really helped dealing with my nerves hehe. I hope there's a new update soon with photos!

See ya!

Photo Frenzy

2011-04-24T17:30:00.000+02:00

Trick 'N Treats

I've been busy with my new job at Trick 'N Treats. Helping out where I could before they opened on Wednesday. Customers are happy surprised when they come in :) So many bright colours and yummy treats! I still need to get used to the new register, brushing up my math skills at the same time.

Herb Garden

This is turning in some new addiction for me. The herbs started to grow, except for one. Thyme doesn't seem to appear yet :( I'm looking for more things to grow like strawberries and flowers. I have to make sure though my cats can't reach it though, or they'll eat it.

Goodbye....

I finally cut off my festival bracelets :( The black one is the oldest, from Graspop 2005. The rest is Pinkpop 2006, Werchter 2007 and Lowlands 2008. I decided it was time to remove them since I haven't visited any new festival ever since and they don't look that hygienic anymore after 6 year being on my arm.

Random Stuff

I bought new tulips, pink and purple ones. Love to have flowers in our house but my cats keep eating them. To prevent this I've made a paste of chili powder and applied it with a brush to all the leaves. That was the last time they took a nibble haha it works great. Our cats have also been lazy lately with this hot weather.

Taxidermy

We've got some new family members :p I got these two taxidermy pieces for my birthday. If you got some taxidermy, skulls or mounted animals you want to get rid off I'm always interested. I'll happily add them in my collection (which for now, is still very small).

The week of good news!

2011-04-14T23:21:00.000+02:00

I’ve got a job!
I was looking for a job on the side since a few weeks, so I could save somemoney to spend in New Zealand and have a buffer when I got back. I saw therewas a new chocolate, candy and sweets store opening at Steenweg and they werelooking for people. This was definitely something for me, I have a sweet tooth,love to bake and with my hair I will fit right in haha. I decided to send thema short bio instead of my C.V. and they called me back :) Now I’m a proudmember of the Trick ‘n Treats team! I’m looking forward to see the finishedstore and meet fellow colleagues.

New Zealand is a few days away!
I’m counting the days (16 days left). I’m getting a bit nervous thinking aboutflying alone so far but talking about it helps. It also helps I have thisawesome holiday with Lisa to look forward to. So many things to see and do butwe don’t have a tight schedule planned. We’ll go with the flow :) I still needto finish a few thing up here before I go so it’s going to be busy.

New Treasures!
I’ve drawn a few designs to print on t-shirts and other stuff. Although I’m notcompletely satisfied yet I already ordered the shirts to check out theircolours and fabric. The girl shirts look cool with their wide neck lines, thoughthe fabric is a bit thin and see-through with the lighter colours. The guyshirts are a tight fit but look really awesome. More info on my t-shirt projectsoon.

herb garden

I finally started my herb garden. Maarten gave me herb seeds but I never gotaround starting this project. Until I found these sweet little pots! Thinkingabout painting them, but first I have to get new paint. I’ve cleared a high spotfor them in the sun to grow and soon we’ll be cooking with our fresh herbs.

I also bought a new pair of summer shoes. Was looking for something to wearunder my dresses and comfortable to wear. I’m still not successful walking onhigh heels, and with these old streets in Utrecht I probably never will. So Ifound these at H&M. I’m planning to colour them cherry red some day. I alsofound this new ink pen and it’s drawing fantastic. And I found antique littleforks to eat cake.

ink pen

In short news

- I’ve maybe got two new animation projectsto work on! Looking forward to them and I hope they get a green light.

- I have inspiration! I kinda had a‘writers’ block and got over it by reading, watching art and writing more on myblog. Food for the mind as they say.

- Working on a wee animation in my sparetime. Hope I can finish before I’ll leave to NZ!

Photo Shock

2011-04-10T17:50:00.001+02:00

I thought I had lost my photo camera last week and with sad feelings I was looking for a new one. However none of them looked like a satisfying replacement for my old pink camera. It weirdly enough gave me the urge I had to take beautiful photos but I couldn't. Then Maart found my camera again! So it's time for 'the random, most of them covered in instagram filters, photo show'

Ziggy

A not so serious photo

I love to have flowers, especially tullips and peony.

My hair when I'm too lazy to do anything with it.

Nima is getting old.

Lucha Libre Love

2011-04-08T00:31:00.000+02:00

I’vebeen planning to write a post about LuchaLibre after reading ‘Mondo Lucha A Go-Go’ written by Dan Madigan. When I wasa kid I saw American Wrestling on television some day and absolutely loved the theatricalacting, characters, outfits and of course their acrobatic maneuvers. One of my favoritewrestlers was (and still is) Rey Mysterio and I discovered soon his wrestlingstyle was inspired by Lucha Libre.

Rey Mysterio flying trough the air

I’ll try to explain Lucha Libre in short with the help of Mondo Lucha A Go-Go. Lucha Libre means free wrestling andexists of different fighting styles so ‘wrestlers can face anything in battle’.Wrestling itself is one of the oldest sports, going all the way back to ancientEgypt. It became popular again during the carny sideshows and a whole new styleof wrestling started in Mexico in the early 1930’s.

All wresters are called luchadores,however only the masked ones are called enmascarados.Their masks are called mascaras andthey keep their owner’s identity a secret. Luchadoreshave to earn their mask and this is a hard long trial that can take years. Thereare strict rules and they have to take a test and prove themselves to a jury.Once they earned their máscara thisis a very high honor. Having a mascara is serious business and wrestlers doeverything in their power to keep their identity a secret, even for family andfriends.

Máscaras

Their matches are all about good vs evil. The good guy is called a técnico, the bad guy a rudo. The referee however can also be a técnico or a rudo and can take a side. To make it more easy wrestlers and refereescan also switch from good to evil and vice versa during a match.
The matches are two out of three falls or Dosde tres caidas. So when a luchadorelooses one he still has a change by winning the next two. Usually the fightsare not one against one, but with two tag teams against each other, or eventeams of three or four wrestlers.
But there are one on one fights too. Those are usually with wagers, with máscara vs máscara being the mostextreme one. At the end of these matches the winner gets to reveal the identityof the loser and keep the mask as a trophy. Imagine working all those years fora mask and persona, finally get one, and then it gets ripped of your head andyou have to start over. Actual wrestling careers have been destroyed this way. Whenyou haven’t earned your mascara yetyou fight for your hair. These matches are called cabellera vs cabellera and the winner humiliates the loser byshaving the loser’s hair of!

Cobarde vs Fishman in a Máscara vs Máscara

So that’s the great sport Lucha Libre inshort.Next time I’ll talk about my great hero: EL SANTOOOOOO! And how he usedhis secret persona for comics and movies.

El Santo on the left, Blue Demon on the right

March Movies and More

2011-04-04T15:32:00.000+02:00

Ahhh the days are getting longer, temperatureis rising. It feels good. I’m watching less movies however. The score for themonth March is 17 movies.

Treasure Planet: Boy finds a treasuremap and tries to find it. Lot of CGI, over acting of characters. $$$

Cat Shit One: A short animation aboutwar. Rabbits are at war against Camels in the desert. $$

Jarhead: One of the more funnier moviesabout war to watch. $$$

Predator: “if it bleeds, we can kill it”.Says everything about the movie. Starts boring, then suddenly blood all overthe place. $$$$

Deathproof: Stuntman Mike kills with hiscar until he meets some stunt girls. This movie had a satisfying end. $$$$$

Burlesque: Bad story, bad songs, notreally burlesque. Moulin Rouge is more fun to watch. $$

Green Hornet: Loser decides to use hismillions to become a super hero (like everyone would do if we had enough money).$$$

Tron: Is more awesome if you have seenthe old one too. People are trapped inside a computer, looking for a way out.$$$$

Paperman: A writer has an imaginaryfriend. When writing on his new book he meets his soul mate; a teen girl whichhas a imaginary friend too. Awkward relationship movie. $$$

Season of the Witch: There’s no witch init. But it has Nicholas Cage….$$

Ace Ventura 2: Hysterical hilarious. Petdetective looking for a albino bat in Africa. $$$$

Due Date: Road trip movie where a loserand a businessman are stuck together. $$

Hellboy: Good special effects, suits,characters. Awesome! $$$$$

Date Movie: every romantic comedy clichéin one movie. Nasty and bad scenes. $

Kings Speech: A prince tries to overcomehis stutter. $$$$

Rambo I: War veteran goes apeshit whenhe’s back in America. $$$

12 Monkeys: Guy gets teleported back intime to do research on a human killing virus. $$$$

Also check out the Onomatopee blog!There’ve been a lot of contributions to ‘Onomatopee’s Art Meme’ and they’regreat to see. This month’s topic is ‘What would you do with a million’. Ialready have an idea, it even involves some kind of animation.

A Heartbreaking Story Told By Elizabeth Taylor

2011-03-24T13:23:00.002+01:00

Normally I’m not moved by celebrities thatpassed away. It’s not like I know them in person and yes it sucks but that’slife. The passing away of Elizabeth Taylor was everywhere on the news yesterdayand I caught a piece on the television about her life. I didn’t really knew herwork and it was full of clips and photos from old movies, which I loved to see.She was a stunning beauty when she was young! I didn’t care much about theacting stories but one particular part in the documentary was heartbreaking tosee and thus I decided to put on my blog.

The emotion she has telling the followingstory is so touching I advice to watch the youtube clip starting from 7:40. Thesecond part she tells about her Oscar which is also important to the story.

She talks about her marriage with MikeTodd. At some point Elizabeth gets a fever and she can’t travel with herhusband and has to stay in bed. They say goodbye a few times and the nextmorning Mike Todd is dead. Elizabeth is devastated but goes back to work tofinish the movie ‘Cat on a hot tin roof’. This was supposed to be her last filmat the studio, a gentleman’s agreement between her husband Mike Todd and thestudio. But with the passing away of her husband, the studio forced Elizabethto make another one ‘Butterfield 8’. She could do nothing against it and madethe entire movie with the feeling of “having a gun held against her head by thestudio” (like she says in the documentary). And then she won an Oscar for Butterfield8 while she absolutely hated it.

Onomatopee's Art Meme

2011-03-19T16:58:00.002+01:00

These are incredibly fun to do! So if you're bored or have some time left just doodle away. And when you're ready you can email them back to me and they appear on the blog (project.onomatopee@gmail.com is the email). I got a few of these babies back already and they're fun to watch :)

Have fun!

updates, updates, shiny new updates!

2011-03-15T16:08:00.003+01:00

Drawing becomes difficult when a kitty wants to sit on everything you touch >_<

Last couple of months have been quiet, which finally gave me time to focus on a business plan for my web shop. Some of you might know that it’s my dream to own a brand or a store. The idea popped in my head a few years back but only since this year I decided to pursue this dream. So I’ve just started my research. I also need to write a business plan but I keep procrastinating that part. I rather create stuff than to write down my thoughts. I’m not a good writer, I never seem to find the right words to express myself. I’m following a new workshop however by Jantiene de Kroon from Mooves this Friday that will help me with my writing and to find funding for my webshop :) Looking forward to it!

Maarten en I made beers for a birthday present.

There also have been quite a few parties and carnaval of course. For foreigners that don’t know carnaval; it’s like Halloween but for 4 days long and the only thing you do is get wasted on Dutch folk music with silly clothes on. I had bought a new petticoat and was dying to wear it. Carnaval wasn’t maybe the most chique party but at least I finally could dress up. I visited my friend Cindy (we know each other since kindergarten, a thing I’m very proud of :p) and we went out. Cindy was dressed as a stewardess and I went as a rock ‘n roll chick. It was so much fun! I love dress up parties.
Had another dress up party a week later. The theme was wig, quite easy. My hair usually looks like a wig already and with carnaval I felt entirely normal with my pink hair. For this next party I got a wig from my neighbor. It was a blonde curly one and it looked so strange. I felt like Bette Davis in ‘Whatever happened to baby jane’ which is an awesome eerie movie everyone should watch!

Cin and me with carnaval.

So happy with my petticoat <3

I also finished two books. One is lucha a go go and I’m planning to write an entire blogpost about it because it’s awesome! The other one is the SAS Servival Guide. I always wanted to read a survival book, just knowing how to build shelters and how to hunt is fun. But I’ve also learned about nasty diseases and how to treat them, to hit sharks in their eyes, never drink your pee, and how to do the Heimlich when you’re alone.

The blonde baby jane wig.

In other short news
-The first visitor found her way to me trough my new website. I’m so happy it works now.
-I have twitter for news about my work and such. Add me @nvolbeda.
-I designed 2 patterns and a t-shirt.
-We have a visiter from Autralia next week!
-I'm going to Brandon Flowers with Cin.
-The sun is coming back, yay!
-Staring to prepare for my trip to NZ, whieeeh! I do have nightmares about missing my transfer though : /
-People predicted another earthquake in NZ next week. Let’s see if it becomes true…

February Movies

2011-03-02T16:32:00.000+01:00

Films I saw in February;

Date Night: Bored couple goes out for dinner as usualbut gets tangled up in crime. $$

Tron: The old version. Guy trapped in a computer game. A classic! $$$

Trolljegeren: Blair Witch meets Where the Wild Things Are. Not scary documentaryabout trolls in Norway. $$$$

Gulliver’s Travels: Jack Black plays a loser that ends up onan island where he suddenly is the hero. $$$

Madagascar 2: Animation feature about 4 zoo animals ending upin Africa. Funny, many storylines. $$$

Virtuality: A pilot for a new television series which is turned into a movieafter being unsuccessful. It’s about a reality show in a space station. $$

BeeMovie: Long Seinfeld episode only with bees andexplaining why they are important but with giving the audience wrong info. $$

Chicken Little: A little chicken wants to make his dadproud but nobody believes anything he says. This movie didn’t make me laughonce…$

Black Swan: Girl gets the lead in swan lake but goescrazy by the pressure. $$$$$

Takethe Lead: A ‘How do I reach these kids!?’ movie.Gangster problem class learns how to deal with their problems by learningballroom dance. $$

Tangled: fairytale of rapunzel. Very good character animation, funny and anice quick pace in the entire movie. $$$$

Big Lebowski: The only film I’ve seen several times andevery time I think there’s a new scene I never saw before. $$$$

127 Hours: true story film about a climber that getsstuck with his hand under a boulder. $$$

The Wicker Man: Feels like a point & clickadventure on a desolate island where inspector Nicholas Cage is looking for amissing girl in a weird community. $$$

Law Abiding Citizen: Angry father in prison ispunishing the corrupt judges and lawyers. $$$

Spoonfed

2011-02-22T15:34:00.000+01:00

the background animation forSpoonfed is finished! This was so much fun to work on and the collaborationwith Tom Hunt went smooth. He send me his drawings of the machine, I made themmove simple as that. Most animators know however that even the easy things cango wrong...

I was finished and when I wanted torender the animation in AFX it crashed at frame 18, no matter what I did. Icouldn't find the problem on the internet and tried everything I could thinkof. Finally I gave up and decided it had something to do with my laptop memory.I had to give a presentation at my old school the next day so I brought all thefiles and tried to render with the schools awesome new computers. However AFXcrashed at frame 83 this time. So stressed for my deadline I rendered the wholeanimation in little pieces....no fun!

Lucky I gave a copy of the files toMaarten en he tried to render at the same time at his work and he experiencedno problems. We still don't understand what was the problem, but in the end Iwas in time for my deadline and everyone was happy :)

I heard that the theater playSpoonfed was a success. Unfortunately I couldn't be there to see it. Theremight even be dates for a show in London! *fingers crossed*

I caught a killer cold last weekand had to stay in feeling like a sad little blob. The only good thing aboutbeing ill is that I can watch 5 movies a day without feeling a bit guilty,muha! Now I’m starting to feel better and I’m going back to work! I’m workingon the little hand-made presents for Project Onomatopee. Although it turns outthey’re not ‘little’ anymore and they’re taking a lot more time than expected.I’m begging for forgiveness and the patience to wait a wee bit longer.

Ok back to work!

New Website

2011-02-13T22:03:00.004+01:00

After a few days tweaking around I finally got my website finished! I build my first portfolio site during a workshop at school in 2008 but never got around finishing it. I had no idea how to embed my animations in it, apparently I did something special which made it harder to show film on my website. After asking 2 website builders to help me finish, which eventually ended up into nothing, I finally found a website program for n00bs like me and made an even better website.

So I proudly present my new updated website tadaaaa:

Go check it out at www.nicolevolbeda.com

January Movies

2011-01-31T14:40:00.001+01:00

One of my new year’s resolutions is towatch more movies and write them down. The score of this month is 20 movies. When amovie gets one $ it’s really lame, and five $$$$$ means shit is so cash watchit! I’m known for my great (ahum) taste in B-Movies so opinions may differ. Here’sthe list of January;

The Human Centipede: Mostcreepy German doctor has an obsession of making an human centipede. Oh thisvery rich doctor also owns a very cheap IKEA couch. $$$$

New Kids Turbo: Dutch group ofcamp guys deciding to do nothing anymore. They steal, borrow money and in thearmy get’s involved in some way. $$

How To Lose Friends and Alienate People: Loser in New York romantic comedy with not that much romance.$$$

Life: two man locked up inprison for life and they become best friends and worst enemies. A sweet filmwith bickering old man. $$$$$

Bride Flight: Dutch film abouta group people migrating to New Zealand in the fifties. Their life’s become intertwinedwith each other. Good detail was their crappy Dutch English in the beginningand their NZ accents in the end. $$$$

Devil: Cluedo in an elevator.$$$

Fido: Zombies become slaves inthe fifties. A lot of old zombie movie hidden jokes. $$$$

The Last Exorcism: Fake documentaryabout a priest that lost his fate and shows all exorcisms are a scam, until….$$

Starship Troopers: Future filmabout teens fighting alien insects. $$$$

The American: Clooney makesguns. Story was too slow for my (B-movie) taste. $$

Triangle: Surprising movieabout a woman that gets stuck in a repeating chain of events which she tries tobreak. A real hell with a big twist. $$$$$

Pontypool: Mysterious eventsare happening while a radio maker is trying to make his show. An original moviewith suspense. $$$$$

The Hole: A horror about a holein the cellar. Could have been made by Disney starring the Jonas Brothers. $

Monsters: Boring long not scaryAlien film. Mix of war of the worlds, district 9 and cloverfield. $$

Joana Hex: Short movie (80min).Cowboy can talk with the dead, saves America. Storylines are falling apart and mostof the time you have no idea what’s the deal. $$

Rec: Spanish version. Filmsentirely in an apartment complex. They’re being held in quarantine not knowingwhy. End is scary!! $$$$

Rec2: Spanish version. Samestory again but with more explanation. Bad acting. $$$

Winnebago Man: Documentaryabout an old meme. They’re trying to find the man in the movie. $$$$

Easy A: High school drama abouta girl that sacrifices herself telling everyone she slept with people to givethem more street credit. $$$

The Book of Eli: Fall Out (thegame) movie about a man with a very important mission. They pay each other withleft over KFC paper towels. Great cinematography! $$$$

And I want to leave you with this most awesome trailer.

January Treasures!

2011-01-22T16:51:00.003+01:00

After weeks of eating breadand drinking water I decided it was time to treat myself. I'm usually not a bigspender, I can't be since I don't earn that much money :p however I've had somegood luck this month and was able to get the following;

- A ticket to New Zealand!

That's right, I'm off inthe air again. Who would have thought two years ago :) I was so scared of evenbeing on the airport I would rather die than fly. It's still no fun, but I getused to it more and more. Since my trip to China went so well, I took a chanceand I'm going to fly alone all the way to New Zealand to visit my dear friendLisa. She's there for her second time, working on a drop zone and doing someskydiving. She's a real daredevil! After China I got the travel itch again andwhen she asked if I would like to visit her for a road trip I immediately saidyes! I've always wanted to do a road trip (seriously need to catch up mydriving skills though :s). I also realized after a few good friends passed awaythat life is short and you'll have only one life and whenever there's a chanceto do something fun or great, and you're able to do it just grab that chancewith both hands. Realizing that helped me to get over that fear of flying anddoing all kinds of stuff I used to be scared of :) Also Lisa is a real blast togo on a holiday with :D We've traveled together trough the highlands ofScotland, which had the most beautiful nature I've ever seen so I wonder if NewZealand is going to top that.

I'll be gone for an entiremonth watching kiwis, glow worms, seals, dolphins, maybe even some whales, reenacting Lord of the Rings and singing Flight of the Conchords! I can'twait!

- New Shoes

I have a huge thing forhigh heels. Love them although I can't walk on it. When I'm bored I usuallyscan the internets for good deals and this time I really found one! Scapino.nlhas an online store where they have huge discount on shoes and best of all theydeliver them free to a shop near you (which in my case is across the street).So they arrived after two weeks and I could try them on in the store. They weretwo sizes to big though :s no problem, got a smaller size and I paid theinternet price of €5 instead of the shop price which was €18. Deals like thismake my day!

- A Deluxe Petticoat

Across our supermarket thereis this vintage shop where they sell 20's - 50's fashion. They have fabulousdresses and beautiful petticoats in the window. Every time when I go out to getgroceries I watch and drool forcing myself to walk away. Having dreams aboutpetticoats, I really really needed to have one! I looked into making one myselfbut I would have needed so much fabric (at least 32mtr) it probably wasn'tgoing to be any cheaper than buying one. So after saving up enough money to getone (and these things are expensive!) I bought a large black chiffon petticoatwhich is softer and more fluent than a plastic tulle one. I'm really happy now!Can't wait for summer, dress up parties and burlesque to show off my lushpetticoat! I wish I teleport back to the fifties where it was ok to wear oneevery day.

Scribble Cat

2011-01-20T01:13:00.000+01:00

I've always liked these naked sphynx cats. Can't afford them though ;_;

Pencil on paper, with a bit of photoshop.

Spoonfed Test

2011-01-14T13:00:00.000+01:00

This is a test for the theatre play Spoonfed. My friend Tom asked if I could animate a background for the play which looked like a big machine, with cogs and hinges, so here's the first test. Tom Hunt drew everything, making everything move is my thing. You see four stages, each is 30 seconds long;

1st: animation

2nd: added blur for more depth

3rd: added 8mm filter

4th: added moving background

Still want to play around with mist to create even more dept.

I'll keep you all up to date about 'Spoonfed' :) Also check out Tom Hunts stuff! He's a very talented lad with a great webcomic!

New Year's Resolutions

2011-01-12T22:06:00.000+01:00

Everyone a happy, healthy, creative NewYear! This year started for me with a well deserved break. My animation project‘Den Heilige EIk’ is finished and wrapped up and now I’m back to work readingtwo new animation scripts, making artwork and animation tests.
It doesn’t hurt however to set some goals for this year :) Something I’ve learned from my year in Scotland is to always have aplan, which helps you focus to get where you would like to be (thank youMadevi). So I present hereby my New Year’s Resolutions!!!

1) Get more exercise this year! The long hours behind a small desk and a badchair had effect on my muscles and my back. So next to my current dance class I’vesigned up for another one :)

2) Watch more movies! I also write down ina little notebook which movie I saw when and If I liked It or not.

3) Cut down on distractions like televisionand facebook. They make me feel lazy and most of the time there’s nothinginteresting on it anyways.

4) Make more time for friends. I sometimes getso caught up in work I forget to make fun.

5) Have my own shop up and running thisyear. I’m walking around with this idea for a few years and decided to finallytake steps to realize it and I’m writing my business plan.

I believe those are enough goals to achievethis year :p Let's see what I've done with them in 2012!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-21T17:56:00.000+01:00

To everyone!!!!

Style Test

2010-12-19T22:46:00.002+01:00

This is a quick animation test I've made for an awesome project (I'm still not sure how much I'm allowed tell about the story). I've made this test to check this new filter I've got and to see how different levels of blur would work, and to check the background. It's not animated on the music or anything:p

Le Grande Photo Show

2010-12-17T18:55:00.002+01:00

So yeah, I've got some photos laying around I wanted to show you so I welcome you to;

Le Grande Awesome Photo Show

I show you in random order *tatatatataduuuum*

This is the view from our window. It has been snowing all day today and when it snows around here, Holland goes into panic mode. Trains aren't departing, loooong traffic jams, weather alarm, people have to stay inside...

My cat Nima has a new toy. She loves the upload screen of wetransfer and can easily sit there for hours staring. wetransfer is awesome btw.

Once again I lost Nima. After checking her usual hiding spots I still couldn't find her. Scared she might have slipped downstairs, but then I heard a deep sigh and there she was, sleeping in a bag.

Haha! A random photo I found! This is me with my grandma.

This is my new dress I'm working on. Inspired by 50's dresses (love them!) I've made my own pattern, which was a pain in the ass. It's almost finished and it's also the first time I tried out my new dressing doll. The fabric is heavy and bought for €1 p meter! I believe I used 4 meters in this dress.

Ohyeah, this is the colour I'm trying to get back to, more red. My hair however turns pink every time I dye it red. A few weeks ago a woman asked me if I wanted to be part of her model agency because of my hair. I wasn't sure about it though but then she called again a few days later. So I signed up, unfortunately I wasn't available on my first assignment lol. Oh and I like those curls in my hair, they're hard work to make though :(

Hahaha that's me and maarten. We just knew each other on the photo, and now we've celebrated our 5 years together last weekend. Strange to see my old hair colour (which is dyed too).

Well I'll put an end to this random boring madness :p

Den Heilige Eik [UPDATE]

2010-12-14T02:21:00.005+01:00

The day of our premiere wasnerve wrecking! I wrote a speech and a few thank you words the night before. Ididn't want to read them from the paper though so I practiced all nightmemorizing at least the speeches, which lead to a night with almost no sleep. Ijust hate to speak in front of people, they look at you and it feels likewhatever I say it's never good enough. I'm not a good speaker generally, makingup my own words, messing up sentences. In high school it had gone to the pointthat every time I had to give a presentation I would throw up or pass out, soscared I was. But I don't want to be like that anymore so I try not to runaway. During my master I had a lot of practice and it actually got bettergiving presentations knowing I was a foreigner and it's ok to make mistakesthen. It will never be fun for me to give presentations but the feeling ofaccomplishment I get afterwards is great. Just need to practise a lot.

Anyways, in the morningBram, Raimke and I set up our premiere with the help of Paul and Laura. It wasset in a lovely small church in Den Hout, close to the tree we've made a movieabout. At first we wanted to have a walk to the tree but the weather was toocold for that. Inside the church Paul prepared the screen (6 meters!).Unfortunately we discovered that it was still too bright inside the church tosee anything on the screen so we decided to solve this with moving the entire program30 minutes later, and the sun would be setting during the time we would screenout movie.

People were arriving andeverything was set. I was incredibly nervous, never before so many people (80 people were at the premiere)gathered to watch a movie I had made. And I had to give a speech to all of themof course :p The speech went well however. All the practice that night beforepaid off and I knew what I was going to say. Don't know how it looked though :pMiranda, Bram, Marcel and Raimke all said something too and we realized ourtalks were in fact shorter than we anticipated so Raimke made an effort tostretch our time by showing some pictures. The audience unfortunately wasgetting really impatient so we decided to show the movie a few times thatevening.

It feels great when peoplelaugh at your jokes in the movie. After the screening I felt proud and gave aquick thank you speech. People were congratulating us with the great movie andit the premiere was a wrap!These photos of the premiere are made by Untangle Art.

And here it is! The movieI've been working on the last 6 months. Watch it, share it, and let me knowwhat you think :)

China Trip part 1

2010-12-06T22:17:00.008+01:00

We're back from Beijing and we've had agreat time! I’ve kept a travel journal since we would be do/see so many stuffand I always forget everything, even the nice memories. I'll try to avoid longstories, so I’ve split it up in 2 parts. Here it goes.

Day 1, 26 Oct.

Weather: cold

Our flight left at 6pm so that gave usenough time to take the train to Schiphol and check in. I felt quite relaxedbut sometimes I would get a nervous shiver. We had a few hours to kill at theairport and of course I happened to read how a crocodile killed 14 people on aflight -_-' Took one flight medicine and felt ok after that. I was reallysurprised the airplane was so huge; we had our own television screen and quitesome space. I felt safer than flying with Ryan Air so the flight was no problemanymore. I've watched Toy Story 3 and Out of my League.

At the airport we bought a ChineseSimcard and called Yubing to tell we arrived safe. We took a taxi to the hotelbut the cabdriver didn't understand where we wanted to go. On the internet I'vefound several addresses of the hotel, we showed one in Chinese characters tohim and the one we had found on the map. Turned out those two were totallydifferent. Called Yubing again and she explained it in Chinese to the driverand we were on our way. Our first impression was shock. We both expectedsomething like Shanghai we know from television but it was much more old andchaotic. The Botai Hotel was ok, looked very expensive on the outside withmarble and gold, our room was very small and basic (and cheap :p). We walkedaround the neighborhood but it was so cold and we felt quite jetlagged we wantback to the hotel for a quick nap before dinner. When we woke up I felt reallysick so we stayed in and fell asleep again.

Day 2, 27 Oct.

Weather: really cold

Woke up thinking it was noon, only todiscover it was 4 in the morning. Later that day we visited Tianenmen Square, theforbidden city and a beautiful park. We were surprised that we had to scan ourbags (like they do at the airport to see if you bring something dangerous) atevery public place. At the park I met the first Chinese man that wanted to takea picture of me. The forbidden city was huge! It was strange to see that even 90%of the tourists are Asian so we still got noticed. In the city there was aquiet little garden with an old man reading. When he saw us he wanted to take apicture of Maarten and me. He gave us our camera back after he had taken aphoto and he was pulling my hair an laughing. He bended over for what I thoughtwas a hug but suddenly he kissed me, waah! That night we had dinner with acouchsurfer Matteo. An Italian that knows the best places to eat!

Day 3, 28 Oct.

Weather: sunny

We extended our stay in the Hotel sincefinding a couchsurfer that could host us turned out to be difficult (nointernet). The hotel was super cheap so we didn’t mind anyway. Visited the Lamatemple. It was beautiful too bad we weren’t allowed to take pictures of the Buddha’s.The largest Buddha in the world was amazing to see! Bought Lunch at asupermarket and ate it on top of a hill with the sun setting. They have thesepink apples that taste like watermelon, amazing. That night we went to a superdeluxe restaurant and tried Beijing Duck. A cook cut it in nice strips at ourtable which was awesome to see.

Day 4, 29 Oct.

Weather: Sunny and warm

Maarten bought his first street food andhe loved it. We took the subway to the zoo. The subways are awesome in Beijing.Everything is clean and shiny. There are arrows everywhere and everything is Chinese/Englishand it only costs 20 cents for a one way ticket. The zoo was fun. Were a bitshocked to see that people fed the animals soda and cookies.

Day 5, 30 Oct.

We met Haruna and LanXin, friends ofYubing, at the subway. The four of us would travel together to Donyin by bus toattend the wedding. The bus trip took 5 hours. Haruna is Japanese and married afew months ago a Chinese man and is learning to speak Chinese. LanXin lives inBeijing and speaks fluent Chinese. Both of them translated conversations for usJ Even though there’s a language barrier it’s still fun and not thathard to talk to each other. We used gestures and drawings if we couldn’tunderstand something haha. We arrived at Donyin and I never forget the firsttime we met Ansen (Yubings husband); a car stopped next to us, a door swingedopen and Ansen jumped out with his arms wide open shouting Welcome!!!! Wethought Yubing wouldn’t be there to pick us up since it’s tradition for the brideand groom not to see each other a day before the wedding. But Yubing jumped outtoo! We went to Ansens family . The whole village was there to see who the newvisitors were. We had to take pictures with everyone. The villagers showed ushow to cut vegetables for dumplings and we got candy from everyone. Then wewent to the hotel to meet Yubings family. We ate fancy food we never sawbefore! After dinner we went back to the village where the women were waitingfor us to show how they made dumplings. We had to try it too and they laughedat us since we couldn’t do it as good as them.

Day 6, 31 Oct.

We had to get up at 5am and be ready at6am for the wedding. Maarten went with Ansens side of the family, I stayed withYubing. We had to hide Yubing’s shoes so Ansen can’t take her away. Ansen wason the other side of the hotel door trying to get in. He had to answerquestions about Yubing like what’s her favorite food, what’s her phone number?He also tried to bribe people with red envelopes which contained money.Everyone was pushing so hard that the hotel door broke in two. Ansen found hershoes and we went to Ansens village. Outside there was a long line with cars,to bring us there. They had fireworks everywhere. Maarten and me had to posewith so many villagers again. We gave people drop, Dutch candy. At first theyasked polite but when people heard we were handing out candy they ripped thebag and everyone tried to get one. We went to a second hotel for the officialwedding. Yubing asked me to give a speech, but she cleverly left out it was for about 200 people! I prepared ashort speech and LanXin and Haruna translated it into Chinese since most peopledon’t understand English very well. The official wedding is with disco lights,loud music, bubbles, glitter. Yubing and Ansen cut the cake together, just likethe West tradition, and put the rings on. I gave my speech (which went ok) andHaruna translated it into Chinese. Haruna and LanXin also said a few emotionalwords for Yubing and Ansen. Afterwards we went to a private room to have a veryfancy dinner with the family. After dinner Haruna and LanXin went back toBeijing and Maarten and me stayed a day longer. Later that day we witnessed afew traditional games Yubing and Ansen had to play. We got presents and verybeautiful thank you words from the family, we felt very touched by all this.Another huge dinner with the family. Maarten and me made plans to visit theyellow river the next day, a tip from Yubings Uncle.

Day 7, 1 Nov.

Another early day. Breakfast with theentire family. Yubing and Ansen were still busy with traditions sounfortunately we couldn’t meet up. The weather was too windy for the trip tothe yellow river so we decided to go back to Beijing. Peter, the boyfriend ofYubings sister also wanted to to Beijing so we traveld back together. Had towait a few hours before the bus left so we tried to check our email at aninternet café. Internet was broken though and we had 5 minutes to check ourmail. Back in Beijing we stayed at Botai Hotel again. Went out for dinner withMatteo and his friends again.

So far part one….

Premiere!

2010-12-01T00:08:00.001+01:00

Bij deze bent U van harte uitgenodigd voor de premiere van 'Den Heilige Eik'.

Wanneer: Zondag 12 December

Waar: St Corneliuskerk in Den Hout

Hoe laat: 15:00

There are nine million bicycles in Beijing (...and one pink haired Nicole)

2010-10-19T18:35:00.005+02:00

In a week I’mleaving for Beijing!!!! Together with Maarten we will enjoy our very firstholiday together. Yup our very first in 5 years, we’ve only been on holidayswith other people.

I’m lookingforward to experience a new culture, meet new people and explore China. Wearrive in Beijing in the morning. Stuff we want to see is the Great Wall, TheForbidden City, The Summer Palace, The Lama Temple, Tiananmen Square, BeijingZoo and many more. We’ll take a break from Beijing and travel to the Shandongprovince to attend Yubing’s wedding in Donyin. I’m excited to see Yubing againand I wonder how a Chinese wedding will look like. We haven’t planned much afterthe wedding, maybe we’ll travel around in Shandong for a few days and head backfor Beijing. After our wonderful experience hosting our couchsurfer Kate from Taiwanwe want to try surfing ourselves in Beijing. We’ve got some great tips from former Beijingstudents whom we’ve met during a couchsurfers meeting in Utrecht. Thank youguys for that!

Grotere kaart weergeven

But firstwe’re trying our best to prepare our visit to China. This week we’re learningbasic Chinese, eat only with chopsticks and we’ve watched the new Karate Kidmovie (which was shot entirely in Beijing). I’m having a hard time to get some sleep,thinking about all the stuff I need to prepare and wondering how the flightwill be (it’s 8 hours in the air!). But I’m sure it will be awesome!

Don’t wantto bore everyone with long stories so here’s some short news;

Myanimations ‘Mala’ and ‘The Kite’ will be screened from 8^th Octoberin Tilburg. It’s a huge outdoor screen so if you’re in Tilburg make sure you checkit out!

I’mfollowing Tribal Fusion Bellydance classes. Funny thing is that it’s next doorand it’s a mix up of Bellydance, Hawaiian, Flamenco and HipHop. At some pointwe’ll even learn to moonwalk haha!

Theproject ‘KunstwerkT’ is finished. The grande finale was 12 October and thepresentation film I’ve made was well received. Goal of this film is tointroduce organizations to this concept of ‘KunstwerkT’.

Maartengot his drivers license and I’m proud!

Havea great time in New Zealand awesome skydiving Lisa. I’ll miss you!

I’vegot 5 new animation projects waiting for me and I feel extremely lucky and thankfulsince they’re kick ass. I’ll be busy till January, maybe later.

We’rehaving a Sweet late Halloween party and I’m making plans like a maniac for mycostume. I can’t choose.

I’ll leaveit with that. Stay sweet everyone, be nice to each other! Focus more onyourself and less on others /endofhippiemodus

Cheerio!

I'm baaaack

2010-09-20T13:22:00.002+02:00

Hi again,

This blog isn’t dead, I’m just really busy with lots of things. No news is good news right ;p

So what have I been up to this last month? The pendant making is currently on a hold. My oven is broken. But I don’t have much time for it anyway; this Holy Oak animation is so much work! We had to create a solid storyline with 10 different interviews and on top of that the quality of the sounds wasn’t exactly what we had hoped for. We’re trying to make the best of it and hired a good sound technician at Karton. After many weeks of puzzling with pieces interview we have finally got a story down and the fun part starts this week; Animation!

What a poser! Nima loves our new basket.

I also received an email from my friend Yubing. We were both in the Animation Master course last year (can’t believe that’s already a year ago) and soon became good friends. After finishing our course she moved back to China and I went back to Holland and we keep in touch. She wrote that she’s marrying her boyfriend Ansen, such happy news! Maarten and I were invited to the wedding. Now something similar happened during Christmas 2009. Yubing’s brother was going to get married and I was invited too but I was so scared of the long flight and I already booked my ticket for Holland that same period, I declined the offer. With much regret after I’ve heard the stories and saw the photos of China. I’m really fond of Asia! So with this second chance I couldn’t say no. I’m going to China! I’m still scared for the flight (9 hours trapped in a room, high in the sky!) but I have an appointment with the doctor tomorrow to talk about the options. And I want to ask my dear friends to help me out and avoid topics like flight crashes, terrorists and other things that can go wrong during a flight. It might look like fun to see my scared face but you’ll also give me nightmares and I might cancel my trip. I’m really scared.
If you have travel tips for Beijing or ShanDong I would love to hear them!

Yubing and me

A few weeks ago Maarten and I decided to sign up as a host for couch surfing. For the people that don’t know couch surfing; it’s a huge network that brings locals and travelers together to find a bed (or couch) or to meet up and show each other around. We have space, we wanted to meet new people, we love to hear about cultures and travels and I want to practice my English. Since I’ve been back in Holland I noticed everything I had learned from my year abroad slipped away.
Our first couch surfer was a girl from Taiwan. Her name was Kate and she already found a place to sleep, but she traveled alone and wanted to meet up with people. So we went to café Belgium where we tasted different beers. It was so much fun and she ended up staying with us for a couple of nights. We cooked together and she taught us some basic Mandarin phrases. We went to a couch surfers meeting and we’ve met so many new people. Funny thing was that most of them were working in the creative sector so it also felt a bit like a network evening. I’ve never received so many business cards before haha. When it was time for Kate to fly back it was hard to say goodbye. She became a good friend and I hope we will meet again somewhere in the future.
So this was a good first experience with couch surfing. We still love to host but unfortunately we’re sometimes too busy with our work.

Eating fried food with Kate

So now back to work. I’m glad I’ve work. I was afraid with having a freelance job it would be difficult to make a living. But it seems that every time I’ll automatically roll into a new job. After this Holy Oak animation I can start with 3 different animation projects. These projects are also going to a more dark, horror, steampunky direction which I love!

Work In Progress

2010-07-08T17:02:00.001+02:00

Busy with work lately, which is a good thing! Projects I'm working on are; Heilige Eik, Onomatopee, my webshop, Gruga, and a secret group project in Oosterhout. So many and I've already put some things on hold.

This is where I do all my work. A bit too small, I would love to have a separate studio with more space but I can't afford it at the moment. My cat Nima is laying on my stuff as usual. A week ago someone was calling me and I couldn't find my phone. I looked everywhere and then I discovered my cat was sleeping on it!

A bracelet with self-made beads. Double coated.

The swallow is for my sis, the earrings are a present. This time I've used gold to paint the back side (shown on the left). The panda in lotus is for a friend.

I'll be back with more updates and stuff...

Honey I shrunk my drawing!

2010-06-27T21:44:00.003+02:00

I’m really into shrinky dinky lately! That stuff is wonderful and so easy to use. It’s a sheet of plastic available in white, transparent and I believe some other colours too. You can draw on it with pencil, marker or ink, and there is even a brand which you can use in a printer! I prefer to draw on it by hand, this way you’ll always end up with a unique piece. For blacks I use a simple waterproof marker and for colours I use a high quality soft colour pencils. They really make the colour pop and even.

When you’re finished with your drawing you cut out the image, put in a preheated oven on 160 degrees. This is the scary part. Wait for a few seconds and see your image shrink and curl! Stop the oven and flatten your image by pressing on it with something flat (a spatula or something). Leave a bit longer in the oven until your image has no bubbles or curls left. Take your image out and let it cool under a heavy book to make sure it stays flat. Now you have a hard plastic version of your drawing! Don’t worry if you discover a bubble when the image has cooled down, just put it back in the oven and heat it again. It’s that easy! Here are some of my test creations.

Want to have your own personal pendant? I’m happy to make them for you!

Small pendant (1 cm – 2 cm) €0,50*
Medium pendant (2cm – 3cm) €1,50*
Large pendant (3cm – 5cm) € 2,50*

*price without a necklace and postage costs.

My first try. You see that the pencil sketch leaves stains after shrinking.

More colour, size, shape tests. I like the eyehole of the birds, unfortunately one cracked.

I love dios de los muertos and it's sugar skulls!

The octopus is a large sized pendant. The swallow is a medium sized pendant.

project ONOMATOPEE

2010-06-04T12:00:00.001+02:00

I've set up this project to start drawing again. I don't draw that often and most of the times I don't have inspiration and I wanted to change that so project Onomatopee was born :)

My contribution for the subject 'Heroes'.

Let me explain how it works: Every month a new subject is announced. Subjects vary from monsters, soup, Hollywood, purple, death, jealousy, nails, anything you can imagine. When the subject is announced everyone has one month to fill an A4 sized image. That could be by making a comic, illustration, info-graphic, it doesn’t matter as long it is visual interesting. Next you send your work to this address: project.onomatopee@gmail.com and you can find your work amongst others on the blog: http://project-onomatopee.blogspot.com/

The fun part is that you’ll see totally different approaches on the subject. The goal of this project is to keep drawing, have a new hobby, to exercise and try out new techniques / styles, or create a bigger portfolio. You’re not forced to be a part of it every month, only when you feel like drawing. See it as a playground. Who knows after a while things are getting bigger and perhaps a proper website or a magazine will follow? Your opinion matters so don’t hesitate to contact me.

There are some rules:
1)    Size: 1 A4, 300 dpi, portrait.
2)    Format: jpeg or png.
3)    File Name: [subject]_[your name].jpeg/png. For example: YourNightmare_PeterPan.jpeg
4)    The drawing has to have a connection with the subject.

My contribution for the subject 'Best Invention'.

Of course you can contact me about suggestions, ideas for subjects, don’t agree with something, have questions, or want to be added or removed from the mailing list. You only get 2 emails a month; one with the subject and one reminder a week before the deadline. Project Onomatopee is open for everyone so if you know someone who would like to be a part of it it’s ok to forward this message.

So far it has been really fun to do and every week there are more contributions. I know this concept of "everyone draws about the same subject" is not new. There are many sites doing that but it's still fun to have created my own with at first friends and later people I've never met before :) So if you like join! Or check the blog for all the contributions!

Utrag!

2010-05-31T12:00:00.001+02:00

It has been a while since my last post and again a lot has happened. Most important is that I’ve moved to Utrecht! Maarten and I have been looking for a place to move in together for a long time and since Maarten has his studio in Utrecht we wanted to live somewhere close. A few months went by and we kind of lost hope. Everything was too expensive, or we didn’t get picked. So I decided to rent a place in Oosterhout in the meantime. It could easily take another year before we would find something in Utrecht.

But then I saw a notice on Facebook from a friend and now we have an apartment in Utrecht :) I’m so happy with it! Utrecht is a beautiful city, amazing old buildings, not too crowded, lot’s to do, many students. It feels great! The apartment is big enough for the two of us and our two cats, many windows, in the city center and not too expensive.

It has been quiet with animation jobs. I’ve finished a promotion presentation for KunstwerkT in Oisterwijk. At the moment I’ve got an awesome illustration job for a children guide book on the long term and I’m still working on the proposal for the video clip for ‘Johnny Stardust’.
I’ve also made a proposal together with Bram Donders and Raimke Groothuizen for an animation project of ‘Schatten in Brabant’ (treasures in Brabant). So far things are looking great but more (big) news about that soon :)

In short news
-    I’ve had a try out lesson in Lindy Hop. It’s awesome and I’m signing up for the full course.
-    Exciting news about Project Onomatopee soon!
-    Our cat Ziggy is ill, yuck! Nothing serious though :)
-    I’m looking forward to go to the ‘Haarlem Stripdagen’ this weekend.

Dance Dance Baby!

2010-05-03T23:06:00.001+02:00

Let me tell you about another passion of mine besides film and art. I absolutely love to dance, and I don’t mean dance in a disco, I mean watch and learn different dance styles. It’s such a nice feeling to move on music especially when you have a job that requires to animate movement while you have to sit still behind a computer for loooong days. I also find it very useful for animating since I understand movement better now therefore it works both ways. I would advise every animator to take dance classes :)

When I was little my parents put me on classical ballet. I don’t remember much of it but I know I loved the tutu’s :D After ballet I took jazz ballet classes for 7 years. That was so much fun and I’ve learned a lot. There was a big show with the whole dance school every year. During those last 3 years of jazz ballet I also took musical classes where I concentrated on learning musical dance.

But suddenly I got stage fright and it got worse and worse every year :( So I stopped jazz ballet and musical class since I got too scared to be part of the big shows.

For years I didn’t dance but the dance itch came back in 2008. I discovered belly dance classes in the neighborhood and decided to take a chance and get moving again. I absolutely loved it! I’ve learned to isolate muscle groups and to improvise at place. The drama and clothes made this dance style a lot of fun to do. I took Egyptian belly dance classes for six months and tribal belly dance classes for 3 months.

That is now almost a year ago and I’m really looking forward to learn a new dance style. But most dance schools only have; ballet, jazz, zumba, salsa and street dance, while I want a more exciting uncommon style where I can test my limits.

I’ve found this video on youtube and I love it! It’s a fast swing dance called Lindy Hop and I SO want to learn this and be good at it muha! The only thing I need now is a dance partner ^^

[Note: I'm in none of these movies. It's just to show you the dance styles]

Random News

2010-03-18T14:57:00.001+01:00

Woop quick update!

- I love this sunny weather thing that’s going on. I actually can get up early in the morning now.

- In more sunny news; I’m going to Pisa Italy this weekend. Raimke needed a travel partner since her old one is in Haiti helping people or something. I really like to discover new places and I need to continue to fly regularly if I want to get over my flight fear so hell yeah I wanted to come along to Pisa. We’re flying tomorrow and I’m shaking of excitement (or is it fear?).

- I might have found a new place in Utrecht with Maarten. Pets are allowed and it’s in the city center so it’s kick ass awesome! I hope we get it *fingers crossed*.

- Project Onomatopee has a website! So Dutchies go check it out, meanwhile English people have to wait for my next blog update because I’m thinking about launching an English version of this project too.

- I’ve made a few more drawings. As it appears I’m still in my “chicks with hair in their face" phase.

- I have a cool project now! I’m gonna make a music video for the band Johnny Stardust. They’re awesome, go check them out and buy all their cd’s! More updates about this project in the future.

- I’m learning Japanese when I’m bored. So far I can say stuff like: onnanokotachi wa ocha o nonde imasu (girls drinking tea).

Meanwhile....

2010-03-12T16:36:00.000+01:00