Of Song Contests…
So! Tonight is Melodifestivalen! For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about, which is most of you, I’ll try to explain it as simply as possible.

For over 50 years the countries of Europe (started with some. now it’s most countries) have taken part in a song contest called the Eurovision Song Contest. Each country sends an artist or group of theirs to sing a song. It’s a big show that happens every year in May. People watch and vote for who they want to win (can’t vote for own country). The winning country gets to host the following year’s events. Lather Rinse Repeat.

Some countries see it all as a big joke. Some countries take it very seriously. Sweden is one of these countries. In order to choose who is going to represtn Sweden, we have Melodifestivalen, the contest to choose who will win. Melodifestivalen goes on for 6 Saturdays in Feb and March. Four weeks are spent choosing who will go to the final, and who will go to a “second chance” semi-final. The 5th week is the semi final. The sixth week is the final. And that final is TONIGHT. And it’s a huge thing!

Now, I enjoy Melodifestival and Eurovision because they are fun to watch. The music is mostly based on a style called “schlager.” It’s not really anything anyone living outside of Europe could imagine. But it’s just exciting to watch and I’m a HUGE Melodifestivalen/Eurovision fanatic.

Tonight I will be voting for who I want to represent Sweden. I’m voting for two out of the 10 finalists. BWO, who’ve I’ve drawn in the illustration above. From left to right, Marina Schiptjenko, Martin Rolinski, and Alexander Bard who’s holding a laptop (electro pop stuff). I’m also voting for Charlotte Perrelli. I really like both songs and wouldn’t mind if either won. But I’m leaning more towards BWO (video here) even though I think Perrelli (video here) will win. And then maybe, for once, I could be proud of what Sweden sends to Eurovision!

The only thing that sucks is that when tonight is over, it’s still 2 months until Eurovision. GAH!

UPDATE – This is a spoiler, Leslie: Charlotte Perrelli won!!! SHE WON!!!!! HURRAH! I really wanted BWO to win, but she was my 2nd choice! I REALLY hope Sweden will qualify for Eurovision now! We must! The song is GOOD!

Of Web Habits…

I’ve been reworking my web habits lately. When I started my comic, which is going really well I might add, I decided I needed to rethink my web-related hobbies and get my priorities straight. A lot of the things I was doing weren’t making me happy any more. And my web stuff is my hobby, and hobbies should make people happy. So I shut down a lot of my websites and basically only have this one left. I also stepped back from the web design. It’s a big part of me and it’s something I’ve worked for so many years on, but working with it at the school just burned me out. I need to shake all that off and start fresh, but not without taking a break.

So, the comic is going great and it makes me really happy. Really happy. Because of this, I’ve really decided to put as much energy as possible into it. Closing all my websites helped. Now I’m reanalyzing how I “waste my time” on the web. I use Facebook and am pretty into it. But I’m now allowing it to be my only time waster online. I’ve left some community sites and forums that do me absolutely no good. Today I left a big one which has been a bit of a crutch for me since moving to Sweden. It’s a bit sad to leave it but freeing at the same time.

So illoluv has become my main focus. And I’m excited about it. My comic is taking up a lot of my creativity, and I end up drawing only for that. I need to draw other things. But that’s the purpose of this blog. To illustrate every post in some way. Whether it be for Illustration Friday, or just to illustrate what I write.

It’s a new “me” on the web and I feel really good about it. Because if I don’t make myself be productive in some way often, I start to feel like a big ‘ole NOTHING.

For quite some time now I’ve been wanting to do a comic. And because of my drawing style, many people have suggested the idea to me as well. While the idea is a great one, there really isn’t any fuel behind it unless there are ideas. Of which I had absolutely none. And I was convinced that I couldn’t do it. But all of a sudden, about 2 weeks ago some ideas started forming in my head. So I sat down and drew a strip. And by the time I had completed it, I was so pleased with myself that I decided to make it a weekly project.

Yes, another project. I have many. Because of this, they each take time away from the other. But I recently made some decisions to close off some projects that were only causing me stress, and focusing my energy on the things I really enjoyed. And this comic is something I really enjoy.

Two weeks ago I put up the first one. Last week I put up the second one, and today I put up number there. Perhaps they aren’t the cleverest of comic strips, but I really enjoy them, and I hope you will too.

I named the comic “Imy,” which is the name of the main character. That name is actually my nickname in real life on my mom’s side of the family (for more about that you can read this post from a while back). And while she may look a bit like me, and the characters close to her may resemble people close to me, she’s not really completely based on me exactly. I really looking forward to see how long I can keep this up, and what direction she’ll take.

You’ll find her underneath the “laugh” section. Or you can click here to go straight to strip #1. Like I said before, I’ll be updating her weekly. I hope you like!

Hello strangers! Yes I know I know… You see, the thing is that I tend to spread myself thin. A lot. Especially when it comes to my projects. But I’ve recently made some decisions, some difficult ones, but decisions nonetheless, which will bring me back to what’s important to me. Like Illoluv. This site is my home. This is where I can do what I love most. And to do it, I’ve canceled a lot of my other projects. So now I can devote more time to this site. Because this is the only project that really matters to me.

So, it’s time to come back to life

Come on, admit it, you’ve missed me!

One of my ex-students (who I keep in contact with) asked me to draw him. I took up the challenge, with a bit of nailbiting. At first I thought it would be a disaster, but suddenly it just sort of came together.

In the end I really liked it! It was a definite mini-him. And I think he likes it too. He’s already using it as his MSN avatar

People-drawing has always been a stressing job for me. It’s because I think I never can do it, even though it usually works out well. I’ve had to do a few drawings of people in the past, and I always get nervous that I’m going to royally screw up. My style is more cartoon-y and I don’t do any real likenesses, but I do what I can. Some past examples were for clients when I used to work for Weblog Studios as an illustrator. I had some doozies but in the end I think they turned out well.

This one was for NYC Watchdog – A Pile of Dog Bones. I didn’t have a picture of the guy, but he described himself pretty well and he had a little avatar on his site where I got the inspiration for the clothing. I think when he saw the final illo his response was somewhere along the lines of “how did she get it so perfect?” It was a massive compliment!

Another one was for Kn@ppster. This time I think I had a small image to work with. I had the basic illo drawn and he suggested a few minor changes, like the sunglasses and I think the cigarette. But I think he was very happy with this one.

Then I did one of my friend Jenny, one of the big designers over at Weblog Studios (but she had to leave becasue of personal reasons). I was going to make a template for her site, but it never worked out because I was so busy, and then she ended up stopping her blogging anyway. But I like the way hers turned out, even if it never saw the light of day until now.

There were others too, both of which aren’t on the web anymore either…

Anyway, the point is that it’s definitely a challenge. But it’s a fun challenge, and even though it makes me nervous I usually end up liking the outcome very much. And I haven’t had any complaints from my clients yet!

This past Wednesday my friend held her usual craft day, which I, of course, attended. I’m not much of a craft person, my art is mostly of the digital kind. But I’ve been going to her craft days for half a year now which have been a lot of fun. This time, after being inspired by this illo friday submission where he took a pastel he did and made a painting from it, I decided to take one of my digital illos and make a painting of it using acrylics.

Kind of ridiculous since I know nothing about painting, and my only experience with acrylics, ever, has been with this teeny tiny painting I did at another craft day…

But, this was just for fun anyway, so why not give it a shot? So here is the original illo, which was done for an Illo Friday a long time ago:

And here are a couple of pics during the process…

And now for the final…. drumroll please! Drdrdrdrdrdrdrdrddrdrdrddrdrdd…

So, it’s not perfect. Like I said, I don’t paint. I know nothing about it. It looks a bit like a kid did it. But I like it. And we’re going to get a black frame for it and maybe I’ll hang it one the wall over my desk. My goal is to go a similar one for a dog next, and have them side by side.

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I have had no inspiration with redesigning this site. I knwo I really want to, I just don’t know where to go with it. *sigh* It’ll hit eventually. Until then, I’ll update as I can.

Today I have a little gift for you. Some new wallpapers for my freebies page. I made the purple one for me this week just for fun and I loved it so much I decided to make a whole set just for you guys! They’re pretty cool… these girls just watching you from the desktop. I hope you like them! And I hope they don’t freak you out too much *grin* I know when I turned on my computer earlier today mine gave me a bit of a scare…

So my latest venture into the world of watercoloring has involved wet-on-wet painting. Where you apply a sheen of water to the paper and paint right ontop of that, allowing hte paint to flow unpredictably. It’s nice to see what surprises comeout of it, but scary at the same time, a you have no idea what it’s going to do.

The book I have gave me the exersize of making clouds. The first two times I did it I failed miserably. So I put everything away and left it alone for a while. The next time I tried was yesterday. I decided to add ground to it as well just to give it something more than just clouds. I’m happier with how this one came out.

I know it’s still very amatureish. But I’m happy to be learning. And I’m having fun with it! Personally, what I really like about this one is that it looks like the background to a Charlie Brown cartoon. Don’t you think?