a little place to call my own (art and fashion blog)

September has been a very active month on this blog. While August was all about fashion illustrations (with a bit of fashion and travel to spice it up), September turned out to be a lively mix of travel, fashion, book and art posts. There was plenty of writing too.  Often I was feeling quite philosophical on this little place of my own. Perhaps that means that it is time for this blog to take a new direction, one more focused on the writing. Who can tell for sure? Blogs change with us and they reflect ,in some ways, what is going on in our lives. What is a good blogging month anyway? The feeling we gave it all? I'm not sure what the next month will bring for this blog. I have a lot of prepared posts, but I'm not sure what exactly I will be publishing....and that is actually quite wonderful. That is what I like about the blogging. The element of surprise. Being able to surprise even ourselves. Enough talk for today. Time to sum it up and reflect on October. I've also prep...

I'm coming out of the library. The air smells of sea. Not just any kind of sea. Autumn sea. I almost forgot what it felt like but now I remember it all. The sea always has a way of putting everything into perspective. The new season is here. The magic has begun. I let the moment linger, possibly because my mind has been calmed by an hour of reading modern Croatian poets. Literature is such a comfort for the mind. Among the pages, we find answers we didn't even look for. Besides the scent of sea, the air is different in another way. The evenings are getting colder. What I'm wearing as I'm getting away the libary isn't a lot different from the outfit I illustrated a few days prior. Flare jeans and turtlenecks have always had its place in my closet. Berets are a long favourite of mine as well. The only thing I seem to lack is a poncho. That might be why I illustrated this one. A poncho with red and orange stripes, linined with red pom poms. Who knows maybe somebody ha...

Have you ever heard that ballad 'The Lady In Red' by Chris De Burgh? You must have had, it's been around for a while. It's one of my favourite ballads, a perfect joining of beautiful music and meaningful lyrics. For some reason this song reminds me of another (probably even more famous ballad) and that would be 'Wonderful Tonight' by Eric Clapton. Actually, I think I know the reason and it has to do with how I interpret both of these songs. According to my personal interpretation, both of these ballads talk about a man who suddenly sees his lady in a new light and realizes just how gorgeous and wonderful she is. Now, what is more romantic than that?  That line 'the lady in red is dancing with me'  caused me to form a very vivid visual image that has stuck in my mind ever since. I don't know about you, but I could always imagine mesmerized Eric dancing with Pattie Boyd (the women who inspired him to write the song) even if in Eric's song th...

Today it is time for another post in my Inspired by ....feature. This time I was inspired by Jennifer . You can see the elegant outfit I was inspired by here . To make this illustration, I have used pencil and watercolour on paper. Have a nice day everyone! Danas je vrijeme za još jednu objavu za moju   Nadahnuta s ....rubriku. Ovaj put bila sam nadahnuta s Jennifer . Možete vidjeti elegantnu kombinaciju koja me nadahnula ovdje .  Za ovu ilustraciju koristila sam olovku i vodene boje na papiru. Želim vam svima ugodan dan!

Is background important? Yes, it is important in many ways. Today I won't talk about having the right kind of background for a certain job or position (widely debated topic today) but I will talk about background in paintings and drawings.  Not in the historical sense of the world, one that has to do with history of classical art. I won't analyze great painters, not just yet. I will, however, mention the history of fashion illustration. Is there such thing? There certainly is. It is estimated that fashion illustration is approximately 500 years old.  It dates back to the origins of fashion as we know it today, albeit it could be argued with good points that fashion is a lot older than that (points I happen to agree with that is why I'm using the phrase 'fashion as we know it today' because that implies a newer definition of fashion that is often taken for granted).  After all, there are very precise paintings of garments to be found in Asian art that are a lot ol...

Is fashion a dirty world? Why is it something that is not supposed to be debated among seriour or even decent people? Why it is not something that most of us would consider as a job choice? Is it because we think it is unapproachable or because we're kind of ashamed of wanting to work in fashion? Is there something wrong with liking fashion? Or why are we so often ashamed of our interest in fashion? If we admit that we like it, we often get this feeling of forbidden pleasure. Why is fashion often seen as a modern demon? Is there something that makes it fundamentally bad and wicked or is it all in our heads? Why do we demonize those working in fashion? Why do we assume they’re mean and shallow? Why do we find it so easy to believe that it is all about ‘mind games’ (as portrayed in Devil wears Prada) and less about work and talent? For if we are going to be honest, fashion is about work and talent. Do you really think that someone can last years working in an industry that is all ...

Today we're going to talk about Melem, a novel by Pavao Pavlichich. This Croatian writer has (so far) published 95 books (most of them are novels), so he must be doing something right when it comes to writing. His works have been translated to German, French, Czech,  Slovakian, Slovenian, Rumanian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Danish language.  Pavao, for me, is one of those authors whose works you're certain you will like even before you start reading them. I always end up liking his novels. Nevertheless, I must admit that his novels don't move me as deeply as works by some other Croatian writers. That being said, I do admire his prociency as a writer and the abudance of his writing imagination. Danas ćemo pričati o Melemu, romanu Pavla Pavličića. Ovaj je hrvatski pisac izdao (do sada) 95 knjige ( većina njih su romani), tako da mu pisanje očito dobro ide. Njegova djela su prevođena na njemački, francuski, češki, slovački, slovenski, rumunjski, bugarski, makedonski i...