29 November 2016

Hanbok Illustration, Korean Traditional Wedding and new Stickers!

I finally managed to update my Etsy shop with motives I'd wanted to create for a long time: Hanbok!


Story time:

For my Korean wedding, I wore a hanbok. We'd decided to buy one instead of going for a rental since there's things like Chuseok and Korean New Year where I can wear it again, (theoretically. It's a pain to put on.) so we wanted good quality and went to this UNBELIEVABLY BEAUTIFUL shop to choose fabrics and cuts and accessories and I still love everything about it.

I've been interested in the different styles, textiles and the historical evolution hanbok went through ever since.

Two of the illustrations are personal: The lavishly embroidered wedding hanbok (that one was on loan, worn on top of normal hanbok) and the simple red-green one which is inspired by what I wore.


Case in point. (And it's so hard to find wedding shots with only me pictured - which sounds very egoistical but hey, I'm trying to protect my family's anonymity :D)

So really, drawing hanboks? Great fun.


There's a total of six ladies, and I decided to make stickers with these because honestly, they're adorable. I have literally no idea what you'd ever need Hanbok stickers for, but who cares?
(worst sales pitch ever)


As always, my stickers are DIY self-cut ones. Since they're larger than my usual stickers, it's surprisingly easy to cut them - and since they're transparent, the occasional hick-up will be invisible anyway.


Size comparison of the original watercolor and ink drawings vs stickers. I really like how the floral patterns for these two turned out!


Two of the Hanbok ladies are available as mirrors in a card format. I chose the Gisaeng (on the right) and the pretty young lady.




The mirrors are made with stickers on a stainless steel surface, so they're sturdy and don't scratch easily - and since they're the same format as credit cards, they should fit into all kinds of purses and mobile phone cases.



Some additional sketches for Hanbok designs. Until now, I've mostly just focused on the Joseon period (which already features a huge variety of designs over the centuries), but since I've started working on a webcomic concept that's set a bit earlier, I'm looking forward to tackling the Goryeo period, too!


I'm also catching up with some Korean historical dramas / Sageuk. For research reasons. Of course. It's strange how I rarely manage to get past the mid-point of modern day dramas, but historical ones? I'll get totally invested. Maybe the themes just appeal to me more.

I didn't manage to get through Moonlight Drawn By Clouds (sketch above) but loved the pretty setting, costumes and the camera angles/lighting choices in the first couple of episodes. My all-time favorite has to be Queen Seon-Duk, Six Flying Dragons aaaand Arang, which is Fantasy but totally counts.

Thank you for reading this super short, very promotion-heavy blog post, but I'm trying to spread the Hanbok love here :) Hope you like the designs, and do tell me if you're into historical K-Dramas!

7 November 2016

ILLUSTRATION: Coloring Books and Printables

Hi everyone!



It's been a while since I've blogged about art projects, and I can actually give a legit excuse for that. Most of the projects I've been working on were coloring books, so I had to keep things quiet until those actually went to print and on sale. (Spoiler: One's out! Yay!) Any other work was... scientific illustrations, complete with NDAs and not really blogging-appropriate aesthetics.

Fun times.
Luckily, Inktober came along to get me out of that nothing-to-show slump!

I'll do a full inktober recap once I've scanned every. single. thing. but for now, here's a focus on coloring pages I created during that month.

You can find free printable coloring cards at the end of this post, so scroll down if you'd like to try those.


But first, I wanted to introduce one of the coloring books I finished recently.

 Amazon Link
Coloring the cover was so much fun because COLORS. 
Created together with Author Francis Keene who came up with the idea of a farmers market themed coloring book, this is by far the cutest coloring book I've worked on! There's a total of 30 pages with illustrations ready for coloring, ranging from detailed looks at spices and teas to an entire market layout.

I can't really show you entire pages, so here's some close-ups!


There's book shops, antique shops...


DIY stalls with crafts ranging from pottery to woven rugs...



FOOD. EVERYWHERE.

Even a stall with Korean street food made it into the book!

I'm really happy with how this one turned out. If you'd like to get a copy of your own and look at the full images, you can order the coloring book "Whimsical Patterns - Farmers Market" on amazon.

I'd love to hear your opinion or see some colored pages!


If you'd like to start small with just single images, I've created two coloring cards you can print yourself:

One was a winter/autumn themed card. I like the idea of a season full of snow and pumpkin spice and soft cardigans, but then the reality of wet shoes, gray days and coldcoldcoldCOLD(!) hits.

The illustration thus shows winter how it should be.



It's a 12.5 cm x 18 cm (5x7 inches) format card that you can print on paper of your choice and color in. Have fun! :D

The second coloring card is all about National Novel Writing Month (which is going on right now and I'm procrastinating by blogging, but hey, I'm on track) - so books, more books and pretty writing utensils.


Same format as the winter card, but there's two options for you to choose from: A black-and-white version and a gray-and-white version. If you'd like to color in something with a softer look, give the gray lines a go.


These printable cards are only temporarily available for free here on the blog - I'll move them to Etsy in December since I want to start offering downloads over there.

Have fun coloring! If you've printed and colored one of these, I'd love to see a picture! Just mention it to me on Instagram (#evydraws or just directly @evydraws), Twitter as evyclocharde or over on Facebook evelynedraws.

My own colored versions will soon be back from the printer, so new textiles, stickers and hand mirrors are on their way!

Thank you for reading and I hope you like the cards and/or book! <3