Fundamentals of Graphic Design : The Last Assignment

These are posters for 3 new albums by three new bands that I made for Coursera's course "Fundamentals of Graphic Design" last assignment last month. I named each band with "The Something Bottle". Each poster shows different music genre as shown below.

Dragonfly and Damselfly

It was two years ago when I wrote this story in Bahasa Indonesia and in an e-book format (Kisah Si Capung dan Si Capung Jarum). And finally it comes in prints and English version with illustrations in water colours. Check it out here.

The story itself was inspired by those two insects around my house.

And the facts that Dragonflies have a more powerful build and are generally much stronger fliers than Damselflies (Encyclopaedia Britannica), made me imagine that the Dragonfly was an arrogant creature. 

And here is the synopsis:

Dragonfly was a strong and fast flyer. With that special skill of his, he was sure no predators could ever be a threat for him. He wouldn’t even listen to his best friend, who had tried to warn him. Until a shocking moment in a waterlily pond happened to him and changed his life.

Would Damselfly, his best friend that he once underestimated, forgive him?

Fundamentals of Graphic Design from Coursera

Graphic Design is something that I really want to know about. As a children's book illustrator, surely this subject will enrich me in such a way. Thankfully Coursera offers this free online course this month and I join it undoubtedly.

And this is one of my assignment for week 3, about "Repeating Pattern":

It tells about a harvest time in Southeast Asian countries, where the farmers are busy processing the rice and their chicken get scattered rice abundantly on the ground.

Below were my design for week 1 about "Making Images, Making Meaning".

Here I choose bottle as my daily household object, and I gave them connotative meaning. 

If I put a tag "Drink Me" on the bottle  and the blue gown with white apron on it  was there, you'll get the message that it was Alice's bottle from Alice in Wonderland.

If I put a wine glass under a pouring bottle with something red flowing down, you'll see that it was a celebration.

And when you saw a paper inside a bottle floating on the sea, you will see that it was a drifted message from faraway place.

Indonesian Folktales 2015

To celebrate Indonesia being chosen as the honourable guest at the Frankfurt Book fair 2015, Forum Penulis Bacaan Anak/FPBA (Children Literature Writer Forum) proudly launches INDONESIAN FOLKTALES website. All of the stories and beautiful arts in this website is a collaborative work among its members.

And this is my illustration for one of the folktales, "The Dazzling Enau":

You can read the story here.

Decision

These were new design for my story stones (and would be the last):

Though it's not easy, I have to make this decision: stopping story stones production during my limited time as a homemaker, a Homeschooler Mum and author & illustrator for children's book. I have to choose. And sadly it's the story stones. It's the most time consuming compare to others. For each small pebbles (about 1 cm in diameter) I have to wash it, dry it up, draw the pencil sketch, paint it with acrylic paints, ink the lines, and varnish it. And it takes 2-3 more days to completely dry (except on rainy days, it will take longer time). Drawing, painting and inking small pebbles that has irregular shape and porous surface is not easy because of the very small free area to grab during the process.
Hopefully, after this I have a more manageable timetable.

The Storm

I created "The Storm" for my Coursera's 3rd assignment "Elements of Structure". Here I share it with you (a bit edited from the original one).
Note: Please forgive me for my poor English.

Free e-book on August 2015: "Teman Baru"

I'm joining Coursera's online course "Writing for Young Readers" right now. My submission of "Genre, Form and Audience" (2nd week) is shared here. The title is "Teman Baru", originated from "A New Fiend". Feel free to read and download. It's a wordless picture book.

The Dragonfly and The Damselfly

Here are some sketches and the final art that I made for my book, The Dragonfly and The Damselfly.

WIP : Illustrating My Book

This time I'm illustrating my own book, a story about a dragonfly and a damselfly, in water colour.

Here Comes the Princess and the Prince ^^

Here comes the Princess, Prince, castle and Knight. Of course there will be crown to fight for with the Witch and the Dragon. And let our kids continue the story.

Once upon a time...

Hello April :)

The Penguins and some friends are coming.

And some stones in much bigger size...

The glossy ones were coated with stone coating and the matte ones are ready to be coated.

Story Stones: Why Cats Like to Scratch Tree Trunks

Another story from the same story stone set, in Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories" style: Why Cats Like to Scratch Tree Trunks.

Once, there lived a wise owl in a forest. He asked me, "Do you know why cats like to scratch tree trunks?"
I shook my head, and he started his story.
Long time ago, there was a boy who lived with his cat in a village. One morning, they wanted to visit their friend, Giraffe, in the other village. The boy pedalled the bike with his cat sit behind. They reached Giraffe's village at noon, and Giraffe served them with some apples. The cat asked if he can get something else to eat instead of apples. The giraffe gave a fresh fish to the cat. The apples were so sweet and the fish was so delicious. When it was time to go home, the boy asked Giraffe if he could bring the apple seeds home to plant for the apples were so delicious. Giraffe wrapped the apple seeds and put them in the boy's bag. Secretly, the cat did the same to the fish bone (that was the word "copycat" came from, the cat did the copy). So there in the boy's bag, laid the apple seeds and the fish bone.
When they reached home, the boy planted the apple seeds. And again, secretly the cat copy what the boy did, planting his fish bone, next to the apple seeds. Years went by and the apple seeds grew into trees, bigger and taller. But from the fish bone grew nothing. The cat felt disappointed.
Finally, one day the apple trees started to bear fruits. The boy was so excited! But on the other side, the cat became so angry and jealous. He scratched the apple's tree trunk. And then, not only to the apple's tree trunk he scratched, but to all of tree trunks he found.
"Now  you know where the word "copycat" came from and why cats like to scratch tree trunks."
And the wise owl flew away.

Story Stones : The Fossil

Tony wanted to be an archaeologist. So he decided to go and find some fossils. He brought his bag and put an apple for his lunch in it. He asked his friend Giraffe, where to find fossils. The Giraffe lent him a bike, and told him to find a big tree in the east.
So, off he went to the east. After tired of pedalling the bike, Tony found the big tree, with an owl slept on its branch. Carefully he woke the owl up and asked him where to find fossils. The owl answered sleepily, "Dig. Just dig...zzzzzz." And he fell asleep again.
Tony started to dig the ground. Yaay ... finally Tony found a fossil, it's a fish fossil! Tony wrap the fossil and put it in his bag. After eating his apple, Tony went home. He gave back the bike to his friend Giraffe and said thank you. Tony was so tired after the journey and fell asleep.
When he woke up he saw his bag was opened, and his cat was licking its paws. The cat said, "Thank you for the bone. It's delicious."
"What bone?"
"I found it in your bag."
"Whaaaaat???!!!!"

Indonesian Illustrators

Are you looking for Illustrators? Please check this site: http://ilustratorindonesia.wix.com/direktori

Story Stones on March

Once Upon a Stone ...

I feel soooo happy every time I read some parents testimonies,  how their kids told incredible stories using my story stones and their imagination! Not only their kids, the parents themselves were having fun time, too, and of course strengthen their bonding. Every single testimony boosts my energy to the highest level :D
Here are some of my story stones collection:

Kelir Monthly Theme Feb 2015: Quotes from Fairy Tales

“It doesn't matter if you're born in a duck yard, so long as you are hatched from a swan's egg!” 
― Hans Christian Andersen, The Ugly Duckling

 An old picture of My Compost Art collections, from shiitake mushroom waste, edited digitally with ArtRage.

My Story Stones

Here I make an example of a story using my story stones:

The Lonely Giraffe

Once, there was a Giraffe
who felt so lonely

and wanted to move to the Moon.

She brought an Apple for her meal
there.

Her friend Rabbit joined the journey.

They blew a Pink Balloon
to fly them to the Moon.

But the Balloon flew them to a Boat
instead.

They met a friendly Whale, who told
them that

their friend Bear was celebrating
his birthday. And they all were
invited.

So they all went to Bear's house.

The House was beautifully decorated
with flowers.

There were presents too.

The Bear served them with Ice Cream

and Watermelon.

The Giraffe was so happy surrounded by her friends and she didn't feel lonely anymore.

The End

You can make an interactive story too with your little ones using painted stones like these. Here what I did with my youngest:

Keep the story stones in a bag, each one of you take a stone and continue the story one after another. 

For an example you got a Bear. "Once there was a Bear who was so hungry, so he bought a ..."

Your kid's turn to take the next stone, and she/he gets a Balloon! She/he must continue the story. "... a Balloon! But he can't eat the Ballon so he hold the Balloon tight and fly to the ..."

And so on :D

You'll have great fun time!