You're my inspiration - A lovely gift from a beautiful soul

I thought to share with you all the people that inspire me in some way, either with their art, or with their videos or courses or whatever.  This last year that I decided to blog and to make art and to find my way through life, I had been able to find many sources of inspiration around the web. And I would like to share them with you. And to thank them through my blog for all their love and ispiration and the encouragement they offer to all of us. 

I will start with my dear friend - and I hope I can call her my friend, if she agrees with that - Kirstin from LilliBean Designs, who each month gives away from her blog at  http://kirstinmcculloch.blogspot.com a beautiful art work of hers.
 

Last March, I was the lucky one. And during my break I got it through mail (it came to Greece all the way from Australia, isn't our time amazing?)

And I wanted to share it with you all. Because it's beautiful and because Kirstin is a wonderful artist and person. 

Here it is.

If you want to see more of Kirstin's big eyed girls visit her blog at http://kirstinmcculloch.blogspot.com
or her Etsy shop at http://www.etsy.com/shop/LillibeanDesigns. I'm sure you'll like her works very much. 

So, from here I want to thank Kirstin again for trusting me with this little angel of hers and send her a big hug and a bigger kiss.

Thank you my dear friend. You're my inspiration.

Phoebe the Dryad (aka the tree fairy)

Created with colored pencils on 160gr. paper, A4 size

She has been in my mind for a very long time. I was thinking of her and I wanted to draw her.

I wanted to do it with a brush, in guache or watercolors. And I tried. And it was terrible. And then, I tried with pencils. And I remembered why I love drawing with pencils so much. (Aren't there too many "ands" around here? Looks like I'm in my "and" era  ;)

She's gorgeous. I love her eyes and her mouth and everything really.

And you know what? If a year ago - hell, if a month ago - you told me that I would be able to draw her, I would have looked at you with a totally blank expression like you've gone totally crazy...

I'm in love with her, but I think you must have already got that.

Anyway, she is a tree fairy and her name is Phoebe and she is a Dryad (godess of trees and forests in ancient greek mythology).

And did I mention I'm in love with her?
 
The original will be a present for my one of my best friends. My mother...

But you can find prints and products with her in both my stores. Check them out.

IF - Future

This week's Illustration Friday theme is future.

And I thought of what I wanted to become when I was a child.

A ballerina, don't all little girls want that? (Until you learn about the starving, and the feet that change shape and all that...)

I didn't become a ballerina, but you can always dream, no?

Aaaaaand...... I'm back!!!!!!!!

Hello everybody!!!

I'm bringing you a bit of May beauty from around my yard. And my wishes to all the mothers out there. 

Yes, I'm back. From what you ask me? 

How did your cleaning go you ask me?

Well, you know that saying about a man's plans and God's having a lot of fun?

It's true, my friends, it's true I tell you.

Just four days in my "sabbatical", I got a call from the publisher I translate books for, to take up the translation of 360 pages in 20 days. Funny, huh? That meant no cleaning, no thinking, no internet, no drawing, no arting, no writing, no time with the little ones. NOTHING!!!

Only sitting in front of a computer all day, writing like crazy or reading what I had written like crazy to make the deadline. And I did make the deadline, but I didn't make anything else.

Don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for the job and the green stuff it'll bring. I'm grateful for having a publisher that so much believes in my work and my competence to send me all the difficult and limited-time projects.

But I didn't do any cleaning. Only in my house, thank God. I really made that. And I also cleaned off my two stores in zazzle and cafepress, because I don't know if I should go on with them. I'm really searching my way, and I think I will have to spend the whole summer for that. 

And so, I'm back. With no exciting news and no amazing revelations. Only two new paintings that I'll share with you during the week.

It's nice to be around again. Look for my comments in your blogs.

I've missed you all so much,
Efi

It's time for spring cleaning

Spring cleaning time

I've been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish in my life as a writer and artist, a mother and wife and - most of all - as being myself.

I realized I'm spending way too much time on the computer searching and thinking and watching and learning and never really implementing all the things I learn or give myself time to stop and think and connect. 

All this searching for resources has become for me an excuse for not doing the things I have planned to do, of loosing time without even realizing it.

I've, also, come to realize that it's this time of the year that I need to start the spring cleaning of my house.

So, I decided to have a general spring cleaning. In my house, in my work, in my life and in my mind. To take some time off the internet and the PC in general in order to think things over. To let my inner guide, my inner voice REALLY guide me. To listen to my heart's desires.

That is why I'll be taking a break from this blog, also. I will only use the computer to scan my work and nothing else.

No blog reading, no inspiration searching, no learning, no emails, no nothing. I need some time off in order to center myself and decide how to move from where I am.

So, for the month of April and the first couple weeks of May - when we'll be celebrating the Greek Easter and the little ones will have a break from school - there'll be no posts and no comments on your lovely blogs. Not because I don't love you, but because I feel the need to look inside. Inside my heart, my soul, my mind, my relationships and my home.

I'm off to spring clean my life. I don't know where this journey will lead me, but I'm a traveler - remember?

Hope to find you still here when I come back.

Have fun.

Love you all,

Efi