Update.

Hello there beautiful people. Been gone fora it a while uh ? Since school started, the time I have for myself is very little. In consequence to it, I haven't had time to draw either. I'm currently on a 3 year course of Cullinary. 

Yes, besides drawing, cooking is also something I've always loved. And I decided to invest in Cullinary for my future. Of course, as many other things, choosing this path is something that requires sacrifice. But this is my future. My mind and body have to be 100% on school and the time to do other things is not as much as before. But then again, sacrifice. I know that in 3 years from now, it will all be worth it. :)

So I am sorry if I'm not posting as often as before. I haven't been drawing lately, because I've been tired, or because there's no time. But I don't plan on giving up on drawing ! The last thing I did was a Buddha in my school notebook but I haven't colored it yet, ahah. Anyways, I've been receiving lots of requests, thus is safe to say I have lots of commissions to do. So you'll be hearing from me. :) I just have to manage my time well enough to keep on drawing and cooking.

Anyway, I hope you understand and keep following the blog. I'll leave you with a picture of what has been my day-to-day activity lately. In the picture we're eating what we cooked on that day. I'm the one with the pink shirt. x)

The hakama.

This one's part of a comission I finished recently. I am not showing the full drawing for privacy reasons. I am sorry for the quality once again, but this one I wasn't able to scan. It's in A2 size, and as you probably know, it's huge. It doesn't fit my scanner. So I took a photo, and my camera isn't the most professional so it came out like this. If you want to see the details properly, just click the drawing and you'll see it in a bigger size.

The hakama is the skirt-like pants that some Aikidoka wear. It is a traditional piece of samurai clothing. Wearing it is part of the tradition (of most schools) of Aikido.

There were different styles of hakama. The type worn by today's martial artists is called  joba hakama. The seven folds in the hakama (five in the front, two in the back) are said to have the following meaning:

1. Yuki - courage, value, bravery

 2. Jin - humanity, charity, benevolence

 3. Gi - justice, righteousness, integrity

 4. Rei - etiquette, courtesy, civility (also means bow/obeisance)

 5. Makoto - sincerity, honesty, reality

 6. Chugi - loyalty, fidelity, devotion

 7. Meiyo - honor, credit, glory; also reputation, dignity, prestige

In many schools, only black belts wear the hakama.

Information taken from: http://www.aikidofaq.com/misc/hakama.html 

This is a general definition of the hakama. If you wish to know more about it, the details, feel free to research. :) If there's wrong information feel free to let me know so I can correct. 

Have a wonderful weekend ! :)

Inspiring songs.

Today I'll leave you with another song of Omnia that I love and that I usually listen to while drawing. I advise you to listen to it 'till the end, because somewhere in the middle of the song, it completely changes. That's one of the things I love about Omnia, you're listening to a calm, peaceful song and suddenly it changes  completely without you expecting to, to a more energetic one. This song's called Richard Parker's Fancy and it's absolutely beautiful.

Inspiring songs &...

It's drawing afternoon today ! And if I don't finish it today, tomorrow is drawing day too. :) The sketch is done and I'll start now with the details (shadows, light, etc etc). This week's song is a calm and romantic one and I obviously like to draw to the sound of it. It's tittle is Perfect for Me, by Ron Pope. Please enjoy !

I

Anyways, changing the subject now... I am very GLAD to let you know, that Avan Jogia, yes you read it well, Avan SAW drawing I made of him ! (don't know Avan ? Don't know which drawing I'm talking about ? CLICK HERE !) After trying to make the drawing get to him so many times, I finally did it and when I least expected. I shared the link to the drawing sometimes in a reply to him on Twitter, even when he was live tweeting with Twisted fans under the tag #Twistedchat, but I didn't get lucky enough until 3 days ago. I went on Twitter some hours after publishing once again the link to the drawing, and to my surprise, I saw that Avan faved the tweet ! You can't imagine how proud I am. This just comes to proves that your hard work always rewards you somehow. This was the best reward I could get.

In English, it reads: ✩ Avan Tudor Jogia has marked your tweet as favourite.

Filipa, 

                        your tweet was faved !

✩ faved by

                              Avan Tudor Jogia @ATJogia

Surprise, surprise.

Still have a lot to work on. I have a deadline to finish the drawing I'm currently working on, it has to be done before September 19th. That's the day I start my Aikido practises again, and the drawing I'm working on is for my sensei, but he has no idea I'm doing it. It's a surprise. :)

After that, I have at least three comissions to do, if I'm not mistaken. For friends, family, and people that have seen my drawings and wanted one too. I'm really happy. I just hope that when I get back to school I have time for everything. And for the blog too, even though I haven't posted much lately. :/
Hope you are still with the blog. In the meantime, I'll leave you with a pic of me working on the sketch of the drawing I mentioned I was working on right now. :)

Inspiring songs.

Hi everyone. I know I haven't been posting much lately, so I'm sorry (I already lost count of the times I say this at a beginning of a post lol). I am glad to say that lately what's been taking my time is some requests and some comissions I got. I'm really happy that people like my work just enough to ask for a drawing. And some people gave me a lot of suggestions of who to draw next and how to improve my technique, so thanks everyone ! It feels really good to have feedback for something you work hard for. :)

Anyways. I'm not sure of when I shall post again with a new drawing, and I'm not sure if I'll have people's permission to post the comissions I'll make here, so I thought about posting something different and that I could update every week.

Every week I'll share with you a song that I usually listen while I'm drawing. Songs that inspire me and ease my mind to work.

Today I chose one of my favourites ever. It's called Fairy Tale, by Omnia (one of my favourite bands, you should listen to them !). The lyrics are not theirs, it's actually a poem written by Lewis Carrol. And let me just add, it's breath-taking. This song soothes my mind. I easily stress when something doesn't turn out the way I want to, and this song helps me to control stress too. 

I'll leave you with the song, the lyrics are on the video. :)

Avan Jogia.

Hi everyone ! Lately I've been really inspired, and I've even been working on multiple drawings at the same time. One of them is, like I already told you, a drawing to my sensei that I'll give to him as a gift when we get back to the dojo. The other one is the one I'm about to show you, that I finished moments ago.

So, I'm a huge fan of Avan Jogia. Ever since I found out about Twisted (one of my favourites TV series EVER), where Avan plays the main role as Danny Desai, I, as many others, fell in love with both the character and the actor ahah. I love the mistery of it all, you're always wondering who did what and why, and when you think you're sure of what really happened, they always find a way to surprise you. I'm completely hooked ! I'm getting carried away already, I'm sorry ahah. Yey Twisted ! 

I started drawing Avan two days ago, after seeing a beautiful photo in his official facebook page of the photoshoot he did with Angelo Kritikos for Perez Hilton. HERE it is, if you're curious. He looks absolutely stunning and I just couldn't resist ahah. I left it aside yesterday, because I spent the day out, but today I finished it.

To me the hardest part to draw was the pattern of his suit. It wasn't too hard of course, but it wasn't that easy too. I was so concentrated on the shapes  of the pattern that I got a headache. But I still finished it. So, here he is, Avan Jogia everyone ! :) <3

(Click for full view)

Mermaid.

Hi once again. :) I know I said I'd post about my materials this time and haven't done it yet. I've already the pictures, but I've been lazy lately to write about them. So I'm sorry for my laziness, ahah. 

Anyways, instead, I'm here once again to show you one of my new drawings. I did the sketch last Wednesday, when I was at my dad's office. I was bored and had nothing interesting to do, and gladly I had my drawing journal with me so I borrowed a pencil and a rubber from my dad and started doodling. When we came home, I decided to give it a bit of color, but I left it aside and was only able to finish it today.

If you're wondering why it doesn't look so realistic, it's because she's a product of my imagination. Imagination was my only tool on this one, ahah. So here it is, the mermaid. :)

If you wish to see it in a bigger size just click it.

Reaching Nirvana.

Hi there you beautiful people ! How have you been ? You probably noticed the blog has a new look ! It's still under construction, so bear with me if it still looks too simple, My sister is helping me, in fact, she was the one who created the new header and the navbar, so thank you Ofélia !

My next post here was supposed to be about my materials, I'd basically show you all of mine and talk a bit about them, and tell you which one I'm more familiar with, and which ones I use the most, etc etc. I was taking pictures of everything but when I saw the gouaches and the watercolors I felt compelled to use them. Specially because I'm not that confortable with both of them and I really want to expand my horizons, I don't want to be the kind of artist that is stuck in only one material to work. Not saying that it's bad, because it isn't, I just want to be the "flexible" kind of artist that can work with anything that is given to him.

I had no idea what to do, so I just painted the background in black. After it dried, I was thinking on doing something with a white pencil, but then I decided to continue using gouache. As I'm into Buddhism and agree with many of its principles, I decided to go with a little tribute to prince Siddhartha, or Buddha. It pictures the time when prince Siddhartha sat under the bodhi tree and after much time of deep meditation (about 49 days), he is believed to have reached enlightment (Nirvana), becoming then the Buddha (which means Awakened one). I wanted to show my respect somehow and this was the way I found to do it. 

Now, enough with the talking, here it is, hope you like it ! And opinions are always welcome ! :)

Just click it to see it bigger and more detailed.

Hello Bloglovin'.

So, has you may have heard, or not, Google Reader is shutting down and you'll have to find another blog reader to keep up with your favourite blogs. One of the best choices to replace Google Reader is Bloglovin, and it's the current blog reader I'm using. It's pretty simple to use and I actually find it easier than Google Reader. You just have to sign up and once you have your account, you can import the blogs you follow from ANY blog reader to Bloglovin HERE. 

Or, if you want it the easier way, you can just search the blog you want through the Bloglovin search bar and just press the follow button ! :) Bellow the example, if you can't see the pictures well just click them.

Now, if you wish to follow my blog with Bloglovin, you can use one of the methods above, or just

simply click the Bloglovin button on the sidebar of my blog. If you do, I really appreciate it, thank you very much. :) Have a good week !*

Long time no see.*

Hello there dear followers !* Long time no see, right ? I've already told you the reason of my absence. I was working on my first request ! I got it done last Wednesday and it has been delivered already to my friend. Fortunately, he loved it and was surprised that it looked so realistic. With that done, I'll be working now on a little surprise for my Sensei, that I'll give to him when we get back to the Dojo in September (it's Summer holidays time right now). After that, I'll draw to my cousin that lives in America, she asked me to and I'll be glad to do it. :) If you guys have any request or suggestion you can talk to me too ! You can comment here or simply send an e-mail to drawyoursoul@live.com.pt .

Anyways, as I haven't posted in a long time, I decided that I'd share with you some older drawings I made some time ago. I think you'll be able to see the difference from the old drawings to the ones I post here now. Gladly I did evolute and I still am. It's always good to look back once in a while, to see how much progress you've made. So I do that sometimes. Anyways, here it is, and hope you enjoy ! To see them in a bigger size just click the drawings.*

Tamaki sensei.

It is done. :) It's sensei Leo Tamaki, for those who didn't recognize or don't know who he is (go here to get some info on him). I felt like drawing him as a little tribute. I took so long to upload it here because I got lazy. D: I started on the kimono and got lazy with it, left it unfinished for two days. Today I got the strength back and finally finished it. I used HB, 2B, 4Bl and 6B to draw him.

And I think that's it, I don't have much to say about it. I like it. Hope you do too ! :)

(Click for full view)

Currently in progress...

Good news, I'm drawing again ! My wrist doesn't hurt that much now, thank God. So I grabbed my pencils and my graphic journal, and let's draw !  First of all, I'm really sorry for the quality once again. I took the picture with my cellphone and the lighting in the room sucks. But I really wanted to show you what I'm working on right now so I uploaded it anyway. You can't see much of the shadows unfortunately. But when I'm done, I'll scan it and then, let's hope the quality gets better.

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Any requests ? Feel free to e-mail me: drawyoursoul@live.com.pt

Training with sensei Leo Tamaki

Hello once again. By the tittle of the post it's obvious enough that I'm not here to show another drawing of mine or something to do with that matter. Although I do feel a bit better day by day ! But while I'm like this and can't draw, I didn't want the blog to stay on stand by mode. So I'm writing about the 3-day-training with sensei Leo Tamaki organized by the A.A.A., or Aikido Association of the Azores (Associação de Aikido dos Açores in portuguese). 

WARNING: this might be a long post ! And what I'm about to write is my opinion and my vision of the training. How it was for ME. Please don't expect a great writing, it's a pretty simple thing and pretty summarized. I will not give every single detail because I'd take soooo long and you probably wouldn't read it.

First of all, I'd like to say how amazing it was to me. I admire sensei Leo Tamaki since I first heard of him, last year. It was his first visit to our island (S. Miguel) and we were invited by the A.A.A. to come by. I searched about him and saw videos on Youtube and was amazed. His technique is simply incredible to watch and I love how he does it all so smoothly. But unfortunately I was not able to go last year. When I heard he was coming back this year, and that we were invited by the A.A.A. once again, I knew I couldn't miss it. And thank god I didn't !

A little information on sensei Leo Tamaki

Sensei Tamaki after the practice.

Sensei Leo Tamaki was born in 1974. His father is japanese. Issei Tamaki, who's also into Aikido, is hiss brother. Sensei Leo has practiced Kung-fu, and Full Contact Karate. 

At the age of 21, he started training Aikido. One of his first teachers in Paris was Jacques Bardet. Later, during an extended visit to Japan, Sensei Tamaki practiced Kyokushinkaï, which is a hard style karate, but never abandoning Aikido.

Currently, Sensei Tamaki is 4th Dan in Aikikai.

(If any of this information is wrong, please feel free to let me know and I'll correct it. :) )

Credits for the bio: http://www.ai-ki-do.fr/sensei-aikido/leo-tamaki.php (I only translated the bio, the credits go to this site)

The training with sensei Leo Tamaki

It was my frist time training with sensei Leo Tamaki. And as I said before, it was an amazing experience and I hope that if he comes back next year, I'll be there.

Anyways. We were to work on our sensitivity. There were various exercises. For example, in one of the exercises, both the uke and the nage were in suwari waza. The nage stood with eyes closed, while the uke had a tanto (wooden knife) in hand and attacked the nage slowly, but with the intention to attack him. The nage has to feel the attack coming and avoid being "cut". 

There was an exercise where we had to be completely relaxed, lying with our backs against the floor. We had to slowly move our legs up, and eventually do the back roll ukemi without contracting or doing any effort with our belly. We had a partner wiht his hand place lightly in our belly while we did it, so in case we contracted the belly, they'd feel it and let us know, and we had to start it all over. I'm not going to describe all the exercises here though, that'll take forever. And I'm not a great writer lolol.

We also worked on not using strenght while doing a technique. To do so, we had to be perfectly relaxed, do the technique with no strenght, but the intention had to be there in order to work. We had to be able to feel the uke's energy and body too, we had to be sensitive.

Me with Sensei Tamaki.

On the picture above sensei Leo Tamaki is helping me to understand the technique. The thing is, once he works with you and shows you how it's done, it's so much easier. Once he corrected what I was doing wrong I was able to do it right. I want to explain, but it only helps if you feel it. You feel the smoothless with which he does the technique, but still, you'll fall.

And I realized that the techniques are done with no effort. There's no strenght aplied. It can be done gently, and be 100% effective. It's so amazing. You can be calm and completely relaxed, and with the right attitude and if the intention is there, you destabilize the person without sacrificing your own balance and bam, it works.

Sensei helping me to understand a technique.

The training with sensei Leo Tamaki made me learn so much. Really, for me it was unique. I admired and respected him before, but now I do it even more. It was such a great experience that has really enlightened me and helped me, and I have no words to describe it. I feel really proud and happy that I was able to meet him.

After practice, me and Sensei Leo Tamaki.

And of course, I had to take a picture with sensei Leo, ahah. He was  kind enought to take a picture with me, so thank you so much, sensei Leo ! 

I have one where I am both with sensei Leo Tamaki and with sensei Mário who belongs to the A.A.A. that I would love to post, because it's thanks to sensei Mário that I have the picture and that I was able to go to the training, but I don't want to do it without his permission. My dad will go to his dojo tomorrow, I'll tell him to ask him if I can post it here, and if I can, I gladly will. 
EDITED: Sensei Mário gave me the permission to post the picture where I'm both with him and with sensei Leo Tamaki. Thank you !

Sensei Tamaki, me and Sensei Mário.

I want to thank A.A.A. for the amazing experience, and obviously, thank sensei Leo Tamaki for coming too ! :)

Lastly, enjoy this video (it's NOT from our training with sensei Leo and is NOT mine) from sensei Leo's demonstration in The NAMT from 2008. Worth the watch ! ;)

P.S. - these photos all belong to me, they were taken during and after the training, by my father. Also, bear with me. I'm not a great writer and this, as I said before, is how I saw the training. I might have missed something, and if I did and remember, I'll edit it. And this is a really really summarized version of the training, so... Thanks for reading !

hi !

Hi there. I'm just writing this post to let you know that I am not able to draw right now. I've hurt my left wrist and hand, which is the one I use to draw and to do the majority of things. yes I'm left-handed. I can write perfectly on the computer, but when it comes to writing on paper, or drawing, if I do it for more than five minutes it starts to hurt. So lately I've been avoiding doing efforts because I want to heal fast. It bothers me a bit during Aikido training and when I'm training I avoid making efforts too. I have to be good again by the end of this month, because I have Aikido exam to turn from yellow to the orange belt.

Anyways. Meet sensei Leo Tamaki everyone !

He's on the island ! :) Yesterday I went to his practice (is is practise or practice ? not sure lolol) and I loved it. He's here for the weekend and I'm planning to go today too, and tomorrow, the last day. From what I saw, he's a great person and a great aikidoka. The way he moves is just amazing. He's really fast, but really gracious at the same time, it's wonderful to watch.

My dad filmed and took photos while I was practising and he got a bit of when he came to help me with a doubt. Unfortunately it was in video, and when I did that screenshot thing to save it as a photo the quality got pretty low. Oh well, at least I hava something that reminds me the great experience ! :) Looking forward for today's practise ! :)

P.S. - these aren't my photos, I found them on Google.

Evermore.

This one I drew some time ago, but still, I felt like sharing. bear with me on this, I'm still working on my colouring technique.

I wanted to draw tulips, because it's my favourite flowers, so I ended up doing and this is the result. I also did them because I'm crazy about The Immortals series, written by Alyson Nöel, in which red tulips have a significant meaning to the main characters.

I used the tulips on the cover of the first book of the series ( Evermore ) as a reference to draw and colour mine. It doesn't look much like it, but actually I didn't want it to be. 

The cover of the book, if your curious, here. To see the drawing in a bigger size just click it. I am sorry for the quality by the way, my scanner always ruins it.

If you want to know more about the amazing books that are part of The Immortals series, this is the official site and contains everything you need to know about the story. You can also visit this site for info. To know more about the writer, go here.

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Any request ? Let me know, HERE. 

Stay.

And my Rihanna is done ! I kind of messed up her neck so I am sorry for that. Her hair isn't exactly like it was in the picture because I decided to be creative with it and made my own version. Yup I need to practise on drawing hair. Sometimes it turns out nicely and exactly as the picture, other times this happens. But it isn't too bad, I think.

This one I posted larger than my previous drawings here, because the quality's still low. I am terribly sorry. I scanned it, but the scanner light ruined the drawing completely, so I had to take a photo with my camera. If only I had a better camera you could see much better the lights and shadows of her face, but oh well.

This took me about, 6 to 7 hours to complete. I started it yesterday and finished today. I used 2B, 3B, 6B and 9B.

just started !

Hello again ! Here's a peek of what I am drawing next. It's still in the sketch mode that's why it looks so incomplete. This one might take me a little longer. Any guess of who it is ? Ahah.

if you wish to see it in a bigger size just click it. I am sorry for the low quality. When I finish it I'll scan it, the quality doesn't get great but it's always better. 

P.S. - I am still working on what to post on the blog besides what I draw, I'm not too experient yet with dealing with blogs, so I'm sorry if I take too long to post.

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REQUESTS: drawyoursoul@live.com.pt

the wolf.

Please bear with me on this one, it's my first attempt at drawing a wolf, and drawing fur. This took me about an hour maybe, I'm not sure. I've always been kinda messy on drawing hair and fur is no exception, that's why his fur looks disheveled and really messy. And I'm sorry if he kinda looks like a fox. As I said before, it's my first attempt at drawing a wolf.

So, like it was my first try at drawing this beautiful animal, I followed a simple tutorial from a great site, DragoArt, you can use if you need some tips, here. I used 2B, 3B and 6B pencils.

I am sorry for the quality, my scanner ruins the shadows and light in the drawing. If you wish to see it in a bigger size just click in the drawing.

death upon us.

A few days ago, I was browsing tumblr and I found this. I loved it, so I thought of giving it a try. I know my version is missing some of the details but that's because I chose to not draw them. So yes, I did change some small things here and there. I made the eye holes my way so you'll notice some difference. And it's not perfect but I like it.
It looks better if you see the real drawing, the scanner screwed up the shadows a little bit. I used pencils 2B,3B, 6B and H, not in that order.
If anyone knows who's artwork is this please let me know so I can credit the artist properly.

To see the drawing in a bigger size just click it.

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IF YOU WISH TO MAKE A REQUEST, CONTACT ME: drawyoursoul@live.com.pt