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.