illustration – smyeshka.com

Philosophy, science and innovations.. backbone of human history

I went this winter with my husband to Germany. Our base was in Halle, Heiden’s hometown. We went few days to Berlin – with most silent trains. Berlin is great but not my cup of tea, but Leipzig was love at first sight…

What I noticed while was there what is a proper way to appreciate your history – god or bad- it is your backbone – it is your proof that you made mistakes or left something in a legacy for future generations. What i find amazing is that Croatia hasn’t use as much, nor god nor bad, parts of history ,even though a fair number of scientists and innovators and philosophers.

It is unfair to ignore so many people from Croatian history that gave, not only for their country, but for the whole world the base knowledge on which was build everything we now have…

My favorites are: Bošković – a physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, diplomat, poet, theologian, Jesuit priest, and a polymath from the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik); Faust Vrančić – an inovator (parachute, moving bridges), a polymath and bishop from Šibenik and his coeval Marco Antonio De Dominis (Theory about Rainbow was his, even Newton said so, but Descartes took all the glory) a Dalmatian ecclesiastic, archbishop of Split and Primate of Dalmatia and all Croatia, adjudged heretic of the Catholic faith, and man of science…

In recent history there are few we need to say at least names and what they gave to world. Slavoljub Penkala – invention of ball pen; Spirdon Brusina – edited the best local ornithological collection in the Austro-Hungarian Empire; Ivan Vučetić – the creator of the modern method of dactyloscopy – the discipline of criminal techniques, one of the safest and most common methods of identifying persons, based on the papillary lines on the fingers, palms and feet of people; Ivan Vukić (Giovanni Biagio Luppis Freiherr von Rammer) invention of torpedo; Leopold Stephen Ruzicka – winner of the 1939 Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for his work on polymethylenes and higher terpenes” “including the first chemical synthesis of male sex hormones; Franjo Hanaman – invention of lightbulb with wolfram’s thread; Marino Getaldić – the application of algebra in geometry and a pioneer in making conic lenses; Benedict Kotruljević – dual bookkeeping system…Frane Petrić, John Mišković, Mario Puratić, David Schwarz, Tomislav Uzelac (mp3)…

The list is long, very long… this is not even a half! And btw. Tesla was born in Croatia, but if someone is giving him another adress, so be it..

I am beyond proud to be a part of same land just because of this magnificent minds that changed humanity..and history..

I draw most of them… I think I might do them all.. just to give a little smile of appreciation for this genius minds 🙂

Little wonderland

Before Christmas time I was wandering how you get to make a mural as big as a skyscraper or decorating shop windows. One day, in the end of November, lady called me and ask me can I illustrate a winter story on glass panels of winter terrace.

The whole terrace is in glass panels, 2 panels on a sides are 2,5 meters long each, and 2 panels on a bottom are 3,6 meters long each, glass doors are made with 4 panels in different dimensions – but equals the panels on a bottom… and hight is 3,5 meters.

I’ve meet my client, and listened what she wanted.. Her idea was a winter story with all the right elements of wonderland. I’ve made a first scheme and in my mind was a winter in woods with animals like rabbits, foxes, deers… So client and I made corrections on scheme to get her idea to life.

One of the scheme illustrations for a side panels

The deadline was 3rd of December, and I’ve got about 6 days. That much I was illustrating glass panels, 6 long days, without any pattern, all made by hand with a chalk-like marker.

Experience was amazing – the neighbours were happy to see change, and seeing everyday something new, kids were recognising some elements of the story’s about Santa, one kid even try to lick candy cane…

I’m so tankful for this job opportunity, it was fun a bit hard, but in the end I was proud to be a magic maker for a neighbours and guests to enjoy winter wonderland in the favourite coffee bar. 🙂

Playing Game with a capital G

Imagine that your soul is your mirror image somewhere in space, playing cards with other souls.
All cards are different, unique, rules are to play your own unique cards as best combination that makes you stand out. The goal is to avoid or undo/annul or overpower prejudices. There are no winers, there are no heroes, there are no opponents. It’s an art of fight without fighting to make life real life with purpose, to be universe we are – made of differences.

The dealer is displaying prejudices and all players are playing against them with a hand they have.

The trick is you have cards life gave you, it can be anything – you can be woman, man, transgender, any race, any religion.. What ever is prejudices aim that comes from cultural or physical references – is at least one card you have in your deck.. But the important cards are strength you have, it can be all the goods you have as a human.

What you need to do is play a game with a capital G, take no shit, own who you are, work on your self and love your self. You ain’t perfect, but guess what- no one is. But make it work. 🙂

Take a look at the cards HERE!

Usual things in unusual times

No matter how weird or unusual times we endure one thing is always the same- buying food! I love to go to green market, mostly because of fresh products and supporting small businesses. It is good to know your seller and sometimes they will give you information that are pure jewel when you are in need of something, like fixing a car or buying tobacco 🙂

Well, these people are interesting and some of them are like characters made for a cartoon or they look as they come from one… And I’ve made a small hommage to them.. Faces that reminded me that time changes but urges and some things remain the same- like characters at the green market.

This guy works at the green market. He is selling cauliflower for amazing price.. and he’s cauliflower is one of a kind -fresh from the soil, fresh from a ground. If you buy a cauliflower he’ll offer you a little something to light up your day- a car repair or a pack of cigarettes.

Sometimes buying at the green market makes you see evil charecters in pension. 🤷‍♀️

Her name is Strawberry. She is a bee keeper and sells jars of honey. Liquid gold, a remedy of nature, that uplifts your body and soul.

Chicken egg master, Igor, will tell you a secret powers of eggs he’s selling. Eggs builds strong muscles cels like his, healthy brain- his mama told him he’s a clever boy, healthy eye sight- he sees like an eagle.. and healthy immune sistem- he was never sick in his life.

A good butcher, like Jozef, is important to have. It’s important to have..like shrink.
This one is not for vegans or vegetarians..

Hope you buying your food from small businesses or at least healthy natural, eco, pure products.

See you soon, stay healthy, safe and happy 🙂

Jump to GALLERY 🙂

Missing weirdness

The lock down of all bars and restaurants, concerts and shows wasn’t a big deal in a beginning, but after a year not having a place to be to dance, drink or just celebrate life… it starts to eat inside my mind.
As I was thinking about an urge to get my ears filled with good music, drink my favourite rum and dance like never before, the idea struck me right there and then.. I should make a series of characters you can see in bars.

Characters in bars are weird and you can always get a glimpse of their life or just what is going on at the moment. Sometimes you drop ears and listen to their talk.. or they share their story with you. I’m missing peoples weirdness 🙂

So this are the characters I once had served as a bartender, or I was sitting next to them, or just was observing them from across the bar… Homage to weirdness at the bar:

This is Mimi.
Mimi is sitting at a bar drinking shooter, cigarette smoke getting in her hair.. spilling her soul to the bartender, loud music that soothe her heart blues….Bar is her chapel, no virtual thing can replace it.
Nostalgic moment..

Gonzo and Mikey
Gonzo and Mickey are sitting at the bar. Booze and cigarettes are only food tonight. Gonzo is in existential crisis, women that he wants to live till the day he die left him. Mikey is having proof of existential theory governed by the norm of authenticity necessary to grasp human existence. Self making in existence on holly ground called bar.

The Captain
Captain is standing at the bar, he gets his favourite beer cold as ice. He’s ready to tell a story of a mermaid that once stole his heart. Here, in a peaceful harbour, in a bar.

Blind date

Blind date. He’s charming as a colonoscopy, she’s a gold digger.. After few manhattans and whiskeys, the bar will make a history to their future.

What do you miss the most in this time of COVID-19? Do you miss weirdness of unknown peoples?

Till next weird people series, keep safe and drop a comment or a like! 🙂
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Crumbs on Vespa, challenge that make me realise a joy of riding the tide

After monotone challenge, that didn’t go as well as I expected, I’ve applied for a second challenge “Joy of riding” on Designhill.com
Usually I love making characters, I love the way they can make you imagine the story around them. Sometimes I notice that people love the whole story and hardly play with characters dragged out of the context or just characters suggesting where to put them in a story.

The challenge “Joy of riding” made me think about a big guy on a Vespa. I found it fun to combine big and small. Illustration of Crumbs on Vespa was my idea of joy of riding, it doesn’t matter what you ride as long you feel the wind in your (facial) hair. Honestly, I didn’t go for design for t-shirt with writing so someone will better understand the illustration, I found that a bit stupid. Anyway, I didn’t win the challenge but I got a good feedback. It was enough for someone to se both sides of work.. A public that want something so literally so they won’t need to use brain cells and profession that will appreciate a nice design.

Point of this story I’ve shared with you is discovering yourself while riding trough life/work. What seems to be nice to you, obvious to you, to others seems opposite. It doesn’t mean that you failed. As Crumbs could ride a bigger motorcycle he chose to ride Vespa, because it’s all about the joy of riding and the experience. Let the Crumb be your inspiration 🙂
P.s. Next time I’ll tell you how Crumbs inspired me to find lost characters in places lost in covid-19.

Until then, be safe and enjoy your life 🙂

Try monotone, monotone is fun!

After some other kind of illustrations, I have made profile on designhill.com. It’s something new for me, a big space for designers from all over the world, mostly from east side of the world. This site has some interesting things for designers and different challenges that you can sign up to.

I did sign up for two challenges, design in monotone was first – in a few days challenge will be finished…I’ve found some old illustrations from back than time when I was obsessed with sea monsters and octopuses. Two mythical creatures were perfect to try new way of using color, monotone color scheme. Two female mythical creatures I’ve painted in shade of blue and shade of green. Then I wasn’t happy with only two illustrations, I’ve made third one to balance the story. Third illustration was a guy holding a fish as a gun. Color for third illustration was brown.

Still I’m struggling with colors but trying my best. Monotone, I think, is the best way to get rid of a notion of a missing any color. Maybe it is a forced way to trick brain to see and think in aspect of shade and light. In the end i think i’ve managed ok with this challenge.

If you’d like to see challenges click on link: Challenges Entries | PrintShop by Designhill

So if you have a problem with colouring your illustration I would say go monotone! Oh, I use Adobe kuler color wheel: Color wheel, a color palette generator | Adobe Color for easy access to color rules. 🙂

See you soon! 🙂

Some other kind of illustration

I was told that 3 monsters need to go to an vacation. So they did. And they are good and well, relaxed in far far away land where is freedom and no viruses or enemies. All good.

I turn to my weakness in drawing and its name is color. Colors I adore. My favorite is every color in Universe. There is no less in my illustration coloring wise. I know one of design rule is to play as few colors as you can to make it POP. I’m like a horder who refuse to throw away things, just to make space or to clean place up- mission impossible.

For me the only way to practice is to make simple illustration where I can be less scared of having few colors. My brain refuses to go further than poster when I think about simple color palette, illustration can’t be complicated and have few colors. Again, it’s impossible. I admire people that can think in that way, less color more POP. Anyway, I made my poster – simple illustration, tried to keep them funny (-ish).. and color scheme I have chosen, safe colors, red and blue. White isn’t color. Right?! 🙂

So I’ve made a series of posters, some other kind of illustration. Simple. Simple is my new wave to ride. Till next adventure and new series ..take a look at posters – CLICK HERE. 🙂

Photo illustration

Last week I was doing a new little project a photo illustration. As I was finished with hate towards 2020. I tried to make something new. I had an idea long ago, to make illustration on a photo. Fist one that I’ve made was the one I’ve put in “About me” – where Bo and Om are cleaning my glasses. I’ve continued to make more photo illustrations.

Inspiration was everyday life and play. But it didn’t kick as I’ve expected. I think this series of illustration are not communicating to people as well as for example Advent ones. Maybe photo illustration is harder than it seams. What do you think?

I am making one more series right now, with a cohesive theme and maybe it will be better than first one. We’ll see. ‘Til than, click here to see photo illustrations. 🙂

Workshop – stop motion animation

After I finished illustration workshops, I went to stop motion workshop.

Stop motion animation workshop was so fun and difficult. People think stop motion animation is easy, animation in general is all about good plan, organization, small details and effects. As workshop went on, I’ve learned so much.. but lack of practice made me eager to work harder. Our teacher Luka Vucić, bless him, showed his work, all props and puppets, tips and tricks. So we got the idea what to make for our final work.

In the end of workshop I’ve made stop motion animation about how God made Earth. Idea was that God sneezed and his snot hit the planet.. and voila Earth was made.

If you’d like to see stop motion animations from this workshops click here. 🙂