Jealousy

Jealousy is not a green-eyed monster.

My participation to Inktober. :)

Flowers are my life blood

 

Tutorial - Making giclee prints for illustrators

[FR: désolée pour les francophones, mais ce tutoriel sera en anglais uniquement...! :) ]

Hello everyone!

So I spent quite a few hours some weeks ago entirely resetting my printing workflow... and suddenly I remembered how painful it had been in the first place, when I decided to take the leap and print my own giclees. Once you have all the information, it's actually quite easy, but I couldn't find a single tutorial gathering all the info in one place. So yeah, here you go! :)

Some of these steps I was lucky enough to learn from a professional art printer. Some I learnt through trial and error. Hopefully this tutorial will be useful to you!

What are giclee prints, and why would you want to make them?

 Giclee prints are high-quality fine-art reproductions printed with pigment inks on archival paper. They differ from regular fine-art prints, which are made with dye-based inks, which sink deeper into the paper (making images slightly more fuzzy, and details less crisp) and are not as lightfast as pigment inks.

Giclees are pretty much the best quality prints you can get, but they are not cheap to make, and the materials are a serious investment. They are really beautiful though, so if your plan is to make small limited series of prints, I would definitely recommend them. If you are planning to print large editions of your artworks and price them quite cheaply, there are probably better alternatives for you out there. It really depends on how you distribute your artwork. :)

 Close-up shots of one of my giclee prints. See how sharp it is, and how vivid the colours are?

Materials

- obviously, a giclee printer (i.e. inkjet printer with pigment inks). I own an Epson R1900 printer, which is no longer on the market. At the time I purchased it, I wrote a lengthy blog entry on giclee printers, which is a bit outdated but still useful if you are considering purchasing one.

- fine art archival paper of your choice. I use Hahnemühle Bamboo, but that's up to you. Archival papers come in all kinds of textures, white-warmths, and prices, so your favourite may be different from mine. Important: do not use art paper for printing. It's tempting but archival printing papers are coated with a special coating that helps the ink adhere and stay put, and will give you much better results.

- if you are a traditional artist like me, a scanner, obviously! Make sure you scan your artwork at high resolution (min. 300 dpi, but 600 dpi is better), and with all the settings of the scanner turned off. This usually produces better results.

- a photography software. I use Photoshop CS5, and the commands I will show you here are for this software. I am sure that other versions of Photoshop and alternative softwares have similar settings though.

Calibrating your devices

This is a critical step to setting up your printing workflow. Calibrating ensures that colours are handled consistently throughout the process, so that they can be reproduced as accurately as possible.

The critical thing to calibrate is your screen, to make sure that what you see is what you will get (although that is never totally true when printing - I'll get to that). Screen calibration is done with a colorimeter that you place on the screen to measure how a set of colours are rendered: these devices are expensive, but surely you can borrow one from a graphist friend (that's what I do, anyway). Otherwise there are online tests that will help tweak your monitor settings, but such calibrations are never as good as a custom screen profile made by a colorimeter.

Technically your scanner should be calibrated as well, if you use one. Scanner calibrators are expensive as heck and I personally never calibrated my scanner. It's a good scanner that was well-calibrated from the factory, though, so I make do.

Calibrating your printer is also critical to producing beautiful prints. When printing, how a colour is rendered depends on the printer but also on the paper you use. You will therefore need a printing profile matching your printer AND your paper, called an ICC profile. Luckily for you, paper producers provide calibrated ICC profiles for almost every printer you can wish for, for each of their papers. Go to their website, download the correct ICC profile to your computer, and you'll be set. Depending on your operating system, you will have to place your ICC profile in the correct folder in your computer, for example:

- for Windows Vista and 7: Windows / System32 / Spool / Drivers / Color

- for MacOS 10.2 and beyond: Library / ColorSync / Profiles

Preparing your picture for printing

Open your picture with Photoshop (or your favourite software). If it asks you what profile to use with the picture, choose the "no colour management" option, as you don't want that to mess with your calibration profiles later on.

Yes my Photoshop is in French :)

First and foremost - if you are a traditional artist and your artwork is scanned, you need to clean up your artwork. There are always little pieces of dirt, eraser dust and fibers that stick to traditional artworks or inside your scanner. As giclee prints are very high resolution, these show terribly on prints - they actually look like there physically is something on the print. So zoom in at full resolution and track little specks of dirt all over your artwork, and remove them using the Cloning tool in Photoshop. It only takes a few minutes and makes a world of difference.

Also, if your artwork is scanned - I suggest not making any alterations (i.e. adjusting the brightness/contrast/colour balance/etc) just yet. I have found that files fresh from the scanner often reproduced the original artwork much better than adjusted files where these parameters have been tweaked a bit, even if these look better on the screen. Files fresh from the scanner sometimes look a little washed out but that is ok - printing will produce a darker picture. That is because on screen, your picture is lighted by transmitted light (i.e. the light comes from within), while on paper, your picture will be lighted by reflected light (i.e. environmental light that bounces on the paper). Transmitted light is much stronger and makes colours look paler. 

Then, you can check how print will look like by softproofing your picture, i.e. visually correct for any differences that the printing process will make on what you see on the screen. This include correcting for the tint of your paper, but also modifying slightly the colours that are outside of the range that can be reproduced accurately by your printer (known as the gamut). 

Go to View > Proof Setup > Custom, and choose your printing ICC profile in the list of simulated devices. As the rendering mode, choose "Perception": this means that if some colours are out of your gamut, all the colours will be slightly modified to get everything back into gamut, instead of just modifying the colours outside the gamut. This way, you will not have ruptures in your gradients and such. Also check the "Black Point Compensation" box, which makes sure that perfect black on your monitor will correspond to the prefect black of your printer, and the "Simulate Color Paper" box.

This will give you a pretty accurate idea of how your print will come out. It should look a bit washed out.

 

Checking View > Non-printable colours (or Gamut Warning, Shift+Ctrl+Y) will show you any areas of your picture that are outside of your printer gamut, and will therefore be slightly different on your print.

Making test prints

It's rare for a print to come out perfectly on your first try. In order not to waste too much ink and paper, it's best to make test prints. 

 Resize your file to about 10x15 cm and copy it to a test file. You can have many different test prints in your test file, it saves times! Then print your test file with the actual printing setting you will use for your prints: hit File > Print, and set your printing settings. 

- your printer should be your giclee printer.

- Printing parameters: this will depend on your printer, but here are my settings for an Epson R1900, which should work for most Epson printers. Paper source will usually be "Manual" with fine-art papers, which need to be feeded through a special slot in the printer. Paper type should be something like "Velvet fine art". Size is your paper size. Important: you then need to hit the "More options" thumbnail to set important info: paper margins should be "no margins", and the "Unactivated (no colour calibration)" box should be ticked. You want Photoshop to do the colour calibration as it is able to load the printer/paper ICC profile.You can save all this info in a custom printer setting.

- Back in the Photoshop printing menu: on the right, choose "Let Photoshop manage the colours", and check your correct ICC profile in the list. Rendering mode should be Perception again, and Black Point Compenstion should be ticked. 

And you're set to print your test file!

Remember, you have to use the actual paper, not cheap printing paper, otherwise all this process is useless!

If the colours are not satisfying, you will need to tweak them with the Image settings (Colour balance/Levels/Brightness/etc). And print new tests, etc, until you're happy.

Print your prints

Make sure the printing settings are as described above, and print away! :)

Let them dry thoroughly then sign them and number them like the happy artist that you are.

 Wrapping and shipping

Giclee prints are sensitive to scratches, because they are printed with pigments that don't actually sink into the paper. You don't want to let them lying around unprotected, as they can get damaged quite easily. You can wrap them either in clear cello bags, or into a sheet of white tissue paper. The second method is considered "the classical proper way" but I personally feel that clear bags look a bit more professional. Each one their own I suppose! :)

Shipping prints can be a conundrum. Most artists insist on shipping their prints in flat hard enveloppes, because it keeps the print nice and flat. Unfortunately in my experience, mailing large flat enveloppes has meant lots of damaged prints that have been forcibly introduced into tiny mailboxes, and also lots of lost prints. I now send my prints rolled into long, hard cardboard boxes that are about 10cmx10cm in section. This way the prints are not rolled very tight, but can't be bended of folded. I have never had any damaged prints since, and no lost prints either. Not sure why the last one is, I suppose that the boxes look less conspicuous and don't get stolen as much - and possibly they're easier to handle by the mail services and don't suffer from the "this doesn't fit in the box - OOPS IT FELL" syndrome. Just my two cents. :)

And that's it!

Print like the wind, fellow artists!

Giclee prints are back!

Bonjour à tous !

Hello everyone!

Après plus d'un an d'inactivité, j'ai enfin pu remettre en place ma boutique Etsy ! Vous y trouverez des tirages giclée signés et numérotés de mes illustrations !

Pour les goodies, cartes postales, etc, c'est sur DeviantART que ça se passe...! :)

After more than a year of inactivity, I finally reopened my Etsy shop!

There you will find signed and numbered Giclee prints of my illustrations !

Goodies, postcards, etc, can be purchased from my DeviantART account...! :)

 

Blending with markers 101

Bonjour à tous !

Hello everyone!

On m'a demandé sur Facebook un tutoriel sur comment mélanger les couleurs avec les feutres à alcool. Aussitôt dit, aussitôt fait ! :)

I was requested on Facebook a tutorial about blending with alcohol-based markers. You ask - it happens! :)

 
Blending with markers from Kmye Chan on Vimeo.

The First Morning of Summer

Petit dessin fait en quelques heures...

J'avais envie de m'essayer à des couleurs plus vives, à quelque chose d'assez atmosphérique, et de retransmettre cette lumière particulière de l'aube au début de l'été. Pas mal de gens m'ont dit que ça leur faisait plutôt penser aux matins d'automne, donc j'ai encore un peu de travail... au moins, le matin, c'était bon ! :D

Quick drawing I did in a few hours...

I challenged myself to use brighter colours, for something more atmospheric, and to try and recreate the peculiar light of daybreak in early summer. Many people told me it reminds them more of autumn mornings, so I probably have to work some more... at least I got the morning part right! :D

 

  

Reptilian

 

Gribouillage d'échauffement du jour...

Warm-up doodle of the day...

Poison

Cliquez pour agrandir || Click to enlarge

Je voulais tester plusieurs choses ces derniers temps : d'abord, des tons de peau un peu plus intéressants, en incorporant des sous-tons verts, et puis le fond noir comme vous voyez...

J'aime assez le rendu, je retenterai (même si mon scanner a un peu boudé).

I wanted to test several things lately: firstly, more interesting flesh tones using green undertones, and also the flat black background. I quite like how it came out and will try it again (although my scanner hated it and sulked a bit).

Watercolour papers review

Hello everyone,

As I frequently get questions about the paper I use for my illustrations, I thought it would not be a bad idea to make an in-depth review of watercolour papers: the ones I have tried, whether I liked or disliked them and why, their caracteristics, and what you should pay attention to when looking for a good watercolor paper.

Keep in mind that all opinions are my personal ones, and refer to how I work - the right paper for me may not be the right paper for you, depending on your personal techniques. :) 

Also, I use watercolour paper because I almost systematically mix markers with watercolour and thinned acrylics, but if you use markers only I would not recommend them - they suck the ink out like crazy.

Watercolour papers 101

Thickness

Papers come in different thicknesses that are described by their weights in grams per square meter (i.e. gsm). Usual printing paper is somewhere around 90gsm, and watercolour papers typically range from 185gm (thin) to 600gsm (very thick). I use 300gsm, which is the most easily found type of watercolour paper. If you are going to use very wet paint (watercolours, thinned acrylics, washes of ink, etc) I would not recommend using anything thinner than 300gsm, as the paper will wobble badly or even tear.

Grain

Watercolour papers can have different textures: 

- rough grain (or "torchon"), which is a coarse, pronounced texture

- fine grain (cold-pressed paper, or NOT), your typical watercolour paper texture

- satin paper (hot-pressed), which is a very smooth, almost textureless paper.

Hot-pressed is my personal favourite by a long shot.

Fiber

Watercolour papers can be made from either wood or cotton fibers. Paper made from cotton is sometimes called "rag paper", and it is usually considered higher quality. If the fiber type is not stated, then it is safe to assume it's wood fiber. I personally like cotton papers much better, I find that they have a smoother surface and better absorbency (see below).

Archivality

Archivality refers to whether a paper is meant to last in time. Most papers contain acidic substances that, over time, will yellow the paper and degrade the colours of whatever is drawn on them. Archival papers are processed to remove acidic substances naturally present in wood pulp, and are made using a procedure involving different chemicals compared to regular papers. As a result, they are more pricey. Non-archival papers can be used for roughs, sketches, and designs that are not meant to last - but for any type of artwork you may want to keep or sell, I strongly suggest using archival paper. Most but not all watercolour papers are archival. This should usually be stated in the description - if the paper is described as acid-free and without optical brighteners, it should be archival.

Colour

 Depending on the treatment of the paper, it may be more or less white. Archival papers do not contain optical brighteners, i.e. chemical compounds that make papers very white and bright. They are usually a twinge more on the ivory, warm side - some more than others.

Absorbency

Again, depending on the treatment of the paper, but also on the fiber type, papers may be more or less absorbent. Absorbent papers will soak wet paint or ink in quickly (although on a high-quality paper, the colour should not feather or bleed either). Water will stay on the surface a bit longer on a less abosorbent paper, and sometimes even "bead" (especially on papers containing a lot of gelatine). This is more difficult to assess without trying the paper first-hand, but less absorbent papers often have a slightly waxy, gummy touch, and look slightly less matte. I personnally hate waxy watercolour papers and stay the hell away from them (yes, that's how bad I feel about them).

Pads vs. Sheets

Most brands sell watercolour paper both as pads of various sizes, and as large individual sheets (usually 50x70cm). That is very much up to your personal preferences. I love pads and always have a number of A3 ones lying around, but I use sheets as well when I need to cut out a larger piece of paper for a drawing.

Stretching

Unless you are using your watercolour paper for a dry technique, watercolour paper should be stretched, i.e. taped to a stronger support (a piece of cardboard, plywood, your table, etc). This prevents the paper from wobbling and buckling when using a lot of water. I have heard that 600gsm paper does not need stretching but I have not tried myself, and am slightly skeptical about that. :)

On with the review!

Of course I have not tried out every single watercolour paper out there, so this is by no means exhaustive, but here you go.

 These papers are pretty much ordered from my favourite to least favourite ones.

Arches watercolour paper is hands-down my favourite paper. It is known all around as one of the highest quality cotton papers you can find - and accordingly, one of the most expensives...

I have tried both the hot-pressed (which is my paper of choice) and torchon papers. Both are a superbly soft and absorbent surface on which pencils and colours glide beautifully. They are archival, and are a quite warm-toned, ivory-white colour (the warmest I have tried, I think). They come in pads and sheets - I tried and loved both.

Sennelier paper is a close second to Arches. I have tried only the hot-pressed paper. Again, very high-quality archival cotton paper, very smooth, colours glide one perfectly. It is slightly less absorbent than the Arches, and whiter as well. I think they are only available as pads though.

Hahnemühle Bamboo is a peculiar paper that comes only in one finish (smooth but not quite as smooth as regular hot-pressed paper), and is made from sustainable bamboo fibers. It is slightly lighter in weight than the other ones I have tried (265gsm) but feels quite as thick to me - it may be that bamboo fibers are less dense than regular cotton or wood fibers. It has a nice surface that absorbs colours quite well, although not as much as my Arches paper. It has a light texture that can give interesting effects. The colour is quite warm, and it is an archival paper. It comes only in pads and I am not sure there are any other sizes than A3.

This paper is an interesting choice is you are concerned by environment protection (although paper production is highly polluting, no matter what...). It is the art paper counterpart of the printing paper I use for my fine-art prints.

The very first watercolour paper I got when I was about 9! :D

I kept using Canson Montval for quite a while, but have not used it for years now (ever since I found out about hot-pressed paper). I used the fine-grained one, but it also comes in rough grain ("nuage"). It is a wood fiber paper, with a very white colour. The surface is quite scratchy, and not highly absorbent. It is acid-free but I am not sure about its archivality, as it may contain brighteners considering its colour. It comes in pads and sheets. Altogether a cheap paper that you may like for its price and texture, although I would not buy again anymore.

Daler Rowney Langton Prestige - my latest experiment and my least liked of the bunch. It is a cotton archival paper and comes in all three finishes (although I only tried the hot-pressed one). It is very white, and has a very waxy, poorly absorbent surface on which pencils do not hold very well, and that feels almost like Bristol board. I personally do not like that at all - but if you like these kind of surfaces where you can correct and retake colour easily, and have been looking for a sturdier, non-peeling alternative to Bristol, this may be for you. They come in pads only, and on the plus side, they are relatively cheap.

That's it folks!

Please feel free to comment on your personal preferences, and papers you would recommend! :)

The Shot

 

Dernier dessin en date.

Le croquis traînait dans mon carton depuis avant mon déménagement, c'est dire qu'il était temps que je le finisse...!

Latest piece of artwork.

The sketch has been lying around on my desk ever since I moved to the UK, it was about time I finished it...! 

Bathing with pets

Crobardage à l'encre de Chine du soir

Black ink doodle of the day.

 

Of art and being a scientist

[Note : ce billet sera uniquement en anglais, désolée pour cette fois !]

 Hello everyone,

I have been meaning to write this blog post for a while, but did not really know where to start or how to it would come out.

Although I do not talk very often about anything other than my art stuff here, I have mentionned before that I am a scientist. I defended my PhD last fall, and am currently a postdoc in a major research institution in the UK that shall remain unnamed... :)

The few times when I have talked about this, either on Facebook or DeviantArt, I was amazed to see all the enthusiastic comments from science students, scientists and science enthusiasts all around. I also received quite a high amount of mail with questions about being both an artist and a scientist, and balancing both an art and a science career.

I personally find it unsurprising that so many scientific-minded people are also artists - the qualities you need to be a good scientist include creativity, thinking outside of the box, dedication and patience, which can also easily be channeled by slapping paint on a canvas.

However, I feel like a little reality check is in order.

I personnally do not consider myself as balancing a career in art and a career in science.

I consider myself a scientist, and a hobbyist artist during my free time.

And as much as I would like to tell you that it is entirely doable to do both at the same time - I am afraid that I, at least, find it to be impossible.

I am sorry if I sound like dampening some spirits here... Let's face it: both careers in art and careers in science are not 9-5, 5-days-a-week jobs. They're both extremely time- and energy-consuming jobs. You know it, I know it, we've all known it from the minute we started our PhDs. Even if you are extremely good at multitasking and managing your time, it is very difficult to keep another high-level activity while doing your PhD and beyond... especially two activities that are both creative and in many ways painstakingly similar, and drain on the same source of energy.

Bluefooted, who has a career trajectory fairly similar to mine (and happens to be one of my favourite artists out there - go figure!), wrote an excellent blog post about this quite a while ago that I agree with 100%.

I kept my art activity at a reasonably high level of productivity until my final year of PhD, but let's be honest: for the past couple of years, I have had very little time (and energy) to draw.

Now: thats is completely fine with me. I never seriously considered a career in art: I hate hate hate with a passion drawing on a schedule, working on commissioned art, and I have a lot of trouble staying focused on any kind of long-term art project. I draw when I feel like it - and I draw whatever I like. I have absolutely no pressure to do stuff that people like, no pressure to sell and make money, because I have a job that pays the bills, and I happen to be passionate about that job - I actually consider myself a very lucky person. I can experiment with new stuff whenever I feel like it. Damn, if I wished to become a Twilight fanartist and dedicate the rest of my drawing life to glittery portraits of Edward Cullen, I could (NB: this is not going to happen).

There are, of course, downsides to this. Of course, I wish I had more free time to draw (or maybe more free time - period!). It is sometimes extremely frustrating to see all your artist friends honing their skills and improving their art and producing amazing artwork several times a week, when you are stuck to drawing a handful of pictures a year. I feel like my art does not improve as fast as I wish it did, for lack of time to spend on acquiring new art skills. Also, as a hobbyist, you cannot expect to receive the same amount of feedback, coverage and opportunities as professional artists (although again I think myself very lucky here - I feel I receive almost obscene amounts of love considering how little active I am on the art scene! :) ). And that is fair - professional artists spend a lot of time making contacts, promoting their work: that is part of the job. But I cannot deny it is frustrating, sometimes, to see you artist friends making projects together, setting up shows and books and going to dinners and conventions and book signings, while you are miserably trying to save four hours in a row to finish that painting that has been lying around for weeks.

But if I had to do it all over again? I would still choose science.

I am sorry if this blog post sounds a little ranty, or dispiriting: I just felt slightly uncomfortable with the idea that I was, unwillingly, giving off the impression that being both an artist and a scientist is easy as pie. It is not. It is not impossible either - but it is difficult, and it is something you want to consider if you are planning a career in science while keeping your art activity alive. It takes to question what you really like, what is really important to you and what is not - and it does take to let go a little bit of the pride and ego-stroking that we all get from showing our art online. But that is not necessarily a bad thing in the end. :)

Le Nid - The Nest

Bonjour à tous,

Hello everyone,

J'ai posté ce dessin il y a déjà quelques temps sur Tumblr et Facebook pour ceux qui m'y suivent... Il s'agissait d'un vieux dessin commencé il y a plusieurs années, retrouvé par hasard en triant mon carton à dessins, et que j'ai décidé de terminer. Je voulais vous faire un avant-après, mais n'ayant pas encore eu le temps, voici déjà le résultat - le reste viendra plus tard !

I posted this picture already on Tumblr and Facebook, for those of you who follow me there... It is an old drawing I started years ago, that I stumbled upon while sorting my drawing stuff, that I decided to finish. I wanted to show you the difference between the unfinished and finished pictures but I have not yet had the time to set this up, so here you are - the rest will come later!

Le Nid - The Nest

Harpie

Pas beaucoup de temps pour dessiner en ce moment...

Petite créature fantastique du soir, espoir ?

Not much time for drawing lately...

But where there are mythological creatures, there is hope, right?

 

 

17 allée des Cerisiers

 

© Melanie Grandgirard

Quelques mots sur la jolie exposition 17 allée des Cerisiers, qui se déroule en ce moment à la bibliothèque de Saint-Sylvain d'Anjou jusqu'au 2 février !

Il s'agit d'une exposition collective hommage à Mary Poppins, organisée par la merveilleuse Barbara Brun et regroupant les oeuvres d'une dizaine d'illustrateurs de talent !

Si vous ne pouvez pas vous déplacer, vous pouvez tout de même voir les participations des artistes sur le blog de l'expo :

http://17alleedescerisiers.over-blog.com/

A few words on 17, Cherry Tree Lane, a lovely group show taking place right now at the local library of Saint-Sylvain d'Anjou in France, until the 2nd of February! 

This is a tribute group show to Mary Poppins, organised by the fantastic Barbara Brun and gathering the work of a dozen talented illustrators!

If you cannot attend but want to see the pictures, they are available on the blog dedicated to the show:

http://17alleedescerisiers.over-blog.com/

 J'aurais dû participer à l'expo mais pour des raisons d'organisation, ça n'a pas été possible...

Je vous mets quand même le croquis que j'avais commencé, pour le plaisir ! :)

I should have taken part to the show but it didn't work out, because of schedule problems... Anyway here is the sketch I had done for my piece! :)

 

A bientôt ! 

See you soon!

 

Christmas giveaway with Skinizi !

Ho ho ho !

Eh oui, dans une semaine c'est Noël...! Et pour fêter ça dignement, voici un petit concours de Noël, organisé avec nos amis de Skinizi, les fabriquants de stickers et coques pour iPhone, ordinateur portable, et autres tablettes numériques !

Christmas is just around the corner, and to celebrate, here is a little Christmas giveaway with our friends from Skinizi, who make stickers and cases for iPhones, laptops and other tablets !

Cette année, le concours sera pour les utilisateurs d'iPhones...

Trois coques pour iPhone sont à gagner parmi les modèles présentés en-dessous.

 Pour jouer c'est facile : laissez un message sur ce post de blog en me racontant en quelques lignes une anecdote vraie et drôle qui vous est arrivée. Faites-nous rire !

De plus, vous gagnez une chance supplémentaire si vous êtes inscrits sur ma page Facebook, et une autre si vous êtes incrits sur celle de Skinizi. Indiquez votre identifiant Facebook dans le message !

Les gagnants seront tirés au sort le 24 décembre parmi les participations.

N'oubliez pas d'indiquer votre adresse mail ou un autre moyen de vous joindre !

Pour les mineurs, assurez-vous que vos parents sont d'accord avant de participer. :)

This year the giveaway is for iPhone users...

We are giving away three iPhone protective cases as shown below.

How to enter: leave a comment on this blog note and tell us in a few lines a true funny story that happened to you. Make us laugh!

You will get an extra entry if you follow me on Facebook, and another if you follow Skinizi. Don't forget to leave your Facebook ID in the message!

Winners will be drawn at random on December 24th.

Don't forget to leave a contact email or another way to get in touch with you, in case you win!

 If you are a minor, make sure your parents are ok with you entering the giveaway. :)

Coques disponibles pour iPhone 5, 4, 4S, 3G et 3GS

Cases available for iPhone 5, 4, 4S, 3G and 3GS

Bonn chance !

Good luck!

EDIT
Les gagnants ont été tirés au sort et contactés par mail... Merci à tous d'avoir joué ! :D
Winners have been drawn and contacted by email... Thank you for participating everyone! :D 

The Flight - details

Quelques personnes m'ont demandé à voir des détails de "The Flight" - vos désirs sont des ordres ! :)

Blogger compresse un peu les images malheureusement donc la qualité n'est pas au top...

A couple of people expressed interest in seeing close-ups of "The Flight" so here we go! :)

Blogger compresses the pictures a little bit though so the quality is not optimal...

Nouveautés chez Skinizi !

Bonjour à tous !

Hello everyone !

Il y a du nouveau chez Skinizi... et ça tombe bien vu qu'il ne vous aura pas échappé que c'est bientôt Noël !

Skinizi has new lovely goodies available for you... good thing it's Christmas soon right?!

  

De jolies coques pour votre iPhone...!

Pretty hard cases for your iPhone...!

Et toujours plein de skins en tous genres pour votre iPad, votre iPad mini, votre ordinateur portable, votre téléphone...!  

And lots of skins for your iPad, your iPad mini, your laptop or your phone...!

D'ailleurs, une surprise de Noël se profile bientôt sur ce blog... A bientôt !

And a Christmas treat is coming on this blog... See you soon!

The flight

 

Vous aviez cru que j'avais disparu pour de bon cette fois-ci ? Pas du tout ! Me voilà de retour parmi les vivants !

Did you think I was gone for good? Absolutely not! I am back amongst the viving!

Pour ma défense, il s'est passé beaucoup de choses ces derniers mois. J'ai écrit ma thèse dans la douleur. J'ai soutenu ladite thèse (vous avez le droit de m'appeler Docteur maintenant !). Et puis pour couronner le tout, je suis partie m'installer sous d'autres cieux, pas franchement plus cléments...!

J'habite et je travaille désormais de l'autre côté du Channel. J'y ai trouvé un très chouette postdoc en lien avec mon travail de thèse, je suis donc très contente.

Bref, tout ça a demandé un peu de temps d'adaptation, de repos aussi...

J'ai enfin retrouvé le temps et l'envie de ressortir mes pinceaux (et puis il a fallu remplacer mon scanner, mort au champ d'honneur du Déménagement...). 

For what it's worth, a lot happened during the past few months. I wrote my PhD thesis. I defended (you can call me Doctor!). And because I like a challenge, I left France to see if the sun sometimes shines on the other side of the Channel...!

I found a postdoc position in the UK, connected to my PhD work, so I am very happy.

Long story short, all of this required some time to adjust and rest a bit...

I finally feel like (and have time for) drawing (although I've had to replace my scanner first - the poor thing died an honorable death durind the move...).

Et pour finir, une petite photo parce que c'est joli du côté de mon nouveau chez-moi...!

Last but not least, a little picture of my new city...!

Blog temporairement fermé :)

Bonjour à tous,

Le blog est temporairement fermé, car je dois rendre mon manuscrit de thèse dans quelques semaines et je n'ai ni le temps de dessiner ni de m'occuper du blog en ce moment.

Je vous donne rendez-vous mi-juillet pour la réouverture et le retour de la vengeance du pinceau abandonné. ;)

Des bises !

Hello everyone,

The blog is on a temporary hiatus, as I have to hand back my PhD thesis in a few weeks and I have no time for either drawing or managing the blog lately.

See you around mid-July for the reopening. The abandonned paintbrush will be back and take its revenge! ;)

Take care!