I found this three cute picture books lying on the bookshelf while I was dusting. The books are some kind of a gift from my sister. Although they are in Italian, I’m not sure if Italy is the place where they came from. Maybe they came from Milan or Tokyo.
Anyway, these Piggy books are in Wibbly Pig series. The author is Mick Inkpen, who I have just found out that he’s also the artist of Kipper the dog, the cute animation I saw a lot in vcd shops.
Isn’t he so cute?
I bought this Hiroshige planner last year and waited with excitement to begin my new year of 2008 with it. In fact, it was quite unnecessary for me to have the planner as I already have a nice refillable leather organizer on my desk but I just can’t help it! This magneto planner comes with nice durable cover. I especially like the spacious layout inside which is divided into a week per page and inserted with Hiroshige’s woodblock prints.
Ando Hiroshige was a famous Japanese woodblock printing artist in the edo period I remember hearing his name in art history class long time ago and always mixed up with Hokusai, another famous artist in the same period. It seems to me that Hokusai’s The Great Wave is more well-known than Hiroshige’s works, which look more quiet compare with Hokusai’s s bold and striking images.
I like Hiroshige’s works and already bought an affordable art book of his published by Grange Books. The inserted print above maybe my favourite one. It’s called Suruga, Satta no Kaijo (the Sea Off Satta, Suruga) from the series Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji. This print looks most energetic and vibrant than others. I also like the quietness of the cover. It’s called Miho-no-Matsubara (Pine Grove of Miho) in the same series.
I know my bad handwriting is not worth putting on such nice piece of art but somehow I feel good to have my own small life written down beside the great illustration!
Another book cover done at the same time with the previous cover. This one is called Ku-chu Buranko. Sorry I cannot find its exact translation in English. The book is about different mental characteristics that become cases for Dr. Irabu, a cute little chubby psychologist to solve. Irabu has some characters himself. He likes to give vitamin shots to his patients and always find ways to cure his patients by experiencing the situations himself. And with the help of his sexy nurse, Mayumi, the couple makes a hilarious book.
The first chapter of the book is about a circus swinging and I hope I convey that sense on the cover to some level.
The name of the book is something like ‘Lucky, I didn’t love you.’ It’s one of the jobs I had done last year which has just been released. It’s a cover design for a Japanese Novel. The story is some sort of Asian Chic-lit, in which female protagonist has to go through hard times with bad men or at least boyfriends who don’t want to get married and eventually finds out that she can be happy by herself and goals in life are not limited with just the word ‘marriage’. The settings are in Tokyo and then Florence where our protagonist finds herself.
It took me some time to do this design. The concept is something hopeful and bright with a touch of romance. I intended to draw a real set in Florence but couldn’t find any photo that suited it so I just drew buildings from my imaginations based on what I gathered from the net and then scanned in. I enjoyed doing the scooter and the decorative frame just came out as I had expected.
I totally had so much fun with this work!
It had been hot and humid for some days before it rained the other day.
Normally I don’t complain much about climate. Especially here in Thailand where
you get no more than two kinds of weather, either hot or rainy. But it seems the
temperature is getting higher and higher and we wonder how high we will be able
to bear. I think it’s quite OK for us who are used to such hot climate. Think about
those in Europe or in cold countries! I heard there’s a lot of people die over there
because of high temperature each year.
Anyway, the weather here in Bangkok or at least around my place is quite good now with
sunshine and cool breeze. I am so glad I work at home!
