You are free. 6 hrs agoYou are free. 6 hrs agoMotivation vs. Intimidation | August 10th, 2010
So I’ve uploaded most of the stuff I was going to this week- mostly new illustrations and drawings though, which I still need to update and add descriptions and stuff (something which I’m going to do right after this…or maybe tomorrow)! I’m working on adding photos but I have LOTS to go through, so it’s taking a while! I also have to upload all that ‘free stuff’ I promised – though I have to say, they’re not very exciting unless you’re talking about the Photoshop brushes/patterns I made a while ago.
I’m kind of sad though, because I’ve lost some original fireworks and ai files which contained the original illustrations due to me losing my USB, so I can’t make some images bigger than they already are! 
I was also going through some old folders with some really old drawings in them, and it brought me back….waaayy back….to the Paint Shop Pro days. The days when I used to use rasters to draw instead of vectors because I didn’t know any better. It was quite cool though, and very nostalgic.
I found this old sketch which I drew when I was like, 12 or something, and because it was the first drawing I tried to make digital I thought it was funny it was still there on my hard drive. Funny story behind that too: I scanned it in the computer to try make it into a digital drawing but found out I actually couldn’t figure much stuff out after messing around a bit in Photoshop. So I signed up to some random Photoshop enthusiasts forum and posted my image and a question to see if any pro artists could give me a few tips on how to go about making it into a digital drawing and colouring it in and such.
I suppose my drawing must’ve looked extremely juvenile (it was an A4 sketch of a fantasy-type character holding a sword…I was very much into fantasy back then and still am!) because pretty much EVERYONE on the board laughed at me and told me not to bother- except for this one kind gentleman who took me through a few steps and how to use the basic tools in Photoshop and the best way to colour it in. I suppose the most important thing was, he was the first person that actually encouraged me to try doing something about me wanting to turn my drawing digital…instead of trolling me off the internet (which wasn’t hard back then because it was all dial up)! I can still remember that to this day and that has definitely taught me the importance of encouragement and motivation instead of intimidation.
I look at other people’s illustrations and artworks now and still get really intimidated about how I’ll probably never be as good as them. In fact, today I was just looking at this woman’s work, and they’re pretty amazing. I’m actually pretty jealous of anyone who can draw people, because drawing people are my worst nightmare.
I guess the only way to get better is to keep chipping away at that rock, and now that I have gotten back into all this, I am going to try get a million times better by this time next year!
I’m also using a new monitor today!! Well I got it about a week or a bit ago but I just got the cable to hook it up to my Macbook today. And it’s AMAZING. I’ve never had a monitor this big in my entire LIFE. And it’s all pretty much thanks to Cam. <3 I can draw stuff on a huge screen now!!! It is seriously the best thing ever.
I also rediscovered Fireworks!! I used to draw on Fireworks ages ago, before I realized Illustrator had a lot more features for print/web graphics, but the one thing that I really like about Fireworks is that the pen tool has a line coming from the cursor so you can angle paths better. I don’t know, I just think- why doesn’t Illustrator have that?! It’s so useful and makes things SO much easier! I know Fireworks is mostly for graphics/webpage integration but drawing on that thing is awesome. Maybe I’ll try using it again and see which program I like better. 
Inspiration wise, I had another weird dream last night. It was kind of inception like because it involved a lot of elevators and going up and down into different realms, but the annoying thing is, I can hardly even remember where I end up because I forgot it all before I was about to write it down. You know that feeling when you’re just on the brink of remembering something important? That happened to me today- with that dream- but it wouldn’t come back and it was disappointing 
Anyway I should probably go finish off an ad I need to do for dotdotdash and resize photos and stuff.
Goodnight internet!
Jakki posted @ 9:54 pm
Free stuff | August 7th, 2010
I spent the last few hours deleting old subdomains and going through my old files which were on Elusionerie, and I uncovered a whole load of free stuff. As in, stuff I had made for other people AGES ago, which are now sitting in deep multi leveled folders waiting for someone to use them.
They’re pretty old and totally nostalgic, but I will probably put them up later .. just because.
I also updated some dead links and in the process of compressing stuff so I can update the art on this site.
People might remember my new year’s resolution at the start of the year, saying how I was going to draw something every week. Well, I kinda have been doing that. Only thing is, I have to admit I did get lazy for a few weeks and drew incredibly scrappy drawings which are completely embarassing.
In order to make up for those weeks of creative apathy, I have decided I am going to post something new each week, either hand drawn or digitally drawn.
My visual diary still has quite a few pages to go- It’ll be a huge accomplishment if I do finish it by the end of the year!
Here’s something I drew quickly while I was on holiday recently (hence the off centre lines and such):
People always talk about how amazing it would be if robots could do housework- well what about machines that can produce floating cake?!
I’m surprised millionaires haven’t already started backing research into this.
Jakki posted @ 4:09 pm
Hallelujah! | August 6th, 2010
YES THERE’S A NEW LAYOUT!!
About time right?! I think I’m going to miss that old scrolly layout though. Just a bit. I feel like confetti should be going off right about now though. I remember saying at the start of the year I would update this more often, but its already August and … I’m finally getting around to it. Time goes by way too fast!
I wanted this site to be a bit more user friendly so I hope it GOD it works on other browsers. It should look fine on any resolution but I haven’t actually checked on the PC yet so I don’t really know what it looks like other than what it looks like now on my 13″ screen!
Oh well. I didn’t actually spend all that much time changing it up either- which is cool since it usually takes me a while to figure out what goes where and stuff. But I’ve done heaps of little things too…getting rid of old plugins and updating stuff, and changing images a bit.
The only thing I’m worried about is the header loading a bit slowly because it’s kind of a big file but I may change that later when I have more time.
I still don’t know what to do about the background. I think I might make it a tad bigger. And if you’re wondering what I’ve drawn is all about- I wanted to depict a mix of new and old symbols; the contrast between nature and civilization…and the enduring power of the horseshoe crab. Heehee.
I was going to change the image links because green on brown doesn’t really look that great but I was stuck for ideas and … well I think I’ll leave everything for now.
I listened to the same song on repeat while updating this site, and I’m really digging the song at the moment because it’s just the most beautiful song ever, but literally- two hours+ of the same song. It was definitely the tea and Conor Oberst that helped me finish this layout without leaving it half done overnight! 
Well now that I’ve accomplished my mission for the day, I might catch some zzz’s. I will update all the links and images very soon!! And add more new stuff. I have a whole load of things to add to this site, once I clear out elusionerie.com.
Hope you like the changes