{Doodlers Anonymous Coloring Book}

Volume 3, that is.
I few months ago, I saw that Doodlers Anonymous had an open call for it's Coloring Book. I didn't know what I was going to make but I sure knew I wanted to submit something. After getting the longest art block of my life, I came up with something. Not the greatest thing but I submit it anyway. And so I waited and waited till they announced they were going to be mailing the ones who made it in 2 days.

Book cover and GIF by Doodlers Anonymous

Volume 3 of the Doodlers Anonymous coloring book features the doodles and drawings of 60 artists from around the globe - some fresh novices, others seasoned veterans, all of whom share a love for the hand-drawn.
The artwork is playful, beautiful and inspiring - not something off the shelf. So treat yourself, your family, and your faves to a little bit of happy!

I lost all hope of making it when, all of the sudden, I got a mail saying my drawing made it! 670 submissions and MINE made! Of course I started squeaking, giggling and whatnot like a moron but it's not everyday my so-called art make it somewhere.

Still can't get over this. First time something I made got into something so you can {and will} feel my excitement for a while. You can get the coloring book here as well as the past 2 volumes and some other goodies. 

2014 is just in a couple of hours so HAPPY NEW YEAR, MATES! {For those of you on the other side of the planet} I normally make resolutions but forget them in 2 days top so I'm not going to fool myself this year and just do what it seems right. See you next year!

{GR's 2013 Reading Challenge}

Ever since I joined Goodreads and {a year later} discovered the anual reading challenge I told myself I'll try to complete it every single year. So far I''ve succeed and this year was no exception. 

My book goal {25} was high than last year {20} but lower than the first year {40}. I ended up reading more book than I thought {no surprise there}. Some were amazing others, eh, not so much.

{From L to R}
1st row: 

• Enclave (Razorland #1) by Ann Aguirre
• Ninth Grade Slays (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #2) by Heather Brewer
• Eight Grade Bites (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #1) by Heather Brewer
• Twelfth Grade Kills (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #5) by Heather Brewer
• Tenth Grade Bleeds (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #3) by Heather Brewer
• Eleventh Grade Burns (The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod #4) by Heather Brewer

2nd row:

• Bitter Blood (The Morganville Vampires #13) by Rachel Caine
• Fall of Night (The Morganville Vampire #14) by Rachel Caine
• Daylighters (The Morganville Vampires #15) by Rachel Caine
• Gates of Paradise (Blue Blood #7) By Melissa de la Cruz
• Drink, Slay, Love by Sarah Beth Durst

3rd row:

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• Blood Prophecy (Drake Chronicles #6) by Alyxandra Harvey
• Blood Moon (Drake Chronicles #5) by Alyxandra Harvey
• Falling Under (Falling Under #1) by Gwen Hayes
• Epic Fail by Claire LaZebnik
• Unravel Me (Shatter Me #2) by Tahereh Mafi

4th row:

• Soul Bound (Blood Cover Vampire #7) by Mari Mancusi
• Blood Forever (Blood Coven Vampire #8) by Mari Mancusi
• Walking Disaster (Beautiful #2) by Jamie McGuire
• Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful #1) by Jamie McGuire
• The Indigo Spell (Bloodlines #3) by Richelle Mead
• The Fiery Heart (Bloodlines #4) by Richelle Mead

5th row:

• Vampire Academy* (Vampire Academy #1-6) by Richelle Mead
• Delirium (Delirium #1) by Lauren Oliver
• La Caída de la Publicidad  y el Aure de las RRPP by Al Ries
• Allegiant (Divergent #3) b Veronica Roth
• Immortal Hearts (Vampire Kisses #9) by Ellen Schreiber

6th row:

• Stealing Phoenix (Benedicts #2) by Joss Stirling
• Finding Sky (Benedicts #1) by Joss Stirling
• Seeing Crystal (Benedicts #3) by Joss Stirling

*Re-read the entire series

As for next year I hope I can keep up with this. I really glad they do this since it gives me motivation to read since I hate loosing challenges. 'Till next year mates.

♪♫ Midnight Memories by One Direction

{iPod}

In the time I spent in IL, I doodle a lot.
I tend to doodle "ads" of things that were happening, what I was eating, what I was doing at the moment and/or how I felt. One of them was from June, 20th. I was taking my break in the employee cafeteria, sitting alone, listening to music, minding my own business. You know, the usual.

This ended up on me doodling a series of iPods which ended up on an ad, like most of the thing seems to be ending up those days. I decided to make something out of it.

Foolin' by Devendra Banhart from What Will We Be

R U Mine? by Arctic Monkeys from AM

Island by The Whitest Boy Alive from Rules

Trying Your Luck by The Strokes from Is This It

♫ Hit the Road Jack by Ray Charles

{New Jersey VS Illinois}

2012 New Jersey me and 2013 Illinois me are not quite the same, but not quite different {appearance wise}. It's always fun to practice this new way of drawing I seem to be stuck with.

 ♫ Who's Gonna Save my Soul by Gnarls Barkley

{Illustration Course Chapter III}

Third and last week of the Illustration Course *feelings*
The last assignment was my favorite one. We had make a poster advertising a vintage looking bicycle. With my lack of mad skills for drawing people I had to go with my instinct. Didn't look as bad as I thought it would.

They liked it so yay! The teacher was making individual portraits for us but time is nobody's mistress so I have to go back on tuesday to get mine done. It was a fun/frustrating/creative progress this three last weekends but they were definitely worth it.

♪♫ Oh, Brother by Kacey Johansing

{Illustration Course Chapter II}

Second weekend of the Illustration Course.
For this one we had to illustrated an article about this band. I've never liked the group... I dislike them even more now. Drawing humans is not exactly my favorite thing in the world but it was a must for this assignment.

The next one is going to be a magazine cover. I. Am. Going. To. Die.

♪♫ I Want! I Want! by Walk the Moon

{Illustration Course Chapter I}

As good as I thought.

Last weekend I started my illustration course with talented Glenn Hilario who, not only graduated from my university but also graduated from Altos de Chavon and Parsons {my dream school} where he is currently teaching fashion illustration. In the three hours per day I've learned more about illustration and how to make a story out of it that I've learned in a number of my university classes, and that's saying a lot.

I'm not going to lie, on my first assignment I felt like my head was going to explode trying to find an idea for the article he gave us but I actually made something out of it and, surprisingly, he actually like it. A lot. I don't like people telling me things like that in front of a whole class but it felt fantastic.

The article we were making the illustration for was Otoño en cualquier tiempo.

Next class is Saturday and I have an assignment about portraits. This is going to be really interesting. Let's just hope I can come up with something decent.

♪♫ I Want! I Want! by Walk the Moon

{Stuff}

Yeah.
I think I finally found a way to draw objects so yay! I got this thing where I draw stuff I have laying around in my room that I like. Not that I don't like the stuff that is in my room. It's my room we are talking about.  As for my pen, I might need to get 5 more {or 10...}

{27ª Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales}

Last Friday I went to the 27ª Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales. As usual, a bunch of kids from some school where there. I listened to people talk about certain pieces in a... let's just say you don't want to hear those comments ever again, a guy who works at the museum saw my Batman shirt and started to talk about it and how he had "the whole batman outfit when I was 17", and my polaroid failing on me when I tried to take a photo of something and it turning out to be completely black. As for the pieces this year I'm not entirely sure what to think of them. Some I like, some I did not.

Sibylle Denis Touat "Metissage, Metizaje"

Colectivo La Banda de Frenos "Los Honorables"

Colectivo La Banda de Frenos "Los Honorables" (detalle)

Colectivo La Banda de Frenos "Los Honorables" (detalle)

Madeline Jiménez "Aviso Oportuno" (detalle)

As for the animations, I really like "Palos" by Tomás Pichardo"

MANNER - Big Fun from MANNER on Vimeo.
Really disappointed at how my photos turned out. I really need to get a camera. In the meantime I'll have to manage. 

{Bitácora del Capitán: Ride Night}

Last friday was Ride Night!
Even though I was supposed to end my working shift at 19.00, I ended up closing my unit at 20.15 *deep sigh* After cleaning and prepping everything for the next day, I finally finish everything and I was ready to go {21.30 or something} All in all, it was a pretty decent night with my pretty lady Natali!

Only one week left in Illinois! I'm going to miss so many people... but oh well.

{Hello, Illinois}

Hello mateys!
As many of you might not know, I'll be living Illinois for the next three months! All in all, it's been good. I've got the chance to go to the Art Institute of Chicago which was one of the best things ever and I'm looking foward to visit it again, alone this time. Not a lot of updates lately but I'll try to keep up with everything. One of the highlights of my second visit to Chicago: a candy red, cupcake van!

♪♫ You Don't Love Me by The Kooks

{Minilands}

I love miniatures. I really do but its kind of complicated when I try to make them myself. Ever since 2011 I think, I started making "wonderlands" in small crystal containers with the main object being mushrooms and woodland related things. There has always been something appealing for me about wood and moss, especially moss, that is just beautiful. Since I don't exactly live in a "mossy" area, I try to add little pieces of it to any space by making this uh... things or globes if you want to call them that.

I found the globes one time I was out with my dad and he suggested I should get them to do "something similar to the small mushroom things you do". After thinking about it I decided to get them. Guess they came in handy in my times of boredom.

As for this one, since my sister kept buying baby food for my new niece, I kept all the containers... and they were A LOT. Not that I'm complaining. I made a lamp out of this one but I had to redo it cause I was planning to sell it but didn't.

♪♫ Missing You by Green Day

{Forks}

You might have seen this somewhere else. I surely did.
A couple of years ago, I saw this really cool bracelet made out of a bended fork and I told myself I will do that someday. Guess that day arrived... 7 months ago. Yeah, yeah, I'm posting stuff I made 7 months ago but at least it's something. The hard part came when I had to find a fork that could bend enough for me to make a bracelet out of it. Luckily, I found it on my first search.

My brother had this really cool powder paint which stick on any metallic surface it touches and then, by taking the piece into the over, it will adhere to the piece leaving no runny/ brush marks/ etc behind. Pretty neat!

Materials:

• Cheap fork
• Pliers
• Paint

♪♫ Submarine by Ocean Lips

{Film Keychain}

One year ago, I had to take my first photography class. Since I had to use an analog camera I had to buy film. A lot of film. Don't get me wrong, I prefer how the photos turn out in analog photography over digital but spending 2-3 hours waiting for my film to develop in a quite far place is no cup of tea.

The first time I went to develop I asked the guy if it was ok for me to get  some of the empty canisters he had around. I was aiming for 2 or 3 but he ended up giving me 10 {pretty neat}. You can do a lot of things with empty canister but I settle for keychains.

Extremely easy to make and very eye catching if you ask me. Some people have gotten some of them. Oh so nice to know people like stuff you make.

♪♫ Riot Radio by The Dead 60s

{Detachable Collar}

Back to when I was getting ready to the longest 2 days of my university life {that time I participate in my university's bazar} among the things I made to sell, I tried to make some detachable collars. It was not a lot of fun after I made the third one but easy nevertheless. I made 6 different types:

If you want to make any of them, just follow the steps after the jump.

{Shicake}

Ever since I came up with my "oh so clever" {note the sarcasm} name back in 2008, I've been asked, quite a lot, what's the meaning of it. Well, by that time, I was really into sushi and cupcakes for no particular reason. I tried to merged the two of them and ended up with Sucup.Shicake. I kind of liked it but it was too long for my lazy fingers to write/type so I started going by Shicake. It's just the end of sushi and the end of cupcake as my header implies: "a blog fueled by sushi and cupcakes". Plus, I like the sound of it. {I'm still into sushi and cupcakes though}

The other day I was trying to draw something regarding the name. Only problem is how exactly do you relate sushi and cupcakes... it came up after 5 minutes of not-so-serious thinking. After some doodles on my sketchbook, a 4 hours nap and some tuna and crackers, I went to my computer and started painting.

The main point was to make a background for my twitter account that I could use freely without feeling guilty about using some weird image found on google. I made the banner and then started making the pattern that will be used as my background.

I kind of got bored after that so to explain my name a little better I made a sort of poster describing the Anatomy of Shicake. Pretty handy.

♪♫ Rome by Yeasayer

{Yokomo}

Yokomo is a sushi place from my country. Yokomo is from the phrase "Yo como which means "I eat"in Spanish. They change the c for the k to make it sounds more Japanese -ish. I've been ordering sushi from there for a really long time but, sadly, I've only been to the actual place once.

What makes it different from other sushi places is that it incorporates Dominican vibes to their menu. Just by reading the roll names {Rollito Play Be, Fuin Fuan Roll, Ñikiti Roll} you get the general idea but one of the things that caught my attention was the design. The palce is full of design. From the walls to the tables it has art plaster all over the place.

The other day, while I was waiting for my teacher to arrive, I started doodling and ended up doing something related to Yokomo. After scanning the drawing I didn't like how the colors turned out so I decided to make it a digital thing. 2 days later, I finally finished it!

Even though those 2 days felt like the longest days of my life, I'm actually proud of how it turned since  turning regular drawing into digital is not exactly my forte. Some of the shades makes me cringe but hey, at least it's something. I'll try to fix them some time.

♪♫ Welcome to Japan by The Strokes

{Inspiration: Jazz that Nobody Asked For by Benny Box}

I love shorts, especially animated shorts.
 In this week's Vimeo-staff-picks-sobbing-because-talented-people round, I ended up watching Jazz that Nobody asked for by Benny Box. 

Jazz that nobody asked for from Benny Box on Vimeo.

In the author's words, this is what the film is about:

Sometimes a song can get stuck in your mind. Become a little piece of unwanted music, that keeps looping for the rest of your day.

Neurologists claim that stuck  songs are like thoughts we're trying to suppress. The harder we try to think about them, the more we can't help it. The phenomenon is also known as earworms, and the ongoing 'dim di da da dum' causes a kind of brain itch you can't scratch.

Jazz that nobody asked for is an ode to all those unwanted songs out there, that have nowhere to go. The music that haunts this film, is the amazing swing jazz tune 'Quaker City Jazz' by the long forgotten 'Jan Savitt and his Top Hatters'. In 1937 they were the first jazz big band to feature an african american vocalist.

Oh those unwanted songs that just get stuck in your head... How I hate them. HATE THEM!
I personally love the jazz players and the expressions of the characters in the entire film {especially the animals and the nurse running away screaming with fire}

{Library Pictures}

Of the quickening canoe!

Months ago, I kept listening to Suck it and See by Arctic Monkeys on a daily basis. I ended up designing something out of the blue based on Library Pictures.

 Actually proud of that thing. I was going to print it on transfer paper to make a t-shirt but {a} I didn't have the time to go the print shop and {b} I was not going to spend money on that. Since I got an incredible urge to make something yesterday I said to myself "whatever, I'll paint it by hand". Got my paint out, cut out the stencil and started painting on the t-shirt.

 I was extremely nervous about painting on a white t-shirt since I tend to smudge paint over every single t-shirt I paint but since must of them are black it's not noticeable. It didn't turned out as bad as I expected so score! I might need to get more black paint and retouch the center banner.

Materials:

• White fabric paint
• Black fabric paint
• Plain white t-shirt
• Plastic sheet
• Tape
• Cutter

 ♪♫ Got the Life by Korn

{Samba Vexillographica}

Every time I listen to Devendra Banhart's Samba Vexillographica the line that goes "La bandera de California tiene 10 piernas rotas. Llenas de tus tiernas gotas que salen al revés, salen al revés" always gets stuck in my head. One day while I was at University the lines just popped in my head and I started doodling and this came out:

I'm always afraid to trace a scanned drawing digitally but this didn't turn out that bad. I'm planning on doing more like this in a not so near {or probably near} future if I finished the People + Me series which, by the way, I have more than a month with the second of the series. Oh, so lazy.

♪♫ Samba Vexillographica by Devendra Banhart

{Studs}

Last wednesday and thursday I was part of the bazar my University does every year. I'm not going to lie and say it was all fun and games cause it was not. At all. I ended up with a sore back, neck pain and so much anxiety I could fill up a stadium but it was my first time, I will learn.

As part of my merchandise, which consisted of bottle cap earrings, detachable collars, old film keychains, fork bracelets, my wonderlands and cupcakes from my kitchen mad science friend Pablo "Mazola", I made some little studs.

Cutting little pieces of cardboard and doodling on them was part of all my products. I will probably make a DIY of this so stay tuned.

NOTE: Anyone interested in buying any of them, living in DR, just let me know.

♪♫ Black Treacle by Arctic Monkeys