I made a new website

Hi,
This is Gemma talking to you, I just wanted to share this new phase in my creative life with you. I have build a new website for my freelance illustration career. You can visit it at gemmadriessen.com ! I am really proud of how the website turned out. It includes a blog where I'll share personal projects and tips on illustration. On the about page you can contact me if you want to commission some work, for example a portrait of your friend as a birthday present or a custom Christmas card or a pattern to use as a background on your own website or illustrations to go with an article you wrote. Please do not hesitate to contact me, I love talking with you guys!

spring favourites

First of all, spring is my favourite thing ever so the rest doesn't really count ;) But here are some things that are making me happy these day's:

- Erlend Øye - La Prima Estate
this song, and also its video, It's so happy, and come on look at the guy. (the rest of his music is kind of cool too). It's my favourite song this month
- spinvis
I am really diging the music of this artist, his lyrics are so weird but in a good way. He sings in Dutch though. But I'll translate one of my faforite quotes: 'sometimes when you are not looking the clock goes backward' The storys he tells are like surrealistic, which is my favourite art movement. Any way he is great.
- flowers and leaves
I tend to get insanely happy when the trees grow leaves again, every day when I ride on my bike to the campus I have a super wide grin on my face caused by all the pretty tree's and flowers I see on my way. Also blossom is about the most beautiful thing ever. Though the flowers in the picture are fake they have a similar effect on me so I keep them at my desk to cheer me up when I am frustrated with my math homework.
-Getting sunburns
eh, yeah though sunburns aren't really comfortable, I was more then ok with being able to get them. Last week me and Tim went for a hike and it was warm enough to wear just a dress, no tights no sweater just a dress, I wasn't wearing sunscreen so my shoulders were red at the end of the day. But I didn't mind, it was like a proof that summer is coming.
-There is a cat
that sometimes walks around our house and it's such a sweetie I really like petting it. When I was still living with my parent's we had a cat, and now I don't. So I am happy to have this one to cuddle with.

-Sewing
I had a 3 hour gap between lectures so I decided to make a pompom trim skirt. I really like making stuff, though sewing machines tend to make me go mad, somehow they're constantly having troubles with the thread getting knotted and stuff. I really like the skirt it's so happy. If you'd be interested I could do a tutorial, it doesn't require much more skill than knowing how to sew a straight line. Also I really like this book Surrur that Emma gave me, it's full of fun sewing projects using marimekko's bold fabrics. In the pic below you see a page of the book that inspired me to do a skirt (my original plan was pompom shorts).
-Our pretty little house
Being surrounded by pretty things makes me smile, and I love our house so much. I'd do a home tour if it wouldn't mean I had to clean every thing up :P. Me and my love are living there for 4 months now and everything is going great. I am so happy with him :)

What are your favourite things these days?
-Gemma

DIY electric tape wall art

When I saw this image I was sold, I had to have a 3d cube wall art thing. So I made one, this is one of the things I love about having my own home, I can decorate everything the way I like it :). Please excuse the mess, I am trying to keep it real here (or I'm just lazy... hehe). Now lets have a look at how to do it:
1. you'll need a design you like and some electric tape.
2. you can draw your design on the wall or project it or just imagine it.
3. take your tape and put it on.
If I'd do this again I would pay attention to the placing, mine is not centred which bothers me a lot. The tape is available in any color, but I liked black. I think you can do this with any type of tape, though I didn't try it. This is really simple, but has a great effect. I love how you can see the cube in two ways, try to look at the two squares in the left bottom corner and the right upper corner and try to see them as the front plane of the cube. Isn't that cool. It holds up pretty great and it's totally removable. I think it's great and I hope you do to!
-Gemma

my painting a day project

Some time ago I finished this sketchbook. To be very honest with you, this was the first time in my life I filled an entire book, I tend to stop and start over again all the time somehow. I painted a little thing each evening just before going to bed for a little over 2 months (maybe not every single night hehe) If you follow me on instagram you  have probably already seen some of these. I also wrote a post with tips on art journaling that featured some of my drawings from this book. I hope you'll have a look and please tell me if you like them, and which one is your favorite! Mine is the left one at 0:40 or maybe the more abstract one at 1:22...

ps. does anyone have a good suggestion for free video editing software for windows 8? I wanted to add some music but it didn't work out so well...
-Gemma