Utopia - A solo show by Hara Katsiki

If you have the luck to be around Berlin don't miss out a visit to West Berlin Gallery. I'm proud to have my sister exhibiting her work there. Her first solo show!

After making her way to Berlin three years ago, Hara Katsiki won the Illustrative Young Illustrators Award in 2010. From drawing to costume design, fashion, graphic design, and music, Hara Katsiki lets her creativity pick the medium. Currently exploring illustration, Hara Katsiki will debut her latest work at her very first solo show on September 22, 2011 at West Berlin Gallery. Doors open at 18:00 and it goes until 22:00.

Through this exhibition, Hara Katsiki plans on giving us a sneak peak into the fantastically romantic inner world of her thought-dreams. Always keen to experiment, this daring artist transcends the boundaries of imagination. Using her dreams as the main source of inspiration, Katsiki was inclined to define/refine her work for this show by using three primary colors: black, white and gold. Hara is also using ink on paper and wood, creating abstract pieces reminiscent of what she describes as “nature’s unspoken beauty”.

New wundershoes!

This is the second pair of shoes I drew. It's been a while since I made those shoes for a friend of mine! I have previously posted the process of drawing a blank pair of shoes so if you want to make your own and need some tips, look for my post on the 13th of June. Good luck!

Digital Arts Magazine Masterclass Tutorial

Digital Arts magazine came across my first collaborative project with Stephen Chan and asked us to join our forces once again to create a new shared piece giving an insight to their readers of how we collaborate and work together.

Our process was published in the Masterclass tutorial section of the September 2010 issue.

To purchase online visit Digital Arts magazine. This piece is one more journey into the world of Fairytale Asylum (Wundercloud + Stephen Chan) where characters live, play and kill together!

Wundercloud at Digital Graphic Battle!

One month ago while I was visiting Berlin, I was invited to participate into a live digital graphics battle held between the West Berlin Gallery and Le Cafe Dune, Paris.

Participants from each gallery had 30 minutes to make an illustration from scratch, while the work and progress of both was projected on the wall, and also streamed live online! It was a sweet blessing knowing I had some people across the world following me live!

It was a very fun experience, not as stressful as I thought it would be - maybe I had relaxed a bit more after a couple of mojitos...!
The result and appreciation comes really from the faces, excitement and clapping of the people.

For more pictures and to see the illustrations that the other participants produced, you can have a look at West Berlin's Gallery Facebook page.

Sketch up your shoes!

My creative mission of the week is customising some new plain and cheap shoes I bought!

You will need:
1. a cheap pair of shoes (especially if you are not sure how they will turn out)
2. textile markers which are used to draw on fabric
3. iron
4. sketchpads or paper
and last but not least...
5. imagination!

I first made some drafts on paper and I started drawing onto the shoes after I felt confident that I knew approximately the design that I would do. After the drawing is complete, it only takes few minutes to iron them so that the color is sealed and they are machine washable.

And here you go... new custom wundercloud shoes!

Yesterday's Lasers

It was the end of a tough day working until late, when suddenly before I turn off my iMac I thought to load up the Photo Booth application for the first time and play around...Here are the results...unexpected and surreal! Shot with the Light Tunnel effects on and then I just did some color correction in Photoshop.

The crazy almost laser eye effect on the first picture is thanks to my huge glasses!

Campus Party Europe 14-18/04

Having survived the volcano ashes, here I am, back to Liverpool ready to share some of my experiences from the Campus Party Europe in Madrid - a party that is considered to be the biggest event in technology, creativity and digital culture online in the world!
800 people from different countries participate in this huge networking party and I had the honor to be invited and also to present some of my work.

I felt satisfied in every aspect I was expecting the party to have. I enjoyed the talks about creativity, design and innovation from some leading people and companies around the world like Paul Bennett from IDEO, Ben Hammersley, editor of Wired UK, Sebastian Sylwan from the production team behind the film AVATAR who gave an inspiring talk and shared some secrets of the making of of the film, and many more.

The talks were only one part of the event, since while walking around the lounge and watching some talks outside the creative area you could see and meet a variety of talented people involved in science, modding, development, blogging and robotics. A huge mixture of people that have worked for NASA, to new and young talented stars - a really good opportunity for social networking and exchanging ideas.

Outside the events I was overwhelmed by some installation art and interactive interfaces exhibited on the Future Campus Area. Two of my favorites were the "Dreaming Pillow" an interactive installation inviting users into dream-like sensations and "Earthwalk" - an installation based on Google Earth.

Here are are the people that represented our Greek community in the conference that were a pleasure to meet and see their work. Emmanuel Vantarakis, Panagiotis Alefragis, Georgina Malavazou, Konstantina Zoehrer, Vasilis Magoulas, Emmanuel Vohaitis, Panayotis Vryonis, Kyriaki Iatropouli

Many thanks to the excellent organisation, help and care for everybody, until we are all back home, safe and sound!