Waves of inspiration

While our levels of procrastination are reaching new heights for the work we should actually be doing, creatively things seem to go just fine. Whether or not we have our priorities straight is up for debate, but at least the output is promising.
Today I received the Moleskine! Yay! And my anticipation had not been in vain:

What better combination is there than to be inspired by Katsushika Hokusai and a rubber ducky? None, I would say. What the rubber ducky is up to is still a hot topic between my colleagues, but who knows, we might get the answer soon.... ;)
Now the ball is in my court again and I better do my best. I might even drop my research...or would that be taking things too far?

Pigs and squids

... was the first hint that I got since Bart started to work on his illustration. Sometime later I got another clue: a detail of his drawing along with a diminute photograph of the entire draft. Next time I heard from the Moleskine we thought it got lost somewhere in the world. It took it exactly one month to cross the ocean, just like in the old times. Finally, a week ago, this envelope was waiting at my door...

... and inside, this amazing illustration !!!...

I tried to take several pictures of the painting but unfortunately none of them is good enough. I need to find a scanner soon!! In the meantime, this is the most decent picture that I saved.

After seeing this wonderful drawing I got really excited about our future illustrations! Almost two years since my dear friend sent me the Moleskine. Now the first round is over. Pretty promising for a couple of PhD students who became experts in the art of procastination... ;)

Being mean

Now I know I should not do this, but I can't resist.
After a long period of painting-drought I finally had the time (or "I stopped procrastinating") to make some progress on my part of the Moleskine deal. To be honest I feel bad about being so slow, which also motivates this premature post.
Most of the solid colors have been put down with just a couple of decisions left to make. Then it's shadows and detailing before I can ship it to the other side of the ocean.
Just to tease all of our thousands of loyal followers - and yes, I do count the voices in my head - I provide you with a sneak preview of a minor detail of the sketch, including a full albeit somewhat small image of the full-color painting at the bottom right. Can you figure out what's going on? Enjoy. ;)

The full picture

As promised I scanned the picture. So now you can see it in its full glory. Enjoy. :)

And we're off...

What does it take to turn a bad day into a good one? Not much apparently. Coming home after a long and frustrating day I found a lovely package in my mailbox.

Now how cute is that. :) I love receiving cards and packages anyway, but since I had a sneaking suspicion what the contents would be I gracefully hopped up the stairs (yeah, right) and before even thinking about my food I carefully opened the envelope. I was right!! Our shared Moleskine arrived.

Now I know that Sil warned me not to have "big expectations", but when was the last time that I listened to her. :) And I was right!!

My first reaction was "WOW", followed by a "how the hell am I going to follow up on this?". I will try to make a better picture one of these days, because this just does not do it justice. It's lovely. Sure, she will find excuses and tell me it's nothing special, but I LOVE it.
Now how am I going to continue this? I have some ideas already and they are different from what I thought I would do. But let's see how things work out. A good day after all. :)