A Turkish girl in the Circus

Hi everyone! I have been working on two illustrations at the same time which helps me to have a break, look at the same work with fresh eyes and I can work on variety of works. This one will be one of the series of my nursery room wall art. I tried to show you my process while I am working on it. This is a challenge from instagram called #portfolioclub. It is the first theme of the month. I am behind of the schedule but I will be finishing this no matter what. I have been quite enjoying it because I love Turkish elements and combining it with something unsual like circus. Because circus is not related to Turkish Culture so I knew this theme will be interesting. Next I will decide on the characters and start to draw a rough sketch and a line work for the final illustration. I am still thinking should I work in traditional or digital. I might make a rough and a small size traditional one to see how it goes:) 

If you are interested about the materials, I used Copic Markers, PolyChromos Color Pencils, NeoColor Oil Pastels and Faber Castel Pencil.

I am very happy to share the behind the scenes of this illustration.Hope you enjoyed it and wish you have a lovely day... 

Charlie's Chocolate Factory-Scene 2

This is the second scene of Charlie's Chocolate Factory. After having their usual cabbage soup Charlie always went to his Grandparents' room and listen to their stories. One evening Charlie asked is the Chocolate Factory the biggest in the world and they start to talk about the mystery of this factory. This is the moment that I wanted to illustrate for the second scene of this story. I have been working for these piece for a while and it had some challenges which helped me to learn and find solutions. For example arranging all the characters in the right position so they can be clearly seen so I thought why not play with the perspective of the bed, since I like to break the rules a bit because for children there is no rules they just do what feels right to them and they push the boundries. So I am also trying to experiment with a child's mind.

I have realized that I love including details in the scene so people can notice different elements that tells more stories in one scene. For example the photos in the back and the newspaper are all related to Charlie and about the Chocolate factory. Those show how much they love their grandson and they are very excited about the factory as well. I wanted to make it believable scene that they have a background. Children love to read the stories over and over so why not put more stories through details so they can discover different elements in the illustration.

Hope you enjoy this painting as I did while I painted it. I also wish it will bring you happiness when you look at this painting. Have a lovely day my friends...

Good Night Sleep Tight

Hi everyone! For a while I really wanted to make some paintings that I can use traditional mediums. So I decided to create a sleeping animal series for parents to hang on their child's bedroom wall as a nursery wall art. For people who are wondering what I have used which are watercolor and color pencil also for the moon and stars I used White Posca Marker. I realized traditional tools have something so unique that gives you more control on being authentic with your work. It gives you that spontaneous effect on how the work will turn out. I like that surprising and experimenting feeling with raw materials. It was a fun experiment that made me feel like I am in a dream. It just felt so magical, warm, comfy and cute. I think these paintings can encourage children to sleep right?:))

I have made prints of these as well and I will be willing to sell originals (The fox is sold on the Art Festival recently but the other two is available as original work) and the print versions in my shop. Recently I have been working on my new website which will also include the shop but for now it is working in progress. I will definitely let you know when it will be working.

Hope you liked these cute sleeping animals! Have a lovely day and thank you for checking out my blog.

Mouses playing Traditional Turkish Music

This will be one of the animal nursery series that I will be illustrating. I thought including my Turkish background will give the chance to the world to notice and learn about our (Turkish) culture. Turkish culture is not very well known and it is hard to see illustrations about it.

In this illustration The horn is called ''Zurna'', the middle mouse is dancing which calls ''Halay'', and the third one is using a Turkish trumpet called ''Davul'' and using ''tokmak'' to hit the trumpet. I have searched and watched some videos about this music and the people who are using it. Usually they go to a house and take the bride from the house with the groom. Also they use it in other celebrations as well. Sometimes they just go to an empty green area with their car and just sing dance and play to have fun as well. So I wanted to show this perspective which was very fun :D

Wedding Invitation for my Lovely Friends

I worked on this for my lovely friends from Turkey but they live in New Zealand. They wanted me to illustrate their wedding invitation which made me so excited because Esra (bride) means so much to me for being a wonderful friend in my hard and good times. We become like sisters in a very short time in Auckland which I never had that kind of closeness in a quick way. Knowing them helped me to decide what to include in this design and it was fun to show their unique features.

Hope you both have a happy and peaceful life together my dear friends...

Charlie's Chocolate Factory_Scene 1

This is a scene from Charlie's Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. Every time when Charlie walks to school he stops by a sweet shop and stare with a hope to eat chocolate. He sees other children eating chocolate in front of him which is like a torture to him.
I wanted to capture this moment of him in a way that he is always hopeful and positive even he can't afford it. With a cosy and warm atmosphere and his way of look helped my approach. With so much cold in a winter day without a jacket he didn't complain but only hoped one day he can have some chocolate.

I am working on my children's book portfolio in this period of time and this is my first scene of this story. Hope you enjoy.

Welcome My Sweet Lara

If they asked me what is the deepest and unconditional love is, from my experience its between a child and a parent. This was the first time I held my daughter Lara after the birth and I felt all the emotions at once. I love capturing our moments together by illustrating, because it reminds me the sweet and important times in my life. I have matured and changed so much and understood that raising a child is very tough but also amazing at the same time. Thank you for coming to my life my love bug...

Moments with my daughter Lara-1

Hi everyone! So this is a piece that I have been working for a while. I have done a sketch while back and decided to finish it with painting in digital. This is my daughter's favorite book, since she was around 4 or 5 months I have been reading this children's book called ''Memo ve Ay''. Every time I read this she gets so excited and shows the most amazing smile to me. I wanted to capture this moment and share with you, hope you enjoy!

After having a baby as we know life changes so much. Especially in the beginning it was tough to find the time to draw again. But finally things are getting better and easier. So I decided to illustrate my working space. I want to warm up to drawing because its been a long time since I have painted something so I had a hard time to find something to start with. I always loved Fran Meneses's (illustrator) Youtube Channel and she always inspired me with her motivational speeches. She gave 30 ideas for illustration and I wanted to start with one that you draw your own work space. Actually this working space is not reflecting anything about my illustrations. I always wanted to make a better place like having a bigger table and illustrations on the wall, maybe shelfs that has some plants and small sculpture.... When I achieve the look of the work space I imagine I will paint that work space and share with you as well :)

After a long time I didn't expect to paint a nice one especially with a simple not attractive workspace:) Just need to continue to paint and keep the flow going... I really missed painting! Welcome to me as a illustrator mom :D

A Snowy Day

Finally finished this lovely illustration that I have been working on. I wanted to try out a different style so it was quite challenging to me but i learned a lot and I am happy about the result. I tried to give a paper cut effect which was very fun to me because it gives a natural traditional feeling. Because I want to escape the digital look so I think I am getting there every time I work on a different illustration. 

Also I want to say that i really feel so connected to my culture and I think we have so much things to learn from each other. Turkey has many treasures to be discovered. I realized this after my dad brought us to a cute hidden village. It was like a fairy tale place:) Its like the time has stopped there and they have these colorful creative clothes living in their beautiful designed houses. This place is in Milas (Turkey) and the name of the village is Comakdagi Kizilagac Koyu. If you have the chance to visit Turkey this place should be one of the place they you shouldn't miss. I love exploring different places and their unique culture. I also want to say that there is so much things that we don't know about our country and their people. Maybe thats why we feel so disconnected from each other. I love my people no matter the different lives (perspective) we have. I want to share my love and the beauty of my people with the world as much as possible. Maybe this way we can break those prejudices:) We need to show ourselves that we are more than the things people say about us or sometimes they just judge us very wrong. I want to be one of the people can effect on changing this perseption.