Coming Soon...

We have a exciting news!!! We are having a baby :) Our life is gonna change so much but I am so happy that even we gonna have hard times it will all be worth it... I wanted to announce this lovely news with an illustration. I thought it will be more interesting and fun way to make people surprise:)

Mr Recep (Recep Efendi) Enjoying His Turkish Tea and Chestnuts

This is an illustration that I worked on these last couple of days. I try to get inspired from the keywords that IllustrationFriday Website provides. This time the keyword was ''Steam'' so I thought I can use Turkish tea and the steam of the Turkish teapot. I wanted to create an authentic atmosphere which is mostly in Turkish rural areas' life style. The reason I chose an animal as a character was that I didn't illustrate animal as a character since my school time so this was a great opportunity for me and it makes it more cute. Also I think bears are wise and nice as a character to use in this kind of atmosphere. But just want to note that whenever I try to illustrate something related with Turkish culture it is tough to find good references, which takes more effort but in the end I always think it so worth to spend that much time in to it.

Self Portrait Day - November 1st

Last year one of my friend one of my illustrator friend told me I should join this Self Portrait Day which has a Facebook page. But at that time I couldn't find the time. But this time I finally manage to create the time and tried my best to try to give a traditional look. So it was a great way to experiment my brushes and use vibrant colors! This was so fun! Can't wait to see other artist's work.

Kiss

I painted this for illustration friday which gives different theme for every week. So I thought this will be a great way to challenge myself to design subjects that i didn't try before. This week's theme was ''Kiss'' and I wanted to design something which is a relation between a mom and a her baby. With these exercises I am also trying to achieve a traditional look with using different brushes. It is quite hard but I think I am starting to understand how it works... Anyway practice is the solution :)

Spring Has Come!

Finally Spring has come and I can go to park fall in love with nature again:) This is one of the moments in my life that I forget everything and feel the pure happiness and peacefulness! So can't wait to experience the summer and enjoy every single moment of the sunshine and nature :D I wanted to paint this moment so much and show how I felt last sunday...

My first book that I illustrated by Kaan Haktan Icel

Finally the book called ''Zaman Tursusu'' by Haktan Kaan Icel arrived! I worked on the illustrations for this cute amazing and adventures book for children (age: 8 or more). Its just so hard to explain how it feels to hold something that you worked for. I always wanted to experience this and wow it is totally one of the most satisfying thing to do in your life! Now it really feels real and gives me so much hope and motivation for my next projects! Thank you so much for giving this opportunity and choosing me to work on this book! (Timas Cocuk yayinlari (publisher) and the talented writer Haktan Kaan Icel)

Stylized Self-Portrait

I finally decided to do my own self portrait. But I really wanted to try a different style so I can experiment and challenge myself. I think normally its tougher to draw yourself because you always feel its not good enough or doesn't really look like yourself:) I did my best and I know that it is normal to struggle when you try something new. When you understand some techniques while you draw you feel so happy which drives me to try a new way :D So try to get out from your comfort zone when you feel your so comfortable with a style you have been using for a while ;)

She was my best friend...

This is another illustration that I did from one of my childhood memories. Between age of 2-7 I lived in USA because my dad had to work there in that time. I was just 2 years old when we moved to USA. Even I was very young I had some problems to make friends because I didn't know English. My mom said that in the first year of my school (I think it was kindergarden) I couldn't make friends. My mom told me once she visited the school and saw that I was playing by myself because when  I tried to go and play with others they said ''go away we don't want you play with us''. So I think it might effected me because my mom said I was always very courage and easy to talk with everyone even strangers:) After that incident I got a little shy. So I wanted to share one of my important memory with this illustration. I had this doll and I never left it in that time she was always with me even I didn't know English:)

My First Steps

I decided to illustrate couple of my childhood photos. So this is the first one which I am trying to learn how to walk :) I was scared but forcing myself anyways:) I learned so much from this illustration! This was the first time for me to design a baby character. I draw many sketches to capture the moment and the feeling of the baby.After that challenge I tried to use different brushes to give a natural look to the illustration and I found out that photoshop has many brushes for this which made me so happy! So every time I draw something I really learn and improve so much which is so exciting. I love this journey.

Portrait For A Friend

So this is another portrait work that I did for my friend. I enjoyed to paint this so much. Every time I do I portrait it has its own challenges which is a great thing. It means I am learning and improving much more every time I paint a different one. This was the first time I painted a portrait that includes facial expression (smiling ). Thats why this time it was different for me. First I struggled but in the end I figured it out. I will try different styles for portraits later so it can be another challenge for me.