Poster Prints Available

"From Dust" is still available for those interested in ordering her as an A1 sized poster-print. 

From now on all my images can be made available on this size as special canvas prints - a great new development for shows and exhibitions internationally, as they can be rolled up and posted in a tube, then unrolled on location.

For artists interested in ordering their own prints, my other-half is now able to produce large-scale prints in our printing studio, so inquiries and orders are welcome.

A bit of a size.comparison - "From Dust" printed on A1 scale VS me

"The Dead Reef" on exhibit in Central London as a hanging print.

Magenta and Teal

Here is a colour-coded post today with some of my recent arty projects.

Silk fabric printed with my watercolour illustrations

vintage plate with my "mousetoinette" illustration

Framed prints and canvases in my shop

My new inspirations blog: www.thelonglostwoods.tumblr.com

Crazy Cat Lady at 26

A new illustration for a written rant my good friend Sasanki wrote  about deciding to become a crazy cat lady at 26. Her piece is in the process of being published for a way awesome magazine - if all goes well my picture will be accompanying her writing.

Stay tuned for my screaming glee if we are published together. Fingers crossed!

Perfume and Rouge

A couple of the touched-up illustrations for the fashion and product sections of my new illustration portfolio...

King Matty Collage

With the new illustration-site up, I tried to collect the few decent scans I had from the extensive illustration project I worked on last year (60+ paintings illustrating the folktales of Hungary and Transylvania). Sadly, the photographs I took to document each new piece were terrible quality, and without the originals physically with me I had to cull almost all of the works as inferior quality to showcase on the website.

We did manage to save a few, and my adventure-man did his best with photoshop to get them looking clean and professional. Here is one example - and the link to the portfolio: book illustration

King Matty the first - written by Janusz Korczak, illustrated by Monika V. Diak

Illustration Website Launch

I am very proud to be able to present the first version of my new illustration-portfolio!

It's very basic, but we made the entire site ourselves (A HUGE shout-out to my adventure-man, without his immense help this site would be nothing more than a pile of sketches scattered around my studio.) We hope that it is simple and straightforward to navigate, giving a brief overview of how amazing the site could be with heaps more commissions, collaborations and awesome illustration projects to showcase - so please, take a look, give us your tips and feedback - and PASS IT ON!!

without further ado (drumroll....) I present...

 www.monikadiak.com

www.monikadiak.com

Stop-Motion Portrait

My adventure-man and I put together a short stop-motion clip of a small portrait I painted in watercolours for the "about" page on my new illustration portfolio. 

It's the first time we've made something like this, and we'd love to get some feedback. We've had a couple of tips already, (like placing the camera on my left side) which we'll have to do a bit of studio re-arranging to accommodate, but all good ideas! (we won't be able to do a birds-eye-view one because as you'll see in the clip, I practically lie all over my drawing as I work, so a continuous stream of the back of my head might not be so interesting! hehe)

Later we made a "zoomed-in" version too, with different music (perhaps in some countries the old video cannot be played because of the track chosen to accompany it)

which do you like better?

Ali Miles Jewellery Collaboration

Monika Viktoria Illustration for ALi Miles Fine Jewellery

A series of bright jewels and gems I painted for the incredible Ali Miles Fine Jewellery - based in Sydney, Australia. Her new website has just launched, and it was my pleasure to be a part of it, creating this original watercolour painting of "Siren" wearing her gorgeous Silver and Gold  Mermaid rings, crusted in tiny Sapphires and Diamonds. 

I encourage you to visit her website for a peek at some beautiful, hand-crafted treasures. Keep your eye out for the project section, featuring my series of paintings here.

The beautiful Gold and Silver Mermaid rings that were the inspiration for "Siren"

It was my utmost pleasure to work on this exciting and wonderful project with Ali miles Fine Jewellery. For queries about commissions and collaborations, please drop me an email:

 monimano @ hotmail . com

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Pastel Gems

Some more images from the collaborative project I've worked on these past few weeks. Gemstones painted in pastel washes of watercolour.

I never used to be the sort of girl that was entranced by glitter and gold... that is until I started work for a fine-jeweller a few years ago. The artist in me entranced by colours, and the nerd intrigued by what nature can do, fell under the spell of precious gems. Ever since I've been hoping to collaborate with a designer on illustrative and jewellery related projects.

Shop re-location

 

Like an amazing flea circus or one of those men selling stolen pocket-watches from the inside of a black cape, we ran into our shop yesterday morning, packed everything up, and relocated to a much nicer space before anyone could blink an eye.

Our new home is now Lot 448, (the basement, oooooh) Camden Stables, Chalk Farm Road.

So we didn't really move that far, but our new shop is slightly bigger, less flooded, and is next to an awesome cafe decked out in reclaimed vintage furniture, lampshades, pictures covering every inch of their walls. And the irresistible aroma of coffee and sandwiches being made.

Shop Update

With the little Shopette in London open for a few days now, all our energies have been directed at getting it nice and stocked up, filled with beautiful art. So far we have a selection of canvas prints, framed artworks, originals, postcards, stickers and magnets, as well as a budding line of necklaces and pendants - all featuring my illustrations.

But that's no fun if you're not in London, huh? I got the bulk amount of canvas prints on offer up in my ETSY shop too - so go and take a peep if there's something you like! For all my followers, if there's a particular illustration of mine you'd like as a print, but don't see it in the shop, send me a convo through etsy and I'd be happy to print special requests :-) That's my little treat for you!

Now I think I've managed to keep prices pretty low for Christmas, but for every order of more than two prints I'll add little treats and presents. Sound yummy? Go on, take a look!