The Blogger

My “Blogger” illustration is now available in my Society6 shop.

She can be purchased as an art print or on various cute little objects such as pillows, iPad skins, tote bags, etc.

I had originally illustrated her when I was living in New York, 2 years ago. I wasn’t blogging very frequently (It was my first time in New York, you see, and there was so much to do!), but I was drawing a lot, all the time and everywhere!

One of my best friends from there loved this illustration and she would always mention it in our emails and chats. I had forgotten about it for a while until this morning. For some reason, I woke up thinking about it! It took me a while to find it among my several back up folders, but here it is! :0) Looking at it makes me happy. It brings back a lot of good memories.

See it in my shop here.

Lots of love,

From the White Horse, with Love

“From the White Horse, with Love” is a short fiction zine self-published by two friends of mine from New York: Richard Keeshan and the super talented Danielle Blumstein, my roommate when I lived in the East Village.

I did all the illustrations.

The stories are great and the project is very, very cool. I love working on collaborations like this. Always a pleasure.

If anyone is interested, I have a few issues to give away. Message me here and I’ll get in touch!

Lots of Love from Deutschland.

♥♥♥

I was dancing when I was twelve

Some time ago I was commissioned to create illustrations for LA-based children fashion label Kidzmoon. I was asked to develop six illustrations for their new collection.

It was such a fun and delightful project, one of the best I have ever done. Here are the characters and designs I produced and their initial sketches:

The Rio Chick

The Tokyo Boy

Lisbon Lady

New Yorker

The Italian

The Brit

There are still tons of potential characters and designs to be created, so I have the feeling that this will be an ongoing project. The Kidzmoon team is wonderful and the illustrators working on the other collections are a truly talented bunch!

Here are some t-shirt samples:

The Kidzmoon Stand at the ENK Children’s Club in New York:

  I love the panels of my Tokyo Boy and Italian Girl on the left hand side. CUTE!

And some gorgeous models. :0)

This was a happy project. I’m very proud of how everything turned out and can’t wait to draw more!

Lots of love from Switzerland.

♥♥♥

Swisstagram

A little bit of my life in Switzerland, as seen through my cell phone.

Yes, I admit it, I am absolutely in love with Instagram. It’s an addiction.

I’ve been going through a meticulous process of finding interesting artists to follow and it’s amazing to get a glimpse of their work processes and understand a little bit of how their minds work. The other day I actually came to the conclusion that some of the best feeds I’ve seen are from Thailand. I can’t explain why. Just beautiful illustrations and stunning photography. Not your usual Instagram-type pictures, if you know what I mean. While I definitely don’t mind those, I think Instagram is not just about seeing what my friends are up to (to be honest, I don’t really care what they’re eating or wearing), it can also be a very good tool for finding great references and inspiration.

If you want to follow me, you can find me @joanafaria.

Lots of love from Basel.

♥♥♥

Things I love the most about New York: Brooklyn

I don’t mean the whole of Brooklyn though. This post is specifically about Williamsburg, which I loved so very much.

In Williamsburg there is amazing street art everywhere you look:

 I’m a HUGE fan of street art so this, for me, is pure heaven!

If you’re lucky, you will run across one of these mobile art galleries parked in the middle of Bedford Avenue:

Williamsburg has amazing shops for all things vintage (Beacon’s Closet springs to mind), funky and creative. It’s kind of like Portobelo Road in London, but different, if you know what I mean. (Maybe that only makes sense to me, but there you have it.)

In Williamsburg, you can find anything from the fun and quirky:

To the amazing:

Williamsburg also has some great bars, cafes and restaurants.

I didn’t manage to visit every single one of them, that would be impossible, but I particularly loved Juliette’s, Marlow & Sons and The Union Pool. – This last one is great for live gigs! I definitely recommend it.

 Old friends catching up at the Union Pool. :)

And the view, of course. How could I forget? Williamsburg has some of the best views of Manhattan.

If I ever moved to New York for good (one can hope, of course), I would definitely be torn between Williamsburg in Brooklyn or the West Village in Manhattan. Both areas are delightful, charming and oh, so cute.

And that’s it for Williamsburg, folks.

I still have tons of material on Brooklyn (DUMBO, the Brooklyn bridge, etc), but that will come later.

I may be back in Europe already, but my heart is still in New York. I miss it so much! New York surpassed every single expectation I had. The few months I lived over there were absolutely incredible and not nearly enough to satisfy my cravings and curiosity. It’s not like London, it’s not like Paris it’s not like Sydney and it’s not like São Paulo. It’s completely different and familiar at the same time. New York is not an imitation of anything. It’s completely unique. Everyone should go at some point. Definitely!

Lots of love.

♥♥♥