Hari ini channel YouTube-ku kembali hidup dengan diunggahnya video baru. Kali ini video untuk bisa ikutan seleksi relawan untuk program #IDWomen4Energy oleh Kopernik Indonesia. Karena cuma boleh satu menit, tidak banyak yang bisa kukatakan. Semoga kalian menyukainya dan bersedia memberikan like/comment dan membagikan video ini kepada teman-teman kalian yang mungkin bisa bantu like/comment juga. Kalau kalian tertarik mengikuti seleksi ini, pendaftaran masih dibuka hingga tanggal 23 Juni 2016, yaitu besok. Kalian bisa baca kriteria dan peraturannya di sini.
Today my YouTube channel is once again alive with a new video upload. This time it's a video entry for the #IDWomen4Energy volunteer selection programme by Kopernik Indonesia. It offers the chance for three lucky winners to go to Flores, West Nusa Tenggara, to meet the inspirational women who are working hard to bring sustainable energy resources to rural areas. The volunteers' task is to record the process and spread the word to as many people as possible, raising awareness on the subject. The video is fully in Bahasa but—don't worry—I've also provided English subtitles for those of you who don't speak the language but want to watch it. Please support my chances by liking or sharing the video. Your support will be much appreciated.
Ah, Ramadan is finally here! It is time to cut back on our consumption and cleanse our heart from hate and judgment. I'm sorry that I'm posting this at night and a day later than usual, but I have been super swamped the past few weeks that I hadn't had the chance to roam the kitchen in a while. In fact, this is a very lazy recipe idea—as opposed to an actual recipe. Since it's Ramadan, I thought it would be nice to try out something with dates—although, as you may recall, I don't really enjoy them. A couple weeks ago, my parents came back from grocery shopping with this strange liquid in a jar. When I looked at the label, it turns out to be date syrup, which I'd never known existed before. As it looks similar to maple syrup, I thought I'd use it for pancakes, so here it is. The recipe will only be a quick recipe of a regular pancake—cooked american-style—that you can practically find anywhere, really. Nevertheless, I hope you at least enjoy the idea and will try it out at home yourself.
In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients
Make a well in the centre and pour in the wet ingredients
Mix with a whisk until smooth
Heat a lightly oiled/buttered frying pan over medium high heat
Pour 1/4 cup of the batter onto the pan for each pancake
Let it sit on the pan until you see bubbles on the surface and flip
Let it sit for a while until it browns
Stack them all up
Plop a stick of butter on top and pour with date syrup
Dig in!
Tips: Let all the ingredients sit at room temperature before you start mixing them all together, especially the egg and milk. When cooking the pancake, make sure you use a bended spatula—not a wooden one—to make it easier to flip. Date syrup is thicker than maple, so if you don't like the consistency, you may add a little bit of water. If you're fasting, I would recommend devouring this for iftar, not suhoor. If you're not fasting, this might be the perfect choice for breakfast or brunch, especially with a freshly squeezed glass of OJ. Adding berries or citrus might also be a good idea. Obviously, if there is a pancake recipe you like better, feel free to use that one then add date syrup on top. Lass es euch schmecken!
Well, hello there, art friends! How are you doing? Hope you're well 'cause I've got some great news: it's time for another edition of Illustrators Arise! Woohoo! In case you're unfamiliar with it, it is where I introduce my favourite illustrators from all over the world every month through an interview so you guys can read along and get to know them too. The Indonesian feature continues with a quirky illustrator, who has an apt for mixing bold colours. Please welcome, Isa Indra Permana! It was through instagram that I first found his work. His playful and surreal illustrations stuck to my mind ever since. His witty, out-of-the-box ideas are really easy to love. When he's bored, this friendly and generous-with-the-smiles illustrator likes to try out recipes from Youtube.
Hello there, Isa! Let's start with how you started drawing and what led you to become an illustrator!
Hello, Bivi! I started drawing in the 3rd grade and continued on until I graduated from uni. What makes me become an illustrator is the love for storytelling and has become part of a hobby passed on from my uncle (haha).
Oh, you studied Illustration at Universitas Sebelas Maret, right? What did you learn there aside from art? Would you recommend art schools to other people?
Yes, that's right. I went to Universitas Sebelas Maret. Aside from art, I learn how to create a concept and communicate ideas and designs as a solution to public issues.
What kind of materials do you usually use?
Drawing pen for sketchbooks & wacom for digital work.
You have a very distinct, comical style with the use of vibrant, contrasting colours and detailed elements. What's the story behind its development? All the influence that affects my style and colour palette comes from various fairy tale books, films, even music. The choice of bold and bright colours, aside to attract attention, is also to deliver a cheerful atmosphere and positive energy. Meanwhile, exploring the element's details, I think it's the very enjoyable part. Sometimes it is from there arise unique ideas.
I found a couple redesign/re-illustrations on your portfolio. What inspires you to do this and what are you planning to redesign in the future?
The reason for redesigning/re-illustration is as a form of appreciation towards works which I admire. In the future, I hope to be able to collaborate to create a project with the artists.
There seems to be occasional themes going on in your sketchbook (such as Desire and Flavour). Is this deliberate? What is the story behind it?
Oh, yeah, that is deliberate, actually. So, every sketchbook has thematic drawings every 6 months. The purpose is to train myself to be consistent and so that they can be organised according to theme. The theme that I usually pick for the sketchbook mostly have something to do with daily life or music.
You seem to do a lot of collaborations with other artist, from album covers, helmet designs to editorials. How do these collaborations usually start? What is the highlight of the process?
When it comes to collaboration with artists, I usually do them with friends from social media. Either I would initiate it or they would. Now, if it's a commercial collaboration, that's different. Usually I receive offers to collaborate for a brand or band through email but the process is basically the same. First, we create a topic/concept together, then we move on to sketching. After the execution, well, the rest is simply to respond to the work in turns. The highlight, huh? It's fun to gain new knowledge, from learning about character/style or how they process in a collaboration.
Aside from illustration, typography seems to be another of your strong suit. Where do you usually find inspiration for your typeface art?
Haha! Well, generally reference comes from Instagram or Pinterest.
What does the future look like for Isa Indra Permana?
Having an illustration studio with a small team and opening a mini library on the side.
What kind of wisdom would you impart on all the newbie illustrators out there?
Follow your passion, always hungry to get better and share your knowledge frequently.
A little note from me
The first thing anyone would probably notice from Isa's artwork is the surrealism of it. He has an apt for bending reality and turning it into an alternate universe entirely. His use of bold colours and sharp, strong lines really accentuate the dreamlike quality of his work. It is a wonder how he uses so many prominent colours and yet still manage to match them well with one another. I love how his art transports me to a completely different world, with the adorable little details, which bends the general rule of the norm. Everything he makes just seems to be so quirky, that it makes you feel okay to be weird and different and downright strange. I also love the contradicting quality of his illustrations: childlike and complex. His is definitely the works I'd love to see more of in the future.
Ah, the arrival of a new month! June is dripping with the promise of freedom, peace and sunshine—although it's been raining quite a lot lately—and I cannot wait to get to the other side of the tunnel. This past couple weeks have been quite hectic since it's getting closer to final week—which just means deadlines in my line of work. I've been scrambling to balance work and school and getting everything done as soon as possible. The fear is real, but so is the excitement. I have no idea why I still blog at such a hectic time. But the other day my sister and I had a bit of time off and decided to grab lunch together. It was a chance for me to snap some outfit shots, with the help of my beautiful sister. We talked for so long, about a lot of things that only sisters will understand. Ah, tomorrow is the start of Ramadan. I'm somewhere between giddy and nervous, it's nerve-wracking. Early this morning, we went out to visit Mom's grave. It's been a while and she's lovely as always.
Speaking of which, I've decided to share with you my livejournal diary. Lately, I've been having random thoughts about various subjects which I don't think would be in keeping with this blog's theme. And, although I haven't had the time to put some of them down into words yet, I'd like to start sharing my thoughts in my online diary. You can already read past rants, stories and other musings there. Oh, it's also the blog I use to post story entries for competitions and such, as I just love short story competitions. Some of the posts are in Indonesian, mind you, but if you like, you can take a peek. It's very, very private, though, so if you do leave a comment there, please handle with care. Also, please bear with the adolescent posts of rants and veiled melancholia from my teenage years. I know they can be a little too much, but just...bear with me.
Holidaaaay! Oh my God, I just can't wait to be free of schoolwork and classes anymore! We—my class—are currently facing finals and we've been buried with project after project. That is besides my actual job which has been more time-consuming than I originally thought. But it's earning me some money so I can't really complain. Maybe I should really blog less—although it really hasn't messed with my schedules much. Also, Ramadan will be starting soon and I am a bit nervous and excited about it. Sadly, we won't be visiting the grandparents this year but, hopefully, that means I can explore the city more. Yaay!
Currently reading...
Rotkäppchen muss weinen by Beate Teresa Hanika. This is the first ever German novel that I bought and I was instantly entranced by the cover and the title. They suggest quite simply of the loss of innocence and a bittersweet summer day. This book was actually bought in 2011, shortly after my arrival in Germany. Back then, however, my German wasn't so good so it took quite an effort to read this book and it felt more like work than pleasure. For years I've been trying to start over and over but failed for one and other reasons. Finally, this month I managed to finished this book in...a week? It's an absolutely beautiful read and I'm glad I bought it. It jogged in me a desire to read other German books.
The Pickup by Nadine Gordimer. Just as promised, here's my little review on this book here. It tells the story of a South African woman who met a man from another country—possibly somewhere in the Middle East—who has been staying in her country illegally for a while. The way it is told is absolutely unique, in which neither the hero nor the heroine seem significant for the story—as if they can be easily replaced by another white SA woman and a Middle Eastern man. The story is also told in an almost detached way, as though the story is told for the sake of telling the story. Also, absolutely love the note it ended with. No wonder Nadine Gordimer won a Nobel Prize.
Currently watching...
Community Channel. If you like everyday comedy and witty thoughts, this is the channel for you. Nat is absolutely hilarious and I cannot believe it took me this long to find her. It's very rare to find Australian vloggers for me—or maybe I'm just not trying hard enough, like that time I say it's hard to find Australian books. Her witty thoughts turn everyday scenes into laughable sitcoms and I actually hurt my face from all the laughing. The best part is, these are everyday scenes that I can absolutely relate to—although some of them are a little too far off for me.
Thinking about...
Starting a webcomic. Man, this section just seems like the all-talk-no-action section, where I share with you something or other that I've been meaning to do but never happened. Right now, I know this one is a little unrealistic since I have tons of other stuff to make before I can even think about starting a webcomic. Plus, my current schedule doesn't allow me to have free time to be consistent with posting a chapter for a webcomic regularly. But I've been trying to refine some old stories I have—I've got to finish the, uhh, badges for each story to remind myself of what I've written (in my head) so far—and trying to finish them all concretely. Wouldn't it be nice to have my stories legitimised and concrete after all these years?
