On/Off - new poem!

Well the purpose of this blog is to share, share art, geekyness and thoughts and opinions. Today I wanted to share a recent poem with you. I've also shared it on my book blog www.theliterarypirate.blogspot.com, but I thought I'd share it with my old and faithful followers here on Anita Night too!

Hope you find some pleasure in it!

On/Off

I can be charming like Cleopatra
brave like Joan of Arc
passionate like Marie Curie
and my smile can break your heart

And as if that was not enough
there are a million things you
still don't know about me..yes
I'm a tasty little cream puff
made up of all the right stuff

I can be artistic like Marie Antoinette
free like Amelia Earhart
dedicated like Florence Nightingale
my personality is state of the art

Oh, and did I mention my
consuming mental illness?
I'm sorry dear was that too much
forget my indiscretion we wouldn't
want you to get the wrong impression...

(c) Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk


Until next time,
Anita K. Olsen Stoebakk

Way

Sometimes I write poetry. It's sort of a venting mechanism and an outlet for my creativity when I don't have time to draw. Sometimes my poems are about true things, about myself and my mind and my heart. Some times they are just stories or exaggerated emotions. No matter how they are written or what the current topic may be it's always very personal. Sometimes they come together in the space of five minutes, the words just fall into place. Other times it can take days or weeks before it starts to sound right.

This poem I just jotted down because I needed to. The words were just there today driven out on paper because of all the strains my family and I have been through this year. It's just been a bit rough as of late. One bad thing happening after the other and my frustration and sadness needed to find a way out. Anyway here is my latest poem.


Way

Why is it always so hard,
When happy news knocks on the door,
bad news comes around like a bad second guest.
Nice gestures are rewarded with nothing but a sour aftertaste as something
bitter is thrown your way.

I paint a happy smile on every day,
I keep hoping that I’ll be able to put on a real one someday.
When my troubles, my trials seem like nothing,
and things finally start going my way.

The black eyeliner smudging at the corners of my eyes,
herald the on-coming trickle of tears.
I hide them well in the darkness of my pillow hoping they won’t leave stains,
when my hurt is washed away.

By: Anita K. Olsen

Until next time
Anita Night

Poetry through imagery

So here are my illustrations for the final project module at my university. I handed it in on Tuesday. The thought behind this project was to create illustrations inspired by poetry. Specifically the poetry written by my fiancée Ole, who has previously participated in and won the international society of poets yearly poetry competition.

Should you wish to read his poems simply head over to his blog:
www.schritsh.blogspot.com

They are of course also featured in my artwork. I look upon the art of illustration as something that gives the written word more depth, more punch. It sort of tells a story that is not apparent to the reader simply through words. I am hoping that combining poetry and illustration will leave a longer lasting impression in the mind of the reader than a regular poem would.

This is the cover art:

Spread 1 , Mortal Darkness

Spread 2, Transparent

Spread 3, Dead

Spread 4, Last hour of life

Spread 5, Thought

Spread 6, Light

This poem was dedicated to me by Ole, and is one of the things I cherish most in the world.

Spread 7, Hope

Hopefully I succeeded in achieving my goals. I believe I did. Either way am pretty happy with how the project turned out. The style of the illustrations did take a different turn than I was intending, but I don't mind that happy accidents occur.

Until next time
Anita Night

"Dead" poetry book spread

Here is the first "finished" spread for my illustrated poetry book project. I am illustrating Some of the poems my fiancée has written over the years. Copyright for written materials (poems) belong to him and all illustration copyrights belong to me so this is a joined project. It's sort of like having areal client because in the end it is his poems I am illustrating and if he is not happy then the project is a failure.

So far I've done a lot of preliminary sketch work, created a dummy and started doing some finished odds and ends. I am currently doing a collage sort of thing. Which means that pretty much everything you see in the illustration has been made as separate illustrations and has been Photoshopped together. The background is really a black and  blue painted texture (acrylic on watercoulour) blended with a black background color. The skull is a pencil drawing, so are the roses, but they have been colored in Photoshop. The hair on the skull was painted on digitally too. The faint roses in the background was made with ink, and was then set to vivid light blending mode and opacity was turned down to 6%.

A lot of prep work went into this but I have to say that I am very pleased with my first spread. Only 7 more and a cover spread to go :P

It feels good to be doing something different than pure Photoshop work, and I love working with the Gothic vibes right now. 

The poem featured on this page is called "Dead" and is written by Ole M. Stoebakk. 

Enjoy