Happy holidays from a very sunny Johannesburg

Like what? Its the end of the 2011 already!? Ridiculous. Im finishing up my last project for the year, a commission for the sweetest client. Her daughter is turning 2 and I’m creating 3 large prints of a little girl character for her baby girl Neave. So here is the last sneak peek for 2011. Wishing you all a fabulous hot and sunny Christmas and a fabulous New year xoxox *beijos

Commission for Neave

Tags: beach illustration, commission, pretty girl illustration, toddler illustration, zunica joao

Bebe boneca goodies in stock

bebe boneca stand

I thought I should just mention which products of my range are currently available in store. We have magnets, tags and pocket mirrors with assorted illustrations. We also have notebooks and packs with a notebook, magnet and badge. The notebooks are also sold seperately. Drop me a mail if you’d like to know the wholesale prices at zunica.j@gmail.com bisous xx

bebe boneca tags

Colcutter Pin-up girl

I was not born anywhere close to the 1950′s but I must say that I have ALWAYS loved vintage pinups (who doesn’t?). Those glamorous beauty girls from Way Back When have appeared on everything from stickers to postcards, we even have a few of them stuck underneath our counter at our shop. 

Personally for me, it has never been a fad or something in fashion. So Geez Louise, was I thrilled to be asked to illustrate my very own pin-up for Colcutter’s Fine Shave and Barbershop to be used as an element in their logo. The concept was pretty simple; an old-school pinup on a barbers chair. This is the saucy minx I came up with…she is rather saucy sassy and super classy!

Tags: colcutter barbershop, modern pin-up, retro girl, south african illustration, vintage pin-up, zunica joao

A Boneca close-up

I have posted these illustrations before, turned these cuties into notebooks and magnets. I have been selling them along with the tags. Here is just a close-up to see some of the detail.

Tags: bebe boneca, close-ups of digital illustration, girl illustrations, zunica joao

Ménage à trois

This is a personal work titled “Ménage à trois”  it was originally a gauche painting I made and sold ages ago. I reworked it digitally and it’s pretty different in style to my other recent work but that’s why I wanted to post it.

Also as much as I love digital illustrations, I am missing my old-school gauche painting a little bit. Need to get my fingers full of paint again!

The concept behind it is involves the different emotional spaces within one girl, being like a room with three different aspects of herself.

 

Tags: ethereal, gauche illustration, south african female illustrator, vintage girls, zunica joao

Illustrated gift tags to pretty-up your pressies

I am a sucker for packaging, I adore beautiful wrapping, little details like tags and ribbons fill my tummy with teeny tiny butterflies. Unwrapping a gift is super exciting. I think I owe this love of wrapping to my dad who never wrapped my childhood gifts in wrapping paper. He once gave me an ipod in a plastic Pick ‘n Pay packet for my birthday, not that i wasn’t happy with my awesome ipod. (If you read this-Thanks Dad!). So I have become very sentimental about keeping all the nick-nacks associated with my presents. Unwrapping a something nice is just too lovely, it’s as lovely as unwrapping a sweety-pie with the foil and seeing the chocolate brown tarty thing underneath. The unwrapping-the-foil part makes me believe that the chocolate tastes better than any other chocolate in a stupid plastic wrapper.

Anyway…I have illustrated some tags that will just add that “Ooh-lala” factor to your gift wrapping ability should you need it, or maybe you’ll just like the illustrations on them. Afterwards you could even keep it as a bookmark. They will also be at Moi in the next month.

Tags: bebe boneca, gift tags, gift tags made in south africa, illustration, vintage looking tags

Delilah

I had to re-edit this post to give this poor illustration a personality, I was in such a hurry when I put her up and well, she seemed a bit lost without her context. Basically this here is Delilah, the third girl in my trio of boneca’s. She is a treasure hunter and finds delight in life’s simple pleasures. Buttons, old bags, pins, tins, sweet hair pieces. She is super cool calm and collected, confident and the kinda girl you’d want to be friends with. Her great grandmother was a gypsy and her great grandfather a Spanish shoe-maker, somehow the family routes landed up in South Africa and this is where she lives. A lucky packet of cultures like me and so many others in this country. Which is a great thing, being culturally mixed guarantees you a personality? I think. Anyway, she is a pretty simple gal which is why I like her. She makes me feel calm and we could all use more stillness and calmness in our lives. A little reminder for us to just breath, enjoy the freshness of winter and how it will bring wonderful new things in Spring. Take time to look at the stars, feel the wind on your face and soak up the warmth of a snuggly bed when you know it’s so freezing outside. Bliss.

Tags: boneca, fan girl, zunica joao

Girls just wanna have fun (And feel pretty)

Last weekend was completely perfect spent away with my mum and compulsive shopping-partner. We went to Durban and my-oh-my did we come across the cutest quirkiest things! I saw vintage awesome goodies, clothes, accessories, old magazines, antique shops etc…etc. Needless to say we had to buy an extra suitcase to lug everything back. There are a lot of creative people there and I am INSPIRED, yes with capital letters inspired, (nothing feels good as fresh inspiration). I just want to draw until my nail polish chips off. This inspiration which i often term as “flow” has brought me to this little boneca. She likes vintage (like me), She likes silly doggies (like me), cute clothes and shoes (like me) and she LOVES feeling pretty and having fun. Like me. So I hope she makes you as happy as she made me while making her. She is also going to be part of the upcoming range of goodies…in the near future.

Tags: cute illustration, quirky girl, south african illustration, vintage girl, zunica joao

Be Brave

I’ve been feeling a bit heartsore lately and my remedy for sadness is to eat candy…drink wine, draw and eat more candy.  My heartache has inspired me to create new Bebeboneca characters. This one is called “Be Brave”. The concept is based on playing love games like the ones you play in your garden. With flowers. When your 5. “He loves me, he loves me not”. At this point, this bebe is just letting them all fall to the floor. 

 

 

Tags: be brave, south african female illustrator, zunica joao

New goodies and pocket mirrors coming soon yay!

I have a range of illustrated goodies I sell under the name bebeboneca. When I have more time I’m going to have stationary, prints and other items done. Hopefully soon! We will be getting more of my illustrated mirrors in stock at Moi within the next week or so. They fly like hot cakes, making me super happy! Yay. Will post pics when they arrive. I’d also like to make some more illustrated hearts when I have time again, they were cute and made nice gifts.

“Floating bunny” – pocket mirror illustration

Tags: zunica joao