Judul: The Alchemist (O Alquimista)
Pengarang: Paulo Coelho
Penerbit: Harper Collins
Penerjemah: Alan R.Clarke
Terbitan Pertama: 1988
Dimensi : paperback, 197 hal; 17 cm

Aku sebenarnya sudah pernah baca buku ini, tapi tidak sampai 20 halaman pun. Waktu itu sedang Jabawaskita kalau tidak salah, aku iseng-iseng buka bacaan yang Steff bawa. Dengar-dengar, bukunya 'inspirasional' dan 'life-changing'. Penasaran, aku baca beberapa halaman pertama. Yang terpikir, aah, fabel kuno, ngga asyik. Aku tutup bukunya. Tidak jadi baca, ah.

Baru-baru ini, aku sedang nongkrong di toko buku Periplus, buka-buka area best seller. Aku melihat buku tersebut lagi. Lucunya, ada tiga model. Beda-beda cover dan ukurannya. Setelah ditimbang-timbang, aku lagi butuh buku bacaan. Aku pulang membawa satu buku baru, The Alchemist.


The Alchemist mengkisahkan perjalanan Santiago, seorang penggembala asal Andalusia yang mendambakan perjalanan. Awalnya Santiago mengejar hal kecil: menikahi putri seorang pedagang dari negara tetangga. Tetapi seiring berjalannya kisah Santiago, mimpinya berganti. Serangkai kejadian berlangsung, dan sang penggembala menemukan dirinya berkelana mencari harta karun di Mesir dan mempelajari bahasa rahasia alam semesta.

Tidak salah, The Alchemist memang merupakan buku yang sangat inspirasional. Sangat indah. Rangkaian kata-katanya sederhana namun puitis, sedikit demi sedikit melukiskan keindahan spiritual bumi. Walaupun tidak bisa dibilang bacaan berat, aku menemukan diriku harus membaca ulang banyak paragraf beberapa kali sampai maknanya dapat. Bacanya benar-benar harus menghayati.

Ini kali pertama aku membaca karangan Paul Coelho. Aku tidak bisa bilang bahwa gaya menulisnya sangat spektakuler atau apa, walaupun memang termasuk sangat indah. Menurutku, yang membuat buku ini spesial adalah isinya. Coelho berhasil menyampaikan terkaannya terhadap rahasia-rahasia dunia yang mungkin butuh tahunan untuk dicapai sebuah konklusi, dalam kurang dari 200 halaman. Buku ini adalah hasil penemuannya yang disajikan dengan cantik melalui sudut pandang seorang penggembala.

Membaca buku ini, aku merasa ikut terbawa bersama Santiago, kemanapun dia berbelok. Pasar Arab yang ribut, toko kristal di atas bukit, gurun Sahara yang tidak bisa diprediksi, oasis yang luas dan indah, dst, dst. Penceritaannya yang mendetil membuatku bisa merasa apa yang Santiago rasakan tanpa perincian berlebih, tanpa membuat bosan.

Buku ini bisa dibilang tambang kutipan (a minefield of quotes), melihat setiap halamannya bisa diambil makna. Namun hampir semua kutipannya bertema sama: ikuti kata hati. Terdengar klise, memang, tapi percayalah, cara penyampaian buku ini tidak ada klise-klisenya sama sekali.

Aku akan ikut (jump into the bandwagon) dengan ratusan (atau ribuan?) orang lain yang bilang bahwa buku ini wajib dibaca. Indah sekali, dan aku saja, yang gampang sekali bosan dan tidak betah dengan mayoritas buku 'klasik', bisa bilang bahwa kamu tidak akan bosan baca buku ini.

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Note: I also made that artwork for kicks. I wanted to draw Santiago and try exploring darker skin and different facial features. So, have one of my favorite scenes from the book! It's Santiago confessing to Fatima, a woman of the desert. I love the poetic way he confessed, and at the same time it's literally the LEAST cliche lovey-dovey thing I've ever read in my life. So truthful, so raw, you can practically hear Santiago's thoughts.

Labels: art, book review

So after wasting my time on that previous post I think I should do this too while my motivation's still running. In this post I will update you on the artwork above in which I did in a total of more less 5 hours (I mean, I don't know exactly, it could be 6 or 4, because I didn't keep a stopwatch or anything you feel me), and the rough process in how I did it.

Ok, honest here, I forgot to document the whole step-by-step while I did it, but thank God I saved the layers and stuff, so I'd say it's still at least 93% accurate. Please sit back and watch me babble on about how I drew it. Beforehand I want to announce that I suck at explaining stuff and when it comes to drawing I sort of run on autopilot, my brain doesn't have a say in what my hand does (um yeah you get my point). So here you go.

I draw with a Genius i608x pen tablet and the software I use is SAI paint tool (and sometimes Photoshop CS5 but not for this piece). I've been using the same tablet for 4 years and also the same softwares, so, yeah. The brushes I use are god knows what because I change it way too much, even during works sometimes. I add layers as I go.

 1) Rough sketch. By rough I do mean rough, as in the art form of a shorthand. Or a seismograph. At least that's how I do it. Here I use blue and lower the layer transparency so it doesn't make me dizzy.
 2) Tidy up that unholy sketch. I use a different color and mostly tidy up around the area of focus (which is his face in this piece).
 3) Another tidy up. This layer has to be tidy, because it's the lining layer and you'll confuse yourself when you color if it doesn't turn out tidy enough. (I blurred some lines afterwards for the sake of focus).
 4) Flats, as in flat colors. Grab a bucket and fill in everything, blah blah, you know how to do it. (I also added block shading here for the obvious shadows)
 5) Figure out the lighting. Find the lighting source (in this piece, the lava lamp). I filled my layer with a dark blue and set it to Multiply mode, then erased the parts where the light reflects off.
 6) Render, detailing. I added posters and comics and the dino blanket, and adjusted overlays and stuff to bring the colors together.
7) Rendering and finishing touches. I added stickers to his headboard and intense lighting. Mostly I add overlays and go over the parts that I think need more lighting tweaks and such. And then when I finished, I added my watermark, and ta-dah! It's finished.

I'm pretty sure I did an awful job in explaining, but, yeah, there you go. I spent a lot of time for coloring and lighting because this is a coloring practice piece, so you can choose where to focus on. Sometimes I just make doodles and stuff and add plain colors for the background. Here's a peek of the doodley kind:

and one of the 'serious painting's:


I really like this particular piece (the painty example above ^)! It's actually a screencap redraw from my favorite show ever, Voltron Legendary Defender, it's a cartoon about space teens and whatever. I posted it on my tumblr and got so many attention, like so. many. And one of my favorite artists actually liked it!
     /rambles on
OKAY so that's about it. Thx. I'll link you to my tumblr but pls just click the art tag and not scroll outside of that because there are a lot of nonsense and inside jokes. Click here!

Labels: art, school

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