The Girl Who Speaks Bear

the girl who speaks bear

A book cover for Usborne Books.

As Indonesia is home to over 300 unique, ethnic and linguistic groups, its Independence Day celebrations reflect its multicultural identity while also promoting solidarity within local communities—the nation’s motto “Bhinneka Tunggal Ika” means “Unity in Diversity.”

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Each letter in the Doodle artwork depicts elements common to Independence Day festivities, beginning with the Sasando, a nine-stringed harp-like instrument made of bamboo and palm leaves native to Rote Island of East Nusa Tenggara. From left to right, the other instruments, objects, and people pictured include a Rebana, a tambourine-like instrument; a Hudoq mask from Kalimantan; a Pakarena fan dancer from Sulawesi; a Tifa, a percussion instrument from Maluku; and finally, a Gambus or lute from Sumatera. The batik patterns and masks are unique to the instruments and dance origins.

Google Doodle Sketch 1

Google Doodle Sketch 2

Google Doodle Sketch 3

Google Doodle Sketch 4

Google Doodle 2021

Jessica Watson

An illustration for Google Doodle celebrating Indonesia's Independence Day 2021.

A collective personal illustrations from time-to-time where I enjoy drawing girls enjoying their solitude, mostly alone... seemingly drifting to their own mind & contemplation. Sometimes it is out of a personal thoughts & reflections, but it could also be completely random. In personal illustrations like this, I tend to experiment with different layouts, character designs & mediums. So each illustration has their own distinctive look & message to it.

Dancing girl

Taking a Leap

I'm fine, thanks

The peciliar case of a girl

Solitude girl

Just let it out

A quiet strength

Solitude Girls

I'm fine thanks

Collective personal illustrations from time to time where I enjoy drawing girls enjoying their solitude, mostly alone... seemingly drifting to their own mind & contemplation. Sometimes it is out of personal thoughts & reflections, but it could also be completely random. In personal illustrations like this, I tend to experiment with different layouts, character designs & mediums. So each illustration has its own distinctive look & message to it.

Mossery Delicate Being Dark

Mossery delicate being mock up 1

Mossery Delicate Being Light

Mossery Delicate Being Light mock up

Mossery Delicate Being Mock up 3

Mossery: Delicate Beings

Mossery Delicate Being Mock up 1

Collaborating with Mossery, a Malaysian stationery brand, Kathrin produced two exclusive illustrations that are applied on sketchbooks & enamel pins.

 from Disney to create a promotional illustration for 'Raya'.

Disney: Raya

Nautilus

A commission from Disney to create a promotional illustration for 'Raya'.

(means night in Indonesian) is a poem written by 

. When he first approached me with a collaboration offer to illustrate this poem, he gave me total freedom to translate it visually. Back then, it was still with no title, only lines of poems.

When I read the poem, for some reason, the word 

 stood out to me the most. so I suggested it as the title of the poem. I feel like this poem could be about the unrequited feelings of a boy, and 

 being a messenger bird he sends away to deliver his feelings to a girl.

Malam 1

Malam 2

Malam 3

Malam 4

Malam 5

These illustrations are done with gouache on 300gsm watercolor papers and then scanned, cleaned & edited digitally. Also special thanks to 

 for turning these into amazing animations.

Malam

suri-ram

An illustrated poem series about unrequited love.

 is National Geographic’s multiyear effort to raise awareness about the global plastic trash crisis. National Geographic Abu Dhabi contacted me to participate in their yearly calendar project. They invited 12 artists from the 12 countries responsible for the 9 million tons of plastic being dumped into the world’s oceans every year. Unfortunately, Indonesia is in second place on the list. At first, I had mixed feelings when learning about the fact. But I thought this could be a great opportunity to actually raise awareness around this matter through my work.

The Girl Who Speaks Bear

Google Doodle 2021

Solitude Girls

Mossery: Delicate Beings

Disney: Raya

Malam

Planet or Plastic?

©2019 Kathrin Honesta.

Kathrin Honesta is an illustrator from Jakarta, Indonesia, an illustrator that focuses more on story-telling & book-related projects. A visual storyteller at heart, Kathrin spins stories of tackling life, faith, and the tenderness that comes with it.