Landscape Practice with Pastel Chalks

material: pastel chalk on paper, A3

time: about 2 hours

digital editing: some

Today I learned...

- how not to use pastel chalks  

- that I  don´t like pastel chalks 

I was really unhappy about the outcome, because of several reaons:

- pastel chalk is very imprecise and does a lot of mess

- my pastel chalks didn´t mix very well, so no matter how hard I tried, I didn´t get the colours I wanted

- I am very unexperienced at landscapes, so I had a lot of trouble with "anatomy" and dark areas

In the end, the picture turned out ok after the digital editing. And also, the point of practicing is not to set any high expectations. 

I have also uploaded the original piece without any editing and one version with edited colors, which I found kind of cool and distracts from the bad original :-D

 

Inkblotch Kitty

material: watercolour and fineliner on paper, A4
time: about 1 hour

If you want the story behind it: yesterday my sons and I had fun with their watercolours and splashed them on our papers while listening to "Peter and the Wolf" from Sergei Prokofiev. And somehow I ended up seeing a cat in the inkblot, so I decided to outline it 

Collaboration: Sea Robin Mermaid

materials: watercolour, colored pencils, gouache and fineliners on paper, A3

time: about 5 hours

For my first collaboration I was allowed to colour some lineart from Björn Ludwig (lost-craft.deviantart.com/), so all credits for the lineart go to him!

I had a lot of fun with this! It is so refreshing, when you don´t have to worry about proportions and perfect lineart, because someone has already taken care of it. :-)Thank you very much, Björn! 

Here is his original artwork:

Summary of Art 2016

I am quite happy about the progress I have made and am looking forward to further improvement in 2017!

Practice: Tree

material: pencil on paper, A5,
time: about 2 hours

During the first 45 minutes I sketched the tree while sitting on a bench outside. When I had the propotions and basic shadows done, I returned home and finished the rest of the drawing, which took me a little more than an hour. This is the first time I really made use of all the different graphite pencils I had and also the first time I completed drawing using life-reference (or whatever you call it).

In this drawing, I tried to apply my new knowledge about the composition of an artwork. Using the motive and the displayed window, I tried to balance the diagonal (lower left to upper right) with the counter diagonals and the horizontal and vertical lines. I also tried approximating the golden mean (stem of the tree and lowest horizontal branch).


The whole composition theories are new to me and I can´t wait to lean more!

Draw This Again: Self Portrait

pencil on paper, A5

In 2014 I used a mirror and this year I drew from memory. Both pieces took me about 30 minutes.
I must say, I really do see the improvement. Aside from the huge eyes, I was rather happy with the outcome.
I am very much looking forward to trying a self-portrait from a picture or with the help of a mirror

The Terrorist Series

These are in no way political pieces. They are illustrations for a cookbook!

A friend of mine wanted to write a cookbook for very spicy food and commissioned me to do a series of pictures of a terrorist cook in the style of "Mirakulix", the wizard from the Asterix series. But since the soup doesn´t seem spicy enough, he has to take different actions :-)

Sketches for the Illustration of a childrens book

Practice Drawings November 2016

Landscapes End of Oktober

Fineliner on Paper, A4

Pencil on Paper, A4

One Dozen Cartoon Styles

ink and colored pencil on paper, A3

I colored the lineart from Inktober. 

The Simpsons         Sailor Moon             Family Guy             The Flintstones
Ducktales               Powerpuff Girls        The Smurfs            Futurama
Pokemon                South Park              Justice League        The Fairly OddParents

Comment: I am not quite happy with the way it turned out, because I used black fineliner for the lineart and it smeared as I went over with the colored pencil. I also had some trouble with the camera and the lighting. It annoys me as hell that the picture is so dark at the right side...

5 Minute Hamster Sketch

Ikea markers on paper, A5

Inktober 2016 Day 31 - Friend

ink on paper, A4

The only technique that I can think of, that I haven´t used yet during inktober: Pointilism

Inktober 2016 Day 30 - Wreck

 I wrecked it! 
1. I unevenly spread the ink 
2. I burnt part of the paper
3. I tore holes in the paper
4. I scratched the paper
5. I spillt juice on the paper
6. I let the ink drop and run on the paper
7. I rolled the edge of the paper
8. I let the paper crubmle while erasing
9. I took a crappy picture of the piece allowing shadows and blurry parts


Defnitely one of the most fun things I ever did. ^_°

Inktober 2016 Day 29 - Surprise

ink on paper, A4

Some more hatching and crosshatching. I chose a beloved Walt-Disney character for todays motto.

Source of the original picture:
http://a.dilcdn.com/bl/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2014/12/1915773_362234117854_3481239_n.jpg

Inktober 2016 Day 28 - Burn

ink on paper, A4

Handy photo, will be replaced by higher quality picture soon!

Inktober 2016 Day 27 - Creepy

ink on paper, A4

Inktober 2016 Day 26 - Box

ink on paper, A4

Inktober 2016 Day 25 - Tired

ink on paper, A4

too tired to control every stroke
too tired for symmetry
too tired for anatomy
too tired to draw a sketch first
too tired to care about proportions
too tired for shading and proper shadows
too tired to finish the picture

Inktober 2016 Day 24 - One Dozen

ink on paper, A3
One Dozen Styles

One character (my chibi) drawn in a dozen different styles of popular animated series. This will also receive some coloring when Inktober has ended, because I feel at the moment, it really doesn´t look like my chibi, but a lot like just copying lineart. 
Here are the titles of the original series:

The Simpsons         Sailor Moon             Family Guy            The Flintstones
Ducktales               Powerpuff Girls        The Smurfs            Futurama
Pokemon                South Park              Justice League       The Fairly OddParents

Inktober 2016 Day 23 - Slow

ink on paper, A4

Inktober 2016 Day 22 - Little

ink on paper, A3

I have always wanted to do a pokemon fanart. I loved pokemon when I was a kid.
This lineart is going to be colored when Inktober has ended :-)

Inktober 2016 Day 21 - Big

ink on paper, A4

I used a photo I found on the internet. 
Credit: Blend Images/John Lund Vetta Getty Images 

Another quick but fun one. Very simple idea and execution. However, I try to use many different techniques in Inktober and I hadn´t used this one yet. 

Inktober 2016 Day 20 - Squeeze

ink on paper, A4

Inktober 2016 Day 19 - Flight

ink and white ballpoint-pen on paper, A3

Inktober 2016 Day 18 - Escape

ballpoint-pen on paper, A4

This is more of a doodle, I guess. I made it during my break at work.While I do like the idea, I am only half satisfied with the outcome, but that is to be expected, if you doodle on copy-shop-paper at 3 a.m.

Inktober 2016 Day 17 - Battle

Ink o paper, A4

Ehhhm yeah...

Inktober 2016 Day 16 - Wet

Materials: wax and ink on paper, A4
Time: about 90 minutes

It has been forever that I wanted to try out this technique. So I lit a candle and used a rather small paintbrush to paint the white wax on the paper. I had to use very quick brush strokes, so the hot wax wouldn´t cool on the paintbrush itself. After the wax was dried, I used a pipette to drop the ink on the top of the paper and watched the droplets run down the paper. But I have to admit I also used a paintbrush to color in the face and the body at first to make sure the guy itself turned out recognizable. At first I thought of ironing the whole paper, to draw the wax out, but then I liked the little droplets on the wax itself, so I left it on.

Also, I made a red cross in the calendar for this was one of the very few occasions I drew a male character  

Inktober 2016 Day 15 -Relax

Ink on paper, A4

For this very interesting prompt I chose the "artists meditation" itself. One can argue whether it is a doodle or a zentangle - yes, I currently learned the difference. Since it has recognizable shapes and a clear "bottom" and "top", its probably a doodle. But the relaxation, the focus on the process itself without straying thoughts, the "one stroke at a time" and the repeated patterns are would make it a zentangle as well.

Overall its probably a zentangly-doodle ;-)

Inktober 2016 Day 14 - Tree

So... this is one I really had fun with. 

The upper left corner is a photoraphy of the original drawing. For the other ones I used picasa to mess with the backgrounds. 

For the original I simply used my black ink and a pipette to drop the ink on the paper. Then I used a straw to blow the ink around the paper and just enjoyed the beauty of it :-)

So..... (drumroll) : this is really no inkdrawing, its an inkstrawing (badum-tssss) ^_^

Inktober 2016 Day 13 - Scared

Inktober 2016 Day 12 - Worried

ink and white gel roller on paper, A4

So.. there are many things one ought to be worried about these days...
This is one of them for me.


Source of the original photography: https://rawconservative.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/clinton-vs-trump-1.jpg

Inktober 2016 Day 11- Transport

Media: Ink for the outlines and grey scaled tiles, watercolors for Kirby and his Warp-Star
Size: A3
Technique: I started drawing random lines across the paper and when I felt I had enough lines, I turned the paper until I "saw" a medium of transport. Initially I wanted to do a train or a rocket or an airplane, but all of a sudden I had this idea of a warping Kirby. 


So. Initially I wanted to stick the whole Inktober to ink only, but I sediously needed some color to lighten the mood. And I din´t have any yellow or pink artists ink, so I broke my own rules.  

Anyways, I like the outcome of the cuddly round Kirby in his cubistic world.   

Inktober 2016 Day 10 - Jump

Ink on Paper, A4