From Red to Purple

I hope all of you guys had a wonderful Easter with your folks and loved ones around you!

I decided to give work a wee break for the Easter days and just spend some quality time with family and friends – and even though it’s still sad times because everyone misses my gran dearly we really did have a blast!

Besides, I kept working on the red dress piece that I posted a few days ago and it just wouldn’t get any better! I have rarely been that frustrated working on a piece – but hey – those pieces help you learn the most. After hours and hours of trying to get the red tones to match I quit the idea of using red at all (pah – that’s what you get for not working well, red!) and thus I changed the colours, played around for a while until I finally liked what I see.

Now that I am looking at both versions I think the purple/ blue-ish colours really do the trick. I actually always wanted to do something in those colours but never got around to do it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think it is quite funny how much the final version of an illustration can differ from the original concept. Since it was just a practise for myself there’s absolutely no harm done but in the past I also had clients who came up with ideas that wouldn’t work for anything in the world and I had many difficulties explaining why. What do you guys think? As always, please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments down below.

Next weeks is going to be busy since I’ll be working on two concepts for different projects and I still have a few commissions to finish. Stay tuned!

Colouring fashion stuff

I recently learned a different way to colour digitally and how to alter some Photoshop brushes so that they work much better for me. So I’ve been trying to use this new knowledge and it’s really going great so far. I’m working on a few pieces that are partly finished already but I want to post them as a whole series.

I’ve also picked up a few older line arts just for practise. I usually don’t like posting some of the work in progress colouring stuff but it won’t hurt to do it now, will it?

I’m not really happy with the way the skin looks and right now the colours don’t work that well together so there will be a couple of major changes for the final piece. I hope that I will get around to finish it sometime tomorrow but this one has taken me twice as much time as usual already.

I hope you’re having a great Easter holiday!

Tentacles – Colours

I went away with a couple of friends for the weekend to take my mind off things and to have the chance to relax a little bit. It was just for Thursday till Saturday but I love these kind of mini get-aways – it always leaves me with more energy and motivation to get other things going again.

As I mentioned in my last post I really want to get started with watercolour. I have never been great with them but it feels about time that I discover new artsy stuff. Frankly speaking, I am quite happy with how my tentacle lady/ mermaid turned out. Basically I just threw some colours on the paper without thinking much about it (maybe that’s the trick – like, not thinking much). I just scanned it but didn’t edit it any other way than cutting off the nasty edges of the paper the scanner doesn’t cut off itself. I especially love how vibrant the colours turned out, the red and blue tones really work great together.

 

I tried sketching more and colouring another piece in that kind of way but I failed miserably and didn’t feel like continuing. I might try it again at the end of the week if I can manage to spare some time for it and after things hopefully will slow down again (busy week ahead, guys).

Also I started working on some digital pieces (you can see some previews on my instagram).

Have a great night!

Tentacles – sketch

The last couple of days were quite busy actually (given that I am back to work for only 2 weeks). I was working on the layout of a calendar all day even though I thought it would take me maybe just the half of it – but I’m done now which is grant.

Yesterday I tried to get the printer working for a solid hour because I wanted to get a print of the line art of the vulture girl sketch. Since I’m not really sure how to keep going on this one I figured it might be best to do a print, ink the print, see how it comes out and if it’s shit try something else. But since the printer wasn’t working I’ll have to try my luck again tomorrow.

Speaking of luck – something that definitely abandoned me. After finishing work I wanted to get as fast as possible back home to join band practise (one of my hobbies that I do practise on occasion). But instead of music I got a bus that was running late, locked doors leading to our band room and a phone that just died on me as I wanted to call my friends so that they’d open the door from the inside. As much as I dislike smartphones as much did I get fond of it – it’s so handy, like checking your mails while you’re on the go and all that art related stuff you can constantly take with you (instagram, pinterest, etc). Also I already noticed it’s absence when I wanted to take a picture of  today’s sketches to upload it here. Weeeell, no luck today.

So here’s the last picture that I shared on my instagram account. I’m thinking about getting started with watercolours. I always loved the look of it but find myself having a hard time actually working with it. But if I don’t practise, I won’t improve ..

Also something different this time – no hair! Instead have looooads of tentacles ;)

I’ll make a scan of the coloured piece tomorrow and let you guys see how my little experiments turned out.

Stay fresh!

 

Already March …

I can’t believe that I didn’t post anything this year – it seems like 2016 just began.

I had a couple of reasons for not posting anything for such a long time (even though it seriously didn’t feel like such a long time). So if you were one of the people who were waiting for me to get back to them, please let me explain why.

One of the things that kept me away from work would be that shortly after Christmas my hands got worse again. Luckily, I finally found a skilled physio therapist who is working with me on getting my hands back to normal.

The other big reason is that my grandmother whom I love dearly got really sick. She was diagnosed with terminal cancer last summer but she did all those treatments, chemo, radiation, etc. She was already feeling better and we really had a great Christmas and we even went out for my 21st Birthday in January. I tried to spend as much time as possible with my family and over the last months we actually got even closer. In early February my gran passed out and hurt her back really bad and we took her to hospital, things got worse after that and to make it short she became a case for nursing care and we decided to take care of her ourselves. It possibly was one of the most intense and emotional times I experienced. Three days after we got her home she passed away.

It’s been a tough week since then. But my work keeps me going, which is why you’ll probably see me posting more regularly showing works in progress and a couple of projects I’m currently working on.

I started doing original artworks in bigger sizes than A4. Right now I don’t have a scanner at hand which is why I just took a picture with my camera and I tried editing it so that you can see the lines properly. For some reason I always kind of liked vultures, even though they aren’t the prettiest of birds. But in some way they are. So … loads of hair and feathers!

Things actually are quite busy these days because I just returned to work and I have a stash of undone work lying on both of my desks – at home and at the atelier but I hope that I can get some of the lineart done by tomorrow.

Stay safe.

 

 

Game of Thrones – Cyvase Card Game

It’s almost Christmas (oh dear, how could that happen so fast again?!) and I am still stuck in bandages, tapes and a splint that keeps my right arm in fixed position. I had to realise that if you can’t use one hand (or in my case, both hands) you are very limited in doing things that are fun. Or productive, or both.

Thanks to my sister we now have Netflix but I have already lost count of the numbers of seasons and shows I’ve watched. Also I’ve been watching a lot of art shows and reading a lot about 3D animation programs. I really want to give it a shot once I am able to work again.

Trying to see the positive side of it, this way I actually am able to have a peaceful Christmas without any work. The workaholic within me is going crazy but there’s not much I can do. It will be so nice to have all my family together, spend time with each other and oh deary .. the food! I love my mom’s and grandmas’ food!

I’ve been working on an illustration for a project which was meant to launch in January but the makers decided that it would be a nice idea to start the campaign just before Christmas – so if any of you are in need of last-minute-present listen up!

I personally think that it is a brilliant and beautiful project. I am a great lover of the show Game of Thrones based on the books by G. R. R. Martin which is why I was hooked immediately after I saw the first pictures of the project.

The project is a strategy card game which is called “Cyvase“. The game is mentioned in both the show and the books and is played by various characters throughout the story. A Kickstarter campaign just launched and it’s already going really great! The rewards you can get if you back for it are really cool and if you love A Song of Ice and Fire you should check it out!

I was asked to create an alternative illustration for the card of the “red priestess”. You can get the illustration as a print as one of the rewards along with the game.

Also you can get the original line art – which is (since it is an original) one of a kind.

This is the link that will get you to the campaign (just go check it out – it never harmed anyone to have a look at something) kck.st/1Nqeulh.

And those are the images of the original line art and the fully coloured illustration!

Trips and Art Nouveau

Hello my friends!

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything.

Unfortunately, I currently am forced to take a break from work because my wrist injury got worse and now I can barely move my right arm. I spend all the time that I actually am able to draw working off commissions I have already agreed to work on. Please, excuse the lack of new illustrations and sketches but I’ll try to come up with other cool stuff to fill my next posts.

Last week I was on a little business trip to Berlin. I’ve already been there a few years ago, but I never really liked that city. It’s just so big, dirty and crowded. However this time I absolutely loved it!

It still is very dirty and crowded but as I stayed in some kind of artist’s quarter there was also this amazing atmosphere. So vibrant and full of life!

Actually, I’m considering moving there – at least for the months in which I don’t have to attend uni. I met up with a few friends and had a few business meetings, one of them was pretty promising as I might have a job there already. But – we’ll see!

I dug up the line art of an illustration I did a few weeks ago. Still in love with the dresses and art nouveau!

New Pencils

I finally was able to get hold of one of those extremely cool pencil I’ve other artists use. Actually it’s not that special, simply a blue pencil. But I got one of those mechanical pencils that have a blue lead. About two years ago I started experimenting a lot with differently manufactured pencils and I figured that this kind works the best for me.

So I got one and also adjusted my workflow – which means:

Instead of doing my sketches with a regular pencil and then having trouble erasing it after I went over it with my inks I just switched to doing a blue sketch, putting inks on it and deleting the blues digitally (thanks to good old Photoshop). I never dared doing that before because I thought working with the different colour channels seemed so hard but a friend gave me detailed instructions – it really wasn’t that hard.

I have been asked which pencils I usually use so I took a photograph of my essentials.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see it’s nothing special. For the sketch I switch between the blue pencil and regular pencils (3H & HB) and for my lineart I either use Copic Multi Liners or Faber-Castell PITT inks.

I picked up the idea of drawing pretty ladies in beautiful dresses. Since my uni is hosting a “1900 in Paris”-Party I came up with the idea of going back in time, exploring the fashion back then. I started with the 1700 London look (with the blues because I think it’s pretty!).

Hakuna Matata!

About Uni

Heya heyo my friends!

Another week of uni is slowly getting to an end and I must say – uni isn’t that bad after all.
The first couple of days were really confusing and exhausting (even though I am used to working much longer). It just is that different to what I’d normally do all day long.
The lectures are mostly very interesting and I have the feeling that I already learned a lot. Especially working with Adobe InDesign is rad! We’ll do some further work in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop in a while and I guess it can only have a positive effect on my workflow if I learn additional stuff.

If I don’t have to do any practical exercises I can always go back to doodling and sketching down some ideas. I’m playing with the idea of turning a few situations into cartoons..
Being around artists and designers all day long doesn’t really leave you with any options but to turn things into wee cartoony comics!

Besides I will soon start working on another big project that has got to do with one of the coolest Tv shows (that shall remain unnamed for the moment) I’ve ever seen!!
Brace yourself… (*HINT HINT! NUDGE NUDGE*)
I’ll tell you more about that soon..

Because of that I can’t do any new commissions until next year. Thank all of you for your interest and support of my art! I will let you know when commission reopen.

To leave you with at least a little picture here’s one of the sketches I did during lectures!

Stay tuned!