Pictures from my application

In a small flash of inspiration, today I would like to bring to you the pictures I chose to use for my application to the course! I am proud of all four of them, despite some being not the best in pure technical terms. Making some sort of transition of one of my drawings to the computer screen is as always very nearly impossible - scanners and I have never been on speaking terms, I don't know why, and taking a photo never really conveys the full amount of detail. At least, not with the camera I've got!
So here we go. The first picture is an old one; in fact, it was drawn in 2008, I think, in springtime. As so often, my linework with the pencil is thin and delicate. I drew this mostly with a... I believe it is called a "propelling pencil"? The hardness was HB. The pictures shows one of my own dreamed-up fantasy creatures, bark-skinned and twig-haired, talking to an elf in a pair of old jeans. There's a tiny owl and a small fox hidden away, though they do steal some of the viewer's attention; and also some kind of fairy lights. This one took a while to draw, and I worked on it in several sittings. It is a pity all the detail disappears in the transition to photo.
Next, we have another one of my portraits! This being the probably third or fourth that I ever dared show. Unfortunately the angle makes it look a bit odd but oh well. As you can see, my trusty Stabilo Woody crayon has done its work well here. Portrayed is a friend, Johan. The picture is very yellow, but I assure you the paper is white in real life. I originally had some trouble with his beard and some of the lines around his mouth, but then I asked him to smile, and suddenly I could see a lot better, where they were. The crayon is a somewhat blunt instrument, but it certainly covers a lot and is quicker and more efficient than, say, pencils.
Third is a finished watercolour of a meeting on a frozen lake. This was a Yule gift for a friend. I used photo reference for the nature, but freehanded the fox and the skiing little fellow that he is so curious about. I used watercolours, working mostly wet-on-dry, and finished with some white acrylics or gouache. It took an unknown amount of hours, but I remember being surprised at its taking such a relatively short time.
Fourth is a piece that is rather special to me. It is a work in progress, but I am proud of it regardless. With the help of some photo reference for the wood itself, the rest has been painted as I saw fit. A dancing Lady of the Forest, a flute-playing Lord, stick-and-twig-men, little foxes (there can never be too many foxes) and even a more current-day take on fairies. This was a real joy to paint, and a relief as well. I learned a lot about the medium itself, even while painting, and how I wished to use it. Some cue and inspiration I took from Charles Vess, and also a few tips on technique, that were most useful. In this picture it is evident some of my own personal "main points of interest" in art are, I would say. I hope to revisit this during this summer, to try and finish it. Also, I have learned a lot of colour theory which will hopefully help me avoid some of the pitfalls I was well underway of making with this one.

I hope you have enjoyed this little indulgence! For now, the main art course is over, but I shall continue painting through the summer and, hopefully, have something to show you all every now and then.

Drawings, with pencil and ink

The next assignment for the art course was drawing. Drawing with pencils, and drawing with something else - "experiment!" they encouraged us. So... I did. This is the medium I've been using the longest, and you can see the progress throughout the many varying drawing pads I've been using. But there are certain things that show it's an "Ellie". First out, a recent favourite of mine - drawing portraits! It's challenging and fun! The first I dared show anyone, I drew just earlier this winter. This, however,
is a portrait of Erik, reading the excellent book "Tigana" by Guy Gavriel Kay. It's made mainly with a 2B pencil, but 4B and 6B played important parts in making the darker parts, well, darker. Such as the hair. I used a stompf to good effect, too, but I think I might go back and revise a few parts. The stubble on the chin wouldn't look too bad being a bit darker. All in all, however, I'm happy with this. It took a good hour... two hours? I have no idea. I just go into mushin/munen-mode and come out afterwards. (That means, no-mind). I do admit I didn't care too much about the top of his shirt, or his necklace... To add too much detail would have drawn attention away from the main thing here. (That's as good an excuse as any!) I wish the light sources would have been a bit more interesting, as it was, I had a window from sort of behind-beside his head, and then a lamp from behind me. Would have liked one from above, to create more interesting shadows in the face, and show off the cheekbones a bit more. I did have to correct his head pose a few times; this is, I guess, one of the reasons why his lips and nose look a bit small and pointed, I didn't get the exact same angle every time I did.

For the next picture I figured I'd give myself a challenge, again. I set up a nice little still life, with a teacup, a character sheet from an RPG and some dice. And a pen.
And it turned out just as drab, boring and wonky as could probably be expected. So my eye caught a kimono on a hanger on a wall, and I figured... this could work. I started out drawing the first lines for it with my 2B pencil, and marking in some shadows. Next step was to pick up my Japanese calligraphy brush - not a proper brush, where I make the ink myself, unfortunately, but a ready-made one, with ink in the pen shaft. The brush was fairly dry, and I kept it that way, to have an easier time making softer shadows. There was no way I could properly capture the wonderful interwoven pattern in the dark-blue kimono fabric, but the obi decoration was far easier! I thoroughly liked working with the ink, and added a bit of my trusty, wonderful Stabilo Woody crayon/pencil. Mixing mediums is fun, even if it's not that apparent here. Also, I think that if I went completely to scale with things, there'd be nothing more than the kimono in this picture... so I shrank the distances to the doorways and the odd fan-thing above. Made it more interesting.
The walls are really a disgusting terracotta colour which I DETEST and cannot understand why everyone had to furnish their poor living rooms with, but there you are, and those living in said apartment, aren't really going to change it either. After all, painting walls is not half as fun as painting pictures, and it's a big bother too. No, causing your walls to have that terracotta colour is a lesser crime against humankind, I'd say. One it DOESN'T deserve.

The paper on which these were drawn was that old hate-friend of mine, an A4-sized one. The drawing pad is called "Teckning" which means "Drawing", and it's 40 pieces of paper, 140 grams heavy. Despite being a rather bleached white, it's supposed to be environmental friendly. My pencils are Derwent Graphic pencils, and, as you've guessed by now, I mostly use 2B. I started doing this after I read something about using that hardness for pre-watercolour drawings, and then heard John Howe (of Lord of the Rings drawing fame) say, during a highly amusing talk which I'm sad you miss out on but I cannot remember the url, that he'd recently upgraded from 2B to 4B. And I really like it. I also use a kneadable eraser, it's very useful, and of course an ordinary one as well. I am using a fairly small stompf, but it's much easier to get the control over smudges that I want, than with fingers alone.

I have, of course, drawn several more things. I might show them off, in particular, one or two profile drawings in pencil and with the Woody crayon. Also, I guess I should show you, how a table might look, after I'm done with a painting.