her

Pencil Drawing

Another portrait of a friend in tiny format (2.1 x 3.1 inches) mixing coffee, watercolor, pencils and markers.

Hello. This is my kawaii or just had a good meal ‘Fu Dog’ (fortune dog 福狗) - a sculptures you’ll find guarding the entrance of the Chinese temple. Well, although theirs named as Fu Dog, these creatures are not dogs at all, but lions - Lions of Buddha, to be precise. The male fu dog is usually portrayed as fierce and the wide open mouth is to let evil spirits out—and the sphere at its feet, its symbolise its role as protector heaven~~fu dog normally comes in pair, male and female, but I am too lazy to draw another one

Lately, I have been working primarily on the computer to wrap up a coloring book that I just published. I've decided to make August about focusing on my sketchbook and discover some new things. I don't really have a direction in mind other than to tackle

Let there be light

Here's a sketch of the Osprey Pens Pen Factory, drawn with an Osprey Milano 5.5 Flexpert Hourglass nib using Noodlers Black Ink. Great pen!

Here's a test drawing made in Adobe Fresco & Photoshop on the iPad. What an outstanding app! The brushes feel incredible.

PSA to not be a dick to retail workers this holiday season (and all seasons!). Working retail during the holidays was some of my shittiest experiences. People become coupon-waving, red-faced monsters that deserve nothing but a trip into Krampus’ sack. Here are a few things to remember: 1: They have literally no authority. Honestly, the cashier would love nothing more than to accept a stack of expired coupons to get some cranky-ass customer indignantly insisting that “at this point YOU owe ME money!” through the line. But they can’t. And no amount of screaming will change that. Oh, and the manager is bunkered safely in the back refusing to come out and will only troubleshoot through walkie. 2: If you’re nice (like basic human decency) they are more inclined to help you as much as they are able. Being kind and patient costs nothing and might actually pay off. You might even be able to coax out a skiddish manager that *sometimes* has the magic touch to get things accomplished. 3: Corporate overlords. Managers can do a lot but in the end, the retail world is run from corporate overlords through the machine sentries AKA registers. Welcome to Black Mirror, people. If the machine rejects your request then back to the matrix with you.

This is my place, where i'm surrounded by sculptures and projects of all kind!

Did you ever have a page in your sketchbook that was so bad and so embarrassing that you tore it out and chucked it? This was one of those pages that made me cringed every time I came to it. So today I said to myself, "ENOUGH!" and ripped it out of my moleskine. But something wouldn't let me throw it in the can. Now, I'm not one of those artists that can't bring himself to throw away any of his stuff because each and every piece, good or bad holds some kind of sentimentality or sense of importance. This particular page was a result of a crappy angst filled day and stuff poured out of me. For some reason, it felt like I was throwing away some piece of my soul. There were parts that were overworked and others that were painfully too personal. So I decided to cut it up and put it back together in no particular order, however it seemed best. As I was pasting the pieces down it occurred to me that this had a comic book feel so I scanned the final and added the black borders in photoshop which I really dug. I like that it is cryptic and jumbled up like my brain can so often be. This reminded me of the awesome @johnhendrix who said something in his book, Drawing Is Magic that stuck with me. He said, "Don't worry about doing anything wrong. If you're hoping your sketchbook turns into a glossy display of only your best drawings, you are not carrying a sketchbook, you are carrying a portfolio." In other words, explore, take chances, loosen up and have fun. Try your best to go at it like an uninhibited child. In so doing, you will stretch as an artist by avoiding repetition and predictability. We all know how to do what we already know. To sum up, I created a bad page, and whether or not I was able to fix it, it expanded me. So, follow your pencil, pen, or whatever and let them take you to places you never imagined when you started. Then, maybe you will end up staring happily at the final and with childlike wonder, say, "man, where did that come from?"

Club XXS was exposed at a music festival in the netherlands and used as a mini club, with dj booth inside and a line-up! :) It's my biggest doodle till now and it was amazing fun to do! my focus was allready on trying bigger stuff, so then a chance came by to do this huge caravan. Awesome.

Here's the final color illustration created for Osprey Pens featuring the Osprey Pen Factory. It was drawn with the same fountain pen there on the right... An Osprey Milano 5.5 Flexpert Hourglass nib. Great pen! Colored in Photoshop.

I suppose it no longer matters that the UK stuck to sterling. Dreadful politics there. I had a month to find out that I do not want to go back given the antipathy to the EU, not to mention the endless tory arrogance and stupidity and to the chaos that is

(HB pencil on a 89mm x 139mm postcard) The strangest things can sometimes trigger lucidity in dreams. Forget the fact that she was naked, or that she was sat next to an invisible man and that there was a monster trying to grope her. The dragon-headed man was smoking in a no smoking area. How fucking dare he?!

A Zentangled Fearie sketch I've been working on for a bit in my sketchbook. I can't wait to finally finish her! It's been fun doing all the little details.

Art Therapy

I did this one to practice my pencil work and to improve on drawing realism. I used a reference photo from one of my favorite magazines, Inked, I removed the other tattoos on the model except for the beautiful rose tattoo.

Progression 2 of 6. Spent some time here in the hair, beard, and eye. The transition in the hair from light to dark was done mainly by not adding in graphite in heavy amounts and using the pencil eraser to define the hair.

This is another improvised painting - in oils this time, but poured on after diluting with white spirit and then tidied up with a paint brush chasing the forms that appeared. You need to outside to do one like this. Very fast to make, but they stink like

Sketchbook. Coffee and Ink. 2017 @ Ania Pawlik 2017

"Billy gets there last, wiggles up a spot..." from the Graham's Up the Tree book. I grew to love these kids after drawing them so much. They sort of became real to me.

Capturing the photographer

Looking at other people's workspaces makes my one look boring by comparison. Anyway, here's where I spring clean my head of ideas – with all me electronics and toys and that!

I feel kind of lost these days... I am an artist, this is who I am and this is the only thing I wanna be, but can I really do it? Can you do this, even though everyone around you say it's impossible? Do they all have a point when they say that "but you are so smart!!! Why would you wanna waist it and be an artist" thing? Other people may see my job as a dream job, but I hate it.. all I want to do is create, be an artist, be me. But is it really possible?...

Here is the finished book. I wrote some of my own poetry on the pages and also some excerpts from the original book.

Otherworldly Portrait 2016 pen&ink on 220g a4 Daler&Rowney

I have quite a bit of traveling planned this Summer...from NYC to Copenhagen to Venice to Berlin and a few more spots. Very much looking forward to all the different colors, cities, and cultures in the coming weeks.

another self-portrait