Recently I saw beautiful Van Gogh exhibition. I really enjoyed movement of his brush and vivid colours. It was more about energy and feelings than realistic details.
I am always gravitating towards realism and always want to spend more and more time perfecting paintings like they are never really finished so this time I decided to challenge myself not to do that.
I love working with black, white and all sorts of grey tones. This is a digital drawing created using standard brushes on procreate. Gandalf is a favourite character of mine. One of those characters that whenever they are around you know its all going to be okay.
Medusa has always been one of my favorite mythology figures . And ... well, here comes the rant , I'll never quite forgive Athena for making her like this . Ironically, I've only really seen Medusa in her monster form , and this form , in all its unique fierceness , is what I've always been attracted to . I know I'll probably get a lot pf flack for this ... so I'll just quit while I'm ahead . Enjoy the cute pic .
I suppose this was just a tester/practice piece? My first actual still life from observation and my first time actually using charcoal (yes, I've never truly used charcoal before. Charcoal and pastels are two things I avoid. Their looseness and freeness scare me, considering how rigid I can be). Not sure how to feel about this one. I'm my worst critic, and I've known that for a long time now. There's a lot of practice and progress to be made, but it turned out half-way decent.
Close to a month ago, I had found out my design was selected for the Art Stop Program, and, yes, this is mainly what I've been working on since. I've never worked on a piece this large before, 72in x 24in, and I rarely make sketches of pieces before creating the final work. It's definitely a cool feeling to look at the finished board and see how the drawing actually came to life. (The Art Stop Program selects a handful of entered designs for the artists to create on a larger board, and these boards will then be inserted into bus stop benches around Niles, IL.) I can't wait to see the bench this will be in, and I'm so lucky I got to be part of the program.
August 11th, 2014. The day it all stopped, but the little spark of madness never actually disappeared. I find it funny how I'm fascinated with trying to look into other's minds when I can't even figure out my own.
I generally make marks on something every day, but I'm really TRYING to do it purposefully in one singular location (journal). Here is a successful attempt from that particular day. I'm also super lazy, which means I never go up to my actual studio and only use what's out on my computer desk.
Whenever I think of tags and/or labels for people, be it things like ‘gammons’ or ‘snowflakes’ et al, narrowing it down to a single person who represents that group is always running a fool’s errand in my opinion.
Horses ... These noble animals have always been a source of inspiration for every artist, sculptor, photographer and will never cease to delight us as one of the most successful creations of God, pleasing the eye and soul with graceful forms.
This drawing, with a bit of watercolour, was done years ago in North Vancouver during a figure drawing session. Probably 15 - 20 minutes. Watercolour, subtly employed, can have wonderful affects. The challenge of working fast forced me to ditch excess thinking. And it's funny, because at first I thought, "Oh, this is terrible." Then the next day, with fresh eyes, or checking out the drawing in a mirror, I think, "Wow! How did I not see how good this is?" Never throw out your artwork immediately after a drawing session. Give them a few days and look at your work with fresh eyes.
Hi! I just now created this page because I have a problem!! I love the idea of drawing (digital, graphite, markers, microns you name it), BUT I never actually get anything finished. It's a curse that has haunted me my entire life. Any good advice on how to stay consistent and follow through with your drawings? This one I've been doodling with Sketchable, using the photo to the left as reference just to eyeball off. I worked on it for a few days and was super inspired and now a year has passed from that (!!!) and It's still in this stage of almost done but I'm struggling with getting back into it..
This is a piece I did for a short film about the life of a victim of sexual abuse, after all the court cases and conviction. The film wanted to show the side that you don't see, the director wanted me to paint a picture capturing that emotion. Although I have never been through it personally so I cant speak on the feeling, I hope this makes you think about someone who has been having a battle in their mind. Give them some love !
In an attempt to be much more consistent with my drawing practice (and to tackle my insecurities about showing people my drawings) I am hoping that posting some of my sketches online will help keep me accountable. So day 1 sketch, I managed to find a very cheap used college set of Rotring Rapidograph pens online, when they arrived today I was delighted to see that they had NEVER been used! After a bit of a happy dance I got a couple of the pens assembled and started to figure out how they work. This is a quick sketch on tracing paper not that I was tracing anything I just need to invest in better paper with less tooth to be able to use these pens without having ink flow issues.
Bring out the Sun
Moleskine Doodle - March 2014
It seemed as if the dark that year would never end, and by March we saw a glimmer, it was such a relief. Bit like how we feel now.
I never understood the power of dots and lines until I did this art! A simple change in the line from straight to curved shows projection of a hand. What a beauty!
This feels like it could be a fun kids activity page. When I started this doodle it was just the hill with the tunnel maze and a few things added in the maze area. It didn’t feel like it was going anywhere, but as I kept adding things I started to get into it and now I’m happy that I didn’t ditch it. It’s always fun when a piece surprises me. It never gets old.
The Sunbeam and the Troll. Illustration of famous Finnish song. I draw three versions of it. Top of the drawings is last and then second and first one. I try to catch idea that Sunbeam fairy is more made of light than materia. Pretty tricky to me ;)
”When sun had ended its mission,
The last Sunbeam
Was left behind her sisters for a moment.
The dusk was settling on the grounds,
A Sunbeam with golden wings
Was just about to fly before it,
But she saw a small Troll come across:
It had just risen up from his cave.
See,a Troll before the twilight
May never live on earth.
They were looking at each other
The Troll in his chest
Felt an odd flame.
He said:"You are burning my eyes,
But never in my life
have I seen something so wonderful!" It doesn't matter that your brightness will make me blind
It's easy to wander in dark.”
A predator reduced to bone but not to silence. The body is gone, yet the motion remains — jaw open, spine curved, still moving through water that no longer needs flesh to carry it. This is not a fossil resting in sand; it is a hunter that never learned how to stop.
The ocean keeps its shape alive. Instinct outlasts life.
Some creatures don’t die — they continue.
These are 5 out of 12 images I did while processing the necessity of healing from life lessons. Heartbreak is prevalent throughout all the levels of tragedies in our lives. At times, the mourning period feels forced-- I never really want my wounds to heal because I feel they're the last of the love I carried for that "thing". The process feels like gold pouring into my gapping heart and I can only scream as it sears through my veins. It hurts to heal. It hurts that it has to happen.
#24 Anime girl doodles - I think I drew this sometime last year 2025 - I just never bothered to upload it. Most of it was sketched on Magma.com and part of the inking process was finished in Ibis Paint, with only minor adjustments in photoshop. I do all my digital inking on an iPad pro, and I use those hollow aluminum capacitive styluses that you can get very cheap just about anywhere. I prefer them over the apple pencil because the apple pencil is too slippery and heavy. More uploads coming soon...
Dmitry Shostakovich (1906–1975)
Shostakovich’s contemporaries do not recall seeing him working, at least not in the traditional sense. The Russian composer was able to conceptualize a new work entirely in his head, and then write it down with extreme rapidity—if uninterrupted, he could average twenty or thirty pages of score a day, making virtually no corrections as he went.
But this feat was apparently preceded by hours or days of mental composition—during which he “appeared to be a man of great inner tensions,” the musicologist Alexei Ikonnikov observed, “with his continually moving, ‘speaking’ hands, which were never at rest.”
Shostakovich himself was afraid that perhaps he worked too fast. “I worry about the lightning speed with which I compose,” he confessed in a letter to a friend. Undoubtedly this is bad. One shouldn’t compose as quickly as I do. Composition is a serious process, and in the words of a ballerina friend of mine, “You can’t keep going at a gallop.” I compose with diabolical speed and can’t stop myself.… It is exhausting, rather unpleasant, and at the end of the day you lack any confidence in the result. But I can’t rid myself of the bad habit.
- From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #shostakovich @masoncurrey
#22 [Hades (the game) 2024] - This would be considered fanart if I was a fan, but I have never played the game. I realize there is no Hades 3, this is just for pretend-fun. Since I don't know the story and characters of the game I decided to make up three of my own. [Sketched & inked everything using an iPad pro & magma software, drawn live, no ai.]
This is an artwork that took me some time to make. I never really knew when to stop adding details, I felt it wasn’t perfect no matter what I added, but here we are! This was done in Procreate.