(HB pencil on 110mm x 90mm paper) Another of my now yearly drawings that I use for Christmas cards which I send out to various people. As ever, these cards also included its own seasonal tale, which you can read here: http://www.skavart.co.uk/2018/12/merry-christmas-2018-last-nativity.html
Drawn using 0.03 and 0.05 fineliners, this one is for a book cover so cannot reveal the finished image yet! I do love trees, they are so fascinating to draw.
"Man on the Train: Hey, are you a dreamer?
Wiley: Yeah.
Man on the Train: I haven’t seen too many around lately. Things have been tough lately for dreamers. They say dreaming is dead, no one does it anymore. It’s not dead it’s just that it’s been forgotten, removed from our language. Nobody teaches it so nobody knows it exists. The dreamer is banished to obscurity. Well, I’m trying to change all that, and I hope you are too. By dreaming, every day. Dreaming with our hands and dreaming with our minds. Our planet is facing the greatest problems it’s ever faced, ever. So whatever you do, don’t be bored, this is absolutely the most exciting time we could have possibly hoped to be alive. And things are just starting" - waking life (movie).
°
So the other day I had a beautiful conversation about lucid dreaming with some friends. We shared amazing dream memories that we all had experienced and right the next day this sleeping beauty started showing up on a piece of paper.
What about you, are you a dreamer? :)
♠️
My first ballpoint pen person. This was a lot more time consuming than I expected, but I'm glad I hung in there and finally finished it. The reference for the drawing was a Getty Image.
I haven't had time to draw in a long time because of school and other personal projects, but I recently finished this doodle. There's a color version of it that I'll upload tomorrow.
I’m often asked about my Bic pen drawings and how I do them. It starts with a good foundational drawing, the ballpoint pen part is just trying to colour within the lines. I try to do my best to explain the process, but the best way to show my progress is by posting my efforts to master pen drawings over the span of 3 or so years. I have been doodling/drawing with ballpoint pens as far back as I can remember - they were cheap, readily available and always lying around the house. It wasn’t until I was bored during a particularly long team meeting-conference call (around 2016-17) that I started to think about the possibilities of ballpoint pens as serious portrait illustration tools. My first experiments with full colour ink portrait drawings were rather crude, but that’s the point of learning new techniques—as long as the curiosity and the love of drawing is there, you can transfer that skill and passion into any medium. Remember, the most exquisite drawings and paintings you see didn’t materialise fully formed, they started out as failed experiments. Failure after failure after failure. It’s important to remember this when you get discouraged (I've failed spectacularly over the years). The only difference between the accomplished artist and the beginner is hundreds of hours of practice. Talent can only get you so far. It’s the hard work that you do behind the scenes that makes your work look effortless. Keep doodling. Keep learning. Stay curious.
I decided to illustrated a picture of @justinhofman published in Sept 19 of 2017 in @natgeo about the pollution and how animals are suffering for our ways of using plastic. This seahorse was captured in the waters of Sumbawa Besar, Indonesia. “The art of pollution”.
Joyce Carol Oates (b. 1938)
The first several weeks of a new novel, Oates has said, are particularly difficult and demoralizing: “Getting the first draft finished is like pushing a peanut with your nose across a very dirty floor.”
From Daily Rituals: How Artists Work by Mason Currey
#dailyrituals #inktober #JoyceCarolOates @masoncurrey
Skylight from Dialogues in Paradise by Can Xue.
The light shrank back into two dots. A dark shadow brushed by, a clumsy night bird that shrieked and swooped toward the skylight, its huge wings tapping the roof fiercely, echoing like thunder.
(Gel Fineliner on A5 Paper) It is finished, even if it doesn't look like it. It reflects those old peanut display cards of the 1970s and 80s which were like a peanut strip-tease as the snacks were bought and more of the image was revealed. It's also a comment on the endless WIPs that some upload on social media which are like a form of "peanuts" in themselves.
'Queen of Marseille' I
I have discovered a few unfinished sketches from my previous travels to France from few years ago.
I decided to bring them back to life. I think before I didn't like them so much as I do now.
My first lady of Marseille saying 'Salut' and I am slowely saying 'Goodbye' to the summer...
From "A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities" by Anthony Kaldellis
Divorce.
By law, a man could ask for divorce if his wife had questioned his masculine honour - say, through infidelity or immoral behavior; caused him bodily harm by attempts on his live through magic or physical violence; or jeopardized his attempts to procreate - for example, through infidelity or abortion. He could also demand divorce if his wife was incapable of fulfilling her conjugal duties due to an incurable illness - say, madness or leprosy. Madness was sometimes distinguished from demonic possession, which did not constitute grounds for divorce.
Attachments area
I am delighted to share that I Am a Dragon! has been named to the Pennsylvania Center for the Book's 2024 Baker's Dozen: Thirteen Best Books for Family Literacy!
Here is the list
( I am in such a good company!):
- “10 Dogs” by Emily Gravett
- “ABC and You and Me” by Corinna Luyken
- “Bear with Me” illustrated by Kerascoët, Sebastien Cosset and Marie Pommepuy,
- “The Concrete Garden” by Bob Graham
- “How to Count to ONE (And Don't Even THINK About Bigger Numbers!)” by Caspar Salmon and illustrated by Matt Hunt
- “I Am a Dragon! A Squabble and a Quibble” by Sabina Hahn, published by HarperCollins.
- “If I Was a Horse” by Sophie Blackall
- “The Kitten Story” by Emily Jenkins and illustrated by Brittany Cicchese
- “Mr. S” by Monica Arnaldo
- “Night in the City” by Julie Downing
- “Ruffles and the Cozy, Cozy Bed” by David Melling
- “Simon and the Better Bone” by Corey R. Tabor
- “You Go First” by Ariel Bernstein and illustrated by Marc Rosenthal
