The cat in this doodle is inspired by "The Beast" from a cartoon that ran when I was a kid. The abstract mushrooms are a slight deviation from my usual botanical abstracts.
I was supposed to be doing homework yesterday. I did not. Instead I drew fan art of random thought bunnies me and my friend wandered through. So...enjoy. Floofs cuddling and being grumpy. Medium: Procreate on iPad. Time: I have no idea, wasn't paying attention.
I've started a new sketch book (one of many, lol), which I am dedicating to ink drawings only. No pencils, no watercolours, just pen and ink :) I drew this doodle today with a Uniball pen and a light ink wash for the space sky. No reference, totally made up. Mistakes and all! Available as stickers and other goodies on Red Bubble.
Sketchbook is Stillman and Birn Alpha - I love, love, love the whiteness of its pages!
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.
For this piece I used acrylic paints and acrylic markers. My inspiration was my love of tattoo flash and traditional/neo-traditional tattoo designs. I grew up flipping through pages of tattoo flash catalogues and the art inside was a huge influence in my own art. Some of these pieces are my versions of popular designs and some are originals.
Teaching painting is a great task to ask of a person who doesn't paint. I do not paint. I teach the manipulation of media through experience. "Learn from doing!" I say. Monochromatic pastel exercises help my students to get a handle on the media. We explore value and composition and the handling of media. Sometimes happy accidents occur. This was my example to the teens on composition and value. It is a journey.
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.”
#27 Plants vs Zombies fanart - This was an old piece I drew during a live stream on magma.com a few years ago. I got around to finishing it last night in ibisPaint and then made some color adjustments in Photoshop. I stink at coloring in my opinion and I usually don't color my line drawings because I get a little bit antsy staying in the lines. The following characters I drew are: The Tree is named Mourning Wood - which is a mini-boss from the game Terraria, the sunflower is from Conker's Bad Fur Day, The Piranha Plant is a recurring enemy in the Super Mario franchise, Peashooter and Puff-shroom are from Plants vs. Zombies, Ivysaur from Pokemon, Water Lily Siren from Shantae, the toon witch Samantha from the tv show Bewitched (intro), and Godzilla.
#25 Christmas Art Contest - I'm pretty sure I drew this in 2023 if I'm not mistaken. It was for a Christmas art contest at magma.com and drawn directly on their website using an iPad pro. And well, although I met all the requirements I didn't place in the top four. The rules stated that we had to pair up with another member from the website art community to draw a Christmas themed picture relating to anything from our childhood. What you see is only half the picture. My project-partner Andy added his portion to the collaboration, but I removed his pen strokes just for my website. That's why on the right side of the picture the Christmas tree and edge appear unfinished.
This image is huge, like 5000 pixels. This website will resize the image losing details, but if you would like to zoom-in to a higher resolution, try this link to get a closer look. Safe link to mega-upload file storage:
https://mega.nz/file/vqoXGIgD#bx6hdvKVKX8__hfBAYEVtp49NESS26w4iudrlM-oI_4
Meet my new character Lao Wenji! ('-'*)♪ He was supposed to become an official, but he failed the state exam and became a teacher! He-he, he did it intentionally... ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) P.S: I really like the sound of music in the style of ancient China without words, a stringed instrument... What was it called? ╥﹏╥ I drew this art for just such tracks!
Sketchbook #11.
Since the 100heads challenge was real tiresome for me, I devised myself another challenge - "50 heads". Basically it's a "100 heads challenge", but for lazy people) The rules are simple: I had to draw 10 two-page spreads of 5 heads, no time limit, no nothing. And I decided to use different materials for each spread.
Spread #1 - ballpoint pen (+ a little bit of watercolour) - NEMOPHILA.
The Shadow, in a more recent form. This was made as a concept that complements the ego. No other drawing was done except this sketch, but the character is fully fleshed out and complex.
#08 Mythological Creature - I tried getting some ideas on duckduckgo images for a theme on magma.com that was titled Mythological Creatures. Drawn online/live at magma.com using an iPad Pro (no pressure sensitivity and no Ai).
Hi! Got really inspired by the Hearthstone art and Dave Greco so I decided to practice a little bit! This fanart piece was made using an original concept art of the character by Blizzard as seen in the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRYg3JIe5jY
This illustration tells me that I need to push myself forward. I was in my comfort zone while painting. And I didn't go out.
It's an important lesson for me. I'm glad I can analyze it and draw conclusions.
My submission for the Doodle Addicts album cover challenge. Thank you so much for the votes, I appreciate them all! Here's the original description for the submission: Future you calling is a group that mixes electronic pop and rock with some vintage and retro vibes thrown in the mix. To Whom It May Concern is their newest album. It's like that strange record that you once found on the slightly shady flea market that closed down after one month. You wish you had bought it back then, so now is your chance to repair the damage and get this album instead. It's almost the same. We promise. (Future you calling is an invented band. I'm not musically skilled enough to make the band reality but I can always imagine how their albums would look like if existed. This illustration was painted in Photoshop using reference photos found on Pexels.)
This is a good friend Mike Lee. Before he came to Canada, he took a bus to school in Hong Kong. On that bus he would sometimes see Bruce Lee on that bus, too! Of course, this was before Bruce was famous.
In the style of Lucien Freud, this little painting didn't take long, but was fun and an accurate representation of the model. Plus size models are often just as interesting as many of the thinner models we got in drawing sessions. Beauty exists for different people in different ways. Character is certainly a big aspect.
One of my first landscape experiments in Photoshop. Whereas I previously was working in GIMP. I just wanted to experiment with values and distance and fog and mist, etc. The female figure adds some story to the scene.
