Squirrel Sketch

Funny, but I like this one more when I see it on the screen than when I look at the paper version in front of me. Maybe because the orange looks a little acidic in real life. And again, I don't like the mouth very much.. I hope it is not a starting trend!

Pastel pencil

The Tablet

Some people do not consider digital art as “real art”. You can’t feel the texture of the paper, thin out the paint just right, or blend with your fingers. Then there’s those who get suspicious and cannot stop thinking:  Is that really drawn, or traced? Was that background a blurred photograph? 

For me, using a tablet is just very practical. It is a great way to get artistic without having to spend a few minutes arranging supplies. You do not have to worry about wasting materials, handling fumes and toxic solvents, or interruptions while your paints are quickly drying out. Getting your hands dirty is fun, too bad it’s inconvenient. 

 

Anyways, I did bother to dig out supplies today. I rediscovered my black canson paper, which I had abandoned after experiencing how ridiculously non-intuitive dark paper could be. 

Panpastel and pastel pencil on Canson

 I love this one! Although I’m unhappy with the mouth. I can’t figure out how to fix it..

Value

Today's drawing: playing around with value.

Done in photoshop with a tablet

Cute Doggy

I think was the first drawing/sketch of the year

Done with a tablet on photoshop

Can't tell if it's a border collie or black mongrel or something else.. but it's a cute doggy for sure.

So.. the less effort, the better?

I know myself, if I do not finish a drawing in one sitting or one day, there is a 1% chance I will ever get back to it. I’ve tried to get back to drawings I feel had great potential, but it just never works. As soon as I stand up from my desk I either forget my train of thought, become excited to draw something completely different, or lose my motivation altogether. Because of this I would try to set aside chunks of time to draw. Chunks of say.. 3 to 6 hours. Yes, I know, that never happened either. Maybe once every couple of months I would get myself to sit down and enjoy an uninterrupted morning/afternoon of drawing. And relaxing. After all this was on my free time! 

However, there were times where I was in the mood to draw but I only had a couple of minutes. I’d make a rough sketch. I noticed that the more careless and unexpecting I was, the more I liked the final result. Strange. I waved away this thought as much as I could. Disregarded it, told myself it wasn’t true. Until one day my rational, conscious thoughts took over. They told me: Just draw this as if you do not expect a nice final result, then it will turn out just the way you want. Of course, the thought itself made me put more effort into that particular drawing, making me more careful. Needless to say, the result would be acceptable, but not as great as I knew it could be. 

I am giong to try suppressing that thought to become looser and more spontaneous in my drawings, in a good way. Or better yet, practicing so much that my drawing will be good, regardless of what I am thinking.

The First Post

I wanted to name this something nice, something happy. And most of the time, it’s the simple little things that make your day. 

This will be about drawing. I like to draw, and unfortunately, I do not dedicate as much time as I’d like to it. This will help me keep track of my drawings and hopefully, progress. Maybe it can give me some motivation as well.

And of course, expect me to throw a few bits here and there of things completely unrelated to drawing .

Let’s just get this first post out of the way.