Adventure in the woods

This sketch was a great lesson. First, in terms of patience, as it was the most time-concuming one, I've done in years (6 hours long, I think). It, also, taught me a lot on how to give depth in the scene, by using different densities of hatching and thus different grey values. In this way, outlines and white space, which sometimes becomes boring, are minimized. The illusion of foliage is also achieved in a really interesting way. I don't know why, but I find the result very atmospheric and cosy.

I used an ink sketch, in an old copy of Jules Verne's "The Mysterious Island", as a reference.

Funny fact:
My pen died just after I finished this piece. It gave its last breath for me to see this done. I will never forget it buddy... :(

Please, don't forget to share and join the blog (look at the right sidebar)! It would be tons of help for me!

Venus Comb Tower

So, there is this extraordinary sea shell, called Venus Comb. It is huge, predatory and is covered with long thorns. It is beautiful, in one sense, and spooky in another.

And then, there is the dark and gigantic and silent and wet and horrible tower of Barad Dur. It's the tower where the eye of the dark lord Sauron lives, in the tremendous parallel universe that Tolkien created in his "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy.

These two, inspired me to sketch what you see here. It is the Venus Comb Tower. An enormous building, with an almost never-ending spiral staircase that leads one straight to the clouds. It's my concept of babel. The sea shell gave me the form (spiral, thorns, long cone, wild textures) and Barad Dur gave me the atmosphere and mood.

I hope you like it!

Anatomy studies #3

Face anatomy, again. More color pencils this time. I love how light and shade are depicted through the use of different colors.

Now, I think it's about time getting into body anatomy. I'm not looking forward to it but I must face it.

I almost forgot! I hate doing it (to be honest, when others tell me to do it, I totally ignore them), but you would give me tons of help if you joined my blog or if you pressed the 'share' button (both can be found on the right side bar). Ok, you can slap me now...

Mr. Latentis

This is Mr. Latentis. Ηe is a very lonely man. He works as a cleaner in a bank. He hates his job. He likes to hide and talk with himself. He pays close attention to things that other people ignore, and he smiles when other people are serious. He has many troubles and worries, but what hurts him the most, is that nobody knows his worries, because he can't tell them to anybody. Oh, yes! And he wants to write a book someday...

Archibook

I know it's a bit (a lot) messy, but I liked that, so I thought, whatever.. let's post it. It's a conceptual building inspired by the works of Hungarian Imre Makovecz and Mexican Javier Senosiain, both architects. You probably haven't heard of them (I found out about them last week), but they're really exceptional! The second sketch (I know it's unfinished and I know it shouldn't be here either) is inspired by Rivendell, the elf's land in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Hope you like them!

Primitive Architecture Sketches

It's time for a break from anatomy studies. For some weeks now, I've been working (not as much as I should, to be honest) on a project for architecture school, that has motivated me to make a research in primitive, ancient, traditional architecture and all that stuff.

I always get charmed by these lonely little houses in the woods where time seems to stop and where peace and quite are man's best friends. So, here are some sketches I got lost into. I used black ink and color pencils for these two.

Baby monster in mohican

This is the first digital work I post in my blog and one of the few finished digital pieces I have and I am happy about.

It's been almost a year since I got my first digital drawing tablet (a wacom bamboo). It was one of the best presents I've ever got (thank you guys!). But during the first few months of using it, I came to realize that I was starting to forget how to draw traditionally. I mean this is the great danger with computers, generally. They can kill creativity if they're used in the wrong way. You can draw amazing stuff with photoshop and a tablet. But there is nothing you can't draw with traditional media. Nothing can compare to a pencil and a piece of paper. And, of course, if you don't learn how to draw traditionally, you definitely can't draw digitally. So, at present, I mainly work with pencils, pens, inks, markers, color pencils and pastels, and only use photoshop occasionally or as an enhancement tool.

Anyway. This is a baby monster in mohican (that's why it's in the title, you see). I drew this under the close supervision of my cousins. They are 6 and 9 years old and they're really fun. We all enjoyed this one.

The pencil sketch shows professor Flavios. He is a very quite man and a great thinker.

Anatomy studies #2

I keep working on face anatomy. Today the menu has lips, noses, chins and some ears. The last one is a half-finished sketch of a friend. It failed completely. I am really bad at life drawing, so I need to work on it.

Anatomy studies

I was planning to post earlier this week, but, well...unfortunately I got really lazy. Anyway, I won't let this happen again.

Here, I have some anatomy studies. But, before you take a look, let me tell you a little story behind them.

During the last couple of years I've started to get into human drawing a bit seriously. I was trying to capture human beauty, especially the beauty of the female face and body. But my sketches really sucked! I mean they kind of suck now, too. But I came to realize that I miss the basics, the alphabet. And that is human anatomy. It was like trying to play Mozart without learning the notes and everything else, first. So I grabbed the book "Art Anatomy" by William Rimmer, which is a book I highly recommend. Its anatomy sketches feel like they have been taken from a Da Vinci's sketchbook. And I started my anatomy studies. Of course, I start with the face and its composites. So, here are some of my sketches.

And something more complete for the end. This is the poor servant Ruth.

Inception

I can't believe it's finally done! There have been months since the day I decided to build my own artwork blog. And it wasn't finished till today. The truth is, nowadays, making a blog is pretty much like making a coffee. It's that easy. But not for me. Because I don't drink coffee. Ok, seriously. What you see now has gone through hundreds of changes. I mean the template, the colors, the fonts, the menus, everything. And now, I'm finally happy with the result. So let's get to work!

This blog, is going to be more like a sketchbook or a visual diary, both with drawings and thoughts. I will be talking about my influences, my ideas, my techniques, my difficulties, about art, fairy tales, music, history, politics. No, I'm joking. I won't be talking about politics. Anyway, I will be more than happy if you share your thoughts too, and if you give comments and advice, because definitely I'm no master. I'm just a student. Ok, now I'm being boring.

For this first celebration-post I'm uploading some recent pencil sketches that appear to be some of my favorite ones.

No more talking for today.
Enjoy! There's more to come!