Backwards

I always do this backwards; first make the picture and then start thinking of a way to make it fit the Illustration Friday -topic.

Thanks to Sven for featuring one of my button badges in his blog! Go visit, it's a great source of inspiration.

The Great Blondino

My submission for the Monster Mash 2007.

I suck

I've been having a small crisis here for a while now, explains the lack of posts and the low quality of the work I produce. I haven't done anything good for quite some time, I feel like I can't even draw anymore (or if I ever could), I'm completely lost with colours, my compositions are dull, pretty much everything sucks. I've really questioned wheather I even have what it takes to pursue this illustration thing. I know I'm pretty new at this and it takes time, but I feel like I'm going backwards. I know it's partly because I feel I don't really have a style, and that makes me try too hard and try to be something I'm not. That never works out for anybody.

I feel like crap. I hate to complain, but it seems to be the only thing I'm good at at the moment, so I'm sticking with it.

If something happens between me and the pencil again, you'll know about it.

Figure skater

I'm confused about the colours again, but I'll just let it go for now and look at it again tomorrow. That always seems to help me see clearer.

edit:
I knew I couldn't leave it alone, I'm such a nerd. I drew a slightly different version of the skater.

edit2:
I can't stop.. somebody slap me!

Crippled

I'm so proud of myself that I can hardly speak (type)! I drew this piece without sketching first (I did a study for it, is that cheating?), this is kind of a revolution for me. I think I'm going to draw like this from now on. Ok, it's not a mastepiece, but I'm learning. I even like the mistakes I made! I love it! Even if you don't. It's not ready yet (I know I always say that), I'm going to post a finished piece later this week.

edit: version 2

Potions

I'm experimenting with the traditional illustration look here. I really like how the blue turned out, I've been trying to achieve that particular blue-red combination for some time, and there it is! Ironically it's not just one shade of blue, but kind of a subtle gradient.

I think this fits the IF topic this week, "wedding", if interpreted very loosely.. anyway, it's the closest I have at the moment.

Cleaning up the closet

Again, old stuff I finished.

Captain update

Trying to get rid of my stack of unfinished pieces! This is done now.. I think. Hmm.. I'm getting new ideas for it now that I'm typing this, but I really need to draw the line somewhere..

Usually I feel weird about doing backgrounds, especially landscapes like this, but I think it works out fine here. It's very cliche landscapey, but that's what I like about it actually! And it does look more finished now.

edit: colour variation

edit2: this is the last one, I swear.

More visitors

A different version of my latest IF-illustration. I don't know if it's better or not, at this point I'm pretty blind to it. Always a good time to move on.

31

It's my birthday today. Mine and Beyonce's. Happy birthday to me!

Unfinished

This is going to be another t-shirt design. It needs something, I'm not sure what, but I really want to finish it. I have an annoying habit of leaving pieces unfinished, at this moment I have three or four illustrations that I could add to my portfolio, if I only took the time to complete them. I hope I'll get it done this week! My To Do -list for last week failed miserably by the way, I only barely got one thing done; the IF-submission. I'll have to think of something else. Electric shocks?

Buttons

I designed these buttons, and then I noticed Prickie isn't taking new submissions right now. I hate waiting!

Last minute IF

They're coming! And they're hungry!

Undress me, captain

This piece is about clumsiness and grace. It's not finished yet, but it fits the IF topic this week, so I'll post it anyway.

Emergency

This is a t-shirt design I sent to la Fraise (it's kind of a European version of Threadless). I really need help to get printed, please go vote for me!

Björk

I've been feeling like crap for a while now, and I thought I'd draw something violently happy. I've been thinking about making an image of Björk for a long time, and it seemed to fit my agenda perfectly. First I wanted to draw a more or less realistic pencil drawing of her face, and I did a few scetches, but it's really hard to find a good reference picture (although there are literally hundreds of pictures of her in her website, none of them seemed right to me). Anyway, in this picture the face is not really that important, it's very simple and suggestive. But I think it works better in this style.

I'm actually uncharacteristically happy with the end result. Missing... hmm can't think of anything. I know I'm pushing the IF topic again, but I couldn't post last week since my internet connection was down, so if you need a justification, there's one...

Off the point

My internet connection was down for three days. I'm still recovering.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that I love The Soundtrack of Our Lives. Go listen.

Discovery

I haven't done Illustration Friday for months. Here goes.

Under construction

Exposure, yay!

I got accepted for the latest issue of Ideafixa-magazine. I'm really happy about it, I'm hoping it'll get me moving again with my drawing and everything. Seems like nothing's happening right now, maybe it's because everybody's on holiday. Another excuse to just lay on the bed all day and read Harry Potter, as if I need a new one..


Here are the images I sent to the magazine. The second one is a different version than in the magazine, I seem to have a zillion versions of it allready. There's just something that I can't get just right, it's making me crazy! Maybe I'll try relaxing a bit.

A birthdaycard for a friend

Evolution

I tried to make the image in my last post more character designy, so I drew the same character twice more doing different kinds of stuff (it's got a little storyline too, but that's not so relevant). It's still not technically very good character design I think, but I wanted this piece to have merit as an individual piece of art too, so it's a fair compromise between the two (I'm not usually a fan of compromise, but now I actually like it better than the original!).

Something something

Vektorika magazine's topic for the next issue is character design, and I thought I'd submit a couple of images. I don't know what they're expecting really, I'm not even 100% sure what character design is. Characters, right? This is something I'm working on. Right now it looks like I don't know what I'm doing, and that's not far from the truth. I'm trying to develope my visual language for vectors (I haven't done anything purely in vector for ages), and I'm kind of starting to like the mess that's going on there. And I'm really happy with the colours. That's something.

Birdboy

Doodles

Doodling again. I'm stylistically all over the place, but I often am with my doodles. I've been doing stuff that looks a certain way lately, and it's very easy to get comfortable with that, so I wander off the beaten track every once in a while and do something that makes me push myself a bit more. And it often adds new elements to the stuff that I "normally" do.

Illustration Friday - Signs

I promised I'd do something solely inspired by the IF topic, so here it is. Although now that I look at it, I think it's mostly symbols, not signs. Always the rebel.

Girls in a tree

This is something that I'm working on for a project. Still a bit unfinished, but you get the idea!

edit: I just can't stop playing with Photoshop blending modes:

Friends! Neigbours! I need your help!

I have been working on this one for way too long. It's a second piece for my 7 deadly sins- series (I'm not going to make you guess this time, it's sloth). I'm stuck. The colours are too blah, and the composition lacks dynamics, but I don't know what to do with it anymore, so any suggestions will be taken into consideration. I think I'm not going to be drawing these 7 deadly sins -pieces for a while, because I don't really like the direction they're taking me stylewise. It's a bit too art nouveau, too cute, too polished. I really want to finish this one though, so any feedback is appreciated!

I know I've been kind of abusing Illustration Friday -topics a few times now (there must be a special section in Hell just for us IF-abusers...), but I promise I'll draw something inspired by the topic next time.

Too cool

If I owned an appartment (instead of renting), I would cover one wall with a photowallpaper. I love these kind of borderline tacky decorating items! I love going to flea markets and finding weird stuff (very often I'm the only one who actually thinks it's cool...). At the moment I'm on a hunt for a vintage dressform. I actually sow a little too, so it would be useful also, but mostly I just want to dress it in silly outfits.

Remember?

Remember last week's Illustration Friday topic "polar"? Well, this is an entry for that. I know, it's a cheap shot, but my blog seems to be dying in my arms, and I have to do something to try to save it. I started sketching this piece last weekend, and today I just twisted my arm and physically made myself finish it. My arm still hurts. But I'm really glad I did it. It's a bit girlier than I intended, I've been trying to put some edge to my drawings lately, but it just doesn't seem to happen.

It looks kind of interesting inverted, too:


More of these:

Fat Easter

Here's a couple of doodles I did during the Easter. I was quite busy eating chocolate and getting fat, but I managed to find the time to draw a little! I feel like I'm finally beginning to find my style. It's just like everybody has been telling me all along; keep drawing every day and it'll come to you.

I'm trying to start my career as a freelance illustrator, and I feel that it's about time I started marketing myself and getting my work out there. The only problem is, that every time I look at my portfolio I feel like crying. It's not even close to what I want it to be. I think that if I had about fifteen pieces (that I'm happy with and somewhat represent my style and the direction I want to go), I could start e-mailing people. Unfortunalety, that's not the case. So, I'm really going to have to step up my game and start drawing like a madman. I have tons of ideas, so I should get something done soon. I will. I'm optimistic.

Possibly maybe

I've been a bit uninspired and discouraged lately with this illustration thing, but I'm starting to get over that. I don't have any images to post yet, but I have a few projects that I'm working on. I have deadly sin number two under construction, and then some experments with vector (I haven't done anything in vector for ages, but I'm actually getting excited about that, I've discovered a new way to work with them). Then I want to make an image with Björk in it. I sketched her for hours yesterday - luckily she has loads of pictures of her in her site. Portrait drawing is very difficult, but drawing portraits of Björk is an artform itself, she has such an unconventional face! I think she's beautiful. I still haven't got it quite right, so there's some work to do there.

Since I don't have much work of my own to show yet, I thought I'd throw you some links to sites, that have inspired me lately.
Justin Wood
Jon Todd
Chinese vintage calendar cards
miniaturemouse
Yoko Tanji
Frederik Jurk
(I didn't ask permission for posting these, so if someone mentioned above sees this and gets offended by being linked, send me furious comments!)

Here are the least crappy Björk-sketches:

Twins/Wired

I feel like such a sellout for making that trendy pattern in the background! I guess I'll do something really ugly and artsy next time to repent.

Here's another version of the image:

There's a slightly different feel to it. I usually end up with a large file in Photoshop, with dozens of layers and then I hide most of them. I had many different elements in this one, but most of them were confusing the image rather than contributing, so they had to go. I almost threw a tiger in the mix as well, but backed out in the last minute.. ha. Enough is enough.

Chill

I'm doodling like crazy. My sister used to have a cap like that when we were little.

Chingis Khan and the chariot of frogs

I'm a little ashamed to admit it, but this is what I've been working on for a couple of days. It was just going to be a quick scetch-like image, but I got obsessed about the frogs. I just couldn't get them looking right. They still don't! I think I should have made them in vector, but all I have in my mac is Illustrator, and I'm more used to working with Freehand, so I didn't want to bother... also it doesn't even work properly, crashes every five minutes. So, there are my excuses. But I decided to post it, because I'll propably keep on working on it if I don't.

Staying on the theme:

Markers and wrapping paper

I wanted to draw something fun and easy-going and this is what I came up with:

I really should get out of the house more. What's good about these doodles though, is that I have something to hang on my walls. I finish most of my work digitally and I don't have a printer yet, so all I have is scetches and fragments of finished pieces.

Kill your darlings

Occasionally it's good to do some creative slaughtering. Lately I've been drawing hair a lot, and pattern. So in this one I hid the hair under the hood and didn't do any pattern at all. But now that I look at it, I did kind of compensate with the creature's hair, and it does even look patternish, so does the hood. I did manage to leave it looking more unfinished than my work usually though, yay me!

Gravity

Some hair obeys gravity, some doesn't.

This is actually part of the Seven deadly sins -series I'm doing (guess which one this is! - I'll tell you next friday). I wanted to experiment with this "abundance of everything" -style. It's a bit pompous for my taste, and it takes sooo much time and effort (I'm still out of breath from this one), allthough there are elements that I like, too. Actually it was kind of stupid to take on the seven deadly sins with this exhausting style, there are six more sins to illustrate... I feel like I painted myself into a corner!

I've been doing this for a while, and it's not finished yet. I think I'll add some pattern to the dress, and maybe some decorative elements in the background. No, I don't think it's too much...

edit: Thanks everyone for your comments! Wei Ning, you were absolutely right, it's pride.