Experiments using Photoshops Blur & Threshold filters.
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Todays writing practice is once again a very short pulpy story. Reading time ~9min.
Hunan Jag’s footsteps sounded out loudly around him. Despite his best efforts, his impressive physique just was not suitable for quiet movement. It couldn’t be helped; it was just one of the costs one had to pay when one wanted to be as strong as Hunan was. It had never bothered him in the past that he was not as stealthy as others, but here, now, in this place, Hunan noticed and wished it was different.
The birds had stopped their songs and calls. The living maze of browns and greens, usually full of life, had turned deathly silent as Hunan got closer to his goal: the ancient temple of Ruk.
“Well, this isn’t ominous at all, is it?” He thought to himself as he heard another branch loudly splintering apart under his weight, reverberating through the jungle. “Not ominous at all.”
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Monday is always the slowest day of the week currently. Got a doctor’s appointment which takes a 2-3h chunk out of the day. On Mondays, I thus focus I focus on chill learning and (attempts at) writing.
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Last week I spent a couple of hours learning about Affinity Designer, trying and playing with it. I actively watched ~1h of an Udemy course on Design Thinking. I actively engaged with other people’s art for a couple of hours, I did one larger illustration, which included a little bit of experimentation, I experimented with drawing typography, and I did a couple of dozen illustration and character sketches, of which I cleaned up the following ten. …
And still, when I got up this morning, I thought, “I didn’t do anything last week. I have to push harder this week. I’m not doing anything worthwhile. I’m not learning.”
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Fantastic instrumental music. I just sat here with a blanket, a warm-water bottle, my eyes closed, listening to this album and letting myself be carried away after a less-than-optimal night.
https://cicada.bandcamp.com/album/seeking-the-sources-of-streams-2
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Popo Potato goes Uiiiiiiih January is over, which means my experiment has come to an end.
In January, I indulged myself, deciding on a whim what I’d work on that day without regard to the future or past. That was the idea, at least. Of course, mentally, it wasn’t that simple, and there’s quite a bit of backstory to this experiment that I won’t go into.
I learned a couple of things. For example, I was having the most fun and happy when I was doing the Pirate Zombie Snails. Also, music plays a huge role in my life. I want to share the things I like, music, illustration, design, art, comics, books, and whatever else; because there’s happiness in the appreciation and sharing of the creativity of others. Unfortunately, I can’t use this blog to simply share all the things I want to share or do so in the most convenient way for myself or others(no youtube-embeds for example, because of GDPR concerns. I can’t upload other people’s artwork here, because I would be breaking copyrights, etc.)I also noticed that while I am content in the moment, forcing myself to deliver daily art posts here meant that I did not follow motivations to do longer form explorations. The rigidity I set upon myself of drawing every day and posting art every Monday-Friday started to feel oppressive towards the end of the month.
I will continue with self-indulgence for now, but I will likely post less because I want to work on some things more extensively. Whether or not they bare any fruit worth sharing, I don’t know.
In February, I will also focus on learning a bit more. Workshops, courses, more experiments.At this point, I don’t know where this will lead. Even if I recover fully, I don’t think things will go back to how they were. The way I work will change.
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Two less complex experiments using noise/texture to break up the digital feel.
This one I consider a fail. The idea was to have a man kneel in front of a woman, head resting on her legs. I was attempting to convey solemnity, solitude, loss, and hopelessness. I wanted the darkness to creep in, the outside light to promise nothing good, for the inside light of safety (candles) to reach nothing. I hoped that going for a straight-on shot with a ~28mm lens would increase the distance from us to the characters.
As I mentioned, I consider this one a failure. It doesn’t convey the feeling I wanted to convey. The use of noise/texture doesn’t add to the intended emotion. I have this image in my head of b/w prints made from etchings or B/W Riso prints. I did not manage to reference these enough.
This one is a bit more successful. Feels a bit looser and less contained in execution and exploration than the above one. From the start, I did not try to be “correct” with this one; I was a lot less concerned about correct perspective & lens use, instead executing more and better on the intent. The final looks more like done using spray paint or an airbrush with a splotchy nozzle. Which is better in my opinion, it’s a bit more varied and organic.
Music:
Maxx LL – Sundered
Steven Price – Our Planet
Pinar Toprak – The Wind Gods
Carved into the Sun – Carved into the Sun -
This image started with me not knowing what to draw.
Like many artists, I have folders upon folders of inspiration saved on my hard drives. Some are artist-specific, some are themed, and some are just random images I found and liked but was too lazy to sort. This image started by looking through one of my landscape photo collections.
The winter-lake image you can see at the bottom center made me stop. Maybe it was the image by itself; maybe it was the soundtrack of “Jotun” by Max LL that I was listening to at the time, which made me pause. Something clicked and I knew I was going for some temple/structure in a lake that would fit into a Conan-like Sword & Sworcery story. With that idea in mind, I collected the other reference images from the web, then I just worked.
The references I used are Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin, Japanese woodcut printmaker Yoshida Hiroshi, and French comic book artist Moebius.
Also, one thing that you’ll probably see reoccurring in future artworks is the exploration of “noise” or “digital texture.”
It’s something that I explored in the past, specifically for some of my bird stylizations. With my current exploration, I’m trying to add texture but to do it more deliberately than the previous technical explorations allowed for.
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Betty Boob is a comic told with almost no words. The drawings are expressive, sometimes a lot of fun, sometimes conveying heart-crushing sadness – beautifully written by Véro Cazot, and illustrated by Julie Rocheleau. Betty Boob is the protagonist of the comic; she’s been diagnosed with breast cancer and lost her hair and her left breast. The comic shows the impact of those events on her life.
In German, the comic came out in 2018 and was published by Splitter.
The English version was published by Boom-Studios.
The French original was published by Casterman in 2017.