Meet Dan

Some Guy Called Dan(black fine liner, watercolor, waterbrush)

This is a sketch I made of a photo I found on the internet. It's some guy called Dan. I think he looked kind and interesting so I decided to make a sketch of him. I chose a black fine liner and started to draw without thinking about the likeness very much. Finally I added some watercolor and that was about it.

Nature's Little Wonders at Lake Lestijärvi

The End of a Roach(pencil, black fine liner, watercolor)

A Happy Dragonfly(pencil, black fine liner, watercolor)

For these sketches I used my Ogami sketchbook again.  I was very excited about how the paper reacts with watercolor. The paper doesn't absorb the water right away so you have some time to play with it. With the pink background I kept moving the watercolor around with a brush for few minutes until it started to dry. I'm very happy with the left page, but the right one is too messy. I would have wanted the color to be more even. Now it takes some attention away from the dragonfly itself.

The other thing I thought about while drawing these was the use of an empty space. Especially with the roach and the pliers I tried to place them on the spread differently than I usually would have. Every sketch doesn't have to be in the middle of the page. Actually placing the objects differently has a huge effect on the end result and in many cases makes the work look more interesting.

Something I Saw on TV

A Factory(black fine liner, watercolor)

One evening I was watching TV and felt like drawing something. I started with the frame before I knew what I was going to draw inside it. Then I saw this picture on TV, pressed pause and started drawing. First I wanted to draw only the pipes, but I couldn't stop and ended up drawing everything else too. After a while I didn't look at the original picture anymore, so the result is pretty different from the image I started with. I don't mind though, I'm happy with this spread.

Rock Paper, No Scissors

Hanging Gardens(fine liner and ink) Valley Low(ink)

Scales(fine liner, ink, watercolor) A Horse(ink)

I bought some new sketchbooks a couple of months ago and now I couldn't resist them anymore. We were going to draw and paint with ink at school and I wanted to try it out before my lessons, because I felt a bit rusty. This was a great excuse for me to start  my new Ogami sketchbook. Ogami uses a recycled material called Repap in all their products. It means that the paper is made of calcium carbonate and non-toxic resins. It sounded so interesting I wanted to try it out as soon as possible.

I noticed that it took some time for the ink to dry because the paper was very smooth. This is why I could play a little with the ink. I could add and remove ink before it had a chance to try. Unfortunately I didn't wait long enough and made a little mess with my fingers. I used so much ink that it got to other pages too. With all the small details in Scales and Hanging Gardens I used a Micron 0,05 black fine liner, that has become my best buddy. Finally, I added some watercolor to Scales trying to cover up some of the smudges I made.

Here's another spread I made after the small ink accident that occurred earlier. I started with the stains and ended up with some birds. A lot of smudges here too, but I don't mind.

A Migration(ink, fine liner, watercolor)

Plan B

Faces(fine liner, colored pencils)

One Orchid Left(fine liner, watercolor)

A Game of Chess(fine liner, colored pencils)

Before I show you some new material, here's a few sketches from spring. I hurt my shoulder doing sports and couldn't draw for a while. Then I had an idea to try to do some sketches with my left hand. I had already practiced my motor skills by doing basic things like cooking. At first it was difficult and my hand was shaking a lot when I tried to draw. Then I noticed that the shaky line was actually quite nice and very different from my usual line.

I added the color, also with my left hand, and was pretty happy with the result. It made me realize the importance of my sight. A very big part of drawing happens inside your head. Everybody can make lines on the paper, the hardest part is to understand how to make them work together. When your head knows what it's doing, your hand will quickly follow. No matter which hand it is.

Painting Horizons

Windmill (pencil, watercolor)

Here's something I made before my summer holiday. I wanted to do something with watercolors and ended up drawing houses with a small windmill. The sky was the most interesting part for me in this work. I decided to paint a sunset so I could use bold colors. I used a photo as a model for the sky, but unfortunately I don't remember where I found it.

Although I've been busy this summer with other art projects and gardening, I'll be back soon with some newer sketches.

Serious Work

Serious (fine liner, watercolor)

Someone Smiles (fine liner, watercolor)

One day I decided to practice drawing faces. This time I decided to do so without lifting my pen. It proved out to be difficult and I only managed to draw some weird, unhappy people. When I concentrated, I managed to make ONE guy look happy, but it was hard. I used a black fine liner for these sketches and I think that the watercolor I added on the background made the spread look much better.

This practice was fun to do although it may not seem that way. Using fine liner instead of a pencil and never lifting my pen made drawing a bit scary and that's why this was a good practice for me. I'm still thinking too much about the end result when I draw. That's why starting is sometimes hard for me. I'm getting better though. Practices like these help me a lot. I can enjoy the final spread even if most of the faces are far from perfect. Actually the most weird ones make me as happy as the good ones.