My Heart Beats for You

Valentine's Day(pencil, black fine liner, acrylic paint, felt tip pen)

So I didn't send any Valentine's Day cards either.. But I drew this picture of a heart instead. I used an old background made with a sponge and acrylic paints because I thought that the colors were just perfect for this occasion. And what could be a better topic than a heart? I drew it from a picture (http://thegraphicsfairy.com/royalty-free-images-anatomical-heart-vintage/) with a pencil and then continued working with fine liner and a felt tip pen until I was ready.

With this picture I want to wish everybody a wonderful Valentine's Day!
With heartfelt regards, Anni <3

Butterflies

Few days ago I bought a new calligraphy set and watercolors and wanted to try them out as soon as possible. I got some white and brown ink as well and decided to start with those. I used one of my previously made backgrounds and drew some butterflies with white ink. First I chose too fine nib and it was difficult to make fluent lines on the acrylic background. Drawing got easier when I changed the nib for a bigger one. I'm not very satisfied with this one, but it was a good practice.

White Butterflies (acrylic paint, white ink)

The World's Tallest Mammal

Many Giraffes (acrylic paint, pencil, black fine liner)

A Lonely Giraffe (acrylic paint, pencil, black fine liner)

Here's one of the backgrounds I made earlier. The tin foil that looks like the African continent made me think about giraffes. I think that the yellow color had also something to do with my topic choice. So I looked up few photos of these amazing animals and started to draw. At first I planned to draw one page but then I ended up doing the whole spread. Got a bit tired though and drew only one and a half giraffes to the second page.

San Francisco on My Mind

Foggy Day (acrylic paint, pencil, black fine liner)

Today I used two postcards as a model and mixed those together with an earlier made background. When I painted the background it reminded me of fog and I knew that I wanted to draw something related to that theme. The foggiest place I've ever been to is San Francisco, so I decided to draw the Golden Gate. The lady is from another postcard from New York. The idea of mixing different photos together inspires me, so I might do it again soon. Also, I will keep making these backgrounds, because they give me the greatest ideas for sketches.

Wrinkles on a Young Woman

Wrinkles (watercolor, acrylic paint, pencil, red fine liner)

This time we used the same pictures as last time. The point was to wrinkle the pictures and then draw them from different angles. It was difficult and you really had to concentrate on the lights and shades to make the drawing look crumbled like it was supposed to. I had this idea for an exercise from Pinterest and originally it was taken from Christiane Feser's crumbled work ( http://christianefeser.de/works/modelle/ ). I think this exercise might have been too difficult, but still it was a good practice for studying the model.

This Girl is on Fire

Girl on Fire (acrylic paint, charcoal pencil)

Last week we drew portraits from pictures. I chose this picture of a woman because of the interesting angle it has. I had made this Background earlier with acrylic paint and watercolor so the page didn't seem so empty when I started to draw. This drawing was made with charcoal pencil so I had to use some fixative for preventing smudging. The charcoal pencil is really nice to draw with because it's more accurate and doesn't make ass much mess as traditional charcoal. I think that the end result looks like a woman who is standing in the flames and watching you. That's something I didn't plan at all. Aren't surprises great?

Preparing for the Future

I colored some pages of my sketchbook today. Just to be prepared for the future. I've noticed that it's more fun to start sketching when you have something to begin with. In these cases, colorful backgrounds. It's also fun to make these! I get to make splatters and all kinds of experiments with paints. Sometimes they work and sometimes don't. We'll see what will become of these.