Moleskine sketches

As promised to few people - Moleskine scans. First six pages, completely unaltered digitally. Some designs, some concepts and some pencil studies. I might use some ideas here for something more. Maybe. More to come. Hopefully ;)

And yes, I'm *that* patient with very thin ink pens sometimes. Usually on the train, when I have nothing better to do anyway. And it's fun practice, even though some bits would be so much easier and quicker to do in Photoshop or Illustrator.

master's degree

Done with it. Finally. Got 5+ for my thesis (which is like A+) and I guess it makes me an official art historian now (History of Art, Univeristy of Warsaw) whatever it means. One more left to do this year (this time master's in graphics in Łódź city). And I'm done with studies. I miss free weekends and feeling like I can have few days for myself without worrying about how much I still have left to do. It's been seven years since I could honestly say so without anything bothering me at the back of my head. And I miss having time for my own projects, which I didn't have at all for the last few years as well. Which makes me feel stuck for some reason, I've so many ideas and if I had more time I'd be a much happier person now with a gallery I'm not ashamed of for a change.

Anyway, I'm still too busy to finish anything proper. But I found my moleskine, which my dear friend, Hb, got me few years back (and I forgot where I put it) and had some fun doing more lineart oriented stuff. I fell in love with this sketchbook for some reason. Will be posting these very soon (I hope).

Twilight.

No, not the movie ;) Just a pic. Meant to be a light practice and also a tribute to a forgotten polish XIXth century painter Siestrzencewicz. Not a very direct one though.


And a face close up (100%, so a huge one). A bit more painterly than most of my earlier pieces and I definitely prefer it this way. Seems more alive.


Here is original Siestrzencewicz's painting (crappy mobile photo of an album reproduction, sorry):

Albino kid

It was supposed to be a quickie, as lately I've been doing some quick face studies, mostly based on references to practice skintones and such, but I kinda got carried away in this case. So it's half quickie half finished I guess, too much fun experimenting with colours in this one. As for the ref, though it was more an inspiration as I didn't really follow it in the end, see here, don't know who the author is, I was just looking up albino people on Google. Don't know if I ever mentioned it, but I was always really interested in this topic. Anyway. As for tech info: few evenings in Photoshop CS2, basic hard brush, textured.


And a gif showing an animation of a progress from the very beginning as the concept changed a lot (I think I repainted her nose 3 or 4 times). Wait a bit for it to load, it's pretty big (500kb).

ink fun!

Long time since I had some time to post anything here. And sunnier days have come. In more than one meaning, which is great. I think. And hope :)

Aaaaanyway. I tried my patience with inks lately. I do it once in a while, like a real masochist. I just sit somewhere with my sketchbook and doodle all the patterns manually for hours, when usually I'd just make a pattern and use Stamp Tool to cover whole area with it in Photoshop. I call it patience practice ;) Lately I'm also again very much into 1900 graphics. Meaning Aubrey Beardsley, George Barbier and Virginia Frances Sterret. If you don't know them go check them now. They're amazing and one of my biggest inspirations.

Two samples out of few, ink on A5. I might use those ideas for something more. Have one project in mind already (someone just give me time for that.. argh).
Oh, I also feel the need to share some thoughts about Twilight (the movie). I know most won't even read it and the ones who will - will most likely be raging Twilight / that I-don't-think-he's-pretty-at-all guy fans but hey, it's my blog, I can babble here about whatever I want :D

I heard the film was a huge success so I decided to see it after reading most of the book as well (grew tired of it, but that's another story). And, wow, is it just me or was this movie really, and I mean really crap? I expected a kind of a 'guilty pleasure' thing, that is a bit silly but still enjoyable to watch, but instead what I got was: crappy acting (really, worst acting I saw in a long while), crappy scenario - scenes shattered randomly and I wouldn't get a clue why some were there if I haven't read the book. I mean, honestly, I was watching a major hit production and I had a feeling of seeing a really bad, B class film (to say the least)..

I do think it was a pretty movie, but just picture wise. It was filmed in a really nice way - with all landscapes and colours. But honestly.. even quite ridiculous dialogues from the book were shortened and, because of that, made even more silly. We laughed quite a few times while watching it and it wasn't because it was intentionally funny. Same about acting. It was more funny than serious and yet again I don't think it was on purpose. I wanted to write which scenes exactly made me laugh so hard, but luckily I forgot most of it an hour after watching it and don't really feel like watching it again. Ever.

After reading the book I thought I'd get a better, more "commercialized" version of it. But instead I got something even worse and even more boring and, wow, that's an achievement.

Okay, enough of babbling, back to doodling.

fevered.

I watch you create emotional landscapes with just one move of your hand
I watch you erase them just as easy
Fevered
Fevered inside I feel
Scared of thoughts that remain unspoken
Touched by ones that already crawled under my skin

No, it's not a cheap poem, just some random thoughts that went with this piece. A quickie, around 2 hours. Sort of a self portrait in a way. It was a crappy day.

insert creative title here.

Just two new pieces, one for a school project actually (geisha) and second just for practice. I'd call it a speedpainting, 'cause it's pretty messy and stuff, but I actually worked on it on and off for few months. Sick of it now anyway, so I doubt I'll ever finish it more. Though I did learn a lot on it. For example that patience is a virtue.


Also a new issue of .PSD Photoshop magazine (polish edition) is out, featuring a tutorial on Scent of Daffodils. Maybe someone will be interested in it :)