vinegaria

Cinders + Tumblr

2011-05-11T19:04:00.000+02:00

Hey guys,

as you already may know I'm working since some time on our first indie project as MoaCube, a visual novel called Cinders. Below are some concept arts of characters, location and menu. I also started a Tumblr blog to quickly update one place with pictures - please follow me there as well, if you're interested :)

Rabbit Heart

2011-02-21T00:25:00.002+01:00

New Art Challenge with friends! (I promise I'll manage to post something else soon). This time the topic was: Rabbit Heart. Based on Florence + the Machine song. Interpreted as we want. So here's my quicky thing. I actually had another one started, something bigger, but later did this sketch and thought it'll be nicer to finish first. So expect another rabbit soon. I just missed those kind of pieces in my gallery.

Here's sort of a wip / tutorial picture, maybe it'll be useful for someone:

*edit*: ok, this pic got scaled down for some reason, here's a bigger version. Pen sketch, scanned, colours in Photoshop. Usual stuff :)

Medusa

2011-02-07T00:48:00.003+01:00

Yet another art challenge with friends. This time the topic was: Medusa. Portrayed in a different than typical way.

I summed up few things usually associated with this creature: at first she was just a common monster but her myth has changed with times, later she was shown as a beautiful, yet dangerous creature, hunted by heroes but also loved by gods (Poseidon), with wings and serpent hair which she got after Athena turned her into a monster, being jealous of her beauty beauty (weird for a goddess of wisdom, but hey; she failed with the apple as well). So to show her in a different era I decided to put her in space opera setting and give her holographic wings. It was a nice exercise - something new for me, that I always liked, but never painted. I also didn't use any references at all, wanted to see how far I can go without it. Done in Photoshop and SketchUp (simple 3D model of the city in the background, which I later repainted).

I might make a tutorial out of it, when I have time, as I saved most wip shots. Or just a usual gif ;)

close up:

The Owl Princess

2011-01-29T18:30:00.000+01:00

Another Art Challenge with friends. This time the topic was: The Owl. Mine is an Owl Princess as you can see.

close up:

I wanted to practice painting flowers. Which was stupid. I used lots of custom brushes for the foliage. I also used a ref for the owl and wings (random google image), as I never painted one. And a ref for flowers, of course (my own). Or actually a few. And I think I based initial tiara design on some photo, but I changed it so much, I'm not sure if it even resembles it. I still don't know what got into me that I decided to paint such complicated foliage.

I'm quite happy with her owl-face. And it was fun to do something more stylised and painterly this time :)

Demonic Circus

2011-01-17T13:44:00.000+01:00

Another Art Challenge. This time I came up with the topic, got it from a game name generator and just loved it. I got kind of carried away with it. Had so much fun with the faces that when I finished them I needed to make all the rest more realistic than I intended to. Ah well. One day I'll learn ;)

The twins were inspired by the twins from The Shining, and I used some random still as a reference for their hands. Just the hands though. Clown's hands are referenced on my own. No faces were referenced which is perhaps why ringleader's smile is so weird. I learned painting teeth hurts. Other than that, just too much time in Photoshop and Painter. Here are some additional close ups.

Phantasmat

2011-01-09T19:15:00.002+01:00

Phantasmat - a game I've been working on since a long time - is out! It's a casual horror adventure game with Hidden Object and Match-3 gameplay. Lot's of fun!

I'm responsible for all concept art, characters (including animations), puzzles, Match-3 graphics and touching up most of final locations (lights, details etc.). I even painted the bloody crow, all single frames of animation (swearing like hell during the process). So you gotta see it. You can download the demo and try it for yourself.

Official website: Phantasmat - including trailer, screenshots, wallpapers etc. The game is on BigFishGames as well (#2 one day after release!). Collector's Edition only at the moment, but Standard Edition (without extra content and gameplay, but cheaper) is coming soon :)

Some concept art:

Some in game locations with mostly my work:

More images on game's and my own websites. Hope you'll like it :)

Day and Night

2011-01-05T17:18:00.001+01:00

Another Art Challenge piece with friends. "Day and Night", we were supposed to depict day and night as a man and woman. At first I wanted to go with the Sandman look for the Night, making him a guy (I just recently re-read the series again, love it as always), but thought it'd be too cliche. Then it turned out everybody else made Night a woman, which - I guess - makes me even more cliche. Oh, well ;)

I wanted to make a proper tutorial out of this one, but no time for that, hence just few wip shots in a gif file (a bit big, so wait for it to load):

What you can see here is my usual workflow: first a rushed, dirty sketch. Some flat colours to get a general colour scheme. Then detailing the faces too much, which I always do, even though I know it would be better to work on everything at once. But somehow if I don't get the faces right at first, I quickly lose the interest with the rest. And after that, it's just lots of regular brushwork. One thing you can see here that works wonders in pictures is: adding shadows. Even if the picture has a diffused light and no big contrasts, just small hints of shadows (see last steps) really add to the depth of the whole thing.

Evening Cat

2011-01-03T15:12:00.000+01:00

All the best in New Year everyone!

Those following me on DA probably already saw that I joined an Art Challenge with friends. Thought it'll be a good idea to force myself to be challenged with varied themes more often. First submission was this one:

The topic was: something small, cute, snow, first star. Photoshop and Painter. I just learned I hate drawing cats ;)

Viper sketches

2010-12-15T15:50:00.000+01:00

Some Street Fighter's Viper fanarts I just found. Although done few months back, when SFIV came out. Very quick pencil sketches, just for fun :)

Making of a face?

2010-12-07T20:27:00.000+01:00

Just a small thingy I wanted to post few months ago. An animated gif showing the making of the face. Some things you can notice: at the end, when touching up the whole thing, I'm usually adjusting contrast and blocking in some bold shapes of colours. In this case it was blue on her cheeks (second light source) and some details in warm tones so the face seems more vivid. I do it, honestly, because when detailing I often lose the balance of colours, so whatever I had in mind at the beginning is usually lost at this point, and I have to fix it later anyway. I also repainted her eyes a few times, as at first the whole piece was supposed to be monochrome, but in the end I put more colour everywhere, so needed to adjust the face as well. Nothing that special but looks fun, I think :)

Final image still not finished. Oh, and this is not an animation, just WIP screenshots put together in one file, so don't tell me it looks like some frames are missing (I wouldn't write it if I didn't actually have people asking this before).

Diploma work.

2010-12-01T17:27:00.000+01:00

I actually have quite a lot to post. I just don't know where it is. Really. But anyway, I promised to some people on DA I'll show some of my diploma works. So, here it is. A photo showing how it finally looked, with all big posters printed and a bonus photo of some traditional (pencil) sketches which served as the appendix for the design work. It looks kind of out of proportion because of the camera's wide angle. Except for the places where it just IS out of proportions of course (can you tell I'm not satisfied with these?). But then again I only had around 5 nights to finish all of them, and had to draw really quick. Had no time for any corrections back then and I don't like it enough to do anything with it now, except maybe taking it to the basement when I stop feeling lazy.

For some of these (bottom 3, starting from the right) I based poses on DA stock. Sorry, forgot which, but I'm not going to re-post these anywhere and I didn't follow it closely anyway. Rest was drawn from live models.

Now, time to search for some more interesting stuff :)

Exotique 6

2010-11-14T19:07:00.005+01:00

Back from holidays and working on new things at the moment. In the meantime Exotique 6 is just coming out and it has four of my pieces inside (3 pieces from Asian Inspired series and one from Taylor Holloway's The Living Dead). Here's the book's website and you can also get it on Amazon.

Check the book preview below. I can't wait to get my copy, there are lots of very inspiring pieces there!

There's also another book out now which features one painting of mine and it's called Zombies: A Hunter's Guide, published by Osprey Publishing, get it here. It features many good illustrations inside, if you're into such things, of course.

And that's all until I have more time to post something proper :)

11 tips on drawing and becoming an Illustrator

2010-08-21T00:54:00.000+02:00

I got asked quite a few times about some advice on drawing in general and becoming an illustrator. Right now I got this question again at Formspring and decided to put a longer answer here, as it turned out to be a wall of text, but it pretty much answers most things I've been asked about lately. I don't know if I'm the right person to answer these, there are many better artists out there (I'm not being humble, it's just my opinion), but since I've been asked a lot and have some experience in this field, here are my thoughts on the topic. So for those of you who are bored or curious, grab a coffee and have a long read. Sorry for being sarcastic at some points :)

11 Tips on drawing and becoming an Illustrator.

Basically the only answer is "practice". I know it's the most boring answer ever, but this is the only real one, even though people always expect me to give some magic tricks.
Also it's all about lots of passion and self-educating all the time. These are not empty words, just facts.

I never took any art classes before I started working as an Illustrator. But I got Internet and I read lots of tutorials, basically anything I could find on the topic, when I discovered CG back in 2003. I watched tons of other artists (both contemporary and old ones), tried to use same techniques they are using. I'm still very unhappy with where my skills are, but I did progress a lot and I know I'd be much better if I had more time to study anatomy and draw from nature.

Here are few tips I can give. I assume you want to become an illustrator capable of drawing varied things and earn money doing it. If you want to focus only on drawing Twilight fanarts, manga fanarts, plain looking, goth and boring ladies in long gowns or such (very romantic), then this is not for you.

1. Sketch a lot in pencil, things based on real life. From nature or photos, just don't trace it (you really don't learn this way). And no, you don't need to post all of it everywhere, don't spam. It's for you to practice, not for everyone to laugh at (you'd laugh if you'd see some of my sketches).

Even if you want to become a cartoon / manga artist realism will teach you more at first. It's easy to stylise a realistic thing when you've mastered it, while it's very hard to keep drawing only stylised things and make it look believable with no foundation. My big mistake is that at one point I was drawing cartoon, stylised stuff only. When I started sketching more realistic things again I made a bigger progress in one year than I did in 3 or more of drawing mostly manga girls, which basically is copying same thing over and over again (because all that you draw is stylised in the same way).

Practice with some traditional media too. Carry a sketchbook with you everywhere (I always do that). No matter how many CG tricks you'll learn, it's always your skills that really makes a picture good or bad.

2. Collect treasures! There's NO such thing as "art block". Save pictures you like on your disk to have a folder full of inspirations. Print pictures you like best. Buy artbooks you like.

Don't say you can't, 'cause you don't have money. Honestly, I can't say how many times I saw people saying "I'd buy your artbook, but I have no money" who later publish journals how they just got their ball-jointed doll, went to some gig or something (no, I didn't publish an artbook, I'm just quoting what I see often at other artists' websites). There are great artbooks, for example on Amazon, which cost around 10-20$. Surely you can afford one in few months if drawing and learning is that important to you, right? Or buy magazines like ImagineFX when they cover some topics you're interested in? I remember when I was still a teenager and didn't earn anything, I was saving for many books or CDs I really wanted (and one dress I really liked, which later got a huge hole in it in a silly accident), even when that meant that for some time I was living mostly on coffee, not food (especially when living in London on my own). But I was stubborn. I really hate it how people have so many possibilities right now with Internet being everywhere (free online tutorials, books, reproductions) and still expect other people to do all the work for them ("Where can I find this or that?" - use Google!, "Where are good tutorials?" - use Google!, "When will I start getting money for my work?" - use Google! Err, or just maybe start sending your portfolio to people who look for artists? But you can use Google for that too). Stick to art sites - ConceptArt.org, DeviantArt.com, CGSociety.org, ArtRenewal.org, ITSartmag.com etc. - you'll find all links and resources I could give you there and much, much more.

Really, with so many places to get inspired from - there's no such thing as a real art block. Maybe after 50 years of practice or something, when you're burn out, but none of us have so many years of experience, feeling that we've done everything. Far from it. Whenever I feel like I can't draw anything proper (and everybody, I mean it, have such days that every single line looks just wrong), I just browse through my folders or artbooks and try to doodle something random or write down some ideas. I'll get back to them eventually.

3. There are no magic tricks or tips I can give you and no other artist can (I get such questions a lot). Learn how to look up for things you need yourself.

Everything is out there and mostly for free, you just have to spend some time looking for it, not asking anyone to give you any hidden secrets. There are none! All materials I learned (and still learn) from are on the Internet. For example download Loomis books, they are still legally available to get for free (as far as I know) and probably the best "course" on drawing you'll ever get.

You need to learn how to look for what you're interested in. This is very important. People ask me about really silly things when usually they'd get a reply much quicker if they'd just search for it. It's stupid. I don't believe anyone with such "give me all" attitude will make any progress at all, because most of such kids can just never learn anything on their own. I don't know why I even bother writing this, 'cause those people won't read it anyway and it should be pretty obvious for everyone else, which brings me to next point:

4. Learn on your own.

I never, ever met an artist who is good just because somebody taught him this. And I met a lot of fellow artists. Most of them, though, know lots of art and still search for new inspirations. Take history of art for example. Except the highlights like renaissance painters, most of whom I find terribly boring after all this time, there is a whole universe you probably never heard of. Give XIXth Century illustrators a try. Learn about Symbolists. Pre-Raphaelites. See the XVIIth Century chiaroscuro artists. Art Nouveau. Start with one artist and look for other. For example Mucha's art is great, it's a spirit of Art Nouveau. But there were many more out there just as good. Check their work. Learn about what you're interested in - art. I was just naming few of my favourites, but my specialty is XIXth Century. The art back then was so varied! Even after I'm done with my studies I still discover many great artists from this Century (and the beginning of XXth Century) I never heard of before.

It's all about self-educating and getting inspired all the time. Don't draw all the time - you'll just get bored. Read a book, look for other artists, play a game, watch a movie, take a walk. It will all give you something.
Go visit an art museum. Or just a book store. Look for things that interest you and just try to learn from it.

5. Learn to actually see what you draw.

All that I mentioned in points 3 and 4 should give you one idea - train your eye, so you can see better the quality of what you draw. The more I drew and the more I watched other artists' work I was able to see better what's wrong in what I'm doing. And this skill is, I'd say, what matters most to improve. Except, of course, practice.

6. Don't cheat. The only person you're really fooling is yourself.

And by that I mean - don't try to impress people with your CG art painted on photos. Believe it or not, but most people will see the difference, but just be nice enough to not leave any comment at all. There are many photo-manipulators I like, but it's a different genre. Usually people who draw on other people's work are pretty weak when it comes to colouring, drawing lines and all, so everyone with some semi-decent skills can see how it was done. Who cares the proportions are perfect if you can see all the rest isn't or is just photo-manipulated and pasted in? I see so many of these everyday, labelled as drawings, and none of it is really good. There are no good shortcuts. Not to mention usually the photo or art you used is pretty much known by everybody else, it's the Internet, right? It will come back to you, sooner or later. Being original is a better choice.

I actually think there's nothing wrong with using bits of photos in CG, you work in a different medium than traditional after all. But I mean using it in textures, for some little bits and repainting it completely, just using small parts of photos as a base for some elements - I learned that's what many professional artists do anyway, mostly just because it's quicker. But this won't change the fact that you need to learn how to paint first. And this is much different than pasting an overpainted body on an overpainted photo of some background. Really.

7. Be original. Duh.

I never saw an overpaint that looks original. It's completely not creative, because if you just overpaint other people's work you're not really adding there anything yours (and no - adding butterflies, wings, vampire teeth, blood, graves and such does NOT count as creative and original).

Usually when I see a gallery full of photorealistic portraits of girls looking like celebrities and nothing else at all - I just ignore it completely. And so will the person looking for illustrators to hire. After all how many illustrations of pretty woman wearing one dress do you need (girls speciality)? Or half naked chicks with no taste at all (boys speciality)? Guys, really, just because the girl has no shirt on it doesn't make her pretty and the drawing interesting, it needs something more, unless it's done just to serve one purpose and I don't mean art. Not to mention everyone would prefer to hire somebody who has more than just this in his or her portfolio, because it promises a more original result, even if the commission itself would be indeed a lady in a long dress or semi-naked barbarian with huge, err, sword.

How many artists do you watch out of hundreds doing such things (usually overpaints anyway)? If you do, how many of their names do you remember or can tell which lady is done by who? It all just seems the same.

People are usually looking for artists who show interesting illustrations or distinctive style. Try to design your own characters. Give them interesting clothes. Try to create an actual lore for your paintings. Tell a story. Watch portfolios of professional illustrators, see what they show.

Don't post fanarts only. It might give you lots of exposure on Deviantart (which will be teens only in this case), but in general it just screams "I'm so uncreative I can't paint anything else". Honestly, if you can't come up with anything more original than a random looking knight with a dragon or a sad lady in plain evening gown, most probably with vampire teeth - this is not the job for you.

8. Make a varied portfolio.

Well, this is a thing I'm trying to do at the moment, I just can't show some of the pieces for it yet. My own consists of too many boring portraits right now. Try to have there varied things: illustrations, concept designs of characters, props, backgrounds, portraits, unfinished pieces, loose sketches. Sometimes a quick, pencil sketch can tell more about your skills than a finished, realistic portrait. It just shows your style, the way you think when drawing.

Choose your best pieces. I often see galleries swarmed with hundreds (literally) of same looking, boring art. Show 10 good pieces and some sketches and you'll get more recognition than if you'd show 100 boring drawings no one will bother to look at. Just see for yourself, what kind of galleries attract your attention? Those smaller, easier to see as a whole, or those where artist is uploading 2-3 new pieces a day? There's no artist in the world who can create 2-3 masterpieces a day. A strict selection is needed.

9. Loose your dignity. Loose your ego.

Well, only at first ;) I see many people, bad at drawing, expecting they'll get very good commissions right at the very beginning, just because their Mom or Uncle told them how talented they are. Bullshit. In this industry most other artists WILL be better than you and capable of things you can't do or will just do the commission cheaper or they'll be crap, but still popular. It's not always fair. Usually it isn't fair at all. You need to earn your name a meaning. So don't be afraid to send hundreds of emails to companies looking for illustrators, keep checking forums for serious commissions offers. You won't get an answer in most cases at first, especially from bigger companies, but being stubborn is what will eventually bring you some offers. The laws of statistics say so, I even saw the worst artists ever get commissions, just because they were advertising themselves everywhere. One of them, not the worst, but pretty much a mediocre artist (I won't say who or give any clues, so don't bother asking) is actually getting lots of money per piece and is fully booked, so even though it's a little inside joke between some of my friends, it just proves everything is possible. And after you start, more will come with time and you'll learn more with practice. But some people need to learn in this job it's always about being rejected first. You can be the best, but still your style might just not be what the commissioner is looking for.

And remember - the more interesting, but clean and easy to browse through, your portfolio is, the bigger chances are someone will notice you.

10. Don't pity yourself (in public).

God, that is awful. I do have lots of bad moments and honestly I don't really like most of my pieces. But what keeps me going is that I want to become better and I won't get there with whining, but with painting more. Everybody is often unhappy with their work, but keep it private. Torture your friends with it (mine are tortured already, but hey, that's what friends are for), not the rest of the world. What kind of an impression do you make as a potential employee if you just keep whining about yourself all the time in every single thing you post? Not really a stable type who can take on any challenge, right?

11. Make a good impression yourself.

Yes, it actually means a lot. Be nice. Write in understandable English (or any language you use). Check your spelling. It makes a difference. English is not my first language and I'm not great at it, but I always make sure that I sound at least understandable and didn't do any stupid typos. Most people won't care if you made some mistakes, but if your whole e-mail is written in a messy way, especially in your own language, you just make a really bad impression.

Don't show off your ego, but don't be an idiot either and learn to ignore some people. If you get a commission offer that sounds like it's been written by a dumb teenager who can't learn how to spell, but offers you 1000$ - well, ignore it, okay? I never got an email written like this with any offer that could be treated seriously. And I get a lot.

Okay, I think that's kind of enough. Hope it was fun for those who survived up to this point :D

Asian inspired.

2010-05-28T21:21:00.003+02:00

As promised, some illustrations from my Master's Degree work. Some older, some just recently finished (well, today, first two). Many refs used, obviously. I studied lots of japanese patterns and ukiyo-e, also got inspired by some poses and photos (especially the girl with red and blue flowers in her hair, here's the link to this one, it's a really cool photo), though in the end nothing was referenced too direct anyway and most started as pencil sketches. Lots of fun with colours, that's for sure ;)

Oldest is at the bottom and it's also based on the Moleskine sketch I showed earlier. It's a fun experience (still ongoing, 3 or 4 more to come). I started with a more realistic approach to move towards something more graphic, flat, line based which is what I actually wanted in first place. I just never have the courage to just leave something flat and unpolished. I have to say newest two (at the top, brown and blue) are the ones I'm most fond of. At least for now.

Ah, a fun fact for those really into details - I'm a bit in a hurry with those, so I actually re-used lots of flowers and patterns I painted before. Or you can say I just got lazy. But I guess using my own art to create new one doesn't count as cheating, does it? ;)

a gift.

2010-05-07T19:11:00.001+02:00

Busy as hell. As usual, I know. But thought I'll share a piece I painted for my Parents' 30th Anniversary. It was great fun to work on something personal and something, as it turned out, they liked a lot :) Hand painted in Photoshop CS4, it's actually a quick, unpolished work, but I like it that way.

Also it seems spring came. Kind of. Another year when it's cold as hell and I'm freezing all the time. But luckily I managed to have 3 days off in the woods with my friends and we even had some sun (the only sunny hours I seen last few weeks :/). We had lots of fun, spent one night sitting outside and another playing fun game inside (the one which was featured in Inglorious Basterds by Tarantino), sitting near fireplace. I forgot how much I needed such time and I miss it already.

By the way, some preview pieces from my Master's Degree coming soon, 'cause why not, some are ready since few months anyway. There'll be lots of geisha / japanese stuff there, I think I said a year ago or so that there'll be more coming ;)

Moleskine again

2010-02-28T21:05:00.000+01:00

Second batch of Moleskine sketches. I think it needs a bit of explanation first. I got Letraset markers for Christmas and started having some fun with them. Although I just got few colours, so my colour palette here is very limited. Still it was so much fun to be drawing with markers again.

So these are mostly just some random ideas to try out how they mix together. It turned out they pierce to the other side of the paper. It irked me at first, but then I thought it's actually fun and I sketched other things on those pages. That gave me two different, flipped pictures for one coloured piece. I didn't do all of them like that, but thought I'll post all pages anyway, even if half are just backsides of actual pics. I already started posting whole spreads here, so I might just as well continue with that. For those of you who are really observant there is one spread missing and one page is blurred. That's on purpose, these are 3 very personal pages to me and I won't be sharing them online :)

I'm thinking of re-doing some of those sketches into more finished work. When I'll have some time (ha, ha). We'll see. And since it's my first post this year - happy new year everyone! :)

Happy Christmas? And zombie apocalypse.

2009-12-21T23:16:00.000+01:00

Happy Christmas to all of you :)

Here's a preview of recent 3 pieces I painted last two months on and off (meaning when I had some time after work and studies) for Taylor Holloway's "The Living Dead" story for Irregular Magazine, coming there soon (January, I think). I just wanted to share something new, as few people wondered if I'm still alive (although on deviantart, but I have no patience for writing journals there). Still not taking commissions though, it was just a favour for a very good, old friend :)

Anyway, it took me a long time to finish those (I'm still not sure if I won't touch them up a bit, though) and I learnt a lot during fighting with bits in it. I have many work in progress shots saved, but I need to organize it first a bit. Some refs used, though not very direct (mostly for hands, and quite a few various ones for backgrounds).

Photoshop CS4 - my first pics done in it and it rocks. Especially with Windows7 64bit, 6gb ram. First time ever I can paint on A3 file size, 300dpi, without having to wait for a single brush stroke to appear on screen, guessing how it will look in the end. Which directly reminds me that I recently managed to damage two hard disk drives during one week. Go, me. Well, kind of. One was working fine one day and the next day it was dead for no apparent reason. Which sucks a lot, because it was my disk at work and I have honestly no idea what went wrong with it.

But the second one was my backup drive with almost all my files archived since, like, 2005. And it's gone. Including many .psd files, work in progress shots not to mention just many random things, photos and music (my works) I had there. And no, I wasn't storing it all just in one place, I'm not that stupid, but I was just reinstalling system and formatting hard disk that day, so for few hours my backup drive was the only place I had those. And during this short time it fell down from the table. Ha. ha. ha. Bah. Anyway, luckily I still have some of those backed up on CDs and most of them in high-res with pencil sketches somewhere in my room, but well. It's a shame. I know I keep babbling how I hate my older pieces, but losing all of it is still a big sentimental loss for me. I'm waiting to learn how much would data recovery cost, but they said for that kind of damage (mechanical) it's a LOT of money. So for 99% it's lost for good. I just hope the second disk's recovery will be more managable, as it seems it's a digital failure.

As for some other news the current score of My Car versus Winter is 0:1. My car's battery is dead yet again. Every winter the same story (it has some failure since 7+ years I drive it, I have to change its battery every single year when the temperature drops down below -15 degrees). But right now with my 22km everyday route to work it's pretty irritating.

But well, Christmas is coming. Although I won't have much time to do anything special, I'm still happy I'll be able to cook something. I miss cooking. Sometimes I think I should actually start to share some recipes here. Not that I'm very good at it, but I certainly have some passion for it :) Just expect no salt or fat in it, I hate those. And for those just thinking to ask this question, yes, I like vinegar (even though this is not the origin of my silly nickname).

So, all the best to all of you who stopped by (and managed to read it up to this place)! And sorry for the long text, I guess I had the need to babble a bit ;)

Moleskine sketches

2009-11-06T14:51:00.004+01:00

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

2009-10-29T19:53:00.003+01:00

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.

2009-08-14T00:01:00.005+02:00

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

2009-08-03T23:16:00.006+02:00

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!

2009-07-02T21:24:00.005+02:00

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.

2009-05-12T22:34:00.006+02:00

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.

2009-05-01T11:48:00.003+02:00

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 :)

X-Men girls!

2009-04-21T22:42:00.007+02:00

Just recently I re-read all issues of X-Men I have. And boy, it rocks. These comics were my life when I was a kid and Jim Lee, John Byrne and Mark Silvestri were my gods :) Right now I can't believe I used to hate Barry Windsor Smith (his Storm + Forge issue, when she lost her powers). I guess it wasn't a style easy for kids, but right now I just adore the way he draws. Anyway, that was just a cheap excuse for few quick (around 10-15mins each) pencil sketches, later quickly colored with a custom textured brush. Just for fun.

Actually I never, ever, posted a fanart online before.. And I probably never will in any place other than here. Especially on DeviantArt. Even though I do draw some once in a while. The thing is I see way too many "artists" getting instant 1000+ faves just because the really crappy pic they sent is a wanky fanart of Harry Potter, Naruto or something. And I don't want to know my art is liked just because it pictures something that is popular right now.

Although I am thinking of drawing few X-girls related pieces. As a tribute to my childhood, or something. I seriously wanted to be Storm when I was a kid. And I literally cried when they cut her hair into a mohawk. Funny how things change, as right now I think it was her best design. And I definitely hate the way new issues of X-Men look right now.

Painter XI

2009-03-26T18:48:00.003+01:00

New version of Corel Painter is out! I have the honour to be one of few featured artists in program's welcome screen. Two of my pieces have been used:

I have to say it really feels amazing. I already participated in two Corel's exhibitions at Adapt Art Expo in Montreal (2007 and 2008), but this now feels really, well, global.

And, of course, I feel bad I didn't have anything better to show. Meaning still feeling bad about my old art. I need some time to work on some more personal and just better pieces. Really, my whole online work at the moment just doesn't show what I'd like it to show. I know, I'm boring. The urge to delete everything I publish online is really big.

crap.

2009-03-05T19:26:00.004+01:00

I'm done with two more of flower series. I think the daffodils one turned out pretty okay, can't say the same about dahlias. I mean I like the colours. I like the girl. I like all elements separately. But I don't like it as a whole. Maybe it's because it literally took me few hours, less than a day, from the very beginning to the end. And I really didn't think it over. So it sucks.

The daffodils one is going to be published as a tutorial in upcoming .PSD magazine (polish edition):

Anyway. I feel a bit crap about my online art galleries recently. It doesn't represent at all what I'm doing at the moment and seems like just some kiddie stuff. Definitely doesn't look as something I could call my portfolio or even art that seems mine. I've been thinking about deleting it all, but then again I hate when other people do this, so I guess I'll leave some. I can't publish yet what I'm fond of and don't have that much time to paint more personal pieces, so I guess it will take me some time to update it with more recent pieces, that feel more personal and are technically better.

So for a while if you think my gallery's crap and boring, believe me, I do agree with you.

As for other stuff, like health, well.. I keep fighting. It's not perfect. But I believe it goes in a good direction. Usually it's recently okay, with few minor breakdowns. I guess I just can't give up. And have faith it will all pass and be just fine. But most of it happens in my head and it's really hard to keep fighting with my own paranoid thoughts. I keep trying, though.

January bits.

2009-02-02T00:14:00.005+01:00

Just two new quickies. Each took around 20-30mins, having fun with one brush in Photoshop and playing with lights a bit. I didn't really have time to paint anything except the work stuff. And as much as it's really exciting I can't show it for quite a long time.. So well, the quickies will do for now ;)

As for my new concept art job it's really challenging and fun. I get to work on many things which I rarely painted before and I can tell it teaches me a lot. Not to mention working in game dev is fun (except a really, really long commute I have - I spend around 11 hours outside home and it leaves almost no time for myself when I get back). If only my health would be all okay, I'd be really happy. It's just this, exam session and master's degree which I still have left that are bothering me at the moment..

end of 2008

2008-12-29T16:59:00.010+01:00

So, Christmas has passed. It's been really nice. Except for the funeral of my aunt just two days before it. I hope, wherever she is, she'll find peace. Honestly I've never been to a wedding (really, never in my life), but attended too many funerals of people I cared for. Sometimes I wonder if this is a reason I prefer darker themes when painting. Somehow light, heartful ones just don't speak to me and, actually, they never did.

Anyway. I started a series on scents of flowers. Maybe because I needed to draw something simple and pretty. Or maybe because I fell in love with few smells and got inspired by it? I've also been doing lots of painterly sketches last days, so it felt good to do something more stylised. Here's first one:

Close up:

Also I promised some close ups for my recent piece, Misery. So here it is for those interested:

Close up:

Only few days till 2009 begins. I look forward to it, it's been a bad year and it's good it's going to end. Well, maybe not that bad, but last half of it turned my life upside down. Health related problems and such. It's still not great, but I really hope it'll get better and I'll be back in full shape, feeling strong and all that. The worst thing is uncertainty, even when I feel good I'm just afraid if it won't get worse. I'm just scared to be scared. And, believe me, it sucks. God, how I wish I was 21-23 again, these were years I was perfectly fine.

I'm also starting a new job (as a proper concept artist this time, before I worked as a general gaming graphic artist, doing lots of pixel art too) and as much as I'm excited about it I'm also afraid how I'll manage with getting up really early (long commute), writing my master's degree essay (history of art), finishing second master's course in another town (graphics) and finding time to work on my personal projects. It's going to be hard, but maybe all these chores will help me get better and forget about, well, other things. I hope so.

Anyway, wishing you all a happy new year :)

carnival.

2008-12-10T19:33:00.002+01:00

A preview of the pic painted for .PSD magazine (polish edition). Will be printed with a tutorial, tips etc. around February, I think.

As for some other stuff - my birthday has recently passed. Meaning I'm 25. So it's safe to say I left my teen days for good and can't pretend I'm not a proper adult anymore. Lesson learnt hard way. I even have some grey hair already, heh.. So, here's to growing up, not doing (too) dangerous things and hoping last year's events won't happen again. Cheers! :)

quick landscape sketches

2008-12-01T13:02:00.003+01:00

Photoshop CS2 + Painter X.

recent artbooks featuring my work

2008-11-30T17:23:00.008+01:00

There's been three artbooks published last month featuring my artwork (no cover art of mine though):

To get them visit:
Ballistic Publishing for Exotique 4,
Ilex Press for Gothic Art Now,
and Drakaina.

second part of 2008

2008-11-30T16:19:00.005+01:00

Just a few selected pieces done in the second part of 2008:

First two (Her Own Funeral and Duke of Shadows) are a part of my personal project. The last one (Topielica) is (hopefully) a start of series about slavic myths.

an octopus dream.

2008-02-16T19:58:00.004+01:00

some stuff from few months back.

2007-12-23T19:03:00.002+01:00

a pencil sketch for one of my projects (some textures added in PS7):

unfinished picture from last summer, I think I'll try to redraw it soon.

for those curious how my regular workshop looks like when I paint bigger, traditional stuff ;)

mini GW commission samples.

2007-12-23T18:39:00.001+01:00

some of the mini GW commissions I did a while ago, pencils on A4 paper.

Hb.

2007-02-05T18:05:00.001+01:00

having fun with a new hat I got. Honestly, my grandparents sometimes have really funny ideas for gifts ;) Hb is a model.

Anna & Adam

2007-02-05T17:58:00.001+01:00

P.'s new camera / buffeta cafe

2006-10-18T00:43:00.001+02:00

photos by me (except first two and last one for obvious reasons ;))