Reflect - Illustration Friday

That was quite a big coincidence with this week's Illustration Friday's topic.
I paint my Daily Sketches each morning and since for some time I've been painting in a splash method* I don't really have much influence in what I will paint. And my Friday's, 27th Daily Sketch's, splashes reminded me of a lake :) So here it is - a peaceful reflection.

I will post next bunch of sketches (#21-30) tomorrow so you can see the rest of the splash art. Also, I think I will add photos of how the splashes looked before I got down to them :) It's quite interesting - everyone or anyone can see something entirely different in them.

If you can't wait for those photos you can check my Instagram, where I show them daily.

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* I splash some paint on paper and when it dries I try to find some sense in those strokes, dots and marks.

Swamp - Illustration Friday + DS II 48

You can see some progress photos of making this picture on my Facebook page.

I have this feeling that I'm reaching my limits with hair pictures. Well, I've made at least 20 of them + countless sketches - I give myself a permission to feel I have used the theme to the full.

Wonder what will come now ;)

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Tarot

I don't know if there's a holiday like this somewhere else, so you may not know that the day of 30th of October is the day of fortune-telling in Poland.

There are many many different ways of telling what will be one's future - some are used all over the world (like pouring liquid wax through a key hole and finding meaning of the given shape by seeing its shadow) and some are, maybe, used only in Poland. I haven't looked closely to it so I cannot tell you :)

Back to the point. Because of this holiday we had a special guest in our coffee shop. He stayed with us for few hours and used his tarot cards to answer people's questions.

I've decided to give it a try before any other customer got interested. I do believe in fortune-telling as I cast runes from time to time and they have never guided me wrong.

I've asked if my illustrations will conquer the world.

First, I had to draw a card that describes me and where I actually am.

 I'm the fool ;P And I'm beginning my journey. It's a beginning of a beginning so not even a single step had been taken.

Then came three cards describing (probably) past, present and future. Although the tarotist said something like "Let's see what your fate thinks about it..". I don't know much about different tarot layouts so I'm not sure. Maybe you know?

I'm not sure if I remembered the last 2 cards right. I'm sure that the 2nd one got wands and that there were 5 or 6 of them and only the one with 5 fits what was described. About the 3rd - picture on a card was presenting a man like Odysseus - on a boat with his eyes covered, tied to some ship's part, with few mermaids in water in the background. I have not read what was the card's name so it was really hard to find it. And I have totally not seen any swords there. Or cups or anything else of this sort. But the person with covered eyes looks just like it. Hope I got it right :)

And this is the answer:
I have to go out to the world with what I make. What is happening now is just the beginning, and it's even hard to tell where this journey will lead me.

After all this fortune-telling I was asked to draw another card to check if I understood what I've been told, and this is it:

I'm still alone in my journey but there's a bit of light ^^

Hope everything will go well. I really do.

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Contraption - Illustration Friday

 Is a swing enough to be called a contraption? :)

This is a custom illustration I did recently. It was made for Moomins' fan. I'm also a fan of those stories so it was a pleasure to paint it :)

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Big bed and tough sleep

Some time ago I've been asked to make a try out (sample) illustration to the Andersen's story 'The princess and the pea'. Good picture would give me an opportunity to illustrate the whole book so I wanted to do it the best I could. Obviously :)

Oh, illustrating Andersen's fairy tales would be like an early Christmas! *__*

 I've started with designing the princess. I wanted her to be slim and 'long'. It fits princesses in my opinion :)

 This one looked nice enough so I stayed with her as my princess. Then it was time for the whole illustration's composition.

The main idea was to show how big is the bed because of all the blankets and mattresses. But the princess needed to be clearly visible too (the publisher wrote so).

 And that's what I liked the most.

 It has been quite hard to draw the princess, though. With this long neck and big head she looked like a lollipop. Or as if her head was just to fall off. It was hard!

 But I've managed :)

As you might have noticed - sketches were prepared for a horizontal illustration for two pages but the final is vertical. That's what happens when you read without understanding! Thankfully I've noticed this point of description before colouring, so I just had to play a bit with the sketch in Photoshop. Uf!

Still, I didn't get the job :(
But publisher said that they liked my illo a lot and they will remember me. We'll see what comes out of it.

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Books of inspiration - March and April

 As you know, for an artist it's very important to be inspired as much as possible. But during bad times it's almost impossible to feel this creativity flowing in your veins. So for times like this and for those one's that appear to be gloomy or sleepy or just colourless, I collect books. Books to stare at :)

What I've got:
1. 'Chester' by Mélanie Watt
2. 'Beauty and the Beast' by Max Eilenberg with illustrations by Angela Barrett
3. 'Splat the Cat' by Rob Scotton
4. 'Russell the Sheep' also by Rob Scotton

So check out those illustrations. Some are simple, some are amazingly complicated but they all inspire me to work more and always give me a good kick of motivation :)

I have totally forgotten that I have also bought next book by Beatrix Potter to my collection. This time it was 'The tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle'. I have now 11 books written by her - there's still a lot to buy!

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Daily Sketch - 92; Star Gazing - Illustration Friday

A bit out-of-date but it's worth waiting :)

I drew this picture in Andren (my notebook) with something particular in mind - on my birthday, as every year, the Perseid meteors were visible and a little trip has been organized to watch them. There were 8 people (if I remember it right) and we were enjoying ourselves a lot. Maybe only mosquitoes were the annoying and not-so-good part ;)

I've added colours in Photoshop and I really like the final effect. I like the softness of those animals :)

The bunny is me (this you should know)
The sheep is my Love (you could probably know that too)
The bird is Grubcio
The mouse is Lesio
The cat is Dusin
And the fox is my sister Kate :)

I haven't been thinking about the real people while drawing this but it somehow appeared that they suit the animals :)

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Królewskie Źródła

First thing: take a look at two sketches I did lately. The second one, with a cat on a beach, is already finished. It is the second design which should give me the job. I was asked to do sth more childish and no bugs included :D You can see the process at my LiveStream.

Here is a project for IF's/Children's Illustrator theme - mix of 'ahead' and 'dragonfly'. But I don't know if I'll manage to do it before month's end.. :(

Sweetie :3

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Yesterday we (my family) went on a little trip because the weather was so nice and we bought a new car 3 days ago and since then everyone is willing to travel all the time :3 So we went to Królewskie Źródła (Regal Mineral Springs). There is a fabulous forest there. It's a soothing place; soothing beyond imagination. Unfortunately, we came there on Sunday so there were masses MASSES! of people but only on the main trail. We took a different route and got relaxed and happy anyway :D

I took only few pictures because I have forgotten to charge camera's battery =.= My mum used the camera on the day before and I haven't checked if it's at least half full.

Those are my parents and my little sister. The medium sister didn't come this weekend.

Tina! :D

And again! :) It's hard to take pictures of her because she's afraid of cameras and cell phones, don't know why...

And something from the previous week - black and white monster making a mess on a desk :)


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Earth Day and the most beautiful video

I rarely see videos and clips made so well and those which have so much to tell us. And this is one of those unique pearls :)

Fungi farm and the Guardian of the Gate

On Thursday I took my sister to the cinema where our mum was waiting for her. I did not go on the movie - I was just to take her there and then take her back home and walk her to school. So I ended up with soooo much free time and nothing to do. My plan to go and buy some acrylics was a good one as long as it appeared it took me 15 minutes ;]

So I decided to buy myself some coffee, a cheap notebook and very cheap pen and draw while waiting. That was a good idea!

Remember my idea for a contest entry? I showed it in the last post.

So here's more of the idea :) This is Gaku - the Guardian of the Gate. he's a bull, although it may not seem so ;)

This is Sebastian, a small hedgehog. He's very brave and full of energy.

This is Krasula, Gaku's daughter. (INFO = "Krasula" is a Polish word, it's a way of calling a cow; so in English it would be "Roan")

This is Sebastian and Krasula. As you may guess - they will become friends ^^

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On the Wednesday evening I went with my Love and his friends , whom I loke a lot!, on one of those friend's allotment. We had a barbecue and we played bilard and ping pong and drank some %, but not too much ;) In the morning we were sitting outside, warming in the sunshine. It was a very nice ascapade.

Here's an introduction of the place :)

There were many pretty flowers outside a house.

And even more fungi. That's why I called it a 'Fungi Farm' ;)

Like from a fairy-tale... You may not believe but it's the first time I saw toadstool. I only saw it in books and movies but not in reality ;P

There were many old toadstool there too. Some of them even lost their dots. This is one that was curved in from its oldness ;P Don't know if you see it but for me the water shapes into a heart symbol :3

Tiny spider :3 Trees and bushes on this allotment had beautiful leaves' colours. Yellow, orange, red, violet... amazing!

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The Fallow - introduction and progress

My Love's parents have an allotment with a little "house" there and they've asked me to paint something, anything, on a wall inside to make the whole place look more interesting. Love told me to paint a tree and you will see it in a while but first - introduction of the place :) We call it Ugór - The Fallow.

Ant. There are a lot of ants there! (And spiders too!)

The only two apples that an apple tree gave this year ;P

Cat. Looks creepy if you ask me...

Blueberries. All eaten :/

Wild strawberries. They taste like a bubble gum :D

Raspberry bush. All raspberries are eaten, unfortunately :(

Fungi. I tend to squash them :3

Though they look quite nice ^^

Pontoon. Would look lovely with fish or frogs inside :)

Spider!

And here's the tree :) It's only the beginning.

My Love helped me a lot :*

I was drinking orange tea most of the time ;P

Almost finished! One branch is too thick, must be changed.

Only few small touch-ups to go. This is how it will look when totally finished - with pictures in the rectangles. Love's mum has to make a dark red coverlet for the bed that's there and then it will look all right :)

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