Cezanne on they way

A contest was announced in our school a while ago. It's theme was to find out about Cezanne's or The-One-Whose-Name-I-Can-Not-Remember-Though-I've-Tried and create an still life oil painting on canvas inspired by that artist. It hasn't been clearly described if we have to make a work exactly like that artist, using the same techniques and colours or just show the same attitude towards painting still lives as they did. I read three books about Cezanne, his life, works and problems and I went through plenty of reproductions of his paintings. I didn't want to create a work that can be called "pretending to be Cezanne" but something more like "apples and oranges on white cloth" as he did :)

My sister Kate composed a still life for me since I'm shitty in this matter... All the still lives I have ever tried to compose looked so lame :P

Here you can see the process. Colour of the photos were not adjusted in photoshop, I've just cropped them a bit because they showed the tragic mess I had in my room.






I brought the painting to my school today and gave it to the contest organizers. My friend Bartosz also made a painting, Anne from our group too. I think her works (she made two paintings) are the best ^^

I'll make some photos and show them here as soon as the entrants' exhibition will be showed in our school's gallery. Wonder what the judges will decide and what they will take into account while judging.

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We've got a hamster! :D He's name is Fryderyk and he's happy to meet you :3


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Time - Illustration Friday

It's been a while since I did something for Illustration Friday... But I found this week's theme too interesting to resist.

When I think of time few images come to my mind: a boy from the romantic period standing under an enormous tree, clocks, mother and her little child painting their nails and much much more. What also appeared in my mind was Father Time :) That's a funny person. He lives together with Mother Nature and loves clocks.

But sometimes he surely wants to get rid of all those ticking sleep disturbers :D


Here are some character designs I did before getting down to final picture:






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Birthday party

Over a week ago (has it already a week passed?! Unbelievable!) I was on my friend's, Bartosz, birthday party :) It was a first party where so many people came! Quite stunning achievement, I should say, since it's obvious for our 3 (me, Kuba and Bartosz) that we can be accompanied only by Monster Princess, our friend Eve and her sister and sometimes by my sister Kate. Others just don't have time. After a while we didn't even feel the urge to invite anybody else because we knew that noone will appear. However, this time we've decided that due to winter holidays we all have a lot of free time and we can possibly mention that there will be a little (birthday) party going on just after term ends and before everyone goes skiing or sth. And TA-DAAM! Here they came! So many people that I've felt even a bit weird about that :D and surely Bartosz's dog felt weird - he's got all confused and didn't know on who he should bark.

Parties and lazy evenings with my small pack of friends are what I sometimes need the most but it's good to, from time to time, check if you can still talk with people you barely know and have fun while doing it :)

Only one picture good enough to show :D I should contact other girls who had cameras with them then to send me the photos - maybe they'll be easier to stand ;) (from the left: Kuba, me, our friend Eve, Ania and Justyś from our group in school)

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When I was going home from the party in the middle of the night I had this odd feeling just when I passed spruces growing near my block of flats. It's hard to describe it but it's easier when you see it...


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You can find my friends here:
Bartosz
My sister Kate
Kuba

End of term on drawing/painting classes

I knew it would come sooner or later :/ and as usual it came too soon.

I was wondering why it's so hard for me to work properly while being at school. Conclusions are - the best option would be working in my very own atelier (which I do not have, unfortunately) and being from time to time visited by sb with a greater experience.
Things that stand in my way are: music, brakes and my own limits.
I hate and I simply can not work without music. Don't know how anyone can. Of course when you're working outside and you're surrounded by beautiful nature and its sounds another kind of music is unnecessary. However, if you're working with a dozen of other students in the same class you need music to distance yourself from the unstoppable chatter going on all around you. Some tunes tucked inside your ears are a must ;)
What also makes it hard to concentrate is the need to make breaks all the time to get some coffee from the coffee-machine or go to the shop to get something to eat and similar. There's always something missing and you have the urge of getting something else that, oh that's a surprise, you haven't brought from home or bought earlier. It's always the same. But what's more silly about this - is that I like to take those brakes :) (but my works hate them)
Although you can make something with the problems mentioned above, it's a bit harder to get rid of this one - the need to open one's mind and start creating a bit more innovative things when you know that you'll be making a still-life again. I'm sorry, I just hate them. And I'm even more sorry to say that I hate our model to the point of puking when I see him... I can study while drawing/painting still-lives, I can try to understand and remember why the light looks so in this place and differently in the other; I can see how colours influence their surrounding and search the way to show that something is closer than something else but I think that's it. And, actually, I think I know enough for now to start doing sth else. When I think of it in the morning before going to the classes I just go to sleep for another few hours.

But now I'd like to show you the 2 (from 3) paintings I did and the drawings. Here we go ^^

First painting I did after the summer brake. It's very small for my standards but this wooden duck there it's kinda cute. I've tried using oil pastels when the paint has dried. The effect s quite nice so I think I'll try it also on a bigger painting next term :)

Big one and so-mine one :) Why haven't I made more pictures like this one? :/

Rysio, our fascinating model. I'm so sick of his lillipop-like figure - big belly and four thin sticks coming out of it. Oh! Don't forget about a big red nose!

Used fine-tip felt pen here together with pencils.

My Monster Princess posing day :D She was studying something connected with anatomy then, I think

Bartosz :) I like the simplicity of this one

The Monster Princess again :)

This is my favourite. I like the way I;ve managed to show the space, the way lines vary and the bit of still-life I've chosen :)

This drawing is similar to the previous one in the method of drawing I've used. Can it be called a method?

The last one. I've made a lot of drawings ike this in the previous term: brown and blue paint + pencils all over them. It can give a great effect if you pay attention to the light's temperature :)

Here are we on the day of Half-Final Judgement :P


It'd be too obvious if I said now that I'll be working harder next term. So I won't say that :3

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