Digital sketching #1

So I've called the last year super busy. Well... I had no idea what I was talking about :/

I had to drop my daily sketching because I felt too overwhelmed with all those projects I had to do. Daily sketches + all social media went on hiatus but I guess I can slowly come back to them again :)

I have like a ton of illustrations to make so I have kept my sketchbook busy. It's full of new ideas and inspirational drawings - I will show them to you next time.

Right now I have decided to make quick digital sketches as my warm up. It's quite unusual for me because I'm a line girl: I always use lines, I think in lines, I create in lines. When I paint something digitally I always start with lines and then fill them up with colour. However, I wanted to try something new + learn something new too, so in those digital sketches I'm using only flat colours and concentrate mostly on finding the right values, hues and presenting light. Let me tell you - without sketching it first and without helping myself with some lines it's freaking hard.

Here's the first batch of sketches. You can laugh now ;)

Drawing my desk got easier so now I'm moving to outside views. Don't tell it anyone but... I have no idea where on the colour wheel is the colour of.. grass 0_0 No idea. Really.

A.

Daily Sketch III - Day #51-60

No "From my sketchbook" this weekend, sorry guys! The weather was too gloomy to take good photos of my sketchbook :/ But surely someday during this week there will be a pretty sun up on the sky and I will be able to take those photos! Absolutely for sure!

But you still have some pictures to see. Here are next 10 sketches from the Daily Sketch challenge. Some of them weren't shown on Instagram / Twitter / Tumblr - you are the first ones to take a glimpse. Enjoy!

 I've promised you last time that I will give up with sooooo many portraits of the cats so I've decided to give it a try and make some environments. Well, the cat needs to live somewhere, doesn't he?

 That's his bed :)

Promise broken! Damn, this cat just can't stop himself from showing up!

 I've used a blue pencil for this one but I've used it too delicately and my scanner wanted to eat it all up. It was quite a battle to get it back on the picture...

This time I used the blue pencil more firmly (though it's more bluish in reality).

That's all. Right now I'm on my 64th sketch and I'm doing some of them digitally to practice those skills too. Actually, I've created a list of things I want to practice so I won't feel uninspired and won't just waste my time on meaningless doodling.

There's something new in the sketching universe too. Check out @Sketch_Dailies on Twitter - they give daily topics to sketch + retweet best pictures throughout the day. If you're lacking ideas or want to be "forced" to try drawing something out of your comfort zone then come and join the fun :)

A.

From my sketchbook #17

My sketches keep on appearing in an enormous amount. Here are some selected pages from my January sketchbook with the cat character.

 First sketch of him. Looks pretty neat but is quite boring too. So I've decided to make more reference sketches (of wildcats and lynxes).

 Now I was ready to go further. Firstly, I've decided what is attitude and character is like. Then I've tried to show it in those simple sketches on the left. I've chosen a pugnacious and "glamorous" pose - I think it shows his vanity the best ;)

Yes, that's totally him!

Enough of the cat for now. Next week I will show you sketches of the cat's girl companion (which you might have already glimpsed in my Daily Sketch post).

A.

Disguise - Illustration Friday

A new character I've created - a bird girl (no name for her yet, sorry!). You have already seen her in my 23rd daily sketch, that was the first time I drew her.

A.

2013 in photos - Personal Thursday #10

I've done this sort of posts in the past and I thought it's good time to bring them back :) I have not blogged too much this past year, even though lots of things happened in my life. I've been busy all year long and here's a glimpse of that:

January

 My bosses' dog (Tina) is my working companion. She's spoiled like a little brat!

February

 National Forests in Poland has got online cams which show birds' feeders during day and European bisons' (and other forest animals') haystack during night. My cats got quite frantic while watching the birds. They constantly checked if they can catch them from behind the screen ;) 

Forest cams website

April

 A super neat embroidery I've designed, prepared and supervised (aka I was standing next to a machine when it made it and I was sticking felt shapes in the right places and the right time). It's inspired by Polish folklore art.

May

 My love for corgis continues as I went to see a dog show just to stare at them :)

 I went on an illustration course to Kraków held by Fundacja Sztuki Nowej ZNACZY SIĘ and taught by Joanna Olech (a well known Polish children book writer and illustrator). It was great and I learned a lot :)

June

 This is IK (Idaliński Kot), a cat that often accompanies me to and from work/bus stop. She's super friendly and quite stinky ;) When I took this photo it was just after rain and she was totally wet. Which of course didn't stop her from jumping on my knees and trying to head bump me!

 It's someone's lost key/phone charm that looks absolutely as if I've done it. It was so weird to see it.

Painted new cat sneakers for myself to wear on a music festival.

July

 Music festival + beach = loveliness

(oh that background photobombing)

 You shouldn't see this photo because we were forbidden to take photos. Anyway - here's a human body from The Human Body exhibition (and there's me in the middle!).

In August I was working tirelessly on book illustrations. They were incredibly cute so it was a pure pleasure.

August

 Well, if you find this position comfortable then I'm not complaining...

 Preparing my cornflower tattoo design. I still haven't got it ready but I'm not in any type of hurry.

 I went on an art camp with my sister's art school. We went to Bieszczady Mountains and I went swimming every day (look at THIS and you'll understand). That's my youngest sister next to me in the photo :)

October

 The book I've been illustrating in June-August is ready! It looks fabulous. I will post a review + some WIP pictures for you to see soon!

November

 My silkscreen designs got into the next level. That's how I feel about them anyway :)

 Since some time (July 2013?) my Love and I have been a lot into craft beer. We decided to make a small "beer night" for my family. You cannot only drink popular European lagers all the time, can you?

 December

 Here's a size chart of all illustrations to one of the books I was illustrating in December. Illustrations were made traditionally - I would trace the shapes (and numbers!) onto watercolour paper and then paint.

I started Daily Sketches (3rd edition!) on the 1st of December. Right now I'm on my 54th sketch and it's as much fun as I've remembered it to be :)

Hope your 2013 was great but your 2014 will be awesome!

A.

Daily Sketch III - Day #41-50

This time my sketches has been completely taken over by a Cat and a Girl with long hair. Hope you don't mind - they are a rather cute couple :) I will make something different for the next 10 days, I promise.

 First design of the Cat. Based on photos of my old cat.

 

 Drawing from photo reference - it's a wildcat. My cat (see: picture above) was a half wildcat.

 First design of the Girl. Long hair, long tail, small horns and cute arms + legs.

 Designing the outfit of the Girl. First comes the cape/hood.

 And then the underneath part. A simple dress looks much better than puffy shorts she had at the beginning.

 This sketch captures her personality the best.

 Though I find this one super cute :)

 My mum's cat.

 Back to designing the Cat. I've changed his proportions a bit so he's more recognizable. I'm not sure if this is the final design... However, the "feeling" of him is just right.

"Oh, hey there. You come here often?"

That's it for this time. Now on to the next batch (I will post them on 30th or 31st January).

A.