The Sky Whale (W.I.P.)

I saw this pic on the 'net some time ago of this scuba guy hi-fiving a humpback whale.

Something about that photo just caught me and well...a while later I had this idea to draw it. But in my twisted way of course. I've been drawing monsters lately and it's been quite some time since I've drawn anything grotesque. And I want to do BIG drawings now. Like huge! :D

So I bought the largest Art block I can find, size is A2 and woohoo I was getting high off all that expanse of blank paper! :P So here's the result (still in progress):

The weapon of choice are Sharpie markers. Oh the fumes...

It is sort of set in a post-apocalyptic world (oh I love those) and the 'whale' is part machine. Cyborg Sky Whale.

And this is how far I've got as of now. I originally intended the guy to be holding on to the top of a leaning building but I'm gonna change that now to maybe him being on a jetpack or something.

The whale with its many eyessss...

Detail of that swirly brain.

It's not finished yet, not by a long shot. Gonna unroll it and work on it some more soon. :)

Nurturing Heart

A friend of mine sent me a link to a Threadless Design Challenge. The theme was 'Love'. I began work at 9am Sunday morning and did not stop till 11:30pm that night...and made the deadline! Now I'm waiting for the design to be approved for scoring :D I've always wanted to do t-shirt designs, and looking at all the submissions gave me loads of ideas. This is my first t-shirt design but it won't be my last! Nurturing Heart will also be available as a digital print :)

Threadless Design Challenge Link

Enjoy and love life! ;)

At the Threshold - Evolution of a Sketch

Finally got around to working on this piece after a looong while! Originally it was titled "Through the Open Door" and began as a rough thumbnail sketch in my sketchbook:

So then I scanned it and drew out a cleaner copy in Photoshop:

But for some reason the image didn't call to me and it stayed stagnant in my hard drive until yesterday, when I reworked it again:

I flipped the drawing around, added more stuff around the door - I wanted the room to appear claustrophobic and cluttered. And the girl was no longer lingering by the door, she's bounded out with the cat! (yeah only 1 cat here).

Then I decided to change it again and the girl is once again behind the doorframe, but taking the first step outside. There are 5 cats now, all in various progress of exiting the room:

The final clean drawing before colouring!:
There are 3 grades of lines to help emphasize parts of the drawing. Most of the clutter will be in deep shadow, and the outside is very bright.

Is this home?

A moment of culture shock. Started out as just the girl and the monster...the futuristic, industrial background just cropped out of nowhere. I mean, I thought to myself, what would a girl and a monster be standing there looking at? I guess a new home would be appropriate. A home full of steel, glass, smoke and high speed transit.

The Girl and the Monster

It's been far too long since I've updated here...I was concentrating on my papercuttings, so no sketches or prints for a couple of months! But now I'm taking a break from papercutting, and I'm totally in the mood for drawings! Lots and lots of drawings. I was looking through my work from high-school and A-levels...sometimes I get so competitive with myself that it's detrimental to me. Funny isn't it? I always push myself so hard to improve and improve, but if I had not done that I would not be at the level of skill that I am now. The thing is I often neglect to keep in mind the intention of why I'm doing this in the first place.

All these processes of drawings, papercuttings, digital illustrations among others bring me such joy. When I'm caught in the artwork is when I'm totally in touch with my life and being. I've sort of forgotten and neglected this along the way, replaced it with a constant rush to create and create. I've let my art become me instead of me driving my art. I guess the warning signs came when I was rushing to produce the final artwork for Dance of the Tempest instead of enjoying every single cut and line. Though the final piece looks reasonably good I feel that something is lacking in it. I always used to pour my emotions and feelings into each piece, a bit of my soul in every line. That is what I saw when I looked back at my old drawings. And this is what I'm going to strive to recover and bring back to my artwork again :)

Introspection over, now back to the drawing at hand! For a long while now I had a quick scribble in my sketchbook of lil' Red Riding Hood lying in the leaves face to face with the Hungry Wolf. It's just a close up of their faces. That hasn't been manifested yet, this came out instead. Not little Red Riding Hood, just a girl facing a monster. In a field of butterflies and a background of tangled roots.

And a close up of their faces.

Enjoy :)