Nightmare Behind The Door

Here is a little drawing for your musing. :)

"Nightmare Behind The Door", micron pen on paper, 30cm (H) x 21cm (W)

The idea is not original and I'm sure sixty millions other artists had done it before. Nonetheless I hope it brings a little smile on your face.

This drawing was done as a consolation after I mucked up another drawing. I was in no mood to paint it and also I have a feeling that it works better in simple black and white, like a cartoon stripe from newspaper.

About the "muck up", I have learn the DON'Ts of my painting process.

1) Do not start painting when I'm not sure about the overall composition.

I knew I wasn't happy with the composition but thought by painting it, the drawing will begin to work. I was wrong!

2) Do not start painting when I'm stressing out.

I was stressing out on some major personal matters and thought working on a drawing would help to clam me down. The fact is I have kind of obsessive (addictive?!) personality. Once I got a problem or issue at hand, I'm like a dog with a bone.

With my mind chewing onto the personal matter, I failed to make sensible creative decision for my drawing.

3) Just because I love "graduated wash" background, does not mean it is suitable for a drawing.

I have been practicing to use ink to do graduated wash background for a little while. Though far from being good at it, I think I got the hang of it. So I decided to use it for a drawing. But due to the subjects (plants) of my drawing, the graduated wash background made the plants looks like they're sprouting out from mist.

4) Do not change color theme of a drawing after color test.

I got into a habit to do color test for my drawing. The test is about ink color mixing and how each color works / compliment each other. At this stage, I just can't visualize how some colors work without seeing them on paper. I'll do a rough sketch of my drawing on cartridge paper and test it out with different color combination. (I'm quite picky of the tone and hue of colors.)

With this plant drawing, for some unknown reasons, I decided to change part of the background color from the original tested grayish blue to gray. I thought I was making the drawing more moody, but the gray tone I used actually made the plant looked like they were coming out from muddy plain.

I'm not sure if I want to work on the plant drawing for now as this entire "muck up" experience is still very disturbing and frustrating to me.

I think I'm going to give myself a break and after all, Easter holiday is just two days away. Good to wind down and recharge ..... but that personal matter ..... arrrrgh .....

Mushroom Frenzy

I have spent the week researching reference photos for a drawing idea. Though I found some, I have not worked out the overall composition. So I'm a bit stuck and have nothing to show for the week.

To keep up with my learning of drawing, I spent Sunday working on "graduated wash" technique. So far so good - I could paint a graduated wash background to half of an A4-size.

And to cheer myself up, I bought these mushroom cards to go with my mushroom drawing. It seems like everyone is into mushrooms nowadays! :D



So there you go, not a very productive week .....

Rabbit Hole (again ...)

"Rabbit Hole", ink and paper, 21cm (H) x 30cm (W)

I know, I know ... the background was so poorly painted that I should not display it at all. Or at least I should crop it better before uploading it.

The fact is I'm loving everything about this drawing. I don't know why. And I can't quite put a finger on the feelings I have when I'm looking at it.

I love animals and intend to become good at drawing them. But I'm never into rabbits. Yes, they're cute and that's about it. And the reason why I did this drawing was because of all these bunnies cropping up everywhere. (Read my earlier post here.) So I took that as a "sign" to make a drawing of rabbits. Well, basically to "exorcise" them out of my system. :D

But after finishing the rabbit, I kept looking at it and looking at it and looking at it. I can't quite tear my eyes from the bunny. And then I started to think about the other rabbit which was about to jump out from the rabbit hole. What does it look like? BANG! I remembered I had written about my ears turning into bunny ears. OMG, that was ME climbing out from the rabbit hole! I swear that I wasn't thinking about myself when I was working on the 2nd rabbit. Actually I wasn't thinking of anything at all. It just happened.

This is really freaky but in a kind of nice way, I think. ;)

As usual, my fellow bloggers and creatives, I'd love to know what you think about this drawing.

P.S. Wonder if I'll regret of putting this drawing up when I become a world famous artist someday, hahaha!

We're All In This Together

"We're All In This Together", ink and paper, 21cm (H) x 30cm (W)

This one was finished about a week ago. Have been waiting for fine weather to take photo. (Not that we had much last week ... a freaking hail and storm caused a minor damage of the back porch of my house ... hence pls forgive the less of brightness of the photo)

After all the bright color starfishes, I decided to go for a new color palette. A kind of musty tone which is more my kind of color. I'm quite pleased with my pen and brush work of the mushrooms.

This was my first attempt to use washes and a bit of freehand drawing to create foreground. And honestly, I had the slightest idea of what I was doing. It was one thing to read about the technique from books and another to do it. So I'd like to know what you all think about it. Have I been able to create the "impression" of a "passable" grassland or it just looked smudges of green? ;)

Also, I'll be very interested to know if the the title and visual work together. I hope my usual whimsical / quirky take on things still there in this drawing.

Though I'm still struggling (i.e. learning) to draw, I'm enjoying it greatly. And I think I manage to improve my overall skill drawings after drawings.

Til then, have a good day my fellow bloggers and creatives.

Rabbit Hole

Is it me? Or because of the soon to be released movie "Alice in Wonderland" in Australia? Or being a month away from Easter? I keep bumping into bunnies everywhere I go. The rabbits even managed to jump into almost everything I read! Every now and then I have to feel my ears to ensure that they are not growing into the fluffy bunny ears.

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Still working on the drawing. No photo yet! Sorry!!!

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You can tell I'm writing this in desperation. "I'm here! Please don't leave me. Please come and visit me." ;)

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Oh, gosh I must have fallen into the rabbit hole!

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Pardon me! I'm a bit nutty here!

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