Embarking on this blog since 2014, I’ve curated a visual chronicle of my imaginative endeavors. Here, you’ll uncover my kaleidoscope of raw work each narrating a chapter of my artistic evolution as I hone my skills and grow as an artist.
August 22 - 2023
BLOG POST PAGES
|-- 2023 - 2017 --| page 27 - page 26 - page 25
|-- 2017 - 2016 --| page 24 - page 23 - page 22 - page 21 - page 20 - page 19 - page 18
|-- 2016 - 2015 --| page 17 - page 16 - page 15
|-- 2015 - 2014 --| page 14 - page 13 - page 12 - page 11 - page 10 - page 9 - page 8
|-- 2014 - 2013 --| page 7 - page 6 - page 5 - page 4 - page 3 - page 2 - page 1
Back to figure drawing. It’s interesting that after a break from these, I find that suddenly some parts, I used to struggle with, are now easier to do. And some parts are harder to do, like getting a sketch done within the 1 or 2 mins time limit.
I am fairly happy with how this turned out. I did not “cheat” by stopping the video this time, and I think I still got the important parts of the poses noted down during the time available.
This drawing is inspired by one of my random photos again. It’s from a trip to an aquarium in London. It was great fun to draw this door knob …fish …goblin thing. I like how the texture, highlights, and shadow on the heavy ring turned out.
Shiny metal is hard to draw, especially with two different metals together. So are inanimate objects and perspective. I usually shy away from drawing anything with strict straight lines, not to mention strict and accurate curves.
I searched for a random photo in my archive again today and this diver’s helmet came up. A nice thing about picking among my old photographs as references for drawings, is that I find that even crappy photos I can usually turn into a nice drawing. This photo was a disaster of over exposure, but it had it’s use after all. I think I was well out of my comfort zone here, but it was still great fun to draw. Now it’s a drawing that I like a lot.
I started out this drawing three days back. I wanted to draw my grandmother, Thea. Reference is a photo from the 1920ies. It got late and I decided to go sleep, before the drawing was done. Next day I spent staring at that unfinished drawing. Something about it bothered me, but I could not pinpoint what it was.
Today I started out staring at it again, trying to figure out what to do about it. I ended up realizing her expression is quite like Mona Lisa’s. Is she smiling or is she sad? Smiles are hard to get right. But I learnt, that this expression is even harder to capture! Well done Leonardo!
In the end I decided to start over. That was probably a good idea. I feel much better about this version. She is still smiling a bit too much on my drawing compared to the photo. Some day I’d like to try draw this portrait again. There is something enigmatic and so very interesting about trying to capture the smile that’s not quite there, but not quite absent 🙂
Yesterday was an amazingly beautiful day with subzero temperatures and a thick fog. I went walking my usual morning walk as soon as the light came. Everything was quiet, dampened by the fog perhaps. Not a branch or blade of grass moved. It felt like the entire world was asleep – pure magic. As I reached my small local forest I had to turn back home to get my camera. I encountered this fairy tale landscape you see, and I just had to capture it.
Later that day I wanted to draw, using the same technique, I used when I drew the wolf cubs. I clicked randomly on my photo folders, with my eyes closed, till one photo popped up on my screen. Quite fittingly for today’s weather, it turned out to be a photo of a snow lantern, that my kid and I once built.
I did not have hours and hours to draw today. So I opened my folder with my photographs, closed my eyes, and clicked a few times. I assume I hit various folders, and when I opened my eyes again, this was on my screen. It’s the wolf cubs from Scandinavian Zoo close by where I live. They are relaxing/semi-hiding at their den, waiting for their parents to return. I made a quick 10 minutes sketch of them. I think I took a giant leap forward with my last drawing, since suddenly proportions seems to be much easier to get right today.
Higher resolution
Another portrait from the old family photos. This is my grandfathers charming older brother, Oluf, who was a sailor, when he was young. It’s fun to draw these old images, since there’s an elegance and style I really like about them.
This drawing I am absolutely happy with. I think I not only captured a random human this time, he actually looks like Oluf. I’ll call this a breakthrough drawing. Progress!
This is a fairly quick sketch of my granddad Jens Victor in his twenties. Drawing clothes is hard! But drawing clothes from old photographs is also super inspiring.
I have been listening to “Wardruna” lately. It’s pretty dark Viking inspired music, and I like it a lot. As I was listening to this song today, I just knew I had to draw something Viking inspired. I like the Mammen style, and I knew I had a photo of the Cammin Casket from the National Museum in Copenhagen. So I dug into my archive and found the photo and this happened:
I made a small drawing yesterday. It was only around 10 – 15 mins work, using my own photo as reference as usual. It was way more fun to do this little cheetah than I thought it would be. I am happy about the result. It is funny how time and effort sometimes don’t at all correlate with the quality of the resulting drawing. Sometimes less is way more 🙂
