Thursday 29 October 2015

Snow Queen




Recently I decided to enrich my portfolio with an illustration for a classic tale. After short considerations my choice fell on "Snow Queen". 
I had a very clear idea in mind, both regarding composition and details. It doesn't happen very often, but this time I didn't need to make a single concept sketch (tripple HURRAY! as I don't like to waste much time on personal projects). Therefore the first step was...






1. A full-size pencil sketch:

2. Detailed ink drawing. At this stage I begun to regret the idea with a town from aerial view...

3. First layer of watercolors. Before adding paint, I splashed masking fluid with a toothbrush to make "snow".


4. Details. They were mainly added with brown ink (outlines) and white ink (more snow!). 

To make the frost on the rose I used salt, which absorbed water from wet paint and created such a fancy texture.

THE END

Wednesday 7 October 2015

A Short Interview










Last week I was aked to share on my blog a little more information about me as an illustrator/painter. I got 5 tricky questions (just kidding) from a fellow artist Patience Brewster . Hopefully the answers are informative and who knows, maybe even interesting :)








1. As a child, do you recall a significant moment when you felt truly affected or inspired by any particular artwork or artist?
I don't think there was such a specific moment. Almost since I was born I've been constantly surrounded by books about art and I really loved to browse through them. My favorite ones were those about Old Masters:  Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer and Giovanni Battista Piranesi. I have a  mathematical brain, so complicated designs of Piranesi's prisons and technical thoughts of da Vinci made an enormous impression on me. 


2. As an artist, what do you hope to convey with your work?
I'm fairly introverted, so my personal works are results of an inner pressure to capture what's happening in my mind. Especially in the past I loved to retreat into my inner world and imagine wandering through unknown realms and fantastical buildings. Painting was helping me to make them more "touchable" and real somehow. It may sound kind of egoistically, but I wasn't thinking about potential viewers back then. 


Nowadays personal projects  are largely sidelined in favor of commissioned artworks and in these cases I'm just making the best illustrations I can.

3. What memorable responses have you had to your work?
Most of responses I get are really worth remembering so I regret I don't have a better memory...
Probably the most (literally) memorable response is a tattoo based on my "Butterflies Tree", which one brave girl have on her back. She sent me a photo. Impressive!
In general it's really uplifting when my works are perceived as useful somehow.  For example when they take someone on a trip to imaginative places and help to forget about real-life problems for a while. 
Recently I was really glad to receive this comment: "There's a stark, grim chill present in your work that feels almost like Dr. Seuss, Edward Gorey and Edgar Allan Poe had a baby."

4. What is your dream project?
One of them is related with my personal paintings and it's kind of secret :) 
The second one would be making environment and architectural designs for some big projects: movies or complex video games. It would be great to see how, in cooperation with other specialists, ideas initially captured on two-dimensional sheets of paper are getting alive.


5. What artists, of any medium, do you admire? (Famous or not!)
My favorite painter was, is and always will be Zdzisław Beksiński. Actually his paintings inspired me to study Architecture (just like he did). Moreover on my list there are previously mentioned Old Masters. Finally I must also name Caspar David Friedrich and Lars Lerin due to their technical skills and an unique atmosphere in their works.