Mysterious Temple

Ha! I bet that you totally forgot about my blog… I apparently did. A year and a half of silence would suggest that anyways.

The illustration below was actually made over one and a half year ago, which could confirm that I haven’t drawn anything since a looong time. But that’s not true, I swear. I’ve been just extremely busy with projects I cannot share with you… yet.

I’ll be brief (just as a busy person like myself should be).

In the beginning, I made a few concept sketches. Not real pieces of art, I know. But don’t lose hope:

Outlines drawn in pencil:

Some details in waterproof ink:

The whole building and the foreground were masked with masking fluid to protect these areas from being painted over with very liquid paint (“wet on wet” technique). Mountains were salted to achieve these textures:

Working on the sky with watercolor paint mixed with gum arabic. Previously masked areas were painted slowly and carefully:

Hmmm… looks almost like the previous step. Maybe I just wasted my time, but I actually added some extra precise shadows and highlights with ink and dense white watercolor paint:

Something Dark - Board Game Illustrations

“Those who meant well behaved in the same way as those who meant badly.”

Aldous Huxley "Brave New World"

Drawings you can see below correspond perfectly with an ambience of this day. Or maybe it's only my grim mood... These are only a few of over 30 illustrations I made last year for a board game "Machina Arcana". Several artists were working on this quite complex project. My task was to draw a map and illustrate scenario cards. The plot of the story is a bit dreadful (frankly speaking it's completely dreadful) so I had to reach the darkest corners of my imagination to capture this horror-steampunk atmosphere :D

Poniższe rysunki znakomicie oddają ponurą atmosferę dzisiejszego dnia. A może to tylko mój ponury nastrój...  To tylko część spośród ponad 30 ilustracji, które wykonałam w zeszłym roku do gry planszowej "Machina Arcana". Nad całym dość złożonym przedsięwzięciem pracowało kilku grafików. Mi przypadły w udziale karty scenariusza oraz mapa. Akcja gry jest nieco przerażająca (a właściwie całkiem przerażająca). Musiałam więc sięgnąć do mrocznych zakamarków mojej wyobraźni, żeby należycie oddać steampunkowo-horrorowy klimat.

Process of making these illustrations was different than usual. The main problem was that cards' size was only 6x9 cm (if my memory serves me right). Originals were a little bigger than that and their size was almost A4 fromat. Fairly quick pen and watercolor drawings were scanned and then they were slowly and laboriously edited in Photoshop.  This let me to achieve high contrasts and very thin, clean lines. As a result even small, detailed illustrations are clear and legible.   

Te ilustracje powstawały w nieco inny sposób, niż większość moich prac. Problem polegał na tym, że wymiary karty z ilustracją wynoszą jedynie 6x9 cm (jeśli pamięć mnie nie myli). Oryginały były oczywiście nieco większe - miały wymiar zbliżony do formatu A4. Dość szybki rysunek piórkiem i akwarelką był skanowany, a następnie powoli acz mozolnie obrabiany komputerowo. Pozwoliło mi to na otrzymanie dużych kontrastów i bardzo cienkich, ale wyraźnych linii. W rezultacie nawet małe, nasycone detalami ilustracje są czytelne. 

The next post will be more optimistic. I have no idea what will be the subject, but I'll figure it out :)

Następny wpis będzie bardziej optymistyczny. Jesze nie wiem, o czym będzie, ale coś wymyślę :)

Halloween

"All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream"

E. A. Poe

This text is definitely my record-holder in terms of the delay in publication on the Internet. Even though this illustration (and the rest of this post) was prepared two years ago, it's theme is very current. It's all about Halloween :)

Ten post to mój absolutny rekordzista pod względem opóźnienia w umieszczeniu wpisu w Internecie w stosunku do przygotowania go. Choć rysunek (oraz dalsza część wpisu) pochodzi sprzed dwóch lat, jego tematyka jest jak najbardziej aktualna. Chodzi mianowicie o Halloween :)

First idea... not so brilliant. Burn it. 

Pierwszy pomysł... niezbyt błyskotliwy. Spalić.

Second idea... yep, that's better.

Drugi pomysł... już lepiej.

Add watercolors.

Dodać akwarele.

 

Add a pen.

Dodać piórko.

 

Buahahahaha (demonic laughter after finishing the drawing). By a strange coincidence that's the illustration which is the most popular among my artworks submitted on deviantART http://grimdreamart.deviantart.com/

Buahahahaha (demoniczny śmiech po zakończeniu rysowania). Dziwnym zbiegiem okoliczności właśnie ta ilustracja jest najpopularniejszym z moich rysunków na deviantART.com http://grimdreamart.deviantart.com/