sketchbook that made me start drawing again

landscape

Some time ago, Kimi, an amazingly talented lady started a project, and you can learn more about it HERE.  I was sooo happy to participate in it... I couldn't wait for the travelling sketchbook to reach me... and finally, it did... and it was in my hands, and it was beautiful!

And then things happened...

I couldn't draw.

I did some sketches, but I couldn't show them to anyone.

And my first real effort since then is in Kimi's sketchbook... 

Here they are.

The sketchbook is on its way to Turkey, and with any luck, Gizem, a wonderful illustrator, will have it any day now.

sailing in the sea of bewitching art-supplies

I always thought of it as something used for making fake-old-wannabe-Egyptian-outrageously-overpriced souvenirs.
I was so wrong!

A few days ago, I was in my favourite art-supplies shop.
That place amazes me. It's tiny but so much like Sport Billy's bag. I love rummaging around. Just as it happens, it's in the same street as the hospital where I was born. I think that's pretty cool :)
So, I was interested in everything, asking millions of questions to the lovely man who runs the shop, as I always do. He always gives me very interesting advice. Proper old-fashioned customer care. And then, while chatting

I have discovered papyrus!
I'm surprised I didn't see it before.
Perfectly flat, yet textured, granulated, shiny, robust and thick but transparent. I honestly gasped when I touched it! I love it! It's perfect... but I'm still not sure what it's perfect for... original idea was to draw with 0.1mm rapidographs in black ink.
Although, I still haven't tried out the trick that the shop-keeper told me, how to make papyrus even more special... I will tell you all about it once I test it ;)
Anyway... this is my first papyrus drawing... a bit altered in Photoshop.

Sailing

tea-party

M. Léo is a kind and nice person, but he's very serious. Luckily, he's aware of that, so once in a while he organizes nice little soirées to break the routine. On those occasions, he tries to look sweet and approachable. He tries very hard, and that's wholeheartedly appreciated by his peers... that is, by those who get to be invited to come, but sometimes some do not get the invitation, if they had done something very wrong, like eye-laser-beam-burn a poor little alligator and end up in jail, for life, till M. Léo comes to help them escape...

M. Léo - soirée

randez-vous

M. Léo is trying to have some private life.

M. Léo qui donne randez-vous

radioactive

M. Léo does get some help... occasionally. This little chore is their favourite. They don't like vacuuming though... or washing up...

M. Léo et les corvées

walkies

It was a lovely day, so M. Léo took them all out for a walk... one at a time... Poor things tend to get overexcited too easily when together.

M. Léo qui se promène

Launch

M. Léo is ever so nice, always willing to help... selflessly...

M. Léo qui lance

leisure activities

After a hard days's work, M. Léo likes to dance a bit to relax. He is especially fond of La Primavera from Vivaldi's Le quattro stagioni.

M. Léo qui danse

you figure it out

I've decided not to apologize for this...

Cruel?

Cold?

Heartless?

Then how do you think M. Léo feels having to be the one to do it... day in and day out...

M. Léo at work

IF swept

I've been thinking too much lately... about life, stuff, the importance of different... stuff...
"Fun?" ... -No, not really...

out of control

I started this doodle yesterday. It was just a little floating-flying-wiggly boy, and then another one, and another one, and then it felt like they need some space to connect them, but only in a way, not really... and it was all done in ink, then graphite and colours came... and some acrylics, for heaviness... and I didn't like it... any of it... at all, so I kept adding... ore colour came, and pointilistic style shading...

Yeah, I've become a bit obsessive... that's why it's going online, to fixate it in time as it is, so working on it loses any sense, before I start analysing it/self-analysing whirlpool. Now I'm free to stop! Yeeeey...

another octopus

this is work in progress

And I'm not a one man show this time... I actually have a little elf to help me. We're cooking up something amazing... and we know what it is... or I think we know... I think... you never really know with elves.
And until it's finished, this initial drawing is all you'll see ...

Mwa-ha-ha-ha (evil scientist's laughter)... that was the elf, not me!

when sweet Lady Octopus sleeps

... there's nobody to watch over our city...

I just started doodling, and after pencil, I added some ink, then some colour pencils, then I absolutely needed a touch of the famous gold, and it's acrylic paint, and then some white acrylic too, and it would have all been fine if only I hadn't started (and finished) it all on a piece if simple 80g copy paper... 

migration

Northern Park House flyway runs over Maja's playground. Her friends don't pay much attention to whizzing and flapping noises, but she often gets pretty distracted. Sometimes she howls and yelps, and it sounds so nostalgic. I keep wondering: what does she have to be nostalgic about? This is her first and only house. No house has ever left her, or deserted her, or kicked her out... that long longing look she gives them... where did that come from?

And those houses... migrating every other day, without any order or timetable... so frivolous... why can't they settle down, grow some roots...

Northern Park House flyway

wildlife

I wasn't sure about posting this page from my sketchbook... it's simply too... sketchbooky, and smudgy, and unfinished... but I love the color.
I tried to scan it, but the scanner didn't show how shiny it is. Not even photoshop could save the situation. However, the photo didn't need any tweeking.
Lately, I am crazy about shiny warm golds and coppers...
And rapidographs... I love the fine-fine-black-ink-lines my 0.18mm rapidograph makes. Perfectly precise thin lines combined with rough brush strokes of shiny color...
Oh, yeah... and bears... I keep drawing bears... and I have no idea why. When I sit and draw, a bear staggers onto the paper... maybe it has something to do with my constant daydreaming about running off into a forest to live away from the city, and noise, and people for a while... long while? :)

WildLife