[Sorknes]

I think I actually managed to hit something tonight, it's so nice when you feel like you're not just running the same old hamster wheel.

The ones that happens to know how my father looks like will of course at once recognize one of the refs, as he has a magnificent beard. Nobody but his grandkids is allowed to put anything in it though.

I made this as one of the characters in my never ending stories in my head, The Paretji, a kind of governor priest. Yeah, I have a full alternative universe in my head, I wish I was an author.

[malo]

great update!
lovin the black and white take (line drawing) and the actual portrait a lot.
Best

[Zentrope]

Are you somehow related to Mr Hopkins? (Just kidding )
i can see a lot of resemblance..
amazing color composition too..
And if you write a book someday then i will will do a free cover art for you

[Sorknes]

Thanks guys!

And no, I am in no way related to Mr. Hopkins. :P He wasn't even on of my refs. Wish I was though! Would've been able to get so many feet into so many creative areas!

Seems like Friday evening and night is my big drawing nights.

Here's the effort of today:

[Sorknes]

Getting to celebrate the last part of my birthday doing my favourite hobby, drawing.

Here's another one that I made mainly from the ideas in my head with the alternative universe and all... One of The Feijla, a kind of cabal/ring of longer living humans/beings.

Again I have used one of my family members as a reference, my dear old grandpa, but it was a difficult reference to use, so I did a lot of weird things with it, heh.

[kevin-]

cool updates! really like the old bearded dood at the top! keep it up!

[Zentrope]

Belated Happy Birthday!
You too are born in June

Great portrait and this also reminds me of some actor..
Looks like you have a star studded family.

[Sorknes]

kevin- and Zentrope, thanks! And I don't think I have a single actor in the family, the only one ever done any stage stuff has been me.

I totally forgot posting the stuff I did for the current Anatomicae challenge here, ops! Pasting in the stuff I wrote about how I got the design idea, then just adding random images from the process... :P

Thought process: I wanted something organic. So I started with flowers and such. Didn't really work out, but I decided I like thistle as a possible thing on the coat of arms. Don't really wanna wade through a field of them. Checked them out here: http://www.fleurdelis.com/meanings.htm and it says "defiance and surliness". Workable.

Then I thought I might go to the animals kingdom instead for ideas, and the one animal I would never try to pass is rhinoceros. I have seen them in the wild, and I was totally awed by them. Checked out the same site, and it says "ferocious when aroused". Works.

So then I thought to try to use the rhino for the design instead of the coat of arms. Also thinking about vine for the coat of arms (in addition to thistle) since it says "Strong and lasting friendship; Peace and plenty; luck and strength" - it fits with the ideas in the back of my mind.



Did some random pencils, thought process: basically none. I just thought "sea" and went from there, but I knew I wanted something asymmetric since the ones I did earlier was symmetric.





Then I kept working on the rhino-thistle one.





Posted the final now.

[malo]

Great updates!!!!
nothing more to say

[Zentrope]

Already voted for this when the voting process started..
So it's great already and the rhino concept is really a good representation of a a strong shield!
Good Luck

[Sorknes]

Thank you guys!

And now for something different! Maria the singer!

So, last week I went to a concert where Maria, a wonderful singer and former coworker, moved my heart - and made me awe a bit when it came to light and shadows.

After having some stress pouring out of from listening, I decided I wanted to try to capture some of the way that light changed everything on stage, in my own way.

And here's the result, not your usual Sorknes stuff.

[JoseVega]

Very cool man
Post #143 looks great!!!

[Sorknes]

Thank you JoseVega!

Photostudy - Rain; How to deal with drawing my kid.

This might be a lot to read compared to my earlier posts, but I kind of want to get this off my chest, and if I am lucky it might help others. Don't worry, there's an image at the end - you can skip the text if you want.

Alright, first of all. I have a kid, she's currently three, and her name is Rain. From she was born, I have been trying to draw her, make studies and sketches - both because I wanted to capture the moments as well as getting better at drawing. I ran into a problem. I couldn't do it. First I just thought it was the hormones running utterly wild, as I would end up just staring at her with tears in my eyes being extremely happy and feeling all LOVE. As you might know, it's kind of hard to draw when your eyes are misty.

Then, as she got older, I would still get that silly "oh my goodness, is that perfect little person there actually my child", "I am the happiest person in the world" and "did I help her getting into this world?" moments whenever I sat down to study her- but I ran into another problem as well. I see her every day, I love her, I spend a lot of my time looking into her face and watching her run around... And I could NOT get sketches that I felt represented how she looks, how her face acts - in other words, I would not recognize her in my sketches, and I ended up being utterly disgusted by my tries.

When using other family members as reference I've never ran into this problem, usually because I haven't been trying to make portraits of them but rather used them as base for some kind of character in my mind. Which means whatever changes in the faces happen is just good, interesting and happy accidents. Actually, I am most of the time even TRYING to change features in their faces using several references to make up new persons.

So. When I started this picture, my main goal in this was to get down light and colours.. Then I decided to up the ante and do one of Rain, tackling two things at once. I had to tell myself several times, that this one I could use as much time on as I wanted - also, I could focus on main goal, trying to push the fact that it is my daughter a little back.

After a few tries on the face, I was starting to get utter disgusted with my incapability of rendering her likeness again, and I made a decision to paint over some rough lines of her face from the photo and then go from there. And suddenly I could go forward. Some of you might this was cheating, but to be honestly, I could not care less. I am my own client on this image, I have not put any restraints on my freelance me, and in the end the important here was that I learned something about colour and light. And I did.

There was some great surprises during this one, like how dark colours her face actually had to have to make it right. And how light colours I needed to get the proper "edge" between the shadow and light areas. And I learned tons from it. And the most important part, this is the first picture I have done where I'm trying to portrait my kid and actually showing it to anyone. If a two minute rough paintover managed to help me do that, it was worth it, when I think about how many hours I've actually used on this one. (Yes, I am still very slow, and I know it.)

I hope you enjoy the picture, because I am very proud of it. Not only because I managed to nail some colours and light that was hard for me and that I managed to paint my kid, but also because I am showing off my little Rain. I think she is adorable. I might try to fix more on it later, but for now it is finished.

[malo]

Hi Kirstin,

First off - your daughter is absolutely adorable!!! When I take a look a your kid, I know you must be the proudest and happiest person alive! And be sure I know what I'm talking about (have two lovely daughters as well and my small one has red hairs as well ).

About your image…
You did an absolutely great job! Everything looks great - light, shadow, render technique.
Be proud of this image and don't think about doing a paint over or using refs, etc…
Thats basically a pretty common work method. So get rif od the cheating idea in your mind.

Take a look at that image and enjoy what you have done. And every time you'll feel a bit down - watch that image and remember what you're able to do!!

Great piece of art.

All the best

[Sorknes]

Thank you so much, malo! And isn't red hair absolutely the coolest thing? I have a red tint in my hair, but I keep wishing mine was red, hehe.

Yeah, I get what you're saying. But I have been in the fringes (or sometimes middle) of a couple of discussions about artists doing paintovers when doing an image. I think what I tried to say here, is that I do not care if paintover helps people learning things, as it can be a very effective tool. Because it is - especially when it comes to "muscle memory" when you're painting, I think. If you paintover 50 arms and hands connected, you will in the end get and idea of how to move your pen drawing them if not always conscious.

And in the business I know it's a common work method - especially when it comes to concepts where you have to get several results fast and photos can be a great source to work from, or even collage into your work. But I have also seen artists basically paintover a photo (from professional photographers not being themselves) and even gone to galleries with their pieces...Without any due recognition to the photographer. I think there's a use for it, and there's also a line where it should not be used.. if you get my drift?

I am still very proud of it though, believe me, and I have gotten so much great feedback on this one that I am very happy that I posted it (in several places) - both about the image itself and what I wrote in the post.

I do think now that I have gotten a few days away from it that I will push a bit further before printing and hanging, I can see the disparity between Rain and the background, that fruit need some more lovin'! I was so focused on her I need to put some more time into the environment around her.



And I saw that this 2D Drawing Jam was the Tree of Life.
Just doing some randoms sketches... I like this one best so far. I have no idea where I am going with this, but it was a nice topic, and I don't do many trees. Just idly messing around, playing a bit after some studies.