Month: September 2024

The Red Queen

Back in June there was another digital drawing challenge. I’ve draw a couple of portraits earlier here and here in this challenge – but this time things changed. We shouldn’t draw a portrait, as such – we should draw a monster. Or a “monster”.

I chose the latter one, and went for “The Red Queen” – human, but maybe not too kind …

As we should post our progress each day, let me show you the same progress drawings here.

The Red Queen, step by step

I didn’t manage to spend as much time on the challenge this time as last time, but … I made it!

As usual, I see a lot of things I could do better. And that’s good – if I couldn’t see that, I wouldn’t feel any need to get better and practise more, right? It’s the same when I compare myself to artists better than me: I get some goals to stretch after. It’s not like it’s impossible for me to get that good …

So then, that final version of the Red Queen is this:

The final version of the REd Queen, with a background

The Queen herself. Ancient, but youthful!

Deep Dive

Has anyone ever taken a deep dive into your art and your artistic journey?

A man and a woman discussing.

Well, I can’t say I have, but still, I do have a Deep Dive discussion about me and my art. And not by me. And I thought it was so fun to listen to, that I’m sharing it here!

Who are these two? Well – they’re two AI voices used by the Deep Dive function in Google’s NotebookLM. I added the pages which are about my art and artistic endeavours in this blog as sources – and let them have a go at it. Just for fun.

And I had fun! 😉

Little waterfall and water

It’s been some time since I started this painting – and some time since I finished it. I just haven’t managed to update this blog with it. Which, of course, is a shame. So now I’m going to rectify this!

When I was thinking of a painting, I knew that I wanted water and that the rocks on the bottom should be visible. And a somewhat interesting scene. I’m pretty sure there are some very nice pictures around that fulfil this, but I searched for a while to find some – without luck. My own taste probably has to take some of the blame, but still …

In the end, I made use of AI to make some suggestions, which I in turn used for some inspiration. I have no qualms about using AI that way. Sometimes having something to look at for painting is better than painting directly from imagination.

A calming nature scene

As you see from the painting I show above here, I wanted a little waterfall, too. And the nature hat to fit, of course. So, I had all I wanted: Water, a waterfall, and rocks underwater.

Sketching the broad objects went quickly. Some of the details, too. Or the illusion of details. And then it stopped up for various reasons. But in the end I managed to add the rocks under the water, various degrees of details, and … when I asked the art teacher, she said that yes, now it’s finished.

Personally, I wasn’t sure if it was finished, so I waited a long time before I did ask. I wasn’t sure, because there’s always more that can be done, but I’m not going for photorealism, just a simplified painting, so at some point I have to stop.

And this was the point where I stopped! 😀