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Today in Malaysia, it is a public holiday, so I have quite a lot of time on my hands and right as I finished my breakfast this morning, I had this urge to try a two-page spread in my sketchbook. It had been a long time coming I guess. I’ve seen some artists online having done it, but it had never occurred to me to try it until now.
I just needed to find a suitable subject for it. I did entertain ideas of one or two original scenes, but those didn’t pan out as well in sketch. In the end, I went to my stash of old travel photos and found this one, taken back in 2017 in Dresden.
Here, the main features that needed to pop out would be the bridges, the river, the two towers and the sky. Everything else just needed to be roughly dabbed in to suggest the impression of buildings in the city.
I took some liberties with the sky, since it would make up most of the picture and I’d thought to do something exciting with it.
So after a few hours, by lunch time, I finished the picture, and here it is.
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This was originally supposed to be a picture with a seaside view. The tree and the resting figure under it would still be there, only that the background would have been the sea instead of the Alps. However, midway through sketching, I found myself thinking back to Terrence Malick's 'A Hidden Life' -- curse you, film! -- and so I switched to having the Alps.
I still want to do a piece with the sea, maybe just not in this picture yet.
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Another little sketchbook painting. The photo reference was taken, also back in Germany in 2017, only this time on the bus ride from Erfurt to Luisenthal.
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Painted this little piece into my sketchbook with acrylic and ink. I used an old photo taken back in the fall of 2017 in Germany as reference. This was by the Waldhotel Berghof in Luisenthal and we were on our way from the hotel to where we would have a little biathlon shooting contest.
Granted, it is a whole lot more foreboding and moody in the original photo, and it looked exactly like this, but I guess I have created a personal impression of it in blues and ochre.
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Today, I attempted a little clean line illustration. This isn't a style that I typically work with, as you can see throughout this blog. I tend to be a messy artist, and I like being messy in art. However, I do find myself deeply fascinated and attracted to beautifully-executed and clean line art, and I have mad respect for artists who can pull this off. Especially for someone who is so used to messy sketches, I find having to decide on a single neat outline daunting.
However, this proves to be a useful exercise in focused decision-making. Messy sketches leave beautiful impressions, but clean line drawings, though more challenging, leave solid, clear depictions, and when done right, can feel so satisfying.
So my subject? A confused bespectacled man in a Japanese samue. Quite happy with the final product.
So happy, in fact, I decided to have some fun after that.
Like so:
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Today, I return to using my acrylics and my sketchbook again. The main motivation behind this was the recent behaviour of the Autodesk SketchBook app on my phone, which kept on crashing whenever I added in a few strokes. There was a recent update, and from the looks of the reviews, some were pointing this behaviour out as well, so I added my own report and temporarily moved away from the app.
Here, I have chosen a subject which I hope to one day see up close in person: the Batu Lawi formation, which is located south west of Mount Murud in the Kelabit Highlands here in Sarawak. I have seen it for the first time on a flight to Bario around the end of 2019. A most majestic and beautiful sight!
