Category: art

Horse and young woman in kimono under Sakura

I found horse and young woman in kimono under Sakura, another beautiful work by Taiwanese artist Jung Shan:
Reference photo showing the artwork hung on a wall and a label underneath with the artist's name and a QR code
Although I have some rice paper, I am far from comfortable with it, and the ratio and size wasn’t what I wanted, so I sketched on my 30×30 cm watercolor pad:
Light pencil sketch on a large square watercolour pad
I used a Pentel black ink brushpen for the outline and strong parts, and was happy with how her faced turned out, compared to the pencil sketch:
Inking in black of the horse, woman and kimono
I used sepia watercolor and a fine brush for the tree branch and blossoms:
Branches and blossoms painted in sepia
With more sepia, some lamp black watercolor, and a regular brush, I painted the horse and the woman’s skin:
Horse and woman's face painted with a mix of sepia and black
And finally, I used quinacridone rose to paint the blossoms and the woman’s lips, and used what I had left from my sepia wash for the kimono, and the background. The rest of the kimono was painted with lamp black watercolor:

Here is the final version (23×30 cm), framed:
Final artwork in a white frame

Samurai

This is ‘Speed III‘ by Jung Shan, who, as far as I understand, draws digitally and then adds actual ink brush strokes :
Reference artwork in black and white: a focused-looking warrior with a long flying ponytail, feet wide apart, wields a sword. There are movement strokes.

I sketched the samurai on a Moleskin watercolor book (21×13 cm):
Rough pencil sketch in a wide watercolour drawing book. My pencil is seen on the table.

I used a Pentel brushpen for the black strokes and cold grey Faber-Castell brushpens for the rest:
Inking with a black Pentel brushpen and cold grey Faber-Castell brushpens for the rest of the clothes, face and ponytail.

Then I erased the pencil marks, cut diagonally one of my cheap brushes, prepared a lamp black wash, took a deep breath and stroke:
Large black ink strokes. the brush is visible on the side resting on the porcelain palette. I trimmed it diagonally.

Reproduction of Moebius’ ‘Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornelius’

I discovered Moebius rather recently. Stéphane raved about him, Virginie was a fan. So when she suggested we all meet in Toulon at the occasion of an exhibit of Moebius’ work, it was a done deal. I was fascinated. All these intricate and thin lines giving life to surrealistic worlds, people and creatures!

From one book, I asked Stéphane to choose a few images he liked and this page was my favourite. ‘Le garage hermétique de Jerry Cornelius’:
Reference illustration. A flying character dressed in black with a bald head looks down from above at a city under attack from anti-matter magma rays

I sketched a rather precise version in pencil on an A4 white sheet:
Rather precise pencil sketch on white paper

Using a Pentel Brushpen, I started inking the straight lines (and later the flying figure as well as the black area around the title at the top):
Inking in black of the rays

The rest of the outline I did with a 0.05 mm Uni-ball pin pen:
Inking finished and pencil erased

Tada! Gift ready and framed. The resulting drawing was 16×21 cm:
Final piece framed in natural wood. My hand is holding the frame and my left thumb is visible.

Reproduction of Moebius’ ‘Cavalcadeur à sept pattes’

‘La faune de Mars’ by Moebius is full of wonderful creatures. I am fond of one in particular: ‘Cavalcadeur à sept pattes’:
Reference illustration showing a seven-legged animal that looks like a mix of a dinosaur, a camel and a lizard. It is mounted by a man that looks really small in comparison. The landscape is like a desert.
By the look of the book, I am pretty sure the artist’s original book was a Canson One Art Book. Hardbound, 10,2 x 15,2 cm, 98 sheets. Exactly like the one I have, which still has a few blank pages. So I sketched the cavalcadeur (this invented word translates as ‘stampeder’) and marked the outline with a thin (0.05 or 0.1 mm) Uni-ball Pin pen:
Outline in thin black ink of my version
The back of the book has a coloured version of it so I didn’t have to make up colours when I painted it with watercolor. I was quite pleased with the final look:
Watercolour applied