Category: art

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

Masai Mara Antelopes at sunset

Vladimir went to Kenya a few years ago and took many beautiful pictures. I came across this one last December, as he had included it in a book he had made as a Christmas gift for Adrien.
The reference photo: four antelopes on bare flat ground against a big low sun

It looked both so graphically appealing and simple that I wanted to try me hand on it. I sketched it and prepared a round shape in masking tape:
Very rough pencil sketch and masking tape around the sheet and a round piece of masking tap in the middle

Using burnt sienna, yellow ochre and lamp black, I painted the golden sky, the ground and vegetation and the thin clouds:
Ground and weeds painted with burnt sienna, yellow ochre and lamp black, yellow ochre for the golden sky, and some burnt sienna for the clouds

For the antelopes and to darken further the ground and vegetation, I added black to my palette (apparently I botched the thicket on the left in the process, and had to turn it into a mound):
I darkened the ground and painted the antelopes silhouettes with burnt sienna and black

I removed the tape. Here is the resulting painting that occupies some of the 21×13 cm page of a Moleskin watercolor book:
Masking tape removed, date and signature applied in think black letters

I learned that the paper of this book isn’t thick enough for too much paint/water, and that it was too ambitious to render the light on the ground and around the animal immediately under the sun. At least, it’s still graphically appealing!