This is a docked houseboat and snow, based on artwork from the 1930s by Hasui Kawase.
Acrylic on watercolor postcard (10.5×15.5 cm), in a white wooden frame.
It took me about 3 hours, including painting the mat in pale blue so that only the snow and the frame would be white.
I drew again in my small sketchbook Canson art book universal (14×21 cm / 4×6 in), using individually or together a black Pentel brushpen, a grey Pentel Brushpen, Sakura Pigma Micron 003 black fine liner, Kuretake light grey Brush Writer, and a Staedtler 0.3-2.0 black pigment liner.
6 drawings are tributes to Moebius, 4 were Japan-inspired. I had fun doing all of them. It was a bit tough the last week, and for the first time I think, I was counting the days until the end.
I tested acrylic gouache. They are similar to regular gouache, and even watercolour, except that they dry much quicker and once they’re dry they can’t mix anymore.
It’s both an advantage and a challenge! An advantage because you can layer other colours without any smearing. A challenge because the error margin is much narrower: if you don’t get it right the first time your mistake has to be worked around.
This is a river scene with two persons using long poles to maneuver their boats, and passing next to patches of grass where trees like willows are growing. It must be the start of autumn because the trees are bare but there is still grass. A few huts are visible on the horizon. There is a big orange setting sun, and grey and orange clouds.
Framed in black, 10×15 cm (4×6 in.) [and since then sent to my friend Isabelle for whom I painted it.]
Rough pencil sketch
Transparent blue, grey, and orange.
This looks and feels just like watercolour.
A bit more colours in small areas: specks of grey and blue-grey to add vegetation in the background, and yellow for the huts, boats and the hats.
The green is now added to the meadow and another darker layer for shading. Brown and black for the trees, boats, men and their poles.
I realised this was going to lack a lot of contrast. The colours are much paler than I thought.
I added many thin black lines in ink to try to make up for the lack of contrast.
Stamped, dated and signed.
Third abstract prompt. I resented it a little bit: the entire year has been disgusting –Give us a break!
I chose to reproduce part of a Moebius character and arrange a bit the tentacles.
Done with a black 0.05 mm Graphik line maker from Derwent.
I wanted to avoid drawing the common “slippery when wet” sign that is found in public restrooms, or the banana peels, but really liked how some of the artists I follow have executed their version of the prompt.
I went for penguins sliding. I love penguins, they’re super cute.
Done with my black 0.05 mm Graphik line maker from Derwent.
I loved doing this one!
Major Fatal, an iconic Moebius’ characters (albeit a chunky version that I didn’t intend, but without sketching first, such things happen), standing in the desert in front of a tall levitating crystal, observing a wormlike figure within. I drew a dune in the background. I noticed afterwards that I got the shadows exactly wrong.
Done with my black 0.05mm Graphik line maker from Derwent.
I loved loved loved doing this one!
I initially wanted to draw an armadillo but went for my other favourite theme instead, and drew a samurai in armor.
I used the black 0.05 mm Graphik line maker from Derwent (it’s nearly dead now). I spent 45 minutes between the contours, refining them and adding layers of black.
I wasn’t very much inspired by the prompt until I remembered from my visit to the Great Wall of China in 2016 that it features outposts at almost every section!
I tried a minimal approach, leaving out the surrounding mountains, much of the vegetation and even the structural details, and like how it came out.
Done with my black 0.05 mm Graphik line maker from Derwent.
