I'm on the cover of a book!

© Animedia Company

Well, not me exactly, but a drawing that I created for an old Illustration Friday topic was chosen as the cover illustration for a book by Russian author Anton Nechaev.

My drawing!

The book is called Сибирский редактор, or Sibersky redaktor (Siberian Editor). It contains illustrations by poet and artist Arkady Perenov and is published digitally by Animedia Company. Unfortunately I can't read Russian and Google Translate is incredibly choppy with Cyrillic and other non-Latin scripts, so Helen Kichigina (the editor-in-chief over at Animedia) was kind enough to give me a brief outline of the story. To paraphrase her email:

"The novel is all about Russian life, the Russian literary backstage and the relationship between Russian writers narrated in a satirical manner. It's also about the daily work of an editor/literary scout from a provincial town in Siberia who has to read a lot of bad literature and communicate with bad writers who consider themselves incredibly talented."

But how does this relate to my detective?
  
"The novel is mostly autobiographical. The author said that in those days he really looked like the guy in your illustration and he was just like a detective, trying to find at least one decent work in a sea of bad novels. So, in general, he was a 'private eye' but in literary circles."

They were initially going to use my illustration for a novel by a different author about a private detective, but the author decided to go in a different artistic direction. Fortunately Anton Nechaev liked my drawing and could relate to it on a personal level, which I think is neat. He didn't just think detective drawing = detective story.

I'm now ready for the instant fame and fortune this recognition shall bring... hah! :P

See the novel on Animedia's website!



Many thanks to Helen and the folks over at Animedia Company for obtaining my permission to use my illustration, as well as providing me with a copy of the ebook, and to Anton Nechaev for choosing my illustration to grace the cover of his novel.

Braid

Just a quick 'n' dirty sketch. Haven't used plain pencil in a while, I'm rusty.

Back to painting, I think...

clash

Yeah, I've been slacking on updates. Let's just say that I've been pretty uninspired as of late.

I did however finish my post for "Ariele* & Kinga's Awesome and Amazing Illustration Project". It doesn't really have a title as outrageous as that, after all we're only on the second word. My word of choice as well.

And here is that second word. I present to you "clash":

(soft pastel on paper, A3)

This started out as a random photo that I took in the Philippines last Christmas, of 2 fighting cocks squaring up against each other. I used it as a reference to draw a simple pencil sketch which in turn was used as a reference to draw this almost entirely freehand in soft pastel. I decided on pastel because of how messy and smudged it can get, which was useful in trying to capture the speed and chaos in which the birds moved.

Cockfighting, or sabong is a very popular pastime in the Philippines and probably pre-dates the Spaniard's colonisation of the islands. More about the history and traditions here.

I remember the first real cockfighting event I'd ever been to, about 5 or 6 years ago. I'd never seen anything like it. Organised chaos describes it best. Shouting and betting on the favourite (meron) and the underdog (wala). The absolute silence in the pit as the birds are dropped to their feet. The anticipation of the first slash. It was horrific and exciting at the same time.

In the drawing above neither of the birds had a cockspur as it wasn't a real cockfight, merely a conditioning test by the birds' sabungero. Both birds had a glove over their natural spur to prevent any unnecessary damage.

And now the customary WIP pics :)

Update: Complimentary link-back to Kinga's illustration here. Check it out!

*This is indeed my real name. Hello world

I remember...

While I wait for a) inspiration for a new drawing/painting, or b) motivation to finish my current painting, I thought I would post this really old picture that I found:

(felt pens and pencil, A4)

Note the date on the picture. I drew this 24 years ago with a little help (read: a lot of help) from my dad. If I remember correctly this was completely spontaneous and I just drew anything that I could think of. I really don't doodle enough now but when I was younger I was a total fiend with a bunch of pens and paper. I would sometimes zone out and draw, even if it was utter crap and I ended up binning it. This picture actually means quite a lot to me though, partly because it's the only thing I drew when I was a little kid that I still have, and partly because it was one of the first things my dad and I did together when he first came to London.

I think I might make doodle posts a regular thing. All I have to do is 're-learn' how to doodle :S

Change clothes

Not a major update, I just decided to change my avatar, because I can.

My old one is from an obscure (in everywhere but Japan, that is) claymation called Taiko Drum Master (Taiko no Tatsujin), based on the crazy arcade game of the same name.

I always thought the animal under the mask was a fat cat, turns out (thanks to wikipedia) it's a teddy bear. I also thought the mask was a cat, turns out it's a fox. Yeah, you see it now.

My new one is from a bunch of doodles that I did while house-sitting for a certain somebody :)

At the time I looked more like the one on the right, but seeing as I don't remember the last time I had a haircut I now look more like the one on the left.

Happy birthday Kinga

I wanted to do something nice for Kinga's birthday, because when I last saw her she was stressing out about all manner of things. I'm not the best portrait artist in the world, so what better gift to give than a portrait? :P

For Kinga Bee :)

(graphite on paper, A4)

My first attempt at drawing her was in charcoal and looked like a different person. This one looks more like her so I settled for this one. She said I made her look prettier than in real life... uhm, no that's not possible ;)

I didn't need her permission to post this but I did get her approval. Besides, I'd prefer that she was happy with it and plant a big kiss on my lips than be angry and slap me.

And just so there's no sense of embarrassment, here's a self-portrait that I did in college when I was around 16-17, in acrylic, when I was just starting out in acrylics and even worse at portraits.

Why do I look angry? I dunno, maybe because this was frustrating to paint, especially with cheap student-grade acrylics that were like painting with water. Or it's most likely the angle of the paper distorting my face. The best thing about this self-portrait is the jacket, heh.

Visit Kinga's art blog here.

Illustration Friday: detective

My entry for Illustration Friday (it's been a while), this week's topic, "detective":

(graphite on paper)

He's a detective, or "private eye"... get it?

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first ever person to discover this play on words but hey, an eyeball in a hat and trenchcoat looks spiffy, and much less offensive to draw than a private dick.

===
Update 26/03/2013: My illustration has been used on the cover of an ebook! Check the related blog post for more information.

Think fast, sketch faster, part 2

More sketch practice. This time I brought my camera with me so I took photos, which meant that I could refer back to them and sketch people on the move. Again, no real detail, just shapes and lines.

Girl with a dog. It's supposed to be a boxer but it looks like a mutt :)

Boy feeding a swan

Think fast, sketch faster

I want to draw people. The problem is that I'm bad at drawing people, especially with proportions and foreshortening. So I took a walk through my local park and made myself sketch human form. Sitting on a bench I sketched people that sat on the bench opposite me.

The thing with drawing people on the move is that they are on the move. Fortunately sitting people don't move around as much but I still had to draw quickly. Drawing quickly also meant that I had to capture body lines instead of fine detail, and be more confident with the lines I draw (I didn't bring an eraser with me). I still have a long way to go but doing this was kind of fun, even if the weather was a bit breezy.

I was also going to take some photos around the park for my own reference, but it's difficult to do that when you forget to bring your camera XD

Meet Jimbo WIP

My current drawing, which I call "Meet Jimbo" :D

Jimbo was only a puppy when my mom took him into our house in the Philippines. He was found abandoned outside my aunt's house. When he first came to us he was really small, shy and very quiet, but after a few days he'd gotten big, boistrous and would chase anything and everything. He lived with us for about a year until he became sick and died. I suspect he'd eaten something that got tangled inside his stomach because, as with many puppies he was big on chewing things up.

He is a typical mongrel with a cheeky face. I just happened to snap a photograph of him sitting on the driveway, which is what I am referencing for this picture. And it was one of those rare moments that I was able to capture before he ran off to play.

To be finished in acrylic. I was going to watercolour him but seeing as I've never used watercolour before, practicing my (non) techniques on this would be a bit of a waste. Watercolour comes soon :)

UPDATE: see the final painting here.

"M"

I recently read The Minotaur Takes a Cigarette Break, and I really loved the way the author portrayed "M" as a strong but soft character, so I decided to draw him.

I am not good at drawing the human body. I'm OK if I draw from a reference picture but useless from memory. I still haven't mastered foreshortening and things just end up looking out of proportion. So this was a bit of a challenge.

I used a couple of reference pictures for this, namely a sitting man and a chef jacket. I looked at pictures of minotaurs and the majority of them were the typical monster version. So I made up the bull head, all the while trying not to copy the illustration on this version of the cover.

As you can see to the left I sketched a simple hand as a reference as I was going to erase his hands and redo them. I can't really tell if the hands are too small or if they just appear small because of his massive head. I decided not to fix them as I'm thinking this is more of a study than a main piece. I eventually want to do this in colour with M in front of the diner (medium undecided).