And if it will be our last, let it be the best one.
Saturday, December 31, 2011
Monday, October 10, 2011
Lost in the Woods.
This is the first painting I did after years of not painting, that I'm actually happy with.
Did it for practice and as a starting point to build a portfolio of illustrations.
Not much thought went into the concept - just some warrior dude stuck in the middle of a dark forest alone with only his dog-tag talisman to guard him from the evil and guide him through the darkness. Not that it helped his companions, whose dog-tags he is holding.
Painted digitally in Photoshop while trying to do it in the most traditional way possible i.e. using as few layers as possible, not using "undo" feature and playing with canvas textured brushes.
Started with small thumbnail sketch of a composition.
Then comes a rough drawing of the idea.
After collecting some reference material made a more detailed and clean drawing. Drew it using pencil and paper and finished in Photoshop. Used myself as a model for this one.
An underpainting, just to define the values.
And then comes the madness of painting itself.
Hope you like it.
Did it for practice and as a starting point to build a portfolio of illustrations.
Not much thought went into the concept - just some warrior dude stuck in the middle of a dark forest alone with only his dog-tag talisman to guard him from the evil and guide him through the darkness. Not that it helped his companions, whose dog-tags he is holding.
Painted digitally in Photoshop while trying to do it in the most traditional way possible i.e. using as few layers as possible, not using "undo" feature and playing with canvas textured brushes.
Started with small thumbnail sketch of a composition.
Then comes a rough drawing of the idea.
After collecting some reference material made a more detailed and clean drawing. Drew it using pencil and paper and finished in Photoshop. Used myself as a model for this one.
An underpainting, just to define the values.
And then comes the madness of painting itself.
Hope you like it.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement) bicycle ride
So, I decided to ride on the holiest and most suited for bike riding days, the Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Initial plan was to ride to Tel Aviv, that would make a 200 kilometers trip. I knew it would be hard, the distance and the Middle Eastern Sun will surely bring tons of suffering unto me. But hey, thats what atonement is all about, right?
Rode out at 3 AM, which gave me 6 hours of cool morning air and the magnificent sight of sunrise. I had to be back at my home before 17 PM, so at 9 AM I was at the interchange where I had to decide whether to go home or to ride at least to a middle point of my initial plan, the city Hadera. I decided Hadera. So, at 10 AM I saw Hadera city sign and turned back to my sweet home.
At that point the weather was getting pretty hot and I felt very tired. Not to mention my ass hurt as hell cause of the narrow bike seat.
At 12 PM I was so exhausted , that even my favorite music couldn't help with the constant thoughts of food (I decided not to eat, as we should on Yom Kippur) and shower. But I had to go on.
The thing is, even if you want to quit you can't, you still have to ride.
And as always I took too much stuff with me. Having this fear of dehydration I took 10 liters of frozen water (drzank only 4), tools to repair any bike malfunction, and my SLR camera which I used rarely cause was too exhausted. Couldn't even shoot, I mean take a photo of some arab kid throwing stones at me when I rested near his village. Not one photo I took is worth posting so just a photo of my fully loaded bicycle.
The result is I got home at 17 PM (exactly on time) totally exhausted and totally burned by sun. And basically instead of 200 km I rode only 120. 14 freaking hours in the saddle.
Was it worth it? Well, it was kind of an accomplishment for me. And I also made kind of an atonement for my sins (not that there are a lot of them, hell I can't think of even one that need atonement).
Initial plan was to ride to Tel Aviv, that would make a 200 kilometers trip. I knew it would be hard, the distance and the Middle Eastern Sun will surely bring tons of suffering unto me. But hey, thats what atonement is all about, right?
Rode out at 3 AM, which gave me 6 hours of cool morning air and the magnificent sight of sunrise. I had to be back at my home before 17 PM, so at 9 AM I was at the interchange where I had to decide whether to go home or to ride at least to a middle point of my initial plan, the city Hadera. I decided Hadera. So, at 10 AM I saw Hadera city sign and turned back to my sweet home.
At that point the weather was getting pretty hot and I felt very tired. Not to mention my ass hurt as hell cause of the narrow bike seat.
At 12 PM I was so exhausted , that even my favorite music couldn't help with the constant thoughts of food (I decided not to eat, as we should on Yom Kippur) and shower. But I had to go on.
The thing is, even if you want to quit you can't, you still have to ride.
And as always I took too much stuff with me. Having this fear of dehydration I took 10 liters of frozen water (drzank only 4), tools to repair any bike malfunction, and my SLR camera which I used rarely cause was too exhausted. Couldn't even shoot, I mean take a photo of some arab kid throwing stones at me when I rested near his village. Not one photo I took is worth posting so just a photo of my fully loaded bicycle.
The result is I got home at 17 PM (exactly on time) totally exhausted and totally burned by sun. And basically instead of 200 km I rode only 120. 14 freaking hours in the saddle.
Was it worth it? Well, it was kind of an accomplishment for me. And I also made kind of an atonement for my sins (not that there are a lot of them, hell I can't think of even one that need atonement).
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Ensiferum - Ferrum Aeternum (speed painting)
30 minutes on this cowboy with a sword. Why the sword? I wish I knew. That is what my damaged mind produced.
Ensiferum - Iron (speed painting)
40 minutes speed painting.
I think it's the first time I painted a gunslinger.
I think it's the first time I painted a gunslinger.
Monday, September 26, 2011
Insomnium - Nocturne
An animation I did some years ago.
Insomnium dudes are gifted as hell in producing atmospheric music.
Insomnium dudes are gifted as hell in producing atmospheric music.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Back from Romania.
Well, I'm back from what turned out to be a cool country. And with the price of 1 Euro for a pint of beer it's actually one of the greatest ones.
Took almost five thousand photos, mostly as reference and inspiration material. Will take me some time to go trough them all.
Lots of dogs there, lot's of them. They all sad and hungry. Except this devil spawn, this scary beast was trying to intimidate me with a smile to give him something to eat. The naive bastard. The photo is not edited by the way.
Also, the Romanian girls are very cute. They hit a third place in my observation list of cutest girls of the world. Second place belong to Russian girls and in the leading position are Japanese girls.
Took almost five thousand photos, mostly as reference and inspiration material. Will take me some time to go trough them all.
Lots of dogs there, lot's of them. They all sad and hungry. Except this devil spawn, this scary beast was trying to intimidate me with a smile to give him something to eat. The naive bastard. The photo is not edited by the way.
Also, the Romanian girls are very cute. They hit a third place in my observation list of cutest girls of the world. Second place belong to Russian girls and in the leading position are Japanese girls.
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
Insomnium - Change of Heart speed painting
A few hours before the take off I had 20 minutes to spare so painted this one.
Bike trip to Haifa University
I recently rode my bicycle to the top of Mount Carmel where the main complex of Haifa University resides. It was done as part of my sport / travel / meditation / reference hunting thing I sometimes do.
The University sits on height of 450 meters and the whole trip up was 6 kilometers long. I have no idea if it's a great achievement sport-wise, but for me it was.
Arrived at 6 AM and took many awesome photos, here are some of them:
The ascend took me two hours and the descend a mere five minutes. Racing down was scary and awesome as hell.
The University sits on height of 450 meters and the whole trip up was 6 kilometers long. I have no idea if it's a great achievement sport-wise, but for me it was.
Arrived at 6 AM and took many awesome photos, here are some of them:
The ascend took me two hours and the descend a mere five minutes. Racing down was scary and awesome as hell.
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
First one.
So, before heading to the land of Dracula for two weeks, I decided to start my blog with this first post.
And to get things going I made this speed (40 minutes) painting while listening to the awesome music of Insomnium.
I really liked the process. It's like being in meditation or in trance, hearing only the music, I could not hear my own thoughts cause it so loud, just painting... An awesome feeling. Will surely do more of those.
Expect more stuff when (if) I'm back.
And to get things going I made this speed (40 minutes) painting while listening to the awesome music of Insomnium.
Insomnium - The Gale (speed painting)
I really liked the process. It's like being in meditation or in trance, hearing only the music, I could not hear my own thoughts cause it so loud, just painting... An awesome feeling. Will surely do more of those.
Expect more stuff when (if) I'm back.
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