About 10 Years Ago I Bought A Little Daruma Doll For Myself.Daruma Dolls Are Either Super Big Or Super

About 10 years ago I bought a little Daruma Doll for myself. Daruma Dolls are either super big or super tiny but all have the same function. Designed after a chinese Monk named Bodhidharma, they are now typically associated with the function of bringing luck and perseverance. It's body is eggshaped. With no Arms and Legs, as a reminder that Bodhidharma was losing his limbs in his quest to reach enlightment through self-sacrifice and meditation. Daruma dolls are designed in a way that it's impossible to be tipped over and it will always swing back in its original position. This function serves as a reminder, that no matter how many times you could get knocked down, one must always endure and stand back up. In order to achieve your goal. Freely after the Motto "You fall down seven times but stand up eight" Darumas come with no eyes. The way the talisman works is by placing a wish with drawing one eye (it can be any eye but typically the left eye is) and only if you fulfill your wish or goal, you can draw the other eye. Anyway, back to my story. About 10 years ago I bought one for myself. My goal? "Becoming a professional artist and making sure that I can make a living off my art". It's a giant goal that I placed upon my little Daruma doll. A goal that almost seems unreachable but no matter what, I will keep persistant and will keep going. No matter how foolish people say it is to do, I will believe in myself. In the hope that one day I'll be able to fill the other Eye of my little Daruma doll! This was the feeling that I wanted to capture in this illustration. The contrast between me, a tiny human with a big goal. And the Daruma, that represents that seemingly unreachable goal. Do you use talismans or any other rituals that reminds you to stay persistent with your goals?

Guess who's back. Back again. (because I think I finally broke the curse of my artblock for real this time) Man I haven't finished a painting in months and it feels great to finally been able to paint joyfully again..maybe even stronger then ever?

Anyways. Nabs, Stop rambling, people want to hear about the story about this artwork! I guess...

This painting is called "Dreams". An image, that is a bit surreal but also invites the viewer to dream and feel. Something we do not do often these days (especially as adults). And it also captures my mood whenever I'm traveling by trains.

I don't know how to end this description so I hope that you stay hydrated. If not, grab a glass of water and sip that water, bestie. We stan hydrated peeps here!

The Program I used was Photoshop and tons of layers (and a lot of nerves too.)

And back to the painting game after doing so much Cell-shading! Parallel to my portfolio pieces I was working on this piece. At first that idea seemed fun but the more I progressed, the more difficult it became and I would mainly blame the one point perspective for it. Like dang, It's really difficult to use this perspective in a way without making Items look flat. Also I just noticed that the Grandpa has a certain corporate look to him that I cannot unsee. But I actually quite like the outcome. My favorite part was the shadows on the left side on the image as I had a big AHA moment. The Aha Moment is that usually we have a strict "Warm light/cold Shadow" rule but if you mix in a little bit of a warm color, the shadow becomes a more vibrant feel to it! It definitely is something that I want to experiment more with in the future.

And another Portfolio Piece is done!

This time I experimented a little with Lineweight and a bit of a trickier Perspective!

Today I like to share a WIP of my current Halloween Project.

The chosen topic for this project was "scarred Pumpkin" My Goal was to combine perspective, detail and composition and really stretch my muscles here. How can I apply all the things that I learned and how far can I even stretch my narrative muscle in order to achieve the goal of "telling a stand alone story in a single image" ? 😊

And for everyone stopping by. As always. Wishing you all a wonderful day, don't forget to stay hydrated. If you have a pet, give your pet a hug and thank you for stopping by :)

A lot have been on my mind lately and I thought I gonna share it today. Alongside this little page from my new Sketchbook. I freshly started it two days ago after for it patiently waiting in my shelf for 3 month, ready to be filled with good and bad drawings. And notes. Because I also write a lot.

Anyways. One thing that came into my mind was a quote a while ago. It came from a person on Youtube talking about AI Art. He said something along the lines of : "Artists don't like to draw but they like to see the end product"

Of course I can't talk for all artists on the world. But I am very certain that this statement is not true for most artists. What I'm going to describe now is more "my" experience. Maybe some artists here on Tumblr find themselves in these statement. Some might not. Both are valid and both are okay.

This might be shocking to you (or not) but if I'm being honest, I do not really care much for the end product. I never did. I maybe do, if a client is involved in the process but my core creativity stems from just doing something with my Hands. Grabbing my mechanical pencil and listening to the scratching noises on the paper while I slowly put Graphite on it. How some simple shapes slowly transforms itself into a drawing. An eye…the other eye… F*** I ruined the other eye. Doesn't matter. Lets continue from here. Taking a piece of my kneadable eraser , forming it into a convinient form and picking up some graphite areas in order to put on some highlights. At this point it's literally sculpting on Paper.

My digital approach is quite similar. Yet, instead of a Graphite pencil, or colored pencils I now have a overwhelmingly limitless palette. All the colors in the world (or within my RGB range) that I can throw together. The outcome is still not me carrying much for the result, but the process that leads me to the result The thinking process, the learning on the way. The test phase , in order to see if the process made sense in the end or not. Researching, learning again. And always with a brink of challenging myself to do better while also being in a almost meditative state. And every new piece of art I do is like a journey into the unknown. Sometimes I run into uncomfortable territories but it feels great to overcome them and literally feel the growth afterwards. Even with client work. And the best part of it is when my clients feel the same energy from the design I made for them.

Heck, I just love drawing and designing and the design thinking process. More than anything else in the world. And even the words I wrote are a simple understatement of how I truely feel about creating. Even when I got vulnerable at some parts.

And this feelings for the drafts of art is not unique to me. It's a universal artist experience. Go ask other artistic professionals. James Jean, Ian Mcque, or Bobby Chiu. Just watch all the dozens of Sketchbook tours that Proko has uploaded on his channel. Or the THU Sketchbook Tours where you not only see beautiful and inspiring sketches, but also get a glimpse into the minds of other artists. Or the Schoolism Interviews where Artists all over the world talk about their craft and the love to it. (just to reveal some places that made me fall in love with art all over again.)

And now let me ask you again: Do Artists really hate the process?

And for the transparacy: Some portraits where referenced from following fashion photographers: Keta Tamamura (Nezu 2019) Victor Demarchelier (photographing Katie Moore)