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Inktober 2018. Its on.
Back on the ink
So its that time of year again, inktober. Since last year was such a success for me, where I finally cracked the ink-code, I have decided to jump on it this year aswell.
I wont follow the prompt list this year either, but rather follow my own ideas. First and foremost I want to develop the styles I have found further. Be course that is what this project is all about; self development.
The time since the last inktober, I have found my favourite inking equipment.The pens
I have landed on Copic as a main brand. Their Multiliner comes in a wide size array. as of now, I use the 0.03 and 0.05 mm. Allthough I actually like the Microns best, the Cipic Multiliners has a replaceble tip. And trust me, you will need that. I press the tiny felt tip inside metal tube that makes up the tip into so its rendered useless before its empty of ink. But with the Copic ones, I can simply replace the whole tip.
Next up is the Copic Drawing Pen. It has a fountain pen tip, and has a slight dense type of ink, so that when you draw a quick line the line wont be whole. But drawing in a “normal” speed, it lays the ink evenly.
Brushpens is something I have discovered this last year. I started with the Pentel Brushpen. A good pen with very black ink. It flows well and you can get some ok dry brush effects by drawing quickly.
But I decided to buy a much more expencive brushpen from Jetpens.com. A Kuretake No. 40 Fountain Brush Pen. And man was that an amazing pen.
Better bristles, black ink, and a lot easier to make very fine lines with. I could also use a converter for the ink, which is a piston where one pumps up ink to refill it. Like a fountain pen. This enables me to use ink of m own choice. If I dont want that, there are ink cartrigdes for it. And their ink is really good.
The Kuretake pen cost $36, but it was totally worth it.Warm ups.
I didn’t really know what to draw this year. I started thinking of observational drawings, but didn’t quite feel that. So I did a couple of quick warm up drawings without any thought behind them I quickly come to think that I had been wanting to draw organisisms with ink. But seeing as they have bee drawn with pencils to get the light as good as I can, I have never really started. So my main goal now is to draw towards drawing my classic organisisms in ink.
Continuum
This year I thought I’d start a bigger drawing that I will draw a bit on every day for the duration of inktober. Hopefully this will culminate in a large finished drawing. A3 to be precise. I have yet to draw such a large ink drawing. I have simply found that ink suits me best i smaller sizes. I think the larges as of yet is just above A4. I will let each day of inktober decide what will be drawn that day, depending on how I have drawn that particular day. And I will post the progress, however small, here every time I post an new inktober update.
Inktober 1
Ok, lets dig into it. First drawing is.. well, nothing really. I simply do as I usually do when I draw, I play with shapes and lines and see what comes out of it. Drawing improvisation as I call it. You will probably see a lot of these kinds of drawings this year. But then again, you never know. That’s the fun part of inktober. You never know what will come out of it.
Inktober 2
Another odd shape. Just playing around with textures, shading and shapes really.
Continuum 2
Still have no idea where this is going. But feel some multiple spacial dimensions might be coming into this.
Inktober 3
Today I decided to test out a type of shading that I have been wanting to try a long time, but never dared in fear of ruining a drawing. I have a hard time simply sketching. I always “need” to make a finished drawing. But being inktober and all, my threshold for ruining something is lowered.
Anyway, I think this worked pretty well. I will keep working on this technique and refining it.
Continumm 3
I see some bony structures emmerging here. Startet to shade more in the directional way, letting the shapes directions decide the direction of the shading lines. Think it works fairly well.
Inktober 4
Keeping it simpe today, since I’m off to nightwatch leter today. And have my Continumm drawing to update aswell. And dinner to make, and…. ok, see ya soon.
Continuum 4
I liked the boney strucktures, and continued drawing in some more today. Bone structures seems to work well with pen and ink in a more oldtime drawing styl. Which suits me fine
Inktober 5
This time I went for some classic huge cloudscape. I wanted to make a tall format drawing. I find those fun to compose, since they kind of go against classic compositional thinking.
Continuum 5
Today I wanted fit in some clouds into the drawing. I then it felt only natural to place them inside the “ring” of bones where I already had been thinking of placing another spacial dimension. I think it worked pretty well. The contrast of the darker bones of death against the soft lifegiving clouds feels right.
Inktober 6
Another cloudscape today. With a bit of forrest and fields aswell. Thought I’d give it a go to draw some huge rainy clouds. This time I didn’t manage to render it as finished as I wanted. But hey, why not use inktober also to work on another of my issues; simply sketching. I have never really sketched. You see, I have never been able to not fully render a drawing. Can’t stand unfinished work. My own that is. I love other artists sketches though.Unfortunatly I dodn’t have the time to draw on the Continuum today. Hopefully tomorrow 🙂
Inktober 7
Just keeping it sketchy. Got the idea on the tram this morning fon my way from work, so I did a quick preliminary sketch there which I rendered a bit more and in ink for inktober 7.My idea was some kind of bony rings intertwined and floting in the sky. Might not be my best work, but then again I did go for a sketchy look. So maybe its not that bad after all.
Continuum 6
Managed to draw some more on this now. I have been uncertain as to were to take this, so I had to sketch up some in pencil first. Got time to ink it out afterwards. Next I think I have to get something drawn up on the top of this sheet. Its always important to stay a few steps a head and not to overwork smaller areas.
Inktober 8
Today I wanted to do swooping lines, and got this idea for a kind of magical tree. Letting the movement of the hand and fingers decide the lines. And to give the drawing a bit of ambience, I put in some clouds.
Continuum 7
These bony structures are fun to draw. And these ones are more and more taking shape of decorative acanthus leaves and Norwegian rose painting. I also made finishing points to the more honlike structures aswell. I need to find some way to end the drawing on top of the paper. Still not sure what will be, but I feel I am nearing the solution.
Inktober 9
The sun pendant. Hanging in the sky as a jewel to shine for all of us…. or simply me wanting to draw a circular shape this time.
I think the birds worked very well this time. Giving the piece depth and life
Continuum 8
Today I had to start planning what to do next in pencil. Its all well and good to draw directly with pen, but sometimes its important to be able to erase things one don’t like or doesn’t work. I would be a bitch to have to chuck the whole thing in the bin be course you simply planned it wrong.
Inktober 10
Once again I am going totally free and improvise 100%. Ok, I did “cheat” a tad this time, and started at work. I work as a nightwatch, and did some light drawing in between rounds. Before 00:00 o’clock. Buuuut anywho. I had no idea what these initial lines and blotches would be, bu I kept on drawing. Before I knew it I had something resembling the wings of a biplane. So a biplane it became.
Continuum 9
Today it finally loosened. I found out what to do in the top part of the drawing. The plan now is to make a dark environment inside the top bony oval shape. This will open up for me to maybe use white ink to draw the “figures” inside it. Not sure though. Much can change still in this old nugget of mine.
I really enjoy drawing these decorative bony acanthus shapes. The work very well with the properties of the black ink.
Inktober 12
Keeping it simple and not really well planned since I pretty soon have to go to work. Continuing on the bone sturctures I have been playing with in my Continuum drawing. And cruedly using more human anatomy as an inspiration.
Continuum 10
Got quite a lot done yesterday. I think I want to top oval with a black background, but its scary. Once its black there is no going back. I guess it depend on what I plan as the figures.
Inktober 13
Today I went way out of my comfort zone. Initially I wanted to do more inkwashes in the more classic chinese style, but my initial tests never worked the way I wanted. I guess I need to check out more papers and techniques first.
But it being autumn now, and the place where I work have these insane autumn colors, I took some photos and gave it a go with an inkwash. I have to admit, albeit a simple motif, it worked very well.
Continuum 11
Slowly moving forward. Not much to say really, just been drawing bone structures.
Inktober 13
Still working outside my comfort zone today. And keeping to the autumn motifs. This time however, I felt a bit bolder. So I was a lot heavier on the ink. Darkening more and mixing the different colours together. I only use two colors. Yellow and blue, beides black. All indian ink. The black however is fairly reddish in hue, so I use this to make the more orange colours.
Continuum 12
Finally decided on making a black background in the upper ring. This is two layers of Talens black india ink applied with brush. This ink is very red-brown in its hue, so I will go over with another ink type that is more black and grey when applied thin or diluted.
I will most likely draw something inside this ring in white ink. I have a small selection of white inks, så I will have to test out which is the best.
Inktober 15
Still in the autumn mood and outside my comfort zone. Allthough, its starting to feel more comfortable now. Tried a bit more complicated motif with more trees and colors to keep track of. I think I nailed this one pretty good.
Inktober 16
Had to make a drawing with a bit more simple motif this time since I have to go to work, nightwatch. Some places the leaves have almost fully left the trees. Fun to get a good balance between the orange leaves and the green grass.
Inktober 17
A light veil of almost unnoticable fog covers the fields.
After work this morning it was so beautiful at Rykkinn I had to take some photos. This field with the road in the on the other side is something I have wanted to draw or paint for a long time. Today was just to great looking to pass up.
Inktober 18
Had a bit more time today,so I could do an autumn drawing that was a bit more complicated. This is still Talens india ink with brushes. This time I experimented with using white india ink for a few small details and the leafs on the ground. I also put a layer of white over the treetops where the morning sun hits them. First I painted it with yellow ink, then a layer of white. Then yellow and red as the last layers.
Inktober 19
I am pressed for time this weekend, so I will only make three small fantasy insects. Sometimes one simply have to make things, well, simple. The goal is anyway to make one drawing each day throughout the month. I have kept the linework very loose, and lat the few colours I use run more freely with lots of water.
Inktober 20
Yet another insect. More off a lowrider this time.
Inktober 21
The Ghost crab. A “highrise” insect.
Inktober 19, 20, 21
And here they are, together as drawn
Inktober 22
I wanted to go back to the pure black ink and pen this time. That is, the Copic Multiliner 0.05 mm. This is the same landscape as inktober 17. But this time I finally managed to find a good organisism to incorporate into a natural landscape
Continuum 13
And finally I managed to find some time to work on my continuum drawing. I have to admit though that I have drawin with pencil yesterday on this to plan. But I figured since I am already late with these postings, and it looked the same as it does inked, I’d break my initial rule of posting every update.
It seems this will be quite filled with these acanthus, bony, decorative shapes.
Inktober 23
Back into the autumn mood. Wanted to do a drawing with lots of water. Specifically the mirror of the water. So much emotions can be put into the water mirror. Dark and gloomy, dark and mysterious, light and chipper, dancing happiness, anger and so on. But not to forget, one has to think of the waters own properties. The main being, its wet. And a fluid. All properties that has to be conveid .
Continuum 14
Having more time these days, means more of this drawing getting done.
I love the intricacy of the bony acanthus shapes. Its getting more and more an obsession to draw these. So, there its said. And I guess any old day now I will get bored of them. Usually do when I make myself aware of these hangups 🙂
Inktober 24
This time I thought I’d do a fairly simple cloudscape. Typically of me then to choose a landscape that one simply have to do in shading. To bring across the sun shining through the clouds, I really didn’t see any other way then to shade. I tried to let the lines make up the dynamics of the clouds by following the shapes, and at the same break that dynamic up with more chaotis line/shadework.
Continuum 15
It’s beginning to be harder to find good complimenting movements of the shapes in this drawing. It is happening so much, its a danger it will all become pure chaos. But I am more or less decided on filling the whole paper with these shapes.
Though, I also felt like putting in something like the clouds from inktober 15. Fog, smoke… I don’t know yet.
Inktober 25
Ok, so I fucked up todays drawing. Been working most of the day on it. It was initially going to be black and white, but I figured it could be nice with color. So I gave it a go. Even though it was a very wrong paper that cant take that much water. But what really ruined it, was me using to much color in the start and hasting it all. And no, you can not see it 🙂
So I just drew this little fella. A little cute and mean insect. Well, thats inktober for ya. Sometimes you fuck things up.
Continuum 16
More planning in graphite. Really not much I can say about this drawing now without repeating myself, so I’ll shut up and let the drawing speak for it self.
Inktober 26
“The columns of Atlas”. This one I felt needed a name. No particular reason other then be course.
Continuum 17
Today I have just inked the pencil drawing from yesterday.
Inktober 27
Going back to the biplanes. I found a photo on facebook from which I took a lot of inspiration from in this drawing. I wanted a sea of clouds, but I’m not sure weather they look like clouds or waves to hones. Of well, thats what can happen when I am pressed for time. I need time to think as I need time to draw. Thinking and contemplating a piece of art. Sometimes as much as the time I need to make it.
Oh well, I like it no matter if its waves or clouds.
Inktober 29
Today I just wanted to relax with a doodle. A so called zenmeditionimprovdrawing. Just letting the pencil work freely on the paper and seeing what shapes come up. Then clean them up and draw them properly with ink. Keep doing that until one is pleased with the result.
This did however become the first drawing I did not finish this year. But I don’t mind. These kinds of drawings is meant to be done over time as a meditation anyway.
Inktober 29
Today’s drawing started as another idea. I wanted to draw a landscape with some sort of organisism in it, and in colour. I found a fitting photo amongst my photos, and started to sketch in up. Whilst doing this, I figured I needed to sketch the organisisms as well. So I thought I might just let these studies become today’s drawing.
Inktober 30
It seemed I needed to get to know the motif better before the colour version I was supposed to make today, so I made a black and white version….
Nah, worked to slow so I had to make a last minute thing.
Hopefully there will be a colour version of this tomorrow.
Inktober 31
MADE IT!!Phu, I can finally bearth out. I made inktober 2018 with no hickups. Today is the day where I compile mye two latest drawings into the final inkpainting. More of a sci fi painting in which I combine my organisisms and real earth landscape. This painting is a good example on why one have to be able to improvise. I accidentally dripped som green ink onto the sky. Ink is impossible to remove from paper, I had to draw something in to cover it.
I did ponder a bit about draing in a hovering organisism, but ended up on a cloud. So that I wouldn’t steal to much attention from the pylon and the cables. Now, I could have drawn in more cables, but due to short time, I diceded against it. It still looks good with this amount.
The end
This years inktober went very well I would say. I mamanged to draw every day. I was mostly inspired every day, allthough e couple of days not so much as other days. But my main source of inspiration during this month is the fact that I learn so much from this. I have taken the plunge into coloured inks, and found it a lot easier then I thought. Which again, will make it alot easeier to dive into watercolours.
So inktober, thank you once again for teaching me new tricks 🙂
Ps.: I didn’t manage to finish my Continuum drawign within the inktober limit, but I will continue to draw on it and finish it.Continuum 18
I’ve got balls! Balls in the drawing that is. I have a long time felt I needed som other shapes in this pattern. Today I gave it a shot with spheres. And I think it worked very well. The only problem now is how to shade them. I started to think about doing them in colour, like in some of my organisism pencil drawings, but did the first one in ink. After sketching in the shades with pencil in the second, I found that I liked the look of pencil together with the black ink. I will leave the rest un-drawn for now, and probably decide when most of the drawing is done.
Continuum 19
So I have finally filled the whole A3 sheet with my bony acanthus pattern. And balls. Now for the tedious though meditative labour of shading it. I find this shading very satisfying.
When it comes to the spheres, I am lightly trying out graphite for the shading. I can do this be course its easy to erase if I dont want it. I think I will draw one or two spheres with coloured pencil on another paper sheet, and cut them out and lay them onto the drawing to see if that works. Coloured pencil is not that easy to erease, you see.
Tomorrow I’m going away to our mountain cabin. So I wont get anything done on this for about a week. Only healthy with a small break anywho.
Inktober 2017. I’ll give it a go.
Inktober 1
This is my first attempt on Inktober. I have been playing a bit with pens and ink lately (images will come), and find the constrictions of black and white exciting. I got inspired to try this challenge when seeing my good friend Yngvill Hopens awesome inktober drawing of three goats from the Norwegian fairy tale “Three Billy Goats”. No its all just a matter of remembering to make a new drawing every day. I’ll try to post the new image daily.
Inktober 2
An odd little thing put together in the last minute due to rat hunting in the evening. Yup, we’ve got rats. And not the cute white ones. We’ve got the big wild ones. It seems our neighbor house has had a rat problem that now have infected our house. Luckily they are just on the outside for now, and there has been caught about 20 rats in traps put out in the joining appartments in this house. Myself, I haven’t caught one single rat in my trap. Kinda makes me glad I don’t have to hunt for my meat. I might had gone hungry.
Inktober 3
Thought I’d try a more classic organisism this time. Not sure I think that worked to well though. A tad boring. I feel more comfortable in a wilder style with ink. Anywho, thats the point of Inktober; exploring .
More ink tomorrow. Now, it’s time for housework. A lot more boring.
Inktober 4
This time around I felt like introducing the creatures from two previous drawings for one another. So I thought I’d let them have a conversation. And to illustrate this, I made a small piece of music to illustrate the illustration, simply called “Converse”. I made this piece on my modular synth.
Inktober 5
Didnt get the time to post this yesterday. Anwho, this time I wanted to try out some ink wash. It was a rather scary experiance. I have never done this, and it is a rather definite process. When the ink is down, it stays there. No redoes.
The idea in this drawing is simple. My creatures is on an exploration up to the top of some weird structures. I wonder what they will discover up there.
Inktober 6
Didnt have much time today since I had to go to work. So I simply drew a window. More spesifically, its loosely based on the window in the staircase of the Deichmaske Library here in Oslo. Yesterday I attended a noise concert there, and waiting in line to get to the toilet inbetween to artists, I stood watching this window and letting me get inspired by its beautiful shape and its old materials.
Inktober 7
I have just realized that I haven’t really drawn much fur. And certainly not with ink.
I leave this with a lot of white space, so that I might come back to it later.
Inktober 8
I had fun drawing this one. I Started out feeling like drawing a leeklike plant, and after a while I felt in needed a little contrast. So I figured a snail would be fun. That would give it more life and movement… well, sort of movement.
I’m quit pleased with the result. And again, I find the ink lends itself really well to these simple line drawings.
Inktober 9
This was not the most inspired on. I had little time today, so I hade to just scribble down something. Its suppose to be a flower with mouth with teeth on the end of some roots, all made in a classic schematics tradition. Oh well, it is what it is. At least I didnt break the streak in this my first Inktober.
Inktober 10
I hade a really fun time today with this one. Back in the game again. The game of making up fantastic beast. This one is a squidlike animal tha flys with the help of its gasfilled balloon on its back. The amount of gas, and thus the altitude, is beeing regulated with a vent on the side of its head. I might have to revisit this animal later.
Inktober 11
A little fantasy over a swordfish. Not much to say really. It was fun to design and draw, even though it didn’t quite turned out the way I imagined. But hey! Sometimes that happens.
Inktober 12
No 12 started out as smoke, and ended up as… something cool.
Inktober 13
Tired after my journey back to Oslo today. As illustrated.
I have to find out what these creatures is called. They are mysterious and oddly titillating.
Inktober 14
Didnt have the time to do Inktober yesterday, since I was in a birthday party all day yesterday. So I had to catch up today. Here’s no 14.
Inktober 15
No 15. A tentacled plant. I think the tentacles are poisonous, but I’m not sure.
Once again, i experienced how well ink lends itself to a clean line style like this. I am really enjoying this.
Inktober 16
No 16 is a revisiting of my floating creature in a more natural habitat.
I still don’t know what this species is called, but I do know its a part of the Hammerhead world.
Inktober 17
A huge mountain wall. Drawn with Pental Pocket Brush and Micron 0.05 and Copic liner 0.03. Just found out they have replacement nbs for the letter at Christ Engebretsen here in Oslo. Which is good, course I love that 0.03 gauge
Inktober 18
I had such fun drawing the mountain wall yesterday, I’d thought I’d go for a whole rocky landscape. A little sci-fi scene with the stone rose of the ‘Kahaulh people on the little known seventh planet in the Berhinger system.
Inktober 19
It might be e stone creature, it might just be a rock formation. Its on other planets as it is in the Norwegian woods. You never know if its a troll or simply a root.
Inktober 20
Finally, no 20. I will get some serious updating to to next week. I wont be able to finish todays drawing tomorrow, neither tomorrows. Good I have a week in the cabin in the woods next week then 🙂
Anywho, some new other plantary plantlife this time.
Inktober 21
A new plant with a huge egglike flower in the middle. I wanted something simple, allthough it might av become overly simple. My excuse is I hava had too much to do, so I haven’t had much drawing time unfortunatly.
Inktober 22
Another flower-fantasy. Fairly simple, made at work while we all were watching a movie.
Inktober 23
Finelly in our cabin on the mountain. Lovely nature around here, so my plan have been to take pens and paper outside to draw from the nature around here. Unfortunatly, it seems to keep on raining. I thus ended up simply drawing the vista from the table where we eat. Drawn with Mavy For Drawing Brush.
Inktober 24
Stil one behind. But this one is a dancing forrest lady in the shape of a pine tree, that dance for me every time I walk up to our cabin.
Pen used, Marvy For Drawing Brush Pen. An awesome brush pen.
Inktober 25
#Inktober2017. Still behind, but here is no 25. Another scene from here at Breiset, more accuratly from Monsevann.
Inktober 26
Another scene from Breiset.
Pen used, Marvy For Drawing Brush Pen.
Inktober 27
Going back to where I like it best, in my own fantasy. Still highly inspired from Breisets nature though 🙂
Still use the Marvy Brush Pen, but here I have also used a Copic 0.03 Multiliner for the clouds and a Mavy 0.05 for the picture frame.
Inktober 28
Last one today of Inktober. No 28, and almost back on track. Only one behind. A bit darker and a bit more sinister looking scene from Breiset.
Inktober 29
Two more to go, and I am done 🙂
This one is a small, dark fantasy from back home in Bergen. A nice way to combine both the rock texture I have developed, and the tree method I have accuired.
Inktober 30
Officially I didn’t make it, though managing 29 drawings in 31 days, is still a win in my book.
This time I went all dark. I like it dark.
Yet another attempt to combine the rock and tree textures. I feel they compliment each other very well.
Homemade drawing charcoal
Today I had an awesome hike in the woods of Breiset where me and two friends have a little cabin. I got some really amazing inspirational views of both huge vistas and some of the wierdest and most bizarrely twisted pinetrees I have seen. We hiked about 6,5 km in fairly dense forrest. So it was great to chuck some firewood on the outside fireplace to get some hot coal ready for the barbeque when we got back. Today baked cod, sweet potato and lightly butter fried chanterelle was on the menu.
After dinner we sat and taked about everything and nothing.
I found some pine twigs I had laid for dry last year to use as wall hooks, and started to whittle of the bark. Whilst doing this I got to think about the youtube videoes I had seen of DIY drawing charcaol. I thought it would be fun to try out this here with pine all around me and a crisp fire on the fireplace. But I needed a tin to put the twigs to be charred into. And that, I did not have…. Unless. The beercan I had just empetied. I cut some fitting sized pine twigs and put them into the can. Then I put the can onto the fire. Now it was just to wait. As you can see on the image I did not take of the bark. This would prove to be a little mistake, since I then got a looser layer of charcoal that fell of onto the drawing as I drew. 
After about 30 minutes I saw that it was burnt a hole in the beer can. So a beer can might not be the best tool for this. But it works in a pinch for whenever you simply have to make a charcoal drawing when you’re far off into the woods in a little cabin.
Without any art supply stores for miles around. Because as you can see, it worked. I got some fairly good pieces of drawing charcoal. A bit on the soft side, but if that’s due to the charring time or the type of wood (pine), I couldn’t say at this point. 
The good thing about a beer can of aluminium is that can simply burn it on the fire after the charcoal is done. It takes a bit of time, but when its time for you to tuck in for the night after some beer and good food around the fire, it’s gone. If you want a tin to reuse, use one made of thin iron/steel that can take a lot more heat then thin aluminium. 
The next day I wanted to try to make some really thin and some a lot thicker pieces. The thin ones I simply wrapped tightly in three layers of aluminium foil , and chucked them into the fire. The thicker ones I put into a more solid tin I, to my surprise, found in the cabin. I made a small hole in the lid for the gas and smoke to escape from so the lid wouldn’t explode of with a sudden, loud noise, causing me to throw my beer high in the air resulting in me getting all beer soaked on the outside of my body. Beer goes inside body. As you can see, the thin pieces worked great. No breakage. But the thickest ones was harder to get right. I suspect the tensions in the material got to high when cooling down, so I will have to find a way for them to cool down much slower.
Although, they might also have broken due to the tensions when they got charred seeing as they shrink quit a bit as the water evaporates. So I got a bunch of really small and thick pieces. Oh well, it was my first tries, so I am happy.Beer goes inside body.
Anywho, it was time to test the little buggers. How were they to draw with? Actually quite good. As mentioned earlier, they feels a tad soft. But that’s just a matter of taste and workflow.
They gave a really dark blackness. More then I expected. But they seemed to break easier then the store bought ones. Although not so much that couldn’t be used. I will try different kinds of wood later and see if they then get more solid.
This was a fun holiday experiment I can recommend everyone that’s into charcoal drawing to try. Chuck a few pieces of wood into an empty beer or soda can, place it into the fire when you sit around the fireplace an evening in your cabin. If you “only” have a fireplace at home, give it a go. Find your mom’s old cookie tin , put a few sticks into it and chuck it into the fire. Give them 30 to 60 minutes of charring time depending on the thickness of the wood, and try to let them cool down slowly by putting it to the side beside the fire after they are done, and let them cool down slow.
Just remember to take of the bark before charring. Then you will avoid the small pieces of charred bark falling onto your drawing resulting in those small irritating and unwanted marks where you want the papers whiteness to stay absolutely white.I found it only fitting that I gave these pieces of wood new life in the form of this drawing of an old forrest landscape. This drawing is of course very inspired by the forrests and landscape around Breiset where I am staying while writing this article. Its full of amazing primeval forrest that can spark an abundanca of ideas and inspiration.
Inspirations, infulations and trees.
Today I had to take a bike ride downtown to get some pencil lead. I discovered yesterday that I lacked two fundamentally important grades, B and 2B. So I headed down to Christ Engebretsen & Son to see if they had this. They was of course sold out for the B, so I had to head over to KEM (another artist supply here in Oslo). Luckily they had the missing grade. So I got a box of those and a couple of Steadtler mine holders. These are
the ones I like best. Well, at least the ones I am most used to. Which for most of the time is the most important thing for me and my workflow. Anywho… I decided to head home through another part of town from were I came, and ended up in Trondheimsveien.
After a quick browse inside a small cosy old time tobacco store, something suddenly hit me. “Hadn’t I seen a used comic book store in this street?” I did a quick map search on my phone for Lucky Eddie comic book store. And yup, I had remembered correctly. Just up the street from were I where standing, it laid. So I got on my bike again and headed up to it. Once inside the doorway my jaw dropped. OMG what a heavenly store for a comic geek like me! Comics of all sorts. Donald Duck in abundance, Superman, Superboy, Spider-man….. the list goes on. I browsed a good while smiling for myself as I discovered comic upon comic from my childhood.
Comics that had been a huge influence on my taste and later my own art. I have always loved superhero comics. And the times in which we are today, is like an utopia when it comes to superheros on the silver screen, with modern days CGI effects. Seeing The Amazing Hulk, even the smallest muscles in his arm throb as he lifts something unlifiable. Superman, the only character in any kind of literature which can be called a true god, truly have the opportunity to show of his strength with today’s movie CGI. Still a huge source of inspiration for me. But back to Lucky Eddies comic book store. In a shelf I found a book on Roger Deans art, “Roger Dean – Views”. You know, the dude that illustrated the covers for YES. Now, I have never really fallen for his style. It has been to crude for my taste. And much too bright colour wise. But the book had some sketches in it as well, so I felt strangely drawn towards it having gotten back into drawing myself of late. I also picked up a couple of comics by Alexandro Jodorovsky, The Technopriests. A story from the John DiFool universe by Jodorovsky and Moebius. The latter, one of my biggest inspirational sources when it comes to artists. More on these two later.Now, after having gotten home, I have had a browse in the Roger Dean book while eating a fish wrap lunch with a delicious pangasius fillet. My first impression is that I should have checked out Dean before. His stuff is great. Playful, organic shapes, filled with dramatic colours and shadows, in a landscape of psychedelic flowing paint. Probably done by letting paint and some sort of thinner, depending on the type of paint, flow freely over the paper or canvas. Although, I really have no idea how he worked. So this is all just guessing for now. I will have to check this more thoroughly later. I think this organic playfulness is what drew me towards buying this book today. I recognized myself and my organisisms in his work. The colours, well…. they still feels very bright, but I feel they speak more to me today then yesteryears. Their childish play with the shapes they are set to colourize, together with the dark, harsh, black shadows. It all gives his images some sort of realistic, dramatic photographic look. Like they where taken with a strange camera made from an alien technology on a distant alien world with another kind of atmosphere which distort light as we know it. At the same time they have this wonderful, childish fairytale look to them. I sometimes expect to read “once upon a time…..” in the connecting text. And of course, the sketches. I love sketches, and have always loved them. Never sketched much myself though. I get the hibijeebies (howeverthatiswritten) by seeing my own unfinished, crude and stuttering lines and drawings which I feel my sketches is. Word to the wise though; its never a good idea not to sketch. If you have the aforementioned problem, get over it!! Its nothing you learn as much from then sketching. So don’t be me. Sketch!Fantastic art, art that draws on pure imagination have always been my favourite. Although when browsing through my art on this website, you will find much art that is of a more serious, classical and social commentary sort. I am not sure why I ended up on that road, but I did. Didn’t work for me though. By all means, I have made some really good pieces, even masterpieces if I might be so bold, working in those manners, but something has always been a miss for me. I know today that this was fantasy and the playfulness of imagination. I have always had a very imaginative mind, and always made small fantastic stories in my head for my self. But I never felt that I would be taken serious in the Norwegian art scene making art like that.So after many years trying to become a serious fine arts artist, I simply quit. Well, its a more complex reason for my quitting then that, but that’s of no interest for now. The thing is that I quit art, but found music. More specifically, synthesizer music. Making music on software synths, made it possible for me not only to be able to “walk inside” my own artwork, music that is, but the worlds I created with music was ever changing as well. A fourth dimension had been discovered, time, and the metamorphosis there in. So drawing on my musical inspirational sources like Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and many others, I have now played with sound for a few years. Or as I call it; painted with sound. Because pictorial art is still something that is very close to me. And I use the same principles I used as a painter when composing music. I find my inspiration from the same sources still, like sci-fi movies and books, comics about Superman, The Incal and other Moebius comics.Moebius (picture above and below this text) is an artist which, if you do not know of, I urge you to get some of his graphic novels if you are into sci-fi. They will blow you mind. His drawing style have been a huge influence on me since I first laid eyes on the John DiFool series. The universe in that man’s head is beyond anything I have seen. He has a humor in his panels even when the scenes he illustrate can be hard and gory. And he can switch so elegantly between a comical line to a much more classical and serious in the same novel without it looking odd and misplaced. A great source of inspiration. Some of his best work is done in collaboration with Alexandro Jodorovsky. A man whose fantastic stories can be like a living Salvador Dali painting.
Other things I find inspirational is magazines, and design and fashion in particular. Don’t know why, except for the cleanliness of the layout. I find it oddly titillating. And then we have the architectural drawings. Now there is something I can really enjoy. Many years ago I found a huge book about Frank Lloyd Wrights architectural drawings. It’s just loaded with drawings of houses, parks, gardens and interior. And every drawing, though industrial as they are meant to be, is like a Rembrandt, a Carravaggio or a DaVinci. I always look at his overall shapes of a house for instance, trying to figure out his thought behind it. How is this meant to function? Where are the rooms? Are the entrances practically laid out? What does this shape resemble? Is that a snail-house he has fetched that shape from?….. All these kinds of question triggers my own inspiration and ideas.Now it have to be said that I find these so inspirational much because the drawings are so small in this format. So the detail gets so tiny. This makes the drawings look even more amazing, and they trigger even more ideas since its sometimes impossible to see what they actually are, so my mind tends to make up its own idea about what they are. The same with the shapes in the drawings. They can trigger all kinds of ideas.
Another thing I find inspirational in this book, is the same thing I find inspirational with sketches as well. The drawing technique. I enjoy certain kinds of techniques. Not that I think I will manage to put into words how this technique is, but I will try to give a little picture of it.
The line have to be loose, yet firm. I have to see some certainness from the artist in his lines. I like a good and gritty style with a pencil that has ran freely across the paper. But at the same time there have to be some kind of order. Even if this is through chaos. Ordered chaos. Yes, that might be a good term for it.Inspiration is never a problem. Its rather to sort it all out and collect the ones I want to use, archive the once I might use later and throw out the ones I don’t need.a multitude of sources
And when it comes to ordered chaos, I think one of my main inspirations and influences might be one of the highest masters. Salvador Dali. His chaotic order has always been comforting to me. Yes, actually comforting. And not only that, but soothing as well. You see, my head has for as long as I can remember been a very chaotic place to stay. So every now and again I have had to push that chaos back with external chaos. Its like the two chaos states cancels each other out, or maybe the external chaos simply makes the reality feel more like home? I really don’t know. Only thing I know is I can find it comforting and soothing. Even white noise on the radio can feel soothing. So Salvador Dali’s chaotic surrealistic universe was something I felt at home in from the moment I saw his works in a book many years ago. It might not be where I draw most of my inspiration from today, but sometimes I like to pick up the brick of a book I have about him and just look at the pictures.What about nature? Don’t you find the majestic nature of Norway inspirational at all? I can almost here some of you ask me this. By all means. I find it very inspirational. But not so much for my art as I find it an inspiration to live. To feel that I truly am a part of something greater then myself. A part of the awesome force we call nature. Absolutely. One of my main hobbies is rock hunting. I love walking around in quarries looking at rocks, think about how they came to be, the amazing and time consuming process it is to create a certain type of rock. The time it takes for a calcite or a quartz crystal to form. And not to forget trees. I am a real tree hugger. A good old fashion one whom actually can be seen hugging and caressing a tree trunk. I love the texture of the bark, the hardness of the wood, and the fact that trees at the same time is so amazingly sensual in the way they sway lightly in the breeze. And they can be old as history itself. Full of stories to tell for whomever wishes to listen.There is lots more I could write about from where I find inspiration. H.R. Giger for nasty, gritty art, Bob Venosa for etheral, heavenly crystal worlds, the smile of Kylie Minogue which I can hear in nearly every sung word in her music, the darkness and cyberpunk that is Skinny Puppy….. in short, this article could go on for terabytes, or could become a series for the ages. But more might come later. Right now I hear my stomach growl a tad, which again inspires me to make some dinner.Contrast.
It is by far the most fruitful of all the sources. Within the contrasts of the world lays everything you will ever need to get inspired to make great art.A few closing wordsFig. 1, from Lucky Eddie, http://luckyeddie.no/
Fig. 2, “Roger Dean – views” and The Technopriests books
Fig. 3, from the Roger Dean book
Fig. 4 and 5, from The Incal – “The Fifth Essence I – The Dreaming Galaxy”
Fig. 6, from “Frank Lloyd Wright – Monograph 1951-1959”
Fig. 7 from “Dali – Paintings” Tachen
Fig . 8, my own photo
Fig. 9, from “H.R. Giger – Necronomicon” Edittion CWip for “Beneath outside”
This is a little work-in-progress, or WIP for short. It’s a charcoal drawing, and it’s a challenge I gave my self. First off I just let the charcoal run a bit wild on the paper to create a messy surface with blurry shapes. I used a brush and eraser to help lifting the shapes. In between the each charcoal applying, I fix the paper with ordinary fixative. brush and eraser to spread the coal even more, and make it a bit smoother. Then it was time for the first layer of fixative to lock this coal layer. This way I am free to apply more coal to the paper. Still letting the piece of charcoal run free over the paper, only having the contrast as the only fixed ide in mind. I started making some lines to see if I got some more detailed texture. But no lines nor details were safe. They might just aswell get smudged out, or even erased.About the eraser. I use a kneaded eraser that can be kneaded into different shapes (Faber-Castell Art Eraser). This eraser picks up the charcoal very well, so by stretching and lightly rolling it together. And by letting it roll over the paper with a very light pressure, I can get a lot of texture and more shapes to work with later. These stages were repeated about three or four times.
Then came the time to actually draw something. Trying to look at the shapes the applied coal could tell me, and letting the messy paper decide what the drawing should be of. The first lines are drawn. From the start, I manage to “ruin” my idea be thinking nature. So these lines became the start of a torso. “Oh well, maybe I will manage to think more outside the box further into the drawing”, I though. It was time to sit back, empty my mind and simply look. Sometimes when working on a piece, this is something one just has to do. This drawing was kind of like a rehearsal in this as much as an improvisational drawing experiment.
I start to look for more abstract shapes that I later can mold into something three dimensional. Its all about just letting the pencil run free and not planning the next step, or the next shape. Not thinking of a backstory, but let the story enfold at the and. The fun thing then is that you yourself will become one of the audience instead of the artist with the whole story laid out on a platter.
So I found these weird four, five and six sided geometrical shapes. Not really sure where they where going, I went with them. As you can see, I have started using a white chalk pencil to introduce som highlights and pull more shapes out giving the drawing more room. The good thing drawing with charcoal pencil is the I can use the chalk pencil to draw in light, not just leave the white paper as one have to do with graphite. This makes it easier to do these unplanned drawings. This is of course even easier with ordinary charcoal and kneaded eraser, but this drawing is much to small for that medium.
Here its pretty obvious to me that I have to draw rocks of some kind. But I am still not certain if it will become a stone wall or more natural rocks. Oh, and I have decided that there will be a character in the drawing. That is, I have decided it will become a character. I messed up the arm a couple of times, and not being able to get the anatomy of it to sit right, I simply made it a more comic-style arm. I didn’t want to attract to much attention to this character and draw attention away from the rest of the drawing. So instead of a face I gave him a slit and a weird hat. Hm, ok, in hindsight I see this might give him even more attention. Oh well.
The small flowery shapes (yes, I see them now as some kind of stone flowers), are starting to overflow the drawing. At least that’s what I felt. Also at this stage I felt that the rocks in the top left of the drawing is looking more and more like a stone wall, so I try to draw some more wavy lines underneath it. Kind of making the rock morph into something else.At this point its getting harder and harder to try to keep an empty mind and not planning the rest of the drawing.
Thinking in terms of shapes again, I drew some lines I thought might become some bigger objects, that would feel harder and much heavier, and thus stand as a contrast to the rest. A concrete surface? That sounded about right. But if this was to become a concrete surface, it needed some cracks to give the illusion of something hard, and at the same time uphold the illusion something that at one time had been destroyed.
See? Here I go again. Yet again overthinking and starting to plan. Not that it matters that much to actually plan this late in the process, but my whole idea this time was not to plan anything at all.
The round shapes in front of the character I almost saw as some weird alien instruments of some kind.
After fiddling about with those «instruments»,
I got the idea of making a double dimensional drawing by drawing in the sphere in the lower left part, and letting a cast shadow fall onto the paper, not following the shapes in the initial drawing. I tried to make the lighting of this very different to that of the first drawing, really pushing it out of the drawing, and thus giving the illusion of a drawing on top of a drawing. A bit like if you have a photograph of a photograph of a vase with the same vase standing on top of the photographed photograph of the same vase…… that also was standing….. eeh, you get the drift….. I hope.
I think the more organic shapes in the left of the drawing underneath the wallish rocks turned out nice. It gives a nice subtle contrast to the hard and heavy rocks, at the same time being heavy yet soft themselves.Detailing time. At this stage I start to clean up the drawing more. Now I make the black blacker, and the white whiter where it’s needed. I see to it that all the objects in the drawing is where they need to be in the three dimensional space. It’s important to have some objects pushed back in the space, as it is to draw some towards us to give it a feeling of actual space. Otherwise, it will become flat. Now, in this drawing I have already decided that the main drawing should be the drawing within the drawing, and the sphere have a sub role as the actual drawing. Therefore I wanted the drawing within the drawing to have a flatter look to it, and the sphere to feel more roomy.
All the time since I introduced the larger heavier, straighter shapes, I had been pondering what to do with them. And suddenly it dawned on me. Lines. I needed more lines. So I tried out a few pattern ideas, before landing on this polygon pattern. I felt that gave the whole thing an architectural look. As if this was some long sunken architecture, taken over by a wierd being pursuing to create its own world wherein it could be king.
And finally I put on the last parts. Highlighting and darkening the darkest shadows even more.
Now, before doing this, I had looked long and well on the drawing, looking to see if something was lacking, or if I had forgotten anything important. Was there any lines or smudges that needed to be erased? After deciding it was ready and nothing needed repair, I gave it a layer of fixative. This way I bind the charcoal and the chalk, so I can layer even more charcoal and chalk where needed. Than I could fill every gap in the papers texture with dark charcoal, and the highlights would look clean and unsmudged.
I also used some blue tinted charcoal pencils to color the spheres. After having done that, I felt that the single sphere looked lonely. So I drew in a spherical friend for him. Putting its cast shadow even further away from it, enhancing the drawing in drawing effect a lot.All in all, I feel happy with this drawing. Now, since I never planned anything, the drawing felt suprisingly freash to me, rendering me more a part of the audience looking at the art, more then the artist haven drawn it. That I have to say, was a very envigerating. I actually allowed me to think to my self: «This wasnt his best drawing. He have a lot more interesting pieces then this this. But at the same time, and I dont know what, but something is drawing me towards it.» The more I looked at it the days to come, the more I liked it, and the more I «got to know» it. Its like I had put myself on the outside of my own drawing.
A fun expirience, and well worth a try.
