Day 64: Worms in hats 1 (This weeks theme)

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using Wacom Intuos 3

The reason this picture is called "Worms in hats" rather than "Worm in hat" is that this is the first picture in a theme. I asked one of my friends what theme he thought I should have this week and then "Worms in hats" was what he said, so that is what it'll be :)

Day 63: Fight the fire

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

About as abstract as it gets, an axe above a volcano =)

Day 62: Eye and triangle

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

This image is another proof that one can be inspired by all kinds of things. I was sitting on a bus today and while waiting for the bus to leave the station I looked down on the wet asphalt and saw a pattern which was something like the above. (Not as elaborate of course, and I've got a fairly vivid imagination, but it's still interesting that such simple things can inspire you :) )

Day 61: Night fowl

Created in The GIMP using a Wacom Intuos 3

Today there are two pictures, they're really the same, it's just that some things went wrong when I tried to save the above picture and before I figured out how to solve it I got the below result several times. The more I looked at the faulty version the more I liked it though, so I decided to show it too. (I've later realized that they are in a way each others opposites, the above is the bird in the sky, and the below looks a bit like the stars have fallen from the sky onto a planet.

Created in The GIMP, but since I didn't check the settings when saving it didn't turn out like it was supposed too. A proof that even great artists can make mistakes ;-) (I mean, if I can make mistakes, then I'm sure that great artists can too, maybe not as many, but still... All kidding aside I'm sure that the greater the artist the more mistakes, you gotta take chances to reach above the ordinary ;-) )

Day 60: Silent reflection

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Not sure how silent this is, there's a lot of noise in this picture, but the again, if it's supposed to be abstract it can just as well be a bit strange too :)

Day 59: Breaking apart

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Continuing this weeks theme with another fairly abstract piece :)

Day 58: Meek isn't weak

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

In case you find the words on the picture difficult to read they say "Meek is NOT the same as weak"

Day 57: Burning table

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Fire can be very devastating in reality, but it's very fun to create as an effect in a graphics program. It's not as hot to deal with this kind of fire either.

Day 56: Svalbard

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Something relatively abstract made in a late hour, so don't expect the title to make sense :)

Day 55: Sunset

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Playing a bit with the "watercolor brushes" in openCanvas I got this nice image of a sunset.

Day 54: Bird on vacation

Created in Inkscape using a Wacom Intuos 3

Even birds need to go on vacation sometimes, and this one is so exhausted that he falls right down on the sandy beach to relax.

I noticed some minor stuff I should've fixed, but it's a quarter past midnight here, so you'll have to survive =)

Day 53: Bread and blood

Created in Inkscape 0.45 using a Wacom Intuos 3

The title may sound terrible, but since it's easter it's very appropriate.

Day 52: Lady and stars

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

It's fascinating to look up at a starry sky, in fact even a simple line drawing can enjoy it.

Day 51: Water dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Here is the water dragon to finish off the "elemental dragons" series.

I haven't painted in every drop of water. The drops in the background are created using one of openCanvases features, called tones, that makes it possible to paint/draw etc as usual, but only the parts corresponding to the chosen "tone" are affected. The drops in the dragon's mane are done using the same base image, but this time as the nib/tip of the tool I've used.

Day 50: Cat and poem

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Even a silly text can have a meaning to it, but that doesn't make the sillyness less silly, just okay ;)

Day 49: Lighthouse in sunset

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Today I asked one of my friends what he wanted me to paint/draw, he answered:

a sunset over the sea, with a small stone lighthouse on a stone pier

so that's what I did.

Not sure the waves would behave like that, but since I don't know much about these things I'll leave it like that :)

Day 48: Earth dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Number three in the element dragons series: The Earth dragon. I though earth would be really hard to portray, but I'm satisfied with this, though it could double as a tree trunk dragon too =)

Day 47: Bright universe

Created in Artrage and openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Is this what interstellar space travel looks like? Don't know, but if traveling through space looks like this I'd sure like to try it :)

Day 46: Color+effects=experiment

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

I was in a hurry so I created this quick experiment.

Day 45: Air dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Image three in my dragon series, an attempt to make an "Air dragon". Some parts I really like, but I gotta say that fire is easier to recreate :)

Day 44: Fire dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

The last few days I've been in a pattern theme, now I'm in a dragon theme, so I'd expect more dragons if I were you ;) And judging by the titles of these last ones I'd guess it'll be another "elemental dragon", but not fire.

I just realized that he looks a bit tired, that might be due to me being tired right now though.

On spoons and inspiration

A spoon, with a mirrored image of, among other things, a lamp. The inspiration for the "Looking up" series of images I've been doing lately.

It's really interesting how some of these images have come to be, and while most of them have started with just some random doodles which I've then turned into something slightly more meaningful the "Looking up" series of images were a bit different. It started with me doing something very normal and ordinary, eating breakfast, but ended up being the inspiration for a bunch of images. When I was sitting there eating I looked at my spoon and saw an interesting reflection and immediately thought "I gotta paint that" and that's what I did.

What I want to say with this is that there are interesting patterns everywhere, if you just look close enough even something you see every day can bring you inspiration. And while I'm no Art teacher I think that everyone can paint/draw, it might be easier for some people than other, but with enough practice I'm sure everyone can draw fairly good. I think the most important thing is not whether or not you can do the actual moving around of the pencil/other tool, but whether or not you can see. And I'm not talking about seeing in the usual sense, but seeing as in seeing the art in the ordinary. Looking at a bunch of lines and seeing some meaning with them. Looking at a spoon and see a painting ;) I'd say that there's three things that help

1. Practice, practice, practice (and repeat forever =)
2. Education, be it more formal art education or "How to draw" books or online tutorials. While all aren't good most will give you something, at the very least another reason to practice painting and seeing things. (Not "seeing things" as in hallucinating though ;)
3. Be open to seeing art in places you haven't expected. That does of course require practice in a way, but also an awareness that things can be art. And that is what I hope this example with the spoon can do for you, open your eyes a bit.

Phew, that was a lot of words, but don't worry I'll start with today's image in a few moments, so you'll soon have something better to look at than a lot of text ;) Though text can be art too of course, but that's a topic for another day...

Day 43: Elemental dragon

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

Hopefully you can see the dragon =) I'm thinking on doing a variation on this theme tomorrow too, but we'll see about that, read on in the next post (On spoons and inspiration) a bit about inspiration. (And just in case anyone wonders, those scribbles on the right-hand side aren't supposed to mean anything, in case they accidentally do mean something I don't wholeheartedly approve of it until I know what that'd be)

Day 42: Looking up 5 (competition over)

Created (or rather manipulated ;) ) in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

As you can read in the title the competition is over, and as you hopefully can see in today's image it is/was a lamp I was inspired by. Stay tuned for more as I'm intending to do something on this theme tomorrow too and then present to you exactly how I looked at the lamp above and got the inspiration... Hint: While I didn't look up at the lamp the title is still connected to it in some way...

Day 41: Looking up 4

Created in Inkscape 0.45 using a Wacom Intuos 3

See below for Swedish version of this text. Se nedan för svensk version av texten.

A variation on the theme I began three days ago, please read more about it here: Day 38: Looking up in case you haven't already, there you can also read about the little competition I'm having. And considering that the only guess I've received so far was "a shark with giant ears", something I can assure you I don't have in my apartment, don't hesitate to guess even if it might seem strange.

-\/\/_SWEDISH_\/\/-

En variation på temat jag började med för tre dagar sedan, läs gärna mer om det här: Day 38: Looking up om du inte redan har gjort det, där kan du också läsa om den lilla tävling som jag har för tillfället. Och apropå den är den enda gissning jag fått in än så länge "en haj med väldigt stora öron" och det har jag verkligen inte i min lägenhet, så gissa även om det kan verka dumt, vem vet du kanske gissar rätt.

Day 40: Looking up 3

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

See below for Swedish version of this text. Se nedan för svensk version av texten.

A variation on the theme I began two days ago, please read more about it here: Day 38: Looking up in case you haven't already, there you can also read about the little competition I'm having.

-\/\/_SWEDISH_\/\/-

En variation på temat jag började med för två dagar sedan, läs gärna mer om det här: Day 38: Looking up om du inte redan har gjort det, där kan du också läsa om den lilla tävling som jag har för tillfället.

Day 39: Looking up 2

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

See below for Swedish version of this text. Se nedan för svensk version av texten.

A variation on the theme I began yesterday, please read more about it in yesterdays post in case you haven't already, there you can also read about the little competition I'm having.

-\/\/_SWEDISH_\/\/-

En variation på temat jag började med igår, läs gärna mer om det i gårdagens inlägg om du inte redan har gjort det, där kan du också läsa om den lilla tävling som jag har för tillfället.

Day 38: Looking up

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

See below for Swedish version of this text. Se nedan för svensk version av texten.

Now this might look like some strange alien device or something, but it's actually inspired by an ordinary piece of furniture found in my home. I will not say what it is though, since I thought I'd arrange a little competition:
The one who first can find out what object I'm inspired by will get a signed printout of an image he/she chooses from the images on this website (For clarity's sake I'll add that this is limited to the images featured, and not something like Blogspot's logo or similar, which I don't have any right to print, mind you ;) ).

Please email it to me or contact me directly in another way, but if you don't want to do that because of some reason or other it's also possible to add the answer in a comment. (And you don't have to worry about someone else seeing your answer there and emailing me before I see it or so, due to the large amount of spam comments on the web I check every comment before it's posted online.) You may guess as many times as you like, and if more than one person sends me the correct answer at more or less the same time everyone who's sent in the correct answer at that time will get a printout.

And I'll use this contest as a way to do different variations on this theme, i.e. until someone has guessed the correct answer and told me I'll keep doing an image which in one way or another is inspired by this one/the object I was inspired by when drawing this one. That might mean that it can get easier to guess later on, but also the opposite if my mind gets crazy.

-\/\/_SWEDISH_\/\/-
Nu kanske det här ser ut som något som en alien eller liknande skulle kunnat använda, men faktum är att denna bild är inspirerad av ett helt vanligt föremål som finns i mitt hem. Jag tänker dock inte säga vad, eftersom jag tänkte låta det bli en liten tävling:
Den som först gissar vilket föremål jag blivit inspirerad av kommer att vinna en signerad utskrift av en bild som han/hon väljer från den här hemsidan (Bara för att vara tydlig ska jag tillägga att det förstås gäller de bilder som jag gjort och som ju är huvudinnehållet på den här sidan, alltså inte typ Bloggers logo eller liknande).

Jag skulle föredra om du mejlar eller på annat sätt kontaktar mig direkt med ditt svar, men om du av någon anledning inte vill det är det också möjligt att svara i en kommentar till detta inlägg. (Och du behöver inte vara orolig över att någon annan skulle kunna se ditt svar och exempelvis mejla mig samma svar innan jag hunnit se din kommentar, eftersom det finns så mycket skräpkommentarer granskar jag alla kommentarer innan de läggs upp på sidan.) Man får gissa hur många gånger som helst, det är helt enkelt det första rätta svaret som vinner, ifall flera gissar rätt i princip samtidigt får de pris allihop.

Jag tänker också utnyttja den här tävlingen till att göra lite olika varianter på det här temat, jag kommer helt enkelt att, så länge inte någon gissat det rätta svaret och meddelat mig, fortsätta göra nya bilder som antingen är inspirerade av denna målning eller det föremål som inspirerade mig till att göra den här bilden. Det innebär förstås att det kan bli lättare att gissa vad det är senare, men kanske också svårare ifall min hjärna springer iväg ut på något sidospår och gör något galet.

Day 37: Imaginary indian

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

The Indian is imaginary not only in that it's a random image painted by me, but also since I haven't based it on reality. That didn't stop people in the 19th-20th centuries from taking advantage of the popular images of Indians, so why should it stop me? =) Or really, I'm aware that reality is more complicated than it might seem at first sight and that's the real reason why I've given this image the name "Imaginary indian" :)

Day 36: In the eye of the dragon

Created in Artrage 2.5 and openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

This image is inspired by an image found on: http://www.wadbring.com/historia/sidor/skepp.htm which is a Swedish site about history (has got a lot of info on the Viking time, only in Swedish however, so unless you know Swedish you'll have to look at the pictures and use your imagination ;) ).

I began by doing a pencil sketch in Artrage and then moved on to openCanvas to color it and add the background.

Day 35: Bright skies ahead

Created in openCanvas 4.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

For those with a little bit of fantasy and knowledge there's a hidden message in this image... :-) For everyone else this is a nice little picture of a summer sky ;-)

Day 34: Shiny plants

Created in Artrage 2.5 using a Wacom Intuos 3

An experiment using Artrages metallic paint and various tools to get these effects.