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...