Ain't need no other burger

You know what? I like comics, I've just never read them. Because I am still discovering stuff about this world (I'm a late bloomer, okay?), so here's my confession - this is the first time I took a comic magazine in my hands. And bought it immediately.

 It's Stripburger and it's absolutely awesome.

So I was there - in the bookshop, touching and smelling it, crying over my life spent on nothing, touching it more - the paper is so good, I mean I don't know if it is actually good, but it's still SO pleasant to touch; each press had such an adorable cover, the translation to English is carefully given everywhere possible (it's way too nice, I know it makes perfect sense but I still somehow got touched by it)... You know, the feels and stuff.

It's basically a Slovene comic magazine, filled with mainly (but not only) European authors (for example, in the latest issue it was a Norwegian invasion), interviews with cool people, strips strips strips... What really gets me about this magazine is the variety of styles and topics displayed there and I love love love it, especially for me as a noob learner it's just a treasure, I am absorbing it all like a sponge, and soon I will need more - these four cannot satisfy the hunger it has waked!

Anyway, in this post I just wanted to express my newly discovered love. I would have written more about how infinitely RAD this magazine is, (still would really love to talk about it) but I'll leave it for sometime later because I feel like shit (let's put it simply). Nothing gets me excited these days, so I have to wait till this wave passes. Well-well.
Not excited by AM, still listening to it whole day long. I just enjoy getting myself as low as possible. Anyway, not a bad cover of John Cooper Clarke. Nothing unexpected. In any way, nothing. And that's why it fits.

If you ask me what to read

I wanted to make a post about Stripburger, but as my lovely friend asked me to write something about my favorite books (10 favorite books huh?), I'll first go on with that.
Now, I am not sure if I even have 10 favorite books - as most of my favorite authors are the best in the short story format, but never mind, I will just tell about my favies, and that's going to be cool enough!

The stuff post

Sometimes people ask me about the materials I use - what do I draw with, how much of stuff do I have, you know. Things. So I've decided to make a blog post about it, because... because yeah! Let's just start.

I feel like the first thing that I have to mention is something that is just becoming such an inseparable part of myself that I literally feel anxious if I forget to put it in my bag before going out. No need for long introductions, meet the pilot g-tec-c4 (0.4mm) black ink pen! Coming together with a bottle of indian black Daler Rowney drawing ink. These are my musts, and I just cannot be myself without them.

Well, to be honest, lately I feel like it's about right time to step into a new level - I started to see the 0.1mm pen in my erotic dreams, but I just can't find the appropriate one... The existing ones claimed to be 0.1 or even 0.05mm are no better than my good old 0.4 pilot, so I am still sticking with that. But if, all of a sudden, you feel like you want to make me the happiest ink pen freak in the world - you know what to search for, right? And I told you the trick - THE THINNER THE BETTER.
There, said it all.

The next thing is something that brings me huge amount of fun, and is least depressing of all the things I'm used to work with - a charcoal pencil! Mine is Koh-i-Noor Hardmuth one, and it comes from "Gioconda" art set.

 

 Why is it cool? So many reasons for that, bro! First, it's a charcoal, which is always extremely fun to play with - when I'm sketching with a charcoal, I always feel much freer and more just like playing around and enjoying the thing, than when I sketch with a pencil. Definitely. And it is in a pencil form - which significantly reduces the amount of black that covers your hands, face, clothes, paper, mum etc - you know what charcoal means. And you can blend/shade it awesomely - no need to worry about small mistakes. Actually, no need to worry about any mistakes at all - just cover it all black!

Now, done with the blacks - let's go to some colours, shall we?

First of all, of course, colored ink.

These six from Winsor&Newton, come in adorable boxes, and bottles with same pretty illustrations. I've only got six of them, as I don't feel a great need to buy any more colors - I rarely use even these. But they are great, and it's very interesting to try them out on different paper types. Here you also can see my beloved baby W&N brush - I need to say that this is my absolute favorite one. Being a compact brush, it has two separable parts: a cap (5.5cm) and a brush body (6.5cm), so you can make it a 10.5cm brush (which is my most comfortable length) or fold when putting in a case. It's metal, as you can see - probably steel, although quite light, also it's thin - what else should I say? Just perfection!

This piece (it's unfinished and I think I've never uploaded a photo of it) is an example of how you can mix some of the ink colors above.

I think it's brilliant green, blue, viridian + some out of the box. This is not the best thing you can do with it, okay. Maybe the best I can do though... Let's move on to my another favies!

Winsor&Newton, again. And I know - it says "calligraphy ink"! "For fountain and dip pen", I can read it, yeah. But damn, I don't care, these two colors are just fantastic!!!

Especially the blue one - it's called "blue black", but it is only black taken on an extreme concentration, the more water you add - the more magical the color gets, and the texture is just fabulous. This kind of ink especially does not tend to forgive you mistakes, so you should be extra careful - once you've touched the paper, it's there forever and ever. Even the thinnest layers make the difference. But as I have no life, these two are my best colors for the moment. The crimson one is also very cool, for example, I've made this one using crimson calligraphy ink + two (black'n'red) ink pens.

It's a pure pleasure to work with these, I swear - just try playing with the concentration and layers, and you'll see what I mean. Magic.

The last picture is mainly my stationery, stuff that I have at home, watercolour kit and some watercolor pencils. Pretty much everything that I have...Looks messy, but that is what my room is about. +some additional ink, some additional pencils, some additional... glue... and screwdrivers... Just in case.

Though I would like to mention these Derwent watercolour pencils: I started to use them recently after wanting them for long long time, (uh, uh, so expensive, uh) decided to buy it and never regret getting 10 of them at once - they are great. The blend together greatly, and I am much more confident about using them, particularly when I have to use them in areas close to already applied ink... They don't require much water, and their texture, when dry, seems quite pleasant to me. So if you are a little bit clumsy around the liquid stuff - try them out! I think such are pretty enjoyable.

I guess it's everything that I have to say on this, but if this is an interesting topic at least for one of you who reads this sentence, I will keep writing about materials and stuff, because there is always plenty of coolness around. Well, bye then!

Now you know me better

I've mentioned listing my favorite food in the hello-entry, and my baby Mari has requested me to do it... because she likes me and doesn't want me to feel lonely as obviously no one cares about such information. But I will do it. Because I believe in our love.

Put on your red shoes and dance the blues

If anyone wonders, and even if no one does, here's a piece I'm currently working on, and have been doing since... this spring, I think.

And I really like it - could you believe that I'm saying this? There's still TONS to do, but you see - I'm taking time because I can't afford a single wrong move (not anymore, there's been some already!).

So, this is how it looks kind of in general:

 

It's very heavy even on this stage (I'd say it's a halfway), it's going to be even heavier - hope it's going to turn out well. I am going to add some red berries hanging down from a dead branch up there, it's going to be cool. More grass, more freaky details, possibly dark indigo/navy blue/grey (can't decide) background with while cracks... Oh, man, why should I make it real, it looks so good in my head there is no way I can materialize it. It's also quite big, by the way - extra 10 cm on each side of a regular A3. Loads of work, yup.

                     Here's the detail part (not very well thought out, but it's kind of how I usually go):

Just, wish me luck. I really need it.

Also, if anyone gets any idea of what I could still do/improve by any chance - please, hit me with it right in my face. Deal? Good.

If you like me, why don't you try to listen to fantastic M. Ward covering Bowie's fantastic "Let's dance?"

(even if you don't, it's still great)

Expectations & Trying too hard

Here, I am uploading a piece I've been doing for quite some time, and finally kind of... finished. Better to say, I thought: "well, looks like you can't  do anything about this anymore, so... we gotta move on, darling, we gotta live our life no matter what... juts let it go, babe".

So I let go.

Here's the story: my mother asked me for these. No, she actually asked me for some nice flowers, and I turned it into... this. From trying too hard - this is my problem number one. I do try hard, which sometimes is cool, but sometimes just leads to chaos eventually. This one was passed the sign "stahp" and became just a perfect example of what too much is.
Obviously, my mother wasn't pleased - apparently she hated the green and it was too far away from what she was expecting (I assume some kind of provence-fashion would satisfy her more than this circus), and the first feedback that I got wasn't a positive one. Even though I liked what I was doing, her reaction got me down, I didn't want to be careful anymore, and it all just went downhill.

It's a shame you can't see it in good quality - I simply cannot afford it technically at the moment, so these are just the phone photos.
I am not saying I hate this piece (neither I'm in love with it though), some parts of it do please me, and it gave me some quite useful things - to be persistent, to care less, *to keep the in-progress pictures to myself*, to keep the balance, to plan things out... Not to expect too much, I guess. To know where to stop.
Anyway, a failure can't be concerned as a complete failure if you learned your lesson, right?
Good.

a hello word

After good six years of failing miserably at keeping to the commitments my internet self had been setting by creating one diary after another - being all that it makes my internet-diary experience, I decided to take it seriously and give it a purpose.
If you are reading this, most probably you know me already - that is why I am not rushing to self-introductions and listing my favorite food (which I will definitely do later, or just as soon as you ask me to), and most probably you know that I draw a little - and this is, actually, that glorious purpose of this page.

Some people are being kind enough to say they like the small things I do. And I am really proud of it, even if they say it just to stop me crying. Whatever, hello there, I love you.

I will post the stuff that I do, maybe some of what I've done before, some of what makes me feel like doing the stuff I do, all the whys and whats and whos and hows, you know. I really hope to manage to keep this going.
Now, leaving to work on the appearance of this page for a little more & filling it with stuff,
peace!
N.