Art Advice & Patterns

So I recently stumbled upon these great pieces of art related advice, which I wanted to share with you <3
It's been quite a stressful very productive few weeks, I've been kind of finishing my portfolio so here's a piece from there you might enjoy :)

xoxo Alex

Pocket Watch

Hi my dearest, loyal readers. Don't worry, I've not been in a car crash, I've not ditched everything and moved to Jamaica, I'm still here. I've been terribly busy and I know that sounds like a stupid excuse but sometimes you get so pissed off because you only have half  an hour freetime that you could use for drawing every day that you just don't. But that has changed lately and I'm happy to report that I've actually been quite productive! I really missed the hours of listening to good music, being in your own world, alone and now I have them back and they make me happy.
I spent the last two days basically drawing the clockwork mechanism of 4 English pocket watches from the 19th century. I found them in this book with all kinds of other beautiful clocks and watches which are really fascinating because the book also explains how they work :O Here's my favorite one of the four :)

I promise I will carry on posting work here, just be patient with me from time to time <3

xoxo Alex

Timbered Houses on a Hill

Hi everyone! Wow, this small corner of the internet has really been neglected lately. I'm very sorry! I've had a little creative block these last two weeks, I'm working to get back on track though :) Here's a piece I already finished a while a go but somehow missed to post on here. Thank you to my lovely friend Moritz for supplying the wonderful reference photos, timbered houses are amazing subjects and I look forward to exploring them more in future drawings! (some studies are in order though, it's is quite hard to get them right :O)

Lots of love,

xoxo Alex

A Bedhead

Here's another reason why you shouldn't clean: all the precious beautiful calculations you did to determine the exact place for each leaf because you wanted to practise exact life drawing will be for nought. Believe me, this happened. I'm not cleaning ever again.
On that note I might point out that plants are rather fogiving subjects and you should choose something else if you want to brag with your exactness.
Anyway, I love how scrappy and rough this plant looks. Kind of like it just got out of bed don't you think?

I wish you all a good night, until the next post! :)
xoxo Alex

Museum Characters

Everytime I do this, I love it and I remind myself to do it more often. People always tell you to sketch people from life but you know how it goes, I rarely do. And it's always a challenge, especially in a museum were people move around change there positions and don't stay in the same place for a long time...The way I do it is that I look at the person, try do remember as many things about the general stature, postition and key features. Then I sketch it quickly and the people are usually gone by then. When I am home I then use these basic sketches and go over them in pen to give them more character and finish them from imagination.

I espcially like the guy on the bottom left ;)
xoxo Alex

Late night sketching

Detailed architectual elements combined with faces more figurative parts is definetely something I would like to explore further :D

xoxo Alex

Rooftops

Tired of christmas cards-so here's the product of 1,5 hours of drawing :) rooftops of Salzburg I believe <3

xoxo Alex

Door

Soooo, I'm sorry for my absence lately. I've been traveling and it's hard to keep up the schedule then. It's going to be busy these next few weeks, so have patience with me :)

It was drawn on a train so it's a bit wobbly but can't you imagine a whole castle in this kind of style? It would be amazing! :O

xoxo Alex

Christmas Card no.1

Finished! :D I like it somehow. Didn't really turn out they way it was supposed to, but what the hell :)

xoxo Alex

Christmas Card Numero 1 pt 1

It's this time of year again! <3

 A rather adventurous christmas tree this year ;)
xoxo Alex

Cafe Characters

They don't really come across here I don't think, but I love these little studies. I think they really capture my style in a way, I don't know what to do with them though, in terms of a bigger piece...

xoxo Alex

Autumn Leaf finished?

Not sure if this is done or not. I think it is, but somhow I'm not sure. Maybe I should still do something in the middle?

xoxo Alex

Further ornament progress

Still not done, but you can kind of see where this is going ;)

xoxo Alex

Autumn Leaf Ornaments

It's slowly making progress :)

The Circle isn't actually this distorted by the way, it's because the paper ist still wavy :/
xoxo Alex

Autumn Leaf in Color

I wish I were able, just like any normal person, to make a plan before I draw. This wouldn have worked out so much better if I had just taken aquarelle paper. But no, of course I used the normal one...great!

So, slightly wavy paper, but I still kind of like the way it turned out ;)

xoxo Alex

Autumn Leaves

A new project. Yes it's going to be round again and yes you're going to call it a mandala again. But heey-all the other round ones have alreay been 'claimed' somehow, and I want one for myself too! ;) :)

xoxo Alex

Finished Forget me nots!

Bäääääm. I'm still way to wrapped up in this piece to say whether I like it or not. I will say though, that I'm glad it's done!

xoxo Alex

Nearly done!

Only a few more lines missing, then it's done! :D

xoxo Alex

Center piece of ornaments

Drawing an hour, with good music and no disturbance can make you feel so much better...

Now I'm going to sleeeep!

xoxo Alex

Forget me Nots continued

Took up the work on this piece again, after being a little of repetitive, tiny work :) So now refreshed I did the inner ring. I'm already dreading the dark center though...:O

xoxo Alex