Another horse portrait
Horse portrait. Digital Drawing done with Artrage. Ulla Hennig March 2013
This is the second of my horse portraits which I did with the pencil tool in Artrage and my graphic tablet.
In the beginning it is a bit strange to draw on the tablet and look on the screen to see your strokes. However, the more I practise it, the better it goes. I also noticed that drawing from a photo reference makes you see things you would not if you would not be drawing it – the distance between the ears, the size of the eye, the size of the muzze, the exact position of eye and ears and so on. And sometimes I won’t notice flaws until I upload the drawing …
Four goals for June
May is over, and it is time to think about what’s going to happen in June.
- Do more figure drawing
I already told you about that goal in my last post. You will see the fighting elf coloured in one of the next posts, and I’ve got an additional reference already printed out – a walking woman. - Draw and paint from reference photos. The point with photos is that not every fantastic photo is a good reference for a good drawing or painting. Quite often you have to simplify or even alter the photo, especially when painting landscapes. I also got some photos of animals and birds.
- Learn more about perspective, especially about living beings placed in surroundings. This goal will definitely include watching some videos about perspective – there are lots of them on the internet.
- Have fun, have fun, have fun!
Pen and ink drawing by Redmer Hoekstra
Untitled. Pen and ink drawing by Redmer Hoekstra
I have been browsing through flickr looking for pen and ink drawings. This one caught my eye. I think it is really special!
Great pen and ink artist – Scott Woyak
Lion. Pen and Ink drawing by Scott Woyak
As some of you might know I have been trying stippling with pen and ink. As I am an absolute beginner I looked out for other artists to learn from. And here is one. He presents his art on flickr, and if you follow the link in the caption you will find a lot of beautiful drawings.
Regarding this lion Scott Woyak shows you the various steps he made as work in progress pieces. I especially liked to look at those pieces because they give me an idea of how he did it. Enjoy!
Trees talking to each other
Trees talking to each other. Watercolour painting, December 2011
For a long time watercolours and me weren’t good friends. Or, to say it clearer: I was afraid of them, afraid of not being able to “control” them. Somehow however I changed my mind a bit during the last weeks, and this resulted in buying a nice little Schmincke watercolour set with pans.
And then yesterday, I suddenly felt the desire to try them out. I had no image in my mind and thus no pencil sketch. I just dipped my brush into the colour brown and drew it across the paper, being curious where all this might end. Then there was a tree, and it definitely looked lonesome, so I added another one and tried to make them look like talking to each other.
For three quarters of an hour I disappeared into the world of watercolours, listening to the radio, but also not listening. I felt a deep sense of suspense and relaxation at the same time. And I definitely will continue to explore this foreign world and make it my own!
Five Reasons Why I love Google+
I have been using Google+ for while now, and I must say I love it. I am still on facebook, and I haven’t given up Twitter. I spend about the same time on Google+ than I do on facebook whereas I’ve reduced the time I spend on Twitter quite a lot.
Why do I love Google+?
- I love its circles, In addition to the usual ones like Following, Acquaintances and Friends I’ve got Arts, Photography and Design and Influencers (I guess you could also say “important people who have something to say” but that would be too long). Everytime I come to google+ I can carefully choose what I want to read about, which informations I want to get. This brings me to
- the amount of interesting stuff presented in a clear and pleasant way. Be it photographies (Aww, how many beautiful shots to look at!), links to interesting blog posts or videos (I’ve just watched a very funny commercial about Learning English).
- I love hangouts (video conferences with up to 10 people). I’ve been into two of them (both for newbies), and I think we haven’t seen yet all the possibilities they can provide.
- I love the way Google+ allows me not to have to deal with games (I think games are a really pest on Facebook!)
- But I not only love Google+ for its way of providing information, I also love it for how it provides ways to communicate. Almost everytime I posted one of my photos or vector pieces I got helpful, encouraging and appreciating comments. I can scroll back in other people’s postings and post my comment half a day later. That may be more difficult with a growing number of users, but there’s always the possibility to click on a person’s profile looking for her posts.
The Landwehrkanal in Charlottenburg, Berlin
The Landwehrkanal in Charlottenburg, Berlin
The Landwehrkanal is a waterway which goes through several districts of Berlin. This photo shows it in the district of Charlottenburg, not far away from my office at work. Actually I took this photo on Monday on my way to work.
Although I have been living in Berlin for a long time now I am still fascinated with the amount of green which we have in this big city. Charlottenburg is one of the more urban districts with a big train station and the Kurfüstendamm, the famous boulevard during the time when the west of Berlin was surrounded by the wall.
But, as you can see, even this urban district has got its green islands…
Weaving the Web
It is the 1st of June, and the first half of the year is almost over. It is time to think about things. In the last five years or so I have been active all over the web. I’ve acquired a Flickr pro account, and used flickr not only for presenting my photos but also to show some of my art.
I’ve been blogging regularly, focusing on my creative activities with the one and other thought about daily life in between.
I’ve registered with Squidoo, created over 60 lenses with the focus on art and music and on the products of my latest activity, Zazzle.
For one year I have been very active on Zazzle, creating designs with photoshop and vector software, and at this point of the year I’ve got about 500+ products in my store. May has been a very good month for me, with even some bulk sales.
But up to now I didn’t have a central meeting point, a place where I could weave the various threads of my internet activities together. Today I did the final step:
http://ullahennig-art-and-photos.weebly.com/
The website is still under construction, but I will continually add content. Besides the fact that this website shows my various sides (Zazzler, Squidooer, blogger, photographer and artist) to the world around me, it helps me to remember them and to keep them all balanced.
Tree in March
Tree in March. Photo: Ulla Hennig
Spring is arriving fast, but the trees still are without leaves. So it is still the time to took at the way the branches are spreading. Actually I have been thinking of doing some tree sketches, and I’ve looked for some reference photos.
Last weekend the sun was shining, so I took my nice little camera with me, thinking that I could as well produce my own reference photos!
Part of my workplace
Today, on my way home, I went into my favorite paper and writing stuff shop and asked for some cardboard. I was thinking of using my copic markers again and didn’t want the color to bleed through the paper onto the table.
When the guy from the store showed me the cardboard (actually it was the lid of a paperboard container) and I explained to him what I wanted it to use for, he asked if he should cut it in a slanting way. At that moment the image of a very special easel came to my mind, and I said yes.
When I arrived home I had to try it out. As you can see above I put the cardboard on the table in my living room, fetched a paper from my sketch pad and a reference photo and began to sketch. I did it sitting down and standing up, and I noticed how much easier it was to stand back and have a look at the reference photo and my sketch. It looks like I did the right thing!
By the way: With the graphic tablet it is a bit similar. In the beginning I had it on the left side of my notebook which made me stretch out my left arm. Now I put it in front of my laptop and voilà – it gives me the feeling of having much more control!
So this is another important thing I learnt: You’ve got to have the tools, and you’ve got to work with them in the proper position. Not a revolutionary insight, I know, but an important one for me.
