Alex's Ilustrations

Art Advice & Patterns

2015-06-15T21:43:00.001+02:00

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

2015-05-09T11:09:00.000+02:00

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

2015-02-17T15:20:00.001+01:00

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

2015-01-11T21:38:00.001+01:00

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

The New Year

2015-01-02T00:00:00.000+01:00

2015 is upon us. While I'll try to keep this post from getting too sentimental, I feel that a little looking back and reflecting is in order. So much has happened in 2014. I can't get over how much has changed in my life since January 2014 and sometimes I'm a little amazed that I even made it to this point ;) I look forward to maybe getting a little bit more continuity but I mean, life would be boring if everything always stayed the same right?

Some of you might have already caught on the fact that I want to make some changes to this blog. I've realized, that it's not possible for me to provide quality content every single day. I draw a lot and most of the stuff I draw I'm not satisfied with. Once in a while it happens that I produce something, I like, that I'm proud of. Only then it I think it is worth sharing with other people and only then I'm comfortable doing so. I believe this lies in the nature of creative work.
Originally, this wasn't a problem. The reason I started the blog wasn't because I wanted to publish my work and promote myself in that way. It might seem weird that I used this very public medium to do so and looking back I find it increasingly weird myself but you have to understand that the social pressure of an audience is quite powerful. I tried to find a way to motivate myself to draw every day and knowing that basically anyone out there can check whether I did so is surprisingly motivating.
What has been happening during the last few months is that I increasingly realized that people I know, people I respect and people whose opinion I value actually read this thing. When you sit in your own little room, drawing weird things and then putting them up on the blog you don't think about the people who look at it. When I scrolled through here a few weeks ago I tried to look at the page through the eyes of a stranger and what honestly has always dawned upon me, now became very apparent-most of the stuff on here is really bad. As I explained earlier this not some kind of weird creative block I'm having right now which makes me hate all my work, it is just that the ratio of work I'm satisfied and would like to share vs the work that I would rather not doesn't add up with daily posts. I'm becoming more self concious about what I publish as my awarness for my audience increases.

I see no other way of resolving this difficult situation than to give up daily posts. Yes I am scared that without them I won't be able to motivate myself to draw every day and if that happens I'll hate myself for it, but always drawing under pressure because you have to produce something for the blog really isn't healthy either.
So anyway, here's to improving this blog :)
Lots of love and thank you for all your support,

xoxo Alex

Happy New Year!

2014-12-31T16:24:00.001+01:00

I wish all of you lovely people a very happy new year. I have a feeling it's going to be a great one! <3

xoxo Alex

Museum Characters

2014-12-31T00:12:00.002+01:00

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

Pink Girl

2014-12-30T00:15:00.002+01:00

I really can't seem to get the proportions right. It's bugging me, I see that it's not right but I don't seem to be able to change it...:O It was more a sketch to test the polychromos a bit and maybe a study for an upcoming piece, who knows, I seem to stumble on a lot of ideas lately :O

xoxo Alex

Avant Garde Hat

2014-12-28T23:45:00.001+01:00

So apart from the fact that the proportions of the face are clearly wrong I like this concept. Maybe I'll revisit it sometime :)

xoxo Alex

Polychromo Character Sketching

2014-12-28T00:26:00.000+01:00

Sooooo, hello you awesome people! I missed you :D Christmas madness is over, it's time to resume our schedule! :)These were just some weird characters I used to test my new Polychromos-yes I have surrendered-they are pretty cool ;)

xoxo Alex

Christmas Vacation

2014-12-25T21:12:00.001+01:00

Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for not being able to post these past few days. I'm home for the holidays and promptly fell sick so it has been super exhausting and stressful (but also very nice ;) ) I hope you forgive me and I'll catch you guys up soon! :)
xoxo Alex

Late night sketching

2014-12-22T00:33:00.001+01:00

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

xoxo Alex

Spinning top

2014-12-21T23:34:00.001+01:00

Haha, I just realized today that yesterday in a tired, busy haze I forgot to post this photo (no seriously!). Two posts today then ;)

Good night! :)
xoxo Alex

Rooftops

2014-12-19T23:46:00.001+01:00

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

xoxo Alex

Presents!

2014-12-17T22:04:00.001+01:00

It's time again! :) Do you have everything together yet? I'm unorganised as always, behind on my card schedule, in need of present ideas-so basically as usual ;)

xoxo Alex

Christmas Card no 4-pine cone!

2014-12-16T22:19:00.001+01:00

So I know hte position of the little drawing deviates from the others because it's not in the center but it looked weird with the big C :O

I kind of liek it like this though :)
xoox Alex

Christmas Card no 3!

2014-12-15T22:22:00.000+01:00

Wow, I'm way behind my schedule! This weekend was crazy busy, sorry that you guys were so neglected :) Getting a little bit back into the routine though-here's a christmas card!

xoxo Alex

Salsa

2014-12-10T22:34:00.001+01:00

Remember this litttle cutie? I hope to see more of her soon, so you may be happy for me! ;)

xoox Alex

Gothic Christmas

2014-12-09T22:31:00.000+01:00

In desperate need of sleep. Good night.

xoxo Alex

Western Christmas

2014-12-08T22:09:00.000+01:00

Haha, I don't know what got into to me. Casually catching up on some christmas cards. Now I just need to find someone who likes westerns to send this to :O

xoxo Alex

Door

2014-12-07T22:02:00.000+01:00

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

2014-12-03T22:21:00.001+01:00

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

2014-12-02T21:27:00.002+01:00

It's this time of year again! <3

A rather adventurous christmas tree this year ;)
xoxo Alex

Cafe Characters

2014-12-01T22:26:00.002+01:00

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?

2014-11-30T21:46:00.001+01:00

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