Some details from the drawing:

Finally the little child in the rain is finished. There were a lot of other projects that kept me away from finishing it, but here it is done And I have to admit that I am very proud of it
The photo reference that I’ve used is from Paint my Photo website, by Joy Skinner, but unfortunately it was removed. I have changed a lot from the original photo, by removing elements and adding others. So it was very interesting and fun to see how easy I can change a meaning of a photo.
Anyway, the innocence from his eyes is the same, and is the reason I’ve chose to make this drawing.

8 x 10 inch / 20,3 x 25,4 cm

11 x 14 inch / 27,9 x 35,6 cm

Often people don’t know how big a portrait should be, how would it look like or where are they going to put it. Here are my suggestions about this issue.

I use to draw on 3 big size categories: 5×7 inch, 8×10 inch and 11×14 inch. They are not fixed, they can vary as the client wish. I choose these sizes because you can buy ready-made frames from the market. Let’s see where fit the best each size:

For all the sizes I recommend a thin frame, black or any other dark color. Sometimes, according to the furniture you have in the room, a colored frame goes well too. It can give to the portrait and to the room a happy feeling
I also recommend the mat boards. First because they give a nice and clean looking to the portrait, and secondly because in this way the paper will not stand against the glass, otherwise this may affect the drawing in time.
Here is my price list (with the summer discount) for the above sizes:

Example	Size	Price (between)*
	5 x 7 inch / 17,8 x 12,7 cm	30   20 eur 40   25 $
	8 x 10 inch / 20,3 x 25,4 cm	70 – 100   47 – 70 eur 95 – 135   60 – 90 $
	11 x 14 inch / 27,9 x 35,6 cm	100 – 150   70 – 94 eur 135 – 203   90 – 118 $

*The prices above depends by the complexity, details, and most important by the number of persons. The 5 x 7 inch offer is available for drawings with only one person. If you would like another size not mentioned above, just send me an e-mail and I’ll make you an offer.

I made this commission at the beginning of this year, but seams like I forgot to submit it. A small and interesting portrait. It was a present made for him. He is big fan of vikings, so the person who made this present asked me if I could make him look like a real viking . So, a helmet and some long hair transformed him in a veritable viking . Now this portrait is on his desk in the office, making him smile and feel stronger every time a client gets him angry

The world around us is 3D, but the photos we capture, or the drawings/paintings that we make are 2D. Among time, people tried to change the 2D surface into a 3D one, or more exactely to give the illusion of a 3D one. This is how the stereoscopy appeared, which refers to any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual information or creating the illusion of depth in an image.

It is amazing how you can hide a 3D image behind a 2D one. The last trend in the 3D images are the 3D glasses witch allows you to see… of course in 3D. So I’ve played a little with the Photoshop and some of my drawings, and I’ve created the above collage. The objects are not 3D, but there are 2 different viewing layers. If you move around you’ll have the illusion of the cat following those 2 lovers.

Another type of 3D images are the 3d stereograms. For those of you who can do the eye cross trick (see here video explanation of how to do this) and see 3D, click on the image below and see something very familiar with this website So, what did you see?


*image made on five.flash-gear.com/stereo

I just discovered the BBC documentary named “The secret of drawing” – four part series, presented by Andrew Graham-Dixon, which explores how drawing has shaped our lives. I really recommend this documentary! See it in the videos bellow.

A friend from UK, Roy Simmons, recommended me a very interesting website DocuWatch – a website full with videos about art. If you are interested into art history, I would also recommend you the Smarthistory.org – which is a free multi-media web-book designed as a dynamic enhancement (or even substitute) for the traditional art history textbook.

Now, the more I learn about drawing, the more I realize I know so little..

Part 1: “The Line of Enquiry”



Part 2: “Storylines”


Part 3 – “All in the mind”:


Part 4: “Drawing by Design”

Hi there! I have started to be busy with the final exams from my master degree, but as always when I have exams I also have a huge urge to draw There is no time for this in the day, but there are nights.. so this is what I did in the last 2 nights. I really love the picture and how the drawing turns out. The reference is again from Paint my Photo website.

I don’t know yet what to draw in front of his eyes.. something that he is looking at so curious. I have some ideas, but I don’t know yet. Any suggestions?

He wrote on his blog about how excited was to receive my drawing.

Here is what he said:

David Pringle (@dpringle on Twitter) had a brilliant idea one day that when shared, soon spanned scross the globe: Art Swap 2010. Artists from all over the world trading their work with one another on the honor system.  The honest, tight creative community online honored David’s inspiring idea and committed to it. I was one of the fortunate participants!

So it was upon my awaking to a knock on the door this afternoon, that I received my art swap piece. A very well packed artwork from Hodoroaba Ancuta Iuliana ( @julliaH on Twitter & Facebook Fan page ) comes all the way from Romania.

Upon opening the package I was immediately awestruck at the beautiful art that sat before me.

Included was a very kind hand written letter sealed with wax. The seal had been imprinted with the letter “j”. I was very careful and manged to open the letter without breaking the seal.

The humidity here is very high today so after I shot these photos the piece was wrapped back up to protect it from curling. I’ll pick up a approprate frame this week to put the drawing in so I can display it in the main foyer for all visitors to see and enjoy.

I am still waiting for the piece of art that should have to arrive to me. When I’ll have news about this, I’ll update this post

_________________________________________________
U P D A T E:

Yupyy I have finally received my art swap A very interesting little painting. It’s from Allison Martínez from Puerto Rico. I didn’t knew her, but now I do, and more than that, I am able to see live one of her works.. and own it. Of course that the first think that I did was to enter her website and see more of her works. She has an interesting style of painting. Every painting is small (as a dimension) but it has a message, it has always something to say, to communicate. And that’s a think I always appreciate to an artist.

Here are some of her works (go on Allison Martínez web page to see more):

And here is the painting she sent me:

Thank you Allison very very much! I really like it! Be sure that I’ll keep it save

A special drawing from many points of view. First, the photo reference that I choose is a very nice one. It belongs to Deby Dearman, and I took it from Paint my Photo. Secondly,this time I tried to mix a little bit some different mediums: graphite pencils for the girl, graphitint for the rose (mixed also with graphite) and charcoal for the background. It was not as easy as I thought, specially the charcoal, which tended to smudge my drawing hrr

I hope I’ll take a picture too to show you the difference of textures which all of these mediums give. Because the graphite is shining and the charcoal no, looks like the girl is pumping up from the paper.

Print available on my Etsy shop, or you can contact me directly.

This drawing was more like an illustration. The only reference that I had from the client was their head. The rest of the body I had to invent it or use several references from internet. It was very interesting to draw this, even if I almost didn’t knew how it will look like in the end. But seams like it toured out nice and they look like some real gangsters from 1920, as they wished.
No, her abdomen is not wrong she is waiting for a baby, so I had to make the hole family. Seams like there are 3 gangsters and not 2