After A While!

Many now have probably seen this drawing on my facebook profile, but I just wanted to post it here, because I promised I’ll explain why did I draw it the way I did, if I don’t get bored while explaining, because I am excited to post the next sketch soon :D hahahaha

 So! here it goes, many have wondered why did I create her nose with that line? Some have felt like it was a clown’s nose, well… if you are a clown fan, sure, you’ll see it as a big shiny nose! And the answer is not easy… so I’ll cut it short for you guys… cause I like it this way! And why is it all red? Well, mother used to tell me how she used to play in the fields, so I figured, if I am her son, and I get my nose (actually entire body) all red from the sun, so she must have this red feature in her as well! (thats genes for the smart people out there :D) so comes the strong red hue in the drawing… and for her hair (no stay out Ukka) if you look closely enough at the picture, by making it lighter, and more clear, you’ll notice that she actually had her hair lifted up!

 

 Well background, looks nice, and inks are okay… well thats what I believe! So here you go folks! Enjoy the show.

 

p.s. Actually the reason why I drew the nose like that, is to give it a more comic feel into it, otherwise it would be a realistic wanna be, which I didn’t want, because I started off, with it, and I kinda liked it, and you’ll notice many French artists, use the same nose detail that I did, and I am talking about the manga artists, anyway, that said, I wanted to have an old feel to it, but still maintaining some freshness to it, thats why I used the titanium white acrylic color, with water, to give it a more classic tone. I don’t know thats how it turned out! And I did enjoy doing it, also I am happy with the outcome.

 

Till next time,

Ayyoub Arsalan 

Process Pictures

This specific topic has taken too much time, I should finish it, because I am 98% done, only few things (which I am not sure what are!) and then I’ll be done.It is a joy to be able to do something which you thought you can’t do. I used to have fear of doing a specific drawing few years ago, but I have proved to myself that I can do it, after many years of just thinking about it, time passed, and I have done another painting that I thought I wouldn’t be able to paint it.For some unknown reason, I create doubt in myself, saying that I am not ready yet, its not fun you really do feel like you are not ready, although you have been ready for your entire life for this, but no, you lack the required self-esteem, guess it goes the same to the portrait I am doing, but then I would be lying if I told you that all of these drawings, I was capable of doing but I didn’t have the confidence, I was, few years back, lacking in experimenting with colors, or with technique, but now, that I have partially matured, my style evolved to my liking, I can create similar technique, but I know the basics, its the basics that take the most out of you, and the acceptance of your style by others, everyone loves a basic portrait, with classical realistic technique, that’s what really shows skill in an artist.I know now, that I am capable of doing such drawings, but why was I reluctant to create them? Guess I didn’t accept the fact that I didn’t have my own style, something that will speak about my personality, something that says, hey this is me! (This is the real me!) I’m not sure really, or maybe I was just a coward! But if I was a coward, I wouldn’t have done them in the first place, so maybe I was waiting and practicing in the background among other drawings, learning how to create a complete one from the first attempt.

This is how a perfectionist would think, sadly I am one, in one way or another, but also a quitter, refusing to do anything, if I am not sure about how it will end 100%, so much for becoming an artist, how would I become one if I don’t experiment.

And so starts a new year, a fresh start, with the experience of the past, I will tackle this year with my strongest will.

And for now, enjoy the process, you will learn in the end, if you have a vision (a goal for some) you can reach it, if only you start, and so I can say, I have many visions, for how I will become, I only need to connect them together, to create a big web of paths, no matter which way I take, I will always end up at my vision.

Yeah I know I just had to let it out,

Ayyoub Arsalan

The Gift Must Be Handed!

It’s been how long? 8 days after mom’s birthday? Sounds like yesterday huh? :D

Due to Laziness and busy days (mostly facebooking, exteel, and simply killing time) I wasn’t able to update the Blog properly, also cause I am already preoccupied with this drawing, I figured (while typing) I should have more sketchbooks! I used to, but its hard to keep track of all of them, so I am using this one now (the reason for multiple sketch books is because once I start a new drawing/painting on the same sketchbook, I ignore the older one!), it has this wonderful texture to its paper, that runs pencils smoothly, and the watercolor is absorbed fairly well, which makes it perfect for my drawings!

Hup! No pictures! So obviously my sister took off with my process pictures(its on her camera)! Well, no posting then… sorry mates! Guess I’ll post another picture, the cover of the comic book I love so much; I did it when I was what? IG2?

 

Later mates!

Ayyoub Arsalan

Continuing With The Gift Process

I thought that I wont have any more processes, but came instead a new year (Happy 2008 yo’ll!) and few requests, that made me a bit busy, but I always had this blog in mind, and now I feel more comfortable that I have at least posted something, I don’t know, have it been a week? Not sure, and I hope it haven’t been a week since my last post.

 

I don’t like green eggs and ham ;) just had it click in my mind for a second, I read it once, from Marsho’s (my niece) story books, and I loved it, but I think I would eat green eggs and ham, try everything in your life, it feels like I don’t plan for the future but I do :D

Anyway, on with the show, I am glad that the picture turned out like this, but it is still not done, my mom’s birthday was two days ago, but still I plan on making this picture a good one, a late gift you could say, though she knows about it, I showed it to her, and this gift might be my first (since ages)! I never give out (proper) gifts or even cards for that matter! But I plan on changing that. I will be doing watercolors then shade it a little bit more, with more pencils, a mixed media, but no inks… It will turn out great :D

Happy Birthday Nana :D

p.s. I wish Google would program an Internet browser, the IE7 was working great, I hate Firefox, and Safari crashed on the spot, Opera is okay (I love the mouse gestures) but while typing it doesn’t sometimes warp the words, which bothers me. And today iGoogle changed its “Gmail” link to “Mail” then back to “Gmail” in the evening, felt like sharing :D

Gift Process

Actually I am not sure if there will be more processes :D but here it goes anyway :D

Something I’m doing for mom, I never do portraits of people, like never ever, I hate it, too much pressure and tension, because if I make one little mistake, even if people don’t notice it, I will! Forget about live painting/drawing, even sketching, I can’t I don’t know, I wont be able to bear the weight of knowing my mistakes when I look at a drawing, so I prefer to copy from a picture, easier, you can take your time encouraging yourself, that you can do it, much easier you know, so I was about to say all of that to my sister, when she said, do it for her birthday! If anyone knows me, I am really really bad at getting a present or giving away gifts, I simply don’t know, even if it was one of my closest friends, I would fail miserably at finding a gift, I should though however, stop thinking this way, so I can get a meaningful gift for someone, but hey! I love getting presents :D

Yeah, mom is going to have her Birthday on the 2nd of January, and as far as I remember, I never bought a card, or well… never had the thought of buying or making one, only when pressured and persuaded by others… so today I thought, I’ll change that, lets draw mother, cause few days ago she was asking me to draw her picture, when she was younger, like decades younger :D (Yeah I know lame joke, but I found myself funny and cool) so here it goes, the sketch, and the original picture, you’ll notice that I am not really doing a realistic approach at this, though I had something realistic in my mind, but I kinda like what I’m doing now.

Hope it will turn out well!!

Till next sketch (And again, sorry for not posting on daily notice, but I saw this coming, but I know like I said before that I’ll be drawing/uploading on daily basis :D yeay!)

After Christmas

Sadly enough I wasn’t able to update my blog yesterday, I feel that I’ll be faced with similar days, hopefully less as time goes by, this time around, I will try to make my blog more personal, as in I will include comments that explains why am I doing what I do, as why did I practice on doing this? Well first off the chick at the top is hot :D nothing special about that, but I kinda screwed her face, oh well! Guess I will need to draw more hot chicks then! (hahaha) the big face and the child are a part of my favorite comic book ever, my first comic book, X-men Generation next its an old comic book, since the days of Casper :D anyway, I always loved the style of the book, with the crisp lines, with straight shapes, and with great violence and sequence, and the best part of it all, is that its the part two of three, so I had no clue about the characters and the story, never had been introduced to a comic book world, and never thought that I would take it as my main goal (actually I did, but I didn’t want to ruin the drama)… anyway it gave me a big chance to imagine how the story might be like, to always want to know more about it, to find out how it went, that’s of course, at that time, with no resource of getting my hands at another book, I had to invent everything, I didn’t even know what the word mutant means, now I know more specific terms rather than Nidal’s simple term, like Brain power! (WOW!) feels like he wished he had brains, oh well Nidal, not everyone is as lucky to have brains:D and you certainly didn’t prove to have any when you said that (HA HA) away from the jokes part, but so far I don’t know what goes in the story, I think I have a good idea what is supposed to happen, and I learned later on more about each character (thank you wikipedia for being so stupid and fun sometimes!)
Guess this is the part were I say how it affected me, I guess one way or another, and after learning few lessons of my own in life, people want more, I know it has nothing to do with it, but stay with me for a while I’ll explain it more, show business, they just make you want more, why not art? I had an argument later today with my mother, she said I never finished any of my drawings, even if they are finished they are not showing a complete person, I tried my best to explain to her my conceptual idea behind it, which is I want the viewer to seek more, like I did with the comic book, I wanted to know, the gap that I was found at, not knowing the start from the end, made me wonder and want more of it, but then I found out, even if I knew or had the ability to know more about the story (like reading other issues on the web if I find any) I don’t think that I would want to know it, its this middle part that makes me enjoy it, it the same thing chicks (yeah I am good when it comes to this) want! To enjoy wanting more… in other words, (no I am not a chick) I enjoy the state of mind of wanting to have more, cause it always the imagination to flow, it always freedom although it requires a very strong level of freeing yourself from the cell of wanting more… but at the same time it frees you… so hopefully, that’s something I want to reach, its not like I am making an excuse for not finishing a drawing, I’ll have plenty of those in the coming future (I know it, I saw it :P <heroes>) but its more fun to imagine a finished cube rather than a finished one, a hard way is more fun than the easy way, cause with the hard way comes lots of experience, and a good thing to remember :D

Thank you Hord for the delightful gift, I will always enjoy it as if it’s the first time I have read it :D

The Following Day

So I didn’t Sketch today, maybe tomorrow I will finish what I will start.

Beginnings

A virtual place to show drawings made with a traditional media in a digital format.