Change of direction

I have decided to change the hard sketchy edges, replace it with something that is more fun to do.

Uitdaging

Plezier

Groei

These are the three keywords during Gist and I feel as if I've focused too much on the challenge and growth part. As a result I've lost the fun in drawing and also my inspiration which caused me to get stuck and fail for several weeks. Whatever I tried to draw, wasn't what I had in mind. Sometimes that's a good thing, but it didn't feel right.

The Secret of Kells 2009

What made me change direction immediately? Two things did. Painting the koi in sumi e style with so much fun and ease, and the trailer of The Secret of Kells Lieselot shared on Slack. The simplicity of Kells' pictures and story are so simple, colourful and yet it has depth. Easy to understand and pull the viewer into its world for a while. The acting is also spot on! I like to see how things can be so simple and abstract but have so much more to show. I wanted to do that too.

Marc Brunet uses simple painterly brush strokes but even though I'm a big fan of his work, it wasn't abstract enough for me while The Book of Kells has a style I LOVE but is too flat for me to paint. I would've liked to paint in that style but I felt I'd discover my own style later.

Unfortunately, I felt so bad for several weeks because of the vet slowly killing my rabbit with medicine D: and the conflicts and problems in my family, ruining my inspiration. I told this to my sister and she said there was one open spot left to sign up for Atey Ghailan's mentorship. I signed up immediately without knowing his work well enough. After seeing his work I knew that was what I was looking for. Abstract, few brush strokes, impressive contrasts and clarity!

Atey Ghailan