Friday, January 31, 2014

Exhibition! :D

Soooo, some of you know that my art was featured in an awesome exhibition today! ;) It will still go on until the 16th of February so if you want to drop by at Zeche Zollverein, I would love that! ;) For more info go here!
xoxo Alex

Thursday, January 30, 2014

Wolverine

I really want this to be good...:D It's taking ages though, so prepare for a few work in progresses ;)
xoxo Alex

Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Waffelverkauf!

(Waffelverkauf-Waffle Sale :D) So I was asked to make a poster for the waffle sale of our school on Friday! :D (eat lots of waffles-we need money for our prom! :D)
xoxo Alex

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

Protect the Wolves

Well, by the title and the preliminary sketch I posted a few days ago I have a feeling that you know what this is going to be ;)
I'm rediscovering the fineliner right now ;)
xoxo Alex

Monday, January 27, 2014

Chapeau

The final art class with the topic of anatomy today. It was very interesting, I think I did improve at least a little and it was fun too!
For a figure that was completly from the top of my head (with the help of a wooden puppet though XD) I think the gentleman right there isn't that bad!
xoxo Alex

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Head

This is another work in progress I have going on right now. It is taking a loooong time. 
xoxo Alex

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Howl

Sometimes preliminary sketches turn out to be surprisingly powerful! Xoxo ALex

Friday, January 24, 2014

Nero

So during the last meters I got a little perfectionistic :D
I have to say though, my camera did some weird stuff, so the top part has more contrast than the bottom part. I promise, it's not like that in real life! :D
xoxo Alex

Thursday, January 23, 2014

Nero

This was a request actually :D I know I don't usually do that much with pencil, especially not those realistic kind of drawings so it it really interesting to me to try all the different things out. It is not done yet, still needs quite a bit of polishing ;)

xoxo Alex

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Bookmark -Plan

 I can not belieeeve how long this took. Now I have to draw it all tomorrow! :O
Thanks to my English teacher for all the awesome ideas by the way! They really helped! 
xoxo Alex

Monday, January 20, 2014

Portrait Practise

Hi everyone.
Drawing class today was fuun! Portraits! :D
They are a lot more traditional than the stuff I usually do and I must say, it was a cool experience-but that is not me, that's not my style. I like looking at them, but I don't like drawing them too much...
xoxo Alex

Sunday, January 19, 2014

Bookmark

Okay, so I'm trying to design a bookmark at the moment (for the showcase by doodler's anonymous). The sketches are pretty rough at the moment (and take aaaages) but here's something that sparked out pretty spontaniously that I really liked!
This might be a little cryptic, especially because that is not bookmarky at all, but don't worry-it'll come together!
xoxo Alex

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Character Design Practise

This is haaaaard!
Just so you have an idea-drawing this from imagination took me about half an hour longer than yesterday's elephant...
xoxo Alex

Friday, January 17, 2014

Elephant

A friend asked me whether I could draw elephants. I don't know if using a photo reference counts :D Ah well.  Elephants look very weird from the front if you study them intensively....
I have a new ball point pen by the way! :D my first one ran out!
xoxo Alex

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Lioness-finished

She's dooone! ;)
yaaay, thank you to my lovely friend who gave me advice and helped me solve yesterday's dilemma!  :D
I actually quite like the way she turned out :)
xoxo Alex

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Lioness pt 2

The mouth came together today! lots of black, that takes a long time! :O I kind of am facing a problem though. Between the front part of the head and the ear, there is kind of a lot of empty space. I'm afraid if I leave it empty, it'll look weird, but If I put every single hair of the fur in, it will look weird as well and I will die. I don't know what to doooo!
xoxo Alex

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Feather Study

When I did that Sleeping Beauty Post, I told you that in art class we're drawing with feathers and tusche at the moment. I had to do like a whole sheet of exercises, and it took aaaaages, so sadly I have nothing cooler for you today. Sorry!
See you tomorrow!
xoxo Alex

Monday, January 13, 2014

Character sketches Lovebirds

So I think for coming only from my imagination, these sketches are not that bad!
Here hair is a little crippled but ah well, you should have seen the hair that I had before! :O
xoxo Alex

Sunday, January 12, 2014

Lioness

An optimist is someone who gets treed by a lion but enjoys the scenery-Walter Winchell
(Well technically it's a lioness, but whatever :D)
I really enjoyed yesterday's owl, so I started a lioness in the same style. This takes long and you have to be quite careful, so it might take a while.
xoxo Alex

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Owl

A part of the belated birthday present for an owl lover :) I hope she will like it! ;) <3
xoxo Alex

Friday, January 10, 2014

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Study of Hand pt 2

My collection of hands is growing bigger ;) 
The second one was a lot harder, as you can tell from all the horrible pencil lines everywhere :D
xoxo Alex

Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Study of a Hand

Exciting news! The next interview will be soon, so leave all your questions for a costume designer in the comment section! :D
Otherwise I'm just chillin' and practising drawing hands ;)
More studies hopefully coming soon! :D
xoxo Alex

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Random people in the Tram

I feel like the tram is the best place to practise character drawings. It is a little creepy to draw people there though!
The backrow is always the coolest! :D
xoxo Alex

Monday, January 6, 2014

Art Class-muscle dudes

 My mind works in mysteriousy ways sometimes...So uhm, we were supposed to draw different body shapes in art class today, as we are looking at anatomy at the moment. This is what I came up with.
xoxo Alex

Sunday, January 5, 2014

Careers-Bettina Zachow

 Hey everyone! Meet Bettina Zachow. She's not only an amazing artist who creates intricate pieces mainly out of hair, but also an awesome person with an interesting story. I sat down with her to talk about  her artistic work and career. Enjoy!
How did your passion for art begin?
As a little kid I already drew a lot. I really enjoyed it. Then, in the 5th or 6th school year, I watched my brother, who was training to be a dental technician, draw teeth, with shadows and everything. I wanted to learn how to do that. When this passion for art had become more and more apparent, I stood in front of the work by Joseph Beuys, a gigantic installation, and my heart started beating really fast. It was so mysterious and incomprehensible but magical. I think those are the moments you search for, where one is touched.
When and how did you make the decision to become an artist?
You have to consider that I didn’t get as much support from my family as you maybe do now. I come from a family in which everyone is an engineer, very down to earth. I am the only one who was a little kinky. My father didn’t support me in my creative ambitions, only my brothers sometimes bought me colors or a canvas here and there.
So after you finished school, you decided that’s what you wanted to do.
Well, actually I thought, because I knew you couldn’t make much money from art that you maybe tried to find a practical job that still has something to do with design. That’s why I studied biology for a half a semester.  That’s when I heard about the lectures by Max Imdahl, a very famous German art historian. He really was an eye opener. So I studied art history for quite a while. Then suddenly my dad died and I thought hard about everything again. I came to the conclusion that I wanted to do hands on work, so I studied art in education. This was also because I always thought, what I did wasn’t good enough for me to go to an academy. I finished the theoretical part of the studies, but didn’t carry on to become an art teacher, because after I had finished my state examination about hair, I felt like I’d finally achieved something. I had the feeling that this was the right path. In the end I had taken a lot of detours to come to this point that others might have somehow been able to skip through a better support or a more stable self. But then again I would probably not be able to work the way I do now without those detours though.
Do you make enough money to live from your art?
I can tell you what it was like during the first ten years after university. I did a lot of side-jobs, didn’t have a lot of money but had a lot of time for my art. I managed a lot during those years, more than I had ever thought I would.
Were you able to sell your art?
Yes, the little things I sold. Not in the kind of masses you would need to sell to live from it. You are usually happy if you arrive at a zero at the end of the day. The money from art prizes made a difference though.
So basically you worked to finance yourself and the art paid for itself?
Yes, even though I really tried to work as little as possible. I had a job where I worked about four to five hours day and on weekends, so I had enough time to do art in a fulltime manner.
What would you tell people who want to become artists but fear the financial instabilities which come with the job?
I would definitely try to stand on two legs and not simply wait until it works with the art. There are a lot of people who go to the area of graphic design. I would strictly separate that from personal work.
Where do you get your inspiration from?
Well, the work itself, when you get into this flow. While working you get a lot of ideas as well and I always write all of that down. Or in literature and language itself, I note extraordinary words. I have a book of beautiful words for example, in which I write everything that I find. Observations from everyday life as well. These are the inspirational impulses which make a person an artistic one. An artist is able to read between the lines or think outside the box. 
What do you think is important to know if you would like to become an artist?
Authenticity! Of course you should look about in the world, but somehow always stay yourself and explore your own ‘view’! That’s a question of character. I think authenticity in artistic statements convinces instantaneously and intuitively. One should start working on that very early.
It is very important to know, that there is a very big injustice in the visual art. This is that you don’t get anything for presenting your work. You present your work, maybe also in large exhibitions, and you are proud of that and it gives you publicity but nothing more. And I doubt that this will change any time soon. The advantage of course is that you produce something that is there to stay, so you have the possibility to sell it. Sometimes I do regret maybe not having a job which is more respected in society and in which you can really build up a lot of skill. However, I think there is such a thing as an ‘art drive’. That is a kind of drive that somehow wants you to do something and when you do it, it is good. You have to look at it this way: the time you spend making art is valuable, much more valuable than all the fuss about exhibitions and that kind of stuff.

Photographs are by Christiane Bach, Andreina Francese-Thomas, Dirk Hoffman, Hendrik Lietmann & Bettina Zachow

Saturday, January 4, 2014

Magic Carousel. Finished!

It's done. At least for today. Thank god. This was driving me crazy. 
I hope you can see everything even if it is so small!
Now I can sleep ;)
xoxo Alex

Friday, January 3, 2014

Magic Carousel

Raaaaaah, I wanted this to be finished by today. But I will not ruin it by rushing it, so bear with me. Tomorrow, it should be done.
There you go :D
See you tomorrow! ;)
xoxo Alex

Thursday, January 2, 2014

Magic Carousel

So I decided-I need the ball point pen. That unstructal chaos going on with only the water colors bothers me. Blame it on physics HL.
It's taking a long time and not really improving my attitude towards this picture but I hope it is worth the patience...
xoxo Alex

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Magic Carousel

I have to say this unfinished piece is bothering me a little. I decided I finally have to make some meters today so I began coloring using watercolors. This is a lot faster than the colored pencils I was using before, and more importantly I have them at home!
Now this has got me thinking. Should I go over it in a very detailed manner with ball point pen. Or should I leave it like this, more dreamy and unfinished?
xoxo Alex

Careers-Introductory Post

Well hello everyone :)
This is just a little introductory post, introducing a new category, I'm very excited to begin here.
Every 4 weeks, I will be interviewing someone in an art related job. The focus of the interviews will mostly be their career, so I'll be asking what exactly they do everyday, how they landed in this area ,what their tipps are for aspiring creative people.
I will always announce who I'll be interviewing next on my facebook page and in my daily posts, so if you have any questions you would like to ask, just comment! :D
Also if you think you would be a good person to interview or if you think you know someone who might be willing, please contact me!
I'm so looking forward to the interviews!
I hope you'll enjoy,
xoxo Alex

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