Whispering to a flower. This was a quick drawing I did to help me getting out of this art block I’ve been feeling. I haven’t had drawing ideas. Until this. A bird shadow above a mouth shaped leaf, pointing to a small flower. “Whispering”.
Initially, it was a normal A4 paper, but then I cropped it due to composition reasons. I also used a few soluble graphite.
Most used art supplies:
Faber castell graphite pencils and TK fine 0.7
Canson bristol paper
Here is a question. Do you ever have a weird art idea which you can’t explain properly, because there is no explanation? You know, I was sketching last week and I thought of doing a strange eye, separated from the bottom eyelashes, with a feline inspired iris inside a round one, and a really small pupil inside it, and I was so fascinated with this weird sketch that this week I decided to do a proper drawing with it, with the upper eyelashes connected to the lines of the leaves, that are also different, and the eye between two of those, a big and a small. I don’t know why either but I drew something which is supposed to be an insect, looking at everything.
Graphite pencils (Castell 9000 and grafwood) and sennelier graphite powder on canson bristol paper. Fixative from winsow & Newton.
Time: 6 hours 34 minutes
I have no idea of how much time I spent trying to decide this one’s title. I thought on Crow’s spirit for some reason, then Observing (because there are 2 eyes looking at us), The fear, and some other before Reading Fears. I choose ts because this is supposed to be a creepy figure looking right at us, like it knows what we are afraid of.
I started doing this while I was on school, but then I made a break to work on other drawings, so I only came back to this one a week ago, when I went to Madeira, for short vacations, but I didn’t have much time, so I finished it here.
My goal was to create light and dark shades on the background with the graphite powder, but it didn’t work as I wanted.
On the center, there is an oddly shaped flower next to a “flame”, with an eye on the right. I wanted this to be some kind of plant, but someone told me it looked like a bird’s face, and I immediately thought on crows, because of the dark shadows. On the bottom right, there is a “melting eye” and a moth inspired shape. On the left, a leaf.
This drawing was made with graphite powder from sennelier, and graphite pencils from various brands. On the left, I drew a bird figure, and I wanted to use the powder to do the background because I am still inexperienced with it.
I called it Empty because there is only a bird there, looking nowhere. Initially, I sketched another creature, inspired by caterpillars and butterflies, which, as you can see on the speed drawing video, was looking to him, so in the beginning, this was going to be called Meeting, but I decided to hide it.
I am still exploring the possibilities of graphite powder, and these are some of the things I learned from 2 drawings:
1- Only use it after the pencil work. Otherwise, I will accidentally smudge the whole drawing, and it won’t look as smooth.
2- It’s very easily removable. I knew this before, but it’s way easier that what I thought. This needs more fixative than my normal drawings.
3- If I use the kneaded eraser to fix something and then apply the powder, it will leave an ugly mark on the paper. I’m not sure if this is because the eraser feels different when it’s warm, or because of the paper. I had to make multiple layers of powder to fix this.
Speed drawing:
This is another bug inspired drawing, called Shades eater because of the black and white shapes on its “belly”. I gave it a large white eye to contrast it with a really dark antennae, large wings, and thin legs (these went terrible).
It’s also the first drawing where I used graphite powder. Mine, is from sennelier, and I used it do do the background.
There are some changes on my signature too. Now, I sign my works on one of the four corners with my first and last name (Lua Martins) and I sign my username (Milyusia) where I think it looks better.
I’ve always liked bugs. I don’t know much about them but I find them to be interesting for their “design”, specially now that I am starting to add “living creatures” to my drawings.
For example, Tera:
(normal & water soluble graphite on canson bristol paper)
She is the creature that takes care of the earth on my drawings’ world.
Her body was based on ants, her wings on damselflies, and her tail on spiders, so nothing specific…yet!
I am already sketching other weird bugs to use them as an inspiration. Just google eucharitid wasps. They are like wasps with antlers! Kind of. And very scary too.
Here is a sneak peek on my next drawing made with water soluble graphite:
It’s still a work in progress, but I can say these wings were based on butterflie’s eyespot.
Speed drawing: (Captioned)
Quick post! Today, 27/04/2015, I finally sold a drawing to someone (Who wasn’t my mom or my grandmother!) and I feel great! My mom is helping me because she has a store.
This lady was amazed by my drawings, and she bought two. One for 15€, and another for 35€. Here they are:
I was so shy the whole time and me and my mom talked so much with the client that we lost the track of time! Now my mom sells some of my drawings on her store, and that is amazing!
Lua Eva Blue 