Halloween Witch

For this week's illustration friday theme 'haunt'.
I started with a small sketch in one-point perspective:

After painting the shapes in photoshop, mostly with the polygonal lasso tool, I merged all shapes of similar color to one layer. So all the windows are on one layer, the moon+street on the next, the shadows of the building on another, and so on.

Then I stretched and moved these layers a little to obtain a screenprint-like effect.

Finally I added a paper texture and some scratches and dirt with various brushes.
A similar technique is used in my illustration 'lost'.

Concorde flying over city skyline

Once when I was in London I heard an airplane flying low overhead. I looked up and saw the very distinctive silhouette of the Concorde. It must have been one of it's last flights; soon after this the Concorde was grounded.

As a guide to get the perspective of the buildings right, I studied drawings from the book "Perspective Made Easy" by Ernest R. Norling. He points out that the tops of all the buildings are made with square corners, but that it's not a hard and fast rule.

Swimming Illustration, 50's style

For this week's illustration friday theme: water.

How To Make a Simple Reed Pen

I like experimenting with different drawing techniques and materials for inspiration. Making a reed pen is fun, here's a quick and simple way.

All you need is:
1. a few pieces of reed, some kinds of reed or bamboo work better than others, experiment.
2. a hobby knife
3. black ink

 

1. First cut the reed in a shape like this.

2. Square off the end.

3. Carefully cut the split.

That's all. There are more advanced ways to make a reed pen, but this works. It does help to soak the reed in water for a while before cutting.

I like the variation in line width you can achieve. Here's a drawing I made with a reed pen:

Two Airplanes Flying in Formation

Two airplanes flying in perfect "mirrored" formation. A comic drawing for this week's illustration friday theme "mirror". Sketched and colored in the free SketchbookExpress.

Website with 2012 paintings is now online

Tuscan Village

Acrylic on Canvas

50 x 60 cm

This is a new series of abstract landscape paintings. Check it out at http://www.willemgallery.com/