Life drawing

Finally got back to life drawing, it feels awesome! The exercises consisted of 2 extremes; 20 minutes of  the model walking around at standard pace and rarely stopping and then about 2 hours of the same pose. I especially enjoyed the quick sketches, you reach a whole new level of concentration and anguish in those sort of exercises. 

As for the 2 hour pose, I was focusing all of it on staying true to the figure, being really strict with measurements and all. Next time I'd hope to loosen up a little and try to show some character in the pose and model. 

Details

Ted Baker Design

Life drawing.

I do miss Wednesday's life drawing sessions.

Holiday characters

A less wordy post. 

Morocco

Last spring I went to Morocco for a week. To say the least, the experience was something I can't really express to someone who wasn't there nor can I forget it. It summoned some kind of adventurer in me and I haven't been able to think of much other than traveling ever since. 

I don't know how to vividly explain the incredible welcome we got when we spend the night in the family owned hotel, at the very edge of a cliff. Below it a dense Oasis with the famous todra gorge right in the centre.

Or the moment I first saw the night sky in this town, which had almost no lights and was covered in blackness at night. And when we finally reached the desert, riding the most amazing creatures, sand surfing and catching desert salamanders, not only did we have the full campfire and marshmallow experience, but we got our own personal concert and indulged in the crazy trip that was the "camel dance", led by the equally insane, self proclaimed Desert Hendrix. As if this wasn't enough, since we were only there for one night there was absolutely no way we were going to stay put in our tents. 

We dragged our mattresses outside to sleep under the company of a night sky so crowded with stars, you could actually see the slow rotation of our planet as the stars disappeared into the horizon right before our eyes. It was enough to momentarily make us forget the intense cold of the nighttime desert. Despite having a patchy sleep on the day long drive and knowing the same thing awaited us on the way back to the riad, we still got up before sunrise to see the sun light up the sand. 

All this merely describing half the trip and the experiences.

And I have to add that in a group of 8 people, you would expect a lot of drama but the only thing we got was in the form of amazing stories and memories. The trip wouldn't be half what it was without such an amazing group of friends. (I hope they don't read this as it's a bit too sentimental xD...) 

I wish I knew how to do true justice to this experience with my art, but for now at least this will have to do.

Stars

It's really hard trying to get this blog to catchup with all the things I've done this year, it feels a little messy and overwhelming. But then, maybe I'm just being dramatic.

This is from a project I did about Buddhism. As a philosophy I find it endlessly interesting, and I tried to steer my work that way. But I was ultimately drawn to the magical, fantastical aspects of it. 

Most interesting to me were the formless who have no physical body only exist as a mind. I read a passage during my research in which the way they were described made me think that they may in fact be the stars. There's something interesting in the idea that the stars are a mass of consciousness, completely oblivious to the world around them and role they play in the universe, yet on a level of happiness that we cannot begin to imagine. That's probably what I will explore more in the future of this project.