Sketchbook 040 - Something New (First Attempt)

Greetings and happy Friday!

Finding your own art style can be both challenging and rewarding. At first, after having decided to 'get serious' about doing arty things, I spent (wasted) a lot of time trying to do exactly that.

My attitude towards finding a personalized style (and even trying to force myself into existing styles) of drawing changed completely after a very talented friend gave me this advice:

EXPERIMENT! This means, use any and all drawing/art supplies available to you. Try any technique that seems interesting. Mix up different media. Whatever. I could go on for hours about how much you can learn about yourself while doing this.

A simple absentminded doodle led me to start drawing like this. While the original image was simple and not very creative, the inspiration, themes and symbolism put into the what it eventually became this is pretty complex and, for lack of a better description, a lot.

The Inspiration

Wavy, drippy lines symbolize life in the form of sticky, slimy and shiny types of life filled liquids, like blood, water etc. It sort of has a disgusting but sensual vibe to it. I am going to say this a lot in the future, but I like duality and the balance between opposite sides of things very much.

'Life/Living lines' fading and crumbling while dripping/raining down represent ends and decay. Sand falling in an hourglass and death (becoming dust type of vibes) are the main inspiration here. Both the lines and 'sand' also represent pain, at its best and worst.

While all of this might sound rather grim and unappealing, when combined, it all represents the endless cycle of endings and beginnings and how they feed into each other.

The image of the winged hand reaching out also tells its own story. It is an attempt to visually capture the feeling of being stuck between chasing a toxic dream or letting go completely before it consumes you. I tend to be very chill in my everyday life and absolutely manic and dramatic when I make art. There is a weird kind of balance in there somewhere.

The colours are the only things that I put no thought into. Sometimes, just making the thing look pretty is good enough too!

Even though quite a bit of effort and thought went into this, I found it quite relaxing and low pressure. This was probably due to the fact that it was just supposed to be a doodle, then and experiment, b y the time it was an actual drawing, I already liked it, which is pretty rare for me.

There is still a lot of refining and practice to be done, but for the first time in a very long time, I am truly excited to try drawing all kinds of things again.

I am even considering doing a big painting project in this style....on a dress. Might need a few good suggestions and ideas for that one.

All in all, things are looking up again. It feels good to be back here, sharing my mad little musings with everyone.

Till next time! Stay safe and drink water! ❤️

Credit - Unless otherwise stated, all work and images in this post is my own.