Category: 2019

2019, Portraits

Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones)

Miss Escapist

“No one can protect me. No one can protect anyone.”

Sansa Stark – Game of Thrones

With the last and final season of Game of Thrones coming up it was about time to dedicate another portrait to this series. I had wanted to draw Sansa Stark for quite a while – despite the fact that I didn’t really like her in the beginning, she grew to be one of my favourite characters. I remembered a picture of her that I had seen a few weeks ago and that would make a wonderful reference. After I had found that picture again, I started drawing right away. First, I drew Sansa’s eyes, then I shaded the skin, slowly working out her nose and mouth. After I was done with that, I continued with drawing her hair. Once again, I used the metallic tip of my mechanical pencil to “indent” hair structure into the paper before I started drawing over it with a regular pencil. This method had worked out very well for me on the Cristina Scabbia portrait and it also worked out here. The hair structure looks way more realistic and detailed. I continued with drawing the background, before I started working on the fur.

I managed to finish the portrait in a surprisingly short amount of time, the complete drawing process only took me about 8 hours – I started on a Friday afternoon and finished it on Sunday. Just in time for the new GoT season…

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 8 hours

2019, Portraits

Elize Ryd of Amaranthe 2.0

Miss Escapist

“And you can light the dark all by your own. So let us show the world our love is strong”

Amaranthe – Amaranthine

This one is a rather old portrait that I drew back in 2017. I never drew a background for this picture but always promised myself that I’d come back to doing so one day. That day happend to come two years later, when I finally felt like I had an idea on how to approach things. The Anders Fridén portrait had given me the final inspiration that I needed. So I took a proper picture of the old drawing and once again used my tablet to give it the final touch. I tried a lot of different colours for the logo, switching them back and forth, until I was finally happy with the result.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils, Autodesk Sketchbook

Time: approx. 12 hours (1 hour for the digital “upgrade”)

Reference photo used for the drawing: cover of the album “Amaranthe”

2019, Portraits

Anders Fridén of In Flames

Miss Escapist

“So burn, burn, burn, the world needs to see with open eyes, let the flames be seen far and wide”

In Flames – Burn

What began as a classical pencil portrait started to become a mixed media piece in the end. I drew Anders Fridén with my pencils and the progress went without major struggles. When I had finished drawing Anders I felt like the picture could use a colourful splash in the background. As I wasn’t so sure about this approach though, I decided to leave the original untouched. So I scanned it and added the In Flames logo digitally – and ended up very happy with the final result.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils, Autodesk Sketchbook

Time: approx. 12 hours

Reference photo used for the drawing was taken by: Gina Wetzler

2019, Other Artworks

United Metal Minds

Miss Escapist

“Open your mind
Then you will be
Balanced and free”

Epica – Beyond The Matrix

Shortly after Simone’s birthday portrait I decided to give digital drawing another chance – and created an illustration for Mark Jansen’s “United Metal Minds” project.  When I started drawing, I didn’t have any concept for how I wanted the picture to look like. I started off by colouring the background and drawing the United Metal Minds logo in the centre. After that I continued with adding the silhouette of a woman meditating, then I drew the moon and earth in opposite corners of the picture. Last but not least, I added a sort of “mandala” frame to the image.

At first, it was rather difficult for me to come up with ideas for the illustration as I didn’t have any music to refer to and only a rather vague topic but I tried to make the best out of it.

A few explanations on the artwork itself: the logo in the center isn’t my own design, it depicts a symbol called “Metatron’s Cube” – a reference for energy, motivation and focus. The silhouette of the meditating woman is supposed to be a symbol for the mind and the ability to focus on it.
The cube symbol resembles the “Flower of Life” symbol. If you look closely at the woman’s hands you can see a DNA strand just above – as a symbol for life and its origin. I was trying to connect two things with the used symbolism – spirituality (=meditation) and science (=DNA strand) – as I think both can strongly define your view on the world. The moon and earth symbolise connection, interaction and also life. The frame, once again, is a mandala to adapt to Metraton’s Cube in the centre of the illustration.

Materials: Autodesk Sketchbook

Time: approx. 8 hours

2019, Portraits

Simone Simons Card Design

Miss Escapist

“Only you is what you’ll be
All you are is what you see”

Epica – The Holographic Principle

Every now and then I pick up someone’s birthday as an opportunity to start a new portrait – and in this case, it’s Simone Simons again. I immediately thought of the metal queen card designs that I had done before as Simone definitely deserves a spot in the list of my favourite metal ladies. As I had just bought myself a new convertible, this also gave me the perfect excuse for trying out Autodesk Sketchbook on it. I had never drawn digitally before, so it was bound to become a challenge right from the start. Doing the first sketch wasn’t so very complicated but getting the shadings right was. It took me quite some time to get used to the new drawing dynamic and although the convertible also reacts to applied pressure changes it’s not quite the same than it would’ve been with a pencil. All of the lines that I drew were either too soft or too harsh in the beginning. I slowly started getting used to it, though, and the final result didn’t look as bad as I had feared. I took the finished portrait and edited it to match the blanco card design, then I added a few extra details and the Epica logo before I was finally done

Materials: Autodesk Sketchbook

Time: approx. 8 hours

Reference photo used for the drawing was taken by: Tim Tronckoe

2019, Portraits

It’s Khal Drogo – Or Not?

Miss Escapist

“A Khal does not need a chair to sit upon. He only needs a horse.”

Khal Drogo – Game of Thrones

If there’s one sort of art that I’ve never done myself but that I find highly fascinating, it’s cosplaying. The magic that some cosplayers create with their costumes and make-up-skills never cease to amaze me. One of my favourite cosplayers is Maul Cosplay (aka Ben Metzner aka Geralt of Rivia aka Khal Drogo aka …) – not only for his freaking amazing works but also because he seems to be such a nice and down-to-earth guy. During one of his Instagram livestreams I asked him for advice because I wanted to draw one of his cosplays and wasn’t sure which one to pick. He picked up my question and told me to do a drawing of his Khal Drogo cosplay that he did a few years ago. And so I did. Actually, it was a great choice because I love Game of Thrones. I chose a reference photo of Ben in full costume and started drawing right away. I began with his face, the shoulders and his arm before I went on to drawing the hair. The greatest challenge in this drawing was probably drawing the clothes as especially the belt features a lot of tiny details that required a lot of attention.

After finishing and uploading the drawing I received some quite positive feedback from Ben and also from EosAndy, the photographer, who had taken the photo I used as a reference. Although I don’t draw because of this attention and positive feedback, it’s still always nice when the depicted person sees and likes my work.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 11 hours

Reference photo used for the drawing was taken by: EosAndy