Tag: Pencilportrait

2016, Portraits

The Project That Took Me Almost Entire 2016 To Finish It…

Miss Escapist

“All that we desire
Is to find our source again
The meaning of life”

Epica – The Quantum Enigma

I couldn’t have chosen a more complicated reference photo for this drawing. I definitely couldn’t have. But I’ve fallen in love with the photo when I saw it for the first time and haven’t been able to get it out of my head ever since. It’s truly a piece of art. So one sunny afternoon in spring I got out my pencils and an A3 sheet of paper and started doing a rough sketch of Simone. The first thing I drew was the corset which already took me a lot of patience, as I had to draw white details on a black background. So I left out everything that had to stay white and shaded the rest. After that I went on with detailing and shading the parts that I had left white before. The legs and the shoe were quite simple to draw and quickly done. I continued with the arms, the face and then the hair. “Great!”, I thought. “Only the background left.”. Only…the background turned out be an absolute suicide mission that drove me totally crazy. I tried to draw every single sheet a true to the original as possible, from positioning to shading to the notes written on them. In fact, I tried to copy every single note 1:1. It took me ages and I almost lost my sanity over it. When I finally finished the drawing, it was already December. I had started in spring. Wow. That one required a lot of patience…

But it was absolutely worth it, I love the drawing so much and I’m really proud of it.

Paper size: A3

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: Forever… (I really can’t tell how many hours I spent on it.)

Reference photo for the drawing has been taken by: Tim Tronckoe

2016, Portraits

Dianne Van Giersbergen

Miss Escapist

“All hear the oceans howling
Voices of the Fallen”

Xandria – Voyage Of The Fallen

When I went to see Powerwolf live last year, Xandria were the opening act. Until that day I had known Xandria but never payed to much attention to them. For me they had always been “just another symphonic metal band” that didn’t stand out in any way. Seeing them live definitely changed my opinion because they were absolutely amazing. Dianne’s stage presence and her incredible voice have proven me wrong. I listened to Xandria’s discography after that concert and I soon came to realise the reason why I had never particularly liked Xandria before: I only liked those songs sung by Dianne. But I liked that ones a looot. So I decided to give Dianne her own portrait. I used a different paper than usual for drawing, a rather rough one with a lot of texture. And if I’ve learned one thing from it it’s that I’ll never do it again. No matter how hard I tried, the shadings always looked a bit weird and I just wasn’t able to make the skin look as smooth as I wanted it to. Also, the perspective is kinda messed up. The hair, on the other hand, turned out quite good and I guess in the end the portrait doesn’t look too bad. At least you can see the parallels to Dianne.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 5 hours

2016, Portraits

Tarja and Anette

Miss Escapist

“The faces of the past keep calling me to come back home, to caress the river with awe”

Nightwish – Rest Calm

When it comes to Nightwish it seems to be people’s favourite activity fight over who is / was the best singer. I usually don’t participate in such debates as I think that every singer brought something unique and valuable into the band. They’re all so very different, why should I even bother comparing them with one another instead of just enjoying their music? With this thought in my head I decided to do a portrait of both, Tarja and Anette, standing right next to each other. Because I wanted to respect both previous singers in the same way. So I searched for reference pictures, got out my pencils and then started drawing. I needed a surprisingly short amount of time to finish drawing both ladies and all that was left to do was shading the background.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 5 hours

2015, Portraits

Powerwolf

Miss Escapist

“Stand up all the night and call the fight, let your mind go wild before the light”

Powerwolf – Army Of The Night

After having bought myself a ticket for my very first Powerwolf show it felt just right to do a drawing dedicated to them. Powerwolf are one of my favourite bands and their music gives me a lot of energy so it was just about time to finally draw them. Until now I have only done “single portraits” – I never drew more than one person in the same picture. But for Powerwolf I really wanted to go with entire band instead of just choosing a single member to depict. As an A4 paper appeared to be too small to get all five of the wolves on it I decided to go with A3 paper instead – another challenge, as I wasn’t used to drawing on anything larger than A4. I started drawing the outlines of the entire band and then went on with shading and detailing form left to right, Falk-Maria being the first to draw and Matthew the last. I worked on the drawing for quite a while and as I drew I literally felt and saw the progress that I made. So, when I had reached the right end of the picture after finishing Matthew, I went back to the left side again to re-draw Falk-Maria and Charles. I went back and forth this way a few times until I was finally satisfied with the result. Which was a few days after the concert. I had intended to finish it before but late is better than never. And it was by far my most ambitious project of 2015, so I guess that’s okay.

Paper size: A3

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 30 hours

2015, Portraits

Floor Jansen of Nightwish

Miss Escapist

” I do not wish to evade the world, yet I will forever build my own”

Nightwish – My Walden

Motivated by my rather successful attempt of drawing Alissa I felt ready to dedicate a portrait to the flying Dutchwoman Floor Jansen – my favourite singer and the new vocalist of my favourite band Nightwish. The time to do so felt right as Nightwish were just about to release “Endless Forms Most Beautiful” – their first studio album featuring Floor. First, I wanted to pick one of the promo shoots as a reference photo but then I ended up doing a rather simple face portrait. Especially drawing the skin went quite well and I got a really smooth result. I also invested a lot of time into drawing the hair because I didn’t want it to look as unrealistic as all of the hair mess that I had drawn for previous portraits. I messed up another thing, though, and that’s the eyeliner as it looks way too dark and harsh. But apart from that I was quite happy with the finished portrait and I felt like I’ve really made some progress since my first drawing.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 7 hours

2014, Portraits

Alissa White-Gluz of Arch Enemy

Miss Escapist

“There’s something inside me
And I know it’s good, I’m not evil”

Arch Enemy – You Will Know My Name

Though still traumatized by my Tarja portrait, I decided it was time for another attempt of drawing faces. It wasn’t so very hard too choose a reference as I had wanted to draw Alissa White-Gluz for quite a long time. Not only because I really enjoy her music but also because she makes such a good portrait reference. I mean…are there any bad pictures of her? I ended up choosing a photo where she looked directly into the camera so I wouldn’t have to deal with akward perspectives again. And it turned out to be the right decission as I had way less difficulties when drawing. Even though I drew most of it on the train! After finishing the portrait I spontaneously added a bit of colour to the hair. There’s just no Alissa without colourful hair.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead and coloured pencils

Time: approx. 5 hours

Reference photo used for the drawing was taken by: Patric Ullaeus

2014, Portraits

Elf – A Face Study

Miss Escapist

“Songs as a seduction of sirens
The elf-folk is calling me”

Nightwish – Elvenpath

This particular drawing was an artwork that I only created because my best friend had asked me to do so. I still felt quite insecure drawing portraits, especially without a reference. Yeah…the things we do for friends. She wanted an elven portrait so she got one.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 2,5 hours

2014, Other Artworks

The Heart of Everything

Miss Escapist

“See what you’ve become, don’t sacrifice, it’s truly the heart of everything”

Within Temptation – The Heart of Everything

Another rather sketchy experiment – only this time it wasn’t Nightwish but Within Temptation inspired. I had always been a huge fan of the album cover for Within Temptation’s “The Heart of Everything” as I like the constellation and the use of symbolism in it. So why not draw it? The drawing process went quite well, if you overlook the fact that I had some difficulties with the half-transparent blindfold that somehow didn’t look like it was suppossed to.

Paper size: A5

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils

Time: approx. 90 minutes

Reference photo used for the drawing: cover of the album “The Heart of Everything”

2014, Portraits

Tarja Turunen of Nightwish

Miss Escapist

“Think of me long enough to make a memory, come bless the child one more time”

Nightwish – Bless The Child

Part 2 of my Nightwish inspired drawing obsession in spring 2014.

I drew this portrait of Nightwish’s former vocalist Tarja Turunen only a few weeks after I had finished the Tuomas portrait. I still remember struggling a lot with this drawing. Tarja’s face and the perspective really drove me crazy as I had nearly no drawing experience. Nowadays I think that this is probably the crappiest thing that I’ve ever created but I wanted to include it in here nevertheless.

I tend to be a very critical person and always look for things to improve in my drawings. That’s not necessarily bad but from time to time this habit prevents me from seeing the good things in my art. So this Tarja portrait is an important reminder for me that I shouldn’t be too critical with myself and that I’ve actually achieved a lot since I started drawing.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils, charcoal

Time: approx. 4 hours

2014, Portraits

Tuomas Holopainen of Nightwish

Miss Escapist

“Virgin snow beneath my feet
Painting the world in white 
I tread the way and lose myself into a tale”

Nightwish – Escapist

How it all began…

Back on a sunny day in 2014 I sat on my balcony, enjoyed the sun and listened to my favourite band Nightwish. I suddenly felt the urge to create something that was dedicated to them – as a sort of tribute. So I got myself a sheet of paper and a few pencils. I quickly decided that my darwing should be a portrait of Tuomas – as he was the bands founder, composer and mastermind. I wasnt really sure how to begin as I had rarely ever drawn portraits before. I started scribbling nevertheless and ended up with this.

That portrait had started a fire in me that still keeps burning today and I got strangely “obsessed” with drawing my favourite musicians.

Paper size: A4

Materials: Faber Castell blacklead pencils, charcoal

Time: approx. 4 hours