Red Demon
9 september 2020
Sketching is the excercise
In this blog post I’ll go more into depth about how I came up with the final design and color scheme for the Red Demon painting.
The sketch for Red Demon came about 3 days after I made myself the commitment to sketch a wild style piece every morning, during the holidays at our family home in Spain.
I would wake up early in the morning every day. Blue skies and a warm ocean breeze where the only things needed to motivate me for a refreshing dive, and a couple of laps in the swimming pool. I would quickly shower, get dressed and grab some fresh orange juice. I then told Siri to set a timer for 1 hour and started sketching.
Inspiration is difficult to enforce within a set time frame. But approximately 1 hour is what it usually takes me to produce a half decent rough sketch in my own style. Not all of them work out well of course, but it usually is a numbers game for me.
I often use older sketches which I am very satisfied with for inspiration. This trick works quite nicely since you’ll get inspired by your own work this way. It also forces me to try out new ways and combining tricks that worked before, so you’ll get to the core of your style more easily.
Before I start a sketch, I often create what I call a flow scheme. It is a bit like a poets rhyme scheme, however, this flow scheme roughly determines the flow direction of my letters and connections.
Once the hour passed, breakfast with the family was usually ready. During breakfast I would think about the sketch some more and come up with some color ideas.
We had breakfast outside on the patio, and a certain red cactus fruit, that grew in the garden, looked a bit like a demon because of the spikes on it. Every morning during breakfast I had been fascinated by the shape and colors of this exact same fruit. So I decided to use this in my color scheme for this painting. The form and direction of the piece had a kind of aggressive look as well. And so I came up with the name Red Demon. Once I finished the colors I was ready to paint it.
Painting is the game
Where I see sketching as an exercise, painting it in the real world ís the game. Here you will always encounter certain problems which you could not have anticipated. Knowing the colors you want to use and having a sketch ready is the game plan you must stick to. Because,
Shit will happen!
For instance; Your paint is not covering properly on this specific surface, making you run out of a certain color way to fast, having to compensate for it with another color etc. Or, people keep walking by all the time, forcing you to duck into hiding around a corner every four seconds, breaking your legs. Or, Dogs sniff out the paint and start barking like crazy 10m (32ft) away from you.
Red Demon
9 september 2020
Sketching is the excercise
In this blog post I’ll go more into depth about how I came up with the final design and color scheme for the Red Demon painting.
The sketch for Red Demon came about 3 days after I made myself the commitment to sketch a wild style piece every morning, during the holidays at our family home in Spain.
I would wake up early in the morning every day. Blue skies and a warm ocean breeze where the only things needed to motivate me for a refreshing dive, and a couple of laps in the swimming pool. I would quickly shower, get dressed and grab some fresh orange juice. I then told Siri to set a timer for 1 hour and started sketching.
Inspiration is difficult to enforce within a set time frame. But approximately 1 hour is what it usually takes me to produce a half decent rough sketch in my own style. Not all of them work out well of course, but it usually is a numbers game for me.
I often use older sketches which I am very satisfied with for inspiration. This trick works quite nicely since you’ll get inspired by your own work this way. It also forces me to try out new ways and combining tricks that worked before, so you’ll get to the core of your style more easily.
Before I start a sketch, I often create what I call a flow scheme. It is a bit like a poets rhyme scheme, however, this flow scheme roughly determines the flow direction of my letters and connections.
Once the hour passed, breakfast with the family was usually ready. During breakfast I would think about the sketch some more and come up with some color ideas.
We had breakfast outside on the patio, and a certain red cactus fruit, that grew in the garden, looked a bit like a demon because of the spikes on it. Every morning during breakfast I had been fascinated by the shape and colors of this exact same fruit. So I decided to use this in my color scheme for this painting. The form and direction of the piece had a kind of aggressive look as well. And so I came up with the name Red Demon. Once I finished the colors I was ready to paint it.
Painting is the game
Where I see sketching as an exercise, painting it in the real world ís the game.
Here you will always encounter certain problems which you could not have anticipated.
Knowing the colors you want to use and having a sketch ready is the game plan you must stick to. Because,
Shit will happen!
For instance; Your paint is not covering properly on this specific surface, making you run out of a certain color way to fast, having to compensate for it with another color etc. Or, people keep walking by all the time, forcing you to duck into hiding around a corner every four seconds, breaking your legs. Or, Dogs sniff out the paint and start barking like crazy 10m (32ft) away from you.
To put it bluntly; It is very difficult to be creative ánd original at the same time under those kind of circumstances, thats why I usually make sketches upfront.
