Dish-Washing Time!

Long time, no design. Time to fix that. With detergents, of course! So I'm presenting a new series of dishware cleaners from one of oldest detergent brands under my design: Eco+. Oh, and don't try to locate them on your local supermarket shelves -- unless you live in Tbilisi, Georgia, that is.

No FruitLab involved -- this time the client wanted me to use some real (and fresh) fruit photographs, so I had to buy them from Shutterstock, along with some new flatware. The rest is just the good old curves and bubbles, tried and tested many times before -- they always work with this kind of things...

Nocturnal Interlude

This is the second drawing from the mini-series of illustrations to Lips of Color of Blood, a novel by Jurii Kirnev. If you follow my blog, you might already know that the novel is set in modern day Budapest and its heroine represents Death itself in the form of an attractive young woman.

The reference photo for the model, as in the previous case, was provided by the author himself. As the references for some of the background details I used photos of Kerepesi Cemetery -- one of the oldest graveyards in Hungary. The drawing is done with my usual mix of media -- color pencils finished with ball-point pens.

Usually I try to develop the colors as evenly as possible throughout the entire process, but this time, as you can see from the WIP scans below, I tried a different approach, rendering the colors and shades step-by-step, starting with the most important elements.

As I wrote in the previous post, there will be three drawings in total, so stay tuned for the conclusion!

The Final Symphony

This is the first drawing from an upcoming mini-series of illustrations to a novel by Jurii Kirnev, who contacted me through deviantART just before the New Year. The novel is titled Lips of Color of Blood, it's set in the modern day Budapest and its heroine represents Death itself in the form of an attractive young woman. Why playing on a violin? Well, you're gonna have to find it yourself -- if you ever get a chance to read the novel, that is.

The drawing is called The Final Symphony and that's the name for the whole series as well. The reference images of the model have been provided by Jurii Kirnev himself. I have used my usual mix of media: color pencils finished with ball-points. As it happens, I got carried away by the background details, but I promised the client there would be less architecture in the next installments. Anyway, here's the WIP scans for those who are interested in how the process went on.

There will be three drawings in total, so stay tuned for more!

Happy New Ear!

Before you ask: no, it's not about plastic surgery. And it's not about the 80th anniversary of the Frankenstein's bride, either. It's just another of my silly wordplay-based surreal fantasies, no deep meaning intended whatsoever.

As for the details, no ball-points have been used in this one, only color pencils. The ear belongs to Diana, of course. Everything else -- to her mother, although I greatly exaggerated the aged skin texture for a more drastic difference. As you can see from the WIP below, the snowflake earring went through some transformations before establishing its final shape and size.

Titanik

It's the last drawing from Politika series, sort of "grand finale," gathering all the "heroes" together and even introducing some new ones, most notably Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The ship full of Putryoshkas is headed towards the imminent wreck, ignoring the clear warning (the text on the sign says "Iceberg, right ahead!" in Russian). In the background you can see Viktor Yanukovych (the Ukrainian president) towed to the ship. Whether he will follow it to the end or cut the rope in time, remains to be seen. What we already see, is Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus trying to flee in a lifebuoy. Good luck, buddy!

Adoration II

Finally -- new artwork! The heavy workload of the last couple of months has lightened up a bit due to the holidays, so I was able to finish up a drawing I had started back in October.

It's another "Dianization" (a remake of old artwork, featuring Diana, my wife, as the model) done for the Body Language II series. On the right you can see the original artwork -- Adoration, made in 1996. The drawing represents a mix of erotic symbolism and surrealism, with quite a simple concept: an illustration of worshiping someone blindly and dependently.

I decided to leave the most elements, beside the female figure, intact, introducing only minor changes to them. For instance, the sky is brighter in the new version, with less small details and more saturated blues contrasting with the oranges and yellows more pronouncedly. In the old version you could see a prominent face in the clouds. Now there's another one, right next to it.

In the early WIPs the column had exactly the same perspective as in the original drawing, but when I started laying out the tiled floor, I realized that this perspective was wrong all along, so I fixed it.
Due to the large gap in time (14 years, actually) between these two versions, they serve as a perfect illustration of my skill progress, especially in human anatomy and skin shading.

Merry Christmas!

I'm an Orthodox Christian by confession, so "officially" my Christmas comes a couple of weeks later (on January 7, to be precise). But my wife is a Roman Catholic, so I'm celebrating on December 25 as well.

Merry Christmas, everyone! I wish you peace, happiness and health. And love, of course. Lots of it. May the upcoming year bring you only good things, leaving everything bad behind.

Hugs,
Rezo

P.S.
010000100110010100100000011100110111010101110010011001
010010000001110100011011110010000001100100011100100110
100101101110011010110010000001111001011011110111010101
110010001000000100111101110110011000010110110001110100
01101001011011100110010100101110