Olven says

My first mandala.

Tue, 02 Apr 2013 19:20:47 +0200

My first mandala.

Finished! Grumpy cat, white wolf and winter mountain landscape....

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 19:17:42 +0100

Finished! Grumpy cat, white wolf and winter mountain landscape. In the landscape I tested the wet in wet technique.

Schmincke watercolors, cotton/bamboo paper. Average size 14x10 cm.

A difficult yet productive weekend. :) Tiny watercolor...

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 11:17:48 +0100

A difficult yet productive weekend. :) Tiny watercolor paintings.

The finished earrings :)

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 19:45:54 +0100

The finished earrings :)

I feel much better today (suffered probably a food poisoning and...

Sun, 10 Mar 2013 14:44:31 +0100

I feel much better today (suffered probably a food poisoning and had to look for a doctor) so I decided to play with shrinkable plastic. These are meant to be earrings, just needs some hooks and decorative beads. Also, it’s interesting how the painted side has saturated colors compared to the glossy side.

I tried to take a few photos of one of my latest ACEOs during...

Sat, 23 Feb 2013 15:10:00 +0100

I tried to take a few photos of one of my latest ACEOs during the drawing and put them together in one picture.

Also I took another photos of works in progress. :)

Progresso Aquarell review & test

Thu, 07 Feb 2013 19:33:00 +0100

I’m always curious about new art supplies, especially when there’s something new from our local manufacturer, Koh-I-Noor.

Let’s say I’m always very suspicious to their new products. They just don’t suit me very well, with colored pencils being too dry and erasers tearing paper apart. But I was very curious about these new Progresso pencils that I got myself a set of 48. These are water soluble woodless colored pencils.

They’re not bad at all, the colors are very vibrant and the lead looks like it’s going to last for ages, so much color! The pencils are varnished in something very cold to touch and each pencil carries a color number and lightfastness rating. They’re very easy to work with, though they’re a bit dryer. They wash nicely though the wash is not very uniform.

When you read the information on the box, you get an idea it’s a real professional product. Well, yes and no. The colors are not everything so I made the chart you can see below and put it behind the window for about 2 months. The left half of each swatch was exposed to sunlight and the right was covered. Guess what. The pink and violets are a bit disastrous. Not all of the 48 pencils are lightfast but most of them show no change.

Recommend or not? If you can avoid using the weaker tones, Progresso Aquarell is quite a quality stuff. Though I’d love to compare them to something similar, like Cretacolor Aqua Monolith or Derwent Aquatone, these seem a bit creamier which I like about colored pencils so much.

My recent artwork in progress. I’ve been working on these...

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:31:25 +0100

Work in progress

Work in progress

My recent artwork in progress. I’ve been working on these a while ago when I was out of home. I took my set of watercolors with me. I have about 20 nice matte frames so I wanted to fill them with something nice. :) The border collie is finished, the fox is not.

Shadowness

Sun, 02 Dec 2012 20:22:51 +0100

Decided to promote my artwork on shadowness.com. :) Have an account? I’ll be happy if you stop by and say hello!

http://shadowness.com/Olven

I recently decided I want to try to do scratch art. So I got...

Mon, 11 Jun 2012 22:27:00 +0200

I recently decided I want to try to do scratch art. So I got myself a few cheap yet fine scratchboards (Essdee) and browsed through my stock of photographs to find a few great references. It’s a great technique, the way you open white spaces allows you to think about the whole artwork differently. It just has one disadvantage, you have to arm yourself with tons of patiense and of course - spare blades. I already ordered x-acto cutter and a bunch of blades. The original tools for this just can’t handle all the fur. :>

Also tried to give it a hint of color, I used aquarell watercolors for that. If you decide to do this, you have to work carefully, it might leave some traces on the blacks.

Introduction

Sat, 19 May 2012 11:25:00 +0200

Hi everyone, I’m Olven and I would like to introduce you to what I do.

I started creating artwork since I was able to hold a pencil but started to take it seriously back in 1999. I’ve never studied any art school nor attended art classes (I have art history education though). Everything I know I learned by myself, by watching things around me and also with a great help of the internet (anatomy books, tutorials, photos, observing things…).

Today I work as a creative graphic designer and animator, I keep drawing and painting as a hobby. I mostly focus on animals, mostly anthropomorphic to be more specific. I like the fantasy worlds you can create with these.

I plan to finish this in watercolors, size 210x297 mm.

Sat, 19 May 2012 11:24:27 +0200

I plan to finish this in watercolors, size 210x297 mm.

Here you can see what it looks like when I work. I have quite a...

Sat, 19 May 2012 11:08:00 +0200

Work in progress, watercolors.

What I work with.

Here you can see what it looks like when I work. I have quite a small table for work but it doesn’t stop me anyway. I have experiences with quite a lot of media which resulted in this pile of… stuff. But I mainly work with watercolors, colored pencils, markers and acrylics. Sometimes also digitally.