This drawing, called Spiders and Birds (not very clever name, I admit), was inspired by The Hunt of the Unicorn, a series of amazing medieval tapestries. You can also clearly see Disney influence in how those birds and animals look.
There are exactly 200 various creatures here (I counted).
A3 size. Took me nine months to complete ._.
This is kind of a nostalgic drawing. It's called Ten and Eleven which references 2010 and 2011, my early period of drawing when I used to make lots of black and white artworks.
It looks like it took an insane amount of time to make, but I actually managed to complete it in about month and a half (which is relatively fast for me).
A3. Pens, pencils, gouache.
This one is actually the oldest drawing here. I've made it in 2012 when I was 19. It was completed on June 16, 2012, on my 20th birthday. You can even find "I'm 20 now" easter egg somewhere here.
The drawing is called Gratitude, and it's of course a love letter to The Beatles, my favorite music band which I was totally obsessed with in 2012.
A4, pens.
Another Beatles tribute. Each pillar represents one of their albums. The words you can see here and there are actually songs' lyrics.
A4. Pens, pencils, gouache.
My personal favorite, by the way.
Pretty simple drawing where I kinda let myself to just have fun with all these weird creatures and designs and distanced myself for a while from doing complex backgrounds and working with colors.
The story here, I guess, is that this crocodile-like monster at the bottom stole all the colors and so everything became monochrome and creepy. Wonder how the skeleton with the guitar looked before that cataclysm. Was he human? Or just skeleton in color? Guess I have to make a colored prequel someday to find out.
A3, black gel pen.
One of my early ones. Spring 2015. A4, pens and pencils.
Not much to say about this one except that it marks the point in time when my affection to octopuses became disturbingly strong and I decided to have them in each of my drawings from that moment.
These business partners here are checking their revenue from a recent commercial opportunity. They chose to do this at night somewhere in the forest for some reason. Majestic golden frame probably symbolises those two gentlemen are going to be really wealthy soon.
A4. Pens, pencils, gouache (for stars).
This little A4 size abstraction is from 2014. Pretty detailed and captivating in some way. Kind of messy in terms of composition, though. I'm not too satisfied with this drawing overall. In fact, the only reason I put it here is because everyone seems to love it except me.
Fun Fact: This is the only drawing that doesn't include octopuses in any form. It wasn't really a tradition yet.
P.S. "Eskimo Blue Day" is a song by Jefferson Airplane, in case you're wondering. I used to listen it for hours back in 2014 when I worked on this one.
Unusual color choice, yeah.
Despite its bright look, it's actually a really depressive drawing.
I was experiencing some relationship issues at the time I've made this, and so it's full of angsty stuff.
Not my strongest drawing actually, but I'm glad I did it.
A3. Pens, pencils (you would not believe how tedious and painful that pink background was).
This A2 size monster took A LOT of time and about ten blue gel pens just for the background. Not really a contender for the "deepest meaning" award, just another fantasy forest-type drawing. But it was kinda fun to see if my friends can find all 7 snakes here or all 5 red lizards.
And see those little devil-like guys who peek out from everywhere? There are exactly 51 of them here, and this little touch was inspired by caricaturist Al Hirschfeld who used to hide his daughter's name in his drawings.
And here are some photos of them when they were still unfinished.
I was greatly inspired by psychedelic art of the late 60s. My other inspirations include The Beatles, David Bowie, Eyvind Earle, Salvador Dalí, Hieronymus Bosch, fairy paintings of Victorian era, Disney animated features from 40s and 50s (especially Fantasia) and many other things.
Each of these drawings took me up to 9 months to complete. The working process was pretty hard, but the final result is absolutely worth it.
Many more drawings are coming in the future!
