Good morning Reader! 🌻

I don't know about you, but here it's cold and snowing, so I'm happy to stay comfy at home (even more than usual!).

This week we're going to go over my illustration progress and some beautiful pictures that inspired me this week.

This damn fern 🌿

I was very busy at work this week, so I arrived at the end of the week with not much art done :(

Thankfully, I was able to take refuge at the library during the weekend and keep myself focused on my task. As much as I love staying comfy at home, I have to admit that it feels nice to have a proper space to work!

That’s something I maybe need to think about for my day job - when you’re always at home it’s hard to switch off and stop working :’)

Now onto my progress! Last week I only showed you the final sketch, and this time I was able to finish the ink!

This took significantly longer than I expected, and part of it is because of this damn fern.

You see, I don’t aim for realism, but I still want what I draw to be recognizable and clear; and looking at the shape of a fern, I was really puzzled on how I would be able to do it.

Well, like drawing anything else, the only way to do it is one line at a time.

So I pushed through it, used references and all I know about drawing details, and I managed to do it!

I mention the fern because it took me more than an hour to get right; almost as long as a good portion of the illustration! Just on this single plant :’)

But I’m super happy to have gone the extra step and made sure to do it right.

I actually used a lot of what I had learned years ago in a very specific video, one of the most impactful tutorials I ever watched; and the main idea is how to draw the illusion of details, not just the details themselves.

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It’s a super interesting topic and if you like drawing (or just want to watch a relaxing video) I highly recommend you to have a look :)

Next week I’ll hopefully have some colors for this illustration! It’s not as complex as the previous one I did recently, so I’m optimistic!

Inspiration from Italy 🌿

Have you ever been to Italy? I haven’t, despite living relatively close to it for most of my life.

But this last week, my fiancée was out with her friends for a short trip to Italy, between Naples and Milan. And I have to say, this city looks absolutely like my vibe!

I would love to visit in person someday, but before that I’ll surely be using those pictures as reference and inspiration :)

Speaking of European cities, those pictures reminded me of another artist I love: his name is Francisco Fonseca, and he is a Portuguese artist who draws cities and especially houses!

He’s obviously not from the same part of Europe, but maybe you’d agree that there is a similar vibe there!

He also makes paper houses, which I don’t think I ever saw an artist do before! Maybe I could try it out someday? Boy, there are too many cool things to do in life haha.

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Cool links this week :)

• Valentine’s Day has passed, but if you need to send a little virtual bouquet to anyone you love, you can try out this very cute (and free) website!​

• If like me you love weird indie websites and niche games, I found something cool! It’s a Japanese website full of reviews of amateur games, probably from the early 2000s. I obviously can’t read Japanese, but browsing the different unique entries is very fun!

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Thank you for reading ! As I said at the beginning, I'm gonna pick a random subscriber will be selected at this date; and this person will be able to choose any artwork that I have in stock to call theirs. I offer shipping and everything!

So once again make sure to watch your inbox :)

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Take care,
- Nighten

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