Sold!

Yesterday I sold the digital file of this painting. Actually it was my first sale. I gave two paintings away as a gift, one to one of my cousins and one to a friend of mine here in Berlin. One of the paintings was done with colored pencils, and the other one with soft pastels.

Of course I felt very honored when the woman who I have been meeting regularly in my neighborhood cafe asked whether she could buy the original. However I told her that it was done with markers mostly which are not lightfast. I had done a bit of research on Etsy and found out that many people there are selling the digital files of their artwork. So I asked her whether she would be interested in getting the digital file which she then could upload to a printer. She said yes and we agreed on a price.

Yesterday she handed me the money, and I felt great and I am still feeling great! It motivates me to keep on creating paintings in that kind of style. Some time ago I mentioned "The complete book of Color Harmony". It gives you hundreds of possible color combinations. I just have to go through this book, select a color combo and then go for my markers. 

Trying out a new color combination

This piece is the last artwork I did in January. I went for a new color combination - blue and brown/yellow hues. I got loads of markers in various shades of blue, from light blue to darker colors. 

I have been quite productive in the first month of 2025: Eight paintings on watercolor paper and one doodle in my little sketchbook. I also ordered two photo prints of my paintings - which I haven't done for a long time. 

I am still enjoying the combination of alcoholbased markers and colored pencils, and I intend to continue creating art in February!
 

Using one of my tiny sketchbooks

A long time ago I got a tiny little sketchbook as a gift. I have been using it now and then, but not very often. I did the colored doodle on the left using markers and colored pencils, mainly to try out color combinations of alcoholbased markers and colored pencils. 

I have organized my colored pencils quite well and know which pencils I have; unfortunately I didn't know how many markers I have until the moment when I decided to get them organized. Now I am in the process of doing that. Knowing which colors I have definitely helps to keep me from buying the same colors a second time (something which happened in the past!).

Some kind of strange fish

This time I tried something different - creating a shape out of shapes put together. When I showed the illustration to other people and asked them whether they could identifiy a certain object most of them went for "fish". So "fish" it is. 

Medium: Alcoholbased markers and colored pencils 
Surface: Watercolor paper

Markers and colored pencils again

This is the second piece done with alcoholbased markers and colored pencils, the latter blended with baby oil. After having finished it I noticed that actually quite a lot of thinking went into it: Which markers to choose for a pleasing underpainting? Which pencils go well with which markers? Which colors go where? And not to forget: Which shapes please the eye? 

I also realized that the process of creating such a piece is a slow one and it has to be a slow one. Trying to rush things can lead to an absolute failure. 

I also notice that I am still focussing on doing this kind of art. I still create art using AI Art Generators, but I am spending way less time doing it. 

Alcoholbased markers, colored pencils and a bit of baby oil

I like to try out new things. There are tons of videos on YouTube concerning drawing with colored pencils and / or alcoholbased markers. However, I didn't find any video about painting abstract art with markers and pencils, and I didn't find any video about blending the pencils on top of the markers with baby oil. 

That is what I did. I first applied the markers and then, in order to create some shading, applied colored pencils and blended them with baby oil using a q-tip. 

The painting on the left side was an experimental one from the beginning to the end. This also means that I did not do any line drawing first; I just added one shape to the other. I was happy that I could finally use my very light markers. They are ideal for underpainting. 
 

Traditional art and AI Art

 I do not see traditional art and AI Art as matters which exclude each other. I think there are several ways to combine them. 

Create AI versions out of traditional art pieces
As you might know if you follow my blogposts I have been focussing lately on creating art with colored pencils. Or, to say it more precisely, I have been creating abstract art with colored pencils (which, by the way, seems to be quite unusual). My latest painting done with this medium however ia the illustration of a mask.

A long time ago, I had done a line drawing of a mask and colored it markers, Now I decided to color it with colored pencils, changing the drawing a bit in the process.

I used drawing cardboard as a surface. It is not as smooth as Bristol paper, but much smoother than watercolor paper. 

I then used the colored pencil piece as a so called starter image with an AI Art Generator. 

And this is what Mage Space made out of it. There are a few changes, but the color combination is more or less the same. I feel that it is still "my painting".