News / Lech Walesa urged to "reduce Russia" to 50 million people [366]


;D


On Putin's birthday :))))


Sorry, but considering how things have been going over the years in RuSSia being the main opposition leader going against Putin is pretty obviously the main reason to get you killed in RuSSia and Kadyrov seems to be an easy mental scapegoat for RuSSians.

Btw, even IF we assume that Kadyrov is responsible for those murders - that means it was accepted/approved by Putin or, at the very least, not disapproved by Putin.


"Ah, those wild, savage Chechens - poor Putin has no control over his puppy Ramzan, what can you do..." ;D :))))

🤦🙄

News / Lech Walesa urged to "reduce Russia" to 50 million people [366]


Says who? :))) And even if - by who's order? :)

🤦🙄

News / Lech Walesa urged to "reduce Russia" to 50 million people [366]


Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov, Aleksey Navalny, to name a few that we know about.


This shouldn't get you killed in a normal country.


You are lying (not the first time and not the last one, I'm sure).


Bobko, like many other RuSSians, doesn't care.

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

@Atch, OMG, not long ago I stumbled upon one of your older posts and it was so well written and so fun to read (even though it was just about some ladies and cakes, I think) that I thought you could write a book! :D


Awesome! :O I would so read them!!

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

1. "The Bone Carver" (from "A Court of Mist and Fury")
2. "Manon" (from "Throne of Glass" series)
3. "Wings and Ruin" (montage of characters from "A Court of Wings and Ruin")
4. "The Inner Circle" ("A Court of Mist and Fury") - inspired by Alfons Mucha:

• 
  IMG_20240419_113829_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_114114_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_114204_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_114303_.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


The artist is Charlie Bowater (she's British, btw :)) and she makes art for book covers, among others.

And this is her fan art of Sarah J. Maas characters:

1. "Fireheart" (Aelin from "Throne of Glass")
2. "The Court of Dreams" (Rhys and Feyre from "A Court of Mist and Fury")
3. "Feyre the Fox" ("A Court of Mist and Fury")
4. "The Court of Dreams" ("A Court of Mist and Fury") - I even remember this scene from the book.

• 
  IMG_20240419_113341_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_113429_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_113702_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240419_113741_.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


So that's why I had problems with finding their brushes on Polish on-line stores with art materials... :)


When my best friend and her boyfriend moved abroad for some time we started exchanging e-mail messages to keep in touch and that's how I found out that she has a very fun style of writing - she made reading about ordinary stuff funny and enjoyable :) I think I even tried to talk her into writing a blog or something, but to no avail, unfortunately...


And that's how I ended up buying fantasy books by Sarah J. Maas :) One of my favourite digital artists is a fan of her books and she made some fan art with characters from her books and that artwork sparked my interest :) And I ended up binge- reading those books :))) They are an enjoyable and fast read (I think I read one of them in two days ;D). I especially recommend them to female readers - the main protagonist in both sagas is a female and not the "damsel in distress" type, so that's refreshing :) And in "A Court of Thorns and Roses" she's also into making art, so I could relate to that character :))

I don't have this one yet and it would be great to get this version, because I like the cover:

bookxcess.com/products/a-court-of-frost-and-starlight-a-court-of-thorns-and-roses-bk-4

These are the physical copies I got so far - those are two sagas - "A Court of Thorns and Roses" and "Throne of Glass":

• 
  IMG_20240419_142244_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG20240419134026_co.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


The same... I love reading and I love art, so that's an amazing combo for me :D And clever too!


But you are! :) That fantasy dragonfly would look great as a fore-edge painting, imho... or drawing... because I'm wondering if one could use fineliners for this... hmm... 🤔 I do have two black Pigma Micron fineliners that don't bleed through, so maybe I could try them out on some book that I don't care about anymore... 🤔 Maybe something simple for a start, like some patterns...


I definitely would have to get more experience with watercolours to try it... I've found a tutorial by a French lady on YouTube and in general it doesn't seem so terribly difficult and complicated as I thought (you can buy heat activated gold foil on the internet and everybody has an iron :)):



From what I've noticed people on Etsy seem to be also using gouache, not only watercolours. 🤔


Yup... :( Although I found some people selling such books on Etsy, so hopefully this craft won't die out completely...

Some are even doing that hidden type of fore-edge painting:

etsy.com/de-en/listing/1681299923/hidden-fore-edge-painting-six-crimson

There seem to be more of the non-hidden type though (and they look cool too!):

etsy.com/de-en/listing/1649183550/custom-fore-edge-painting

etsy.com/de-en/listing/1299354391/foreedge-painting-famous-book-set-art

etsy.com/de-en/listing/1285343390/jrr-tolkiens-the-lord-of-the-rings-with

etsy.com/de-en/listing/1692054664/custom-fore-edge-book-painting-info


I've never had one and the last time I saw one in real life was when I was at highschool - our classmate brought a Bible that her mum bought for her as a birthday present - it had gilded edges and was filled with reproductions of religious paintings of old masters - it looked great and it was an awesome gift for someone interested in art :)

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


I'm guessing that this guy - Martin Frost - is one of them:




I actually find this part cool - that in one type of fore-edge painting those paintings disappear hidden by gold... That's fascinating :D

From the comments under the video:

"JustinY.
This is why people used to believe in magic"

:)))

🪄

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

@Lenka, I don't know - imagine what it's like to be a confectioner who's making some elaborate decorations on a birthday cake that people will admire for a few minutes and then eat it in an hour maybe... 🤔

Books are often much more long-lived than that... :)

I'm guessing it's a difficult craft though.

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

@Lenka, yeah, me too ;D

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


*love lol

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

A quote from that Wiki article:

"Fore-edge painting as a craft is deemed critically endangered in the contemporary era. The Heritage Crafts Association (HCA) only lists four "craftspeople currently known" as working in this medium.

The remaining artists that practice fore-edge painting are amateurs and leisure makers numbering fewer than sixty. According to the HCA, there are currently no formal trainees in the art form."

That's a pity... :/

Language / Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]

I'm not sure if all of it is true, but it's funny ;D:

• 
  IMG_20240417_211131_.jpg
  
• 
  IMG_20240417_211423_.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


To be honest, I associate Faber Castell mainly with pencils and coloured pencils... 🤔 Do they make their own brushes and stuff like that?


Yeah, it was the same for me... That's why I decided to study at uni something unrelated to art. And then I started working, so I focused on that. But with time, gradually, it started getting back to me... That need to draw and paint... :))


Personally, I guess I "just" need to have time for that, not be too tired (since I want to enjoy it) and not have to do something that is "more important"... and I'm good to go and draw/paint.


I can understand that (although I love digital art myself :)), but that video wasn't really about digital painting - it was just an example of using a photo reference for your drawing - you can use it in the same way for a traditional drawing. Drawing from a photo is not that much different than drawing from a live model during an art class - you practice drawing anatomy in this way, proportions, shading, clothes, etc. It's more convenient though, because a photo doesn't get cramps from sitting or standing still in one pose for a long time :))


That's a pity, because you clearly have potential... 🥺

So am I going to be the only one posting stuff in this thread? :/ That sucks... Where is gregy and his opals when you need him... ;P lol

Oh well...

I think I remember that someone is collecting rare books (or sth like that) on PF... I recently came across this - I didn't even know that people used to do something like that to books - it looks amazing :O:



So cool!:



It's called "fore-edge painting":

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fore-edge_painting

I'm not a book collector, but I'd live to have such a book :D 😍

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

@Atch, I look nothing like that redhead :))


You haven't seen anything yet! ;D Check out brush size 10:

paperconcept.pl/en/round-brushes/56344-kolinsky-sable-brush-round-series-7-winsor-newton-short-handle-no-10.html

2365 PLN



Who's buying such brushes?? I think I'd keep it locked up in a safe ;D


Now you're talking!:

paperconcept.pl/pl/zestawy-pedzli/46050-zestaw-pedzli-naturalnych-sobolowe-wlosie-daler-rowney-4-szt.html

19.50 PLN for 4 brushes.

Thanks, Atch! :D

Btw, interesting - they also have synthetic imitation of sable hair:

daler-rowney.com/dalon-paint-brushes/


I've never done that before... As far as I remember at art school we were using Fabriano paper for watercolours and we weren't doing any stretching (but we weren't doing washes much, I guess...). I do have a Canson Student for watercolours:

paperconcept.pl/pl/papier-do-akwareli/3957-blok-do-akwareli-student-a4-canson-250-g-10-ark.html

...and I bought some cheap watercolour paper at Action, so I guess I'll be using them for practice for now. 🤔


They look great and now I want more! ;D Do you have any coloured works?? :D

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


I don't remember, to be honest lol I don't know what happened to those drawings - I made them with a ballpoint pen in some notebook, as usual, so it's possible that this notebook was thrown away... :/ All I remember is that my brother, who was contributing to some Polish site/forum about "X-Men" comic books, told me that those Jim Lee's copies of mine were better than any fanart that people were posting on that site/forum. So, I guess I was successful to at least some extent.


If you mean my education at that art school then not really... We weren't taught there how to draw from imagination... And when I was at art school I wasn't using any photo references when I was drawing for fun - just like in your case it didn't really cross my mind. I only learned how much using references improves your art some years later thanks to the artists I followed on the internet - they were sharing their thoughts, their art process and tutorials and that's how I learned about it.

Here you have an example of such a tutorial from a popular digital artist (the idea and process is exactly the same for traditional art though):



And here's some general and good video about how artists learn to draw - your scientific mind will probably appreciate this take :):

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

@Feniks, OMG, are you kidding?! Those are great!!! You're definitely talented, I can tell you that much :D I love that fantasy dragonfly! :O

(I'll comment on the rest later, because I have no time right now).

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


Thank you, especially that I always thought that I suck at expressions :))


I honestly love comic book style :)) I grew up on reading (and looking at) comic books that my brother was buying and that influenced me a lot, I think... 🤔 I especially fell in love with Jim Lee's drawings in "X-Men" comic books at that time and even tried to copy them :)


That's a must if you're drawing someone's portrait, of course, but besides that, yes - I've learned from other artists that using photo references is very important and improves your art - even if you're drawing something original that you invented and you're not copying, various photos help you to get the anatomy, pose, lighting, etc. right in your drawing :)


Oh, I like DIY and I try to make some stuff like that (if I have time ;/) :) Lately I've drawn a DIY birthday card, so maybe I'll post it if I find a decent photo. 🤔

Feniks, how about you? Could you post some of your drawings from childhood? :) Do you still draw/paint?


I see... :/ Why not though (if you don't mind me asking)?

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


Yes, although I only knew about them being recommended for watercolours - I thought that gouache is maybe less "demanding"...

I don't think I'll be investing into sable brushes just yet, even for watercolours - I'm just going back to painting with water paints and I didn't have that much proper experience with them even before (we mainly used oils in art school) and so I have to practice first and see if I continue with watercolours or not, if I switch to gouache or not, etc. 🤔

Btw, I just checked the price of Kolinsky Sable by Winsor & Newton, size 7, and it costs 509 PLN ;O I think I'd be afraid to use it ;D If one hair fell out of it I'd probably get a heart attack ;D ;D


Don't know which one you mean, but there are no self-portraits there :))


I thought you might like it and that's why I posted it :)))

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


Ah, yes, the pose is OK and I even managed to do the foreshortening right this time :))

For those who don't know what's "foreshortening":




Thanks :))


I don't do that anymore - that was long time ago! ;))

Btw, for those who want to practice sketching, drawing a great cheap option is ordinary copy paper for printers - it has nice smooth surface (but not too smooth) :)


Actually, we have a pretty well known painter from Kielce already - Rafał Olbiński :) (he gave a lecture in our school once :))


Haha, I can see that too: "Is that squared paper alluding to her checkered past??" 🤔 ;D

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


*highlighters


I do like the flow in this one - I wanted to make it look like the wind is blowing her hair away :)


Do you mean this one? (I'm not sure what you mean about the posture though... 🤔):

• 
  redheadgreenshirt.jp.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

And more ballpoint pen:

1. A bit of hand and foot practice, I guess lol

2. Practicing drawing a man in some sort of comic book style (I've always had problems with drawing men and boys from imagination, because I was usually drawing women and girls).

3. A failed attempt at foreshortening (I think that's how it's called) probably lol

4. Trying out a new style.

• 
  handfeetpractice.jpg
  
• 
  comicguy.jpg
  
• 
  failedskrotpersp.jpg
  
• 
  newstyle.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

And some pencil drawings from that notebook:

• 
  pencil1.jpg
  
• 
  comicfantasy.jpg
  
• 
  funnylady.jpg
  
• 
  fashiongirl.jpg
  

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]


Now that's a nice hobby... :) Do you guys have any photos from such travels?


I know, I was so stupid... ;(((


Me too ;(


I haven't yet, but Atch has! :) Unfortunately it was in Random Chat and so they ended up in Polanda :/
As for studying art "at an advanced level" ;D, I wouldn't worry about that, because there are self taught artists out there who are better than many art school graduates ;)

I don't think graduating from an art school makes you any less self-conscious about showing your stuff to people, to be honest... You're still your worst critic lol What I've learned is that there are always going to be people who draw and paint better than you, but also there are always going to be people who like your art no matter how bad you think it is :)) So, who cares... lol


Yeah, that's why I threw them away - I thought they were not good enough and so not worth keeping... Most of them ;O That was before I went to art school, I think. 🤔 I just wanted to keep one, from what I remember - a realistic painting of a kitten that I painted with oil paints and I was actually proud of that one, but my brother ruined it by going over it with a blue ballpen :(( I was so angry... ;(

I found today an old notebook and there are some of my drawings in it, but I'm pretty sure I was at highschool/art school at that time already. Those aren't anything special though - just some random stuff I drew for fun. And I wasn't using any photo references, only my imagination, so there are some mistakes there. Here are some I drew with ballpoint pen and coloured with those big Stabilo highlighers that I was using for studying lol

(the first one is a failed attempt at a manga style drawing ;D):

• 
  manga.jpg
  
• 
  ladies.jpg
  
• 
  2.jpg
  
• 
  redhead.jpg
  

Life / Polish people and TV Series - so good and hilariously spot on :) [99]


I've got something for you then ;D:

hipanda.pl/koszulka/koszulka-damska-1670-coroczny-spis-innowiercow-czarna/

• 
  IMG_20240408_210321_.jpg
  

Genealogy / Trying to find town of origin, Dubrawska name [10]

@Alien, thanks, that's rather far away from Galicia though...


Btw, the halicki region is in Ukraine now (it used to be in Poland in the past).

And halicki region is part of historical Galicia:



According to Polish Wikipedia the first members of this coat of arms appeared in Ruś Halicka (more or less the area of Red Ruthenia, I guess) in 1359.

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ksi%C4%99stwo_halicko-wo%C5%82y%C5%84skie

Genealogy / Trying to find town of origin, Dubrawska name [10]

@Alien, I know, I wrote about it in my post, in case you managed to miss it...


Could you say where they are then? I've managed to find another one:

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamieniec_(wojew%C3%B3dztwo_warmi%C5%84sko-mazurskie)

...and Kamieniec Ząbkowicki, but that's it:

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamieniec_Z%C4%85bkowicki

Genealogy / Trying to find town of origin, Dubrawska name [10]


There doesn't seem to be any place called "Kamilec" or "Kamielec" in Poland and the way it's spelled ("Kamiliec") could suggest Eastern-European origin. There's a city in Ukraine that was part of Poland in the past which is called Kamieniec Podolski, which I've seen on some Russian sites written as "Камелец-Подольский" (Kamieliec-Podolskij") for some reason, so maybe it's some bad case of misspelling a name...

The only place name remotely similar in Poland seems to be a village "Kamieniec":

pl.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamieniec_(wojew%C3%B3dztwo_dolno%C5%9Bl%C4%85skie)


Kamilew

Off-Topic / What's your hobby? [191]

@Novichok, do you have any hobby that doesn't make people squirm? lol

Dug out from the depths of Polanda:


Atch, I've been watching videos on YouTube of artists painting with gouache and I'm getting more and more interested. It will probably take some time before I try it out, because I have acrylics to use up before they dry out lol, but could you recommend any gouache brand? Which one are you using? And what kind of paper do you use for gouache? 🤔