Hi I’m Andrea, and I’m so glad you’re here!
My preferred style is loose and spontaneous, but with an eye for the essentials. This is how I give my creatures character and a certain sense of humor. My sketchbook is my happy place, and paints and brushes are my preferred tools.
If required, I transfer my analogue sketches into Procreate or Photoshop, where I further process them digitally. It is important to me that they remain true to their authentic and “handmade” appearance which is why I make the corresponding brushes, backgrounds and textures myself, thereby making second use of the “happy accidents” of my sketchbooks. I can hardly wait to bring your ideas and concepts to life!
Vision
When I sketch or paint, I usually relax my thinking mind and work from a place of childlike innocence and joy. Initially I allow myself to be led by intuition only, always paying close attention to the negative space, from which I then start defining shape and color until the image gradually emerges and feels complete to me.
Mission
Whatever I create, I never try to mimic reality. My intention instead is to capture the “spirit” of what caught my attention in the first place, and finding ways to express that by accumulating paint and lines, inspiring the viewer to interact by filling the gaps with their own interpretation of what they observe and feel.
Get a glimpse of my daily work
Isn’t he adorable?
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The concentration. The determination. The focus. The grace.
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I learnt observing (!!!!) before drawing, and then redrawing again and again in the workshop “Draw like nobody sees you” by the talented @alona.markina from @art_and_giggles
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For the first time (I’m not exaggerating) I’m able to stick with an idea, the man flying like a bird” for a long time.
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Usually, once I finished a drawing, I get bored very quickly and start something else. I was even convinced, the first drawing is always the best, but …. Somehow with this new approach I feel I’m going deeper and deeper the longer I stick with this guy.
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For those, who have know me a little longer, I’d love to hear what you think? Please share your immediate thoughts in the comments with me! It would help me a lot!!
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Thank you 🌻🌻🌻
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#cliffdiving #drawmore #keepdrawing #sketchbook #sketchbookspread
How much fun!!
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Thank you @alona.markina and @art_and_giggles for this fantastic one-hour session on how to observe and then draw.
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This is what I took home from it:
Draw recklessly.
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Analyse your drawing, if you like, afterwards, but never whilst in the process of creating. Mistakes are part of the process. Ignore them as best as you can. They might even add to the fun!
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And yes, having fun! People will feel whether you had fun, and also whether making a drawing was a pain! Didn’t we all work our way through painful projects, until they were overworked, overly perfect, or simply sad and lifeless?
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Anyway, if you are looking for inspiration, please head over to Alona — she has a few more dates to offer!
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Meet me there 😃❤️🖌️🎨
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#summervibes☀️ #sketchbook #loosenup #artistinspiration #sketchingpeople
At the moment I’m spending a lot of time in InDesign, working on a real client project (yay!!).
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My neck is aching, my shoulders get a bit sad, and after a few days I start missing paper, paints and pens!
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It’s difficult then to close the laptop and create something amazing from scratch. Also I only have a limited amount of time, so it’s hardly worth pulling out the paints.
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What I always have is a box with paper scraps — artwork I didn’t like, or pretty wrapping papers or postcards …
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For these sketchbook spreads I limited myself to 3 different types — one watercolour page I didn’t like, one paper with ink marks, and a printed page of book covers I had designed years ago.
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I cut all these into random stripes, and started arranging them in almost random order. For me the trick is to start from the left bottom corner and work my way up to the right top.
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I leave enough white space, because this is where the fun begins: I start filling “gaps” with an ink pen until I start seeing something. A wing, a leaf, an eye ….
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I enjoy this process through and through, and as my fingers get sticky from the glue, the tension melts away from my thinking brain.
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The nice think about it is that I always end up with something better than it was before 🙂
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Never abandon your “failed” artwork! Follow this process, and you start creating something beautiful from it.
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I hope you enjoy 🌻🌻🌻
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#collage #failedartist #artneverfails #sketchbook #sketchbookpages
For my birthday I got myself some new paints, which I wanted to try out.
I started randomly drawing a few lines with black ink, using a bamboo stick.
Then I filled in the shapes with colour, until I started seeing …. A flying bird!
…. A creature being squeezed …
This one I call a “happy crazy” …
…. And, of course, a horse (eating hay)!
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I love working like this when I feel a bit lost in my art practice, or when I spent a lot of time behind a computer screen (which always drains my energy!!).
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I also love that I can always trust my intuition. Even without having any idea in mind, somehow my creative juices start flowing just from applying colour to the page.
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Maybe you would like to try this as well sometime? Please tell me whether it worked for you!
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#abstract #abstractart #abstractacrylicpainting #sketchbookanimals #gouache
Majestic horse.
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Acrylic gouache and coloured pencil on paper, 30 x 40 cm
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Thanks for stopping by 🥰
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#acrylicgouache #acrylicgouacheonpaper #horse #horsepainting #abstracthorse
A friend asked me to paint his beloved horse, which unfortunately is not roaming this world anymore. I so much wanted to make him happy which a great painting that reminded him of his friend!
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I sat down and started off with a few sketches, then getting out my paints — first acrylics, and then gouache … then back to acrylics, then oil pastels …
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A couple of days later I had a few paintings that kind of looked like his horse, but i didn’t like any of them. They were good in the sense that the proportions and colours were right, the facial features as well, but I felt no joy looking at them!
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As my frustration was growing bigger, at the same time there was a deep longing for expressing my own love for these deeply fascinating creatures! I was thinking of my own horse, Ímir, who has been injured for 18 months now! Over those months my love for him has even deepened — I can’t ride, but I can take him for walks, I can massage his back, and I scratch his fur in those places he loves most. Every time I come to see him, he greets me with a little grumbling sound, and he touches my face with his soft nose.
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So I laid out a new piece of paper, chose my palette (manganese blue, permanent violet, Payne’s grey and white), and started from imagination.
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The horse with rider you see here is all about the love and friendship one can have with a horse. My goal was not to create an exact replica of my horse, but rather capture that energy and feeling.
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But most importantly, I feel something when I look at this painting. Do you?
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#horse #acryliconpaper #horsepainting #abstracthorse #imirvomkronshof
Hello again!
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I didn’t feel like sharing so much recently, and that’s because I have been experimenting quite heavily, trying to figure out who I really am? Aren’t we all?
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In my case I always feel I’m more an illustrator than a painter, but I have this urgent pull towards paint. But I’ve never had proper training, so I need to figure things out by trying. Right now, I’m totally into mixing colours! It’s so exciting, and at the same time I produce a lot of ugly stuff, which I don’t want to share.
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Sometimes I have paint left on my palette, and totally mindlessly fill a page in my sketchbook. I guess you could call it an abstract 😃😊
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Once it’s dry, I turn the page, looking at it from all possible angles, until I see something. And here I suddenly saw our Irish wolfhound puppy looking at me!
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I then went in with soft pencils in different shades of green and grey, and here’s my version of him peeking through the long grass of the dunes!
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And now I’m asking you — what do you see? A painting or an illustration? Or can it be both? 🌼🌼🌼
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Have a nice Tuesday, wherever you are!
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#irishwolfhoundpuppy #uffe #dog #dogillustration #paintingdogs
I was actually experimenting with colours I still had left on my palette, and before I knew it, I had created this sketch of a fisherman.
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The sketch itself is done from imagination, but I got the inspiration from Ålbæk’s little fishing harbour, which I pass by on the way to the beach.
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I watch the small fishing boats leave and come in again, old fishermen with big bellies, beards and weathered skin, and if feels a bit out of time, yet even more fascinating.
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Tell me — what do you think of the colours? Do they work, or do they feel out of place? I’d love to hear your opinions!
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Thanks do much, greetings from far north 🌊🐠🦀🚢🪼🐚☀️😎
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#aalbæk #aalbækhavn #fishermen #fishing #gouacheonpaper
Swimming with jellyfish 🐙🐙🐙
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I’m so scared of these creatures, and still — nothing is going to stop me! 😎
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Truth is, there are a few of the red ones, but more of the blue and clear ones, and the water is crystal clear and so lovely!
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Have you ever been stung by a jellyfish? How bad was it? 🫣
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#jellyfish #swimming #swimmingwithjellyfish #acrylicpainting #sketchbookdrawing
