Fashion Illustration, Blidinje Nature Park in Herzegovina
Hello dear readers and fellow bloggers! I'm taking to one phenomenally special place in Herzegovina. That special place is a combination of two mountain ranges that encompass a large plain and a mountain lake. Does that ring a bell? For regular readers of my blog, it might! With fourteen peaks located at above two thousand meters (or 6561 ft), Nature Park Blidinje is a heaven for mountains lovers. There are also Unesco protected sights here, hiking and cyclic tracks, ski resorts and restaurants. So, whether you're a foodie, sport, history or nature lover, this place has got you covered. Blidinje has an official online site, and here is a link: https://visit-blidinje.com/en/home/ for those who want to know more.
One of the most exceptionally gorgeous places in Bosnia and Herzegovina has a lot to offer. For lovers of nature and high altitudes, this is the place to be. It is also probably my favourite Nature Park in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Eloquent as I can be, I sometimes struggle to do justice to the beauty of this place. I cannot say that words fail me (as a teacher I do talk and write for a living), but I might need a moment to collect the right words. Painting such a stunning place is no easy feat, either. Still, once again, I decided to give it a try.
I did a quick illustration using one of my photographs as a reference. It is both a fashion illustration and location illustration. Sometimes an outfit and location is intricately connected. This illustration was my effort of capturing the key moment of our visit. I feel like every time I visit Blidinje there is a pivotal moment of some sorts. Of course just existing and being in such a gorgeous place, surrounded by nature relaxes both the body and spirit, but in Blidinje there is always a moment that goes a bit beyond that. Beyond the usual relaxation one expects in a nature park. A moment when I feel one with the nature. If you browse my old posts about Blidinje, you'll see what I'm talking about. I never visited Nature Park Blidinje without at least one moment of experiencing perfect tranquility. It must be the magic of this place.
As you can see, I will also be posting my illustration along side photography reference. A few words about the photograph, and then we'll move to the illustration. The photograph was taken by my husband during our trip. As we entered the Nature Park we decided to take a few photographs, so we found a suitable place to park the car. We took quite a few photographs before moving on. I like this spot because it offers a fabulous panorama of the mountains and the lake Blidinje. I'll show you more photographs from this spot soon enough, but let's talk about the illustration first.
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| Original sketch vs finished illustration |
The medium for this illustration is watercolour pencils on paper. The same materials I used in my last art post. The sketchbook paper is really not suitable for watercolour pencils, but sometimes you have to make do with what you have. At the moment, what I have is this no name sketchbook. Next time I must remember to get some mixed media paper. Anyhow, there is not much to say here. I sketched the person and the outfit first, that is myself.
What I liked about this photograph was exactly what I tried to convey with my fashion illustration. I liked how this flowy maxi dress got caught up in the wind. After I sketched the basic outlines, I also sketched the background. After that, I went in and added more details to the dress, the hat and the rest.
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| work in progress (drawing) |
I might come back to the illustration or do another one with similar scenery and pose.
How do you use watercolour pencils? Well, usually you just draw with them and add water later. You can experiment, though? Dip your brush in water and apply to the tips of the pencils, making them portable watercolours. You can make a little palette by just swatching the watercolour pencils. The way watercolour pencils work is exactly like coloured pencils. You can use them like any regular coloured pencils. Draw with them, sharpen them and etc. The difference is that once you apply the water, they turn into watercolour. Obviously, this leaves you with a lot of options. There are many ways to use watercolour pencils. You can even dip them directly in water and try using them like that. It's something I haven't personally tried. However, I did try using them in a number of different ways. For example, I would apply the pencil harder in some parts of the drawing, and then there would be 'extra' colour to use, so I would dip my brush in that part and use it as a watercolour. I also watched some tutorials recently about using watercolour pencils. I realized that I used some of these methods myself, I just did not realize that I did. For example, drawing little swatches you can use as mini watercolour palettes later and so on. I will write more about it all some other times. For now, let me just share some general tips.
3 Tips for working with watercolour pencils:
1) The more you press the watecolour pencils, the more saturated the colour will be. So, for pastels shades press the watercolour pencils lightly while you're drawing, and for more colour press harder while you're drawing.
2) Add water slowly. Don't pour too much right away as this will make it harder for you to control it. You can also add more water later on, but remember that you cannot delude the watercolour pencils once they are try. You can do it while they are wet by adding more water, but once they are dry, that's it. They will be fixed on paper. However, this can actually come in hand if you want to do some glazing.
3) Remember that you can work in layers and come back to i once it is dry. You can do more drawing when the watercolours are dry. One of the great things about this medium is that it can be used both as a mixed media and as either of the mediums it holds in its name (that is 'watercolour' and 'pencil').
This illustration is obviously drawn with a reference. I wasn't going for a complete realism. In reality, it is a quick sketch, but I feel it captures the moment, at least somewhat. I think using a reference and doing quick sketches is one of the best way to improve your skills. When you're working quickly, it can teach you so much, especially since it can basically be an assessment of your skill level. Similarly, working slowly can teach you to pay more attention and help you focus on the details. I already wrote about all of this. There are benefits to both drawing quickly and slowly...and at normal speed. Likewise, there are benefits both to drawing with and without a reference. Art is not one of those things whether it is this or that to improve your skill. Like with language, there are different areas you can and should work on. Doing the more of the same thing will sometimes stagnate your process. So, it is not a question of is reference important? Of course, it is important and in many ways. It depends on what do you want to draw or illustrate, why and so on. There are a million ifs and why. Illustrating, drawing and painting is visual math. It's doing a math task thousand of times, solving visual math problems. The question is not should I drew with a reference or from imagination? That will depend on what you're actually trying to do. Until you got the skills, what you need is practice. Lots of it. Draw slow and draw quick. Draw with and without a reference. Take a reference and follow it closely. Then take another reference and don't follow it closely. Then draw from imagination. Do everything and do a lot of it. My answer would be that you should do both. When I wrote about ten ways to improve your fashion illustration skills, both drawing with and without reference made my list of tips. I said that drawing with reference is important because it not only teaches you how to draw what you see but it also teaches you to look and pay attention to details. Similarly, drawing without a reference is important because it teaches you to see with your mind's eye. Both is important to challenge yourself. Sometimes you can combine both.
More posts with illustrations made with watercolour pencils
If you browse my blog, you'll find hundreds and hundreds of fashion illustrations. Some of them are great. A lot of these illustrations are objectively not that great. However, it does not matter. If you make one good drawing, it does not matter if you made a million bad ones. The rest simply do not count. In fact, you have to make bad art before you do good art. Art is not like life, where you pay if you make a mistake. Even in life, we do not pay for every mistake. In life like in art, we learn from our mistakes. However, in life you can sometimes genuinely ruin everything with one bad choice. Like those people who get drunk and kill an innocent person. In life you cannot always start fresh again, you need to pay for your mistakes. In art you can always start again. Every blank page is a new opportunity and there are no punishments for messing it up, apart from those you make yourself pay. No, you pay nothing if you make a mistake in art. You just correct it and/or make more art. You make a bad drawing. Who cares? You make an average drawing. Who cares? Bad and average art is better than no art. If you don't want to share art you consider bad, that's alright, but you have to make bad art, or art that does not meet your own personal standards. It is just the way it is. As your skills improve, the definition of what you personally as an artist find satisfactory will change. Even if you're skilled, sometimes you're bound to make something that you won't be happy with.
My advice is to be careful with what you call bad art, even if you don't show it to anyone. In other words, be realistic. If you've done some illustration in ten minutes, don't expect it to look like something you'd do in ten days. If you haven't done art for ten years, don't expect it to look like you've been painting every day for the last ten years. This applies to everything, not just life. Be realistic with your progress and set realistic goals. Of course, one should not avoid constructive criticism. There is nothing wrong with applying critical thinking when it comes to your art. Just don't over do it. Keep it constructive. Keep your art, even the one you consider bad. You might use it some day. Who knows with where we're heading with the widespread AI art theft, will there be any original art left?
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| Finished fashion and location illustration |
If there is anything I have learnt is that art is hard, but not exactly as complicated as it is portrayed. Yes, it can be complicated, depending on how ambitious you are, but generally speaking art skills are skills. They are not that different from other skills. You either develop them or you don't. If you develop them and don't use them, you sometimes loose them and need to start fresh. Sometimes it is really not that deep. I think that artists often don't have a confidence problem. Everyone tells them they need to be confident. However, what does it even mean to be confident? I think artists have a skill problem. I know that I have. Whatever you're insecure about as an artist, it's probably a skill problem. Whatever it is you're struggling with as an artist, it is most likely a skill and not a confidence problem. I really think it comes down to this.
I'm speaking from my own experience, of course. My blog is a testament to both how good and how bad my art gets. I still make art I'm not happy with. In fact, I often make art I'm not completely satisfied with. Not completely satisfied is fantastic. It means there is place for improvement. If I didn't push myself, I would have never made any progress. Honestly, I wished I pushed myself a lot more a lot earlier, but also kind of don't. Sometimes in life things come at their own pace and that's alright. It is not a catastrophe if you take time with something, you know.
Today everything is a race. Learn to paint in five days. Become fluent in five ways. Race. Race. Race. What is wrong in taking time to do something? Aren't we all learners? Are we not all learning things every day? So, why this competition to learn a language in as little time as possible? To learn anything in as little time as possible? As if we are failing in life if we don't do everything in as little time as possible?
If we're not mastering a skill in a month or so, we might feel like a failure. The modern society teaches us we must always save time. Why do we must save time on everything? Use AI to write personal messages? Automate everything? What do we do with all that time we saved? Doomscroll? Probably! Have more time to buy things we don't need to fill the emptiness we created by purchasing memories instead of making them? To buy things to buy a feeling of acceptance we should have gotten from growing actually meaningful social relationships and friendship?
I mean sometimes you really have to think about it to realize how utterly ridiculous it all is. Relax in the minimal amount of time possible. Travel in the minimal time as possible. Learn this and that, the fastest you can ...or what? What is wrong with taking our time? Aren't the things that are worth doing the ones that take the most time? Isn't being a sister something you do all your life? A partner? A friend? What is this obsession in mastering something in as little time as possible. However, I digress.
What I want to say is that we don't need to overthink it. There is a lot of gatekeeping in art. All that talk about authenticity and confidence just keeps some artists down. It makes them feel like they lack something that others have. I think it's the same with life actually. People are constantly told they just need to believe in themselves, like that will magically solve everything. I think it's better to concentrate at a job in hand. Has this drawing failed? If yes, why? In a sense, no drawing or illustration fails because you can always learn something from it.
So, when I struggle with something or if I fail at a painting or illustration, I don't do a deep soul search. I assume it is because my skills are not up to the task. Nothing personal. Just a skill issue. Skill issues can be helped and solved. People use all kind of confidence talk that sound great, but ultimately just confuses people. It is better to say- Hm, my proportions are a bit off, I might want to work on that.
Isn't it better to think of it as a skill issue? And not assume I have failed because I have forgotten to be confident or true to myself. Success is not something you purchase. You don't fail at art because you disobeyed some Internet guru who told me to trust in yourself. You fail because objectively you did not move your hand in the right way. It is not because I did not buy some self-help or life coach course. If I fail at a painting or illustration, I start again and I work on my art skills. Sometimes I just shrug my shoulders and forget about it. None of that confidence nonsense. None of that- if only I believed in myself. No, thank you. I'll pass on the motivational speeches.
All that talk about artistic confidence. There is a place for it. However, not as as a motivation sales pitch. Confidence in your art comes from experience, from developing your art skills. There is no magical spice called 'confidence' or 'authenticity' that will turn you into a great artist. If you want someone to help you advance your art, hire an art teacher, and someone who gives you constructive feedback, instead of feeding you with those lazy buzz words.
Whenever I see people telling artists it's a confidence problem, I want to roll my eyes. Painting is partly visual math. Often when you fail at painting, you basically fail at visual math (geometry, proportions etc.). Hand to eye coordination, colour theory, planes and what not...it is all about skills and knowledge. Nothing of it has anything to do with confidence. Sometimes it is not that deep.
I didn't plan to write so much about art today. However, I was somewhat triggered by seeing one 'it's not an art problem, it's a confidence problem' post on YouTube and a lot of 'confidence' post on Linkedin. Saying someone that they need to be confident is such an generic thing to say. Imagine if I as a teacher just told my students - Just believe in yourself! Be confident! Is there a more useless feedback? No, I tell them 'do this and that' to get 'this and this'. I give them realistic feedback based on their results. I tell them what kind of work they need to do for what kind of grade. I praise them when it is appropriate and I don't when it's not. You know, I use my common sense. That's what a normal teacher does. They give constructive feedback, not gaslight their students into searching mystical 'confidence' and other nonsense. We live in a time when everyone is a motivational speaker and guru, and frankly it is getting exhausting listening to same generic stuff all the time. The AI content explosion is making the generic advice madness ten times worse. It is starting to be increasingly difficult to find texts that do not sound generic and artificial. Either a lot more people are using AI to write their texts, or AI is influence the way people think. Or both. I don't know what is worse. Do you?
If you want to know more about Blidinje, you are welcome to visit my old posts.
P.S I will probably come back to add more links and photos soon.
Simply the best 🫶😀
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