Slow but steady

Oh how time flies! I've already done two full courses in school and there is only one remaining this semester. So nice to finally have time to spend with friends, draw and do nothing.

I watched some classic movies too that I remember were really good. K-pax with Kevin Spacey and A beautiful mind with Russel Crowe. Two really good movies that I strongly recomend.
It's funny how my taste in movies changed, it's probably age-related (getting old you know)
I used to love action movies and fantasy etc, nowadays I just love a thick thriller/drama with a deep purpose and brutal reality. Those two titles that I mentioned earlier are a perfect example of the movies I seem to prefer now. Silence of the lambs with Anthony hopkins and the other in the hannibal series (Hannibal and Red Dragon) are also nice thrillers that I watched quite recently.
Well I'm not saying I dislike action movies or any other genre in particular now, just that I'm in a "thriller period" apparently.

So well I didn't draw very much since I hung out with friends and were occupied all weekend with other stuff but here's a close-up on the eye that I think is almost all done.

Who is it? ;)

Progress

So this is the progress I've made so far on my picture. This is something like two hours of work so as you see this takes a lot of patience. I learned that i should always have as a goal to "not finish it today"
By thinking like that you will relax more, make less mistakes and focus more.

If I would give somebody advice on how to draw the hair I would say - think of the hair as a formation like a cloud or a shadow, not like individual straws of hair. I would also say don't put too much effort into making every single hair like it is in the photo or etc, nobody will notice if each individual hair is not exactly like in the picture, it will look nice anyway.
Instead put your effort into the eyes, nose, mouth and the shape of the chin. These are the things that will make the picture really look photo-realistic.

The reason I start at the top and draw my way to the bottom is simly not to smudge out the graphite with my hand. I also use a blank sheet of paper under my arm to avoid this. Think of it as if you are painting a floor, you wouldn't start at the door and then paint yourself into a corner.

Also as you can see this is a A3 portrait (compare to the pen). I have only done one such before and it is definitely harder but also more forgivening when it comes to small detail.
It's like how they make post-cards or stamps. They draw the pictures large to get all the detail then shrink it and print it in the desired size. Well I'm not planing to shrink it but when I present it in a photo like this you have no idea if it was draw on a A4 or A3, that's what I meant.

 

 

And you probably can't see who it is yet right? ^^ Make a comment here below if you can guess!

Lunch!

So this is what I ate for lunch today. Chicken fillet with bulgur and a rocket sallad with soy-beans and tomatoes. Some tzatziki on the side and coke zero to drink. Great meal with a crazy amount of protein and no fat.

And yes I eat at the computer, like a boss.

Study study

Today I just studied and did boring stuff. Didn't have time to draw or something as expected. I started on the hair on the new drawing a bit yesterday. Maybe I'll continue some later tonight if I can keep myself awake.

So since I have nothing intresting to say today I'll just post a youtube-video I did like a year ago.
A speedpainting which some of you have seen some have not.
It was very frustrating to make since the only camera I have can record only 20 min until the memory is full and I don't have a stand for it so I piled some books and "straped" the camera on top of it.
Also drawing while recording yourself feels quite strange, atleast for me, I can't say how that affected the outcome but I think it went ok.

The process which I used on this picture is more or less the same technique I always use.
Draw the outlines and mark out shadows then fill in using a range of graphite pencils.
I usually use paper tissue too to flaten out shadows etc, you see in the video.

Oh and since youtube won't allow copyrighted music in videos you'll have to press play on this awesome song and the speedpainting video at the same time :)

 

Good night folks! :)

Finally

Well I won't say I finally have time to draw again because I don't really. I felt I needed to do this so my sleeping hours are going to be the ones suffering but screw that!

This is how I start my portraits. I lightly sketch out shadows and all the outlines. The rest is paint by numbers really, I just fill in the areas with the according colour (or shade) since everything is black and white/gray. I shouldn't say "colours" but you guys get what I mean.

Can you see who it is already? My phone camera is really poor buy maybe some of you can hint it.
I won't tell now who it is :) So you'll have to come visit here again to find out muhaha, I'm an evil genious!

Soy beans, yummy?

So I am taking a break in my exam-studying to blog some. Dude I have such a hard time studying for more than 1-2 hours, my brain turns into yello. I feel this exam is going to go poorly, ah well I'll just put as much time into it as I can manage and hope for the best.

And the most riddiculus movie trailer of the day award goes to this movie... Iron sky is finlands most expensive movie project in history with a budget of €7,500,000. The nazis flew to the moon in 1945 and hid there until 2018 when they are back to try to seize world control once again.

So I bought some soy-beans for the first time. Soy beans are a superb source of protein (34%)
and is great in sallads and such. Vegetarians eat these a lot and it is used in great extent in animal
feed because it makes them grow their meat (muscle) faster I guess...

This is how it looks. I underestimated the swell-potencial a bit... What you see on the plates are only from half the package beside them. Everything fitted in the smaller right-side bowl yesterday but today I had to extend their "habitat" a bit as you can see :P
When they have soaked up all the water (which takes about 10 hours) I'll boil them for one or two hours and then they are done :) I will probably mix them into a normal sallad with latuce, bell pepper and cucumbers etc etc.

Now back to studying a bit and then I'll hit the gym but only to use the cross-trainer for about 45 min.
Have a great day everybody!

Sup dawgs?

I really don't listen rap or hip-hop at all but there's an exeption to everything I guess.
This song by Kanye West and Yay-Z is quite nice.

So sorry for writing so much about my diet and training and such lately but I don't have time for much more than that and studying. When I have free time I want to exercis atleast once every day and then there's cooking food and other stuff. There's really not time for drawing and such right now, I'm pondering my next portrait though. I don't know if I want to do a big A3 or a regular A4, and who would I draw?
Leave suggestions in the comment field below if you want. The portrait will get posted here of course when it's done.

So as I mentioned today I woke up at 9 o'clock and went on the 60 min power-walk. I then ate breakfast, showered and chilled some and went to school at 11 o'clock and studied for a few hours. I then went home and ate food and got prepared for the gym.

I only did chest today and rode the spinning bike for 30 min.
Oh when I think about it I never write what I do in the gym so why not now.
I started of with some bench press. Did 4x10-12 sets and a warmup before that.
Managed to do 6 reps at 80 kg which is really good for me, considering I never were really good at bench press and beeing on a diet and all.

I then moved on to incline chest press which is for the upper part of the chest. 4x10 sets.
I ended the workout with some cable flies standing and then sitting with light weight to get the last out of the muscle. And rode the spinning-bike for 30 min as I said.

After that I went with my buddies to eat some food and then I went straight home to write this and now it's 22:30. As you see there's not as much time as I would want for drawing and stuff, hopefully soon though! I don't want to bore you with exercise and diet-talk every day.

Biggest loser

So I've been watching biggest loser sweden sporadicly over the past weeks but I have to say it really gives me some inspiration! The top three all lost over 40 kg in only three months, which is insane and really impressive. Well they work out 8-12 hours every day but still.

My stomache is getting adjusted to my new diet too. I'm not hungry all day anymore and I feel great.
I also started to eat more vegetables which are empty calories more or less but gets rid of the hunger.
It has only been four days but I think this will work out just great.
I had a real crawing for sugar today though, I had to buy some coke zero to fool myself that I'm ingesting sweets. For those who don't know coke zero/light contains something like 0,1 calories per 100 ml so it's quite safe to drink. I still wouldn't recommend it though because of all the other crap that it contains (coloring, preservatives, sweeteners etc).

I was too tired this morning to get up in time for my morning power-walk.
Insted I overcompensated it with a 60 min run in the afternoon. Next week I'll be going to try the cross-trainer in the gym too for the first time. I'm a bit worried about my knee though, I seems to hurt a bit after I run for long distances.

I passed my first course in school! And now the only thing that remains in the second course is the exam in one week. I just can't get myself to study when I'm at home, I get so distracted that it's impossible to get quality reading time. I have to go to school tomorrow and sit in the library or something, that seems to be the only way for me.

I just feel like wrinting a 100 pages in this post but I know nobody wants to read when they see a wall of text so I think this will be it for now ^^

Have a great day everybody!

Some movie trailers for 2012

So here are some of the movies I look forward to in 2012. I'm a big sci-fi fan and so this year's big movie for me is going to be "prometheus" for many reasons. Number one: Ridley Scot is directing it!
(It's an Alien sequel). Sweden's Noomi Rapace is cast as the leading role which is exiting, she is a great actor and it will be intresting to see her do this.

But first another sci-fi and this one is going to be awesome but totally ridiculous.
Liam Neeson and Rihanna fighting aliens in a movie based on the board-game "battleships"
which I'm sure you have all played. See for yourself!

Another ridiculous movie is "Abraham Lincon - Vampire Slayer" but it seems to be quite well-made and have a high budget , judging by the trailer of course. During the American civil war Abraham Lincon the 16:th president of the united states becomes aware that vampires are trying to take over the country and sets of on a mission to prevent this.

It's not a comedy but how can you not laugh at this?? Seems awesome either way :P

And so at last the trailer for "Prometheus" For me this is going to be the most exiting movie of this year. Avatar you can have the kids, I'm watching this!

And a quick update on the diet. I'M FREAKING HUNGRY! It's 18:30 and I ate the full quote of calories for the whole day already and I'm still hungry -.-

I need to buy some rice-cakes or something to snack on for times like these. Come on now Adam in eight weeks you can eat like a normal person again, FML.

The first day of the diet

I woke up at 9 o'clock and tried to motivate myself for the 60 min powerwalk. I went to the bathroom and when I came back I looked out the windows by chance. Snow was everywhere and still pouring down and blowing around. What happened to the nice weather that we used to have?
But as the saying goes; there is no bad weather only bad clothing so I put on my jacket and my cap and braced for snow in the eyes. Which I got, but the walk was worth it I think, not only because I'm trying to lose weight but I move to little during the days anyway. Very worth it.

Ate some cereal and two eggs for breakfast after coming back and showering.
Counting calories is going to be very tiresome but I have to.
http://www.miljomat.se is a very good site where you can keep track of everything you eat.
I also have an app on my phone where I can look up calories in various foods.
Ate some chicken and rice for lunch and later in the evening I'll be going to the gym for som legs, stomage and biceps probably. I'm supposed to do back, shoulders and triceps but I did that last time so I'll just switch days for those.

I'll probably eat some fruits, cottage cheese, tuna with salad for the rest of the day. And of course a protein shake after the workout.

Yes so that's day one of my diet :) Hope you found it interesting to read and more updates will come, not every day but most likely once or twice a week or something, I don't want to bore those who are not into training and such.

Have a great day now :)

The new me!

Ok so from tomorrow I'll be going on a diet. I'm currently on 88 kg and the goal is to go down to 80 and to lose some of the "extra warmth" kilos from the winter. To achieve this I'm going to start taking power-walks every day before breakfast and try to run two or three times a week. I'm still going to work out in the gym four times a week but I'm going to do some more "endurance" based exercises and focus is now on keeping the musclemass I have while losing fat. In other words I'm probably not going to become much stronger during this period (six to eight weeks).
Eating right is still the key and I'm going to try to stay below 2400 calories on days I work out and 1900 on resting days. So fatty fast-foods and cookies/candy is probably out of the question.
I'll switch from regular lemonade to fun light, etc. I'll also try to cut down on the carbs
a bit but since I'll be doing so much cardio I'll still need to eat them to some extent.

I will keep you updated on this "project". I took some "before" pictures but there is no way I'm posting them :P maybe afterwards in comparison if this whole diet is successfull.

Here is a third wip from the picture I'm drawing in photoshop. It's getting more and more tiresome and I lost some intrest in it (as expected) but I'll definitely try to complete it. Now is the most boring part though, doing more shadows and highlights on the clothes and hair etc and doing the background (yawn).

Wip 2

So this is the progress I made so far. The diffrence is quite noticeable already, I fixed some wrong proportions and went more into detail on the face.

Again this is the first time I draw something like this in Photoshop and I use the trial and error style, seeing what works and what doesn't. Hopefully in the future I will be able to draw both faster and better, if I have the patience to learn.

First Post!

So this is my new blog. For those who have been following the old one "ortmastaren.blogg.se" know I haven't been blogging actively for like a year.
I used to only write about movies, movie trivia and doing reviews. It was fun and all but got quite tiresome and since the last site-name was so strange I thought I'd create a new blog which is easier to find and with a better name.

I thought now I would still do movie reviews from time to time but also post new art I make and just write stuff from the top of my head. So to summarize, this blog is basically not about anything, just stuff I want to post or write about :)

So I've always been the traditional art kind of guy. When I open photoshop and start to draw something I feel like a 80-year old grandpa trying to send an sms.
Most of the times I start drawing something, get frustrated because it's so ugly and get a pen and paper instead :P

Here is a VIP from my newest project though (this image is probably not even half-finished)
The finished result or more VIP:s will be posted soon!

Have a great day everybody! :)