Old portrait

I have not been drawing for quite some time but here is a portrait I did before the existence of this blog.
I do not like it since it doesn't resemble her very much and looks a bit plastic.
The only thing I was satisified with was the background. I thought it would be fun to show anyway since I didn't draw anything new in a while.

Olivia Wilde:

Ponder mode

Once in class we were asked "what's the most important aspect in your life that makes you to feel healthy"
and by that meaning mental health/well beeing as well as physical health.
We had a paper sheet with many alternatives but I answered "happiness"

The majority of the class answered as the most important aspect to be "satisified with yourself" and to be "loved by those close to you" and so on.
I just feel that why would we want to live if we were never happy? All those aspects mentioned above are just ways for us to achieve happiness.
The human as a species is in it's basic form a selfish beeing some would claim. We have unlike most other species sympathy and empathy. It is said that we do kind acts to others just because of that and with the end goal to get a good conscience, by that considering unselfish acts selfish.

I have pondered about this quite a lot and been trying to relate to myself. I try to help people and be as kind as I can, but is it just because I want to feel good about myslef? I think not. If the meaning of "life" is to achieve complete happiness I have a very long way to go and in the end I know it is perhaps unreachable but if I can help someone get one step closer to that why wouldn't I? Because it's an obstacle on my own "journey"? But then what says my happiness is more important that someone elses?
These questions may never have or has never had anwsers but are truly worth thinking about.


Sometimes when I feel down and maybe even a little depressed I ask myself: "why do I really want to live this day?" My answer to myself is mostly the same; what you do reflects on others, spread happiness. If my purpose in life is not clear on this day why not make it my purpose to help others get closer to theirs until I have found my own.

Ruina Imperii

Hello friends!

First of all I want to recommend a song really quickly. Sabaton makes a lot of shitty music but once in a while they make something really special. No one makes a pompous metall tune like Sabaton.

From their new album "Carolus Rex" - Ruina Imperii:

What have I been up to lately? Have been training a lot actually. Have been focusing on running quite a lot, for no other reason than that I just felt like it. I am practising for a 15km race in september. I desided I wanted to try to run 20 km to see how it felt and it felt really good actually. Managed to make it in 1:34 which I am definitly pleased about.

Have been going to the gym of course too. Did dips with weight for the first time! I tried to do some pull-ups today too (I usually just do chins not pull-ups) and I managed 3x10 atleast.


Enough about that, sorry for those not interested in training if you get bored, it's just hard sometimes to think of something other than that to write about.

Sup everybody? I am back! Have been to the capital city of Stockholm a few days to visit awesome friends, hang out, play games and so on. As it seems I won't be working this summer, my old employer didn't need me apparently so why not use this free time to hang out with old pals.

Today though I need to be at home and take care of our dog, so PS3 marathon! I was a big gamer before, a few years ago but as time passed I started to do other things. I started to work out more and when I was at the computer I watched youtube and facebook and other such stuff instead of playing games. I don't know why, maybe you "mature" and lose intrest in games. Well well my point is I find it supprisingly fun to play again and that's nice.

My setup:

Yeah so that was a quick update :) I'll write more later today or tomorrow. Hang around!

Synthol

I am quite fascinated by anabolic steroids, what it does to the body etc.
And to clearify directly - No I do not plan to use them neither do I want to, I understand why people do but there's just no way I will ever try that. Those who use steroids want to get really big and strong or whatever in a short time. I believe every really successful bodybuilder has or is using them. I work out to be healthy, live longer and feel good about myself, not to look like a jacked belgian blue.

Ok so with that out of the way, one really intresting documentary about steroids is "Bigger stronger faster"
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1151309/).

Also this one which is shorter (around 40 min) and on youtube, A danish dude tries out steroids for three months just to see what happens to the body and what the results are. Very intresting in my opinion.

Anyhow what I wanted to show is another form of "body enhancement" or whatever you want to call it is "synthol" Synthol is basically some kind of oil-like solution which you just inject into the arms or whatever to give the illusion of big bulky muscles. I think this is hillarious because it looks like shit and the people using it really believe they are strong and sexy. Take a look for yourself:

You clearly see that these are not real muscles and why you would ever do this to yourself amazes me.

So as I said synthol is basically a fluid you inject into the desired area, leakage may occur...

Last but not least there is the possibility to insert implants in the body to simulate muscles.
You could compare it to a female brest implant but in the biceps or whatever to make it look bigger.
This is totally legal and done by many plastic surgeons.

I believe this guy had quite a few of these implants inserted although it could be synthol too, not sure which.
The only thing I am sertain about is that those are not real muscle and he looks like shit.

Ok hope you found this as entertaining as I do. There is no shortcut to a good body, only hard work.
Steroids work but only as long as you are using them and they will destroy your body and eventially kill you if used too aggressivly, the side effects are very nasty as well (see the documentary). Implants or synthol basically look like crap.

Work out for yourself, your body is your only vessel to use throughout your life (ooh poetic),
no but seriously you only have one body, take care of it.
If you work out solely for others, how they observe you and if they think you look good etc, you have other self esteem issues to take care of first in my opinion.

Ok take care everybody!

Hello

I am now offically on summer vacation! Back in my home town spending some time with family and meeting old friends.

It was a while since I wrote something about my training I think. I am off my diet now for like two weeks. I no longer do morning cardio and I do eat some candy etc at special occasions but my weight remains the same which feels nice. Still working out almost every day though, around 45 min cardio and then gym.

Today I did back and biceps. The workout felt good but when you do cardio before the gym it's natural to feel a little bit tired but it's a good warm-up too. To clearify I ride the bike to the gym which takes around 30 min, otherwise I would do cardio only after the workout.

Ok I'll talk to you later, bye!

Tywin Lannister

Wip 3

Slowly coming together :) A portrait is never done fast but well, I think I've put in 3-4 hours so far.
When I have put in all shadows and so on in the face I'll start going over it with a sharp eraser and bring forth highlights and straws in the beard and so on.

Rule number one for anybody who wants to start doing portraits - no lines!! Only cartoon characters and stick-figures have sharp black lines. It was when I realised this I started to improve.
Here is a comparison, I can't remember if this has been up here before but anyhow, the first portrait I made of Robert De Niro and a new one quite recently of the exact same picture.

Yes the proportions are all off in the first one but that's not the point. The realism in a portrait is in the ability to hide lines and outlines. That's the first thing I would tell anybody who wanted to start to draw  portraits themselves.

Ok that's all for now, look out for more wips in the days to come.
Laterz!

First world problems

So I asked you guys what you wanted me to write about, one suggestion (well the only suggestion) was to make a list of things that makes me sigh and wonder where humanity is headed.
I thought about it and I would like to give it a little twist, so here is my list of stuff in the world that irritates me and makes me sigh at the same time :P
So see people I listen to my readers :) Give me more suggestions for things you want to see here and I will do my best to oblige.




1. So first off, what is it about tv-shows these days? I have many in mind but one in particular -
"Let's dance" Ok, It was a little funny when it started airing in like 500 B.C
Some celebrities dance-battleing it out, but come on already! Can we get some originallity here for once in a while? After like 100 straight years of this show there would maybe be time for some renewal? This year's winner wasn't even a B or C-celebrity, he is the son of a former fotball player. Why not just go out in the street and ask a bum to dance? That would atleast be funny to watch.

2. People who say they can't lose weight because of bad genes and give up.
"I can't lose weight because my whole family is fat and we have bad genes" No I'm sorry but you're obese because you drink 5 litres of coke every day and fetch all your food at McDonalds then go home and play world of warcraft for 15 hours.
Don't get me wrong here, I have absolutely nothing against these people, if that's how they want to live their lives and feel happy then by all means go ahead, but I do believe that even if you're paralyzed from the neck down you can make a diet and stick to it. If you eat less calories than the body uses you are going to lose weight, it's really not more complicated than that.

3. The semi-new political idea of allocating women into boards or councils or workplaces in general.
"All boards should have atleast 50% women or else it's discrimination" Yes some people probably are more likely to hire men than women for some strange reason because men have a higher "work- spirit" or "men work and women take care of the home" or som bullshit like that, but that way of thinking won't exist in a few years. Those who still think like that are probably elderly and brought up in a diffrent society than the one we are living in right now.

If a board or council were to hire women it would be because of their skills or education, not because they are a minority. Some professions just attract more or less of one gender, does that mean something is wrong? Should we force women to become plumbers, mechanics and lumberjacks?
Let's say 50 women and 200 men (or the other way around) apply for a pool of 10 jobs, in my mind it would be totally  outrageous and unfair to hire five men and five women to avoid "discrimination" Do you see a paradox here perhaps?

4. Last but not least, one thing that annoys and irritates me beyond words. Something that I really don't understand how it can exist. It is the most useless and dreadful object I can think about in the whole world. This:

The paper always gets ripped off inside and you have to stick your whole hand inside and spinn the roll for an hour or two until you find the end. Once you try to rip it off it breaks in the middle, you don't have enough paper to wipe and you have to find the end again. By the time you have enough paper the shit in your ass is hardened stone and you have lost half your bodyweight due to starvation.
The smoke detectors will have probably gone off too from all the steam coming out of your ears.
Indeed a first world problem but come on! Why not at least make the cover transparent so you can see where the end is?


I hope you found this at least somewhat intresting to read and good night everybody :)

The Intouchables

Working slowly, all up in my last exam studies before summer. This is what I've managed to get done so far atleast :)

When doing a portrait a old person is the most challenging, especially old men. There are shapes, wrinkles, shadows, highlights etc everywhere. The easiest by far is drawing younger women or hollywood acresses with face-lifts or whatever, no shapes or shadows, that's why I often chose images with intresting light or so on instead when it comes to them. Women in return hade tedious hair, oh how I hate drawing long hair. Oh well enough of that for now.


I wanted to give you a movie tip!

A french movie but dread not for it is a really good one. 8,5 on IMBD says a lot :)
"The Intouchables"