djamilaknopf

Alleyway - Concept

Hello friends!

This is the second concept I threw together today. It's another scene I've had floating around in my head for a while. The textures are extremely rough and not well blended, the cat is looking extremely wonky, but at least the idea and lighting are there. 

I think I've never created something with such a low angle and architectural elements. It's pretty challenging. I enjoyed the process though!

Giant Torii Gate - Concept

Hello friends! 

I've created another one of these quick photobash concepts. Also a scene that I've had in mind for a while. 

I know that some of you have said that you'd like to the the process for these. But to be honest, when I try to record it, it takes me out of the flow, I get worried about making mistakes, and just end up not enjoying the process at all. So for now, I will just keep working on these on my own, without worrying about that. I hope that's alright.&nbs...

Overgrown Tokyo - Concept

Hello friends! 

This is a little (or a lot) different from what I usually do. 

I dusted off my rusty photobashing skills to cobble together this scene. With detailed pictures like this I find it hard to bring it together simply by drawing it out. But using photo elements was extremely helpful. I might draw and paint it from scratch at some point to really make it my own. But for now I'm happy that I was able to capture the idea. 

What do you think? 

Leigh's Tree House - Concept Sketch

Hello friends! 
I've been wanting to sketch this out forever, and it's nice to finally get it out! It's part of my personal project Phantasma. And this is Leigh's tree house. 
I created a weird photobash collage first to capture the giant tree I envisioned and then I drew the line sketch in Procreate. I hope you like it! 

New Illustration - Early Access

This is part II of the little series I'm working on at the moment. I hope you like it!

The colours came together pretty quickly because I was able to refer to the first piece. Working in these mini series is a lot of fun and allows me to explore the same characters and story a bit more. And it also makes me want to delve into character and environment concepts a bit more. Just sketching more faces and locations without necessarily creating a finished piece. I think that would also be f...

New work in progress!

Hello friends!

You're the first to see the new illustration I'm working on. It's part two to the other one I just posted. I made good progress with the colours today. I managed to nail the whole scheme down within a few hours today. Yay!
I hope you like it so far.

Have a wonderful day/night! 

Children's Day - Early Access

Hello friends! 

I just finished this piece and I decided to keep the shading rather simple. I already liked a lot of what was going on in the base colour stage. I just brought in more threedimensionality and bumped up the overall contrast and saturation. I don't think I need to force myself to render out every tiny detail. And afterall, the sketch took me 10 hours, so I figured why not keep a large portion of it. 

I hope you like this! Feeling happy and inspired again. :...

Children's Day - Work in Progress

Hello friends!

I hope you're doing well.
I know that it is fall season, but I just wanted to paint something fresh with lots of pastel colours. So this new piece is inspired by Children's Day in Japan that features lots of these Koi streamers (koinobori). I think it's safe to say that this is the most excited I've been about an illustration in a while. I went into a more stylised direction with the kids' faces and I think the experimentation I've done over the last few weeks is payi...

Patreon-only livestream on Thursday

Hello friends!

When? Thursday, 1 Oct, 7 PM Berlin time
Where? https://youtu.be/9esJbEly6p4

It's time for our monthly Patreon livestream! Unfortunately, Chantal won't be joining us becausr she suspended her Patreon for now and is taking a break from art. I should probably edit the banner at some point.

But Lorena and Kim will be there and we will be talking about bei...

More faces!

Hello friends!

Thank you all so much for the positive response yesterday. They encouraged me to keep going into this direction and I sat down today to draw some more characters and expressions. These are Hope and Leigh from my Phantasma project.

I think this looser style allows me to be a lot more spontaneous and to just draw and capture the characters' personalities without getting hung up on anatomy. I love it!

Ramblings and experiments

Hello friends!

On this gloomy autumn day I'm continuing my ramblings from earlier this month. I guess I'm experiencing what some people might call art block, but I'm just perceiving it as general frustration and "What is this crap, why is nothing working??" It's not like I don't have any ideas, it's just that they don't turn out the way I had hoped and expected.

Things have been going pretty well for so long and I've been really happy with my work. So it was only a matter of ti...

I abandoned my painting and started something new

Hello friends!

I've been in a bit of a funk lately since I wasn't really feeling that last painting I started (the one with the little boy, the shiba and the old lady) and after long consideration, decided to scrap it. I would still love to return to that theme and make a series out of it, but not right now.
I've also been playing with Procreate and I've come to really love it for sketching. And now that I know how to transfer files from A to B (A being my Windows PC), I can use i...

Victorian Houses

Hello friends! I hope you're well.

I've been having more fun working in Procreate!

And since I've been wanting to paint an illustration featuring a Victorian house for quite some time, I figured I'd do a couple of studies first to figure out the shapes and all that. And then I'm going to be building my own out of these design elements I've studied. Which one is your fav?

Lightbox Expo Livestreams!

Hello friends!

LBX Online is here and I'm doing two livestreams for it. The first one starts very soon. In two hours. 😂

"Going Independent: Making a Living off of Personal Art" in collaboration with my pals Chantal, Lorena and Kim.
11 September, 6 PM Berlin
link: https://t.co/LmAJ9XvVCM

"Portfolio Talk and Review: Making Art that is Not for Clients"
12 September, 4 PM Berlin time
link: 2020-09-11 13:57:57 +0000 UTC View Post

Shirakawa-go drawing

Hello friends!

I just did another digital "pencil drawing" and oh my god, they're so much fun! I also really love studying real places. So this is a sketch of Shirakawa-go, Japan. It has these beautiful traditional houses and such a peaceful vibe.

I'd love to visit one day and see it for real.

Some rambling

Hello friends!

Today is the day when it finally clicked and I realised that I do like using Procreate. I've always avoided it since I feel more comfortable in Photoshop - especially for finished work. Buuut turns out that sketching feels super nice on the iPad. I tweaked one of the pencil brushes and that did wonders for me. It very much feels like a real pencil, but with all the great little features that traditional media doesn't provide (undo, layers, perspective grids).

So...

August Reward

I just sent out last month's reward via private message. I actually made it happen and finished three illustrations in August!! Despite the heat and weirdness of the world. I hope you like how they turned out. 
And as always, the bundle includes the layered PSD, some step-by-step images, brushes, gradients and a folder with reference, and a 10% discount code for my store. 
Everyone who has signed up before the end of August should have received either the rewa...

Work in progress - Base colours

Hello friends!

I'm a little bit tired today, so I don't have a lot to say. But I'm just continuing to work on this new mini series. Lots of fun to explore the story and surroundings from different angles!

Here is the sketch:

Patreon-Exclusive Livestream on Thursday

The gang is back together to do another one of these!

When? Thursday, 3 September, 7 PM Berlin time
Where? https 2020-08-31 12:22:00 +0000 UTC View Post

New Artwork - Early Access ✨

Hello friends, how are you doing?

I just finished a new painting (which puts me at 3 this month, yay) and I must say I loved working on it so much! I went absolutely crazy with all the details but they didn't feel like a chore at all. I painted everything as lovingly as I could.

The scene is heavily inspired by a house located in Karuizawa, Japan. I sometimes take virtual tours through different towns on Google Street View and save images of locations I find interesting. This ...

Seaside Town I - III

Hello friends!

I just finished the third illustration in this mini series and I absolutely LOVED working on it! I already have ideas for more and I'm excited to get started on those.

I hope you like it. 💛

Seaside Town II

Hello friends!

I finished a new illustration this morning. It's the second in the series that I'm currently working on that includes the same character, setting and colour scheme (roughly). The third installment will be a bit more of a close-up of the girl.

Working this way is a lot of fun and I can't wait to put all three images side by side.

I hope you like this one!

Here are the base colours I started out with:
2020-08-04 15:22:03 +0000 UTC View Post

Livestream on Thursday

When? - Thursday, 6 August, 7 PM Berlin time

Where?- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7GDpq0CEtrU (please don't share this link anywhere since it's Patreon-only)
______

Hello friends!

The "art gang" (Lorena Lammer, Chantal Horeis, Kim Myatt and I) have decided to pick up where we left off with our Patreon-exclusive livestreams. From now on, we'll be doi...

July Reward

I just sent out last month's reward via private message. In July, I managed to finish two illustrations: Lost Within and Seaside I. I'm hoping to increase my productivity a bit in the months to come because I have so many paintings planned! 

And as always, the bundle includes the layered PSD, some step-by-step images, brushes, gradients and a folder with reference, and a 10% discount code for my store. 

Everyone who has signed up before the end of July s...

Seaside Town I

Hello friends!

It's been 10 days since I posted the sketch for this one and I really took my time with it. I had too much fun rendering all those little details! I also ended up bringing in a lot more colour than I had originally planned. This was the basic palette I started out with:





I like it but it feels a bit colder than I anticipated and I wanted to bring in some warmth ...

Seaside Town - Sketch

Hello friends!

I just completed the sketch for a new piece. It's the first one in a mini series of three illustrations that explore different aspects of this same theme/setting and character. I really enjoy seeing small collections of paintings or photos on Twitter that all go together. So that's where I got the idea.

This approach also allows me to bring in a few quicker and less complex pieces, like the close-up of a character's face. I usually avoid these because I gravitate ...