Hello Friday, I can’t believe you’re already here! I really wanted to post my photo diary like I have for past few weeks every Friday but I’ve been ill with sinus  infection all week long. I’m still on antibiotics that are giving me annoying side effect so all of my activities were reduced to a minimum. Arlen had to do a bunch of work for me, like cutting a pile of cardboard, packing and shipping all of the prints ordered in sale. (And if I may say so he did a great job at it.)

So, instead of sharing my photo diary this week I’m sharing an art piece made by Arlen called Turtle-Duck In Focus.

He used ZIG multiliners , gelly rolls on 5.5x8inch on original lino cut texture made by me. You might remember seeing those textures here.

I know I’m very biased  but I love all of  his work and here are some of my all-time Alkaline Samurai favorites:

Alkaline Insight

On this piece Arlen used Zig art and graphic brush tip, and zig Millennium multiliner. 0.05mm on 8.5 by 11 inch bristol paper. All of the multiliner  work was done free hand under microscope.

In fact, he does a lot of his detailed work under the microscope, he’s just awesome like that.

Full Bloom

A drawing done by Prisma brush tips and gelly rolls inspired by sakura.

Arlen also frequently fills up pages of Moleskines with his detailed ink art, here are some of my personal faves from his Moleskines:

MOLEcular Intelligence Page 1 new mini moleskine!

In the wind , Mini moleskine page 11

Encroachment, mini moleskine Page 12

Here is  a photo of his latest Moleskine drawing: The Turtle Ducks Living House , on a hilltop, overlooking the beach… ( page 2)

More of his, non-Moleskine related art:

Although somewhat atypical to his usual style, this piece , Fluid, is one of my super favorites by him.

Consider, a card I have framed above my desk.

Forest Spirit, another card by him I own

Arlen also designs  unique characters,  he used to draw  a lot of gummies, now he’s making up stories with turtleducks:

He also designed some instrument characters, like this naughty piano:

(Oh, and he makes music himself, you can hear some of his beats here.)

If you like, you can check out more of Arlen’s artwork on his flickr.

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I wish you all wonderful weekend!

Artist Arlen Dean (Alkaline Samurai) is having a card give away on his flickr. The card has a print of one of  our latest collaborations, called  Tru Duckery (I did the background texture and he painted a couple of turtleducks). So, if you’re on flickr, you can check out his giveaway here. And be fast because the  first one who sends him a message, gets a card

“This could be a good location for a photo shoot“, I said. “I’d love to shoot some selfies here. But I need something, a prop maybe, something to be in contrast with this dirty, dusty environment.” So I decided I need a simple, feminine, white dress, maybe a bit old-fashioned or romantic. Since that’s not something I’d wear in “real” life and generally  don’t own  anything white  I started  searching for it.  It turned out it’s not easy finding such a simple piece of clothing but after almost two weeks I found my perfect white dress at a flea market.

The photo shoot was about to happen! I asked Mr Dean to help me and we took a collaborative series of photos. Some of them I edited shortly after and posted on my flickr yet I wasn’t satisfied. I felt there were a part of a some visual story and that  still haven’t been finished. So, this weekend sitting in my cozy, warm living room watching a blizzard outside I said “It would be great to wear my white dress again, in the snow.” I shared my idea with Mr Dean and he suggested that we shoot at the very same location as last Summer. It was a deal!

When we took another series of photos, this time in snowy environment I felt a story of a white dress is now complete. Here is the entire photo story including both photos from this week and re-edited photos from last Summer:

Drawn by Alkaline Samurai ( he used black multiliner on A4 paper ) and digitally colored by me.

Another collaboration with Alkaline Samurai, he drew the colorful lines and I made the Noodles Mountain.

Acrylics and ink painting done on a wooden panel.
This is the first of six paintings in the series, done in collaboration with Arlen Dean (Alkaline Samurai on flickr.)

Drawing with Arlen, just for fun. We’re actually working on another more “serious” collaboration together, a painting on 6 wooden panels, more about that soon. It’s always fun when he comes to visit!

“Lucky garden”, 70×50 cm, mixed media
This is a second collaboration with Arlen Dean (Alkaline Samurai on flickr), it was very fun making it. It was Arlen’s idea to get a big poster paper and first add some abstract colorful paper cut outs and then draw around them.

I’m not on my vacation anymore, so I’m looking forward to catching up with your blogs as soon as I can. Have a wonderful week everyone!