From my old sketchpad

I was arranging my things on my bed when I saw again my old sketchpad. It has been almost three years since I looked at it, and it was full of random illustrations and sketches, often doodles executed in pencil. But these doodles are the foundation of some of my current illustrations. Like this one: an imaginary, Arthur Rackham-ish woods with a lady below, though I must admit it is the work of an amateur.

I want to emulate Rackam's eye for detail: of trees, and how he interpreted the barks with grotesque, ghost-like faces. I've seen his work for Washington Irving's Rip Van Winkle. I liked how he showed the branches of leafless trees, intricate barks , and the whimsical forms of the trunks. I had no real reference for this illustration, just what I remember from browsing through books about trees and Rackam's works.

I started taking photographs of trees a year later after I drew this one. For now, I somehow don't know exactly how I will use this pictures. But I think they'll be handy sometime soon.

As I scanned my sketchpad, I saw some of my old sketches of imaginary battle scenes, illustrations from my first story that I wrote for a friend. I browsed some books about warfare, and I took down notes of them together withl little doodles. I wish I could draw someday an entire battle scene based on my first story, more detailed than this, like the musha-e prints or Altdorfer's "Battle of Alexander at Issus." But, of course, I want to make it more graphic than both, though the canvas would be not larger than a regular dining table.