margam-illustration

[margam-illustration]

A Baltic witch! 🧙‍♀️🌾

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It’s interesting that in our culture witches were never evil. They were either something like dryads, guarding sacred trees or mediators between humans and spirits. They were wise and respected, often giving advice to people.

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I think this is why I have such an affinity to them - they’re wise, they live together with and respect nature, because they, more than any one else, know how powerful and scary nature can be.

#art #illustration #drawing #artist on tumblr #character design #witch #original character #darkcozyart #artists on tumblr #nature #cozyart #dark cottagecore #dark art #darkfantasyart #dark fantasy #folk #folklore #folkart #baltics #balticart #balticmythology

[margam-illustration]

A little flower field inspired by all the daisies in bloom right now. Really sad to have to cut them down when mowing the lawn 🙃

#art #drawing #illustration #flowers #field #cozy art #darkcozyart #cottagecore #dark cottagecore #dark aesthetic

[margam-illustration]

Man I've never like drawing backgrounds, but finally I'm finding a workflow that I enjoy and little by little incorporating them into my illustrations. I really enjoyed making this one and it captures everything I like - muted colors, a little bit of darkness and softness.

#art #drawing #illustration #landscape #cozy #cozy art #darkcozyart #landscapeart #dark cottagecore #cottagecore #dark aesthetic

[margam-illustration]

I always love a dark but cozy forest 😌🖤

#art #drawing #illustration #forest #cozy #cozyart #darkcozy #darkcozyart #dark cottagecore #cottagecore #dark aesthetic

[margam-illustration]

A redraw of my Halloween D&D character (I played the older version).

It was really fun because my friend played literally a skeleton so it was two weird and spooky ladies beating up some monsters 🌚

I don't have too much of a backstory for her, because I made her just for a one-shot, but the gist is that she wants to be immortal (without becoming a lich) and find out as much about the world as possible. The more she studies the subject, the darker her powers become when eventually making her a Shadow Sorceress and walking somewhere between life and death.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #character design #witch #spooky #spookyart #fantasy #darkfantasy #darkfantasyart #cozy #darkcozy #darkcozyart #sorceress #shadow sorceress #dark aesthetic

[margam-illustration]

A simple cottage in the working fields. A very usual landscape in Lithuania and one that is very nostalgic for me :)

#art #drawing #illustration #cozy #cozyart #cottagecore #farmcore #darkcozy #moodyart #nature #darkcozyart #digitalart #dark aesthetic

[margam-illustration]

My art journey and finding an illustration style

At the beginning I drew like any other kid, really. There wasn't anything special like "I picked up a pencil when I was 3 and drew everyday and was exceptional at it". No, not really. I just drew during school assignments like my fellow classmates and I did get praised by them but at this point I don't remember if it was me specifically or every kid got praised ahaha. I did feel drawn to the activity and after school I'd play around in MS paint at my grandparents' workplace (that's the only place that had a computer at the time).

I actually started thinking about it as a distinct hobby when I was around 12 years old. It was a time when Sailor Moon was airing on TV and me and my friend became fascinated with the art style of it. We would then get together after school and practice drawing it (the picture from 2006 is the actual notebook from those days!)

For all these years I mainly drew anime and mostly traditionally (this is an important point!). Only in 2012 or 2013 I started experimenting with digital art. This was the time I decided to pursue a career in art and I knew I needed to learn how to draw digitally. However, I had a love/hate relationship with it...

Reason is, I was so used to drawing traditionally that when I switched to digital something was missing. In hindsight, it was textures. At the time, digital art was very smooth and pristine and I was missing the imperfections of pencil (or watercolor) and paper. Here I began experimenting with how my digital art looked.

At this time I mainly drew digitally and honestly I was really dissatisfied with my art. I was trying a bunch of brushes and a bunch of techniques/workflows but I didn't really know what I wanted. But I was getting used to digital art and drawing on a tablet which was the main advantage.

And over these years you can see me slowly falling into what I do now. I tried drawing in a lineless style back in 2019 but in 2020 I left that behind and embraces lines again. In 2021 the lines got thinner and I introduced even more texture into my work.

Now we're in 2022 and my new step-up is using less colors and going for a more monochrome palette (or how my boyfriend likes to call it, sepia tones :D)

My current art-style took me 16 years to develop (yikes has it been that long??).

Art-style is put on a big pedestal these days, something that I haven't really seen a decade ago.. 🤔 Even I've felt the need to have a very distinct and unique style. It might be because there are many more artists online than there used to be and it's very difficult to stand out. Not to mention Instagram's current algorithm values attention over everything else which further pushes the idea of needing to be unique and grab everyone's attention.

If you're feeling frustrated, I hear you. I might even add it's more difficult to be an artists nowadays. But please remember your art journey is a loooong marathon, you won't develop your art-style overnight. Some find it quicker, some, like me, take over a decade.

My art might look even more different another 10 years from now as I'm still now 100% happy with it. I'm still taking online classes about art, still experimenting and learning from others, still trying to look for what I like and don't like. The marathon is still going and it's going to be a life-long journey.

#artblog #drawingstyle

[margam-illustration]

Hibernation Something about winter always makes me want to retreat into my home. I've very unproductive during this time and this year I'm embracing it, spring always brings a more productive time.

#art #drawing #illustration #cozyart #darkcozyart #natureart

[margam-illustration]

Just a little witch taking a stroll in a graveyard 😌 . It’s “All Sain’t Day” where I’m from and we spend the end of October / beginning on November remembering our relatives that have passed away and visiting their graves. All this always brings a very melancholic mood and I wanted to sit down and doodle on it.

#art #drawing #illustration #cozyart #darkcozyart #witch

[margam-illustration]

Ghost Huntress 🗡

Really wanted to incorporate a traditional Lithuanian cross in an illustration :)

#art #drawing #illustration #inktober #inktober2021 #vintagetober2021 #darkart #fantasy #baltic #cozyart #darkcozyart

[margam-illustration]

For “Snake Charmer” I decided to draw characters from a Lithuanian folk tale (probably the most popular one). It’s called Eglė the Queen of Serpents. . I don’t want to paraphrase it here but it’s a short and sad story so if you’re interested you can read it on Wikipedia in English. . It’s very fun to revisit these things that are so familiar to me and part of my childhood and tell you about them ☺️

#art #drawing #illustration #cozyart #darkcozyart #folkart #baltic #lithuanian #inktober #inktober2021 #vintagetober2021

[margam-illustration]

Moon Priestess 🌕✨ The moon kind of gives me this lonely yet calm feeling.. so here’s a lonely priestess 😌

#art #drawing #illustration #cozyart #farmcore #darkcozyart #inktober #inktober2021 #procreate

[margam-illustration]

Moon Priestess 🌕✨ The moon kind of gives me this lonely yet calm feeling.. so here’s a lonely priestess 😌

#art #drawing #illustration #inktober #inktober2021 #digitalart #procreate #cozyart #darkcozyart #pagan #balticart #folkart #lithuanianart

[margam-illustration]

The Starry-Haired Princess ✨I decided to go with bits of amber because they look like stars 😌 and they also remind me of my childhood. I used to pick amber near the sea with my family, it was so fun to find these pretty orange pieces in the sand and kelp! 🧡

#art #drawing #illustration #inktober #inktober2021 #digitalart #cozyart #folkart #balticart

[margam-illustration]

Self-portrait for Inktober 2021 :) Really wanted a new dark cozy profile picture.

#art #drawing #illustration #folkart #cozyart #darkcozyart #inktober #inktober2021

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First drawing for Inktober 2021. Used the Vintagetober prompt list by resaa.art on Instagram. The prompt was "The Ancient Keymaster".

#inktober #inktober2021 #art #drawing #illustration #digitalart #procreate #cozy #darkcozy #grandma #babushka #vintagetober2021

[margam-illustration]

Small illustrations for Autumn Week of 2021.

6 was probably my favorite and here's a little backstory of it:

I’d like to tell you about these goddesses we have in Baltic folklore called Lauma. They used to be the goddesses of weaving who lived in lakes and enjoyed dancing and singing. They loved kids and fostered abandoned ones. They punished those that ridiculed them and those that were lazy. Later their image changed to baby-snatching evil hags. . I’ve always wanted to draw one 👀👌 Maybe this isn’t really that spooky but baby-snatching is what they are mostly known for and Laumas are always portrayed as beautiful but eerie-looking women.

#illustration #art #drawing #digitalart #procreate #pencilart #baltic #pagan #balticmythology #autumnweek #cozyart #darkcozyart #darkcozy