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Maciulek

@maciulek / maciulek.tumblr.com

This is the place where I get to showcase the latest of my artworks. Gradual shift in technique over time is a desired effect, so sit back and enjoy.

Self-absorbed student has found an alternative use for school time - but her internal graphics engine is prone to reusing just one body model for some reason. Bug… or a feature?

Since I enjoyed Teri's paper-y outfit from her J-pop music video, I've decided to make something in that vein, but in a territory I'm familiar with. As a result, she is daydreaming about The Elder Scrolls' third mainline video game.

42cm x 59,4cm paper, fineliners. Teri, Molly (The Amazing World of Gumball) © Ben Bocquelet, Cartoon Network / Warner Bros Morrowind © Bethesda Game Studios / ZeniMax Media

POV: It's 2020* and you've been caught sneaking into a public area without a proper cloth mask.

On a technical note, ever since I've got my hands on Shigeru Mizuki's Tono Monogatari before winter holidays, I've been itching to take some cues from it, given how these are easily the best B&W illustrations I've seen so far.

42cm x 59,4cm paper, fineliners. Warhammer 40,000 © Games Workshop Teri (The Amazing World of Gumball) © Ben Bocquelet, Cartoon Network / Warner Bros

*Or whatever year (as of writing) in the near-future when USA's ongoing medical reforms result in a much worse pandemic outbreak than the covid one.

You can find me (along with more Teri drawings) on Bluesky.

50 x 70cm watercolor born out of desire to see what pixels from a 90's video game could have been in the eyes of mind, the game in question being Lucasart's Afterlife from 1996, a SimCity-esque concept taken to its eschatological lenght - that of a demiurge in place of a mayor, with astral plane to serve as a building site. Structures present within this game can be seen HERE, alongside thorough descriptions accompanying each of them. Artwork itself wasn't free from setbacks, as even a full set of interesting, reimagined structures means nothing as far as a sum of elements is meant to be a final result. Needless to say, this painting isn't the first attempt in a row. Failed concepts can still be used as a direction check, however - and they help keep subsequent artwork free from dirt and damage when put on top of them!

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An interior of evangelical Holy Trinity church in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Central Poland. Watercolor on 42 x 56cm paper, based on a self-made photo. This picture doesn't fully evoke the likeness of the very interior that I photographed - but it was meant to try and envision the former colour scheme before it was altered by now-past tenants of this temple. Originally the first brick temple in this town, it had been abandoned as evangelical parish, decimated by second World War, sought refuge in a larger lutheran church that was originally built to accomodate a much greater number of people than the old church. Since then the building of Holy Trinity church had been leased to a catholic parish that dissolved later on, but not before decorating columns and wall with copious amount of brown paint in a manner that did little to improve its current state. Nowadays the temple remains in the hands of evangelical parish, but no longer fulfills its original function.

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Cenotaph for Newton

50x70cm watercolor paper, inkwell pen and watercolor - - - A hypothetical memorial monument designed by Étienne-Louis Boullée. In the context of this submission, aforementioned marvel of conceptual neoclassical architecture had been put in the center of Warsaw, as per theme of an exhibition that this work couldn't have been a part of due to deadline issues. As exhibition was meant to encompass strictly hypothetical placements of world-class architecture within Warsaw's city limits, it felt like a fitting direction for me to include structures that were never built, their influence more inspirational than material and spatial. Zone of choice wasn't an afterthought either - with Boullée's Cenotaph for Newton standing as new dimension of rational thought and extended antiquity, I did recall how Palaces of Science built throughout the Eastern Bloc aimed for a similar vibe, even if meant for a different set of goals.

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I am aware, that my expedient graphic interpretation of images born out of a peculiar sleeping disorder wasn't fully faithful to my memory of them - after all, those phantasms were devoid of the kind of colour impression that regular dreams and nightmares possess. To that end, I've created an edited set of aforementioned images, - the ones that I saw independently from what my eyes had seen while I was circling my apartament, trying to wake the part of the brain that kept conjuring up such ghastly things.

A set of three images that have been a direct result not of a working imagination or clever skill, but of a peculiar sleep disorder that I have been afflicted with during my childhood - a disorder, where a part of my brain would continue conjuring up a ghastly, alien image despite me waking up and walking all over house in a futile attemp to flush it out of my head. Eventually, each and every such instance could only be halted through me trying to crowd out such cacophony with conscious thoughts and memories, but it would leave a mark in that I recall almost every single image that resulted from it. 

These pictures would be accompanied by disruption of impulses from sensors in my skin, producing a sensation of an unpleasant growth and dispersion of entire body. The most damaging sensation, however, was the feeling of timelessness - as if every second of this ordeal was excruciatingly extended - and of utter helplessness, as if all hope and sense of meaning was taken out of my mind, leaving me against something that seemingly existed beyond all causality. Worst of all, with the exception of those that ended this phenomenon, none of those phantasms were built out of fragments of memories and imagination that my regular dreams have been built.

Some, like the fan of light beams above, had eerie motion to them, moving like pieces of a much larger mechanism with no recognizable parts, complete with lights flickering across their surfaces.

The last image in the set had at least two phases of working - with the first phase consisting of a smooth, ideal surface devoured by rough overgrowth, followed by a second stage - an eruption within one of the light beams, growing chaotically into a collossal lump of mass which seemed to be getting more dense as its volume grew in every direction, until it became too big to be described by thoughts and sensations.

Section of downtown Warsaw, painted in watercolour with the aid of masking fluid. Based upon a photo I took in the last day of November, as this was the instance of a first snowfall in the latter half of 2017 that didn't melt throughout the day. It wasn't until mid-January that we had a lasting snow cover, though that first day was more notable for how it took on an infernal tint to it, with vapours hanging low in the sky and pavement being slippery to the point where even careful step did not amount to much. For now, I expect this piece to be the last in the line of workshop practice paintings, as I am eager to see just how much of it might seep into my preferred line of artwork - one chiefly grounded in imagination.

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Stage no.3 of my watercolor practice, carried on since last Christmas season was about to end.

Blue evening in three distinct stages, each of them assigned to one selected greek island - viewed from top to the bottom - Nisyros, Folegandros and Tinos. Watercolour 50cm x 70cm in size.  Other than previous sheets, the physical viewability of which is limited by their usefulness as reference material, this painting is guaranteed to spend next few years framed on my wall in lieu of its predecessor created full decade ago in a similar theme, but without grounding in factual architecture and only as much as my past capabilities allowed. That particular stage can be seen below, straight out of time when the pinnacle of my skill with colour use basically meant “doodle vague gradient with colour pencils” and building detail translated into scribbling ballpoint pen decals over black marker outlines.

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Watercolor practice theme no.2: Contemporary architecture of the Western Civilization on example of Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany. Artwork based upon photography by Eva Bloem, as viewed on Arch-daily online architecture magazine. This was certainly a long-overdue excercise as I forced myself to draw and paint sci-fantasy sceneries without having sufficient grounding in knowledge regarding how modern materials and surfaces can be depicted in watercolor medium! Come to think of it, one attempt is nowhere near close to account for a full training at this stage, either.

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In recent months my artistic workshop kept crashing against plateau more and more frequently, as if every ounce of resourcefulness had been drained from it. That is why for the time of this image and subsequent one, fantasy had to take a backseat to rudimentary skill honing. This particular creation also marks the first time where I would actually use masking fluid instead of trying to restrain myself from painting over the areas meant for finishing touches! Theme no.1: Interior of dr Sami Angawi's personal house in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, designed by him as a living testimony to aesthetics and genius loci once present in Mecca before ruthless modernization claimed over 99% of its historical buildings. Painting based upon photo by Damian San Roman Alerigi (https://500px.com/photo/12940045/saudi-traditional-house-by-damian-san-rom%C3%A1n-alerigi), with its extent expanded through cross selection and study of photographs from various other authors. 56 x 42 cm watercolour paper; ink/watercolour/ecoline liquid watercolor inks/masking fluid

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New chapter in my chain of "totally artistic and not pornographic, serious!"-porn. This one involves anthropomorphic shells and inflated algae, all in presence of gravity-defying water and tubular planetary wall. This piece, at 50 x 70 cm, is also substantially larger than all my other watercolours which translates into a particularly nasty struggle with achieving consistence in colour composition on a larger scale than what I became accustomed to.

Tools used: watercolor, watered-down ink, Ecoline inks and a hint of gouache.

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I suppose this may be a good time for more people to realise that a helping of criticism often goes a long way, especially now that I gaze upon what I've just created and I scratch my head wondering where the hell am I going with this. Original, translated description: Regarding picture itself, a thought came over me about how a certain, strongly contextual symbol seems to live its own life in connection to entirety of movements that parade it openly or indirectly. And, as metaphorical and allegorical thinking eludes me, I've granted that observation a literal imagery. -Regular watercolor + Ecoline watercolor inks- 

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Half a year ago I had this fleeting idea about masking an obviously fetish drawing with enough conceptualization and detail to allow me to comfortably lie to myself about its 'purely artistic origins' (yeah, right). Now I finally possess just enough skill to make such a thing work! End result isn't without slight differences from original idea sketch - after all, I managed to misplace that sheet few months ago in a pile of other sketches awaiting their big day. For one, it most certainly didn't contain vague impression of Tuscany landscapes or astronomers.

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42 x 45cm, watercolour (albeit used half of the time like gouache) + ink and dense watercolor applied with inkwell nib pen.

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Formerly known as Shah mosque and built in the first half of XVII c, now available in watercolour medium after a slew of trial and error on my turn. Structures at the front are casts of interiors, complete with their finishing surfaces. Although Masjid-i Imam has a facade and fully decorated main dome, lending credit to architectural legacy of Yazd's Friday mosque, remaining elevations that are not a part of courtyards are but a construction shell, a mould for the interior spaces - hence my attempt at drawing spatial negative contained therein rather than simply painting a given view. Still, I haven't painted anything like it in my whole life before, therefore I found it extra tricky to take a shift from structural ornaments towards depicting flat, gilded decorations. Painting itself contains several different approaches to get it right and none of them appeared early enough!

First work worthy of submission after this break: compilation of several forms of Persian monumental architecture spanning the period between XI and XIII century! Both watercolor and visual sketches contribute to this page.

Left to right:

-Minaret of Jam - Gijas Ad-Dina: aerial view and close-up of two segments;

-Bahram Shah minaret;

-Trimmed fragment of Kharaqan Towers.

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Al Masjid an Nabawi in its presumed original extent during the Prophet’s time. Originally I wasn't planning on redoing that image, however the growing awareness of how much information I've missed prompted me to redraw Islam's first mosque from scratch. This time I chose to disregard any previous models and layouts, only to draw a floorplan based on what is known and used that as my reference.   Surrounding environment also looks different from what I painted last time, chiefly due to the fact that initial attempt used a photo of partially deforested rainforest swath that was posted within a middle eastern blog. In short, I finally got to correct my blunder. 

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