Video: How a photo becomes a drawing

I haven't made any videos in so long so I'm really happy to share this one with you. It walks you through my drawing process from the source image (photo) to the very final version. I'll admit I might have exaggerated a bit with the indecision regarding color here, but sometimes this going back-and-forward is exactly what happens. This process can take a very long time, months even, because when I am unsure about the result I want to achieve I have to put the drawing away and not look at it for a while. To forget about it altogether. Thinking about other things and doing something completely different is what leads to clarity. And when I figure it out I think: "of course, this is what it was supposed to look like all along!"

This particular drawing is actually of my home street in Tallinn. It really took me a while to finish because it has a lot of separate elements and a lot of detail. I find it immensely satisfying to fill the image with color to the brim when I'm working on it, I just can't stop myself. But then it becomes a lot less interesting for me - a little bit too obvious. Jean Baudrillard said that something has to disappear in every image but that disappearance needs to stay dynamic. I think he is right and this probably explains my fascination with blanks and white spaces. It is the missing information that makes the image captivating. It feels liberating then to peel back some of the information, leaving a few suggestive blanks. I believe it is within that space of absence that my drawings truly come alive.