February sketches
This month was about hats, radishes, dreamy girls and abstract shapes
How was your February? Mine was filled with headpiece cravings and the shades of red. I keep experimenting with my drawing style and trying new things and as a result, didn’t end up liking many of the sketches in this month’s “journal.” I wish I could say I’m getting somewhere but in reality I feel just as uncertain about how the next drawing will turn out as last month. But let’s begin with 1 February.
We start off with a Siberian 2400 year old plush bird toy that fascinated me with its shape and contemporary look. It’s made out of felt and stuffed with reindeer fur. I imagine it being soft and almost hugging its Iron Age owner with his long wings. I added some color that was obviously not part of the original design.
Here I drew my small Japanese vase with a tree branches that I foraged from a mysterious tree in front of Foundation Juan March in Madrid but still can’t identify. I’m not a fan of this red background but for some reason I decided to use a lot of red this February. On the next day I drew a crow girl and tested how white ball pen will work together with colored pencils.
I like this spread. On the left is my impression of Cawley Studio raw silk bridal suit with their huge red bow. I think this suit is a true perfection, I love both the color and the material, totally a great piece to get married in. The girl I drew is playful and is bending in surprise that someone captured her in a sketch. And on the right is shapes inspired by the Sheila Metzner’s vase that The Row posted that week. I loved the color combination.
Image on the left is inspired by my Instagram feed with works by a beauty photographer Tais Sirote. I loved how the bow seemed like a continuation of the Chanel model on top. And on the right is a landscape from my friend’s house with three magic beans floating in the trembling air. I like how it’s both abstract and real.
8th of February was an experimental silver marker day which didn’t even spare the quote and 9th of February was my tribute to a beautiful crumpled Comme des Garçons jacket Comma Comma is selling in Tokyo, which I wish I had in my hands and not on paper.
On the left is me and my boyfriend looking at the bottomless light installation by James Turrell displayed at Fondation Cartier in Paris. It was so pure but intense that I wanted to capture this in a sketch. On the right is another Instagram feed find: a silk bonnet by a Berlin based studio Between Beauty.
I’m partial to hats and even wrote a hole separate essay about it some time ago so this winged helmet goes straight to my wishlist (who knows how many more hats it can hold).
Next is my farming spread. I’ve been playing a lot of Stardew Valley this month (can’t recommend it enough for decompressing) and decided to just draw vegetables that I love: cabbages and radishes. Radishes are my favorite breakfast add-on, I have a bath of them in the fridge most of the time (so they stay crisp) and they are just so fun to draw with their natural pink gradient flush and curly tails.
These two days I was in a rainbow mood and drew Tibetan cloud ornaments and a mushroom girl.
Here you can see two abstract drawings based on two events: watching Wuthering Heights and my insomnia. I appreciated the raw feelings the movie made me experience. The colors, the music, the set design and latex dresses, the endless longing and deep sadness. This movie actually made me finally read the book which I refused to read as a teen. I didn’t mind how inaccurate it was to the book or the time period, to me this was the whole point.
The drawing on the right reflects my occasional anxiety induced insomnia, capturing the difficult moment of surrendering to sleep. It’s cold and limp.
Completely different from the last spread, this one is full of light and confidence. These are my pagan drawings of Maslenitsa — a slavic holiday celebrating the arrival of Spring which is hosted one week before Lent. It’s full of mythology at its roots and has lot’s of different traditions (like burning Maslenitsa figure and having a round dance) but for me it means we are cooking and eating blinis with cured salmon and butter all week. I remember celebrating this holiday since I was a kid and it brings up warm nostalgia in me.
Here I tried to play more with color combinations and drew a bat and a mantis, I don’t like this spread so let’s move on to the next one.
The creature on the left is a mannequin head I found on Vinted. It had an alien quality to it with bright blue eyes and a ballon head which I couldn’t stop thinking about. I even had an idea to ask the seller to sell me just the head but decided just drawing it was enough. On the right are blood orange peels. I loved their shape and color but I wish I kept this sketch more abstract and stopped at the beginning, just roughly sketching them out and filling the background.
On the left here is a common snack from my table: nori sheet with some nuts. On the right is my self-portrait with Ilana Blumerg wool hat I talked about last time! It arrived that day and I felt super happy to receive it. It reminded me of a mushroom cap so the sketch theme was mushrooms. I hope I still have time to wear it this season as it got unusually warm in Madrid already.
Prada Fall 2026 show was on 26 February so it became my inspiration. I loved the idea of layering and just 15 models for 60 looks. I wanted to draw something childish and naive with simple shapes, two contrasting color families and no perspective. I imagine it’s Minnie Mouse standing on the shore in Prada shoes.
On the other page my inspiration was blush. I want to archive this burning cheeks look with infinite blur in real life but can’t, so I cope with it by drawing it. I really like this style and how red is contrasting with purple background. I think this girl is very dreamy but confident. She is not anatomically accurate and she knows it.
Today's girl is yesterday's girl's sister. She is wearing a Yohji Yamamoto AW1998 hat (Another one from my wishlist! Substituting owning things with drawing them instead.) but she is also tired and ready for February to be over.
