Opening an artist's sketchbook reveals a lot about their aesthetics and personal vision. For France-based artist Sim Sim, her small hard-cover sketchbooks contain romantic portraits of figures in urban settings. Using pastel and sometimes charcoal, she softly blends colors and different shades to achieve a tender depiction of people living in a moment in time.
Each of these velvety illustrations encompasses an entire page of the sketchbook. In this way, Sim Sim creates an immersive window for the viewer to imagine themselves in the same environment. While the portraits of the individuals are placed in focus and rendered in a slightly more realistic manner, the backgrounds are conveyed through hazy lights and distorted shapes, similar to how these images would appear in a photograph.
Whether Sim Sim uses charcoal or pastel, her approach is similar, blending the chalky sticks on the page until she achieves the desired level of light and shadow. While many find the properties of these mediums challenging for their lack of precision, Sim Sim embraces this aspect by letting their depth enhance the mysterious ambiance of her compositions.
You can purchase original art via Sim Sim's online store, and keep up to date with her latest projects by following the artist on Instagram and Twitter.
France-based artist Sim Sim fills her sketchbooks with dreamy pastel and charcoal drawings.
These softly blended pieces depict figures in urban settings.
Sim Sim captures the atmosphere of a moment in time by combining detailed faces with faded backdrops.
Watch how she carefully creates her cinematic sketchbook drawings:
View this post on Instagram
And flipping through her completed sketchbooks is like looking at a handheld art exhibit.
Recent drawings depicting the melancholy of the night pic.twitter.com/PPQDgkJ6Rh
— sim sim (@mec_au_fusain) January 7, 2023
Sim Sim: Website | Instagram | Twitter
My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Sim Sim.
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