Small improvements

I made a self portrait for my "very special top secret project" some time ago, and I liked it but there was something with it that kept rubbing me in all the wrong spots. So, today I went back to it and finished it properly. It doesn't look that much different, but I like it much more this way:

Mummie kids; the process and the end result

So, long time no see! I'm still working on the same secret thing I told you about before, but I've finished something else recently as well. I'm developing some monsters for a project I'm freelancing for, and I thought it would be cool to show my process.

How I do things

As you may have noticed I decided to give the drawing challenge a miss for a bit. The point of the challenge was to get me to draw every day, and that's a goal I've already made by now. Also, since I didn't have any freelance projects yet I figured it would be handy to do a challenge while work was still quiet, just to get me going you know.


It just so happened that in no time at all I was up to my neck in "job" offers, so I decided to take them on instead! First though, I'm working on something big for myself that I want to have finished by the end of this week. What it is shall remain a secret for a bit, but I wanted to show you guys I'm not sitting here doing nothing. Also, I wanted to show something of my work process so I decided to kill two birds with one stone haha. Here you go:

As you can see, the first sketch is usually quite different from the end result! I also keep zooming out to see if the image still works if it's tiny. Please feel free to click the images for a bigger result though. Because I'm very pleased with some of them I decided to upload the final results too, here you go:

 

Before anyone asks, yes they are self portraits so they might look a bit like me haha. This time I'm making it for a good reason though and not just for the heck of it.

30 day drawing challenge: Day 7

Challenge of the day; Draw your favourite word.
Really, a favourite word? Come on now, that's simply no fun at all! So being the stubborn girl that I am I instead chose to do one of my favourite quotes, which made me a whole lot happier.
It's a bit cheeky I know, but I hope it's not a problem. I've been wanting to do something with Typography for ages but I have no experience in it whatsoever, so this challenge seemed like a good place to start. I did some research first like a good girl, and when I had a solid idea I just winged it. I like the end result well enough, and I'd like to do more with Typography. It's kinda neat to find a good composition with letters, it's fun to play with. I kept it very safe for my first time though, I went with a very common fond so I could keep it clear to myself and I didn't play with the shapes too much. I've seen some awesome inspirational pieces all over the web that I'd love to try sometimes though.

As for the quote, I have no idea who wrote it but I stumbled across it one time and I just couldn't forget about it. I think it's absolutely beautiful and something everyone should at least experience once in their lives.

Feel free to click on the image for a bigger version

30 day drawing challenge: Day 6

Yesterday I completed Day 6 of the challenge; Draw your favourite character from a book.

I am a fervent reader, I read a lot. Really, a lot. I don't really pick favourites, I recognise well written characters easily enough but that doesn't mean they become personal favourites of mine. I first thought about drawing a character from Harry Potter or A song of Ice and Fire, since I really admire the way they've been written, but I decided against it in the end. They're awesome books, with very well rounded characters but it didn't feel right somehow. Then I remembered my favourite book when I was a kid; Beyond the Deepwoods, from The Edge Chronicles.
If you like fantasy and beautifully drawn illustrations even a little bit, you should read this. It doesn't matter that it's a children's book, it's really fucking weirdass and awesome. Beyond the Deepwoods is just one of many installments of the series (I haven't even read all the books yet, but I will have the lot in my possesion one day) and it had a character in it that I really really loved. Remembering it makes my heart warm again, and it makes me a little sad too. It's the Banderbear (or de Gabberbeer as it was called in Dutch) I approached this a little differently, I copied one of the drawings in the book and while I was sketching it I thought it was becoming very lovely, so I put some extra effort in it. I initially just wanted to sketch it to familiarize myself with the creature and then make my own drawing, but I ended up putting a bit more time in this than I thought I would. So here it is, my favourite character from a book, the Banderbear.

He looks all big and intimidating, but he's a softie at heart really

Meet Chompski

 Two weeks ago Uni started again for me, and we kicked it off pretty intensely with a Gamejam right off the bat, awesome! A gamejam usually takes a few days, and in that time you get dropped in a team and you try to make a game together. Considering we usually have way too little time in one semester to make even something remotely similar to a proper game, a deadline of a few days is fucking mental and awesome. We had to work with a theme, and our brilliant teachers decided that it should be "gnomes". A game involving gnomes, in any way. My group decided to make a pixel based sidescroller shooter in which you destroy everything in your path. We had awesome people in our team and I think we did really well. In just three days we had a working game, and I'm still very pleased. We even got pretty far in the rankings, I do believe we got second place so that's pretty damn sweet.

I was in charge of the main character, the gnome. I had never made pixel art before, so I opted for just drawing it pretty detailed and then scaling it down. Which worked well enough, I've also discovered that I find pixel art quite appealing. So I think this won't be the last pixel animations you'll see of me, haha.

He doesn't sweat much, for a fat lad.

30 day drawing challenge: Day 5

The past few weeks I haven't been able to draw much, so I had to give the challenge a miss for a bit. I'm back now though, and I'm very enthousiastic!

Day 4 was the "draw your favourite place" challenge.  I just couldn't do that one at this time, I'm sorry. I do know what it is though, and someday I will put it into picture.

I had a field day working on Day 5 though, the challenge said that I had to draw my best friend. That's a no-brainer really, my sister's always been my best friend for as long as I can remember. I didn't use any references, I kinda just started and I think I did a good job. I can see her personality in it. I thought it would be cool to make her into some kind of kick ass zombie slayer character, my sister has a very distinct personality and look to her, so making a character of her was a breeze. I didn't tell her I was working on it though, so I wonder what she thinks of it! Haha.

My sister's a lovely girl, but be careful when you give her an axe