So busy!

Sorry I haven't been able to update anything lately. Work is getting a lot busier so I'm finding it a lot harder to make time for drawing. I doubt I'll keep this "drawing every week" thing going. Perhaps one a month is more realistic now. Unless I suddenly get an urge (and find some time) to draw a lot more. At least it's something though!

I was asked to draw a modern day Studio Ghibli character so of course I went with Princess Mononoke. I always felt that she would never feel comfortable in the bright city lights. I liked experimenting with this drawing. I used a lot of lighting, a lot of colours and I tried to stylise the background a bit to emphasise the fast moving backdrop. I'm still not sure how I feel about the final piece though. I think I managed to portray what I wanted but I still feel like something's missing.

Ah well. Onto the next drawing!

Birthday Present

It was my sister's birthday at the weekend so I've been busy creating a money box for her. Now she has no reason not to save!

I'm quite proud of this. I need a lot more work learning how to paint properly but I think I did an alright job of it. My sister was really happy so it's nice having my artwork appreciated. I can now finally get back to digital drawing!

Watch Maker

I thought I'd try something a little different. For ages I've had the image of an old watch maker in my head but never figured out how to draw it. After a lot of experimenting and frustration with colours I've finally created something I'm proud of.

I really enjoyed this concept. It's very different from my usual style so it was interesting trying something new. The colours were frustrating to get right (I'm not used to this colour palette) but I got there in the end. I think I'll experiment more from now on. It's definitely a nice break from my usual drawings.

My latest project

I've been so busy with work and studying that I haven't had much time to update things. I've been planning a trip to Japan with some friends and I thought I'd get myself a money box to help motivate me to save. I've collected a lot of £2 coins so having a money box purely for Japan has helped me save a little.

I spent a long time trying to find one that I liked. I eventually gave up and bought a blank box thinking that I could decorate it however I wanted. My reasoning was that if I covered it with things I love from Japan that no matter what mood I'm in, this will always cheer me up and remind me of something I love.

This turned out much better than I thought it would. I really liked experimenting with the watercolour effect so I think I'll practice that a bit more from now on.

Kamisama

I've barely been drawing lately...studying has taken up all of my free time. I couldn't sleep last night so I sat doodling and eventually came up with this. I've been researching a lot about Japanese gods and mythology so I wanted to create something inspired by this. I could never get it right when I was doing a full body shot so I attempted this.

I'm quite happy with this. I want to colour this when I find my graphics tablet pen (I somehow lost it). I'm considering doing a watercolour painting of this since I've not done one of those in a while. I've just started on a mini project, not saying what it is yet but I may go back to this drawing when the project is finished.

It's been a while!

Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been busy with work/learning Japanese so I haven't had time to draw lately. Plus it's been hectic after my birthday so I haven't even had a day free in weeks! I finally got some time to relax so I thought I'd draw a picture.

I'm actually so pleased with this. At first I was just messing around with textures and sketching jellyfish and somehow it turned into this. My friend Lilia's been drawing jellyfish too and Laura went to an aquarium in Japan so I've had a lot of influences for this one. I really liked experimenting with the colours and drawing a new animal. They're a lot more fun to draw than I thought!

Hopefully I'll be able to draw more. I've got another competition with Laura coming up so I should be able to update this soon!

I'm back from Serbia!

It's been a while since I've last drawn so it's just a quick character sketch. I was browsing deviantart and came across a hair style and it gave me the idea for this character. It was nice drawing this as it's not my usual character style. I'm really out of habit and I'm not completely satisfied with the colours. At least I'm getting practice though!

Another competition

I took my time with this drawing so there wasn't enough of an update to post last week. 

I did another drawing competition with my friend Laura. I think I lot could be improved (mainly the colours and the pose) but I think I managed to portray a scerene scene well. I'm also very please with my Sakura! 

Also, this is the picture Laura drew for me. I love it so much!

I'm in Serbia again

I've been in Serbia for the past week and a half so I haven't been able to draw at all. I've been busy with my Japanese lessons, meeting friends and sightseeing. Hopefully I'll be able to post more when I get back next weekend. Here's a quick sketch I did since I forgot to post!

It's supposed to be someone kneeling asking for forgiveness. As I said, it's a really quick sketch so it may not be completely accurate. 

I completely forgot to upload last week! I've been a bit busy studying Japanese so I haven't had much time to draw lately. Here's a drawing I managed to complete when I was bored of studying.

I really like this drawing. I had no idea what I was doing and just randomly sketched something. I think it turned out quite well considering! I'm really pleased with the colours and proportions. I'm looking forward to seeing what I can draw next.

In work we had a Star Wars themed "expo". I had been asked to help collect ideas and decorate the stall. It then inspired me to do a couple of Star Wars sketches. No prizes for whoever guesses who the characters are :P.

They didn't take me too long. They were only supposed to be quick sketches in my breaks. I definitely think my proportions and colouring are getting a lot better so I'm quite happy with this.

Hopefully I'll have more for next week. I'm still trying to draw the snowy forest picture but it's taking so long! I think I put a bit too much detail in it :/.

Progress!

I'm uploading this before I forget. It's an actual progress post!

So anyone remember this? It's the drawing I started in October and ended up leaving. I decided to go back to it and it's taking me forever. I actually ended up tweaking it a lot. It's made me quite impressed with my improvement. Still got a long way to go but it's getting there!

There's always light!

You might have read this before, but I recently went through a few months of depression. I have a lot of friends going through the same situation and thought I'd draw a picture based off it.

I didn't want it to be too dark, so I added a lot more colour than I probably should have. I wanted to show that there's always "light" and "dark" sides to every situation. I think the colours could have more work but I'm quite pleased with the finished result. It's better than I was expecting!

Let it go...

Last week it was a very special birthday. The daughter in our Serbian family had her birthday so I thought I'd draw her a quick picture since she loves my art so much.

It's not bad considering it's a really quick drawing. I think I'm getting a lot better with hair, especially when it's supposed to look messy. Plus my colours are way better than before! I actually looked back on previous work and realised that they weren't very colourful compared to my drawings now. I'm quite glad that I've improved my colours! So can anyone guess who Andrea's favourite character is?

Rooftop Prince

I'm going to be a bit early this week! I've recently started watching a Korean drama called "Rooftop Prince" and it inspired me to draw. I didn't realise how different asian cultures were (forgive me for being a big ignorant). I love how vibrant and colourful Korean clothes are so I wanted to create a drawing showing this.

This was actually a big challenge for me. It seemed simple enough but who knew colours could be this tricky! I didn't even look up reference for a pose this time! I'm really happy with the finished result.

I think I might experiment more with traditional styled clothing since I find it really fun to research and draw. It'll give me an excuse to find out about new cultures!

Mascots!

I was joking around with work colleagues, which turned into them asking me to create a team mascot. I can't imagine a serious drawing suiting them, so I thought I'd mess around a bit.

 I quite enjoyed this. They're really quick drawings but it's helping me get back into digital drawings. It's been too long since I last used photoshop!

Dun dun DUUUUUN...I'm early!

I'm early again! I actually finished this drawing on Monday and was waiting for a decent time to upload this. I don't want to be too early and mess up my weekly drawing routine.

I'm actually really proud of this. It's my first ever portrait that kind of looks like it's supposed to...still nowhere near perfect but at least I'm improving! It's a definite improvement from the last one, especially when it's supposed to be the same singer...

I haven't had much time to draw this week. I've been a bit distracted with work/catching up with friends that I've neglected drawing. Good thing I'm about a week ahead with my drawings!

So I decided that I'd draw another of my favourite characters. This time it's Waka from "Okami". It's only a quick sketch so there's about a million things wrong with it! I'm actually quite proud of the pose though. I definitely think I'm getting better and putting more "life" into my drawings. Hopefully I'll have some time this week for a more detailed drawing.

Something new!

So as I said before, this week I'm in the mood to try something different. My friend Lilia got me into the kpop band MBLAQ and ever since then I've been dying to draw a portrait  I've not drawn one in at least seven years!

It could be a lot better. I'm amazed I've improved so much since my last one. Especially considering I've had no practice at it. I need to practice a lot at getting facial features recognisable - especially the eyes and mouth. Either way I'm still fairly happy with this. Also for anyone who's curious it's the member thunder. 

I forgot!

I completely forgot to upload again! That's the problem with getting my drawings done in advance. So this week a friend of mine challenged me to a drawing contest. She wanted to draw me and my favourite Pokemon team and in return I was to draw hers.

I'm quite happy with this. I'll admit I did get help via reference pictures on a few of the poses (who knew Pokemon were so hard to draw). All the colours and the rest of the poses are completely mine. I really like the colours. They're nice and bright so I think it reflects them quite well. Also, incase you're wondering this is the picture my friend did. You can find her artwork at http://tsutsuji14.deviantart.com/.

Also, I'm thinking of going for something different next week. We'll see if it turns out the way I want it before I tell you though! It's a completely new style and I'm not sure I can pull it off.

So I'm going back to Japan next year! I've officially started saving and I'm in the middle of planning places to go with a few friends. Since I'm so excited about this I thought I'd draw a picture inspired by it.

I've tried many times to draw a kimono and I can never get it to look right. This time I thought I'd add a sakura (cherry blossom) pattern and I'm quite proud of it! Plus it's also to symbolise the time of year I'm going to visit. I thought I'd try a bit of an unusual colour palette this time too. It's not often that I use both blue and purple for hair. Personally, I think it goes quite well though and matches the sakura petals. I probably should've spent more time on the hair decoration but I figure I could do a study on this another time since they're always so pretty. Anyway, I'm really proud of this picture and hope that there's more Japanese inspired pictures to come soon! Especially since I enjoy drawing these so much.

This week's a little different. I was sketching in work since I had some free time and somehow it turned into Rapunzel. No idea how that happened! Anyway I quite liked the sketch so I thought I'd develop from it. Also, for once I'll show you the sketch and the finished drawing!

I got the flowers completely wrong in the sketch - remember I was drawing this completely from memory! I'm really proud of this though. I liked experimenting with the colours and adding a lot of light to the drawing. I do think that I could've added a lot more shadow though as a contrast. I can work on that for next time though.

Happy Chinese New Year

Another early post! Anyway since I love Asia and all the different cultures I thought I'd do a Chinese New Year picture. 

I am actually incredibly proud of this. It turned out better than I imagined (that really doesn't happen often). I was experimenting more with overlays and bold colours - something I personally think I did well. Plus there's a lot more life in my character so I'd say this was a success!

Happy Valentines Day!

Well this took me FOREVER to draw! I think it must've been over a week, a lot longer than my usual two days at most.

I'm really proud of the colouring, especially on the female's face. I'm a bit disappointed the male's wasn't as good but it's a stepping stone! At least I know I'm learning. I also messed about quite a bit with overlays in this. Actually the overall overlay (confusing...) was a happy mistake. I was messing about (literally) and wanted to see what a bright pink/blue gradient would look like on an overlay. I'm quite happy to say that it enhanced my colours, especially the yellows in the tree, so I decided to keep it. Plus it helps add a bit more of a romance atmosphere to the drawing.

Now I have another surprise. I actually finished next week's drawing before this so I've got time to experiment with more drawings this week. It's a picture for Chinese New Year and I'm so happy it's almost time to show it off. I'm so proud of it. Anyway you'll see it next week so that's enough for now!

Freelance work

This week I got contacted by my old work experience company, "Zapcoder", to do some freelance work. They've got an upcoming game coming out and wanted me to do some artwork for them. I did create a character and some assets but I'll probably show them nearer the release, if I don't have more work to show by then.

I'm quite proud of this. Comparing it to the ones I did for them before, I can definitely see an improvement. My colours have improved greatly, before they were quite dull, and I've gotten slightly better with my detailing. I'm actually amazed to see such a difference.

Make sure to check out zap.pm! It's a great engine where you can play simple games and even edit them with your own graphics!

Don't forget your roots

Short blog this week. Still doing more character study and poses. This time I thought I'd use my own character. Plus I wanted to do something that shows not to "forget your roots". I've been looking over my old work to see how I've improved and felt this theme was appropriate.

I'm actually really happy with how this turned out. I'm beginning to like my colours (before they were way too flat) plus I feel I'm improving a lot with my poses. I only wish I had more time to draw!

It's Midna!

So this week I decided to revisit character study. I was browsing through websites of artists that inspire me and saw they do this often to try and improve on their own characters. I thought it was a great idea so why not start with my favourite character.

She's from my favourite game "Twilight Princess". I love her "impish" character that's full of mischief. She's also the princess of the Twilight Realm so I wanted to draw something that showed off her personality and her position. I probably could do with more pose studying but I'm really happy with it. Also, I finally started sing the airbrush! It's so much easier to add shadows now. I definitely think I'll be using it more from now on.

Not sure if I'll upload another post this week. Depends on how quickly another idea comes to me. If not then it'll just be next week for another post. That's all for now.

Staying ahead

Well I'm actually managing to stay ahead of this! I drew two pictures last week so that I could concentrate a bit on learning Japanese (I'm really struggling with the vocabulary). Anyway, I was looking through deviantart and came across quite a number of artists who inspired me to draw. Next week will not be my own character, instead one of my favourite characters. Enough of that for now.

Tah dah! This was originally just supposed to be a joke but I quite liked the sketch. After visiting Japan I've had a craving for ramen and I was joking about it with a friend. I thought why not sketch it quickly and then I just didn't stop. It's only a quick drawing but I'm really pleased with it. I've not managed to draw an "eating" picture successfully so it's quite an achievement for me, especially with no reference. The colours are pretty decent too.

Next week's picture will be much more detailed than this. That's enough for this week!

I forgot...again

Seems like I forgot to upload this again. Overtime is killing my memory! 

So this time it's a concept that just came to me in my sleep. It's only supposed to be a quick drawing so it still looks quite sketchy. I'm actually quite proud of the shadows. Usually I don't get them quite right but they look fine in this. I'll need to experiment more with lights to see how to draw them properly. That's it for this week. 

Guess what I've been watching

Whoops I'm a bit late. I had my drawing ready early and forgot to actually upload it to this. I've been watching a lot of films lately with my sister and really liked the new "Blue Exorcist" character. He inspired me to draw.

I was experimenting a bit with the lineart. I didn't want it plain so I was messing about with colours (I actually didn't know how to edit the lineart). It was just meant to be a quick drawing so there are plenty of mistakes. It's helping me get some practice in with different techniques.