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!