A frozen sword-wielding waitress wearing a gas mask

Yeah.... I was really like, original for sure.
So to maintain some silhouette thingies, I sketches some small thumbnails to create a pose. I didn't worry about the look too much yet. After a few, I came to the conclusion that I should show her female-ness and that she would wield a gigantic sword. I thought the best way of showing that, was the pose in the bottom corner.

And after the thumbnail was nailed, I started to make a bigger version that I could fill with a black/dark grey color. 

Now the fun thing began! Shading, shading, how I love shading!

I started with a solid black color and drew the apron with white. The opacity of the brush was lowered (around 50% I guess) to make it less "hard". By using the color picker I picked shades and filled in the figure. The result is shown below. 

Another tricky part was to add the ice. Ice is a difficult material to draw. It reflects a lot, but contains a lot of shadows too. First I drew the ice on a layer with an opacity of 100%. I added the shadows and highlights, blended it together and then the opacity was lowered around 50%. The final result is shown below. 

A spiky organic gateway

 And another day with a new subject, this time, it was a structure. I was afraid it would be something really, really, REALLY weird, but it wasn't that weird.

The subject was a spiky organic gateway. The first thing I was thinking about was a gateway of stone, covered with plants and thorns, but it didn't work out really well, it wasn't organic. So I sketched a bit more.

The third sketch was the one (the one at the bottom). A gateway shaped like a tree, covered with thorns and roses. The "fence" besides the gate would be more trees, but with a more simple design.

The big sketch was very sloppy, but I thought the trees should have a "loose" feel to it. And thus the sketch was made.

In my other drawings I started with just adding colors. The background had a color, but the rest was just added with strokes. In drawings which take longer than 1 hour, I often use silhouettes. So I thought, why not using it this time? So I started with a dark grey, and then with white I added highlights, I used opacity, lighter greys, darker greys and such. And after all that playing with colors, I got a drawing with some nice shadows and highlights.

There was even time to give it some nice colors! So that's what I did. Normally, it would take me quite some time, because the layer style is often "normal". But I experimented a bit and this time, another layerstyle was used. (I believe it was "Hard Light") and the result is quite satisfying to be honest. 

A steel hovercraft carrying supplies

 And this time, the picked subject was a steel hovercraft carrying supplies. Quite the challenge for me, because I don't draw machines and other technological things. So this was a challenging challenge.

Of course the first thing to do is sketching. I started out with some writings first to get an idea. Then the small sketches were drawn.

I decided on an one-person hovercraft with supplies. It's easy, it won't get a lot of attention and it can be very fast. 

After the sketch, a clean lineart was created. This took quite some time, so the only shading added it the shading on the propeller, the glass and the "balloon-kinda-thingies". 

A weak transparent deity worships a magical old orc in a dojo

The first drawing of today with the theme:

A weak transparent deity worships a magical old orc (with thanks to the this website). 

And the first thing to do was making the sketches. Since it is a scene, there was a bit more planning needed. 

The first idea was to make a piece with a "horizontal" format, but it didn't suit my ideas, so it became more vertical. 

The first sketch (see the one above) is pretty rough. The basic poses are very important to draw. 

When I was content, the details were added and a cleaner sketch was created. 

Finally, the coloring. Since the deity had to be transparent, I played with the opacity of his layer. 

A wrinkled gargoyle carrying keys

A fresh start of the week, a fresh start of a new drawing. 

This time, I used http://www.ldaustinart.com/paul/speedpaint.php for the theme of the drawing. With this site, I can't make up ideas and it "forces" me to draw weird things (because there are weird things written down). 

Anyway, I decided to draw a character today, and the description was "A wrinkled gargoyle carrying keys". 

So first, I started out with a sketch:

The character was the most important feature this time, so I started with rough sketches of gargoyles. I peeked at google images to get an idea how a gargoyle looks. Combined with my fantasy, the one at the bottom was picked to be sketched a bit cleaner.

An old gargoyle with wrinkles, using a key to keep his balance and dragging some keys around his waist. With this sketch finished, I decided to make another layer, a bit more clean and a bit more detailed. 

That layer became my lineart.

The final "sketch" was used to add shadows, colors and such. 

The start of something new

First things first, what the fudge is "Sixty Minutes Showcase"? Well it's a blog obviously and it will show you certain things. But what?

I am a student Communication and Multimedia Design and I am focusing on the artistic fields, like 2D animation and illustrations. But to get better you need to practice, a lot!

Recently I got some great tips from Jacko, a member of Frack (www.frack.nl). He told me that artists have to come up with ideas quite fast (within an hour sometimes) and that it is a great way to develop drawing qualities. So I took his advice and starting on the 12th of March, I will produce at least 5 drawings a week. I will criticize my own drawings, but feedback and tips are always welcome.

So after this introduction, my first 60 minute drawing is shown (but didn't you say you would start next week?!). The day I talked with Jacko, I was motivated to the bone, so I started straightaway with a drawing. I wrote down a sentence without thinking of an image and when the 60 minutes started, I started with a small sketch to decide on the composition. My first mission was to create a creature in the forest. I kept it a bit vague and imagined what my imaginative boss would like to see.
For me it was important to show the creature in his natural habitat. What would be his living space? Is that a house made of wood, is it a intelligent being that creates bricks? I asked myself such things while I was sketching.

After the quick sketch it was time for a bigger and cleaner sketch. This would determine the light source for me and such. (sorry about the brown, sometimes I tend to work on the wrong layer ^^; )

As you can see, it is a creature living besides a river. I thought of the creature as a being who likes fish and the most ideal place is to live besides something that has that kind of food.
Another fact is that the creature is a non-existent one (is it?) It's a mixture between some kind of bear, owl, human and a deer.

And after the happy working with blacks and whites, I wanted to splash some colors on it! HA! And I smashed some colors! 

I wanted the mood to be a bit natural, really forest like, so I picked greens, browns and some blues. 

The first colored layer was filled with a dark green. It was a calm, quite cool color. 

When that thing was added, the painting part started. Trees, grass and finally the creature. 

Just adding some details there, o wait, just a few minutes left, well, then I have to add that... and that... O shoot! I forgot something and.... Time's up! 

And here you see the final result of my first 60 minute drawing.