Sketch Dump

Whooooo! I finally got around to do some drawing! And, since I finished my illustration course (finally), I get to draw what I want! Yay!
But no, in all fairness, that course was great. I made some pretty fun and cool things during that course, so I'll scan and show them in the near future.
Other than that, now that I've finished that part of my mandatory drawing process, I thought of setting myself some goals and assignments to keep drawing. As some of you know, I've collected quite some drawing books over the years. Now I plan to make at least one drawing from each book and save and collect all of those in a folder, like I did with my illustration course. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up with myself. Lol.

But anyway, here are some drawings by me. It's a sketch dump and a couple of the sketches are of Daniel from ARC. I really like Daniel, which is a good thing, but also a bad thing, because I neglect the other characters. But oh well, I'll see to them soon enough. I have time now! Yay!

Creative with Photoshop

I'm baaaaack. From where? you might ask, well, from being busy and sick and, well, I'm still sick, but that's a good excuse to do some art. I have more to come, but wanted to post this first. So here it goes.

It's a tutorial from the magazine Photoshop Creative, because I want to learn the friggin' program and at the moment I suck at it. So there you are... Still, it might be wise to get the hang of it. I'm planning to do more of these tutorials, so this is just a warming-up.

Disclaimer: Please keep in mind that none of the materials presented in this picture are mine. I got them from the cd that came with the magazine. Even the idea isn't mine, except maybe for some elements. But oh well, I learned how to draw by tracing and drawing from other pictures as well, so who gives, right?

Enjoy!

A.R.C.

Meet Daniel, Aaron, and Michael of A.R.C.

You are now 500 years in the future, the year is 2508. Earth is pretty much dealing with the same problems as it is now: environment, overcrowdedness (is that a word?), politics, ethnics, ..., and accidents. However, all these problems happen on different levels now. Wait, accidents? Yes, accidents, just not on the ground, more so in the air and in space. Cars have been replaced by flying vehicles which can go in the air or in space and are very useful things. Except, of course, when you crash into one another...
A.R.C. stands for Aero Research Center. Aaron, Michael, and Daniel are part of a team which researches these accidents (or 'accidents') and tries to figure out what happened. Of course, they come across bad guys and other evilness, so they know their ways around guns and other sorts of fun stuff.

Daniel is based on a friend of mine and one of my favorite actors, Michael Shanks. He's your typical gay guy with lots of dry humor and sarcasm.

Aaron is an African American and old veteran. His past is troubled and he is determined to solve every accident out there, even if that means he has to do so at the expense of certain people.

Michael is a very cheerful young man and pilots the vehicle the team uses to visit the accident site/crime scenes. He is so cheerful, one wonders whether it's not just a mask he's wearing...

Atlantis All the Way!

Finally! Some drawings! Though I admit they are not much, it's always better than nothing. Here we go!

Of the three, I like this one best. Though it might be wise not to say this on the Internet, I made this during college... Sorry! It was fun though.
He, like the other two, is based on Ronon Dex from Stargate Atlantis.


The first of these three that I made. I know, the order in which I put them doesn't make sense, but oh well. I like this one least, but enough to put him up here. He, too, is based on Ronon.


This one was actually drawn with help of a reference picture of Ronon. He looks best in terms of looking like the actual character, but I see too many flaws with the picture (the pose is off, his vest is all wrong! Gah! I do like the pants though..) itself...

*Sigh*

Okay, this is, yet another, post without any pictures/drawings. I'm very ashamed to do it, but I figured I could no longer go without posting, but I don't have any drawings to go with it. So there, another post without a drawing.

I've been very busy the past few weeks. With university, for one, because my grades pretty much suck and I hate it when that happens, so I had to work hard and kick some asses, but it worked! That is, I got one good grade now, let's hope it's a continuing trend.

Other than that I've been busy around the house. Doing some very necessary chores like re-styling the downstairs toilet. It turned out pretty good, actually, and now I'm no longer afraid to go to the bathroom downstairs, in my own home, which I was before. Sad, eh? Oh well, it's fixed now. But yeah, that took a while and quite a chunk of my precious time.

So! Not much else to say. It's pretty boring over here now...

Backward Changes

Well, as you can see I changed my banner back into the old one. Not that I disliked the new one, but it wasn't really designed for this weblog. This blog is called Sjors, after all.

And as you can see as well, I added links to my blog and one of them is another blog. It is a Dutch one, just so you know, but for those who can read it, it should be fun. Lol. It has short columns on it; to improve my language skills and just for fun. So go check it out!

(Wow, I think this was my shortest post ever! It's more of an announcement, anyway)

Card and fashion design

Yay! I finally made some new things! I'm quite busy with college and everything, so drawing/creative moments are rare. However, they never disappear entirely, so here we go!


A card design for a baby of a friend of mine. She is expecting her second. For her first son I also designed the card (a sheep) and in this design he comes back as well. Big brother and everything, lol. Anyway, for the new baby they wanted a fish design, so here it is!


A card design for no one in particular. This one's a birthday card.


A card design for a 'With sympathy' card. I chose a butterfly because it symbolizes the spirit or soul.


And last but not least, a fashion illustration! Yay! This one was a lot of fun to do. I used a pose from a fashion book I have and made it my own. The shirt and skirt were cut from scrapbook paper I bought at a hobby store. I liked doing it and how it came out. More to come (hopefully, lol)!

Gina Huizinga (lol)

I did it! I started my own little company! I'm very happy with it and, despite the fact that most of it will be about translation, I hope that, in the long run, I can do some design as well. To emphasize that last point, I redesigned my own logo. For copyright reasons I was not allowed to use the name I had planned for my company, namely Sjors, as this weblog. I chose the savest one, my own name. So now I own a company called Gina Huizinga... Lol. Very exciting event with a very boring name, but it'll do. Anyway, I decided I needed to tweek my logo a little bit for that reason, plus the fact that I'm translating more than designing. So here it is, my new design! I'll see if I can reconfigure this site's banner as well... Would be good.

The text in this image refers to 'woord en beeld,' a common combination of words used in the Netherlands. Translated it means 'word and image,' hence the -image- of the rabbit, which in itself refers back to my original logo. Done in Adobe Illustrator.

Words

It is rare, I know, but this time I will post something without any drawings. Why? Because of my new discoveries about... the word.

I'm in my final year at the university now and decided to pursue translation as my master. It is a hard study, not only because of the level of difficulty, but also because it has absolutely nothing to do with drawing. Swallow and move on. Yes, but not without a certain amount of regret.
Still, I'm happy with what I'm learning. Translation has everything to do with language, and not just with English, my favorite foreign language, but also with Dutch, my mother's tongue. After my 16th year, I never appreciated Dutch enough. Now I'm finally getting back to finding the value of the language I learned when I was a child. And I like it. I will never stop thinking or writing or reading in English, but I will stop liking English over Dutch. The beauty of translating is a link between those two languages, and I love it.
I also love the fact that translation has everything to do with words and texts and communication. I'm simply falling in love with it.

I doesn't matter if you write them, type them, read them, or think them, words are beautiful things.

Meet Michael the Pilot

Yay! I made a pilot! Lol. I bought some screentones the other day (screentones are those sheets with black/grey/white dots or patterns that mangaka use for their black&white manga) and decided to experiment. This is the result! His name is Michael and he's the pilot of a futuristic vessel that I still have to design. But I can feel a story coming, so stay tuned.

Anyway, I'm happy with it, hopefully you'll like it too!
Oh, on a side note, I did the mouth and chin schadow digitally, because I screwed the real thing up...

Early in the Mornin'

Geez, never thought I could get up so early, lol. Ah well, I'm a little nervous, I suppose. You know, for 'school.' Starting a new one today. I feel like a freshman... Still, before I go I have some more drawings. Enjoy!

Tried this one on new paper. The paper isn't good for wet mediums (watercolors and such), but it works for markers and pencils. This manga figure was made with just those.


Wonder Woman with guns?! Lol, no, just someone who likes to hold pistols and dress up wei... uh, nice. Tried this one out myself, without reference, which is why it's a little off. Markers again.


A pose I stole from a fashion book. I really liked the pose, but made the girl and clothes myself. Markers again.

And the test results are...

Sorry for the stupid title, I couldn't think of a better one. But anyway, here we are, again, this time with Abby in it. It's from the same episode as the previous picture, and, like the previous ones, made with watercolors (background) and Copic markers (characters). The scanner kind of screwed with the colors, especially the lighter watercolors, but oh well. This will have to do. And that machine on the table? No clue as to what it is, but I made it a fancy microscope. I couldn't really tell the details from the printscreen I made, so I improvized. Don't shoot me, lol.

By the way, I don't have the right color markers to do Kate's hair properly, but I have the right colors for Abby's (scary, rubber) gloves... What's up with that?

[EDIT]
I made the filmstrip longer, adding my most recent pic. I didn't think it worthy of a whole new post, so I decided to edit this one.

[END EDIT]

On A Roll!

Lol, I made another NCIS thingy. It's done from a screenshot I made myself from the episode One Shot, One Kill from the first season. I like how it turned out.

The normal version...


And the version with filmstrip, added in Photoshop. Just playing around a bit, lol. I kind of like it.

Illustration course

For those who don't know yet, I'm taking this illustration course (which, sadly, I haven't finished yet, but I'm getting there, lol). For this course I had to do a 'fantasy' assignment, using elements of the human figure. I was supposed to pick a model, but I had done a similar thing in one of my dummies when I was still in art college, so I decided to simply elaborate on that one. I really like the outcome and intend on doing this more often, but with different objects.
Anyway, hope you like it, too!

The line-art version...


...And the colored version!


It's titled fEmail, but don't ask me why. That just came to me when I made it, lol.

Flying Colors

Lol, I actually colored the NCIS scene I posted earlier (here)! Yay! And I'm quite proud of the outcome, I love it! Double yay!
I know Kate's hair isn't right, but I don't have the right colors in my Copic collection yet, so yeah, I made her blond. The characters are colored with Copic markers and the background is done with watercolors.

Doodles and Things

Made some stuff again. Nothing extraordinary or anything, but still fun.

This is Mi, and yes, they're based on Me, go figure...
The colored version is basically wearing my work outfit, except for the high heels, I rarely wear high heels, so especially at work (where I have to stand/walk all the time) I won't wear them. But I thought they were a nice touch. For those who know me in real life, no, I haven't painted my hair purple, but again, it looks cool, lol.


And this is a comic scene I made. It's based on NCIS, but not quite NCIS, though it could've been, I suppose. No existing scene, anyway. They could be Tony and Ziva, but then they don't really look that well... So I'm just telling you that these are (very original) characters I came up with myself and put them in a (very original) scene I came up with as well... And you'll just have to believe me, ha!
Please note the (very) sarcastic undertone...

It was cool to make, though.

NCIS again!

Well, drew part of this from a picture, which can be found here and made part of it up myself. I enjoyed doing this. Adding details and stuff. It's fun. Plus, since I didn't recognize the original scene, I made my own story to go with it.

What happened here? He was obviously hit on the head with the blunt object on the table, but what else? Why is he clutching his chest? If it would've been a heart attack of some kind, and he would've been hit post-mortum, there wouldn't be any blood, or not as much anyway. Was he having pain first and hit later? Was he dead immediately after the hit? What's the paper slip Gibbs is holding? Who is the guy standing in the front? So much fun! Lol, I actually pay attention when watching the series.

August and Dried Rose

Finally! Some time to update some more. I see I've only updated twice in July, that's terrible! I hope August will make up for that, but I can't be sure. Still have an translation going on, of which the dead-line is August 12th, and then there's my part-time/student job. And since it's the holidays they like to plan me into the roster without consulting me much, so yeah. Hey, I'm not complaining, more work is always good, considering, but still, it's a lot of work, you know? (Wow, how many commas can one use in one sentence? Lol. If I did this in a translation I'd get my butt kicked... Seriously. But then again, this is so lovely unofficial. I love being unofficial, especially after having done so many things official lately.)

Anyhow, below here is ... well, it's supposed to be Gibbs, from NCIS. But he doesn't really look like it. I still like the character itself though, so I thought I'd post it anyway. Plus I like the line-art. I drew that gun from a photo on the cover of a encyclopedia I bought (you get it?). Yes, I bought an encyclopedia about guns... How bad is that. I like them, though. Not to kill, mind you, but they're interesting ... objects.


From left to right: Gibbs, Todd, and DiNozzo. Or, in other words, Jethro, Kate, and Tony. Drew this one from a (well-known) picture on one of the DVDs. So it's not really original, but I like how the line-art turned out. Kind of comic-y.



And last but not least; a rose! It's a dried rose, mind you, so it wasn't my fault. I drew it from a real-life dried rose I kept from a bouquet. Done with my wonderful new Prismas! Still love 'em! And they work fantastically!

Holiday sketches

Ha! I finally managed to find time and will to upload some holiday sketches. Sorry for the delay, and so, without further a due, here they are!

One little note, though, keep in mind that all of them are mere sketches, nothing fancy, sorry.

First off, drawings from our last hiking trip in Austria. It was the toughest one, but also the one with the best views and awesome memories. This drawing is made from a cabin at about 3200 meters. We slept there and went on to the peak of a mountain nearby the next day. That peak was at about 3500 meters. Pretty high, trust me. You not only see the hight, you also feel it. There's less oxigen to go around, so you tire easily. Plus part of the hike went across a glacier, both on the way to as well as on the way back, since the cabin was slabbed against a rocky mountainside in the middle of the glacier. It's both awesome and frightening to walk across tons of ice. But we made it! As this drawing proves. Unfortunately I was too busy keeping up with my fellow hikers that I couldn't draw more on this two-day hike.


This drawing was made on our forelast hike. The peak we went to was at about 3000 meters and though not as high as the glacier hike, still pretty high, even though we started at about 2400 meters.


This is a color sketch of a landscape in Austria, made on site, just like the above sketches. The hike was great, but the views even better. I was lucky I'd brought my drawing stuff.


Same mountains in the background, different view, though. It was the same hike, yeah.


I also did some characters, at the campsite we stayed at. This is one of them. A little girl based on a girl I saw there. She had superblond hair in two pigtails, wore a skirt and had these huge hiking shoes underneath it. It looked so cute, haha! I just had to draw it.


Not much to say about this guy. Simply felt like designing a character with simple clothing. He turned out to look rather like a Native American person, at least I think so, but I don't know why.


Two black and white characters. I was bored and leaving through one of my drawing books I'd brought with me. They turned out pretty funny. I like the girl especially, but the Superbaby is funny and weird and, well, he's cool!


Another black and white one. Don't really have a name for him, either. He was supposed to go on a quest for me and have all kinds of adventures, but the story changed in my head, so he won't be in it now. Sorry kiddo.


PS: of course these were not all the drawings I made in Austria, though probably the bigger part. Maybe I'll post the others some other time. At the moment, though, I'm quite busy with two jobs and a take home exam... Sorry you guys.

Holidays... phah!

Honey, I'm hohome!

Lol, well, yeah, I'm back from Austria, where I had a wonderful albeit sportive vacation. We did quite a bit of hiking and climed a glacier at one point. That was on a two-day trip. All in all it was a bit exhausting, but very satisfying as well.

Now I'm back home, I'm also back at work and school stuff, so I'm busy.. yet again.. That really sucks, because I did draw during my vacation and even made a few landscape sketches I plan to work out at a later date. However, I haven't really had the energy yet to do anything but the stuff I really need to do. Oh, and yes, I'm also reading a very exciting trilogy by Robin Hobb at the moment (her latest), so I'm also doing some things for fun, I know. Still! I really want to draw more and update with art works, but I have to ask you to be patient. Maybe, someday, I'll be done with all my boring chores and more, so I can do whatever I want! ghahahaaaaa! Ehem... right... Anyway, I hope I can update soon with something more than text!

NoName

Two more images! I got new copic markers this weekend, and I figured I'd try them out. I liked the result, but of course I need to improve big time. It's not near as good as I want it to be. Anyway, here they are!

This girl I tried the markers on. However, I tweaked this particular image in Photoshop, since the scan did the image no justice... She had an ear-job, since the original was way too small and too high up, and I smugded her skin. The scan showed too much grain where I colored the image with the Prismacolor pencils. Oh well. It looks okay, now, and I definitely need to practice more with those markers. They're fun, though!


Same girl. (I dubbed her NoName, since I wouldn't know her name, who knows, maybe she'll tell me some time, maybe she won't. Maybe the name NoName has a story within itself). Anyway, did this with my pens and Prisma's and greys for the background and kicked-up person, lol. I like how she's in color and the rest isn't... Maybe I'll do more of her.

Mister Chef

Lol! Something I just had to share... I have these flashes in my head sometimes, right before I fall asleep. They show me images of the weirdest things. I'm not quite sure whether I'm already dreaming at that moment or whether it's something else. Anyway, last night I came up with this image, and I just drew it in Tegaki (which is an art community online where you draw via an online system, I think it's much like Oekaki, though I'm not too familiar with Oekaki...). I was fairly happy with the outcome, it actually looks like what I saw. So here it is!

Strangest thing, though, I have absolutely nothing with cooks or chefs or whatever! Where on earth did this flash come from?!

Snow! (in Summer...)

Another landscape! Yay! And just because I was beginning to miss people, I also drew a character.

Yeah, well, not much to say. Again, the design is from that same pastel book as my other pastel drawing. I just want to practice a bit first, before I use my own pictures and things, although maybe I could give it a go, now. We'll see. Lol.



This figure was inspired by a scene from NCIS. Season 3, where Gibbs is in the hospital after an explosion and people are pressuring him (he has memory loss). He gets a fit of some sort and shouts that he misses his wife and child (who both died before the actual beginning of series, so it's a memory). I thought the acting by Mark Harmon was absolutely stunning. Seriously, amazing how he can portray such pain, without actually feeling it. So yeah, that's why the colors in this one are hospital-like. I did this one in watercolors, colored ink, and my wonderful new Prismacolor pencils. Just love 'em!

Sketches

Got two more sketches. Nothing special, though.

A sketch of my parents' living room. Not very exciting or anything, but it's good practice. Originally in blue again and traced in Photoshop, just like the sketch of my brother's room.


This is your average circular room... It's a room I came up with after having done those two room sketches. I fixed one of the beams in Photoshop, which I think you can tell, but the original one was... well, off, I guess. It looked weird (even for this room). I'm not sure who lives here, though. My guess is that's a girl or woman (what guy would have a mirror in his living room and pictures of people [parents?] on his wall?). Anyway, she obviously likes circles and spheres! Lol.

Landscapes and such

At the moment I'm in a landscape/background/lay-out/setting kind of mood (whatever you want to call it, I'm confused too). It's a pretty rare thing, because I (used to) hate landscapes, but I was told I had too little of 'em (well, duh, they're tedious...). So yeah, I decided to pick up on that advice and go ahead and draw some. It's all beginners' stuff, though, so go easy on me, kay?

I'm fairly happy with this one. It's my brother's old room at my parents' house. The original is better, though, that one is made with non-photo blue colored pencil, but since it's non-photo, it shows poorly after scanning. And boy! Never thought drawing straight lines in Photoshop would be so hard! Geez!


This one I'm happy with as well, though the design is not mine. I made it based on a drawing in a 'how to' pastel book. It's something new (for me, that is) I discovered a while ago, pastels. They're fun! I think the paper in this one sucks, though, the grain (I think it's called) is too rough. But oh well. Anyway, it's a sunset in a, for me, unknown place.

Dr. Mallard I presume?

All right then! This sketch was the second try in drawing Ducky without a reference after the traces in my previous post. (I guess I'm spamming after all..). Though it's not really, really good or alike, I do like it. And trust me, it's waaaaay better than the first try after the traces. That one sucked big time! So yeah, I'm getting the hang of the digital stuff, too, lol. Enjoy!


Edit: Okay, I've checked back a few times and compared this one to the traces, and no, he ab-so-lutely does not look like doc. Mallard... Bummer. I suppose I'll have to try again (and again and again). But that's the fun part about practice, eventually it will work...

NCIS Continued

Muhahaha! Finally, getting back to my NCIS comic! I copied a Marvel Comics comic template from an original comic page I bought on a comic con here in the Netherlands, so I've got 'official' sizes and stuff like that now. Can't wait to get started! Yay!

Well, anyway, I kind of already did. I was trying out a design for Ducky in my sketch book, but failed miserably. That's when I decided to trace a few pictures of him digitally, to practice and make him actually look like Ducky. When I'm done with that, I'll try some designs and pick the best. Of course, the same thing has to be done for Gerald, Ari, Gibbs... well, the whole lot of them. But my first page (which I've got set up already, frame-wise, I'm impatient like that) will just include Ducky and Gerald, so after them, I can get started. Double Yay!

So here we are, my first trace of Ducky, done in about 5 minutes (probably less, though, I wasn't paying attention to the time, but you know, tracing's easy). His teeth/mouth look funny... Hm, I sure need to trace a few more to get it right, that's for sure.

And here we have the original picture, which I took from this place.


And one more. I added these to this post later, in an edit. It just feels wrong to spam this blog with new posts everytime I've got something... lol.
Added a bit of color. A tiny bit... oh well, I kinda like it.


This is the pic I traced. Got it from over here.


Disclaimer: just to be sure, pics are not mine! (And I don't know the names of the rightful owners either).