Sunday, 19 April 2015

Ohana

"Lilo & Stitch" is probably one of my favourite Disney movies of all time. I remember watching the video over and over again, and I also bought tons of Stitch goodies in Disneyland when the movie came out. Needless to say, I don't ever plan on throwing those goodies away. :) About half a year ago, Niels even managed to get me an adorable Stitch stuffed animal from a Luna Park in Leuven. He hasn't moved from my bed ever since (Oh, those silly pronouns and their ambiguity)! Although I have to admit that "Lilo & Stitch" does not have an earth-shaking plot, it tells a beautiful story about friendship, family and self-acceptance.

Drawing Stitch turned out to be quite difficult when I was younger. This is probably my first attempt in years, and it took me about 3 hours to finish the drawing. I actually gave Stitch a bit of a personal touch: his face is much rounder, and his eyes are much bigger. I am aware of that, but I think it looks pretty cute on him! :D Similar to the "Vivi Ornitier" that I drew earlier this month, I used big, rough brushes, and an absolute minimum of sharp lines. I'm still not used to drawing backgrounds, but reference pictures are really a big help. I honestly think I never looked at plants this way before! Backgrounds used to be my biggest enemy, but I think I am finally becoming a bit more patient. I hope you like the result. :)

Have a nice week!

Leen

Ohana, April 2015
Paint Tool Sai

Sunday, 12 April 2015

"Dromeria: Lode" Fell Out Of The Sky

Yesterday was a big day for me! It was the official release date of "Dromeria: Lode", the second "big" Dromeria adventure. The text was written by Marc Geyens, and I brought the story to life by taking care of the illustrations. The book took me more than 150 hours to finish, so I was very excited to see the final product (I think the picture speaks for itself). :D


Presenting "Dromeria: Lode" at a book fair in Leuven, April 2015

Our publisher, Uitgeverij Het Punt, hosted a book fair in Leuven. More than 25 authors showed up to present their work. I've met some wonderful people (make sure to check out Sofie's poetry blog!), including several authors and illustrators that I had not seen for more than a year (Christina Guirlande, Sandrine Lambert, Mirte Wolfs, and Kirsten Oppalfens), and I had a lovely chat with some of the visitors, who told me that my drawings looked very appealing. :D Friends and family members even showed up to surprise me. It was a fantastic day!


The three Dromeria books: a friendship book, "Dromeria: Lode", and "Dromeria: Biggie"

"Dromeria: Lode" tells the story of Lode, a rhyming mailman. Biggie the pig wants Lode to deliver a letter, but the ever-confused stork gets distracted, and returns to Dromeria without delivering the message at all. The book contains a total of 41 drawings (20 big illustrations, 20 small illustrations, and the cover art), and features many of my friends' real-life pets, such as Clio the cat, Choco the guinea pig, and Zita the sighthound. This time, I decided to use thinner lines, so I could cover more details (Seriously, so many feathers!). And since many of the scenes are located in the sky, I spent a lot of time figuring out some nice colour patterns. :D I really hope that people can tell the difference.


One of the 20 big story-related illustrations in "Dromeria: Lode", February 2015
Paint Tool Sai

If you would like to order the book, please send me a message. "Dromeria: Lode" will also be available for purchase on De Leeswinkel, and in several Belgian bookstores. Again, I would like to thank everyone for their support. I couldn't do it without you, guys!

See you soon. :)

Leen

Monday, 6 April 2015

RedditGetsDrawn: Could You Draw Me?

About one year ago, I joined a Subreddit named RedditGetsDrawn (RGD). Reddit is an entertainment, social networking, and news website, where registered community members can submit content (Thanks, Wikipedia!). RGD, more specifically, is a page where people can post a picture of themselves or a loved one. The whole idea behind RGD is that Redditors can browse the picture database, choose one that they like, and make a nice drawing of that person, without asking anything in return.

These are some of the drawings that I made for random people on RGD. All of them were very happy with the result. :D I'm also posting the original picture of the person who wanted to get drawn, as a matter of comparison. These pictures were already made public by the users themselves. Most drawings were made with Paint Tool Sai and took me about 1.5 hours to finish.

Have a great day!

Leen


Buttons_arent_toys, January 2014
Paint Tool Sai


TheJester190, January 2014
Paint Tool Sai


Houseboatbabies, January 2014
Paint Tool Sai


Katilynberg, January 2014
Paint Tool Sai


Tyko, January 2014
Paint Tool Sai


EvilDeceiver, February 2014
Paint Tool Sai


Jayzeed_666, March 2014
Pencil


Blubbership4, May 2014
Paint Tool Sai

Sunday, 5 April 2015

Gon x Killua

I love anime, but I often find it hard to keep up with the constant flood of episodes. However, my dear friend Netflix suggested me to watch "Hunter x Hunter", a Japanese series that was given an outstanding score on the IMDB website (A whopping average of 9.1/10 at this very moment). And that's exactly what I did. Hunter x Hunter is surprisingly funny and the character design is simply excellent. Gon and Killua are the youngest Hunters, but it seems like they are also the strongest and most ambitious ones. Gon uses a fishing rod to attack his enemies, while Killua (who looks simply adorable most of the time, squee) is a professional assassin. It's pretty funny how my good friend Sarah recently recommended the series to me, without knowing that I had already started watching it. :) Thumbs up!

I used a somewhat different style for this drawing, similar to the Vivi I drew two weeks ago. In the end, it didn't really turn out like a digital painting, because everything still seems a bit too clean. I'm not too happy about the fact that I had to use "sharp" lines to deal with all the little details. But I think this could pass as a regular manga drawing, and in that case, it is probably one of my best attempts so far. It took me about 6 hours to finish. 

Happy Easter. :D Go eat some delicious eggs!

Leen

Hunter x Hunter, April 2015
Paint Tool Sai

Friday, 3 April 2015

Cosplay: New Terrain To Explore

I never knew much about cosplay, until the Dutch Official PlayStation Magazine's website decided to publish a weekly cosplay gallery in 2010. Agreed, those galleries were usually filled with pictures of sexy women, cosplaying as their favourite sexy video game character. Page views, guaranteed. When I was editor-in-chief for one month, I actually took advantage of my position to publish a cosplay gallery that was filled with pictures of sexy men, instead (Best student job ever!). But that's another story (and it was a great success). The point is, cosplay is fascinating, and some people do a terrific job at impersonating fictional characters.

Cosplayers usually make their own costumes. I have always looked up to cosplayers, because I'm afraid that I'm simply terrible at sewing stuff and cutting hair and dyeing cloth and putting make-up on my face. But recent events have finally given me the courage to give it a try.


T-shirts and accessories for our "Team Rocket Grunt" outfit, January 2015

In February 2015, Niels and I attended a "Criminal Minds" theme party at an old castle in Zelem. We were asked to dress accordingly. Knowing that Niels' colleagues never hold back when it comes to dressing up, we decided to express our never-ending love for the Pokémon franchise by putting together a "Team Rocket Grunt" uniform. "Team Rocket Grunt" is a type of enemy in the old Pokémon games. The outfit is very simple: black, with some white accents. We bought the white gloves, white belt, coloured wigs, black caps and a variety of Pokéballs in offline and online stores. I decided to bring along my old Meowth plushie and I even managed to find the toy Pokédex I used to play with as a kid. :) My only "creative" task was to print a big, red "R" on two black T-shirts. Niels' colleagues were surprisingly positive about our collective effort. That's why we eventually took the decision to wear our outfit at a real geek convention, where (hopefully) even more people would recognize us.


Niels and me as "Team Rocket Grunt" at Made in Asia, Brussels, March 2015
Credits: Egenius

In March 2015, we attended the Made in Asia fair in Brussels. We never expected to be photographed by more than 30 attendees, including "professional" cosplay photographers. Since our costume was very easy to make, we would not even call it a real cosplay. Nevertheless, we saw a bunch of Ash and Pikachu cosplayers run away from us in fear. And we even met two Team Magma cosplayers, who made evil plans with us to steal legendary Pokémon and take over the world. Overall, we had a wonderful day!


Teaming up with Team Magma at Made in Asia, Brussels, March 2015

I've made plans to put together a real cosplay outfit by September 2015, which will require me to handcraft many more parts of the costume. I'm planning on wearing it at the F.A.C.T.S. convention in Ghent. It's always good to have a strict deadline. :) It took me a while to decide which character I would like to cosplay, until I realized that the White Mage outfit probably fits me most. The White Mage is a "Healer" character class in most Final Fantasy games, and it is also my main class in Final Fantasy XIV Online. Although different versions of the outfit exist, it always has a characteristic white cape and hood, and several red, triangular accents. Furthermore, as I recently started playing Final Fantasy IX, I decided to cosplay Princess Garnet (also known as Dagger), wearing her White Mage outfit, more specifically.


Plans for a Princess Garnet (White Mage) cosplay, April 2015
Paint Tool Sai

I'm very curious to see how this project will turn out. I have some experience with papier-mâché, so the staff and the necklace should not be a big problem. It is the rest of the outfit that worries me, especially the hood and the cape! I think my grandmother will have to assist me. :D

See you next time,

Leen