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Rene van Belzen

Art

  • I can remember painting this cat from reference in almost 16 hours straight.

    Digitally painted black and white cat

  • For r/SketchDaily, theme Dusty Old Books. Game Boy Advance pixel art (240 x 160, 11 colors). Titles from a Good Reads list tagged “dusty books.”

    • Animal Farm, by George Orwell
    • The Hunger Games, by Suzanne Collins
    • The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien
    • Lord of the Rings; Fellowship of the Ring, by J.R.R. Tolkien
    • Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, by J.K. Rowling
    • The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern
    • Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
    • 1984, by George Orwell
    • Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley
    • Lord of the Flies, by William Golding
    Game Boy Advance pixel art, 11 colors. 10 tattered book covers of books your grandparents had to read.

    Drawing time: 5h02' in 2 sessions.
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  • Free Draw Friday on r/SketchDaily. Drawn w/ the demo version of ArtStudio Pro on an iPad 9th gen, from a photo of one of my late precious feline friends. This goes sooo much faster than drawing with tiny squares! I can see from tiny errors and overall messiness that I’m a bit rusty, though.

    black and white digital drawing of a black and white cat

  • Yep, I can still do traditional art too. Doodling in ArtStudio Pro on iPad, which now has a in-app purchase model, and a life-time purchase too. I’m tempted. The demo version can’t save, but that wasn’t a problem for my mini test-drive.

    screenshot of ArtStudio Pro, doodling a bee-man screenshot of bee-man in its environment

  • My daily creations for r/SketchDaily were becoming ridiculously long-winded. Art engagement ≠ art skill. Likes can soon develop into a soul-sucking experience on social media sites. So I simplified. 6 is often enough for one’s art volume. I rather reserve my 11s for special occasions.
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    Game Boy Advance 240 by 160 pixel art, frightened Kermit the frog and absent-minded Miss Piggy meet Big Bird from Sesame Street

  • For r/SketchDaily: Puddy Cat and Pepe Le Pew as Romeo and Juliet in disguise. Game Boy pixel art 160 x 144 pixels, 4 colors. Animation frame used as a loose reference.

    I am ze locksmith of love, no?

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    Cartoon pixel art in Game Boy format (160 by 144 pixels, 4 colors) with Pepe Le Pew and some unknown pussycat in an unlikely romantic relationship

  • Finishing up the sandwiches wasn’t really that big of a deal. I suppose that’s my subconscious at work. Still, I worked 7 hours on it in 3 sessions over roughly 17 hours. That’s 10 hours of subconscious internal deliberation. IOW, I slept over my art piece. Next time a bit less intensive, please!
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    Game Boy 160 by 144 pixel art, 4 colors. Shown is a plate of sandwiches on a set table.

  • I drew the microscope from reference (no tracing) and the enlargement of the slide from imagination. I’m particularly proud of the 16 by 16 texture tile made more or less seamless. The microscope and its light and shadows are excellent too, for my usual execution of such objects.
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    Game Boy pixel art, 160 by 144 pixels, 4 colors, for r/SketchDaily, with a microscope and what can be seen magnified on the slide

  • Instead of running a 26 km long run, I decided to do another sketch for r/SketchDaily. I was feeling somewhat tired and thought it wise to not overreach. The evildoer has won, I guess.
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    pixel art of witch on a broom, a black cat familiar is with her

  • Despite Reddit being on the fritz, there are still active communities. We artists need challenges to improve, or to just maintain our skill level, even if it means to do the unthinkable (read: surf Reddit with a web browser).
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    160 x 144 Game Boy pixel art, art challenge for r/SketchDaily on July 29, 2023, theme is Ogre, inside a light cone there is an ogre that is 32 by 32 pixels in size

  • In about six days I added two more 32 by 32 pixels portraits. These still take about an hour a piece, and I don’t see one minute for a portrait in my future. We will see how things develop, speed-painting wise. I can see progress, though. My pixels aren’t as random as before. That’s good, I think.
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    256 by 192 pixel art with six of the twelve portraits done

  • Inspired by a famous British boy-band from the 1960s, I drew this character on a stage, using only four colors at a small screen size (GameBoy portable videogame player from the early 1990s). It wouldn’t be a playable character (96 pixels size), which had to wait until the late 1990s, early 2000s.
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    160 by 144 GameBoy 4-color pixel art titled Da Paddles, with a beatnik happily waving

  • Pixel art portrait from a photo.

    The dithering looks wonky, but that’s just inexperience on my part. I need more practice on the drawing fundamentals, specifically for pixel art. Still, it’s the best I could do in a 24 hour period since my previous sketch. So I’m happy 😊
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    four color GameBoy pixel art portrait of a young woman, inside a 72 by 88 pixels frame floating in a 240 by 160 pixels screen

  • I wonder… If there would’ve been a descent sketching app on the GameBoy, would I’ve been able to sketch like this? Ah well, it’s a challenge nonetheless, and I hope to get “good” enough to post on there. I’m competing with 4-color pixel art against pencil and paper, after all.
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    160 by 144 GameBoy pixel art for r/SketchDaily on 20230726, representing a rough sketch of that day's alt-theme, pillow fight

  • I drew this on May 11, 2021 on r/SketchDaily, with prompt Quail Quilting Quorum. Too bad Reddit has gone to hell in a hand-basket in the meanwhile, similar to Twitter, now X. I remember drawing the upper left quail from reference and the rest from imagination, based on the reference.
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    240 by 160 pixel art in GameBoy size and color palette, illustrating a gathering of quail on a quilt, discussing profusely amongst each other, with the caption: Quarreling Quibble Quietly Questioning Quilting Qualifications

  • An attempt at isometric perspective and texture tiling in pixel art. This doesn’t come easy, and requires more practice than a day, obviously.
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    256 by 192 pixel art of isometric island with hole in it, using grass texture tiles, and texture tiles for background

  • MapCrunch.com pixel art shrunken to a tiny scale and only five colors.
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    32 by 32 pixel art landscape, with road, pasture, tree line, and blue sky

  • Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall…
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    96 by 40 pixel art representing a cat walking through four seasons as colors

  • Now I know what to expect, it’s time to tackle some subjects, like this flower, and how to render blurriness with a limited color palette. Let’s say it’s an experiment 😊 Yes, let’s. I’m sure in a year’s time it will look “painfully newbie-ish” to future-me. Until then, I’m happy with the result.
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    64 by 32 pixel art of Kerria japonica, flower, leaf, and blurred flower in background

  • After more of the tutorial, it’s clear to me that to keep the art interesting, you need to be inventive in every piece, much like in engineering. This is also the case with traditional art, but far less so. Ever pixel piece is practice to learn new techniques, try out new ideas.
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    256 by 192 pixel art of line and shading tutorial