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Rene van Belzen

Art

  • The difference between how I think the world is, and how it appears to me couldn’t be further apart. I suppose this applies to most people. It is hope (or belief) that makes us see a better world. Too bad so few (including myself) act on that belief/hope in any substantial way to cross the gap.

    stylized blue cat on Christmassy background

  • It is said that Practice makes perfect, but I think it should be Passionate practice makes improvement. Being dispassionate and detached from the world is a good defense mechanism against a cruel world, but it does squat for making art. Hence, artists must suffer, from mostly indifference.

    blue tabby kitten on a Christmassy background

  • It amazes me how much can be done in one sitting, and yet how little it seems compared to what one can do in multiple sittings. However, much of the spontaneity is lost over the sittings.

    sketch of kitten on Christmassy card in blueprint
    After drawing a new background, all I had left in me was a simple monochrome sketch from reference.

  • AI is made of people…

    Letters A and I stylized into a antropomorphic cat, with red skulls as a filling
    Funnily enough, this drawing was scaled using AI.

  • I sometimes wonder why the world is the way it is. Then I realize it’s hard to change what has been developing over billions of years. The most one can do is tweak some things. Free will is an illusion, to keep humans sane and seemingly in control.

    tabby and white cat sitting on wall
    Sometimes cats find you, instead of you them.

  • It turned out I was over-exhausted from all the running lately. After a restday it was much easier to draw.

    colored drawing of a calico cat looking up
    I once adopted a calico cat as a kitten from a nearby cat colony. She had a wonderful life indoors.

  • Having paid for a year subscription for ibis Paint X didn’t make me want to draw more. After the free month was up, I struggled to draw daily. Maybe it’s the shortening of days making me gloomy.

    drawing of lying cat surrounded by Christmassy garland
    I suppose this is considered rather cute, isn't it?

  • Drawing without reference can take you only so far. I guess I use it from now on, yet without wholesale copying.

    AI super resolution of a cat sticking its tongue out

  • Oh my! Is it December already? How time flies when you’re being lazy.

    AI super resolution version of stylized kitten sleeping, surrounded by a garland

  • I found a tutorial on drawing hands and wondered how it would help me to improve. Hence this naive drawing of a hand from imagination without studying fundamentals beforehand.

    ibisPaint X drawing of a hand

    Just drawing what one sees won’t improve one’s skills, that’s for sure. Some deeper knowledge is needed.

  • It appears November 1 is self-portrait day. Drawn at 160 by 160 pixels in ibisPaint X.

    self-portrait in exaggerated perspective style process animated GIF of self-portrait drawing

  • It’s Trick or Treat day. Gools, goblins, ghosts, and other ghastly creatures abound.

    drawing for Halloween, scary monster outside the window

  • When inspiration seems to have vacated the premises of the brain, just draw, damnit, just draw! A need for the muse is for newbs, those who have never battled creative emptiness, out of fear or just mere mental illness. Succumbed to it many times, zapping energy and the will to live. Still here!

    confusing sketch of being holding an axe and shield

  • After dealing with a possible spammer (mute), I did another attempt on a fantasy animal, a cross between a cat and a dinosaur. Maybe it should’ve been a T-Rex, though 🦖

    ibisPaint X drawing of a cross between a dinosaur and a feline

  • Started as a placeholder, I drew this in ibisPaint X from imagination. With references it would’ve been better, but as a drawing I’m pleased with it.

    ibisPaint X drawing of a young boy with a heart symbol on his shirt

  • I wasn’t sure what to draw, until I read this post on my micro∙blog timeline. It inspired me to draw Deputy Dawg and the rabbit from “Dagnabbit Rabbit.”

    cartoon drawing inside a hexagon with Deputy Dawg and a rabbit carrying veggies, caption is Dagnabbit spelled in a Norsk wayanimated GIF of drawing process of Deputy Dawg and rabbit

  • Drawing while watching YouTube seems a great thing to do, until one realizes that the drawing takes more time than the runtime of the recorded video one watches.

    digital sketch of bearded man with glasses looking at a Sony Watchmanproces animated GIF of ibisPaint X sketch of Adrian's Digital Basement video on YouTube

  • Messing around with ibisPaint X features. It feels more like needlework with applying patterns than drawing.

    ibisPaint X drawing of a candy cane leaping cat

  • I took a drawing I made in the (now defunct) French Girls app on my iPod Touch and made a new version in ibisPaint X at 160 x 160 pixels, almost 9 years later. Then I had a reference, not so now.

    two versions of a drawing of a bearded man side by side

    I hope those 9 years painting are noticeable.

  • How small a size can I get away with?

    ibisPaint X drawing of a cat on a stooldrawing process of a cat on a stool

    Does it still look like what I had in mind, a cat on a stool, at a fraction of 160 x 160 pixels?