Rene van Belzen
Rene van Belzen

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  • Work in progress for today’s r/SketchDaily theme “🧸 Famous Bears." I spent over 3 hours just collecting the references, and setting up the 512 x 512 pixels base image for ten 64 x 64 pixel art clips, to be filled with glorious pixel art imagery. Days are too short to pull off stunts like this…
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    pixel art with several identical Teddy bears at regular distances, and empty pixel frames with names of famous bears.

  • Today’s theme for r/SketchDaily is Beehive. I drew Brigitte Bardot in a The Simpsons art style in pixel art that could have been draw on a Game Boy Advance (240 x 160, 16 colors). Drawing time: 2u57m.
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    pixel art cartoon in Simpson art style with woman in red dress showing off her beehive hairdo, surrounded by flowers and bees

  • Another self-challenge, this time from Pixel Dailies, theme Gengar. I really didn’t like visiting Twitter (now X), but, luckily, PD is now on Discord too. Drawing time: 1u40m.
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    pixel art of running Pokémon character Gengar

  • Today’s theme for /r/SketchDaily: The angriest looking fish you ever saw. Pixel art drawn from imagination. Size: 240 x 160, 16 colors. Drawing time: 3u6m.
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    cartoony pixel art of an angry fish

  • I had to reboot my iPad, since it locked up (became unresponsive). This used to happen a lot in the early days of iOS (before iPadOS branched off iOS). I’m not running a beta release.

  • Today’s theme of r/SketchDaily is High Society. I interpreted the theme as the 1954 movie with Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, and Frank Sinatra. Pixel art for the Game Boy Advance (240 x 160 pixels, 16 colors). Drawing time a whopping 7u18m, even with tracing and off-model drawing.
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    pixel art with movie poster image for High Society from 1954, with jolly actors Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly and Frank Sinatra, and a trumpet playing Louis Armstrong.

  • What was I thinking? Work in Progress…
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    pixel art of movie poster with only the heads of four actors

  • iOS automatic app update is a farce. There, I said it!

  • It’s free draw Friday on r/SketchDaily! I used my own cat photo to do a quick rough sketch from imagination, using the trial version of the ArtStation Pro app on my iPad. Sketch time around ¾ hours. I hope cat toy lasers won’t give cats bad ideas about world domination 🙋‍♂️⚡️🔫🙀

    digital pencil sketch of an angry cat shooting lasers out of its eyes while sitting on a staircase.

  • Drawing in pencil without the ability to zoom feels weird. I know I’ll need to have more patience with these live drawings, though the cat was distracted by a fly and stopped posing. Also, it’s a thick pencil lead in the KOH-I-NOOR pencil holder. Exactness is nigh impossible.

    Pencil sketched cat portrait of a Bengal cat.

  • My new Reddit avatar is based on the official avatar, upgraded into cute pixel art.
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    Pixel art version of generic Reddit user, but cuter.

  • Today’s theme for r/SketchDaily is Regatta. A search revealed Regatta is an outdoor fashion brand, so I went with that, instead of a boat race. Game Boy pixel artwork (160 by 144 pixels, 4 colors). Drawing time: 2u48m.
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    Game Boy pixel art with Regatta Great Outdoors logo and a pair of outdoors Wellington boots (Wellies)

  • r/SketchDaily alt theme was Gudetama. Small pixel art drawing of this Japanese cartoon character on a Game Boy Advance canvas and a 16-colors palette.
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    pixel art of Gudetama in his characteristic laid-back pose of a broken egg

  • As most of you may know, the only way to learn something is to commit to it, be it cats, iOS betas, or pixel art. I’m liking my experience with r/SketchDaily, though I realize many of the art subreddits are dead (sometimes no posts since over 3 years). I guess those have gone to Facebook.
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    pixel art of generic Reddit user avatar

  • For r/SketchDaily, theme Bump in the Night. Didn’t have much time, so I shrunk it down to 32 by 32 pixels, on my Game Boy compatible canvas (160 x 144 pixels, 4 colors). Drawing time: 1u18m, using Pixaki on 9th gen iPad. I didn’t copy the reference slavishly—it doesn’t work at such a small scale.
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    pixel art of haunted house in moody atmosphere

  • Today’s drawing for r/SketchDaily, theme Moody. Wednesday Addams in front of a decrepit cottage. Reference was heavily used to speed up drawing. Pixel art Game Boy Advance (160 x 140 pixels, 10 colors). Drawing time 3u48m.
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    dark colored pixel art with a goth girl in front of a worn out cottage

  • I ran my first 3+ hours run in my Fall marathon schedule as a run-walk-run. My easy pace for a 4 hour marathon is between 6 and 8 min/km, the slower, the better (since it hurts less and has a similar effect on one’s endurance). The average was around 7 min/km, (11 min/mi).

    bicycle path with heath on the left

  • Today’s theme for r/SketchDaily was The Cycle* of Life. I interpreted today’s theme as “young artist” and “mature artist.” Game Boy Advance pixel art 240 x 160, 9 colors. Drawing time 2u58m.
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    pixel art of a crayon drawing and a framed painting of a landscape

    *Actually, the title was The Circle of Life.

  • 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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