On Christmas day I thought it appropriate to go oldskool with ballpoint pens on copier paper. While clearly not finished, I thought I captured some of the original in my sketch, of which I’m proud as a sign of progress.

I reworked a pixel art piece I did earlier this year in Pixaki, imported it via the photo library into Divoom’s pixel art editor, took a screenshot inside the editor, and added a frame around it in Procreate. Of course, it is expected that I draw in Divoom’s app, which I find clumsy.

While awaiting the arrival of my LED panel I made this 64x64 pixel art portrait from imagination. Alas importing into the Divoom app introduces unwanted anti-aliasing, almost impossible to get rid of. Ah well, it works for smaller panels too.

Just got a notification, arrival within 15 minutes 😊

I refined yesterday’s stapler pixel art in the Divoom pixel editor at 64x64 pixels. Now I’m waiting for the LED panel to arrive, so I can test it. 🥁🥁🥁💥🎉🥳

Yet again, Tumblr and Bluesky balked at my latest blogpost, posted as-is. HTML 5 support isn’t fully there, so I should probably change how I share on those services, including micro∙blog, and write the full post on my WP blog. Oh, bother! Maybe I should just drop crossposting. It’s too much work.

Apparently, getting better at drawing requires some attentive drawing practice, and observing what one is looking at before even drawing. I noticed foreshortening in the face, so I tried to draw that (see process video). As an initial sketch it is descent, but I think I need more practice.

I found this ornate stapler on Sketchfab and took a snapshot of a side view to study and draw. I wanted to see if I could turn it into 64 x 64 pixel art somehow. The sketch took me 4½ hours, and the pixel art version an hour or so.

Since this year will be a cat-only Xmas, I bit the bullet and will be displaying pixel art on my wall, where traditionally a TV would be located. I only hope the cats don’t see it as a toy, like they do most new things in my home. So I need to place it strategically. Once figured out it’ll be fixed.

I believe this is what happens if I don’t really understand the subject I’m drawing and just draw shapes. I suppose a bit of analysis before putting the stylus to the iPad would’ve resulted in a more solid drawing. Based on a toy rocket I found on Sketchfab, of which there are many.

Using several steps I created and refined this sketch, based on a wooden toy duck from Sketchfab. It isn’t a copy, but a recreation based on observation. I can see its flaws, and, therefore, I need to practice drawing solid basic sketches before trying this method on drawing portraits.

I redesigned my blank sketch sheet in a pixel editing app (Pixquare). The grays are obviously for shading, and the four colors are for blocking in straight lines, from big to small:

• green - overall dimensions
• red - rough outline
• orange - inner shapes outlines
• blue - darkest areas outlines

If I want to get any good at blocking in sketches, I probably should start with an easier subject matter, and work my way up to portraits. Here’s my sketch (and its process video).

I’m going to ignore Nvidea’s CEO charged statement people shouldn’t learn how to code anymore. I think BBC Basic is an excellent language for someone like myself, AI be damned!

As soon as I go a little more in the direction of stylized drawing, I find the quality of it increasing. This sketch is loosely based on Preston Blaire’s animation drawing, using a reference photo to get the details in. I’m somewhat pleased with the result, but know I can do much better.

I really should try a portrait tutorial, work on my art fundamentals, and draw a skull from lots of angles to improve my drawing skill. This portrait is from a photo reference, and I think it’s meh, though better than what I’ve drawn a week ago. So there’s progress.

Am I the only one who puts their photo collection on a page instead of in a blogpost? In my case it isn’t for an event, but a subject matter (c.q. sketches).

Such a messy messy sketch, with lots of mistakes I can learn from. I’ve redone the nose and mouth, which were placed in the wrong position. They still aren’t correct, though, but better. Unlearning bad habits is hard, yet I will get there.

Has it been two years already since @relayfm left Twitter? Original post here.

Quick sketch of Peter Capaldi as the 12th Doctor.

On my Raspberry-Pi I got a warning my Firefox browser was getting out of date. Updating was no easy task, I had to add an Ubuntu repository, which seemed to fail, then install Firefox. Somehow it all worked after a reboot. Of course, I had to set up my bookmarks, which didn’t take long. 🤞