RHEMREV.COM | Visual development

Book Covers

2012-01-29T14:41:00.000-08:00

Italian publisher Giunti Editori approached me last year to illustrate their new line of classic childrens books, developed for the Italian market. As it included classics like Jungle Book, Wizard of Oz and others, I didn't have to think very long to say yes!

Above the covers of the first 8 titles. As sales are doing pretty well, I'm currently working on the next batch of titles, hopefully still hitting Italian bookshelves this year! Yay! :)

Graphic design & titles by the ever talented Sansai Zappini!

-Edwin

The New Kid

2012-01-29T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here's some visual development I did for The New Kid, an animation short by partner in crime Junaid Chundrigar. For more development art, characterdesigns and more check out his blog at http://imajunationblog.blogspot.com/

More stuff coming up!
-Edwin

Island Thumbnails

2011-12-24T09:48:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick update with a new technique I've been developing for thumbnailing environments By only using hard blacks and whites it's a perfect way for quick shape exploration. Let me know what you think!

I'm also still working on my topsecret personal project; I'm currently wrapping up 5 to 6 environment paintings which I plan to post all at once, hopefully before the end of the year :D

Oh, and enjoy one of my first efforts in animation; have a very merry christmas and a happy new year! :D

-Edwin

Pensketch Village

2011-11-21T14:03:00.000-08:00

Currently working hard on improving my digital painting skills, unfortunately not yet anything I can show you guys. In the meantime here's another sketch I did for my sketchbook. Inspired by the awesome Regis Loisel.

Oh, and a bunch of childrensbook-covers I did a while back recently hit Italian bookstores , I'll be sure to put those up here soon aswell, stay tuned :)

-Edwin

Sketch Tube!

2011-10-25T13:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, here's something a little different then usual. Over the years I often got requests to do step by step tutorials, or explain my process. As these things usually take alot of time, I never really got around to putting those together.

Recently I looked into screen recording my process, and it turned out to be alot easier then I thought! Together with Imovie on my macbook I am now able to put together sketchdemos quite easily, enjoy my first effort! I'll look into increasing the quality of the video, as it's a bit too blurry now.

I even opened up a youtube channel which I named 'Sketch Tube' accordingly, which can be found here:

http://www.youtube.com/user/SketchTubeChannel

Feedback much appreciated, topics and suggestions also more then welcome!

-Edwin

Limited Edition Sketchbook!

2011-10-17T13:43:00.000-07:00

Waiting to be adopted!:D

I've been working hard on putting together my LIMITED EDITION SKETCHBOOK called 'ARTBOEK', which is now finally finished!

It's my first collection of sketches EVER, and is limited to only 200 copies. All copies come NUMBERED AND SIGNED, and will even include AN ORIGINAL PENSKETCH!

I will be presenting my sketchbook this weekend 22ND OF OCTOBER 2011 at the F.A.C.T.S COMICCON in GENT . If there are any copies left, I'll set up a webshop so people who don't get to come to FACTS can get their hands on one aswell. :)

Looking forward meeting you there!

-Edwin

UPDATE 20/10 Picked up my booklets from the printer today, don't they look AWESOME? :)

Yellow Brick Road

2011-09-19T11:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a painting I did this weekend, my take on the wonderful tale of L. Frank Baum: The Wizard of Oz.

Quite a while ago I re-imagined some of the characters from this tale, I thought I might tackle the world itself aswell. Feedback much appreciated, thanx!

-Edwin

Inky Environments

2011-09-17T06:05:00.000-07:00

Here's some more work I've been doing for the sketchbook I plan on publishing. Done in pencil (rough layout), and black ink. As people often wonder what pens I use, I scanned in the pens I've used on these cards. Pens are from Hema and Faber Castel, the Brushpen (the yellow one) is an unknown brand which I found in a local shop. If you know where I can buy these online, let me know! :D-Edwin

Speedpainting - Part 2

2011-09-11T13:16:00.000-07:00

Here's another one! Now it's back to doing my sketchcards again, stay tuned! :)

-Edwin

Speedpainting - Part 1

2011-09-09T07:31:00.000-07:00

Although still busy drawing my sketchcards in ink, I felt like doing some speedpainting today, above the result. Done in Photoshop and my cintiq, aprox 2 hours each.

Regards,
-Edwin

SketchCards

2011-09-01T13:42:00.000-07:00

I'm currently working on some sketchcards, which I'll be selling at F.A.C.T.S, a Dutch/Belgian comic convention. Above 1 of them, let me know what you think!

Besides the originals, I'l also be selfpublishing a small sketchbook with some of my pensketches. Not sure if I'll be selling them onine aswell, if there's enough interest I'll look into setting up a webshop or something :)

I'll post more soon!

-Edwin

Moving Home Card

2011-08-24T14:01:00.000-07:00

Me and my girlfriend (and our cats) recently moved in together, this is the card I created to sent out to all our friends and family. I only drew it, my girlfriend came up with the house-being-a-movingbox idea :)

-Edwin

Zelda!

2011-07-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

If only they'd do another Zelda game, Windwaker style......*sigh* Done in vectors for a change, thanx to friend and collegue Patrick Schoenmaker for showing me the vector-way! :P

-Edwin

Speedpainting

2011-07-03T02:03:00.000-07:00

Hey guys! I have been busy with work & moving into the new house, but now that everything's up and running again, I finally found some time to update my blogs! :)

Follow me on Twitter!
Yes, hell has finally frozen over, if even people like me start to use social media :) Don't worry, I'll keep it art-related (mostly!), and talk about characterdesign, concept art, animation and other stuff that keeps me busy :) I'll even be taking requests for quick sketches (if time allows), how cool is that! :)

Check out pensketches.blogspot.com , my cartoonblog that I've finally started updating again!

About the painting above: a speedpainting I did as part of the FuturePoly masterclass a while back. It started out as a test with some new Photoshop brushes I made, and grew into this :)

That's it for now, talk to you guys again soon!

-Edwin

Space Cowboys - Alien takeover!

2011-06-13T03:48:00.000-07:00

Here's some more Space Cowboys character development, showing the big masterplan of the aliens; by designing their spaceships as cowboy hats, they're able to gradually take over the wild west town 1 by 1.....preeetttty clever uh? :D

Done in pencil & greyscaled in photoshop, more stuff soon!

-Edwin

Digital Paintings | Plein Air

2011-06-06T13:48:00.000-07:00

I forgot I still had these sitting on my harddrive aswell, 2 of my first digital 'plein air' paintings, done around my hometown The Hague. Painted in Photoshop with my new macbook and bamboo wacom tablet, aprox. 2 - 3 hours each.

It's really great to sit outside and paint from life, it's defenitely one of my new favorite things to do :) I hope to do more of these when my schedule (and the weather) allows! :)

-Edwin

Space Cowboys - Character Development

2011-06-04T07:23:00.000-07:00

Well, finally another update! I've been working hard on freelance projects, but now that my schedule is clearing up a bit, I'm back at work on my personal projects aswell, yay!

I've picked up my Spacecowboy project again, for which I posted some charactersketches a while back.
I figured my cowboy character needed a horse to ride (yes, I know, I'm a strong conceptual thinker :P), so the last couple of days I focussed on character development for the main characters' horse.

Most of the poses and emotions in the sketches come from the fact that the horse and cowboy will be encountering alot of aliens, hence lots of falling/being beamed up poses :) All sketches were done directly in pen, with a 'mircoschrijver' from the 'HEMA'. Dutch people will know what I mean. :P

I've already finished another batch of pencilsketches for this project, and also some digital plein air sketches I've been doing around The Hague on my macbook, I'll be sure to put them up here in the next couple of days as well.:)

-Edwin

Cliff Dwellings | Thumbnails

2011-04-17T04:39:00.000-07:00

Here's some more stuff from the masterclass I'm taking, focusing on designing buildings this time. Sketches were done in pen, greyscaled in photoshop. More stuff from class coming up! :)

-Edwin

Creature 17

2011-04-10T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here's a colored version of one of the creature-thumbnails, done with my cintiq in Photoshop,in aprox. 3 hours. Next FuturePoly class will be focussed around buildings & vehicles, should be fun! :) -Edwin

Character Thumbnails

2011-04-08T05:39:00.000-07:00

Well, at last another update! Things have been real busy for me lately, working on alot of cool freelance projects at the moment, ranging from children's book illustrations to concept work on iphone & xbox Live games. :)

On top of this, I got a complementary spot on one of the FuturePoly Masterclasses (thanx CGTextures!), a concept design course given by the fine folks behind GuildWars.

Above a bunch of silhouet thumbnails I did on the train to work, done for this week's assignment. Sketches are around 2 to 5 minutes each, done with pen and a felttip marker. Let me know which thumbnail I should work out further! :) -Edwin

Floodliners - Environments

2011-02-22T04:54:00.000-08:00

Here are 3 more images I did for my Floodliners project. It's alot of fun trying to come up with locations for a world that is mostly flooded :)

- First image is a visualisation of a trading post, where big shipwrecks have gotten new meaning. Goods being traded mostly consist of drinkingwater, food and gasoline/oil.
- Second image shows a foodcargo being unloaded, heavily guarded as fresh food has become highly valuable, and mostly reserved for local crimebosses.
- Third image shows a floating market, with 2 huge ships in the background that act as its landmark (=making floating city visible from afar, as seen in the 1st image) Oh, and the girl in the foreground is a hint at how the player characters may look, I hope to explore the style of the characters some more real soon.

All images were drawn directly in photoshop.

More stuff on the way, feedback welcome! :)

-Edwin

Floodliners

2011-02-09T04:51:00.001-08:00

Here's an environment piece I've been doing for my personal project, which I've now officially dubbed 'Floodliners' (=name for the people living along the floodlines).

As you can see I'm steering away from the high scifi look I initially started with in my previous thumbnails. I've decided to go for a more post-apocalyptic world, where tsunamis have flooded most of the lands, causing land to become extremely vaulable (=reason for conflict between factions).

Above, an idea I had for the lair of one of the local crimebosses; a cruiseship that got stuck between the rocks during The Great Flood, now the perfect place to monitor who comes in and out of the harbour.

I've also started work on a floating city (= where I'll be able to reuse some of the chinatown ideas from my previous post), so stay tuned :)

Edwin

Scifi Thumbnails - Part 2

2011-02-02T03:32:00.000-08:00

Here's some more stuff, some work I've been doing on Chinatown. I'm trying to capture the atmosphere as found in a city like Bangkok, combined with a bladerunner type of feel. Next update: tomorrow! :)

-Edwin

EDIT 04/02/2011: Added the 3rd image, another concept done to flesh out chinatown. More stuff in a couple of days! :)

Scifi Thumbnails - Part 1

2011-01-28T01:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a lineup of thumbnails I finished yesterday, again done in marker/pen, and greyscaled in photoshop. These quick sketches allow me to get a feel for the project as a whole; doing quick takes on a number of locations that'll hopefully feel interesting enough to explore. Already working on the 2nd batch, stay tuned :)

-Edwin

Environment Concept

2011-01-26T04:03:00.000-08:00

I'm currently hard at work to develop a unique style & look for a personal scifi project, it's good to be working in pen and marker again! Above some visual development for an Intelligence room, part of a bioshock-like submerged military complex set in the 50s. Done with pen/marker, and greyscaled in photoshop.

For those interested, pen/markersketch can be found here

More stuff coming up!

-Edwin

New Art!

2011-01-02T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone! Here's my first artistic endeavour of the year, but before I elaborate on it, some other stuff:

1. A big THANK YOU! goes out to Blogs of Note for putting my humble blog on their list, and by doing so directing a rediculous amount of people here!:S It's defenitely very motivating to read all your comments, forgive me for not having responded to all messages and questions yet, I'm still getting to them as things have been quite busy for me lately.
2. I finally updated my Cartoon Blog aswell, I did 7 new pendrawings during my christmas break, take a look at http://pensketches.blogspot.com/
3. Also, make sure you visit the blog of good friend and collegue Daniel Ernst at http://itcamefrombeyond.blogspot.com/, if you like my stuff, well, you'll love his! :)

About the painting:
It's a miracle I managed to finish it, as this image has been on my harddrive for months. I hardly go back to images I've lost interest in, but I opened up this one during my christmas holidays, and decided to make one last effort. The image is a result of me playing too many games like TombRaider and Uncharted, which inspired me to come up with this image. My goal was to create an image that would introduce my own temple looting character, and also show a glympse of possible gameplay. I struggled most with the background and how to get the perspective right, it wasn't untill I tilted the horizon that things started to look like something :)
I'm also still looking for a cool name for this character, so if you have a suggestion, let me know! :D

-Edwin

EDIT 09-02-2011: An AWESOME 5 page comic story was written around this character by Shaun at penciljack.com! Check it out here !

Snow Village

2010-12-04T03:22:00.000-08:00

Here's something I did for fun, inspired by all the snow we've been having here in Holland these last couple of days! :)

-Edwin

Pinocchio!

2010-11-14T11:51:00.001-08:00

This started out as part of an illustration challenge over at cghub.com, a character re-design for Pinocchio.

As usual, I started out with doing some pensketches, searching for ideas to give the character, well, more character :) I realy liked nr 7, so I decided to do a colorpass on him. During coloring, it struck me that because I gave him a vest, he looked naked from the waste down. As I didn't want him to have too much clothing, next best thing was to give him painted pants, an idea i thought was preeettty clever....or so I tell myself :P

More stuff coming sooooon!

-Edwin

Windy Vilage - Development sketches

2010-10-19T12:59:00.000-07:00

More painted stuff coming up soon, but in the meanwhile, here's some stuff from my sketchbook.
These pensketches were done as visual development for a village i'm currently designing, which is turning out to be alot of fun! Done with my 0.4 Micron inkpen, greyscales done in Photoshop as usual.

I hope to find time to follow up these thumbs with some colored versions soon, so stay tuned :)

Thanx for looking,
-Edwin

Speedpaints

2010-10-11T12:49:00.000-07:00

As promised, here are 2 environment studies in color, done in photoshop CS3. Aprox. 3 hours per painting. Done as visual developent for a world filled with Vikings and dragons (I'll owe you that dragon for now) :).

More painted stuff coming soon, thanx for looking :)

-Edwin

Pen Layouts

2010-10-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

After an awesome 3 week vacation in Mexico (hola amigos en Mexicoooo!), some hectic times at work, and a rather slimeybooger-ish flu (of which I'm still recovering *snort*), I'm finally back to show this blog some love again, as I've been neglecting it for way to long already.

Above the first batch of sketches to make up for the long leave of absence, done in my brandnew Moleskin sketchbook with my trusty 0.4 inkpen, with greyscales done in Photoshop.

Sketches like these are usually the first step in my workflow when starting development on a new idea for a story or project, as it allows me to get a 'feel' for the project as a whole real quick (these take aprox. 10-15 min per sketch). Goal was to go for epic and cinematic compositions, which hopefully shows through in the thumbnails.

I've also been doing alot of digital painting lately, so expect some speedpaints and other painted stuff up here in a couple of days aswell.

Thanx for looking, feedback much appreciated! Thanx! :)

-Edwin

Summer Sale!

2010-07-31T13:17:00.000-07:00

I actually colored something, yay! :D I got the idea for this drawing while walking through a clothing store, where it was somewhat of a chaos due to the current summer sale !

As usual, any event that makes any kinda impact on me, I do a 10 minute pensketch to get it out of my system, put it on my cartoonblog , and be done with it. But, somehow I felt this idea was bigger then my cartoonblog, and needed proper treatment! :)

I worked out the layout in non repro bluepencil, did a tighter sketch on top of that with my HB technical pencil, and worked out the colored version in Photoshop.

Sidenote: A friend of mine suggested I should do a wallpaper sized drawing sometime (apparently desktops don't like the tall JPG dimensions I usually present my sketches in), so who am I to deny him a desktop full of shopping girls :P

-Edwin

2d Artist Magazine - Sketchbook Article!

2010-07-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

I'm happy to announce that this months' 2D Artist magazine features an article about.......me! :D And what's even cooler, you can read it right here, FOR FREEEEEEE! YAY !

Click HERE to download the sketchbook article, or just click on the above image.
Ofcourse you can also purchase the complete magazine, which you can do so at http://www.2dartistmag.com/

More stuff on the way!

-Edwin

P.s. Just uploaded some new stuff to my cartoon blog pensketches.blogspot.com, be sure to check those out aswell!

Cowboy pensketches

2010-06-21T13:44:00.000-07:00

Here's some stuff I've been working on, done for a little artcontest we've started up at work. Topic is 'SpaceCowboys', but as any interpretation is possible, I'm probably going to do something with aliens vs cowboys, an unlikely but fun combination I think :P

I'll post more stuff soon!

Environment Layouts

2010-06-07T14:39:00.001-07:00

Greyscaled: Original sketches:
I can't watch tv anymore...they just cut me off! Damn you Ziggo! (= a crappy dutch cable tv provider) *shakes fist at the world*

But, having all this spare time now, did force me to do more sketchin' (thanx Ziggo! :D), so here's some stuff I've been working on.

Just to try something new, I thought I'd do something shocking, and play with..... *gasp* ....wide panels! This instead of the 16:9 format I usually tend to work in.

It allowed for some fun experimenting with layout and composition, kinda like animation backgrounds you sometimes see in artbooks.
I also just saw Princess and the Frog (a must buy!), which was the inspiration for some of the scenes here.

Done with a 0.3 inkpen, greyscaled in photoshop.

-Edwin

EDIT 08/06/10: Added the original linesketches for your viewing pleasure :)

Head sketches

2010-05-24T04:32:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been over a month since my last update! Here's a small update with some head sketches done in pen, more stuff on the horizon! :)

-Edwin

P.s. In the meantime, take a look over at http://chetanrevankar.blogspot.com , the blog of Chetan Revankar, a 3D modeler crazy enough to create a 3D version of my Pirate Parade sketch! :D

Character pensketches

2010-04-06T13:04:00.000-07:00

At last, I finally have some more characterwork for you guys! I just got back from a 5 day minivacation, which was really great! I got to relax, swim, read and ofcourse also spent some qualitytime sketching! :)

For each character I came up with a very short backstory and how they would tie in to the mainstory, and just started sketching from there. I did a couple of takes on a bum, thieves, kids and the grandma with the lightbulb, which is one of the main characters (more on her coming soon)

Sketches were done directly in pen as usual, taking aprox 5 to 10 minutes per sketch.
I also hope to do a color pass on some of these, so stay tuned :)

-Edwin

50s Stuff

2010-03-21T10:37:00.000-07:00

Here are some rough sketches for a project I'm currently working on. It's set in the 50s, a very interesting area designwise.

To get into the right mindset, I started out with quick stylestudies of
50s furniture and tech. After that I started working on the look of my characters' (self invented) technology, which was alot of fun. My approach was to see how technology like a laptop, wacom tablet and internet would have looked like if it was invented in the 50s. :)

All sketches were done directly in ink with a 0.4 Mirco pen.

I'm working hard on developing the characters aswell, so more stuff coming soon :)

-Edwin

NEW BLOG!

2010-03-14T14:47:00.000-07:00

I've never done much with comics, cartoons, or any other form of sequential storytelling.....so, as an experiment I started doing quick cartoons in pen about myself....... and it was SO MUCH FUN! :D

But, as i didn't want to flood this blog, I've set up a COMPLETELY NEW BLOG! YAY! :D

URL to bookmark: pensketches.blogspot.com

Ofcourse, I also had to do a cartoon about you, the readers and followers of my blog *evil laughter*:
I've done about 15 cartoons sofar, let me know what you think! GO GO GO GO! :D

-Edwin

P.s. Of course all my other work I'll keep posting right here at rhemdoodles! :D

Life happens when making other plans

2010-02-20T02:26:00.000-08:00

Each day I go to work by subway, and as I exit the subway station I pass by this oddly located workspace, situated at the start of the escalator at subway station 'Spui', The Hague.

I didn't notice it for weeks, probably like most of the thousands ands thousands of commuters that pass by this guys office, day in, day out. As I took a peek through the blinds, I was overwhelmed with a feeling of sadness; a rather old man was sitting behind his tiny screen, boxed in by walls.

That feeling of sadness and isolation I've tried to capture in above 3 location visuals.

I added the palmtree poster to give it some more story ('life happens when making other plans' sorta speak), the empty planning board and yellow ticketbox were actually there IRL aswell. :)
A subtle visual joke are the vertical blinds, which I set up to resemble prisonbars, making him look like a captured animal in the zoo. :)

Dedicated to the man under the escalator!

-Edwin

Alias Sketchbook Pro

2010-02-01T13:39:00.000-08:00

I've been experimenting with digital inking lately, which made me give Alias Sketchbook Pro another try. Though the interface I still really can't get used to, the brushcontrols are quite good, and perfect for doing tight lineart drawings. For the colors I switched back to Photoshop again.
I'm working on some similar characterdesigns in this style, so stay tuned. :)

-Edwin

Peter Pan

2010-01-18T13:55:00.000-08:00

Here's a contribution I did for a comic project called 'Fairytales in the Future'. I could draw whatever I wanted, so I thought I'd do my take on a futuristic Peter Pan, where Hook seriously upgraded himself to finally catch Peter :)

Done with Photoshop and Painter.

Other work from artists contributing to this book can be found in this thread:
http://digitalwebbing.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145386

-Edwin

Imagine FX Cover Competition

2010-01-11T13:36:00.000-08:00

Didn't think I'd make it, but I actually managed to make the deadline of the artcontest over at www.imaginefx.com, yay! :D

The challenge was to design your own cover image for their mag. It took me aprox 12 hours to paint the image, based on the Messy Monster sketch I did earlier.

I did change the initial sketch quite a bit, as I really wanted to convey the monster as 'creative chaos in action' :) I tried to keep the focus of the image around the monsters head, taking into account that at a later stage text & headlines could be added to the sides.

Fun stuff that's in there includes my laptop, wacom, a cat, mario and luigi hats (Nintendo nerds unite!), a box of crayons, a toilet seat, and some more stuff you'll have to find for yourself :)

Mainly done in photoshop, with a little touch of Painter's Chalk tool for the cool grain fx :)

-Edwin

Messy Monsters!

2009-12-29T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm not a very tidy person. Therefore, my house is quite a mess.....which inspired the above drawing.

I looked around my livingroom,and started wondering what it would look like if all my clothes, furniture and other stuff would suddenly come alive....I know, quite an unusual thought, but I guess my brain just works that way.

This combined with the fact that I also like drawing kids and flying beds and wonky stairs, the above drawing came out, enjoy! :D

-Edwin

Overlord 2 - Character Concepts

2009-12-28T12:26:00.001-08:00

Well, hell has finally frozen over, as more concept images of Overlord 2 have finally been released! Above a compilation of some of the character concepts I worked on during this gameproject. Stuff is at least 1 year old, but it's cool to be able to show it to you guys nonetheless. :)

View the full list of new images at gamona.de), with awesome work from fellow partners in crime Daniel Ernst , Gilles Ketting , Sjan Weijers and Chris Evenhuis.

Next: my long overdue christmas card! :P

-Edwin

SketchJournal Thailand

2009-12-13T12:46:00.000-08:00

Well, after 3 weeks of backpacking through Thailand I finally made it back again! You guys miss me? Anyone? :P

Souvenirs I took home with me were lots of freckles, a bruised ankle (whitewater rafting is still awesome!), a body full of mosquito bites *scratch*, aprox. 2000 photos, and last but not least; a sketchbook filled with pensketches I did during my travels. :) I tried to do aprox. 1 pensketch a day, resulting in the sketch journal above.

Scenes were done directly in pen, which was a struggle at first, but eventually turned out to be a fast and comfortable way to visualise the above images.

Well, as I'm still fighting the jetlag monsters, I'm off to bed again............I love sleeping :)

-Edwin

Prepare....FOR ADVENTUREEEEE!

2009-11-20T14:22:00.001-08:00

Well, the time has finally come, because as of tomorrow.....I'll be BACKPACKING THROUGH THAILAND FOR 3 WHOLE WEEKS!!!!! WHOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOO! :D

Ofcourse I'll be bringing my sketchbook, in which I hope to scribble down some of the many exotic temples, cities and people I'm bound to encounter along the way :)

And being the cool and sporty guy that I am, here's 1 last sketch before I go, a quick sketch of me and my friend Roel (the belgian guy with the beer), striding through the jungle. Not sure where I can plug in that microwave, but we'll find a way....:P Done in colored pencil and ink by the way, didn't have time to spend time behind the laptop :S

Up up...and awaaaaaaaaaaay! :D *strikes a superhero pose*

I'll be back december 12th, so mark your calendaarr! Cya in 3 weeks! :D

-Edwin

PirateFight!

2009-11-15T07:04:00.000-08:00

Hey guys! I haven't been doodling as much as I would've liked lately, but I did manage to finish this pirate scene today, yay! I sketched it out in red pencil first, and then did a tight linedrawing over that. Above both the original and cleaned up version :)

Oh, and I'm REAL excited, cuz within a week I'll be backpacking through Thailand for 3 weeks! But I'll be sure to do at least 1 more post before I leave, I'm working on a sketch featuring the backpacked version of myself (!) and my good friend Roel, so stay tuned :D

-Edwin

Pirate heads!

2009-10-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

As it had been a while since I posted some character stuff, here's some characterdevelopment for the pirate thing I'm still working on. I had alot of fun trying to push the shapes, and explore different stylizations and expressions.

I wanted to do at least 101 headsketches, but because I just can't stop playing Uncharted 2 (also the main reason it took me a week longer to do this update), you'll have to do it with only around 75 Pirate heads ok! :D

-Edwin

Pirate Sunset

2009-10-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

Here's another image I did, which is actually the last shot of a small storyboard sequence I'm working on. I hope to be able to work on it some more this week, so stay tuned :)

-Edwin

Environment doodles

2009-10-06T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here are 3 environments I did this weekend, they took aprox. 3 to 4 hour each, done in Photoshop. They came out quite colorful, I had alot of fun trying to push the colorpallettes....I'm working on some more pirate-themed environments at the moment (read: I did some quick sketches on the train :P), so stay tuned :)

-Edwin

Waterfall

2009-09-21T13:20:00.000-07:00

I spend some more time fiddling with custom brushes in photoshop this weekend, above the result. Though I liked the trees I did in my previous painting (below), they were very graphic; so I thought I'd try to give the leafs and grasses in this painting a more softer feel.

As always, feedback much appreciated, thanx!

-Edwin

The Arrival

2009-09-09T13:41:00.001-07:00

Here's a painting I did for fun, to get myself acquainted with painting in photoshop instead of painter. I'm especially enjoying working with custom brushes, which in this painting are mostly visible in the trees. I really like the graphic effect it brings to painting, and ofcourse the simplicity of working with them :)

More photoshop experiments coming soon! :)

-Edwin

Children's Book - Environment Layouts

2009-08-31T13:45:00.000-07:00

And here are some of the thumbs i've been doing to visualize some story ideas for my project; they're not in any particular order, nor does it contain a complete story...story fragments at best:)

To broaden my horizon I'm also still trying to get the hang of painting in Photoshop instead of Painter, i'll post some of those results here aswell soon!.

Thanx for looking,
-Edwin

Children's Book - Character Doodles

2009-08-31T13:28:00.000-07:00

I finally had some time to scan in some of the stuff I've been working on. As a sideproject I'm currently developing a children's book, above some of the pensketches I did for some of the characters.

What i got sofar is a giant that doesn't really understand why his clothes don't fit him, a bunch of very 'handy' critters (my personal favourites), and the girl with the ponytails, which I took from my Wizard of Oz girl sketches.

Next up: environment doodles!

-Edwin

Darkness/Witchblade - Pencils

2009-08-08T00:56:00.000-07:00

Here's something a little different then usual. I used to really be into reading and drawing comicbooks, but as time passed by my interests shifted towards concept design and gamedevelopment. As I was cleaning my room last week, I came across a big cardboard box under my bed,filled with all the comics I used to collect.

I started re-reading quite alot of them, which inspired me to do the above illustration. It features the 2 maincharacters of 2 Topcow Comics; Witchblade and The Darkness. Apologies for making the Darklings (the little guys in the picture) look like minions, guess that comes with the job of working on Overlord 1 and 2 for the last couple of years :D

This illustration was done with a blue non col-erase pencil for the undersketch, with tight pencils done with a HB technical pencil. Papersize is A4, which was big enough for this nostalgic piece of fanart :P

I also have a colored version coming up, aswell as a batch of story thumbnails I've been working on, but more on that later this week. :)

-Edwin

Pirates!

2009-07-19T07:25:00.000-07:00

Quick Color Pencil
Here's the Pirate Parade I mentioned earlier, which was alot of fun to do! I can't find the time to color the whole thing, but I did slap on some basic colors to pop out the silhouets. Focus was to do a piece with some more movement and dynamic poses, less about characterdesign....looking at it now, I probably shoud've pushed the Pirate theme much more. Oh well. :)

I also have a photo of a work in progress version, but it's on my camera at work, I'll post that on monday. Now I'm off to play Little Big Planet again.....:D

-Edwin

EDIT 31/08/2009: Better late then never, here's the WIP photo of this illustration:
Happy now, Nick? :P

Wizard of Oz: Dorothy

2009-07-14T13:22:00.001-07:00

And here are the thumbs for Dorothy!

Designing Dorothy proved to be quite challenging aswell, as you end up with 'just some random kid' quite easily. I eventually stumbled upon the pigtails to the side, which creates a strong silhouet and gives her attitude at the same time. I'm already looking forward to exploring her facial expressions and gestures :)

Only 1 character left of the main cast (Lion), but I'll have to dig through some reference before I ca start that character, so I"ll get back to you on that one :)

On another note:
I've also almost finished another 'parade' drawing (similar to my previous 'Witch Parade' and 'Circus Parade'), featuring alot of pirates. And monkeys. And even more pirates!:D
I hope to have that up here in a few days aswell! :)

Soooo, staaay tuunneed! :D

-Edwin

Wizard of Oz: Tin Man

2009-07-14T13:05:00.001-07:00

I spent the weekend at my parents place,and got to work on my personal Wizard of Oz project some more. Above the thumbnails for Tin Man, which is such a great character to explore! A big inspiration was the Blue Sky Studios movie 'Robots', for those who haven't seen it, go watch it now! :)

I tried to keep Tinman's face as human as possible (except for the TV head :P), so it'll allow for a wide range of expressions.

After I've finished thumbnailing all characters, I'll probably start doing studies of expressions and gestures. I'll post Dorothy in a few minutes!

Wizard of Oz: Scarecrow

2009-07-08T12:58:00.000-07:00

To keep myself occupied on the trainrides to work, I gave myself the assignment to redesign the characters of 'The Wizard of Oz'. Above some of the sketches I did sofar for ScareCrow.

As with the lifesketches, I used a 0.2 inkpen, and Photoshop for the digital color. Drawing with pens somehow streamlines my thoughprocess better, and forces me to think better about what I want to get on paper. If you're an artist, you should defenitely give it a try sometime!

Thanx to my collegue Gilles for making me switch to pens again :) Check out his blog at http://gillesketting.blogspot.com/, he'll appreciate it!

More stuff coming soon!

-Edwin

Bird Woman

2009-06-21T14:18:00.000-07:00

Pencil sketch:
Here's something I did last week, sketch done in pencil, colors with Painter IX. I'll post up the sketch tomorrow ok!

Update 22/06: And here's the pencilsketch! :) As I've been doing more often lately, I've used a blue 'col erase' Sanford pencil to do the initial sketch, and did the tighter pencilsketch on top of this. The blue I filtered out in photoshop, leaving the pencilsketch as shown above.

More stuff coming soon!

-Edwin

Gameville - Triumph Studios Tour

2009-06-21T13:34:00.000-07:00

Any of you ever heard of 'GameVille'? I hadn't actually, not before this dutch gameprogram showed up at our studio, putting together a featurette on Triumph Studios. :) Me and some of my collegues get interviewed, it's shows my workspace (above) and some closeups of my artwork (Gameplaysketches / Overlord thumbnails / Elf / Blue evil Overlord). :P

It aired this afternoon on RTL 4, but I forgot to watch it.....doh! Long live the wonderful world of internet TV! Check out my ugly mug at

http://www.rtl.nl/components/games/gameville/index_video.xml (Episode 9, skip to 7th minute or so)

It's in dutch though, but it should give a good impression of the studio nonetheless :)

And now, back to things that DO matter, more art! :D

-Edwin

2009-06-01T09:27:00.000-07:00

Initial Layouts:

Here's a cover illustration I did for the dutch comicmagazine 'Paper'.
(Check out their site at http://www.brabantstrip.be/brabantstrip/peper/peper.htm ) .
The idea behind the cover was to display the 'joy of reading comics'. I did 2 quick layouts, the more dynamic one was chosen (yay!).

Because I didn't really like my last color experiment (Sultan, below), I tried to come up with a more traditional look (though still done digitally, I need my CNTRL-Z!). I ended up doing almost everything with the Chalk Tool in Painter IX, which gave it a nice and gritty look.

More stuff coming soon!

-Edwin

Just like old times....

2009-05-26T13:35:00.000-07:00

I sat across this rather old lady in the train today, who was carefully putting on her makeup....which sparked the idea for this doodle :)

-Edwin

Subway Sketches

2009-05-17T10:10:00.001-07:00

Here's a collage of some of the pensketches I've been doing on my way to work lately, trying to capture the wide arrange of people I see on the train, subway and tram.

I started 'subway sketching' after stumbling into the blog of Bobby Chiu and his Toronto sketchgroup, check it out sometime, inspiration guaranteed! :)

Their blog: http://bobbychiusubwaysketchgroup.blogspot.com/

As always, feedback much appreciated :)

-Edwin

Witches on the move!

2009-04-28T11:48:00.000-07:00

I've been reading 'The Witches' of Roald Dahl lately, which inspired me to draw up these witches on the move, enjoy! :)

More stuff coming soon!
-Edwin

Back Online!

2009-04-24T16:21:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to let you guys know that I finally managed to switch providers and put all older JPGS back online, so no more invisible pictures on my blog, yay! :)

Also, if you want to contact me please use edwin@rhemrev.com again, thanx!

More pencilart coming soon!
-Edwin

Circus Parade!

2009-04-19T13:13:00.000-07:00

I'm currently not getting as much personal work done as I would like to, due to crunchtime at work and my wrist acting up again.

But, today was a good day, above sketch was the result. It's a sketch that started out as a scribble in front of the tv, and ended up being the rather weird parade as it is :)

More happy news: I made it through the first round with my DominanceWar Entry, YAY! :D

My characterdesign came out 7th (out of 97), with the first 8 entries progressing on to the next round (I only barely made it, I know, but that what makes it so cool! :D). Check all finalists here: http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/dw/4/mini1/en.php

I'm also still working on the Main Challenge, for which I hope to have some updated characterdesign sketches for my Giant soon.

-Edwin

Robot Sketches

2009-04-19T12:51:00.000-07:00

Some sketches I did after playing Ratchet and Clank on the PS3, check out this excellent game if you have the time, the characterdesigns alone are worth a playthrough! :)

Dominance Wars IV Update

2009-03-23T14:15:00.000-07:00

Hey guys, here's quick update on things.

I've currently started work on the Main Challenge for Dominance Wars, check my thread and development sketches here:

http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread.php?f=282&t=742526

Some development sketches:

I'm also still struggling to switch providers, which I hope to have sorted out within a week (which would mean all images in my blog will be visible again.)

Important: those wanting to contact me can email me at erhemr@hotmail.com , my only email currently still working! *sigh*

-Edwin

Dominance Wars IV!

2009-03-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

I'm currently participating in one of the biggest online artcontests on the internet called 'Dominance Wars IV', below my entry for their warm-up 2D Challenge. The assignment was to create a 'Warcommander portrait', so I came up with 'Junior'.:D

The backstory behind the character is that he's quite a bad-ass on the battlefield, but has a softspot for his mother, and carries her photo everywhere. :P I added a cheesy frame to my entry to add to the backstory, as the frame might sit on his mother's nightstand or something :P
The frame was a bit of a rushjob, but considering the deadline I'm still happy the way it turned out :)

For an overview of the competetion, please visit http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/view_entries_cgsociety_2d_1.html
My entry and votingpage can be found at http://www.gameartisans.org/contests/minis/finals_cgsociety_2d_1538.html

Voting starts March 6th, all votes are much appreciated! :p

-Edwin

Spidey, Ninja-bunnies and more....

2009-02-10T12:52:00.000-08:00

I spend a very relaxing weekend at my parents place this weekend, and did quite alot of sketching. I mainly focused on trying to come up with cool and dynamic poses, and what better to draw then snake-squishing girls, spideys and samourai bunnies! :D

-Edwin

Overlord 2 Concept Art

2009-01-30T14:26:00.001-08:00

Finally I can show you guys some of the concept work I've done for Overlord 2. Our publisher Codemasters only released a few images, so I can post only these for now:

For a complete overview of Overlord 2 concept images, please check out this link:
http://allgamesbeta.net/2008/12/31/new-overlord-ii-concept-art

Hopefully Codemasters will release even more images soon, as some of my favourite (character) designs are not yet among these..:)

More personal work coming soon,
-Edwin

Dragon Rider

2009-01-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

Here's a characterdesign I did for a small artcontest we started at work (Triumph Studios), with the theme 'Master and Pet'. Muchos kudos to my collegue and friend Daniel for helping me push my colors, be sure to check out his blog itcamefrombeyond.blogspot.com aswell!

Done in pencil + Corel Painter X.

As always, feedback and comments much appreciated! :)

-Edwin

Girls

2009-01-04T12:23:00.000-08:00

Some girl-doodles I did over the weekend, done with pencil and Painter IX.

Merry Christmas!

2008-12-21T13:10:00.000-08:00

Here's my christmas card doodle for this year, done in pencil + photoshop. I didn't have alot of time so I kept the coloring style very basic, which worked quite nicely.

Christmas holidays are coming up, which means more time to draw, which means....more updates coming soon! :D

-Edwin

Potter Street

2008-12-15T07:21:00.001-08:00

This started out as a sketch on the train, a streetscene inspired by the many Harry Potter books I"ve been reading lately...:)

-Edwin

Environments

2008-12-15T05:21:00.000-08:00

Some recent doodles I did in Painter:

Forest done in pencil/photoshop

-Edwin

Overlord best Dutch game 2008!

2008-11-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

Overlord has been chosen as best Dutch game 2008! We won 2 awards, 1 for 'Best Game' and 1 for 'Best Visual Design' (which is ofcourse the coolest, with me being a concept artist and all... :p)

Some links to various articles:

Telegraaf
Article

FOK!
Article

Volkskrant
Article

We're currently working on Overlord 2 (pc/xbox360 /ps3), but it's cool to see part 1still being praised! :D Next to being a concept artist, I also did alot of 3D-modeling and texturing (e.g. Halfing Homeees!:D) on Overlord 1, so I couldn't be more proud to see our game still doing so well!

More stuff coming soon!
-Edwin

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here's a piece I did for the October artcontest on http://www.thegnomonworkshop.com/ , theme of the month being 'Graveyard'. Happy Halloween! :)

Done with my wacom and Painter IX. More stylized experiments coming soon!:)

-Edwin

BalloonBoy!

2008-10-18T14:23:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I did a detailed environment in pencil......it started as a scribble in my sketchbook on my way to work, and it evolved from there. Usually I only do rough pencilsketches, and finish it digally with painter or photoshop, but, this time I managed to stay away from my wacom, and take some more time to clean up my pencils :) More stuff coming soon!

-Edwin

Alias Sketchbook Pro

2008-09-14T13:11:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! I had a GREAT time in greece, and took a ton of inspiration (and about 1600 photo's) home with me! I didn't draw as much as I would've liked overthere, but I plan on doing some stylized greek environents based on the many photos I took, so stay tuned.

On another note: this weekend I got my hands on a copy of Alias' Sketchbook Pro, which turned out to be a program I'll be using often from now on, as it's ideal for digitally sketching and inking. Colors were done in Photoshop. :)

Capture the flag

2008-08-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

A doodle I did this evening, another experiment with stylization and layout:
I'll be spending the next 2 weeks in Greece, so no update till September 15th! Hopefully I'll have some cool environment sketches when I get back :)

-Edwin

Character + Environment Doodles

2008-08-24T03:32:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody! Yep, hell has finally frozen over and the fat lady is finally singing, because here's another update! Yay me! :D

Below some sketches and doodles I've been working on:

Characters sketches from my sketchbook (Pencil)
Monsterpile sketch (Pencil)
2 Treehut color concepts (pen thumbnail painted over in Corel Painter X)
Environment thumbnails (done with pen, try to find the Treehut thumbnails! :D) Thumbs are roughly the same size as the originals pensketches.

I've got some more colored stuff, which I'll post within a couple of days ok!

And the reason it took me 8 months to update my blog? I was, and still am, very busy working on the recently announced Xbox360/PS3/PC Game 'Overlord 2'! :D

More info and 2 screenshots can be found at: http://pc.ign.com/articles/898/898670p1.html

Cya in a couple of days!

-Edwin

Stylization

2008-01-19T06:53:00.000-08:00

Lately I've been working on giving my designs a more stylized look, which seems to be doing my art alot of good. After some experimentation how to give my art the desired look, I came up with the environment below.

I did this in Painter X, working from background to foreground, using the selection and chalk tool (for the grain) alot. It's almost like doing paper cutouts and then pasting it all together :)

Thanx to the guys at stripmakers.com for giving me alot of useful feedback!

-Edwin

MYX pages

2007-12-29T09:57:00.000-08:00

Aaaaaahh, what the heck, here are the colored MYX pages aswell, due to be published by MYX Magazine in January 2008. For more info check www.myxmag.com or ask for it at your local comicstore, thanx!

Pencilart was digitally colored with Painter IX and Photoshop, and to give it that 'worn' feeling, I overlayed a papertexture, courtesy of the best free texturesite in the world, http://www.cgtextures.com/ (what's up Marcell!!).

-E-

Watercolor Vikings

2007-12-29T09:42:00.000-08:00

Don't you just loooveee the holidays, being able to do all those things you never find yourself time for! I finally got around messing with my 'newly' aquired watercolor kit (I bought it like half a year ago!), this is what came out!

Next update to follow soon,
-Edwin

Robot thumbnails

2007-12-27T15:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some robot thumbnails I did for a gameproject I'm currently part of, I'll put up some more info and links in a couple of days ok!

Thumbnails were sketched out with a felt-tip pen, thé perfect tool when you're in the thumbnail stages of designing a character!

Happy Holidays,

-Edwin

MYX Sketches

2007-12-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

I've been asked to do 2 page comicdiary ('stripdagboek') for the dutch comicmagazine 'MYX' (http://www.myxmag.com/), so I thought it would be cool to put up some of the initial sketches I did for these pages. The comic will be printed in the January issue of MYX, so make sure you pick one up at your lo cal comicstore!

The concept behind the comic is that you first see me working behind my desk, and in the next panels you see what actually happens in my head during the idea-generation proces.

It sounds a bit vague, I know, but in the final (colored) pages it's all going to make sense, I promise!

-Edwin

CharacterDoodles in pencil

2007-09-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some characterdoodles I did this past week while on the train on my way to work, the only personal doodle time I seem to have these days......you'll have to forgive me for not coloring them, next ones will have color again...promise! :)

StrookCovers and more

2007-09-23T14:07:00.000-07:00

Here are 2 cover illustrations I did for a smallpress booklet, that will be presented on the Comic Convention in Houten, The Netherlands (http://www.strips.blogo.nl/). The booklet features a collection of authors, check http://www.strookstrips.nl/ for more information (not sure if the site is up and running already, but it will be soon :P).

Cover: Backcover:Ofcourse the backcover that went to press featured the URL StrookStrips.nl, not my own url....though that would've been smart to do actually....oh well. *sigh*

And another characterdesign, done just for fun:

In stead of the detailed (timeconsuming) painted look, I've been trying to simplify things and go towards a more cellshaded look.....I should have more silly characters up at this blogspot soon! :)

-Edwin

Creatures,Lairs and Kabouters :D

2007-06-26T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's some new stuff, enjoy!

Some quick landscape thumbs I did in Painter:

Some more charactersketches:

A creature I did inspired by the 'skeksis' creatures of the movie 'The Dark Crystal':

My entry for an artcontest on the Gnomon forums, the subject was 'Research Lair'.

I came out in 2nd place, and won 20 Gnomon Dvds! Yay me! :)

And that's it again for now! Next update will be an OVERLORD update, the xbox 360 / PC game I've been working on the last couple of years has finally hit the stands, and reviews sofar have been quite good!

I'll also post some links to some internet pressmovies that were released, on which I even get to speak abit...:S

-Edwin

Character Sketches

2007-03-27T14:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some charactersketches taken from my sketchbook. Most were done during my stay at my parents place this weekend, and during the traintrip over there. :) Enjoy!

Some new concepts

2007-03-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

The last couple of months I've really been busy at work (we're in the final stages of finishing our xbox 360 game OVERLORD, keep an eye out for it in June!), which didn't leave much time for me to do any personal stuff. But, here are 2 pieces I managed to squeeze in this last week:

Both were done just for fun, created digitally with my wacom tablet and Painter IX. I should have some more stuff up here soon, so stay tuned...:)

Till then,
-Edwin

Watercolor

2006-12-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

I went to my parent's place over the weekend, which is the perfect place to relax. I spend some time doing watercolored sketches, below some of the designs that came out.

More stuff coming up soon :)

-Edwin

New work...

2006-11-23T15:31:00.000-08:00

It's been a while, but here's some new work....I'm currently experimenting alot with both techniques as well as drawing styles, both with character as environment design.

Below some speedpaintings and colorschemes I did for a personal project of a stylized Zelda-like gameworld:

I'm w orking on some more charactersketches, which should be up here in a short while...stay tuned! :)

-Edwin

2006-06-28T10:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a creature I did for a small artcontest over at www.weeklydose.com, which came out looking rather 'fuzzy'...:)

The rough sketch was done in pencil, digitally colored in Painter IX. More digital stuff coming soon!

-Edwin

2006-06-25T15:44:00.000-07:00

My internet connection was down this past week, so I finally had time to watch 'The Dark Crystal', the superb Jim Henson puppet movie I hadn't seen since my childhood. I got alot of inspiration after watching it, which resulted in the drawing below. It came out looking rather chaotic though...:p

The concept behind this drawing is the one from the movie; a forest where you can't really tell foilage from creature, and vice versa. If you have the chance, be sure to check out the artbook of The Dark Crystal aswell, Brian Froud already took creature design to another level, way back in 1978.

More stuff coming up soon, probably some digitally colored drawings aswell :)

2006-06-15T15:11:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished up on the forest drawing I mentioned yesterday, it came out looking quite different then most of my stuff I've done sofar. I usually don't use alot of shading, but it seemed to fit the mood I was going for in this piece. The drawing is part of a personal project I'm working on, which couldn't be more fun.

I also thought it would be a good opportunity to post another environment I did about a month ago, which is done in a somewhat more 'realistic' style. It's very busy though, I shouldn't have drawn in those treedetails in the background I think....oh well. :)

That's it for now, more stuff coming up soon! Oh, and thanx for all the kind comments people, they really motivate me to keep going! :D

2006-06-14T13:02:00.000-07:00

Here's an environment sketch I did for a personal project of mine, a bit more stylized then most of my environments. As always, comments more then welcome!

I'm finishing up on another environment ( a forest this time), I hope to have it up here in 1 or 2 days. :)