And then it hit back with a vengeance

Sunday was a bad day. I didn't sleep, couldn't eat, nausea hit me pretty hard. I'd almost compare it to a really bad hangover.

I'm feeling a lot better today though, I'm really glad those bad phases are only temporary. But let's not jinx it shall we.

To close off, here's a sketch I was working on at the hospital, first time I actually managed to paint something decent on my surface pro :)

2013 Archive

Probably my best year so far. There was quite an improvement on the art front, but I couldn't find the time to keep up after my second kid was born.

Sorted from new to old (so old is at the bottom), enjoy !

ref used: http://skydancer-stock.deviantart.com/art/Season-of-Yule-2013-12-22-05-421470938

Portrait of a very good friend and godmother for Jess, my second son

still one of my favourites, i love everything about this piece. This is my benchmark, this is what I compare my other work to.

ref used: http://vampire-zombie.deviantart.com/art/lonelily-400799867

random doodle, not sure what i wanted to do, I just let the textures do the talking. 

ref used: http://chamarjin.deviantart.com/art/Tenderness-15-399146853

ref used: http://chamarjin.deviantart.com/art/The-green-fairy-10-402348430

ref used: http://chamarjin.deviantart.com/art/Tenderness-12-399146744

4-armed bandit sketch, about 10mins. I love the dynamic pose of this one.

a rework on an old piece. Quite happy with this one.

portrait of a good friend of mine, and godmother of my first son, Elias :)

portrait of a school-friend. Wonderful woman.

portrait of my girlfriend

friend's dog. Just look at that attittude :)

another portrait of my girlfriend.

Central Park, New York in wintertime.

and yet another portrait of girlfriend

What can I say, she's fun to paint :p

portrait of myself and Elias, my eldest.

practice from ref, lost the link though

practice from ref, lost link

A day after chemo- and immune therapy

Yesterday I had my first session, which took about 7 to 8 hours give or take. I've handled the medication quite well; I'm feeling slightly nauseous, but nothing I can't handle.

The immune therapy was the most intense one, since it seems to have completely cured my cold. It really felt like those microbes got kicked out of my body. I experienced no side-effects either, so they were able to crank up the dose to the maximum.

Chemotherapy went well too, but that's when the nausea started. It was only mild at first, but by the end of the evening, 3 hours after my last dose, it became quite bothersome. I got some medication and slept quite well.

All in all I think I did quite well. I'm keeping a positive and pugnacious demeanor, and with the help of my friends and close-ones, I'm going to beat this thing and come out stronger than before!

...

Now back to drawing!

PS: my girlfriend made me a survival pack. Chocolate, cookies, manly care products :p She's the best :)

Port-a-cath

Yesterday this thing called a port-a-cath was surgically inserted. Still feels quite sore, the pain will probably last for a few days.

Got this from wikipedia:
"In medicine, a port is a small medical appliance that is installed beneath the skin. A catheter connects the port to a vein. Under the skin, the port has a septum through which drugs can be injected and blood samples can be drawn many times, usually with less discomfort for the patient than a more typical "needle stick"."

2012 Archive

Long overdue but here goes. All of these are practice from ref, but i lost the links :/ 

I tried out different approaches each time, ranging from setting a 30mins time limit to playing around with different brushwork techniques. 

We're back !

I finally decided to start up this blog again. My main reason was that I really should force myself to at least make one drawing a day. It's good practice! It's fun! And hopefully peer-pressure will force me to keep going !

The other reason is that a few weeks ago, I received some bad news: I was diagnosed with non-hodgkin lymfoma (a type of cancer), and I need to undergo immune- and chemotherapy. Now, this thing has a good chance of being cured, but still, that news really hit home and made me re-evaluate certain things in my life.

Anyhow, I'm going to start adding some old sketches in the coming days, and hopefully, I'll be able to do some new sketches; kind of depends on how well I handle the medication. Here's hoping !

speedpaint of my girlfriend

Between 1hr and 1hr and a half; I didn't keep track of time, since there were a lot of interuptions. I'm quite happy with the result :)