I really like idea for the WSTopDeck's Holiday Raffle so I'm joining . If you heavend heared of it yet please go to her page and read the journal entry: [link]

Niarbon's Wishlist:

1. Survive the operation and have it making me better (more info next in this journal)
2. Lodewijk Art! - He's just so cute and inspirational, I Love art and specially when he's starring in it
3. Custom Breyer welsh pony resembling Lodewijk
4. My next painting on the frontpage of DA or a DD
5. Barbwire tooling set for leatherworking (my newest hobby!)
6. Wacom Cintiq (please mister Santa *puppyeyes*)
7. Pony halters (I'm a real addict, have over 20 different ones allready
8. a Cornish Rex kitten <3
9. A new house
10. Cards from all over the world!
please note me for the adress, I can't put it online since it's not actually mine

If you have actually read my journals you probably know I fell from my pony in june. Couldn't walk for a few days and had/have a lot of backpain and spreading in my leg. A few weeks ago they made a MRI scan.
Turns out I have "spinal disc herniation" (that's what wikipedia calls it in english ) and not one but two. So I need surgery to have it removed.

Sucks big time because I should have finnished school this year but I haven't been able to finnish my last internship and because of the operation I need to recover for about 6-10 weeks.

Also the operation isn't without risks. I'm scared, but also sick of not even being able to put on socks like a normal person. It's silly, I can't do a lot, can't even sit without pain anymore, but thing bugging me the most is putting on socks

So this week I have another apointment at the hospital and if all goes well the operation will be somewhere around christmas. I hope I can finnish the painting I am working on for the past weeks, but since I can't sit for too long I'm not sure if I can finnish it in time. But I am sure it will be an awsome piece and worth the wait! .

Again some great pieces starring the prettiest pony in the world

A few weeks back a photographer came by to take pictures of Lodewijk for her portfolio. Her website isn't up yet but I wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from the shoot with you


My fav of them all, typical Lodewijk



He needs to grow some muscles, specially in the but


Pretty autumn shot


For months I tried to get him in the water, but he was too scared, tiny waves will eat you. But when you least expect it he just walks in like nothings wrong.


Now he wants to be a ponysubmarine .


He looks so tall, but he's only 135cm / 13h.


Just

*Please keep in mind these are not stock images and you should ask the photographer for permission if you want to use them in any way, note me if you want her e-mail adres *

My back is still killing me, specially when I sit down, so I can't be on the computer for too long / paint. Thursday I have to go to the hospital again where they will make a MRI-scan of my back to see if they can find anything causing the pain. *scared* Don't like having to lay still in small space like that.
To top it off I also had a small operation for something else a couple of weeks ago and right now I have a cold and throat infection. Bad things always come at once? But I'll live

So I haven't been able to reply to all new comments, watchers en favs. But I really appreciate them all, so thank you everyone .

Traditional


Manipulations



On juli 2006 I got Lodewijk, also that year I started digital painting. My first painting was of Lodewijk and every year I made another portrait of him, so here they are and hopefully many more will come .

As always, I am very busy, only this time working on new paintings, *yay*. I haven't been able to replay to all the comments, notes, new watchers (hi!), all the faves etc. But I really appreciate every single one of them. Thank you all!

My back is still hurting from the accident but it is getting a little better. I had to go back to the hospital again and they took more xrays of my back but they can't find any fractures. In september I have to go back again for a check up and I need physical therapy before that. So hopefully it will be a lot better in a few weeks

And because I felt bad for myself I treated myself to a subscription so I could make this nice looking journal and stuff .

There were a few requests from the tutorial poll that I can answer in writing

* Making images realistic and detailed; When I paint a horse I always fill in the eyes last. When the eyes are in the image it looks finnished very quickly, so I make sure everything else looks good before adding the eye. That way you can keep all your attention to the details without having the feeling it it done already.
I really can't find any other way why my paintings look realistic, there are no other tricks or techniques I use, just don't fill in the eye too fast .

* Tools; The only tool I use is a standard brush in Photoshop, the hard round brush with the size, opacity and flow set to penpressure in the brush presets. Opacity and flow for painting varies from 30 to 80. I'm too lazy to change brushes so I stick to only this one .

If there are more questions I will answer them. And a mane/tail/hair tutorial will come in the next few weeks. As well as a realistic (horse)eye tutorial. And maybe you will come up with some more great ideas!

She deserves more credit for her work, very good but unknown artist, go check her gallery out!

Take a look at our stockaccount to find these and many more lovey, funny, cute, pretty, fantastic faces and poses:
http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/25529873/ Thu, 25 Jun 2009 01:05:17 PDT Lower back is all swollen, got cuts on it and hurts a lot. Specially walking hurts but I got some nice very strong painkillers, and they make me see stuff flying around ^^ .

But it sucks a lot, can't go to Lodewijk myself this week at least and I can't go to the Graspop festival *cries*.
So the past few days I spend sleeping, watching movies, reading and painting, hopefully I finnish it today. It's a nice one of Lodewijk .

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/25081893/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/25081893/ Tue, 02 Jun 2009 02:46:00 PDT
Unfortunately I didn't finnish the Dominance War thing. My internship was very busy, taking a lot of time and kind of draining my creativity. And to make it worse I had some trouble with Lodewijk (my pony). Turns out he has allergies causing him to react very weird, cranky, shaking his head wildly, itching everything and even kicking his leggs to his own head. It finally explains his weird behavier but there isn't really much we can do about it. When he is in the pasture it doesnt bother him that much, but when we go riding or walking and stuff he goes crazy. Luckly there is this simple muzzle net that helps really good : [link]

It looks really weird, we get a lot of comments on it when we go outside, and when I explain it is because of hay fever they either don't believe me or can't stop laughing, it is pretty weird, a horse with hay fever .
But he has fun again going out, not shaking as wildly and we can finally start his real training, little fatty needs to loose a lot of weight

As for the art, I try, but as I said, the internship isn't really working for me like this. But about in about 2-3 weeks time I'm done. Still have to find a new internship though but first I really need some time off.
End of june I will go to a festival in Belgium; Graspop : [link]

And after that just lay in the sun, spend time with the horses and finally have time to paint again


Oh! and maybe there is someone actually reading this and can help me with something. I designed a bridle for Lodewijk and having it handmade by someone. But the buckles I choose from Montana Silversmith aren't available anymore. I searched ebay and stuff but I cant find anything I like.
I'm looking for 5/8" small silver buckles with engraving. I have everything else but if you know some nice complete bucklesets let me know too .


And then the last thing. It's a bit early maybe but the 10.000 pageviews are comming closer (1125 right now to be exact), the person that catches it will get a free drawing of their own horse or character or something like that , so keep checking back!

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/23773953/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/23773953/ Thu, 19 Mar 2009 02:02:08 PDT .

If you don't know what it is go take a look here: [link]

You probably already have seen my entry for the DW4 mini comp, and if not, see it here : [link]

And if you want to follow my work for the main event keep an eye on my tread at GameArtisans, the team I will be fighting for
[link]

Wish me luck!

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/23327258/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/23327258/ Sat, 21 Feb 2009 15:45:35 PST 250th -> Thank you!

7000 pageviews (ok, almost, probably in 2 days)

557 comments, 51 of them went to: Lodewijk's Portrait [link]

2,050 favs, and again most went to Lodewijks Portrait; 179

16 months on DeviantArt


What milestone will be next?

_________________

Stock Account:


]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22947037/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22947037/ Wed, 11 Feb 2009 07:57:42 PST
My teachers keep telling me I need to sketch more. Don't know why but I never liked it and I'm just not very good at sketching. I refine my ideas in my head before putting them on paper, but that's not a very good way.

So... I bought a new sketchbook (pink!) and I'm going to try and make myself do 1 sketch a day, at least! Doesn't have to be fancy, but just need to put my ideas in a book to proove I have lots of them .


Who's with me?!


_____________

Stock account

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22573567/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22573567/ Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:28:01 PST
Ok not yet, it's tomorrow. But would like to wake up feeling birthdayish with a full mailbox for once .

Last week has been very busy (and fun), started my internship at a gamedevoloper. Right now doing graphic design but hopefully this way I can get myself to be a concept artist. Need a lot of practice still for that but at least I'll have the workexperiance and connections in the industry .

But with my internship and Lodewijk I don't have a lot time left for painting. Next thing on my list is a bridle design for Lodewijk. His head is weird, doesn't fit normal bridles , so for my birthday I'm having one custom made. I want the design finnished by the end of the month and then the leatherworker will have it finnished by spring probably. It will be awsome! And yes, I'll post pics and a painting of the design .

Oh! And I would like to thank everyone for the comments and favs and watches, I can't keep up so I'm sorry for not replying to all, but I really appreciate all the support .
Thank you all!

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22255311/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/22255311/ Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:27:34 PST
To sort of celebrate I made a blog (WIPlog!) to keep track of me progress and post wips and stuff. So come take a few peeks in the next year to see what I'm working on .

[link]


And a Happy Artsy New Year for everyone!


Ooh! and this week I got my 200th watcher *yay* :



Spotlights:



My Stock:


]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/21916269/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/21916269/ Wed, 10 Dec 2008 14:39:38 PST

In alphbetical order:

AB-arts
Hidden DA talent. Great paintings and portraits and less then 30 watchers. Go change that!

Evelijn
Alway's practises very hard, doing really well at drawing human portrets and draws the most amazing eyes!

Gilescha
Love her pictures!

JaxeNL
Well known on DA already, but since we have different targetgroups would like to share the work of my very talented classmate with you guys too (or mostly girls I believe )

Jniq
Another hidden talent but she needs to put up more of het stuff on DA!

Skarbog
I can't believe how little pagevieuws she has while her art is so great with a lot of variation and she has been on DA for a long time. Doesn't make sence.



And here are some of my fav's from my watchlist:

+ a lot whole more .

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20875648/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20875648/ Tue, 07 Oct 2008 14:46:21 PDT But really, what a time consuming thing school is. Next week my first projects have to be finnished and I'm not even half done with them yet, far from it even.

Most annoing thing is that I want to paint, have so many great ideas but just don't have time for it. In januari will start an internship, hopefully, if I make it . But don't think that will leave a lot of time either.

There goes my brilliant plan of going back to graphic design school and educate myself more in digital painting for concept art on the side. What side? there is no side to this, damn it!

Time for a new plan.... or plan for new time



For people that do have spare time and don't have inspiration:


]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20258279/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20258279/ Sun, 31 Aug 2008 18:37:26 PDT
Really I try, but everytime I pick up that pen to paint something, all I end up with is another horse.
Not that I don't like painting horses, but I want more, these are nice images, fun to do and easy cause I can draw a horse with my eyes closed by now. Good practise for painting techniques too. But what I really want is to make great fantasy images, concept art, that kind of stuff. But why oh why isn't it working?

Where can I get me some human painting skills? Probably same shop as where to find the background skills cause that I haven't found yet either

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20001650/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/20001650/ Sun, 17 Aug 2008 09:43:54 PDT [link] received it's 100th

And I want to introduce some talented new people, you have to look at their gallery, specially if you like horses




-------------------

My stock account for great horsestock:

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/19624047/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/19624047/ Sun, 27 Jul 2008 13:39:36 PDT And I got a few commissions for corsets so there will be some more in the next few months.

So tadaa... view my sewyness , have to dig through some boxes to find older costumes I made but for now I just had to show my two favourites.


And don't forget to look at my stock account for some nice horse stock:

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/19170237/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/19170237/ Wed, 02 Jul 2008 17:21:18 PDT
WhiteFacedPony


Was doubting if I should make one or not or just add some photo's to this one. But since I have much photo's and not use them, and keep making more and more and more why not just share them? Maybe someone else will make something very pretty of it ^^

So go ahead, take a look and maybe you find something you like. If not, come back later when I added more


As for this account; working on a lot of new stuff, should focus on one thing and get that done but instead I have more 20 projects going on .

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/18144393/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/18144393/ Sat, 03 May 2008 06:56:56 PDT
Its not working completely but I got photoshop and internet back and thats most important
To celebrate I've uploaded a new painting of Lodewijk. I'm getting better and better at this digital stuff!

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/17907179/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/17907179/ Fri, 18 Apr 2008 06:05:36 PDT

I hope they can get my files back, if not, everything is lost, incl the original size files of my digital paintings, years of pictures and a big part of my graphic design portfolio. Ofcourse stupid me didnt make backups of everything.

And to make it worse I've been sick for a very long time and getting worse but nobody really knows what is wrong. *sigh*

But.... also some good news, my welshpony, Lodewijk, has been living in a herd with young horses for 2 years since i got him, but he will be 3 next month and may first he will finally move closer to my home so i can train him and finally see him every day instead of once a week or month. *yay* ^^

But no more new paintings for a while now, hope to get a working computer back soon but i dont know how long that will take. Who knew life without photoshop would be so boring.

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/17134667/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/17134667/ Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:04:18 PST Took about 4 months (but is that good or bad? )

Up to the next 0 behind the 1!

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/16797880/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/16797880/ Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:43:01 PST Working on a lot of different projects at the moment so there will be more, lots and lots more, where this came from.

<3 Digital painting *throws out all pencils and crayons*

]]> *Niarbon http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/15212329/ http://Niarbon.deviantart.com/journal/15212329/ Thu, 25 Oct 2007 07:24:42 PDT Doesn't go like I want it to but hopefully soon there will be some results that are worth showing here ^^

]]> *Niarbon