Guess who's back?!

Not unusually it's been a while since my last post, there's been a few distractions as I've changed job and country again...* I'm only just now re-united with my home office set-up in the new flat after 6 months or so of storage in boxes, it's amazing I'm now fully unpacked and can actually access my art books!

 One of my projects I've been able to do around various other bits - some idea generation for a book cover project, it's nice working rough (not a lot of reference used in these which you will probably notice) mainly pencil and biro I've painted into digitally.

I've had plenty of time with only a sketchbook too so it's been good just playing around with some paper and pencils too.

The image is shaping up into something more like this...early digitized version still working stuff out fixing the drawing at this stage.

Hopefully more random images to come!

 *(Back  in November I started at Moshi  HQ, it's pretty awesome)

Update the blog why don't I...

Ok so it's been a while...

I've had a few projects on these past few weeks, filling the gap between finishing my last full-time position, and starting my next which will be later this month. It's been fun doing some freelance stuff again, and I've been super busy with life, applications etc., and now I'm taking a bit of a break, which after a hectic 6 months is quite, quite appreciated.

 The main plus has been getting on with drawing and painting for its own sake which has been great fun, I've been able to check out Dublin's 'Dead Zoo' for some sketching and also decided to update my blog image a bit (I never liked the old one much) detail above.

Kind of a homage to the wonderfully brilliant Adventure Time, and of course adventure game backdrops, i've been following the Doublefine kickstarter and have just finished Aminita Design's (quite wonderful) Machinarium, which I think must have brought out a hankering for adventure.

Anyway more news to follow soon!

Character continued...

A wee update on those character pieces I was working on was trying for a nautical themed cartoonish characters... I do like these but will need to go back to the sketchbook to really develop the idea more, think there's a rich vein to plunder for this one and i've jumped fairly quickly into rendered development so really needs re-concepting and scratch design I feel.

I was looking at stuff like Bastion which has a nice (as in really nice) painted style and wonderful colouring and lighting - but a great 'game feel' as each weapon and tool has a real strong sense of purpose and role in it's gameplay setting. It may be worth developing a mock game design document and use that to inform the development of these characters as i'm liking the game feel these have and it may be worth really pushing that approach as opposed to each image being a seperate independant illustration. Hopefully from there I can start to develop some environment stuff and further characters, devices and of course ships...

I'll try and amend this post with some of the sketches for the 'Anchor Man' image soon

Late night doodle...

Meh.

Mainly interested in the colours rather than the form or content - 40 mins doodle.  Haven't figured out what is and isn't working with this yet.

The Crayola Cruncher (and Creator)

Goodness two posts in one week?!

Yep that'd be a sign that portfolio season is here alright...

Pushing the more painterly character stuff, fairly playful and cartoony mind. Need to to develop my use of colour in general but there's some stuff going on in this image that I like.

It's character building..

Well by calculations I have about 15 days left with my lovely, lovely cintiq so i've been trying to rinse it as much as I can in the services of portfolio development. 

I always sketch out characters in my sketchbook, or on my notebooks, receipts etc. but I seldom push myself to render and produce finished pieces, so here's some new stuff.

 I've been working alongside some pretty talented art folk these past few months and that's goaded me to do some new character work. I'm hoping to continue the series with a few pieces of a nautical nature, I'm trying to avoid going too 'piratical' in my designs, so hoping future images in this series will be a bit more early 20th century in their influences.

Definitely drawing from games such as (the lovely) Bastion with this one, in content, style and colour palette (starting out as a learning exercise) but things are developing into more of a fusion of my own style which is gratifying. More should be appearing up here or on the Portfolio site in due course, so i'm hoping there will be some noticeable improvement over time...

New project whooo....

Ok so I've been pretty wrapped up in work and changing country etc. Fun but well, a bit mad.

 Finally,  I've been able to get some drawings toward a new project of my own, basically it's 'Where's Wally' style image as part of a comic project i'm hoping to develop in whatever stolen moments I have over the next few months...  Basically I have a very large digital canvas and each day or so I add another section of detail to until its basically crawling with stuff (or my computer explodes)

Detail bits...

 I've been experimenting with thickness of line and creating a super detailed piece thats not too precious, it's changing as I go but there's obvious (or should that be blatant?) influences from the likes of Scott.C and a touch of Raymond Briggs about things...

Key thing for me right now is not to dwell on things too long, I'm really enjoying playing with soft lines at different thicknesses, and with stain textures - a habit that I learned in GSCE art class, not sure if it was just my teacher's peculiar (or staff room coffee addiction) but any drawing smothered in coffee stain was almost guaranteed an A, and I guess I'm totally just seeking such approval in adulthood.

More to follow in coming weeks! (don't quote me on that one)