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)

Nothing to see here...No wait!

Ok, so it's been a while since I've posted, so one might assume that nothing much has been going, however there's just been so much going on that it has displaced all other activities, and BIG NEWS, after 3 months self employment (and my mother's concerned phone calls) I have found full time employment with PopCap International, over in sunny Dublin!

 Should be a pretty exciting change for me, I've loved my time working as part of an Indie studio, and while I wouldn't wish to embark on a 1000 word essay on what makes indie indie, it's fair to say PopCap just ain't it, so it's going to be interesting to see how it compares. Seeing how the other half live aside, I'll be looking forward to developing my skills and experience as a 2D artist, so should be a great environment to learn a few new tricks. This is probably going to be my only PopCap related post, as I reserve this space for my general arty endeavours, and gubbins.

 It's been emotional Newcastle, bring it on Dublin. I'm assuming that being an English guy brought over to Ireland's abundant job market, is going to be a real source of endearment across the Irish sea, but I've negotiated Byker Metro station at 10pm on a Thursday so I think I can deal with it. 

 More seriously though, I'm very much looking forward to discovering another country, should be an enriching experience!

Oh yes and one more thing;  'all views depicted on here are entirely my own', (as if anyone else would lay claim to them... )

League of Extreme Gentlemen

Introducing the 'League of Extreme Gentlemen' , an international team of gentlemen Snow Boarders, Base-Jumpers, Parkour specialists. Fully able to take things 'to the Max' (providing there are no ladies present, and everyone is in appropriate attire... )

They may also use their Mad Skillz in defence of Queen and country, and to defend the right minded people of western Europe from the threat of the anarchistic machinations of miss Pankhurst and her kind... Nothing will get between the Gentlemen, and their mission to live fast and die young, while entirely in upstanding male company.

POSSIBLE TAG LINE:

Not even Bromide can stifle this Bromance!

an old sketch I dusted off, primarily as I wanted to brush up on using pen tool shape artwork in Photoshop, I guess it's not true vector art, but sure is less faffy than Illustrator. Quite like how it turned out, original biro sketch below:

Monkey Business

Hmmm, been a bit of a bitty week in terms of getting stuff done, but one of my objectives was to delve into flash a bit more and learn/relearn a few bits. Mostly it's been boring stuff, but here's quite a playful little sequence I did in about an hour today, I'd forgotten how much fun hand drawn animation is! I quite like this as although it's digital, the white on black reminds me of animating with scratching bleach on film much like the amazing and utterly touching work of the 'home brew' animator Helen Hill

(To all those who don't know about Helen's life and works, please do take a few minutes to check it out -utterly spell binding and unfortunately touched by tragedy.)

Anyway - back to the monkey!

Biro doodlin'

Phew! Been a bit of a mad week, mainly pre-occupied with interviews for a couple of positions, both contract and full-time. Has been a great experience (as it's always nice to be asked) but I've spent the past week and a half either prepping for interviews, or travelling to and from meetings... Anyway due to this madness I was massively enjoying having a Sunday reading the paper and doodling in the sketchbook, while listening to some old 90's compilation tapes and drinking coffee. Definitely should do this more often...Life permitting.

I love biros for drawing they really occupy a place between pencil and ink for me, great for construction like a pencil, with some of the permanence of ink. I suppose the flip side is that the biro ink is slightly iridescent so doesn't scan so well, and it's never as crisp and clear, but for sketching I think they're brill. I think i'm going to experiment on scanning and seeing what I can push with biro sketches in Photoshop.

Fun game: take the Sunday paper pick a few faces, from the sickeningly aspirational lifestyle sections. Turn them into monsters/mythical beast!

Iliara continues!

Been trying to put in a bit of a push toward getting some more sprites together for Iliara, the mobile/browser game I've been developing with Total Monkery, currently it's maze, rpg game, based around a living cave painting. (More info here and here.)

Over the past year (its been a side project) we've been getting sprites and functionality in all higgledy-piggledy, and the art direction has subsided somewhat SO I've been trying to re-infuse the art with a more organic style as we hope to get a wee promo video together soon.

Anyway I've been doing lots of traditional media stuff and scanning and dropping into the build to see how it's working, think it's starting to get there plus i've really enjoyed actually getting my hands dirty (plus my scanner...argh) More below;

Can't wait to get some builds out to people...Or get it finished.

And it it to be good.

Man we've got a lot of work to do...

Hmmmmm...Pi.