Sam Taylor - Chief Illustrator

New Divide

2009-09-09T17:52:00.006+01:00

Hey there, folks.

I just wanted to let you guys know that my robotic slaves have just completed a new website for me. It is at www.chiefillustrator.com.

'So, Sam, why have you done that when you already have an excellant weblog, won't you be spreading your considerable talents too thinly?'

That's an excellant question that I'm sure you would be dying to ask me were you here with me.

First of all, I have long needed a decent website to showcase some of my Illustration/Design work, most of which gets inevitably lost deep within the blog's (and flickr's) archives and is difficult to find and show off to people.

Secondly, the weblog is feeding directly onto the new site's front page so I don't need to worry about someone missing my important opinions regarding the latest piece of crap rpg that I've played.

Thirdly, I think the new banner looks rad.

THIS LARGE TEXT LINKS TO NEW SITE

Edit: It appears that this post doesnt show on the front page of the new site, I think that the import only shows previous posts and none made after the merge/import/whatever. I may need to only update there from now on.

Edit 2: All new posts will be at the new site www.chiefillustrator.com as I can't feed new posts from here to there, but all my old stuff is archived there still, and this blog shall also remain for posterity.

Illustration Friday: Magnify

2009-09-01T16:29:00.002+01:00

I seem to have missed last week's IF topic. But here's this week's.

I had actually no idea what to do. I wanted to subvert it someway. It's too easy to just draw a magnifying glass that makes a bug or something bigger, so I decided to have the typically tiny figure hold the magnifying glass. Something got a bit lost along the way and I made a gigantic freakish dog.

Illustration Friday: Wrapped

2009-08-20T15:39:00.002+01:00

This week's Illustration Friday topic is 'Wrapped'.

I wasn't sure what to do, and this morning I realised I only really had today to do it. So I thought about what wrapped meant to me. I settled on wrapping up warmly to brave the elements.
First thing that came to mind was camping, and in particular my experiences at music festivals. It's cold, sometimes raining. But even when it's not, it's pretty miserable at night.

I decided against colour so I could experiment with colour values, learning to get that perfect mix of shades. The grey also makes it feel cold which is what I was aiming for.

Player Vs Comic

2009-08-18T17:20:00.002+01:00

I've started up another blog exclusively for a webcomic that I'm going to try working on in my (considerable) spare time. It can be found at http://playerversuscomic.blogspot.com.

I didn't want the comic to get mixed in too much with the stuff I post here and I'm not too clever at setting up webcomic sites and I just wanted to chuck it out there.

If you haven't played WoW lately it'll probably zoom over your head.

Knowing my luck though, it'll probably zoom over your head even if you have, but whatever...

Illustration Friday: Impatience

2009-08-10T15:50:00.002+01:00

I haven't done one of these in a while so I thought I'd flex my creative muscles as it were and illustrate this weeks IF; Impatience.

I'm a very impatient person, so a lot of things that involve waiting infuriate me no end. Waiting for people at the pub, waiting for food, waiting in queues etc.

But my computer lets me down on a daily basis by making me wait for the most mundane things. Openning web browsers, installing tiny games, opening and running said tiny games. Ergo, my computer's endless defiance of my self proclaimed role as master made it perfect material for this topic.

I used my Wacom tablet, which as you can probably see I'm still not all that comfortable with using. I still can't get straight lines all that easily and I find it less precise than using pen and paper. That said it increases my workflow and productivity by an awful lot. In the space of about 2 hours I concepted, drew and coloured this. It probably shows, but I think that's amazing. With pen and paper I would be there for hours, correcting mistakes, fiddling with my scanner and then with the brightness and contrast to eliminate the pencil.

Also, quick shoutout to my brother Loz who got linked by WoW.com the other day for a post he made about Emblem of Conquest farming. He got a ton of visitors and somehow his site managed to stay up. Which is good.

Saint's Row 2 Review

2009-07-18T00:14:00.002+01:00

Carlos was the guy who got me out of jail. He knew me by reputation and I think he expected a black guy. Or at least an American. He certainly hadn't expected me to be 250 pounds, purple mohawk, clad in black and busting out Krunch FM in my newly acquired Vortex with the previous owner (or what's left of him) still spread across the bonnet, whilst i waved my Shotgun at the cops. And he almost certainly hadn't expected my not quite convincing cockney accent.

On paper Saint's Row 2 is a crap game.

It's GTA light. It doesn't have the same rich tapestry and history of Grand Theft Auto. Saint's Row doesn't even make any attempts to actually feel all that much different from it.

You steal cars, you shoot passersby, you build up wanted levels, you buy houses, you can store vehicles at said houses, you have a cell phone where you engage in inane conversations as you spin the camera around waiting for the main character to stop moving so slowly, you can do a variety of missions at once, some activated by acquiring a specific vehicle. All the same.

Even the interface is the same. The menus are the same. Hell, the minimap is the same, with missions appearing as circular icons that spin around it, and just like GTA 4 you can set a GPS route to your destination sparing you from that fun experience of driving into dead ends or rivers as you followed the arrow.

A lot of the stuff in SR2 that isn't blatantly plagarised from GTA 4 they took from other games in the series. There's the character customisation, gang recruiting and territory game of San Andreas and the store buying from Vice City.

I pulled up to the gun shop, pleased to find Carlos guarding my property. I whistled to him. and he piled into my car. I spun the car around and zoomed off waiting for a perfect target. I saw it. I leant out of the window and sprayed my mp5s at the crowd and Carlos followed suit.

To him, it was all a game.

But SR2 is a game.
And it's not afraid to admit it.

Unlike other open world titles that attempt a semblance of realism, there is no small arbitary limit on the amount of vehicles you can store in your garage. I have about 30 cars in my garage and I can just pick one of them up from and of my houses, regardless of how mangled I left it after my last joy ride.

Getting Wanted stars isn't a punishment for deciding to drive on the pavement, instead they're an excuse to engage in more combat, and maybe to nick one of the decent cop cars with the gun on top.

I originally dismissed SR2 (and poured scorn on my cousin for buying it) as a shallow rip off, one that actually seriously was about 'drugs and hos'. In fact I pretty much imagined it as an interactive version of Channel U.

And that's true to an extent. Superficially all the main characters do drugs, the single important female character is pretty slutty, and they take this gang war business pretty seriously. But that would be ignoring what makes this game so fun.

It's like Halo.

Bungie have said that Halo's about the 'thirty seconds of fun'. With Halo you really are just playing the same thirty seconds over and over. It may be on different maps and with different weapons, but to be honest, it's the same thirty seconds on a loop. But it's the most enjoyable thirty seconds.

SR2 is exactly the same. They managed through some sort of alchemical process distill whatever it was that made GTA fun, eliminating the bs and handing it to you for dinner.

It's not without it's flaws though. The GPS system gets lost and confused fairly often. More than once has it told me to go left, then after making the turn it tells me I should have gone right, then when i turn around it's going left again. On some missions, especially ones involving other helicoptors, you can get unfairly destroyed in a single hit requiring you to redo vast parts of the mission. In addition the checkpoint system in missions is horrendously inconsistent. Sometimes there'll be a checkpoint everytime you go up a flight of stairs in an enemy stronghold, and sometimes the mission will require you to do several vehicle changes (car drive to jet ski to boat) or fight several waves of enemies and not checkpoint it once.

The story itself is pretty mundane until the very last act featuring the Ultor Corporation where the plot begins to morph from petty gangland squabbles to focus on corporate greed and the machiavellian motivations of 'the good guys in power'.

I never got a chance to play the online co-op though which is a shame, I'd have loved to have been flying a helicoptor while a mate chainguns people, but whatever.

However SR2 is a fundementally entertaining game. I strongly recommend it to anyone who played through GTA 4 and wished they could at least change Nico's hair.

The Brotherhood picked up Carlos. They wanted to send me a message. I found him chained to the back of their truck.

Saint's Row 2

2009-07-14T01:13:00.003+01:00

I've been playing Saint's Row 2 on and off recently. It's not the best example of it's genre, and not the greatest shooter or driving game, but there's something fun about it.

Being able to create my own character with his own personality and quirks helps to make it accessible. This is a drawing of my guy, and honestly, I can't even imagine it with any other character. Same as when I see people playing KoToR and they haven't picked the asian dude with the goatee.

2009-07-12T16:38:00.001+01:00

What I'm Working On

2009-06-16T15:08:00.000+01:00

Wacom Practice

2009-06-03T15:59:00.002+01:00

I've been trying to work on some backgrounds for my next animation, but my skill with the Wacom tablet I have is still a bit weak. Sometimes I can't get my hand to work with my eye. It's not the same as drawing on paper, that's for sure.

So as an effort to improve I've been just straight up tracing. I've always advocated tracing and copying of images as a way to teach your hand how to draw how you want it too. You also can 'absorb' elements of another artist's style, for good or for ill.

For this attempt I tried tracing a screenshot from Warcraft. There are a lot of little details to pick up, and I always feel guilty if it's an actual piece of artwork I'm stealing from.

This is a work in progress as you can see, but I find it's already becoming a little more natural to me.

Wall of Text

2009-05-27T13:00:00.008+01:00

Hey, I don't have anything arty to post but I don't like not updating frequently.

I got some great feedback on the animation in the last post and I'm working on another one, but I scrapped a bunch of the assets that I've put together. And my friend is being lazy and hasn't gotten round to recording his voice for one of the characters yet. But hopefully it'll be done in a few weeks.

Anyway, I wanna talk about what I've been up to.

I've been playing a few games so I thought I'd summarise how I feel about them.

Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena
I never played the Xbox original, and my enthusiasm for the character meant that this was actually a pretty good buy. Butcher Bay is on here and it's a great game. There's a lot of great atmosphere and characterisation. It feels a bit like Deus Ex actually, which is a good thing. The new campaign (the Dark Athena of the title) is a bit worse. I can't really put my finger on it. Yes, the guards have worse AI (but they're meant to) but given their volume and stupidity you can really unleash on them in a way you can't in Butcher. I think in general that Athena just misses a lot of the aforementioned atmosphere and characterisation of Butcher which is something of a shame. In Short: Not a bad purchase and fun while it lasts. Which isn't long.

John Woo's Stranglehold:
Is a terrible, terrible game. It fills a void in my life every now and then where I just want to engage in mindless violence.

Diablo 2:
I've never really played it, so playing it now for the first time is a bit of an eyeopener. I can't really see all the fuss about it, but at the same time I can see where a bunch of the mechanics in WoW came from. It would probably be more fun playing with other people, rather than on my own, but I can't seem to convince anyone to do so. As it stands, on my own it's a bit, well, boring?

WoW:
I sort of have to mention warcraft given how much I've invested in it. I've been doing a bunch of the tournament dailies and am slowly getting Champion everywhere (my guild is called Crusade so it's pretty much an obligation to get the Crusader title). We're slowly pushing into Ulduar. We have 6 bosses down, but Assembly of Iron give us so much hate atmo. Maybe we'll get them this week.

I hope I've not forgotten anything. Anyway. I'll be back later hopefully with something to actually show.

100th POST!

2009-05-15T00:25:00.001+01:00

They said it would never happen. BUT IT HAS! This is officially my 100th post. So I thought I'd celebrate by fiddling around in Flash and making something that moved. It's a bit rough, as I've never used it before. But it's a nice try. I think.

IF: Hierarchy

2009-05-06T15:51:00.002+01:00

I was just playing around with my wacom. Still feels really weird to use. But hey ho, here we go.

Illustrator...

2009-04-23T15:26:00.002+01:00

Is kinda awkward to use.

IF: Impossibility

2009-04-22T17:19:00.003+01:00

Didn't really know what to do with this one.
It looks all right though.

Illustration Friday - Fleeting

2009-04-15T15:41:00.003+01:00

Hey There,

This is my entry for this weeks Illustration Friday, the topic was 'fleeting' and at first I wasn't sure I was going to do it. I won't show you the sketches, but my first idea was a guy sitting in a coffin with a 'how the hell did this happen?' expression on his face.

It was as bad as it sounds. I decided to go with something else. So I thought, what's fleeting? Space ships? In a way, yes, but they're difficult to draw without copying someone else, so I went for time instead. (click to enlarge as always)

Review Time
I watched Welcome to the Jungle last night. It has the Rock in it and Sean William Scott. It's pretty generic, mindless and derivative as hell, but fun while it lasts. The film is clearly a vehicle for former WWF doucebag The Rock and as a result it just glorifies him in a way that's pretty lame. For a start he wins all fights, even when he shouldn't. He doesnt use guns (but when he does he's able to hit some guy behind cover 50 yards away with a shotgun) and in order to make him seem like a 'normal' person, he also wants to be a chef. Even though you don't see him once get behind a stove.

Sean William Scott was a bit better but his character was still just another derivation of Stifler, just with a treasure hunting streak (for some reason). I've seen him act better (he was the lead in Trainwreck: My Life as an Idiot which despite the IMDB ranking was actually pretty good).

I guess what I'm trying to say is, that Welcome to the Jungle, is to cinema what McDonalds is to steak. Nice stab at it, but trying to please everyone at once and failing horribly.

Good, Bad, Ugly

2009-04-14T15:36:00.002+01:00

I had this random doodle in my sketch book from my session of drawing Roland of Gilead. I was wondering if there was anything I could do with it and turned it into a film poster.

With this first one I was going for a Sin City look. I thought it looked ok but the more I thought about it, the more wrong it was. So I decided to put in some 'western' colours to make it feel less Sin City and more Good Bad Ugly.

Stargate Poster

2009-04-13T15:19:00.003+01:00

I found this on my hard drive earlier and it made me laugh. I was trying to make Stargate posters a few months back for my portfolio and this was the best of the bunch. Because it's clearly the one I was doing as I gave up.

Dark Tower

2009-04-09T22:55:00.003+01:00

Last year a good friend of mine got me reading the Dark Tower cycle by Stephen King. Looking back, I'm still a bit fuzzy about precisely how that happened. I guess he must have used hypnosis because I remember him telling me how it all ends and me saying that I'll never read them after that. It's more about the journey than the end though and now that I finally got past Wizard and Glass (quick summary; the first 100 pages or so is basically the last 100 or so pages of the Third book, then there's a massive flashback about him as a teenager hiding basically) I'm reading it every night pretty obsessively (I'm on Wolves of the Calla now).

For those not savvy to it, it's an epic fantasy series but instead of swords and sorcery, King deliberately went for a Western motif and if weekday afternoon movies on Channel Five are any indication, then Westerns are coming back.

The story centres around Roland Deschain, the Last Gunslinger of Gilead and his search for the elusive Dark Tower. He's a man who is described as being a) incredibly old because the way his world is moving on is affecting time somehow b) sharp, both with his guns and with his perceptions c) short on imagination d) short on humour e) complete badass.

The Tower itself stands at the centre of all things, the nexus of all worlds and times. And it's crumbling.

Plot aside (I'm sure I'll bring it up again at some point anyway) I spent some time last weekend drawing Roland in front of the Tower and spent a while today meticulously colouring it in (click to full zoom of course).

And then I went and defaced all of my hard work.

And then I wondered how it might look on an old edition book.

But it kinda came out more like an olde timey wanted poster.

Chilling at Work

2009-04-07T17:23:00.003+01:00

Here's a new comic what I done.

You need to click the magnifying glass so you can zoom in. I was having trouble with Flickr as it for some reason wouldn't let you zoom in at full size, which made it unreadable.

It Came From Beyond (the Jameson's house)

2009-04-06T16:04:00.002+01:00

Hello there, to whoever reads this still. I've been doing a bit of drawing lately during downtime in my Naxxramas raids. It's surprising how much you can actually get done while waiting for people to turn up, run from graveyard, discuss strategies.

I got the idea for this, sort of, when I had to mail some dvds a week or two back. I couldn't find the post office (apparently all the local ones are shut) and had to walk into Laleham. Got a bit lost and ended up walking down suburbua. With the endless rows of houses and surprisingly few people it felt a little claustraphobic and Kafkaesque. I imagined myself lost in this labyrynthine residential area for the rest of all time.

I got out of course. Duh. But I couldn't escape the feeling at the time that I was trapped.

This image however is part of my attempt to build a new slightly fresher, more mainstream looking portfolio. The hope is it'll get me work. Work that I need.

Firefly 'Review' and Doodles

2009-03-09T16:00:00.003Z

I was just playing around on my Wacom for the first time in ages. I haven't done much drawing recently I'm ashamed to say, and it felt good to get back to it for a bit. This could probably be better, but I'm a bit rusty, and I was experimenting a bit with colour value and contrast.

I've been watching Firefly and it's a good show. The last time I watched it I was completely enamored with it. But this time round I began to nitpick a little bit. For a start, the Alliance is meant to be this massive authority and you get the feeling that they don't really have much control as many planets don't actually have any Alliance presence whatsoever. In the context of the show, the crew of Serenity avoid the Alliance like the plague, deliberately going to these places but the fact that there are hardly any government or federal types around at all after about episode 4 gives the impression that they hardly exist at all.

Same with the Reavers actually, but I reckon I'd have got a lot more annoyed if it was all Reavers all the time.

This includes the main characters. You get to know them as people but many of the main cast don't get a fully fleshed out backstory. Most get a blurb in regards to their history, and some a massive question mark. River's time spent at the Alliance academy, while getting attention, is never revealed. Sheperd's links with the Alliance military is also a massive blank. But the other character's with their more 'mundane' lives don't get a look in. How come Kayleigh knows so much about Space Ships and engineering? Where is Wash from and who taught him to fly said space ships. And why the hell is Jayne such a badass?

To be fair, this is stuff that would have been fleshed out further should they have been allowed to complete the first season and perhaps move onto another. So I guess the conclusion to this ramble is 'good but need more'. Which is about as good you could get.

Oh, and I want to know about the 10th character. How did she end up in that junk yard and who the hell owned her before Mal?

Why I Can't Get Design Work

2009-03-05T14:52:00.002Z

I found this job posting online this morning. I wish I'd made it all up. The worst part is that people actually applied to this guy.

Description:

I need humble graphic design artist that can draw the characters and color them

I need two guys standing side by side of each other with there arms crossed and they need to be drawin in the type of style as the characters in the picture I got attach atleast like the one with french braids have bandana around his mouth and nose and the one with the red and white hat on him this will be on the t-shirt if you can draw them better then be my guess make it look cool it will be full body shot of both of the characters...

The character with the hat is gonna have red,white,yellow hat turned backward its gonna be fitted Old atlanta hawks hat with the Atlanta basketball jersey the colors is gonna be red,white,and yellow with just the atlanta hawks logo red and white on the front of the jersey with know band on his arm... his shoes red,white and yellow pants white and pants white with red and yellow line going down the side... he have know scraf on his head either last but not least his t-shirt under his jersey gonna be white look at the atlanta hawk picture I attach will help you match the colors with the hat but I dont want the man dribbling the basketball sinble there I want you to put the atlanta hawk sinble so you can see it when his hat in backawrds in the same colors as the sinble on the front of the hat

The character with the braids blue hooded sweater with dark green pants and his boots gonna be black... bandana around his mouth and nose will be blue and white looking like a real bandana and his t-shirt under his hooded sweat shirt white

THIS IS T-SHIRT DESIGN AND CHARACTERS WILL BE USE FOR CARTOON MOVIE

I would like some words around them or under them to make it look urban and you can send me your samaples as well of what you come up with

characters will look realistic as possible

The characters you will be designing must be a little bit bigger then the characters on the picture thats attach to this post

we would like someone with good prices not real high in prices but good a real good job that can work with me and also humble

Yes the characters race are two black males on the picture them the ones you will be drawing

They pants can be sagging

also can even even have they hands in they pocket

Be creative but it has to be catchy

I guess is more of the thug type of look as some of you might say

Please dont put know Pink clothes on them

You must be able to work with us on yours prices we aint rich at all or know where near

Employer questions:

(1) What can you bring to this project ? What Programs You Use ?
(2) Why you apply to this project ? Are you humble person ?
(3) Why should I hire you for this project ? How long you been doing this for ?'

TShirts part 2

2009-02-07T15:09:00.003Z

Apparently I ballsed up the links on the last one. So here they are again. Hopefully you can actually SEE them this time.

Illustration Friday - Flawed

2009-02-05T17:41:00.001Z

Didn't think a whole lot about this one. I just wanted to draw something.

I like the lighting from the windows (?) on the left and from the glowing balls of spell flame.

The demon himself perhaps not so much.

T'Shirts

2009-02-04T14:06:00.003Z

Herro. Here are some shirts I did as partway application for a job. Didn't get it so here they are. Mostly using other people's fonts' and design elements. I just arranged them this way. (only thing that's truly mine is the camo wave).

click to enlarge

IF: Opinion

2008-11-27T21:34:00.007Z

Haven't done Illustration Friday for a while now. Haven't done much of anything around here for a while now so here's a comic just for you. (click to fullsize this baby)

It's inspired by Warcraft a little. Everyone has an opinion about what you should be doing with your points and gear.

This was a bit of an experiment to see if I could colour a whole comic in Adobe Illustrator. It's not too bad even if I haven't got the hang of things like 'shading' yet. Could be worse.

I Return

2008-11-11T11:38:00.002Z

Sorry I've been away so long. Well I'm not that sorry, but you understand. I was working and it got on top of me.

I've not been doing any drawing (lame I know) but here is a comic I was working on over the summer. I only did 7 pages and I am contemplating starting over as I don't really think it's particularly well written (or drawn but that's another matter).

I'll leave it up to you to judge
.

Illustration Friday - String

2008-10-16T20:10:00.003+01:00

Just a sketch this week really. Been really busy with my new gig at Thorpe Park. It's only until the end of the season (early November), but it should be a nice sum of money. Although that time does overlap slightly with the release of Fallout 3 so I'm going to be fucking knackered for that last week or so. :)

Anyway, this is inspired by my time there. Honestly this week's IF theme hardly set my creative buds alight. 'String'? What the hell am I supposed to do with that?

Also, for those of you watching Heroes, I hope you took my advice and watched the Wire because two of The Wire's actors are in it now. Big Bad Marlo Stanfield playing Big Bad Knox and the Amiable and Oppressed Crack Addict Bubbles playing Amiable and Oppressed Vortex Maker...erm what was his name?

The Trials and Tribulations of Enrik part 1

2008-10-06T17:54:00.004+01:00

Sorry for the wall of text here. I was experimenting with some writing for a change. I had been working on some Illustrations to go with this but they weren't really coming together. This is just some ideas I've had floating around in my head for a bit. I think it's ok. The ending seems a bit abrupt to me, but try to read it and leave a comment. Thanks.

The magical island civilisation of Ulterion was hidden from the rest of the world. Ever since the Emperor had died heirless centuries ago and the five Houses had become paranoid, bickering nations each claiming the throne was theirs. Since then, students wishing to finish their studies at the Academy and become full fledged mages and order members were required to undertake a pilgrimage into the world and bring back something of value. Be it a weapon, a tool, a magical artifact, a book or merely just some tidbit of knowledge and information or news. Whilst powerful mages could cast spells to observe the other nations, the pilgrimage remained the Ulterion's primary method of obtaining information about the outside world, and to aid their own nation's progress.
Enrik had always thought that the Industrial nation of Rubat was of great personal interest and he had headed straight for it. The one facet of Rubatian society that fascinated the trainee mage the most was how magic was no longer practiced here. In fact many of their citizens held the 'realistic' view that magic was no more than a child's fantasy, and that the other nations' use of it was mere rumour and hear say.
He had found this startling back home in Ulterion but when he was finally in Rubat's port capital of Ilstry he could see why. The city was bleak. The streets were narrow with buildings leaning, nay, imposing over head. Smoke billowing out in such volume as to hide the very sun from the land. There was no magic here.
Finally here though, he knew he had no time to sight see and learn all of Ilstry's mysteries for he only needed to know one, and bring it back before one of his classmates had. Officially it made little difference who did make it back first, but to return much later than someone else who had offered the same gift as you was considered shameful.
So he set to work thinking of something he could grab and bring back. Something easy, yet also unobvious. Glancing at the nearby taverns he briefly considered a keg of Rubatian brew. Too crude he thought. Also, Rubatian ale (which he had had the dubious honour of sampling in Rubatian border towns) had a rough aftertaste not to his sophisticated tongue. The gift was sub-par.
Looking at Ilstry's cloudy skyline, he considered infiltrating the buildings that poured the dense smoke from their vertical tunnels.
Lost in his train of thought he hadn't spotted the guards walking up behind.
"Oy, lady boy, shove off, you're blocking the streets." The traditional grey initiate's robes had caught their attention. It was exoctic to them. Different. Didn't come in about fifty pieces and assembled on a person one at a time like Rubatian dress.
Enrik cursed himself, he should have seen this coming and prepared for it, but did as they said whilst apologising to the best of his diplomatic ability. "I am sorry sire. I was not looking where I was going."
"Too damn right you weren't" sputtered the one at the back pointing a wooden staff laced with metal in his direction whilst the other grabbed the one strapped to his shoulder. 'Wait' Enrik thought, why are the Rubatian guards carrying staffs?
"Excuse my curiosity sires, but where did you acquire that staff?"
"Staff?" laughed the front man. "This looney's just wandered out of medieval times this one." A few people passing that were watching this altercation laughed at that.
"I did not mean offence. I was intrigued is all"
"Fucking talks like it an' all" derided the back guard to howls of laughter. Enrik could tell this wasn't going well.
"Look, I was just wondering what the staffs were like. I have never seen any of it's design or operation."
"Never seen a gun?" patronised the front guard, pointing a hollow end at Enrik's shoulder. "Where the hell have you been hiding then?"
"I think he wants to see it's operation, guv." encouraged the other.
"Too right he does" and with an evil grin on his face, the first guard activated it. Fire poured out and landed in Enrik's shoulder, shooting pain all through his body. Blood dropped down his robes and onto the cobbles around his feet.
The mage was surprised. Not by the pain. He'd get over that in no time at all, but by what had happened. A magical device that required no magical knowledge to operate! Even better. A magical device he knew nothing about.
He had found his gift.

Illustration Friday - Sugary

2008-10-03T19:31:00.002+01:00

I did another one! Finally!
(click to enlarge plaz)

Chicken & Bacon 4

2008-10-03T02:33:00.003+01:00

Late post, it's like half 2.
I mean, this isn't late for me really, just that normally I'd be watching Stargate about now. But well, I just finished watching this and it...well you'll see.

(click to enlarge and actually be able to read the damn thing)

Strip 1
Strip 2
Strip 3

Infinite Undiscovery

2008-10-01T15:25:00.003+01:00

Sorry for my abscence. I just haven't been drawing at all. So erm, sorry.

But I have been occupying my unemployed arse with computer games. I was going to do a few brief reviews on a couple of them, but I have the most to say about Infinite Undiscovery.

The story is about a group of oppressive knights known as the Order of Chains who are for some reason terrorising the world by chaining the moon to the planet. Sounds interesting. The main character is a flute wielding fella called Capell, locked up in a case of mistaken identity. And then subsequently busted out in a further case of mistaken identity. Turns out you look identical to the hero of the resistance, a guy called Sigmund.

Bearing in mind I'm only about 6 hours in to a game that comes on 2 discs, I'm still not sure why you get busted out, because when you first meet Sigmund it is pretty obvious that he's not left his band of fellow freedom fighters at all, so why one of his trusted lieutenants (a 16 year old busty brunette) believes you're him and needs saving is beyond me. Ultimately the story feels poor so far, and the voice acting and animation in the many, MANY cutscenes leaves much to be desired.

The combat is pretty good, a cross between Eternal Sonata and Devil May Cry with a dash of FF12. You run around on the map and defeat enemies in real time action stabby mode. A style I appreciate due to it's immediacy and simplicity, although it feels a bit too easy. I've only died once so far and only through boredom really.

IU isn't a bad game but I can't help compare it to Lost Oddyssey which had a far more compelling story and excellant characterisation backed up by some brilliant animation and voice work, but I felt was let down by it's insistance on turn based combat and I was ultimately turned off by it. IU is the exact opposite, with a playable combat system and a rather insipid and predictable story line.

Above: A better game
My least favourite aspect of the game is the two obligatory 'kid' characters, Rico and Rucha. Now, Lost Oddyssey had them, and whilst annoying at first, I came to like them. They were believable enough despite being able to throw it down with the best of them. IU's twins are so frustratingly annoying it's impossible to like them.

Alarm bells start ringing early on when their mother just hands them over to you, a complete stranger to look after. Capell objects, although not very much. And pretty much everytime thereafter when the group gets split up, you're the one stuck with Rico and Rucha. In one occasion Sigmund orders them to keep an eye on you and I just said to myself 'yeah because Sigmund can't fucking stand them either'.

Worse is that, you need both in your party because they buff each other, but they dont ACTUALLY complement each other particulary well, both being essentially the same leading to your team being less balanced than I'd like.

Above: Little Fucking Shits

Bear AFK

2008-09-22T13:39:00.002+01:00

Been away for like a whole week. Sorry about that. Just slipped my mind. As a peace offering here is a comic what I did.

Chicken & Bacon cover/poster

2008-09-15T15:43:00.002+01:00

I was feeling a bit bored so I whipped together this book cover/poster.

Chicken & Bacon 2

2008-09-12T14:26:00.002+01:00

If you haven't seen Porco Rosso yet, well...do.

404

2008-09-11T17:36:00.001+01:00

On The Global Frequency

2008-09-09T22:17:00.002+01:00

Hello there! Sorry for the lack of updates this past week. I've got hooked on Stargate Atlantis.

I've been trying to put together some Graphic Design pieces using some software I'm not particualarly familiar with. In part to familiarise myself with these pieces of software, and also in part to get design job somewhere, as I'm sure the pay will be better than my current level of income (ie nada).

Here's a cd cover I devised using Photoshop (which I know like the back of my hand) and Illustrator (which is mostly a complete mystery to me). The unimaginatively named fictional band 'The Global Frequency' (after the Warren Ellis(?) comic) and their even less imaginatively titled album 'Party City'.

Chicken & Bacon No. 1

2008-09-05T13:15:00.002+01:00

Illustration Friday - Memories

2008-09-01T20:39:00.002+01:00

Memories
One of my fondest memories as a child was making feeble BMX jumps over (more across really) a particularly nobbly bit of tree root with the kids down the street.

I got a bit bored colouring this in. Probably finish it later.

Gotta Keep The Devil, Way Down In The Hole

2008-08-30T20:13:00.002+01:00

D'angelo teaches Walt and Bodie how to play chess (click to full size it)

The Wire is the best show on television.
Considering how voracious my appetite for entertainment usually is it's a small miracle that I've never seen it before recently. I bought the season one box set after Charlie Brooker went painfully out of his way to demonstrate how good it was.
And he rarely compliments any show.

The Wire is about a group of cops tracking down (mostly with the eponymous wire taps and other surveillance measures) an organisation of drug dealers (and then later port officials and then bureaucrats...) But it's more complicated than that. Each character is trapped in their existence, betrayed by the institutions they thought they could trust.

I think I like this show best for the same reason I usually talk to every villager in RPGs. There's a lot of dialogue (which if you miss you're screwed) and a lot of characters get fleshed out and developed. You believe that you're watching the real city of Baltimore, and not a bottle version like so many TV shows that traditionally have a main cast of about 5 and a million of interchangeable extras interacting with them.

I wish I could do the show more justice (both in my urrgh fan art, and in my 'review') but it's hard to do.

Just go watch.

McNulty and Greggs drive by Stringer and Barksdale

The Office Workers Are Happy

2008-08-27T17:09:00.003+01:00

Probably because they're raking it in. (click to fullsize it)

This didn't actually come out too bad I think. Even though I didn't actually bother with any shading.

Illustration Friday - Routine

2008-08-26T14:25:00.002+01:00

I wanted to experiment with watercolours one last time. I'll probably try to move onto colouring exclusively in Photoshop now.

(click to show at full size)

"Did you see the pool!?!? They flipped the b**ch!"

2008-08-21T15:05:00.002+01:00

First of all I want to show a drawing that my brother coloured for me recently. It's an old drawing of the cast from an old web comic I drew called 'The Mi3'. Maybe I'll post some of it up here on slow days. (click to enlarge)

I've been watching a lot of Clone High recently. It's probably the funniest cartoon you've never seen. It's a 'what if' scenario where clones of historical figures are brought together and are in a contemporary high school. Abe Lincoln is a lovesick nerd, Joan of Arc is a misanthropic goth, Ghandi is a relentless party animal diagnosed with ADD etc.

I found myself drawing it with perhaps a little too much fervour.

Some of the shows best bits here.

Illustration Friday - Detach 2

2008-08-19T13:21:00.002+01:00

Despite the positive response I didn't really like the original version of this so I redrew it. I think it's a better drawing, except for Henry. He doesn't look round...he looks fat.

(click to enlarge)

Illustration Friday - Detach

2008-08-18T21:17:00.004+01:00

I really need to not draw this sort of thing with the sketchbook on my knees...
(click to enlarge)

For those of you coming straight from Illustration Friday, new version here.

Hit Me Baby One More Time

2008-08-15T17:44:00.004+01:00

Not doing an actual post today.

I read my blog statistics and apparently the most viewed pages are ones with song titles in the heading.

Hopefully this works :)

Retro Sam - Deviant Art Part 1

2008-08-14T15:42:00.005+01:00

First of all allow me to congratulate my brothers on passing their A2s. They both got their first choices for Uni, so well done Rob and Loz.
I still got better grades than you though ;)

I was going to post an update about colour theory/technique today, but I think I'll probably leave that until Friday or next week sometime. As I was pooling all my thoughts I sort of accidentally found my old Deviant Art profile. For some reason it is still linked on the side of this blog.

I used the site over a period of maybe my entire first year at University with a bit of a buffer of a few months on either side, which is why it says I'm 19 on my profile. (note I am now 21 woot me). I eventually checked it less and less after I came to the conclusion that I was never going to form or become an active member of an Illustration 'group' or community. Far too much of DA is amateurish teenagers posting their recent Sailor Moon fanfics and Bleach art which indulgently inserts themselves in there some how. I'm not going to link to any of it. There's no need, you can find all the anime bollocks yourself in a matter of minutes.

The few artists I found that I liked never seemed to return the favour. It occurs to me now that I was also posting reams of garbage and this may have contributed.
(click to enlarge, mostly at your peril as I never resized most of these)

Titled WoW Rush this was my first image posted. The colouring itself isn't actually quite as diabolical as I recalled. I find it hard to imagine I sat there for so long to do it (I have ADD and can't sit in any chair without fidgeting or spinning around or in regards to computers alt-tabbing to something with flashing imagery).

The blood on the swords is probably the best bit of colouring. What with the dire gradients on the hill, clouds, fire, everything else and the terrible 'rain', there isn't much competition really.

The colouring is still better than that atrocious line art. That Orc looks RUBBISH.

I'm glad I thought so at the time "It came out marginally better than I had hoped it would in the colouring stages (but still far worse than I had aspired it to)."

Can it get worse?

Yeah a little bit.

To be fair, this isn't in my proper gallery, but from my Scraps folder.
Quoting my younger self, "I think I did this for some project for school last year. I found it today and it was only half finished, so I finished it off and added a background quick. I don't really like it all that much but it has a certain specialness that I admire."

I'm not sure why I kept uploading stuff I didn't like.

It's not a bad concept for an Illustration, but that's all it is at the moment. I should have researched the crumbling buildings, landscapes, and goddamn that's not how water falls!

NEXT!

Now, this isn't actually all that bad, even though it's also in 'Scraps'.
For those of you not in the know, I agreed to draw a comic for internet buddy, Mark 'Frimkron' Frimston. 'Frisbee' is definitely the best of the bunch, with Kevin and Kat (labelled here as '?' because I couldn't be arsed to find the script apparently) needing some work on their designs.

It's a shame we never really did this project. It was supposed to be a bit like Doctor Who and seemed like fun.
Maybe one day...

Ok, I'm sort of scraping the barrel for rubbish art here as this was moved to the scraps folder FROM my gallery, as opposed to the random city and 'Kat' designs which were already in there.

I think my younger self sums it perfectly;
"UPDATE 12 Sept 2006: Why the fuck is this still in my gallery? It's awful. Awful glow from fire. Awful hair on Kurt. It looks like fucking fabric billowing in the wind. WHAT THE FUCK!"

This was for a College project. It occurs to me that my Design teacher was very patient with me.

I apologise for such a wordy post. Let me end with a collection of comics that still seem a little bit funny.

I think one of them got printed in the Uni paper. I can't remember which, the karma one maybe.

'Rain' by William Somerset Maugham

2008-08-13T20:54:00.002+01:00

This is the last project I did at University, and the one I'm probably most proud of. It's a little self-promotion booklet based on the amazing short story 'RAIN' by W. Somerset Maugham. It's not a literal extract, as in I took several passages and arranged them out of order to tell a new story to fit the brief. The brief being something to do with Weather.

This is my favourite project from my time spent at Uni and I honestly can't understand why it's taken me so long to upload it. But without further ado, here it is.
(as always, click to enlarge and fully enjoy it)

Illustration Friday - Sail

2008-08-12T20:28:00.001+01:00

For Illustration Friday. Just some days early :)

Some Sketches

2008-08-11T21:06:00.002+01:00

It may surprise you to learn that I am working on a new comic (Shock! Horror!). I'm not quite ready to show you any of it. This is because I've only done two pages and I want you, dear reader, to enjoy it fully for the first time and not in bits and pieces. That and when I start getting a bit behind on showing any of it I feel bad.
I'm uploading these sketches because I wanted to talk about my work process for a second.
(click to enlarge)

These are two character sheets, or development pages. This is how I get a feel for how a character looks, acts and lets me get comfortable drawing them before I commit myself.

Lucien, on the left, came to me pretty much fully formed. He is, in blunt, an arsehole. His mannerisms, style of dress and hair should support this. He dresses similarly to the style of the time but incredibly baggy. He waves his arms around a lot and yells. His hair (the blank bit will later be a flash of red) gives him a two-face effect. He's a maverick who can't be arsed to even dye the whole of his head. The drawing of a young Lucien at school best exemplifies what I mean. His shirt is undone and his tie isn't done up properly.

Barry (who in the comic is renamed Jim) was a little harder to nail down. I wanted him to be the Yin to Lucien's Yang, Laurel to his Hardy. Visually I wanted him to look completely different yet clearly of the same background/world/culture. Cartoonist's rules number 23 state that if one character in a double act is short and a bit chubby, the other must be tall and skinny. I won't tell you who I picked in the end, but you can tell me what you think in the comment field. Or don't, it's up to you.

Tum Te Tum

2008-08-09T14:20:00.002+01:00

I apologise for my absence. I've spent the past week lazing about while my folks were on holiday.
I did try to finish that colouring, but I really REALLY hated doing it. It's nigh on impossible to do properly with a mouse anyway. So I went in a totally different direction.

I need a wacom tablet.

Planeswalker

2008-08-01T16:00:00.002+01:00

Evening (or morning, how can I tell on the internet?)

Instead of putting up a finished drawing I'm trying something new, I'm going to throw up a sketch and what passes for stage 1 of colouring.
(click to enlarge)

I was inspired by this card from Magic the Gathering.

I should have perhaps drawn from it, instead of having a notion of it in my head.

Hopefully next post will look slightly better.

Batman Goes Doolally

2008-07-29T20:25:00.002+01:00

I think the title says it all really.

Santa Claus Rally

2008-07-28T15:24:00.003+01:00

I submitted these roughs to a T-Shirt manufacturer for designs. He wanted some roughs to do with the phrase 'Santa Claus Rally'. In economics this term relates to the boost in stock prices the week following Christmas. He didn't want a representation of that. More of a pun really. Short story, he didn't like them, so I'm subjecting them to you instead.

(click to enlarge)

I

Larry and Friends

2008-07-25T14:37:00.002+01:00

(click to enlarge)

This is the first Illustration that I've coloured in Photoshop in a long time. It's hardly a mindblowing piece of art or technique, but it's a start. And I actually quite like how it came out. It has a retro Penny-Arcade feel about it somehow.

After I finished the image above, I got a bit carried away and started colouring in all the lines. I thought it might look cool. The Orc does...I suppose...

Oh Noes!What Have They Done To You, Rupert!

2008-07-24T14:00:00.002+01:00

(as always click to enlarge)

Rupert and I were old buddies. We used to play and have dumb adventures together when we were kids. Those were good times. He was always such a happy lad, always laughing and making pratfalls. I remember that whenever we went to McDonald's, he would often take his (or mine) shake and place it on his head and pretended it was a Top Hat. He would then do his best Upper Class English Impression. An impression I could never do justice myself.

As we got older we found our own paths and took them. I became an artist. He never found the public school system to be of much help and eschewed the whole agenda, quitting at 16 just after his mocks. After some meaningless labouring and roofing jobs he eventually joined the army.

When I met him again after he returned from the war, he was a markedly different bear. He still dressed the same, looked the same. But he was so different on the inside. Broken. Torn.

We went out shopping. I bought a stack of DVDs and art supplies. He bought nothing. I offered to get him a lunch, a gesture he solemnly approved. He hardly touched it.

What could I do I wondereed? Here was my best friend of old lying in pieces in front of me. I did the first thing I thought of. I picked up his milkshake and plopped it on my head yelling my tally hos and pip pips.

And that was the last time I saw him.

Fiftieth Post...Apparently

2008-07-22T16:20:00.002+01:00

This is apparently my fiftieth post. I hadn't really thought about what I was going to do so I thought I'd post up a new image. Jut like normal really.

As an extra (dubious) treat, here is a collection of highlights thus far.

Metal: To Hell and Back The first 17 or so pages of this epic graphic novel that appeared here first.

Mental Sandbox The book about myself that I recently posted up in installments. Doesn't really have a plot. It's more of an ambience.

Pizza Hut Comic I hated that job. Damn customers always get first dibs. >(

The Partially Invisible Junkie and her Lips This is a post that still scares me when I'm alone in dark places.

Just Some Kickass Drawings I think the title says it all really.

Many Comics Again, same as above really.

Do The Ka-Tet Folks And bring that great big wheel around again!

The Face is a Bit Off

2008-07-21T21:04:00.003+01:00

The Tenth Doctor all coloured in.

Could have been better. The head is massive and, well, a bit off...

Let me take this opportunity to apologise to the one person who reads this for no post in a week. Had an ear ache/infection, suffice to say couldnt get anything done.

Been A While

2008-07-16T18:44:00.001+01:00

Sorry, for no updates in the last couple of days. Not feeling so well. I'll be back soon.

Doctor What Exactly?

2008-07-11T20:07:00.002+01:00

Nine of the ten Doctors assembled together for possibly the first time!

I did draw Jon Pertwee (number three) but it looked really, really bad. So I might redraw it. Maybe not too lazy.

Going to try and experiment photoshop colouring this one. As hard as I find it...

We Had The Builders Round

2008-07-08T20:18:00.001+01:00

They were messing about with the bathroom...

(click to enlarge)

Scrabble

2008-07-07T13:49:00.002+01:00

A real game of Scrabble presented wholly as fiction.

As always click to enlarge.

I Hate Watching Doctor Who With My Brothers

2008-07-06T22:34:00.001+01:00

Fugue Fish!

2008-07-05T14:13:00.004+01:00

sup fools!

I'm finding it hard to do the daily strip, and it's only the second day! Guess my life is far too boring.

Anyway, I saw this on youtube and it's definately worth watching
Charlie The Unicorn TWO! (im not sure why it's here twice - edit)

Obtuse Title

2008-07-03T17:37:00.002+01:00

As always, click the thumbnails to enlarge.
This is the penultimate double spread (excluding the front and back page inserts) from the book I made for one of my last uni projects a month or two back.

We had to make it about ourselves and mine was designed to give an impression of my personality. It's a bit random. So basically it's a bit of a success.

Getting Illustration work is proving harder than I thought. In the mean time I drew something inspired from the books I'm reading at the minute.

I also have decided to try and keep up with a daily strip of sorts. This first one is a bit of a mixed success.

'He's The One Who Likes All Our Pretty Songs'

2008-07-02T14:56:00.001+01:00

Lars and the Real World

2008-07-01T13:04:00.001+01:00

I Wonder What It All Means

2008-06-30T18:04:00.001+01:00

Beast and the Harlot

2008-06-29T22:45:00.001+01:00

'He sat bolt upright, looking around wildly'

2008-06-26T14:22:00.002+01:00

Sorry it's been a while.

Got a lot on my mind.

Tecknocracy

2008-05-30T13:23:00.001+01:00

'Losing the feeling of feeling unique, Do you know what I mean?! '

2008-05-27T16:56:00.003+01:00

Sabbatical Over

2008-05-26T16:59:00.001+01:00

That was a while

2008-04-07T13:16:00.002+01:00

Hey.
Haven't posted in a while, but it's my blog and I'll be lazy if I want to. Although hopefully it'll be a bit more frequent.

This post has a few pages from a sketch book for one of my current projects which is just about 'the weather'.

Hopefully there's someone out there who forgot to take this mess of their RSS feed ;)
I'll make an effort to post more often as it makes me get stuff done.

Bumper Post(?)

2007-12-27T00:13:00.000Z

Sorry no updates for a while. I won't lie, I'm just bone idle.
As always, click to enlarge.

A lovely little poster for my brothers for christmas.

The final image (stencil) for that Radley's project.

Some sketchbook work for that Radley's project.

Some more.

This is a portrait of my housemate.

*Not* for the Radley's project.

No idea.

Radley's Handbags and the Staff Room

2007-11-11T21:19:00.000Z

Dream Project

2007-10-22T21:02:00.000+01:00

I'm working on a project about dreams. Mostly my sketch book is a bit shit, but here's some of my favourite images.

The purple tower was an image that stuck in my head. So I decided to do a flip book of how i saw it in my head. I've only done some thumbnails so far, but I've animated it and it came out all right.

About Time

2007-10-09T15:04:00.001+01:00

Hello

Sorry i've been away so long. I'm a lazy sod really.

Here's page 16 of my Epic saga in progress. I drew most of 17 but it was shit and I haven't got round to finishing it.
As always, click to make big.

This was a page of doodles from my first day at uni.
My course is actually this lame.

This next one is from a project that I'm supposed to be working on. It's about dreams.

This next one is NOT for my project but it is a little surreal yes?

This next one was of a dream I had the other day. I think it's pretty cool.

Page 15

2007-09-01T17:51:00.000+01:00

From tomorrow I won't upload anything for a while because I'm moving back to Hatfield. And I won't have any inter tubes.

Page 14

2007-08-29T21:20:00.001+01:00

Adventure Game & Page 13

2007-08-27T21:49:00.000+01:00

Here's today's comic page. My pen started to run out and I started to get a bit bored towards the end :(

A while ago for a project I made an Adventure Game.

It's sort of like those old 'Choose Your Own Adventure' books you must have played at least once as a kid.

The theme was about aspects of modern day life that annoy you. Computers really, really get on my nerves. You get caught in horrible error loops and never get anything sorted. I got a bit side tracked with the dialogue and it occasionally spills over into disdain for the service sector and sensationalist hate mongering about smoking.

(click image to travel to adventure land)

Page 12

2007-08-26T20:04:00.000+01:00

Wassup homyes.

I've decided to try and draw a page a day for my epic tale 'Metal: To Hell And Back'. This is so it gets done and I don't spend all day playing games or something else just as dumb.

This is starting today.

(click to enlarge it a bit)

Check back tomorrow to see if I give up!

Neuromancy.....

2007-08-23T01:11:00.000+01:00

....is a title that has no bearing on this post.

Page 1o

I think some of the hands on this page are a bit...off.

Page 11.

I think the last panel is shit.

The mind wanders....

What my character in WoW looked like about 25 levels ago.

LFM pictures!

2007-08-18T00:09:00.000+01:00

Page 9!

Lulz!

Spligg!

Undead!

Unfortunate ink splats on scanner!

Page 2!

More Comic

2007-08-11T22:19:00.000+01:00

Sup.
Took a couple days off wow and decided to spend it drawing.
Only got three (crappy) pages done. But they're done now.

Starting with Page 6;

I understand that not everyone has super eyesight. So click thumbnails to enlarge.

Woot Two Posts in One Night!

2007-08-05T00:11:00.000+01:00

I'm so hardcore!

Page Four of my comic. Pages 1 - 3 found in the lower two posts.

Page Five.

I thought that wasn't the most upbeat way to end this post, so here's a (really) quick doodle I did when I found out about the new WoW expansion. This is the conversation I expect to have long after the release of the new WoW expansion.

Found The Colour

2007-08-04T20:39:00.000+01:00

And remembered why I suck with it so much.
Ah well, at least I can't get worse.

I need to find some colour

2007-08-02T23:27:00.000+01:00

Sup fools.
My holidays have thus far proven unproductive. HOORAY!

Anyway, onto the illustrations. As always, click to enlarge. (that's what she said tee hee ;))

Page 3 of my comic in progress. I'm tentatively calling it 'Metal: To Hell And Back'.
I like this page quite a bit.

One of the directions I was planning to go in for the prime antagonist of the comic. Not the guy wielding the guitar. Haven't met him yet.

Oh yorick!

My brother was nagging me to draw him so I pencilled this really horrible thing. He berated me so when I inked it I cleaned it up a bit. The shading of the lips was my revenge. Hah! Take that bitch!

I was watching Batman.
Jack Nicholson is jokes.

I had been reading Chris Ware's Quimby the Mouse.

Reading this means you dont have to!

That's all for this week's exciting installment.
If you read this, can you just leave a comment in the comments field saying what you think?
Good or bad, I just want to know if anyone's reading this, and if so, what they (you) think.

I was gonna update this the other day I swear but..

2007-07-19T12:44:00.000+01:00

I started playing wow again :(

This is the first page of a comic I'm working on. I haven't done any backgrounds yet or colour. But I will.

Maybe

Page two

Page 4(?)
It's only a pencil sketch. It won't really be so black in the end.

Not in the comic. Just some crazy tribesman.

I re-read this again the other day. And I just about wet myself on the last panel.

The scanner ruined this one a little bit.

Computers suck.

I spent a whole day on this when I should have been working.

Two completely random drawings that just happened to be inseperably close and happen to work a bit together.

Home again jiggedy jig

2007-07-07T20:11:00.000+01:00

Sup.

I'm back home-home now. My computer's broke so I've had no chance to scan anything in yet.

Some point this week I'll post some stuff.

I think I've run out of pens

2007-06-23T14:08:00.000+01:00

I'm down to a few pencils. It's amazing how quickly you can rince ink when you're not even trying. There aren't any art shops around here so I have to wait until I go home home before I can stock up. Maybe I'll do some painting until then. Maybe.
(click to enlarge)

The Drawing Horn!

2007-06-12T14:16:00.000+01:00

I've been away for a while. I won't lie and say I've been busy. I've been enexorably (sic?) lazy.

As always, click to enlarge

I think I did this down the pub like a month ago.

?

I like the woman on the left best. I'm not all that good at drawing women. And hair. So I think it's a bit of a success.

I came back from Download festival yesterday and this is the sort of people you see there. I think I'm going to try and finish this off somehow.

I wish I'd spend more time drawing things like this than watching Stargate SG-1.

Look! A New Post!

2007-05-19T14:13:00.000+01:00

(Click thumbnails to enlarge)

I don't know either.

Hey

2007-05-16T12:48:00.001+01:00

I'm going to update this properly at some point this week.
It's been a while.

Random Doodles

2007-05-01T13:40:00.000+01:00

Since last week's sketchbook hand-in we've been working on a project, but that's not quite finished yet, so I thought I'd show you the doodles I've been doing sometimes when that bored me (very often).

I was trying to draw a band and then put a stage behind but it all fell apart when i gave everyone microphones instead of actual instruments.

The girl bottom right was really hard to draw. I struggle drawing girls for some reason.

The girl on the far left here is a bit better but the shoulders are pretty dodgy.

A dodgy arse self portrait. I haven't drawn myself for a while so it felt time. It's still not quite right though.

I didn't really doodle all that much. I get distracted more by guitar hero now than I do by anything else.

Some Kickass Drawings Wot I Did Today(night)

2007-04-18T23:59:00.000+01:00

Now the sketchbook is almost full I've started to slow down (get lazy) on doing it. But I did some drawings today which I actually liked. This is mostly because I've decided to do the opposite of what my lecturers have told me to do. Instead of experimenting, I stayed firmly within my comfort zone. I guess some of the other drawings that I've been doing have helped out some how.

In all honesty, reducing it to only 600 across doesn't do this justice. But I'm not going back and redoing it. The dude on the left is (according to wikipedia) the Turkish Prime Minister, the guy on the right is the venerable Larry David. This is the page that made me want to post something. It took me almost an entire sketchbook, but I finally got to a page that doesn't make me want to hurl when I look at it.

Not strictly in my 'comfort zone' as I fucking hate water colours (and always have done) but this is the sort of thing I used to do all the time at GCSE (and to some extent A - Level) Art. This is what I would do when I did a painting.

A cartoon.

Highlights from the Fast-Paced World of OBSERVATIONAL DRAWINGS

2007-04-16T23:00:00.000+01:00

I have (somehow) managed to get some more observational drawings done for this (lame) project. I want my holiday back!

As always, click to enlarge.

Some watercolours are employed here to show off trees. I hate painting. Really hate it. I was going to use Acryllics at some point in this project. But I really REALLY hate those, so water colours are a sort of compromise. Especially as I have been using them since GCSE.

I figured out a better way to make pencil sketches show up on pcs. And no, I won't tell you, ITS MY SECRET!

Note the clever word play at the bottom.

A picture of a tree with another tree drawn on top of it.

And here's the rest of it.

Camper Vans are for jobless stoners and rapists, and I found TWO down the same street.
BTW I really like how this looks. NO BLACK PENS K THX!

I don't know who the hell would buy a caravan though. They're certainly no friends of mine!

Some crazy shit. Nuff said.

From watching Clerks 2. I don't even think these were the best drawings from that session, just the majority of them.

That yellow car bottom right is easily the best looking on this page (and argurably one of the best in this post). This page also took me, like, 3 hours to draw or something. :(

The second 'Rape-Mobil'. Do they only make these things in green or something?

So that's really it. I'm bored out of my mind, but I am not going to be doing more drawing or essay writing tonight (or tomorrow probably :P) . But I'm feeling really restless too. I don't even feel like watching a movie or something. Maybe I should?

Either way, here's an advert I saw on telly that I thought looked really fucking cool.

Easter is teh DULL

2007-04-07T23:39:00.000+01:00

I've got two assignments over Easter. The first is an essay. The second is another observational drawing project. We've gotta fill a sketchbook full of drawings of, and I quote, 'faces, hands, trees, cars' and there's probably a fifth one I forgot.

I kinda decided to draw a bit of everything.
Here's what I have so far.

I think I was watching these faces on telly.
That hand is my brother's.

Don't forget you can click each image to make it larger!

My father reading the paper in the kitchen. His hand's pretty dodgy (both of them actually).

That is the silouhette of a cat.

Quick doodles of some of the characters from sketch show 'Rush Hour'. Note to the makers of this show. No-one finds 'humourous situations' set in traffic, 'humourous'.

This was a page on 'Hands What You See At Gigs Instead of the Band'. I have yet to do the 'hitler salute' and 'lighter/mobile screen wave'.

Done whilst watching the entirety of 'Shallow Grave'. This page is especially cool because of the sheer amount of drawings here. But as quantity goes, not much considering it was an hour and a half (plus ?) long. In my defence it was cut pretty fast.

I was watching '4 Music Presents My Chemical Romance' which was on straight after 'Shallow Grave'. This is the presenter. Sort of. I also drew my hand, which now looks like it's scratching his head.

These were doodles from 'Stephen King's Sleepwalkers' on straight after 'My Fucking Incredible'. The film sucked actual bollocks until right near the end. I was dying to turn it off and play 'Prey' but I had drawings to make.

And there were also a lot of cats in it.

More from 'Sleepwalkers'. The guy on the left was the obligatory black dude. I liked him because he said 'fuck' and 'shit' a lot.

He also had a pet cat who pwned some vampires.

I also quite like 'calvin klein-esque' look of the guy top-right.

All these pages are sort of yellowy IRL so in photoshop I whack up the brightness and contrast to make them look cooler/cartoony. I decided to 'keep it real' with the bottom left car because photoshop hates watercolours.

IT STILL LOOKS AWESOME THOUGH!

For a lot of the drawings (almost all of them not done from tv) were made from a bunch of reference photos of cars and trees I took around my block. I was quite surprised at the variety of cars and foliage I saw.

But I have some sort of fascination with lamp posts and telegraph poles. They're boring geometric shapes but they intrigue me somehow. This was from a picture I took that contained both of my sweet loves. There's something about the composition of this I really like.

I have already written too much.

My room.

Pencil is notoriously hard (especially on yellow paper) to scan in properly. I managed in photoshop to get the line art to stick out, but the yellow won't fuck off.

One of my reference photos. I think it's a Jeep or SUV or something. I think that means it's evil or something.

So they're the best of where I'm at right now. And this is the second post of the evening. I wish I had friends, then I could go out on a saturday night instead of being a big fat geek.

BTW, I finished 'Prey' for 360 today. The story's pretty crap, except the main character is very likeable. Here are some catchphrases; 'Fucking...HAVE IT!', 'DIE DIE DIE!' and 'Holy shit.'
The game though could do with more experimentation with the portals like the video below (a mod I think). In the end though they're used just like doorways.

There are some other really good videos on you tube.

Comics

2007-04-07T20:11:00.000+01:00

Seeing as I enjoy drawing comics, and I have a few kicking about, I decided to upload a couple of the more complete ones. I say complete, the top two aren't finished at all, but meh. Click to download.

TRIC is the latest one. These pages are very unfinished. I've been trying to add to them recently but it's slow going.

I'm not entirely sure what I was doing with this. I think I had a script and everything, but I just got bored, and a bit paranoid about what people might think having myself as a (semi) main character.

I did this last Easter as a 24 hour comic and it's really awesome. I still quite like it but that might be because it's actually finished.

Probably NSFW.

I've got some course work (doodles) I'm putting off scanning in.
AND THEY'RE AWESOME!!1