Dying is Easy Cover - Finished !

 Oh boy - getting back into bad blog habits ! 

The last couple of months have been pretty full-on - there was a production and then it was junior and senior report writing season - which didn't leave a lot of time for art of any kind ! 

I was able to sit down today and finish of the cover for Rish. 

I'm pretty pleased with how it looks overall. I would have liked to add a bit more detail to the claw, but I didn't want to delay it any longer. 

I'm not sure what's next on the art horizon.I would like to do a new woodcut, but I haven't thought of anything I could do yet. Maybe another tarot card ? We'll see. 

Dying is Easy - Development

 Spent some time on the cover today. 

Good progress on the claw - I'm pretty happy with hoe this looks. It'll be fun when I get to the colouring stage. 

The nest on the microphone was pretty tricky. I'm pretty much just tracing from a photo, bu tit's still pretty finicky to do.

Dying is Easy - Cover

 A headache at 4.30am has rendered me useless for most of this Sunday. Ugh. 

Still - not TOTALLY useless. I've made a start on a new piece of cover art for Rish. 

He sent a sketch of the thing he was after : 

Alien claw holding a microphone. Pretty much right in my particular wheelhouse ! 

I've started on the claw : 

It's a start.

Grail - T-Shirt element

 I did a bit of punch-up work on a student submission for out school's current production t-shirt. 

I re-did the Grail image - made it a bit fancier. Here it is. Just finished now. 

I learned how to do a proper halftone effect with photoshop with this, so some good learning as well. 

New Project idea - "King in Yellow" playing card woodcut

 I've been wanting to get into a new woodcut, and nothing was coming to me in terms of imagery for a new Tarot design.I was scrolling through Pinterest for ideas, and I happened on a piece of art on the 'The King in Yellow' - the eldritch horror fictional play. I've loved the idea of 'The King in Yellow' ever since I first encountered it in a game of Call of Cthulu I played back in the 90's. 

 It was a neat picture, and was a cartoonish representation of Hastur ( The 'King' ), Queen Calisda ( one of the tragic figures in the play ) and her children. 

 And I thought - 'Hey, a playing card - one half Hastur and the other Quean Calsida - would be pretty cool.' 

 So that's where I'm going ! I've done a couple of experimental sketches ( nothing amazing there ! ), and I think it could look good. Here's the current one. I think I spent more time measuring up the dimensions of the card ! 

I don't like the current placement of the staff, and I think I could change the arm to a mass of tentacles. The mask is alright, but I could make it look much more sinister. The cloak needs work. BUT - I like the idea and the direction. 

More as it happens.

FInished

 I think it's done. Let's see what the Art Director of the Drabblecast says !

Colour

 

Stuff I did - Tarot Woodcuts

 In the last couple of years I've tired my hand at making woodcuts. I hadn't done one since I was at high school - so a good twenty or so years ! 

I made these for friends of mine, and was very happy with the way they turned out. I'll have to break out the gouges and make another one sometime soon ! 

Stuff I Did - 'Thee Time Visitor' cover

 I really like the way this turned out - even though all I'm doing here is messing with photos that other people took.

Stuff I Did - 'My Friend of Misery' cover

 Another cover for Rish. I'm really happy that Rish likes the stuff I do. I often flounder around if I have to think of stuff to draw myself. Having a direction from someone else is weirdly liberating. 

Stuff I Did - 'Podcatcher' cover

 I'm going to post some of the stuff I've done since 2017. I had a friend who wanted to see some of my art stuff - but I didn't get to the last time I saw her. Also - constant reader - you may enjoy it too. 

I hope so ! 

Crosshatching

 I did a piece of cover art for storytelling genius Rish Outfield earlier this year. He specifically asked for an 'Edward Gorey' type effect - which meant a LOT of cross hatching. I quite liked the finished look of it - so I'm trying to use some here as well. 

What do you think ? I like it. ( *King Julian voice* ) 

Development

 I was hoping to get more done on this over the last couple of days. Was not to be. Still - something is better than nothing !

New commission

 I recently got in touch with the Art Director of The Drabblecast podcast, and asked if he needed an artist to volunteer. I had done a few covers for The Drabblecast a few years back, but then they stopped asking me. I wondered if I'd somehow offended him or said something stupid - or maybe submitted some really bad art. But no - I'd just fallen of the rotation, and he seemed quite happy to have me back. 

I'd played around with a couple of sketches eralier in the week, and decided on a way to go with this one. 

 I managed to scan in a rough sketch, and have spent a couple of hours getting the outlines of the main figure done.  I'm happy with how it's going so far. 

It's alive !

 Oh boy. 

2017 huh ? 

That was a while ago, wasn't it ? 

Ummmm .... yeah. 

No excuses really - I just have been bad at posting anything. 

Here's a thing I did this year ! I have to go put children to bed now. But I'll be back again soon ? 

Promise ??