DCA-#4 - More numbers and letters, torso planned

Again, Lorenzo is having a nap. Angelo is outside playing with Viva. So a little more progress.

I'm liking the new plan for the torso letters. THAT'S the way I wanted the whole thing to look ! I might have to redo the 'face' - there's too much empty space there that needs filling up.

I also finally figured out what about the red man is bothering me. It's that foreground leg ! It looks like he's wearing leggings ( or nothing at all ), and that looks weird. The other hand is still bugging me ( the one without fingers ), but I was aware of that before.

Argh - the laptop is almost out of juice. Time for a recharge. I on the other hand have tea for children to start preparing. Woo hoo.  More ( hopefully ) later !

DCA-#4 - 'Ellentia' hair and '2094' face.

Some progress today : 

It's not quite turning out how I imagined - which is annoying me a little. Ah well. Stay the course.

DCA-#4 - Woman 'Ellentia' text

Again - Lorenzo having a nap, which has allowed me to do this :

There's some re-sketched other stuff - particularly the letters and numbers in the face and hair, which look better already I think. They're not here because they're FAR too rough right now !

DCA-#4 - Base man colour

Lorenzo has been asleep, so I've been able to do a little more on the cover art.

Got a provisional 'man' outline now, though he still needs some hair.

DCA-#4 - Base woman colour

Right - vectored in a base shape for the woman in the drawing. Oh - and the gun. 

Next step - the lettering. Or the base shape for the man. Actually - probably that one first.

Dunesteef Cover art #4 - Initial layout

So - here's the first steps in the new cover art project. I've forgotten the name of the story right now, but it is about time-travel.

I just merged the first two sketches to create :

Very rough at this stage. Nothing new there though !

More as it happens.

New project coming !

Hey all. Just a quick note to say sorry I've not posted anything in a while. Things been super busy at work - no time for drawing.

BUT - I've agreed to do a new piece of art for The Dunesteef podcast. I've got some ideas - and I've started a few sketches already. Watch this space - more as it happens !

Monster - vectors

I liked how that monster sketch was going, so I've been working on getting the lines done over the last couple of weeks or so. I was visiting my parents with the kids, and both Angelo and Lorenzo went off to feed the chickens with their Nonno - so I was able to finish off the last few lines for the first stage. 

And here it is : 

Not too bad at this stage !

Thing I made - The Pirate Ship Pinata - Finished

Oh yeah - I totally forgot to post some pics here of what the pirate ship pinata finally looked like !

I posted something on Facebook - but some of you won't be on facebook ! Here are some pics of how it turned out :

Not too bad I thought - especially for a first try at a pinata. I DID end up making it far too strong though. Before the party I had to pull out all the cardboard 'skeleton' and then I scored a number of 'structural weaknesses' into the hull with a craft knife. It was a good thing I did too - those kids NEVER would have broken it otherwise !

Here's the ultimate fate of the ship "

All that hard work - smashed ! Heh - well, that's what I built it for.
Afterwards, Angelo had a great time dragging it round playcentre by the rope :

Good times.

And now - A shakespeare joke !

I've not had a lot of time recently to do any drawing / art. My desktop computer being weird certainly hasn't helped - but on top of that there was the variety show, the ERO being in at work, NZQA moderation that we forgot we had to do and the various other things required of being a parent.

Anyway - here's a joke I heard at the Shelia Winn Shakespeare regionals I was at last term.

Shakespeare walks in a pub.
The barman says 'You can't come in here - you're barred !'

Get it ? Barred - Bard ?

I thought it was pretty funny.

Monster sketch #3

Another monster.
More of a dinosaur type thing this time.

Monster sketch #2

Another monster sketch. I'm in a bit of a monster phase at the moment. I used to LOVE drawing monsters as a kid. I've not changed much in that regard ! 

Thing I drew - Logo #1

My neighbour asked if I'd knock up a logo for him - making the processing unit thingy on a cochlea implant look like a stylized kiwi. Here's what I came up with. Not amazing - but not back for a start

Bye Matt.

So.

A friend of mine died a few days ago.

His name was Matt.

I met him while I was at university. I’m not entirely sure how he joined the circle of friends I was in then. It was via someone who wasn’t me. If I’m honest – and I suppose I should be – I have to say I didn’t particularly like him at first. Now – this was ultimately due to me rather than him. He kinda breezed into the group with what seemed like a pretty effortless charm and confidence. The masses flocked to him, and I – who had been, and still am, fairly socially awkward and self-conscious – was jealous.

There – I said it.

But, it was hard not to fall into the gravity well of his personality. He was, as I said, charming. And funny. And intelligent. In great abundance.

We were very different people. Back then especially - but I’ve grown up a little since. It was only as he was leaving the country that I really getting to like him.

Typical, huh ?

But over the years I got to see him now and again. He’d come back and we’d see him for an evening or two. On one occasion Viv and I were in England and got to see him on his ‘home turf’. It was always good to see him and hear about his exploits.

When my boys were born we sent them really thoughtful gifts. Angelo got a little plush robot and soft toy rabbit. Lorenzo got a really neat soft toy tiger. While Lorenzo is still too young to really appreciate the tiger ( or any toy really – his favourite toy at the moment is a cooling rack for baking ), Angelo came to LOVE the rabbit. It’s one of his three special bed-time toys, and he always has to have the bunny when he goes to sleep.

I was thinking just last week how I should send Matt a message through FaceBook and tell him how much Angelo loves the rabbit.

On Friday I came home, and Viv told me that Matt had died.

It shook me up – I can tell you. He was older than me – but not that much older.

It’s been playing on my mind these last few days.

If there’s something good I pull out of this terrible, sad, unfair thing, then I guess it’s this.

Don’t wait.

Okay – so it’s clichéd. But it’s so, so true. Don’t wait. Do the things now. Before doors close and they’re lost to you forever.

I should have messaged Matt last week when I thought of telling him about Angelo’s rabbit. He would have liked to know that. I should have told him. Why didn’t I ?

I thought there would be time. Why wouldn’t I ? It wasn’t like Matt was old or sick. I had all the time in the world to tell him how much my son loved the gift he’d been given.

Only I didn’t have time. Time ran out on Friday. And now I’ll never be able to tell him and he’ll never know. And that saddens me on a profound level. Not being able to tell him that small thing.

We never know when our number is up. Do the things.

So.

Goodbye Matt. I’m glad you got to meet Angelo that New Year’s Eve in 2010. I wish you could have met Lorenzo. 

Thank you for the gifts you got my boys. Angelo really loves that little blue bunny you got him. It’s one of his special bed-time toys – he’s got to have it with him every night. There have been some nights where Dada has had to launch special search parties to find and retrieve him before going to bed can happen. I’m sure Lorenzo will come to love his tiger just as much.

I’m sorry I was a bit of a jerk in those early days. It wasn’t you. It was me.

I’m sorry I never did you the painting I always promised I would.

I’m sorry you didn’t get more time.

I’ll always remember roleplaying with you at university, and that time at my 21^st where the glass of water you gave me turned out to actually be vodka – with suitably hilarious results. And walking around London with you, telling me about the history of the Michelin man. And all the other memories I have – that are still far too few.

You were a good guy Matt. I still can’t believe you’re gone.

I’ll miss you. 

Sketch - Monster

Here is a monster sketch I did last night while watching ( sort-of ) the Muppet Movie ( old one ).

I was using monster aspects generated from 'Freak Engine'.

Thing I Wrote - 'System - 3rd Start'

I was poking around in the 'Creative' folder on my computer again, and found this. Again - in lieu of any thing else to share with you I thought I'd post it.

I do vaguely remember writing this. I had been wound up with the idea of a post-apocalyptic story - something which contrasted high and low technology. I was also obsessed with a city called Asylum, and a couple of character names - Paige and Lowe.

I had had an idea of ancient machines which were now millennia old, and had kinda lost their minds.

Anyway - I can't remember where exactly the story was going to head after this. I like some of the imagery here. There's probably something salvageable somewhere !



'System' ( 3rd start ) 

Lowe sat uncomfortably on a lump of fused, twisted steel on the edges of the Cathedral Plains, watching the Artists in their endless circle of creation and destruction. The plains were dangerous – but during the day most of the more lethal inhabitants of the rad-scapes kept to the shadows and the cool dark of the subterrainian ruins. He absently turned the key on his clockwork invenio, winding the fly-wheel. The semi-rhythmic clicks softly echoing from it’s brass housing were a mild comfort.

His attention is almost fully captivated by the Artists. He’d heard of them, naturally, back in Asylum. In his lessons, and from Scythmen and there stories of their time on border-culls. While he knew in his mind that the stories were true – he’d never quite been able to truly believe in them.

Until now.

They were remnants of the old world, from before the Resource Wars. Theories held that once they had been soldiers, considering the obvious power and strength they had at their command. Others asserted that they must have been miners, the beams of searing white light they used to melt the sand into glass must surely been able to slice and carve though rock. They definitely filled some purpose that required many limbs – but their arachnid bodies were reinforced with what appeared to be amour. Whatever their original purpose was, it was now lost in the eddies of time. No person knew how long they had been here in their hive collective. Possibly centuries. Probably longer.

Now they created massive sheets and sails of colored glass strung between the pitted skeleton of the Old World city. They webbed delicate ropes and braids of glass the thickness of a man in intricate loops and whorls, almost as if they were trying to pen amorous notes to the past in some long forgotten language. Sometimes two or more would collaborate in their fluid sculptures. They would fuse the sands, and work the molten goo with their extended fore claws and mandibles, then scuttle and scurry around the desolate boulevards and streets, up the exposed girders and devastated walls – tenderly pushing, molding, stretching and shaping the glass. At other times they would stand or hang inactive for days, watching the work of their robotic brethren. And at other times they would blunder around the domain in a kind of absent frenzy – reducing their labor and that of other members of the hive in flailing range to shards and splinters with their spindly limbs.

Some of the citizenry of Asylum had raised the idea of putting the Artists ‘out of their misery’ but their campaign hadn’t got far. System reminded them that, as old-tech constructs, they were virtually invulnerable to any kind of weaponry they had that was easily transportable to the Cathedral Plains. Also that the prospect of their photonic lances being turned on them would be an exquisitely painful ( if quick ) death. System was most insistent for the Artists being left alone. “They’re happy now. Far happier than they ever were before. Leave them be.”

That's where it finished. Hope you enjoyed it vaguely.  

Thing I Wrote - 'Work Related Stress'

While I had some down time at the 2nd parent / teacher evening of the year - I had a look though the 'creative' folder of my document file. There were some things in there which I don't really remember writing that I quite enjoyed reading. Mostly they were just fragment of things, mostly starts of stories, but I found this little piece which I remember writing early into the term last year. I thought you might enjoy it in lieu of a drawing.





Work Related Stress

It used to be better. The higher ups will tell you differently, of course – but it was better when things were simpler.

 Used to be it didn’t matter if they saw us. ‘Angels !’ they’d yell, and fall to their knees in quivering supplication, or ‘Demons !’ they’d scream – and they’d turn and run, try to sprint and genuflect simultaneously. In other places there’d be cries of ‘Ghosts!’ or ‘Dragons!’ or ‘Gods!’ – but the end result was the same. They’d run or avert their eyes, and we’d carry on our work. Tending our fields, as the serfs tended theirs.

 Then they got a whole lot smarter.

 Cameras were a bit of a pain. But they were expensive, cumbersome things to begin – by the time one of them could set one up we’d have been long gone. We would only be hear-say, mad-ravings, or at best a tall-tale.

 It seemed like only a blink of an eye, a quick spin around Sol – they were suddenly small, cheap and EVERYWHERE.

 Used to be that visible-spectrum cloaks only had to be used when in or around metropolitan areas. You could take it easy in the deeps of the rural locations, not have to endure the molecule shaking, brain-squeezing, micro-lesion forming misery of the cloaking field, cutting though the composite alloy hull like a sharp saw through bone. And if one or two images did get captured – was it so bad ? There was a high degree of skepticism on the surface. “It’s obviously fake !” and “A clever hoax!’ and ‘Smoke and mirrors !’ and ‘It’s spoon-bending all over again’.

 And then they went and invented film.

Video.

High-definition motion-capture.

 So now – VSC’s on at full-strength for every assignment.

 EVERY.

 ONE.

 Orders from the Federation Core itself.

 ‘Can’t compromise the experiment’ and ‘Widespread panic will ensue’ and ‘internal organic fluids splashed in the streets I tell you’.

 It used to be this job was fun. Still – it won’t be long now before the fleet is here, and me and the rest of the acquisition scouts can move on.

 Hopefully we’ll find somewhere still in it’s pre-historic stage. You know ? Somewhere we can just kick back for a few millennia. Before the harvest begins.

 I can’t wait.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Provisional Final Image

I think it's done :

We'll see what the Dunesteef guys think !

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Shading - Stage 1

I love getting to this stage of a digital drawing. Here's where it starts to really take shape and finally starts to look alright ! -

Major developments today : - A good deal of shading. - Textures added to the bags. - Re-drew / re-shaded the skirt patterns so that the pattern was balanced. - Added a gradient layer to slightly darken the sky a little more from the top. I should be finished this very soon.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Background and eyes

Yet another big day with the kids. More swim lessons, more craziness in general. Angelo's new fav game - I pretend to be a bird. he runs up to me and throws some grass at me, I shriek in surprise and 'fly' away - flapping my arms madly. Good times. Anyway - was able to give an hour to the pic :

The background is provisional - but it looks okay at the moment.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Full base colour

Argh - my desktop computer is dying ! The screen is going all weird. Sigh. So I've done the remaining colour was done on my work laptop.

Getting better. I might have to re-do the lines of the Witch's skirt - the unbalanced colour is annoying me.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - First colour

A very busy day. Been with the kids through most of it, then I figured I'd better start some school work. Still - I was able to give an hour to the art work, and I've started to add colour now :



Not a bad start !

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Even more detail / image centered

Another big day with the family. Lorenzo asleep at a reasonable time tonight, thanks to Viv taking him for a walk this evening instead of me !

Here's the current state of the cover art :



With the outlines MOSTLY done, I thought it was finally time to properly center the image, which was always a little off.

Time to rest !

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - More detail, clothes and bags and such

Oh god - when does the crying stop ? Poor little Lorenzo has been not sleeping well the last few days - I think he's teething. Man - that has got to suck when you're a little guy. Anyway - I was able to do some more outlines tonight, and I've done a little more the last few nights :



I'm going to sit down and stare into space for a bit now.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Back to the action !

Time to get back to the 'Halloween in July' cover now that the Drabblecast one is done.
Not much tonight - just the hands and bags ( or at least the start of them ) for the hobo and witch ghosts.
It's been a LONG day - and I'm going to sit down and watch tv for a little while before I crash.

Drabblecast art - Final image w/ titles !

Just heard back from Bo Kaier, the art director of The Drabblecast, and he deemed the art 'very cool' - which I'm very happy about !

Here's how it will look with the titles :



Pretty great - even if I do say so myself !!

Drabblecast cover art - provisional final image

I think it might be finished :



Time to send it through to the art director and see what he thinks !

Drabblecast cover art - more shading + background

Very close now :



Not totally sold on the background - but it's better than nothing at the moment !

Drabblecast cover art - more colour

Got a good amount done today :



Not too much more to do now. Kinda stuck with what to do with the background - I'm sure I'll figure out something.

Drabblecast cover art - first colour application

Had a chance to start colouring today :



I'll be happier when I can get some shade in. Bo ( the Drabblecast Art director ) gave me a interesting sounding colouring technique - but for the life of me I couldn't get it to work properly, which is really annoying because it sounded really good. I know I'm doing it wrong somewhere along the line. I'll have to check the instructions again.

Drabblecast cover art - hair and knit texture

I've got one week to go. I've been adding / warping the knit texture tonight.

Drabblecast cover art - Current outlines

Been SUPER busy lately. First parent / teacher evening of the year at work. That was a late night.

I've been working hard on the pinata as well - that's gotta be ready by Sunday !

I have been doing the Drabblecast cover art though - here's the current state of the outlines :


Now - sleep ! Hopefully the cat won't bring a live mouse into our room at 5am again ...

Drabblecast cover art !

On Friday I got a e-mail from the art director of The Drabblecast podcast. asking me if I would do some art for an upcoming episode. It was very exciting - and naturally I said yes. It's for one of their 'trifector' episodes - where they run three stories by different writers on a similar theme. Of the three stories I read, I got the most vivid imagery from one creepy little tale about 'yarn babies'.

I initially got this idea for the art :


Which wasn't too bad, but I'd gotten hung up on the stitched heart on the first of the yarn babies. When I thought about it some more - the image of the second one in the hands of her 'father' got me thinking. I decided this was the better way to go. I've started vectoring out some of the outlines already :



I've got till the 11th of April to get it finished. I'm excited to see where this one goes !

Pirate ship pinata - cannon hatches

I wanted to give Angelo's pirate ship pinata a little more detail - so I figured I'd give it some cannons. What's a pirate ship without cannons ?

I started by figuring out the dimensions of a cannon hatch housing I could fold from a single piece of cardboard. I came up with this :



The next step was to score the lines, and fold initially :



Then it was a matter of hot-gluing the housing tabs to make it stay together, adding in a cardboard tube for good measure.



Viola ! Then I just had to repeat that another three times, throw together a small cardboard hatch, and hot glue them to the ship body :



And there we have it !



It doesn't look half bad !

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Skull-face boy

A little more done. The figure on the right will eventually have his face painted like a skull.

At present I'm a little annoyed. A certain podcast went ahead and played a certain story about mice in space without the art I did for the story. I have had an apology from a certain podcast host - but to be honest, it doesn't do much right now. Mind you - it has been almost a year since I had the art finished, so I did have a sinking feeling something was up.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Hobo hair !

Only a little bit of advancement tonight. Did one of the plaits for the Hobo ghost child - and a little bit of her hair.

Time to sit down, watch some tv, maybe sketch something with a pencil.

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - Hobo outlines

I've been pretty busy this week with work, and when I'm not doing stuff with the kids at home I've been slaving away on Angelo's pinata ( which is up to the 3rd and final layer of paper mache ).

But - I did take some some to get some more of the initial outlines done on the HIJ cover art :


I've started to use a new and separate layer for everything now. The Hobo costumed child is made up of about eight individual layers ( eyes / nose / nose joins / hat brim / hat top / hat ribbon / neck and shoulders / face outline ). I'm finding this is really useful for making adjustments to the image. If I don't like one this - I can easily delete it or erase bits of it without doing any damage to the other bits. When it's all done to my liking, I simply merge all the layers into a single master outline layer.

I really shudder to think of my early photoshop stuff which was ALL on ONE layer. Sheesh.

Thing I'm making - Pirate ship pinata

I made a start tonight on the pirate ship pinata for Angelo's 4th birthday party. I found a web site about making one here :
http://detejas.com/?page_id=324
Which was very useful !

I got some photocopy paper boxes from work, cut them up and hot glued them together to form the paper mache frame :




It's looking alright so far. Tomorrow I'll get the first layer of paper mache on. Hopefully it won't get too soggy and collapse under its own weight !

Dunesteef cover #4 - HIJ - initial outlines

Only a little bit today. Another busy one. Gotta go do the dishes before I get some sleep. I'm happy to have made a start though.



I'm trying to do this with a gray background while I'm developing the outlines. It's supposed to be better than white. I can't remember why.

Dunesteef Cover #4 - Halloweeen in July - Initial sketch

Here's the starting sketch for the new art project, art for the Dunesteef 'Halloween in July' story.

Kinda rough at this point, I know, but it'll get better !

Birthday invitation - finished

And it's done.
Some more shading ( the sea, the monsters, the compass rode ), and the cool parchment texture I found online.
I think it's done now. Time to do the inner stuff, and get a few printed.
I hope Angelo likes it !

Birthday invitation - crop / scroll / some shading

Had an idea for a scroll saying 'You're invited!' at the top.
Got the scroll done after I made a batch of meatballs for tomorrows tea.
Have a couple of pirate styled fonts at the ready. I should hopefully get this done tomorrow.

Birthday invitation - more line detail

Got some more line detail done this evening. It's not too far off being done now.

New Project - Angelo's 4th birthday invitation

New drawing project - Angelo's 4th birthday is fast approaching, and he's going to have his first real birthday party. We're going to have a pirate theme - because pirates are cool, and Angelo seemed to be into pirates not long ago. He's back on the Buzz Lightyear train again now - but I'm sure he'll enjoy a pirate thing.

So I'm putting together a invitation thing for it. Here's the front cover.

Hoping to get it done in under a week. Then I have a pirate ship shaped pinata to make. Fun fun fun !