Toad in the hole.

This was a nice little start to a project that's been talked about between myself and a friend for a while. A long while.

Here's an idea sheet for the uniform of the characters in the story. I'm still getting used to using the same figure and putting different clothes on. It's basic, but I usually just draw in pen, so it's been fun having a template.

Then I drew a couple of body types for the character I was wanting to push. I cheated for the body type - I grabbed some images and flew over them quickly for the shape. I don't do this for final projects or things I'll use professionally because it's pretty lame, but for a rough idea of shape, I don't much care.

And then the final character! Still pretty rough and not in my usual style, but the idea of the project is that it will help me find another style and a more comfortable and quicker way of working in photoshop. I spent about 4 hours on this today, so it's not the worst start, time-wise. I tried to keep my colour range low - helped a whole lot by the Kuler extension in photoshop.

The guy is called Toad. He is an artist and an excellent outdoorsman. He can hunt and track anything and is one of the best chefs in the land. He carved his spear from the rib of a Megalisk and the knife he wields is shaped from the tooth of an Octobear.

There are a few things that I'll come back to with this guy, but after four hours of sitting in front of a computer screen, I need a break.

I'm going to watch some TV with my wifey.

Peace.

Exciting things.

Well, Christmas is nearly here. It's been a fun year.

I can confidently say that I have been blessed enough to make more this year with my art than ever before! My prayer is that I can claim that again this time next year!

My wifey and I just got back from being with her best friend. She gave birth today to a lovely little girl - the same day as my best friend's birthday, too! Since getting home, I've managed to finish a draft of a design that I was asked to do and I'm going to start making a doll now.

I'm pretty excited about Christmas this year. It's my first Christmas in America, so it's going to be fun seeing what new traditions I'll be involved in. At the moment, my wifey and I share our family quirks and manage to have ourselves a four-day Christmas. It's great!

I prepared a scavenger hunt for her for Boxing Day. I know we'll have it free to ourselves because it's not a thing over here. I'll post what I did after the day - I don't want to spill it all here and have her read it. That would be a waste of a day! But I can say that it was a challenge for me to think up and a joy to do.

This might be the first Christmas that I know what I'm getting. I think the grammar there was right...

I ordered a few camera lenses, so I'm going to have a lot of fun playing with them. My mother-in-law gave me her Canon Rebel about a week and a half ago, so I'm ecstatic!

I also got my hands on Final Cut Studio, so I can't wait to get that installed. With the shopping and the wrapping and projects that I'm working on and dealing with both my bank card 'breaking' and lovely issues with my Green Card, I haven't had much down time. Hopefully that'll roll around about this time next week.

For now, the above is a picture of me in a dream I had a couple of weeks ago. It was a pretty cool dream. I described it and drew it for my wifey the morning after. It was a lovely example of how our brains differ!

Apparently, the two hemispheres of my manbrain are slightly farther apart than her ladybrain. The same is true for most other men and women. This means that us men have the ability to picture what an object is like from any angle without having to physically pick it up and turn it round. Or at least we have a much better idea. On the other brain, it's easier for women to express themselves emotionally and make quicker emotional connections - because more of their synapses are intact; they haven't been broken from the larger gap between brain sides.

In summary;

I drew my first-person dream as a bird's eye view and she didn't know how I could do that.

I'm tired. That was far too much writing for this time of night. It wasn't even us that had a baby.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.

Peace.

All for one.

It's always fun to re-imagine characters. Here are the Three Musketeers. I still have D'Artagnan to draw. And maybe spell right.

It's nice to be drawing for myself a little bit again. I've just finished a few weeks working construction and it was leaving me too tired to draw much, so now that that's over for a while, I'm drawing a few things for some friends and otherwise getting back into drawing and making things for me (and my beautiful wifey for Christmas). That's a wonderful thing about being a creative type. I can make gifts! What I save in money, I spend in time, but it's more than worth it. To be able to pour into a creation and see it loved is so fulfilling!

I've had my camera out recently. Nothing much to show for it, but it's nice to give it a spin. I took the photos off and formatted the card so I can start anew. Some of the photos were from two years ago, so it was time to start over!

In other good news, we have a card reader and a scanner here, so I'll be able to get better pictures of my doodles instead of tiny, blurry, grainy images.

What else?

'tis the season!

I love Christmas. It's not been the same for a few years - this year, my wifey and I are staying with her parents, so it's going to be an All-American Christmas, with all of their traditions and things. I'm looking forward to it. Last year, it was an All-English affair, with my wifey and I staying with my folks for a few days. Before that, it was our first and only Christmas as an engaged couple and going back further still, we weren't even dating! So it's changed up a lot over the last four years or so. Which is amazing. Combining our traditions, my wifey and I have a 5-day Christmas, so we love it all the more!

To me, Christmas is all about the presents. I've said it before, but it was on Facebook and now I can't find it. I thought I'd already blogged about it, so I'll do that and update this post with the link. Basically, Jesus is a year-round thing for me. The only different thing about Christmas is that we get presents.

Anyway, that's my update today. I'm going to draw some more and maybe shower. Who knows?

Thanks for reading. I appreciate it.

Peace.

So long, 24.

It's been an amazing year. I've been to Amsterdam, Germany and Iceland this year, as well as moved to the States for a while. I am so blessed.

It's my birthday tomorrow and I had the day off today, so I looked up a load more reference pictures, draw and doodled a whole lot, read my Bible and prayed. Then my wifey's family all came over - 3 Grannys and a Papa. My father-in-law and I had a joint party (his birthday was on Monday), so we had a great mexican pizza lasagna thing followed by an enourmous cake with our combined age in candles. 73. It was ridiculous. There was more fire than cake at one point.

Presents were opened and a piñata was decimated (my first). My wifey got me this little bad boy.

Yea. That's the Bear Grylls Ultimate knife by Gerber. It's incredible. All I'm doing at the moment is pulling it out and putting it back in the sheath, but come tomorrow (and/or the weekend after), it'll be helping me fish. Whether that's just cutting line or skinning and gutting the things, I don't know yet.

It is a fixed blade knife, so it's ideal for heavier work than the folding blade knives, the bottom half of the blade is serrated which will give me a nice start when I'm cutting things up, leaving the top of the blade good for skinning and slicing. There's a notch on the back of the blade which I can use in combination with the small flint stick slotted in the sheath to get some sparks for a fire. Then there's the sharpening plate on the back of the sheath and instructions for land to air signals and a pocket-sized 'priorities of survival' leaflet. On the lanyard is an emergency whistle and the bottom of the knife handle is steel so I can smash things as well as cut things. Finally, there are two small holes on the handle nearer the blade so I can fasten the knife to a stick and have a makeshift spear if the need should arise.

It's amazing.

I also got a nice lot of fishing gear and another present coming tomorrow - on my real birthday. It's been a break in tradition for me, as I normally wait to open things (I still have the presents from my parents sitting on my shelf. They've been there for three weeks), so my excitement is lasting legitimately for two days! Three if you count whatever happens at church on Sunday.

I just wanted to stop by and say goodbye as a 24-year-old manboy. I'll be back to say hi as a 25-year-old manboy soon enough.

Thanks for reading. I appreciate your time, I truly do.

Peace.

Professiwhat?

Happy Hallowe'en and Trick or Treat and all that fun stuff. I've eaten my weight in junk food and seen many a costume. Some good, some bad.

So after four (that I can recall) non-payments/"It's going to be a bit later than I thought" 'payments', I've decided that I need to implement some sort of pay-me-before-I-make-things-for-you rule. Over the past year, a number of people have bought dolls from me and that's great. Most of them have either bought them outright from shows or ordered them and then paid for them once I've made them all.

But then there are a few who may not see what I do as a profession. Or may not think of it as something that can be a profession. I get paid for making things and I love that. I can call it my job (even though it's still more of a hobby that makes money than it is a job at the moment).

In fact, my wifey put a quote up on my wall at my drawing desk that says "Find something you love to do and you'll never have to work a day in your life". That's true. I love what I do and to get paid for it is something that seems too good to be true. I make dolls and I draw. For money. (Although not at the moment - I'm not allowed to legally work in the States. But I am allowed to live here legally. Nice one, America. Put us up the creek much?)

I digress.

If you have someone build an extension to your house, but end up not using it, you still pay them. If you leave your car at the garage for people to fix but tell them you can't pay yet, they won't fix it. If you ask me to make something for you, why are either of these things different? You pay me to make it - you don't pay me for you to have it.

If I ordered a coffee (hypothetically - coffee is horrible) and then upon being presented with the beverage, told whoever made it that I no longer wanted it, that wouldn't go down too well.

Not because the barista didn't get paid for his time, but because there's a product that will now go to waste, while the time a resources used to make it could have been spent more productively on someone else. Someone with the intention of drinking it.

This isn't a rant at anyone in particular; it's a rant at everyone who does this. You are the individual straws that have crushed this camel.

On a lighter note, thanks to all who have supported what I do. I truly thank you. You make my day brighter, my food tastier and my poop more satisfying.

I'm going to go fishing with my wifey.

Peace.

Things are done.

I posted off my rabbit drawing and I've sewn together a doll order. I've also done a few other designs for other projects.

All I have to do now is meet up with the people I'm drawing for, stuff and sew the rest of this doll and then post it.

It seems that most things technological around me cease to work well after a while. So no pictures of anything recent.

Instead of a big drawing or anything this time, here's a picture of my wifey's uncertaintea.

Peace.

I think I found my vice.

I just found the section on the LEGO website that sells individual bricks.

Now I've wanted to find this for a while and it's probably good that I only found it now. I've been wanting to build a few little vehicles, yet don't want to spend a whole lot on big sets in order to get the few pieces that I need.

Who am I kidding - I'd LOVE to buy big sets just to get a few little pieces. But money does not allow that. Yet.

So I spent just as much getting a buttload of individual pieces. Pieces that include a LEGO version of myself. For now, anyway. When cooler pieces become available, I'll update my LEGO self. It feels as if I'm shouting LEGO at you. I can live with that.

I've ordered enough pieces (by my estimation and doodles) to make a small buggy for reference purposes. Something I can hold up at any angle and have a good idea of shapes and dimensions. And I've also got pieces for a flying vehicle for the same reasons.

All LEGO needs to do now is give us LEGO feral hogs. And some sort of scope for their rifles.

One can but dream.

Peace.

Guess who's back; Back again. Me.

I think when I (eventually) get an iPhone 4 and my picture quality is a bit better, I'll be a happy bunny. It's all about the ease of uploading things, I guess.

I may have posted these before, but here they are again. My triptych of telephone poles. There's something about telephone poles that I find intriguing. It's probably got something to do with the fact that they're all pretty unique. I like that.

My horse(?) skull and fabric. It was from a project that was inspired by some of the masters. I had Degas and the image of a ballerina tying her shoes.

Now for the new stuff. I've drawn these guys. I am very happy with this image for a few reasons - the first is that it's a new style that I'm giving a go. I normally just go at something with a biro and what I have at the end is every mark I've made from the start. I like it because it keeps a lot of energy and is a story in itself, but for this one I drew out the characters with a technical pencil and then went over it with a gel pen.

The second reason I'm happy with it is because this is the first picture I've drawn that shows two characters together. Normally, when I had a project in uni that required two or more characters on one page, interacting with one another, I drew them separately and put them together in photoshop.

The third is that this is one of the first 'Post-Apocalyptic' characters I've drawn that is not heavy-laden. There's no huge backpack with the guy's life possessions, there's nothing weighing him down. He's kitted out to scavenge for a short time and then return to a base. He's equipped with the very basics.

It'd be fun to trace over this and equip him more and then do it again and equip him even more...

... It was a combination of these pictures - a couple of doodles to look at the pose...

... and one of these guys. I'm new to drawing robots and things like that, so I've been drawing variations of this guy* as much as possible to get used to the feel of it.

*See 'Rabbitmobile' post.

And more dolls. Naturally.

One artist I am a big fan of is Jouste. The Drawbarian. Had I the presence of mind to think of a suffix for my name, Drawbarian would have been what I went for. But he picked me to it. Fair enough. He has incredible line work and an energy that makes his drawings pop. His characters are fantastic, too, with great stories behind them. He can be found at jouste.deviantart.com and he also contributes to draww.blogspot.com On his DeviantArt page, there are more links to where you can find his work, so I'd encourage you to check it out.

One of his characters is Dogsword the Demolisher. I had a little go a rendering him in my style when I was warming up the other day. He retweeted it. Made my day.

I'm going to give this pencil drawing thing a go a bit longer, I think. It's pretty nice to be able to move things around and have a cleaner image at the end. I'm not going to stick with it - I like the energy I get with the biro, but for now it's nice to give it a go.

Peace.

Another rabbit related drawing.

I might try and find something other than rabbits to draw reference from for a bit. I don't even know where the idea to look at rabbits came from in the first place. I think it was probably one of my projects for my third year. Something to do with them being a quickly-reproducing and very sustainable food source. Like what happened with them in Australia but on a newly inhabited planet. It was a fun project.

And even though I like drawing them, I can't wait to taste one. Preferably one I've caught myself... But I digress...

It's been a fun day.

Peace.

Rabbitmobile.

I'm in need of some layout help with this blog, I really am.

Doodle.

It's a little warped because I had to take the photo with my webcam in order to get it onto the laptop, but it's only a rough idea, so I'm not too worried. It's the start of a vehicle that a character will ride in a webcomic that my friend and I are in discussion about. I'm excited.

This is a new style for me - getting the basic shape down with a pencil and then using a grey and a black to pick out the lines that fit best. I like it, but I'll always love the biro.

Peace.

Blast from the past.

I gave this guy to a good friend back home. Just found a picture of it on my computer, so I thought I'd show you. It was my favourite design for a long time, so it was nice to be able to give it away. I really like the one below now, anyway :D

Peace.

More arms arms than necessary.

I was hesitant to make the extra arms for this guy but I'm pretty happy I went forward with it. I'd brought the material over from England where I'd sewn it together ready to finish. I gave up a sock to make the beanie and snood. A good decision.

Sometimes I make things I don't want to sell, but the bright side is that I made it; so I can make it again if I really wanted to.

Once my phone allows me to send pictures to my laptop, I'll post up my little series of Pool casualties. It was going to be called the 'Poolkill' series, but a couple of the bugs I plucked from the water came to and jumped off.

Peace.

Rabbitfrogsquirrel.

There it is. Scrawled on the top of a pizza box. I haven't doodled for a while, so it's been nice to get back into it.

Peace.

New creation.

I drew a Rabbitfrogsquirrel today. I'll post a picture when I can find the drawing... I drew it at a place called Sam's club. It's like Costco or Bookers - bulk things and big things. It was on a pizza box. That's all for now. There's a thunderstorm off East, so my wifey and I have been watching that for a while. Really relaxing and very nice to chill on the porch and watch it unfold somewhat. It's so far away we can only hear the bigger strikes, which is something I'm not used to.

Anyway.

Peace.

After a few days traveling...

Half way to America, my wifey and I stopped off at the Blue Lagoon in Iceland for an afternoon. It was amazing. Very very nice.

Upon reaching Arkansas, I tried signing into the account that I have this blog with to find that I have to say what other account I have that backs this one up and what my security password is. Trouble is, I can't remember the other email address and the security password was a 14-digit number on a card that I have since had replaced.

So a week later, and many emails to Google, I'm back in. I've already made two dolls since getting here and I have a few plans for some other projects that I'll tell you about later. But the fact that I have access again to my account is very encouraging.

Talk soon.

Peace.

Final day, final year.

Forgot I had this open. Well, not much to report. I have to go out and buy a memory flash thumb jump drive USB stick because I have somehow amasses 12GB of work that I have to hand in with everything else. I also have to put up my show...


For now, here's a semi-random image pulled from my files of images what I drawed.

Hope I've not posted this before. I don't mind if I have - I like it. Only I worry about you, the reader, getting bored with repeat images all the way through this blog.

Got to go - work to do and all that.

Peace.

Poster.

Another poster post. The first one was ages ago. Here's the final version of my poster for one of my projects. It may need a bit more tweaking, but we'll see where time leaves me. I have to go. We're getting kicked out. Peace.

Pictures, pictures.

Bit of a dump. Here's what I did today, amongst other things...

A few ideas for a project in uni. A visual description. I've got a few favourites and I'm making one at the moment with another couple of them in mind. We'll see how they turn out :D

Peace.

Qa'al pinup.

Dirty scan of a pen drawing for a poster idea that I have to do soonish. I'm looking forward to it. Oh, yea. Here's a quickly coloured Monkey Soldier from the other day. Peace.

Shout out.

My good friend over at http://thegeordiefridgeshelf.tumblr.com used one of my dolls!

I love this blog - check it out and subscribe to it and all that. I can't wait to see what else will appear on the shelf.

I'd post more, but I need to work as fast as I can for as long as I can :s

Peace.

Monday mercenary.

So I'm here - not so much wasting time as I am posting things on my blog.

My friend Warner is busy fiddling with flash and trying to squeeze in my outrageously big files into it... It didn't start well, but he's some sort of wizard and now things are looking great.

Just thought I'd let you know.

This guy is a mercenary character for one of my projects. The first drawing I've done for a while where I've started with pencils and then inked it very basically. Not used to that. I wanted to keep all of my lines, so I went ahead and drew it again in biro. That's better.

Scribbles and such, too. That little robot is his sidekick. Modelling for your viewing pleasure the camera attachment - a vital aid in a situation that needs a tiny camera on a robot.

Peace.

Another drawing.

The image I wanted to put here is actually at the bottom of the post now... It took long enough to get it here, I don't want to fiddle round and lose it.

Also, thank you to my friend Thom for helping me get this together. Monkey soldier. He was going to be a regular soldier but I drew his arms huge. So I added a tail and gave him big ears. Bam. Monkey soldier.

He's pretty adept at fixing things and generally fiddling round with tiny bits and pieces. He's adapted a flare gun to fire flares, 40mm grenades, slugs and smoke grenades.

At the moment that's it, but he'll work on more things soon. I'm sure. The lizard is a shameless use of a reference by a guy on DeviantArt called jouste. Check out his work. jouste.deviantart.com

Peace.

Wicked cool new look for 2K10+1.

Well it's a start, anyway.

Yaay.
Now to create a massive image to put there so it's my work you can all see in the background.


Once more. Peace.

Bland.

I'm not really feeling the layout of my blog. I've been trying to mess around and change it but two things have come against me. One; I'm scared of change. Two; I am in no way adept at using computers. I've only just started to get my head around photoshop - even less so Maya.

But I'll strive to make it better. I mean hey - two posts in two days?! What's that all about?

5 minute warm up sketch. Jawesome.

Peace.

Resolutions.

Resolutions don't work. Although apparent in this - my first post since early January - it is also seen in other things. I'm not sure what, I just wanted to justify my non-posting. Diets. There we go. Anyone started a diet this year only to stop within the first week? Thought so.

Anyway. In no particular order...

Card work for my class on Thursdays.

More card work for my class on Thursdays.


And a character for my Tuesday class. That's what I'm in now. It's Tuesday.

What can I say? I'll do my best to keep this blog in mind. All of my blogs have become somewhat dusty as of late. I have no feather duster, so a mighty breath will have to suffice.

Love, love, love.
Thanks for reading :)