[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLXXIV - CLXXV].

Something struck me as quite funny now that the bloke in charge of FIFA has now said that goal-line technology should now be used in footy matches.

Seems to me that he realised that if it had been England who had a goal disallowed the other day, he'd be in a world of trouble and/or pain.  But - thankfully - it was the Ukraine who had a goal disallowed so that gives him a little breathing room.

My wifey and I posted away her visa application this morning, so that was a huge load off our backs - just in time for me to go into work.  It's all in God's hands now and He is more than capable of taking care of it!  Knowing that there's nothing more we can do takes a lot of pressure off and I'm going to sleep very well tonight.

As a bonus, work was pretty quiet so I got to come home early to my wifey and now we're chilling on the couch watching Michael McIntyre.

It is a good day.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLXXII - CLXXIII].

My little brother turned 21 yesterday.  I think he celebrated by going to the gym and having some Chinese food in the evening.  I'm pretty certain that that's not all he did, but I haven't asked him much more.

A borrowed figure (plus a couple of arms) for the purpose of thinking through another character design for one of my projects.  I was pretty happy with the quick, line drawing back next to it.  It was a template for the drawing below - a different location for the hourglass marks.

And here's the idea for the other location.

A quick gas mask study.  Because it's the first obvious choice for quick drawn studies.

A LARPer.  Or my experience of one.  Minus the hair, yes, but everything else is included.  I believe that's lightning in his right hand.

One of my friend from the course has created a blog - 2hourchallenge.blogspot.com - so go and have a look-see!  This groups of doodles was from the challenge to draw a video game character in a way that the character hasn't been drawn before.

The challenge rules are simple - 1/2 hour prep time - gathering sources and ideas and inspiration, etc and then 2 hours drawing time.  It doesn't have to be one two hour stint, but the total time taken to draw out your final idea shouldn't be more than 2 hours.  Than you email it to him and he posts it on the blog.

It's a fantastic idea and it's something that I will be trying to contribute to as much as I can.

For this challenge, I took Pyro - the greatest character in TF/TF2 - and tried to see what I could do.  These are my thumbnails to see where I would take it; and I included them in my 1/2 hour thought-gathering process.

Then I thought it'd be cool to see what Link would look like in one of the thumbs I'd drawn, so there's why he's in the bottom one here.  After that, I went off on one and figured the Pyro may never have been drawn as a Native American before - so that ended up with the top thumbnail here.  Instead of a flamethrower, I gave him a torch and instead of a Firemans' axe, I gave him a tomahawk.

So that led to another pose of the Native American Pyro (with the opposite view of Link fromt he thumbs above)...

And another...

And that's when I thought "This is going well; I think I'll draw Link again a few more times."

And here's the final image.  Of sorts.  I figured I'd taken the challenge off course, so I decided to see it through to at least a good drawing of Link.  Bow and arrow option here, with little Navi up to the right, there.  Once Photoshop gets a-goin' I'll throw some colours on this.

Speaking of colours (seamless), my wifey and I stopped off at the side of a pub to watch this guy do his thang for a while.  It was really nice to watch.  He said he tried to so a new one every week - weather permitting.

I'm going to wrap it up here.  I've got a bit to say about the footy - as most Englishmen will - but it's not too important to lose sleep over.  There was another thing, too, but it's slipped my mind.  Maybe it'll make it's way back in there by tomorrow.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLXI - CLXXI].

Well this Roman Numeral thing worked for longer than I thought it would.  I've sorted it out now, but I'm not sure how accurate the past few weeks have been.

For today:

Lovely little spider protecting his babies.  Caught it while I was cutting the grass the other day and figured I'd try and get a few good shots of it.

And then this beaut.  Rana temporaria - the common frog.  Nice to see it now that I'm back on UK shores.  Took my time appreciating it and getting a few nice shots of it.  Lovely stuff!

I've been getting back on the drawing wagon after a short hiatus.  It's enjoyable again!  I went to the degree show of the Games Design course at university on Friday night and then again this afternoon with my wifey.  Really nice to see some of the work that's up.

Can't wait to start up again in the studios in September!

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLX].

Started working again at Nando's today.  To those of you in the UK who haven't been to Nando's before; go.  Go now.  It's amazing and I have missed it a lot.

It's been nice getting back into the swing of it - I did a bit of everything today.  A nice way of breaking back in.

For today, I've got a photo that one of my friends from America sent to me.

It's one of the last dolls I made while we were over there and it's a design that I love!  The material I used for it was really great, too, and combined with using one colour for the inside of the arms and legs and another colour for the rest, it's a doll that is a joy to make.  And yes.  Nice to sell...

And here's a photo from me.  My mum made us a wonderful Anniversary card!  I thought it was a photo when we first opened it  :D

I'm working again tomorrow and a couple of other days before going on a team build day!  Nice timing!

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLIX].

Clicks.  I like these Roman numerals.  They make a word.

Not a photo from today, but it can be the photo for today:

This is the Olympic torch getting carried through our little town!  I like the shot I got of this runner.  I was wanting to stand on the roundabout so I could get a shot from straight down the road but the roundabout was covered with signs instructing people to not be on there.  Signs which no-one read, obviously, but signs that put me off standing on the roundabout nonetheless.

Still.  I like this shot.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLVIII].

I figured I'd make another post so I can more clearly see what number day it'll be tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, my wifey and I are moving up to Preston for a while.  It's not far away from the internet, so I'll still be able to post things, but it will be a long day.  And then I've got three days of work!  I can't wait!  I've not worked for a good while - standing up, walking round, working hard.  I did a bit of construction work in November last year, but other than that it's been nice work like making dolls and painting murals  Time for some on-my-feet-for-10-hours-type work.  Lovely.

Also for the end of the day:

A couple of logo bits for a series at church.  Not a whole lot to go on - a Dark Knight-esque 'S' for the series' title 'Superness'.

I like the first one the best but I'm finding all the 'S's to be a bit curvy to make dark-looking.

Peace.

[Project:ThreeSixFive] Day [CLIV - CLVIII].

I'm having to learn how to use Roman numerals again.  I knew them in primary school because one of our teachers gave us various nicknames and ways of answering the register.  I was VII.  I don't know the numerals that well because there weren't a whole lot of us.  It didn't reach thirty, if I remember correctly.

But that's enough of that.

I've been absent once again from this photo-a-day thing.  I do have a bit of a better excuse for today, however.  And the past few days.

As you may well be aware, the Olympics are being hosted in London this year.  Huzzah.  If you are not aware, then consider yourself now aware.

The logo for the Olympics has been one of those love it/hate it conversation points since it was first unveiled in 2008.  I don't think it's all that great, really.  I think it's a bit clunky and a not all that pleasing to the eye.  I also think that it cost far too much.  Apparently, the cost of this logo was around the $400,000 mark.  Four hundred thousand pounds.

This, on the other hand, is the logo for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.  If you're not aware of this, then I guess it's a bit more acceptable than not being aware of the Olympics, but it's still a pretty big deal.

For the second time in England's history, the Queen has been on the throne for 60 years.  Since coming to the throne in 1952, there have been 11 presidents.  The Queen met 10 of these, but she also met one before she was Queen and a former president while she was on the throne.

For this huge occasion, what fantastic logo should be selected but this one above.  Stellar.

As I suspected, it was a Blue Peter competition (Blue Peter is a kids' TV show that's been going here for 54 years), but what surprised me was that the artist was 10.  I guessed 7.

Now I realise that the Olympics probably won't be back in England in our lifetimes, but to have a Monarch on the throne for 60 years isn't going to happen any time soon either.  Why we spent $400,000 on one logo and opened the other up to a kids' competition I'll never know.  The occasions are arguably as important as each other  - I'd say the Jubilee is more important - so why not proudly display a scrawlings of a primary schooler for the world to see at the Olympics?  It would have saved us a bit of money.

Finally, we have Euro 2012.  It's like the World Cup but only for Europe.  Thrilling.  For the American reader, picture the World Series being played ever 4 years and with actual teams from across the world being involved.  Hard to do, right?  So then if you have an All-American series every 4 years, off-set so that you can watch a big championship every two years, then you get an idea, albeit watered down, badly thought through and not really that similar.

England are in the competition again.  We normally are.  We get really patriotic and a little bit violent until we're out of the competition.  Than we just take all that patriotism that could have been and a select few turn that into even more anger and violence.

I love my country, really.

We play some good football until either the second half of the game or the second half of the compet

But the most important reason I haven't been on here for the past few days is that my wifey and I have been celebrating our second anniversary!

It's been an incredible two years and I can't believe how blessed we are.  Well, I can, because I know that God is good and He takes care of His kids.  But also, I can't, because we're just so blessed it's silly.

If 'blessed' is not a word that you're familiar with, it just means fortunate, but - essentially - God-given fortune.

We've been fortunate enough to have had the chance to go to Amsterdam, Germany, Iceland and America - including living in Arkansas and visiting Missouri, Georgia, Ohio and New York - traveling through Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky and a couple of other States.

We've also been fortunate enough to have had the chance to live in the UK and America.  And to also have seen wonderful things - the hills and views of Arkansas and Germany, the canals and buildings of Amsterdam, the roads and countryside of America, Niagara Falls and the births and engagements of almost twenty of our friends and family.

Visas have plagued our marriage, as one sadly expects in this age of (seemingly) 'only those who stay illegally can stay', but we know that God is good and we know that He provides us with everything we need.

We have the money for my wifey's visa to the penny - a gift that we received from a person at church in America.  We also have a nice, big bag of winter clothes for my wifey - made possible for us to bring home by someone else at church paying for that bag!  And now that we're looking for a house in Preston, while we get jobs sorted in order to save money for a house in Preston, we have some more friends from church who have offered us three rooms to stay in while we save up enough for a deposit! God is amazing.  When Christians live like Christians should live, it glorifies God and shows His love to everyone around.

This past two years has been amazing.  Words cannot describe how much I love my wifey and how stoked I am for spending the rest of our lives together.  There are only 26 characters in the Roman alphabet.  Not near enough to use with the effect I'd want.

Here's another photo for today, actually.  My mum has an Etsy page!

My wifey and I were getting her sorted and ready to sell.  I was in charge of creating the banner for my mum's page and this is the photo I took the strip from.  Lovely stuff.

In other news, my mum taught me how to crochet, so there's a thing.

I've made two small squares and a tiny scarf.

Peace.