Handheld Homecoming

I was recently reminded of the fact that I haven't toyed with my DS in quite some time, so today I decided to dig it out and enjoy a little handheld speedpaint fun. I had forgot just how much fun it is to lounge on my bed and paint in between bouts of cat-napping. And let's face it, cat-napping is what bank holidays were invented for, right?

Quickie

A quick speedpaint in between bouts of work...

Tomes

A quick ink sketch showing my love of musty old books.

Tallow

This post continues on from my last entry, but I have become so frustrated with my internet connection (it took me over an hour to get a sweet connection spot to upload a few kb's of picture content) that I'll just try and get this up and expand on it later. :(

Fence Hopping

Although the title of this entry is primarily concerned with the realisation that a change of scenery (project direction) is the order of the day, and that the grass can sometimes look a little greener, given ones current viewpoint, and possibly more constructive in the long run (see below), it does remind me of a game I used to enjoy playing when I was a kid.

Fence Hopping was the (ahem)... "sport" of finding a long row of terraced houses with similar styled front gardens (in Britain this is not hard to do) and attempting to traverse said gardens, in a parallel fashion, from one end to the other by roughly concentrating on the centre line within the gardens between the front door and the front gate. There were some rules involved which tended to focus around what actually counted as a "score" when it came to the traversing of each individual garden. Of course, the score was maintained by a small mob of like-minded youths who followed your progress by running adjacent to you along the street shouting encouragement. The main rule was as follows...

To score a point, one must successfully navigate an individual garden (the space defined by the usual suburban boundaries such as hedge, bedding (flowers), wall, fence etc...) without destroying property or invoking the resident of the garden/house to "investigate" the disturbance while a foot is still in physical contact with the ground of said property.There were other more subtle rules that resulted from certain circumstances (I'll leave that up to your imagination), but the main rule is the one that really defined the spirit of the game.

I was a nimble little sod, so was naturally good at this game and maintain the record score of 47 which I achieved by attempting what was considered the "Everest" of Fence Hopping exploits: a twisting row of 56 suburban gardens placed in a giddy architectual town planners loop... One that involved 3 seperate acts of pond-jumping (a sub-sport itself), 2 frontal attacks on lines of tall conifer trees, 3 sheds (the second of which was the failure of many previous attempts), 4-6 fences that involved some physical strain that doesn't fall under the header of "hopping", and one or two mischivious pets (very dangerous when it comes to the resident reaction rule).

I never thought I'd find myself (as a grown man) bragging about my Fence Hopping exploits - even though I have always been drawn to such thoughs every time I come into contact with the notion of sitting on the fence or the grass being greener. I guess it's good to finally get a chance to vent my Fence Hopping escapades and get them off my chest.So what does this ramble have to do with the sketch-post? Oh, just judge for yourself...

I've had little time to sketch, paint or post lately, but here's a dump of a few tidbits concerning the "Garra Ruffa" project I was working on. I say "was" because, after getting my mits on a set of traditional Manga inking nibs, I fast realised I am woefully inadequate with the unruly swines. But to cut a long story short, I have recently swapped my initial comic book setting for one that is far more forgiving when it comes to lines drawn in ink. I haven't discarded this setting. I'm just in the process of creating a new setting (see next post) that will hopefully be a better learning ground for inking with traditional nibs.

Comfort Zones Excluded

Another double page of environment doodles (see previous post). I really need to work on my quick figurative drawing as this post clearly shows. To be honest, I don't think I am actually as bad at quick figurative sketches as this sketchbook page would have you believe. Yes, I am rather horrible at it in general (something I have been working on by using the 30 second timer feature over at Pose Maniacs) but this new ink medium is unforgiving when it comes to human poses done on the fly and certainly hilights my shortcomings in this department. There's nothing like the panic factor to bring you down to earth and point out your weaknesses.

I like this new medium. :)

Ink Scratch

I've been enjoying a relapse in interests lately and have gone back to watching certain Anime films and reading certain Manga volumes I originally devoured (many times over) some years back. It's a style of design and illustration that is both infuriating (see main stream crap) and exhilarating (localised gems) but, unfortunately not in equal measures.

I've been meaning to play with the concept of a continuous setting for quite a while now, and was originally going to pursue this idea via a series of speedpaints and sketches, but my recent downtime activities have made me pause over the notion of the comicbook format – something rather alien to my way of working. I decided to try my hand at world creation using a comic book blueprint. Well, not so much “world creation” as... err... pocket environment?

Whatever comes of this new venture (sketches, speedpaints etc...) will be posted here along with my usual scribbles. The working title of the project is "Garra Ruffa", so make what you will from that.

Skulls IV (now with added ribs)

Productivity Report

Around October time, last year, I started using an old inverted CD spool cover as a temporary bin, at hand on my desktop, for my pencil shavings. It seemed like a more practical solution to the problem of keeping shavings off the floor than dragging my paper bin into the middle of the room each time I sat down to scribble.

At the beginning of the this year I decided to start collecting the shavings, rather than discard them at the end of a sketching session, as a fun way of charting my scribbling productivity. A more rational person might argue that the filling of sketchbook pages would be the only productivity gauge required, but my personal requirement for self amusement couldn't help but add a little status chart to the side of the spool cover, and for the past few months it has been a fond addition to my desktop.

This evening, after an enjoyable scribble (see previous post), I was rather delighted to see that I had reached a new stage of my slightly juvenile productivity graph, so I decided to take a picture as a way of sharing the moment. The perspective is a little too high to gauge correctly in the photo, but with the pencil shavings smoothed out I am right on the “showing promise” level. Hopefully I will be within reach of a peanut by the end of summer. :)

Skulls III

More skulls. Err... It is not that I am in any way morbid – even though my current pastime amusements seem to be focused on painting rather bleak scenes, reading quaint old gothic horror stories and sketching bones – but I do find something wonderful and, dare I say it, emotional, about many aspects that others would quickly label as slightly melancholy, or in some cases even macabre.

I've never really been very good at verbally explaining to friends the subtle, subconscious feelings I have about parched deserts, decayed buildings, arid rocky plains, gnarled trees, rusty machinery, frozen vistas and, yes, bleached bones. My close friends know me as the jovial idiot that I am, but most other people that I come into contact with fairly regularly, tend to view my sketchbooks and paintings (when caught in the act) as indicative of slightly undesirable undertones in my personality.

To be honest, it is rather fun to note these different interpretations on what I myself find appealing as opposed to the boring emotional blueprint that the vast majority of people seem to pin their souls to. This may read as bitterness on my part, but I feel more disappointed than anything.

Having said all that, I do like a little morbidity from time to time. Maybe I should sketch a few pages of real morbid material – on a bright sunny day in front of certain friends. *maniacal laugh*

Frozen Lake

The weather is starting to warm up and the sun is showing it's face more often, so I had better get a few more wintery paintings done while the memories are sill fresh.

Ponder

While I was painting this I imagined the tree, as a young sapling, watching as the abbey was slowly being built and wondering what on earth the silly humans were up to. Fast forward a few centuries and the now proud old tree looks upon the sad crumbling edifice – still somewhat mystified.

“What the hell was that all about?” o_o

Skull Horse

I couldn't help but do a speedie of this particular Tomb Raider enemy. The blend of rusty armour, bones and maybe a little of that old Ray Harryhausen charm combine to make a memorable foe.

Tomb Render

I'm not the biggest Tomb Raider fan but having received the latest game, Underworld, for Christmas, I booted it up and found myself once again enjoying the exploration aspects of the game - as I did with the first few games many years ago. So, as with most things I find an interest in, I decided to channel my emotions into something a little more creative.

This painting started out as any other speedpaint, but while I was perusing a Tomb Raider forum, I stumbled upon a thread filled with photos of real hardcore fans in Tomb raider costumes. I thought some of them made great reference poses so I asked one member if I could use her photo for the above painting. It's probably as close to a finished piece (without actually being final) as I get so I guess it falls under the category of a speed-plus-paint.

Helm's Deep...

...That is, deep sea diving helmets - not that place out of The Lord of the Rings. :)