Shit, it happened again!

With all of the best intentions, I’ve completely forgotten to post since last February – one day I’ll get this whole blogging regularly thing *sigh*

So, developments.
I got a Wacom Cintiq – it’s bloody incredible!
I got an Ergotron arm to mount it one – it is also incredible!
I’m full of Christmas food and cheese – this is possibly the MOST incredible!

I say I’m going to post more regularly, but I probably won’t. As it’s Christmas, here’s a WIP practice piece!

Much love, see you next year!

Reanimation (or Reillustration!)

So, it’s been..ooooh….15 months since I last posted. So much for my post a week *facepalm*
I’ve been thinking about my girlfriend’s website (and soon to be blog), and it reminded me of the one I started…this one…and I realised, that now, in my new job (I make computer games now! 😀 ) I have a lot more time in front of a) a computer, and b) Photoshop – I really have no excuse to blog, now!

My Photoshop skills have come along (mainly familiarity with the UI, and some of the features) and I’ve knocked out a few pieces on it. Along with that, I’ve scanned a load of my old sketchbook pics, so will get them up asap.

I plan on documenting my acquisition of Photoshop knowledge on this blog, along with other thoughts, drawings and discoveries, but I won’t do any of that just yet.

For now, have some pictures!

Apologies for the shitty “15” on the stamp – I don’t have the AI folder on the work PC, so couldn’t add it properly – I’ll try and fix it, but will probably forget.

Colouring in Photoshop is hard!

Also, check out my girlie’s Etsy (whilst the website is finished)! She’s a little bit incredible! Find her here 🙂 https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/HippyPoppins

Project: Sleep

For a long time, I’ve wanted to write, and draw a graphic novel. The idea obviously sank in whilst reading comics, manga and graphic novels as a kid. The striking art work, easy-reading nature and limitless themes that all come hand in hand with all good graphic novels is something that I really associate with, both as an artist, and as someone who isn’t very good at reading books. So for years I toyed with ideas, and stories, and plots that I could illustrate. Created characters and worlds for these fantastical scenarios to play out around. I have drawn countless pictures of various thing from these stories, and yet none of the graphic novels I’ve had in my head have ever properly formulated. The one thing that fundamentally stops all of this coming together (aside from the amount of time, hard work and, most likely, funding that I will have to put in) is the fact that I can’t write!

I don’t mean I physically can’t write, in fact my spelling and handwriting are both quite good, and I can type confidently. Rather, what I mean is, that I can’t creatively write. This isn’t a new revelation, in fact I came to terms with it quite a while ago. But recently, a friend of mine mentioned that he has always wanted to pen a graphic novel, but knew no-one who could draw the accompanying…well, everything.

So, he told me about this idea he’d had for a three parter, set across a span of time in the modern day UK, where a new virus threatens to wipe humanity. At first, the populous seems un-phased by this new epidemic, seeing it as media over hype, and its not until the seemingly unpredictable, untraceable and vaccine-proof disease starts to really gnaw away at society by killing people in their sleep, that people start to take notice. Out of time, ideas, and coffee, the world can only watch in horror as the death toll rises, and the only way to know you and your loved ones are safe is to stay awake. Society slowly breaks apart and we start to descend towards a lawless nation; a modern day Wild West..with the added mix of potential of death by sleep…

I won’t go into further detail, but needless to say, it really excited me! So, my friend, Alex, typed up a few things and winged them my way, so I could get some drawing done. I thought I’d share this one, as it gets across the look I want to go for with this project.

The Pranksters are a small, reasonably friendly gang of youth who roam around, causing mischief, stealing tellies, and generally making it a pain in the arse to go out. The won’t kill you, but they probably would probably take your shoes if you WERE dead.

More to follow soon…though probably after my busy buys weekend 😦

The First in a Series…I Hope

So, here we are then; the first post in a series of (hopefully) regular posts by me, about my drawings, designs and ideas. The idea of this blog is for it to be an incentive to keep me drawing, as, and I’m sure all creative types out there will agree with me, being creative doesn’t mean that it just happens automatically. In fact quite the opposite; despite being massively passionate about art, and illustration in particular, I actually find it very hard to sit down and knock out a doodle, let alone go about trying to make anything of substantial aesthetic value. However, a couple of things have given me a bit of drive recently, and this blog is the first in a list of creative goals I have set myself for the coming months (others include a website, a digital portfolio, merchandise, etc – more on these later).

So what are these “couple of things” I hear you ask? First off was getting Photoshop and Illustrator, made by our friends at Adobe. Being only familiar with traditional medium (I’m a huge fan of pen and ink) I’ve never really found the idea of digital art too appealing, until I realised that if I ever want to be paid for drawing, then I’m really going to have to learn some packages – turns out I actually really enjoy it too 😀

Second of all (and I touched on it above) was realising that I really do want to be a professional creative – whether this be a freelance illustrator, a comic book artist, graphic designer or a concept artist, I want the world (or at least people who can employ me) to see my drawings, and this is only going to happen if I a) draw more, and b) get my art out there, which is incredibly hard to do when everything you’ve drawn is in a sketch book, in a pile of sketch books beside my desk!

Ok, so a little bit about me. My name is Andy (hence the blog name), but known by various other titles: Roo, Riker, Brent to name a few, and I’ve spent all of my life based in the UK. I’ve always drawn, and some of my earliest memories are of having a pencil in hand. I also enjoy painting, building models and structures, playing music, partying and solving puzzles. I h I have a particular fondness of robots (some may say it’s unhealthy) and a nerdish obsession with the Legend of Zelda series. I’m currently living in London with my girlfriend, our two cats, and three housemates of varying levels of pleasantness.

Right, so before this turns into something akin to a lonely hearts ad, I’m going to go!

Let’s do some drawing…