Well folks, that wraps up 2010 I think.

Yup. It's been a very interesting year of ghosts, magic, Voltron, hotpants and most importantly the Great Expedition across the pond.

It's been excellent and I have all my friends and family to thank for making every moment of 2010 unforgettable.

Cheers to a fantastic 2011 everybody!

Frosty

Well the snow's gone but it was around just long enough for me to get all excited and draw some frost giants and barbarians while listening to the new Blind Guardian album on repeat.

Two largely unrelated things

I am getting better after being rather sick and have taken to pacing my apartment between drawings and reciting The Jabberwocky. Apparently a Vorpal Sword is actually big scissors. Nyquil's great. And another attempt at the Watchmaker's Apprentice. It was originally much darker but because there wasn't a distinct light source it turned muddy so I toned that all down because I like the drawing much better than my shoddy tonal render.

T'was brillig...

The Doctor's Wife

Well I dunno. I went back and forth and back and forth on this over the last couple days. I wanted some subtle colouration but it looked better heavily oversaturated and essentially monochromatic. Initially I was hoping it could come out more subdued and sombre as opposed to somewhat... I don't know. Saturated. Well it is what it is. I might revisit this with a couple different illustrations later. November seems like it will be a very Clockwork Quartet month. Now if only there were going to be a few more songs coming along in the near future to feed on...

About Bloody Time!

Yeah I know. Boring blog. Sorry about that. Hallowe'en, Hallowe'en costume, Hallowe'en magic show, Burlesque hosting duties and Voltron mean I've had very little time for extra curricular activities because of all the... err... other extracurricular activities. Anyways. So here's a big page of some drawings from the last while and some photos of me performing spooky magic, in my Mad Scientist costume (Dr. Aleister Grisbane rises again!) and a promo photo that I had taken for what I'm hoping will materlialize into a show next year.

I have no decent photos of the Satan costume I'm afraid but I refuse to put the damn thing into storage until I get one good shot of it so... hopefully in the next while I'll be able to reclaim my couch. That thing is BIIIIG!

Credit for the promotional photograph goes to my good friend Mark Ingram and the picture of The Doctor was taken by Jeff... I'm afraid I don't know his last name but he's a fine fellow if ever I did meet one.

OH and also here's a little thing I'd like to develop further based on Clockwork Quartet's song "The Doctor's Wife" It needs more colour work to take it out of the straight tonal phase and I keep going back and forth on exactly how graphic I want it to get. Originally it was going to be very flat and shape based like the Watchmaker's Apprentice illustration from some time ago. We'll see if this goes that way or becomes its own thing.

PS I wish it to be known that I did NOT hang the lumpy bumpy cobwebs on the Railway stage.

The Plan so far...

Well based on what I've been able to collect and construct so far... this is the target look. The tail won't be happening unfortunately and the legs are on the chopping block too. The mantle and cloak are under construction. I'm surprised how well the mantle is turning out actually. It's had some pretty severe bumps along the way but last night's work might have saved me.

The staff too... the whole thing is very cumbersome so it might be too much to haul around but I like the idea of the candle-staff. Also I might try to work in a feature where there's a wee flame burst from the top one but... again I'm crazy pressed for time this year (Has there been a year when I'm not? Sigh... I love you October but why we always gotta fight?)

Thump...thump...thump

Been a while. Thought I was due for some Murderering.

Who's a good kitty...

More scribbles while I'm waiting for a project to dry. What project you ask? Quake in terror, mortals. Steampunk Satan shall walk amongst ye!

Bird, Lady, Bird-lady and a guy. And a bunny.

still a-draw'n folks! Project season is nigh so... let the annual Burning of the Fingers with the Gluegun commence!

Will post photos of things of interest as they become interesting and less... cardboardy.

OMG ANOTHER ONE

I like this face better. Less overworked. Originally I wanted her to be the crazy bird lady with a hair-nest but it didn't go that way. Maybe next time.

It's not what you think.

Aaand another one tone.... thingy. Now with exciting texture overlay!

The old Octopus-On-The-Head gag!

But the question is... how did the octopus get on her head if her skirts are all ballooned up? How, I ask you? HOW?!?!

Inspired to draw at last!

Google searching for costume reference for Hallowe'en (Really doubting I'll get my big idea off the ground due to lack of time) found me looking at some sweet reference that inspired me to get off my fanny and do some drawings. Her face is a little bland but it's better than I usually seem to draw women. Which is "wonky and awkwardly."

It's...um.... I dunno what this is.

Was playing around idly so... I guess it's a golem... made of clothing... but animated by a skull that gives it maaaagical liiiife! Yeah that's the ticket!

creepy old men

Had a mighty need to draw something that was not superhero-y. = Old men in suits.

Orcu!

Well... it was meant to be a female of a tribe of Japanese-Jamaican orcs from Gul-Rom AKA The Island Where Nothing Ever Gets Better. But it went in a slightly different direction. She wasn't meant to be quite as formal and Japanese-inspired as the rest of her orcy kin but I think I went a little too far in the other direction. I just hope she's not too Na'avi like. That would be embarrassing. Oh well. Grugashi is the military leader of the Orcu. He's loosely based on Gouken from SFIV. Very loosely...

Anyways... not sure how much time I'll have for more stuff in the forseeable future since I think I'm heading into a long Voltron tunnel. See you on the other side of that!

Nightmare Seagull

Voltron has eaten all my time. Which means scant posting I'm afraid. This is pretty much the only thing I've drawn in my spare time since I started. Even as I type this the damn seagull is SHRIEKING like a banshee on the top of my roof. Come on, Seagull! It's, like, 1:30 AM!

Gone Fish'n

Off to Whistler this weekend for some volleyball action. After the Mighty Computer Crash of 2010 I've lost a lot of material. And tools. So I'm rocking sketchbook to see what I think of the program until I get PS and Flash up and running again.

And I have also decided it's high time I tried to figure out machinery Kinda wing'n it as far as the mechanical logic. But adding a bigass gun makes up for that, right? RIGHT?

wham, wham, wham, wham

Good heavens, someone's feeling pretty sorry for themselves this weekend. Out of the corner, Mopey you got crap to take care of.

Passive Perception Check Fail

OK... so this was a little too ambitious to git 'er done in the time I had so there's a lot that's unfinished but the important stuff is there albeit in a rougher state than I'd like. Tweaking, colouring, colour correcting, finishing the weird little snake thing so it's not just my rough blocking, matching it to the hole etc etc etc. But hey... that little guy was a LOT of fun to animate! Wheee!

EDIT put in some higher res video... which my blog post cuts off for some reason so you'll have to view it on the youtube web page

also youtube apparently cuts off the last few frames. Hmm.

heightened stress levels = more posts

I got a wonderful nudge the other day which also accounts for more drawings. At exactly the right time I recieved a bookful of inspiration from a remarkably thoughtful person that had the wonderful effect of saying "Look at HOW MUCH FUN THIS IS!" No matter how frustrating a contract is you can always go to bed and draw something that makes you forget about it for a while.

So thanks for the nudge to all the nudgers out there.

Rapid Succession posting!

I am in a much better mood today which I owe to the sun making an expected appearance. In honour of this I am posting a quick speedpainting I did of the volcano that I think reflects at least a little more accurately what I want my players to see. Also I think this is the first time I've ever posted a speedpainting that was actually a speedpainting rather than something I'd intended to be a speedpainting and ended up taking a whole night.

Fine. No really. I don't want summer. Just stay cold and crappy all month.

I'll just do some more Murderered work. I'm just in the mood today too. Might fire up some Corman dvds and watch my main man Vinnie P do his thing.

Also here's a very strange BG. I wanted to do a painting of somewhere my players will be going in the next few weeks and it turned out accidentally rather Samurai Jackish. Not my intent. I might have another stab at this later.

Also this weekend we had an evening of quickie drawings before we went to the unbelievably awful Prince of Persia. I quite like this quick as heck Conan drawing. I was going to clean it up but I think if I did it would lose what I like about it.

WHAM! Here's a ton of drawings.

Bunch of things I've been working on. Some expression stuff, some fun drawings, the mandatory skeleton, and some new D&D art. Beware the Ha'arkun Suul!

Dragons! Beasties! Pirates! A FROG! AND SKELETONS!

Ever notice how the more work you have to do the more elaborate your doodles get? Case in point. Had a bit of dragon and monster mania this week. A new Rhapsody of Fire album lit the old D&D fires again and set the Nerd Furnace ablaze. Also I get a free preview of Teletoon Retro. Watching The Banana Splits Adventure Show (or something). Man this is WEIRD!

The Watchmaker's Apprentice

I am in love with Clockwork Quartet. They need to give me more songs though.

And is it a day that ends in Y? Have some skeletons. I really wish I'd thought to square off that cape.

I'm Baaaaaack!

That's right folks. I have emerged triumphant from what can only be described as an epic journey through Ireland, London and Spain. So to make up from the lack of posting here's a page crammed full of doodles that were done in an annoyingly small sketchbook! Also some flash work doodles.

Perhaps one day I'll tell you the tale of The Animation That Almost Was. But not today.

Last post for a while...

Well here we go folks. Without much of a plan I am firing myself, as though from a mighty cannon, to London, where will spend a good amount of time in museums and a variety of notorious places. I will then travel to Ireland and enjoy some quality time with my good buddy Mike who is kindly providing me with a home base from which I shall go on little adventures about the island. Then onto Granada to enjoy a little warmth before I journey back to good old fashioned Canada.

So before I go here's that pesky animation that got one total redo and I'm (as usual) not completely happy with.

AND!

One surprise piece. It's an unfinished test of The Collector. Sort of an initial design. His face will be getting a redo as his eyes don't read at all. Also they're splayed over so many layers they're hard to manage. Hence the test. More to come from this mysterious fellow later!

Until then, faithful readers,
Adieu!
Farewell!
Have a lovely February and March!
Enjoy the Olympics!
And don't burn the damn place down while I'm gone, eh?

It's February... which means it's time for the annual Valentine's Day (ish) Vampire drawing!

So yeah... see title. Why is it always February that I go on a vampire kick? No idea.

**EDIT- I was bored so I added the lady vampire.

** THE RARE DOUBLE EDIT!!! Can't stop playing with these watercoloury vamps. Added the dazed bride. Also deleted the crappy vampire bat. Why'd I post that crappy drawing?