Stromtrooper Helmet

I recently had lunch at a restaurant called 'Wings' in Edinburgh.  Its a great place my wife discovered, they serve Chicken wings (Surprise!) with a bewildering choice of sauces.  I can heartily recommend them, the food was excellent and the walls are decorated with comic book art, star wars memorabilia and all manner of sweet posters and prints.

While we were there Ruth mentioned they had posted on their facebook page about starting a star wars storm trooper helmet wall, inviting artists to draw one for them.  I loved the idea of it, so much so I started working on it the next day.  It is now finished, whether I summon up the courage/confidence to give them my attempt is another thing all together.

Druss the Legend

Over on the old talk art podcast, my good drawing buddy Jay Penn posted the first picture we ever challenged each other to draw.  These challenges were a motivational exercise for both of us, we would take it in turns to choose a subject to draw and set a deadline.  Little did we know they would lead us to becoming good friends and be the start of regular drawing sessions, although we rarely set each other actual challenges now, we still catch up to draw (and record podcasts) on a regular basis.

The very first challenge we set each other was to draw the character of Druss the Legend from the books by David Gemmell.  This was a nerve wracking exercise, I had not looked at the picture in years and its only now I see that I dated it 2008.  So the pressure was on, had I improved much in almost 7 years?

Below are the two pictures.  I am pleased to see some improvement, of course there is a long way to go still.  All talk of challenges and progress aside, I like the end result and its kind of fun to see the changes I have made this time around.

Druss the Legend 2008

Druss the Legend 2015

Ink Work Inspired by...

Here are a couple of works done over Christmas and new year.  The first is a picture based on the film Troll Hunter.  This was done as part of the 'Gord and Jay Talk Art' podcast,  we set a small challenge to do a winter/Christmas movie themed piece.  The choices were 'Muppet Christmas Carol' or 'Troll Hunter'.

The second picture is an illustration of the book Jekyll and Hyde.  This is a personal piece that I wanted to do as I love the book.