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.

Sketch book

Here are a couple of sketchbook pieces that I thought would be blogworthy.

Pixel Art

Sometime back my brother and I decided to try our hand at making an indie game.  He is a talented programmer and would handle the coding, while I was responsible for the artwork.  After a lot of trial and error we decided to create the game in a retro pixel art style.  This was mostly down to what sort of art assets two people could realistically produce to make a game in their spare time.  It was also something we were both very interested in and enjoyed doing when we were younger.

I had not tried producing pixel art or animating in a long time and this project has re-ignited a love of both for me.  The game is ticking along in the background and we have both decided to put more time into it this year and make some significant progress, I may post the odd bit of related work on the blog.

Recently the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh opened the Game Masters exhibition, a retrospective on some of the most influential video games and their creators.  Its an excellent exhibit and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys games.  Inspired by this I produced a couple of pixel art pieces, one of the museum itself and one of Dolly the sheep (one of the most popular exhibits at the museum).

Life drawing (nudity)

A couple of recent sketches from the Thursday night life drawing session I go to from time to time (naked folks ahead).

For anyone in the Edinburgh area here is a link to the gallery.  Its a great venue and friendly bunch of people,  Leigh Chorlton  is the talented artist who runs whitespace.

http://www.whitespace11.com/

And the pictures

Podcasting for the People.

A few weeks ago my good friend and drawing buddy Jay Penn approached me with the idea of doing a podcast together.  Its not something I have any experience or knowledge of and I was concerned about my qualification to do such a thing.  Most of the podcasts I am aware of are from the standpoint of professionals passing on their advice and experiences from working in the art industry.

After discussing it we agreed that if we were to go ahead then the podcast would revolve around our experiences trying to improve as artists, serving as a kind of audio diary, charting our progress as well as being a motivational tool for Jay and myself.   Hopefully we could also provide some inspiration for other artists in a similar position to ourselves, while avoiding coming across as pretending to know a lot more than we do.

We were also keen that there would be some sense of community, listeners could get in touch and be part of weekly drawing challenges, sharing advice and artwork of their own.  To this end Jay would set up a facebook page and accompanying blog.

Since we discussed it the podcast has become a reality, as well as the accompanying web pages.  It is early days and we are learning as we go, if you fancy a listen the links are below.

The blog and link to the podcasts

http://gordandjaytalkart.blogspot.co.uk/

The facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/gordandjaytalkart

In the most recent episode I mention a couple of finished ink pieces so here are those also.