Pixel Gord

I am currently having a go at the Galway Pub Scrawls 31 day illustration challenge.  The mighty Donal Fallon and co. organise this every July.  A topic is picked for every day of the month and anyone who wants to can then do a picture based upon that idea.

I have been attempting to do a picture every day and today's subject is "trapped in video games".  The perfect excuse to do a little pixel art animation, so here is a little me marching happily along.

I will be posting a more complete rundown of my efforts soon, in the meantime check out the challenge so far at: Galway Pub Scrawl

Odd Animals

A while ago I started a small project to illustrate a series of unusual animals, one for each letter of the alphabet.  I took it as far as a thumbnail sketch of each one, then I hit a bit of a stumbling block when I couldn't decide what sort of style to illustrate them in.  As with many of my ideas it went on the proverbial back burner (its a very big back burner!).

Recently I was moaning to my ever patient wife about what style to do them in when she gave me some damn good advice,  "do them in your own style".  As I have been trying to improve my painting of late I decided to try using acrylic on them and not overthinking what the end result would look like.  Here are the first couple, along with an initial octopus test piece.  Its a fairly big undertaking so I cant say how quickly I will get through them but I will attempt to do all 26.

Aye-aye

Blowfish

Octopus

Self Portrait

Its been a good long time since I attempted a self portrait and even longer since I tried painting one.  As I continue in my quest to become a better artist I am painfully aware that a lack of skill with paint is something I need to address.  Recently I have been doing small paint studies and still lives to try and introduce myself to the medium with the intention of being able to paint (among other things) a half decent face.  This is not that face.

However it is a start, I am very often guilty of procrastinating by practicing and never actually attempting the thing I am working towards.  In an attempt to break this bad habit I painted this piece.  Some things about it I like, some things not so much.

Vintage Video Game Inspired Logo's

As I mentioned in a previous post I was working on some logo designs for my Redbubble page.

Its a bit of a departure from my usual stuff but I do enjoy design work from time to time.  The logo's are inspired by a few of my favorite video games and some of the innocuous objects found in game, that take on an importance beyond their humble intentions.  I used these objects as the basis for 5 logo designs for fictional companies whose names also reflected the in game purpose of the items.

I doubt I will end up putting these on my Redbubble page as I do not know if they would be considered copyright infringement.  A picture I produced last year based on pacman (as a big yellow piranha) was removed from the site, at the request of the pacman copyright owners.  I do like to do work based on the games, films and books I enjoy and I try to do my own take on these things, but I would rather not risk it.  That aside here are the final designs.

Robot Monster Girl

This is a recent sketch I did.  I am working on some logo designs at the moment for my Redbubble page and I wanted to take a break and do something less design orientated, this was the result.

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