Feels good to be back into the swing of things for 09. Made a resolve to do more energised pics this year with a looser feel to the linework and more sense of movement.Working completely in photoshop.

A new year begins

Hope everyone had a great christmas and new year break!

After a nice long break i'm back at work and back in action.

Thought i'd start my first personal sketch of the year off with something nice and loose. Feel so refreshed after spending a few weeks not drawing at all and having minimal interatcion with a computer. Here's hoping 2009 is a great year!

Apologies for so little posts of late...

Apologies to all for my slackness of late with my blog. I promise to endeavour to get back on track with it.

Have been busy of late. This weekend I was fortunate to be invited to feature a a guest artist doing live sketches at a gallery opening from one of my art colleagues. Her exhibition "Something Wicked this way comes" opened at Rooftop Gallery in Melbourne on Saturday.

Was my first foray into the art scene as i usually live a very sheltered life in the toy industry where they make a point of keeping all their artists and designers deliberately unknown. My only assumption is so they can stop us being poached by other toy companies.

Sigh, if only they realised that a bit of recognition would inspire more loyalty. At my work we are very fortunate to have highly motivated creatives who are incredibly passionate about their products and hold a strong sense of pride in the work they do. I work with a team of illustrators who i consider some of the best i have ever seen, both in talent and work ethic.

Anyway, my point was, that it was enjoyable to meet some art industry people and to proudly put my name to my art. I was amazed at what a back catalog of personal art i had accumulated that was outside work. And i have to say i thoroughly enjoyed doing the live sketchs - i'll post them here soon.

I've also entered in another competition. This one is for Banjoe Kazooie: Nut and Bolts, and the brief was to design a vehicle that you thought might fit the game. I must say i really loved designing my lil Sky Hamster.

Anyway folks, i'm back and i'll try and stay more focused on this blog!

Back to work tomorrow...

Oh well, 3 days off was nice but alas it's over.
Did another refinied pencil page today whilst i watched the V8 supercars.
Watched "There will be Blood" last nite. Very intriguing movie. Love the segments with no speaking and just music. Movie makers seem to be giving the viewers more credit these days. Movies like There will be blood, Wall-E, and No country for old men all do this very successfully. There seems to be a lot of good films out there these days. Daniel Day Lewis' performance in "There will be blood" was amazing!
On another note: my puppy gets her lamp shade taken off her head tomorrow so thats a definite plus. Can't say i'm gonna miss that walking Pixar lamp! :)

Comic page pencils

For a day that started with a mild hangover, it was actually pretty good. Knocked over this refined pencil page this afternoon and now its time for a video marathon with the girlfriend.

Rabbit versus Bear 01

All future posts for Rabbit versus Bear will be on the individual bog.

Well I stayed true to my motivation for the weekend and completed most of the POW challenge on concept art.org. Got two of the pages inked yesterday.

This up and down weather is messing me round though - i don't care if its hot or cold - just not both so close to each other...aaaaarrrgggh! :)

Woke up this morning and feel like i've had about an hour sleep (which isn't true - i had a full nites sleep) but this hot weather at nite is a bummer.

Back to work today...sigh...I think I need a Berocca :)

The girlfriend is still depressed about her fable character getting fat. Have to admit thats pretty funny! (Hope she doesn't read this :) )

Anyway here's my two inked pages...

Virgin Blog and some Darksiders fan art

Well here goes...

My virgin foray into the world of blogging. I've seen so many of them, read their rants, absorbed their opinions, and basked in some of their beautiful artwork... and so finally I've decided to do my own...

Heaven help us all.

I've always been curious as to how many people read these things, and i guess now i'm gonna find out. It may very turn out that this is some obscure medium for me just to talk to myself. I guess that could be entertaining. I'm one of the fortunate few who sometimes feel that it would be entertaining to listen to me.

The real question is: what am i gonna talk about in this blog. I figure (knowing me) that topics will range anywhere from movies, my latest artwork, video games, comics, music, the toy industry (my current professional field), my dogs, and even the hammock i bought for myself the other day.

mmmmmm....hammock! Is it a sign of old age when you enjoy the thought of a good hammock? Or maybe i just do lazy really well.

Anyway, enough dribble...Let's kick the art side of things off with my latest sketch i'm workin on. Its actually a fan art piece for an Xbox 360 game coming out next year called Darksiders: wrath of War. the concept art and creature design for this game rocks and i recommend anybody to check this title out. In the meantime here is my humble homage. Sketch first and then refinement. This baby is also gonna get the full color treatment.

Anyway folks, hope you're still reading, and welcome aboard!!!