Been having a bit of an artblock lately, and the only thing that seems to be going right is that darklight's coming on mby leaps and bounds. Here's a shot of the DaRT, from left to right Engel, Max, Pete, Meatball, Melissa,Davis...all out for a bevvie, apparently.

I was gonna say 'stay frosty' but that doesn't seem to tricky right now, so STAY WARM.

-C

Its been pretty much the coldest week on record here in Ireland this week, so I'm staying firmly indoors barring wanderings off for hot chocolate or the construction of phallic objects out of snow. IN THAT TIME, I've been writing and learning some more 3d. I had forgotten how utterly time sapping 3d is- I can stop painting at any time, but setting up renders/modelling can hold me for hours on end. If I had a maid bringing me tea I'm not sure I could stop.

After the advice of a good friend I took to using Maya with my wacom, which overcame my earlier problem of hand pains from the mouse. WIN.

The results so far haven't been good enough, but have been a marked improvement. This is why the attached picture is a speedpaint rather than a render.

ALSO, as part of my silly attempts at writing, I've started doing page tests for the big bad Darklight Book. Last time took way too long, and I'm looking to make the next book (and by that I mean an actual book and not a glorified pamphlet) in a reasonable timeframe. Currently thinking pencilled A4 loosely and then inked in manga studio. Bristol board is good and all, but not having an A3 scanner really blows.

Sketchy Thoughtbubbles

So last weekend was the ThoughtBubble festival in Leeds. Despite various errors in judgement, flight times and bank balances myself and Alan made it into the city late Friday evening. We gorged ourselves on yummy chinese food and watched the Children in Need proceedings. Cue a night of dehydrated-from-salty-noodles-insomnia, but Saturday was the MAIN EVENT.

It got very busy, very fast. I was sitting next to the lovely Moo and Keo guys, who're great craic and charming folk. Stephen Downey arrived a little before noon with a selection of prints and quality original drawings for sale.

There were a TONNE of people there I'd loved to have gotten a chance to talk to, but enormous queues prevented this. I did geek out a little at Doug Braithwaite's table. Some pencils just tick all my boxes; usually those with a dilligent respect for life drawing.

Speaking of life drawing, we managed to find ourselves in the right place and right time for the Dr Sketchy's event. I've heard of Dr Sketchy's before- a nice mix of drinking, costume/burlesque and life drawing, but had never partaken. The theme for the evening was 'Superheroes' and we were treated to Ms Jupiter and Catwoman.

I really enjoy life drawing, and it was great to get some good practice in, as well as have the craic with Stephen and Al. As fate would have it, I won a prize for the above drawing so I was quite stoked.

Soon afterwards the tables were moved aside for the afterparty. There was a rotation between Travelling Man crew and Phonogram crew, and each brought something excellent to the table. I don't know how many people realised what was playing was the closing credits to the Raccoons, but I appreciated it's genius.

Cue drinks, dancing (Ilya has some serious moves by the way) and interesting conversations that shall never be repeated. Ever.

My profits exchanged for hangover, hampered by cold pizza and a late star, Sunday inevitably rolled around. We wandered up to the Art Gallery just in time for John Romita Jmr's talk which was interesting and entertaining, and gave me a healthy fear of Mrs Romita. I also got to sit in on Bryan Talbot's talk on the evolution of Anthropomorphic comics which was informative and different.

Last but not least was my portfolio review with Steve Wacker. I think it went well, though he did say that getting a job as a colorist in Marvel is the _hardest_ of all positions.

Buzzing from that, we got some lovely nibbles from the walking dead this is McDonalds and were off, bidding adieu to Stephen and returning back from whence we came.

This was just for fun. Haven't really gotten a chance to do much speedpainting lately, and I missed the sheer freedom of it. Never really used 'pen tilt' as an option before, and I gotta say, I like.

BAMF

Quick pic of Nightcrawler, on of my favourite of the merry mutants called the X Men. Getting psyched up for MCM this weekend at Excel in London. Festivities kick off on the Friday right through to the sunday. I'll be manning my post at table C26, and will be selling prints, sketches, copies of my books and glasses of lemonade*. Feel free to drop by and say hi. Taking preorders for prints, so if there's anything from my back catalogue you'd love to get your hands on, leave a comment or drop me an email/dA Note/carrier pigeon.

Black Dog

My soundtrack for the week has largely been made up of various episodes of Cowboy Bebop. An absolute classic, that still more than holds its own today both visually and through sound. Great writing, clever twists on archetypal characters make for suprisingly memorable characters and episodes. Jet is one of my favourite characters, so I thought I'd do this up.

Trying to go a bit more design-y, seeing as my last pic (Ratchet) was very background heavy. Tomorrow is the 24 hour comics event in the Central Hotel in Dublin. Never tried anything like this before, should be fun. Might start a few hours late owing to a family commitment, but I'm swinging for the 24 pages nonetheless. Maybe. We'll see.

I think it's time to blow this scene, get everybody and my friends together. OK, 3,2,1 let's jam :D

Hulk Warmup

A quicky warmup for this morning. I was never a huge Hulk fan, but I have to say I was well impressed by the Ed Norton film. Been toying with donig a hulk related pic, and might still get around to it at some point. For now, this 20 minute doodle is all I have.

In other news, I'm starting work coloring some issues of Chris Houghton's Reed Gunther www.reedgunther.com which is new and fun for me. Can't wait, had a blast doing the sample page.

The 24 hr comic event is happening this Saturday/Sunday coming in the Central Hotel in Dublin, from noon til noon. I won't be there for the whole 24 hours, but will definitely be making an appearance.

To all of you going to NYCC I'm insanely jealous. Looking forward to MCM London and Thoughtbubble. Both should be fantastic, if you're around feel free to drop by and say hi. More on that closer to the day.