Excuses, excuses...

I've been doing plenty of design work, some writing, some life drawing, attended a workshop run by PJ Lynch and a couple of local artist meet-ups. So there's plenty of stuff to show and tell.
But I think I know why it's been so quiet here lately...
It's because January sucks and all I wanted to do is crawl up into a ball and hibernate for it. Honestly, I think I'm still getting over some residual Christmas tiredness and I just can't seem to shake it.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel! I have a slate that pretty much only features my own projects for once and there has been a great deal of groundwork being laid for the rest of the year.

So seeing as I have so much to get through and because I want to be more personal/diary-like in these new posts, let's just treat it as a sort of 'here's what I've been doing since last I was here' sort of thing. Okay?

So, yeah, I had promised to have an illustrated short story complete by now. Well, it's nearly there. Kinda. I have it written and a couple of illustrations have been completed. I just have a couple more pieces to do for it and then I can choose fonts and all the nitty-gritty stuff  that needs to be done before I release the whole thing into the wilds. It's shaping up nicely though and I really like the format I've chosen for these sorts of things.
So as soon as that story is done, it will pop up here. I'm thinking PDF for it but haven't quite decided yet.

Next up is some design work for The Circle. This has been taking up a great deal of my recent spare time and most lunch breaks are spent sketching away while chomping on either a healthy salad or some seriously UNhealthy fast food (there is no room for anything inbetween!).
So here's how the characters are starting to look...

Yep, I blocked one of the character's names. Can't be giving away too much now, can I?

There's a little bit of work to be done on a few of them, but for the most part they are pretty locked in. This has been a really fun and important step. I am constantly amazed how the flourish of a single stroke can take you down a completely different direction with regard to character design.

Let's see, what else... oh yeah, speaking of PJ Lynch. I discuss the class I went to that was run by PJ in Episode 8 of the podcast with Gord Mackay, so I won't go into it too much here, but I do want to say thank you to PJ again for such a fascinating and inspiring day! Here's some pics from it...

The portrait at the point where the details have been worked on and the colour is starting to be applied.

The only selfie I will EVER take! That's PJ on the right, by the way.

the set-up.

The portrait at the end. Ignore the eyes. Ignore them, I say!

And while we're on the subject of model depicting, here's a recent life drawing piece I was relatively happy with. I thoroughly enjoy using the gouache for the highlighting. When you get the consistency and flow just right on it, it's a dream to work with.

Finally, we big-wigs at the Galway Pub Scrawl HQ decided that meeting up every second Monday evening to draw and chat simply wasn't filling our requirements. So we now meet up on the Sunday afternoon in between the evening scrawls to further feed our need. It was kinda the brain child between myself and all-round good guy/boss, Donal Fallon. We've wanted to meet up for some more prolonged sessions for a while now (post 24-hour comic day, I believe) and the Sunday afternoon sit-down has run into its fifth hour on the two occasions that it has been held.
It's a smaller crowd involved and the setting is more intimate, and it's really fun to work in such close proximity to everyone. Here is Donal's write-up of the most recent gathering.

And that just about wraps it up, I suppose. I promise I won't be gone for so long for the next one! I'll be heading back to the land of Oz soon for a couple of weeks, but there are a few events lined up for march that will probably get a mention here too.
So I'll see you all soon.
Good Journey!