New Stuff

... wow, it really has been a while. What with working for money (for upcoming university) and having other stuff to do, this blog gets kinda neglected at times. But not to worry, I'm here - and with something Crashy-related, too:



I got a little bored last night, so I seized the nearest pad and a biro and got to work on some doodles of the Doctors (I coloured in Brio for my new forum signature).


Aaaand ... something CMTV related!:








Guess which show has a summer special? I'm pretty darn hyped for it, and you should be too (and if you haven't seen CMTV 6 yet, you need a smack on the butt). This was finished off last week, before I went away on a mini-holiday to meet Smaz's family and friends (awesome people, by the way) and the videos were uploaded after I came back.

Also on CMTV - a new little news item on the unreleased Crash 2010 game. I'm happy to see all this material (especially that animating and concept art, it has me drooling) yet sad that this game never really came to fruition. I do hope Crash is continued someday, though.


Until next time, you blog-lurkers, you!

Digital Art Fun

But first, here's some digital art that I didn't post up beforehand:





Another piece of Twinkle fan-art.




The next batch of CMTV portraits, including Updated Smaz and Updated B-Mask. Speaking of whom, here's a video showing the colouring process of these portraits done for our favourite masked-bandicoot's birthday.

April Fools!

Alright, before I turn in for the night (and before I forget) April Fools' Day went by unnoticed offline, but online was a different tale ... a very twisted, mischievious tale ...



I was brainwashed into losing my memories by (Koru disguised as) Planetary Quasar. It was quite bothersome.



Speak of the devil, here he is.



Our admin HP Zoner seemed a little moody ... maybe it was just because he'd been demoted to a moderator position while B-Mask took on the role of Big Boss. (Or it could be just JB in voluminous green robes.)



And bmT (and Rob, too) turned up with monocles, old film grain effects and top-hats to say hello. Whether it was them or their ancestors who acquired a time-travelling machine is still a mystery ... and they also drank my entire supply of tea. Bugger.


Other mishaps included BZR1 trying to take over the world, Fake Smaz taking the Real Smaz's place as moderator, Vegg and papupapu coming back for a natter, Alen becoming a gingerbread man and ... DA assigning me to 'Team Jacob'. I don't like Twilight nor do I understand its hype, but as long as I didn't get sparkle-boy, I'm not too offended. ;)


Screencaps from the day:
(Sorry there aren't many! Click on them to enlarge.)

Catching your Flight

Do you like this? It's a small day-long project I did to present at a university interview next week.

(EDIT: And it's also uploaded backwards, so you'll have to read it from the last one up.)

Okay, as I've now had two places I feel I can mention the universities that have offered them to me (I'm perfectly aware I could have mentioned every one of them before, but I'm weird and thought I might jinx myself or something). I have an unconditional offer for Norwich (NUCA), and a conditional offer for Birmingham (BCU). The university stress has gone down temporarily, but it'll probably shoot right back up in April when I have my last interview (which, in all honesty, sounds a lot of fun as I get to do a day-long project with them - but it's nerve-racking).

Secondly - as I know some CMers read this - if you don't have a character portrait for CMTV yet and you have either your own segment or a significant speaking role, it will be coming up shortly. Older members or those in the upcoming episode get priority over the newer members, I'm afraid, as they've been waiting longer and/or they need theirs sooner. Now you know that, and now it's on the CMTV thread, please be patient and please - even if you're just wondering out loud - don't do the whole 'Where's mine?' or 'Why doesn't [so and so] have one?'. I'm trying my best to get everything done (and offline life/college/university stuff comes first) so your portrait isn't going to reach you quicker if you do this. In fact, all it will do is annoy me. And then I'll talk about you behind your back and say you smell like peanut butter and steal ladies' underpants.


Alright, I'm not quite that malicious, but the point still stands. Be patient with me, guys. Thanks. ♥

I Return

I need to update my blog - oh no, wait, that box of belongings needs sorting. I need to update my blog - but I'm so tired tonight, I'll leave it until the weekend. I need to update my blog - but that assignment needs doing for college. And finally, I have a spare moment and I need to update my blog - but I can't think what to write. Especially as so much has gone on since I last updated, including two field trips. I'll do separate posts on each field trip, I think, and I might as well get down to them after I finish this post while I'm on here. It won't be in chronological order, but that can't be helped @_@

The vast majority of you reading this right now are probably already aware of my CMTV work and the new portraits revealed, but here's the image holding all the new ones anyhow. These are, again, so much fun to do!:


And as for college work ... I'm going to specialise in Fine Art, funnily enough (regarding my Foundation work, I'm still fully intending on applying for Illustration for my BA). I was originally aiming for Design, but after a word with my tutor and a review of all my work Fine Art really does seem to be the way to go even if I did find it difficult at first (it was my first ever tutorial, though, so I guess that had something to do with it). This month and December are going to be UCAS months as well, where we get personal statements done and applications sorted out. I've also finished my trials for a part-time job, and am currently waiting to hear if I get one of the three positions available. My family and I have also just moved house; we're extremely happy to be here and the place is relatively tidy considering we only just moved in last weekend (only the bathroom and garage are cluttered) but, as expected, some things aren't usable right now. So, right now, although I'm remaining optimistic about everything, I get periods where I'm stressy or I just look harried. I apologise in advance if I end up snappy or if I'm being a bit quiet, especially offline. Please do pardon me. It's really nothing personal.

Anyway (after that personal-life update), here's what I've been doing in Fine Art. Last Friday's work:





That middle one there is taller than I am. I'm quite small in height, so that's not saying a lot, but still. It's weirdly therapeutic; I had the paper taped to the wall, some paint, a roll of masking tape, and a chair to stand on. No paintbrushes - it was all done with my left hand and fingers. Paint has a nice texture to it; I completely lost myself in the piece for the afternoon (about three hours of work).

The other two were done in the morning's session, and they didn't take me as long. Both of them are A1-size, and may end up in my uni portfolio (so may the taller one, but it might have to be in photo-form as it's a biiiig piece). They were based off our 'Armoury' mini-project, which in turn is based off a trip to Leeds Armoury (more on Channel Polyrhythm later about that). I'm not usually into military things, but it was a cool visit, I really enjoyed it.

That's all for now; this post is getting long as it is.

To do:
- Leeds Armoury post
- Liverpool visit
- Updated studio-diary post and sketchbook post
- Seminar summary post

May the CM members be with you

First off, I apologise for not posting often this month. My personal life has been quite hectic so I don't have much time at all right now to update. However, there's one update ... you've probably all seen it but I'll show you anyway because I'm uber-proud of it:



Do you like? This Star Wars parody was done for B-Mask for CMTV. It took me a while to do, but I feel it's one of my best digital pieces so far. I felt that using lighter line-art worked a lot better, due to the previous work I'd done on the Tita Gasman request for Korusan.

October is a special month

... not only because Halloween is stuck on the end of it (and last year was spent with my duvet and the Most Haunted special on Living TV), but a few significant things have happened since then. On the sixteenth, I'll have been on Crash Mania for a year. Still a relative newbie compared to you old fogies, I know, but it still seems like a long time to me - especially as this year's been going so quickly!

I've also been running this blog for approximately a year. I know, the first proper published entry is in November, but I originally joined in October:


See?

Also, October is the month when I generally notice winter's settling in. The weather wasn't bad today, but there was a chill to the air, and the evenings are getting rather darker. Speaking of settling in, October is also the month where - if I'm in a new place - I start to relax a little. New school years, new sixth-forms, new college. I do like this time of year.


I've finished with the Fine Art taster for the course now, and have started on Design. I much prefer Design, I feel, it was quite hard for me to originally get into Fine Art (especially as we were given the topic of Architecture ... buildings sure aren't my strong point). Anyhow, here's some of the Fine Art stuff I've been working on for the past couple of weeks:






I feel the collograph (first photo) worked the best. I also really liked the photographs as well, they turned out pretty awesome just for reference shots.


Now - other work I've been doing. I scrapped most of the old Tita Gasman lineart I did for Korusan as I realised it wasn't working out that well, and started a new piece. That, hopefully, should be done soon - I'm really happy with how this new piece is turning out. I'm recording myself CGing it, so a video'll go up the same time as the finished piece (therefore, no, you're not seeing a preview - ahahah~)


Remember when I mentioned I was doing work for CMTV? This is what I did for Episode One, and don't worry - there's more where these came from:



It's a lot of fun to work on these member portraits (or as I nicknamed them, 'cornersprites', as I imagined they'd appear alongside a name-bar when introducing a character). I also have a few more pieces for CMTV to do, but they'll remain a surprise until Episode 2 is released. *ssssh*


That's pretty much all that's significant. I did do a small lolita-ish themed drawing, but hopefully I'll be writing an article to go along with that (it's not often I discuss fashion so this should be interesting) when I get the time to.

See you guys a little later!