Ups n Downs

Despite the brief whinge on the last post, I have had some tentative good news drawing wise, I'll update that when I can.
The other work is progressing, and I'm hoping it'll come together in the end. It's my own fault it's become a bit difficult, I let it grow in a direction I'm finding quite tough. I've learned some new stuff though, and as I say, I might just be worrying about nothing and it'll look fine.

Just a thought

I hate when drawing isn't fun.
It's amazing how often it's not fun because I'm doing it for the wrong reasons.

Wasting time, me?

Of course I really am hard at work drawing, I'm just managing to waste time too.
I found this gem on youtube....

I remember seeing it as a young teen adn thinking it was the coolest. It's actually not that bad, not got much to do with lager, but some nice 'wasteland' type folk, and a bit creepy looking in places. I actually video taped this off the telly, but it was for the music (Hipsway) as much as anything.
That advert led to me thinking, 'hey, I wonder if they've got' this.....

Turns out 'they' did. There was another one where out two lads went to Russia ("Red Square's dead square") but I couldn't see that one anywhere. Not funny story - when I first left my native NE I was mocked in a pub asking for a pint of 'Scotch', turns out Best Scotch wasn't available out the North and people thought I wanted a pint of Whisky. Tut, Southerners.
And lastly, seeing as I'm wandering down NE nostalgia, this will very little to most of you, but here's a clip of the God-like Mike Neville. No idea why seeing/hearing him makes me grin, but it does.

"I always knew, someday, you'd be back" or something like that.

I've got to be honest here, half of it's stuff we've already seen, and there's not really that much new stuff, but frankly, I nearly wet myself seeing this. Please be good. Please.

SuperSecretWars

The clock is ticking as I finish up art samples for one of my secret project (is the suspense killing you?), I would have liked to finish it all today so I could send it off, but I'll settle for finishing it by the weekend so it can go first thing Monday.
It's a shame I'm not posting any art as I'd really like to get a bit of feedback before I send it off. At the moment I'm colouring a page and have decided to take what I think might be a bold colouring choice. I genuinely think it works better than the more straightforward colouring choice I'd started out using, but my usually paranoid nerves are picking away at my attempts at boldness.
To make up for the lack of visual interest, and because Peter asked, here's a picture of Olivia in manic happy mode as she has her first go on a swing (check out the muddy knees!), and a picture of Olivia concentration as she practices her standing and walking - is it just me or does that picture make our house look miniature?

Tool time

In full on cosmopolitan mode I'm typing this from the far flung reaches of the North East of England. Yes, I'm visiting my parents and cringing each time I pass the village I spent a chunk of my childhood.
As I've got plenty of work on at the moment I decided to bring it with me and I've had a pretty productive few days. Sorry I can't show any of the work Ijust yet, despite a little teething I'm really proud of it, some of the best strip work I've done I reckon. The teething is mainly down to tools (yes, I am a bad worker looking to shift blame), making the switch to pens is definitely the right move for me at the moment, but foolishly I chose a pen that's a little bit 'brushy', as soon as I started inking I realised my mistake. The whole point was my liking the resistance of pen on paper, having a brush like point meant avoiding too much resistance otherwise I'd just get fairly ugly lines and a wrecked pen. As I hadn't any other pens with me, and as I'd already started using it anyway, I've stuck with it and used it cautiously, getting a look that is somewhere my previous style and where I'm heading. Luckily, I think what I've done is more appropriate for the strip. What has been interesting is that 'caution' has been the real problem with my inking, I do like my brush work, but far too often I'm so concerned with the look of the line that I labour over it and end up with something that looks a little dead. Obviously this is the fault of looking at the wonderful brush work of Walk Kelly and Daan Jippes (I love his Disney covers) and Jeff Smith, never try and copy the masters without learning to copy their skill first!