Yeah, this blog has been collecting dust for a while now. Going to keep my reasons pretty short because the less said about what happened the better.
Essentially last year, just before the hospital fun time post, life handed me a great big slab of chocolate cake. Only later I found out that wasn't chocolate...
After getting some help from a few peoples for various things, I've now taken a great big step back from the source of my problems (MUCH easier said than done) and am now picking up the pieces. Very positive things happening here!
That said I really wouldn't change anything, somehow I came out of it a better person.
I'm going to be switching over to Tumblr for a while to see if I get on better with blogging over there. The image hosting thing makes it much better for a sketch blog so unless we really fall out at some point this may well be my last post here. I'm going to keep this blog for nostalgia based reasons right now but I may delete it at some point.
If you're interested, I'm now based here: http://caffinescribbles.tumblr.com/
Some git has already taken my default name! *shakesfist*
Saturday 16 July 2011
Saturday 25 September 2010
Trees
Yup, trees. Or to be more accurate, tree trunks. Aww yeah, I know how to party.
Warmup sketches.
Sunday 29 August 2010
Back from the dead
Wow... Getting near to a year since my last post. What happened? Lots and lots of things, most of which haven't been too nice.
Firstly I got a job not too long after moving house! Not even close to what I actually wanted... A position as a trainee dental nurse. A nice solid career that can be taken anywhere with a high chance of employment whenever I need it. Great yes? Well.. kinda.. Aside from having the income and working with some awesome people there's the whole 12 hour shifts thing I have to deal with. Yes. 12 hours a day, sometimes even 15. And all for minimum wage. Thank you recession. But that said I'm now making enough to get by even if it does feel like I sold my soul and didn't get very much for it.
So, not much time for artings due to working all day long and crashing out at weekends. Some odds and sods but not much.
Then, just as we got some more solidly defined hours and the chance for a bit of time away from work my Dad went in for day surgery at our local hospital and still hasn't come out. He even died once last week and had to be brought round again. 5 operations later and he's finally in a position to actually communicate with us again even though the sedation has made him a bit loopy.
This on top of many other things has made me sit back and think about what's really important, I gave up on what I love simply because I couldn't make a living off of it. This in itself is a really crap reason. Life got me down and I gave up. This isn't why I started at all, I started because it was what I loved doing. Occasional praise was great but that wasn't why I kept going and I then let all the little things get to me. You know what? It's not worth it. Nobody thinks on their death bed "I wish I'd spent more time in the office".
Now I know what I want all I need is a plan of action. A good solid timetable I can follow to get me back in the swing and build up my confidence again. BRB.
Firstly I got a job not too long after moving house! Not even close to what I actually wanted... A position as a trainee dental nurse. A nice solid career that can be taken anywhere with a high chance of employment whenever I need it. Great yes? Well.. kinda.. Aside from having the income and working with some awesome people there's the whole 12 hour shifts thing I have to deal with. Yes. 12 hours a day, sometimes even 15. And all for minimum wage. Thank you recession. But that said I'm now making enough to get by even if it does feel like I sold my soul and didn't get very much for it.
So, not much time for artings due to working all day long and crashing out at weekends. Some odds and sods but not much.
Then, just as we got some more solidly defined hours and the chance for a bit of time away from work my Dad went in for day surgery at our local hospital and still hasn't come out. He even died once last week and had to be brought round again. 5 operations later and he's finally in a position to actually communicate with us again even though the sedation has made him a bit loopy.
This on top of many other things has made me sit back and think about what's really important, I gave up on what I love simply because I couldn't make a living off of it. This in itself is a really crap reason. Life got me down and I gave up. This isn't why I started at all, I started because it was what I loved doing. Occasional praise was great but that wasn't why I kept going and I then let all the little things get to me. You know what? It's not worth it. Nobody thinks on their death bed "I wish I'd spent more time in the office".
Now I know what I want all I need is a plan of action. A good solid timetable I can follow to get me back in the swing and build up my confidence again. BRB.
Wednesday 11 November 2009
Hiatus
Well if you take a look at the date I last actually posted anything you can probably guess that things are on hiatus for the moment. I had to spend a week or two helping my parents to move house (seeing as I live with them this seemed like the sensible thing to do) as we had to do everything but the larger things by ourselves. Apparently you need exchange this thing called money in order to obtain these services. Yeah it shocked me too! Gotta get me some of that 'money' stuff. BUT we're in now and aside from the fact the walls have NO insulation and it's getting in to winter it's actually really nice! It's been a while since I've had access a huge garden.
What was that? You're not looking at my blog to hear about my home life? Fine... Arty things, arty things... Umm... Well here's the thing, I THINK I may have some artist's block. Why am I not sure? That would be because every time I've suffered with artist's block I usually have a grand total of 0 ideas and everything I try to draw goes wrong (or at least I think it's gone wrong). This time around I have a fair few ideas, mostly 4 panel comic strips for some reason, but every time I try to draw them I end up with a blank. I sit in front of my sketchbook or photoshop and stare at the blank sheet. It's like I've forgotten where to start or something. I'm wondering if it's a confidence crisis thing. I've been a graduate now for about 4 months (I'd like my degree now please) and I've essentially been told , indirectly I suppose, that no-one wants me or what I'm peddling. Nothing like a good kicking while you're down eh? Well OK not a kicking per se, everyone has been really nice actually, but I'm still jobless and that smarts somewhat.
I'm wondering if it's artist's block at all and instead it's a small dose of Atychiphobia (Don't worry, I had to look it up too. In fact it probably would have been easier to write it out normally but I wanted to use a long, confusing word :D Enjoy!).
Anyways I'm hoping to get this blog back up and running soon. Just need to figure out how one can actually kick themselves up the arse (or I'll give up and get someone else to do it. I think there's a queue outside). Once I have that down things will pick up.
What was that? You're not looking at my blog to hear about my home life? Fine... Arty things, arty things... Umm... Well here's the thing, I THINK I may have some artist's block. Why am I not sure? That would be because every time I've suffered with artist's block I usually have a grand total of 0 ideas and everything I try to draw goes wrong (or at least I think it's gone wrong). This time around I have a fair few ideas, mostly 4 panel comic strips for some reason, but every time I try to draw them I end up with a blank. I sit in front of my sketchbook or photoshop and stare at the blank sheet. It's like I've forgotten where to start or something. I'm wondering if it's a confidence crisis thing. I've been a graduate now for about 4 months (I'd like my degree now please) and I've essentially been told , indirectly I suppose, that no-one wants me or what I'm peddling. Nothing like a good kicking while you're down eh? Well OK not a kicking per se, everyone has been really nice actually, but I'm still jobless and that smarts somewhat.
I'm wondering if it's artist's block at all and instead it's a small dose of Atychiphobia (Don't worry, I had to look it up too. In fact it probably would have been easier to write it out normally but I wanted to use a long, confusing word :D Enjoy!).
Anyways I'm hoping to get this blog back up and running soon. Just need to figure out how one can actually kick themselves up the arse (or I'll give up and get someone else to do it. I think there's a queue outside). Once I have that down things will pick up.
Friday 16 October 2009
Day 12, 13 and a surrender
Well I'm now lagging 2 days behind schedule for this challenge, this is due to a combination of factors but I've decided to abandon it as I'm going to be moving house starting Monday. I actually thought it was going to be nearer the end of the month but either way it will most likely have a huge impact on what I can produce, especially as I'm already lagging behind, so I'm gonna drop most of them (I say most of them because there are still a few that I want to do regardless of me dropping the challenge). I guess it wouldn't have been much of a challenge if I'd managed to sail though the whole thing no problem XD Curse you real life *shakesfist*.
On a side note I'm planning on joining a critique forum(s?) again so I can actually get feedback and so insight into where and how I can improve. But there shall be more challenges in the future (hopefully a bit longer lasting than this one).
EDIT: and on a side not I really should start uploading my pics to photobucket or something, these Deviantart things really don't go with my layout ^-^;
Anyways, here are the last 2 pics of the challenge, Chibis and monsters (chibis are from Skies of Arcadia and the dragon is from Twilight Princess. Enjoy!):
Day 13: Skies of Arcadia by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
Day 12: Argorok by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
On a side note I'm planning on joining a critique forum(s?) again so I can actually get feedback and so insight into where and how I can improve. But there shall be more challenges in the future (hopefully a bit longer lasting than this one).
EDIT: and on a side not I really should start uploading my pics to photobucket or something, these Deviantart things really don't go with my layout ^-^;
Anyways, here are the last 2 pics of the challenge, Chibis and monsters (chibis are from Skies of Arcadia and the dragon is from Twilight Princess. Enjoy!):
Day 13: Skies of Arcadia by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
Day 12: Argorok by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
Sunday 11 October 2009
Day 11: LZ
Todays challenge was: Under used OC (again)
So here are some sketches of my under-used OC LZ. Known as Zee to his friends and Elsie by everyone taking the piss (that's pretty much everyone) he's a ladies man wannabe and all around coward. He can also be grumpy and sarcastic which usually makes the situation much much worse.
I'm currently developing his story (planning on trying my hand at comic making once I've finished developing a few characters) but I can tell you that at some point he does spend some time stuck in a duck pond.
Day 11: LZ by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
LZ © Me
Also some really old pics here if you're interested:
Original college design
2nd college design
Clay model
So here are some sketches of my under-used OC LZ. Known as Zee to his friends and Elsie by everyone taking the piss (that's pretty much everyone) he's a ladies man wannabe and all around coward. He can also be grumpy and sarcastic which usually makes the situation much much worse.
I'm currently developing his story (planning on trying my hand at comic making once I've finished developing a few characters) but I can tell you that at some point he does spend some time stuck in a duck pond.
Day 11: LZ by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
LZ © Me
Also some really old pics here if you're interested:
Original college design
2nd college design
Clay model
Saturday 10 October 2009
Day 9 and 10
To make up for the fact I had a bit of a lazy day yesterday I went ahead and did both yesterday and today's sketch challenge. First here are a few neatened doodles from my absolute favourite Disney/Pixar film Up:
Day 9: Up by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
I really want to do some more for this, I kinda left out Russel as for some reason I just couldn't get him to look right and I didn't have time to sort it out. This film hit me on so many levels I can't even begin to describe it. Absolute. Love.
And for my day 10 sketch (theme was Mythology) I drew my interpretation of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec deity. It's a feathered serpent :D I love Aztec art, dragons and reptiles so this was triple win for me!
Day 10: Quetzalcoatl by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
I decided to keep a fair bit of the original designs in this. Here's some ref I used:
Wiki page
Ref 1
Ref 2
Ref 3
Day 9: Up by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
I really want to do some more for this, I kinda left out Russel as for some reason I just couldn't get him to look right and I didn't have time to sort it out. This film hit me on so many levels I can't even begin to describe it. Absolute. Love.
And for my day 10 sketch (theme was Mythology) I drew my interpretation of Quetzalcoatl, the Aztec deity. It's a feathered serpent :D I love Aztec art, dragons and reptiles so this was triple win for me!
Day 10: Quetzalcoatl by *Coffee-Shakes on deviantART
I decided to keep a fair bit of the original designs in this. Here's some ref I used:
Wiki page
Ref 1
Ref 2
Ref 3
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