As I mentioned in a previous entry, I was to spend my Christmas in Spain this year with Ruari and my family. And I did! And it was jolly marvellous. Quite nice to wake up on Christmas day with palm trees and sunshine. And then go to the beach with dozens of other people for a BBQ. And then go back to the villa for traditional christmas dinner. And caviar.
It was a pretty swagged out Christmas and you're all totally jelly as beans, don't lie.
And at one point (I think Christmas Eve? Ish?) I won a HUGE hamper in a raffle at the German Restaurant Kopi's. It had various bottles of booze, a ridiculous amount of sweets and snacks, two vouchers for a two day hotel stay somewhere in Spain and an entire pigs leg of ham. God only knows how much it actually would have cost.
Pretty much the only time I've ever won something ever and I don't even get to take it home. I mean look at it, it's bloody HUGE. So I had to leave it with family and friends in Spain, dedicating the ham leg to the lovely couple who own the villa and flat we stayed at for the week.
My parents were especially gutted that we couldn't keep the ham so Ruari, being the cheeky beggar that he is, went and bought the pillow on the right. Yes, that IS a pillow. And yes, that pug hungers for it.
So, thats why I've been pretty quiet on social media and the internet in general this holiday season. I had planned on sharing a blog entry before I went to Spain but holiday preparations got in the way of that. So now, while I have some quiet time until New Year celebrations, I'm going to show you guys what I'd worked on before Spain.
Oh, just FYI, I'm not opening up commissions/starting any work until the 5th now, as I didn't realise the 3rd was a weekend. Screw that noise.
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Earlier last month, I officially opened commissions with the hopes of bringing some more quick money in. And I'm pleased to see that a fair few people are taking interest! I've already completed a couple and have some work lined up in the new year.My first commissioner was a very lovely person called Caroline Hey, who wanted to have a family portrait of herself with her husband Thomas and their dog for Thomas' birthday. She told me there wasn't really an image of the three of them together and I was more than happy to help her out.
Normally I have a tendency to colour my lineart but when I showed the options to the commissioner, she told me she preferred the black lineart. I've really found it growing on me as well. I might use it more often.
I am showing the commission with Caroline's permission and I've noticed, when she liked the Emmature Content Facebook page, she made it her Facebook picture. Colour me complimented!
Gran recently went to Las Vegas with my Uncle and his girlfriend, which as you can obviously see is the overall theme in this image. It was a bit of a task, trying to keep the background as simple as possible while still making it obvious that it was Vegas. But I think I pulled it off for the most part.
I was told that my uncle taught Gran how to play BlackJack while they were there, hence the two cards in her hand. Gran's a very classy lady and doesn't have a gambling bone in her body so I don't see her taking up the habit but in this case it makes for a very nice themed image. And it was really fun to work on!
This didn't take me long to do at all, mainly cos I could show Mum my progress instantly and she was immediately pleased with what I'd done. It's nice when a commission is smooth as cheddar!
I'm pleased to report that she was very happy with it, showing it to literally everyone who came by and standing it pride of place in the villa living room. It'll be cool to see it in her new house.
On the topic of printing and framing images, I've had people ask me why I don't provide this service myself for all commissioners. The reason is because I would have to charge a lot more, specifically to cover the cost of printer ink, frames, postage and packaging.
If enough people wouldn't mind doing this I could consider the possible costs and review my commission list to give people that option but for now, commissions are strictly digital only. Its a shame cos they don't look too bad framed, if I say so myself.
Now to check myself before I wreck myself.
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Progress IS being made on the Bertie Blue book publishing. We wanted to have the book available for people to buy for Christmas but all sorts of ridiculous issues didn't allow that to happen.
We have a proof copy of the book but, due to a mess up on me not checking the website's options carefully, the pages are in black and white and lemme tell ya, I did NOT spend over a year on this for the coloured images to not be seen.
Sadly, with coloured images, it's too expensive to sell as the one book. The website refuses to sell the book at a price that won't give us any revenue. So chances are we'll need to split the novel up into two-three books to sell them at an affordable price.
I can, however, show you pictures of the proof copy so you get an idea of how the outside of the book looks. This design will now be a number of pages less and be 'book one' of the series.
I'm letting myself take things easy for a few more days so I won't be working on this, or any other project, until the 5th January but I thought I should at least update everyone as I haven't been able to say much on the Bertie Blue front for a while. Although I still haven't said anything different from "Watch this space" but at least this time it has photos!
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Finally: Crumbs. Yes, it's being rewritten. Again. I keep feeling the need to have the story out NOW RIGHT NOW GOTTA GO FAST but the truth is, every time I do I'm never satisfied with it and then I stop working on it for weeks/months/years and then I start redoing it again.
So hopefully it'll be a case of 'Third time's a charm' but this time I'm being a lot more prepared. I have some very amazing friends with expertise in effective storytelling looking over my notes and giving me critique, advice and suggestions that have really helped make the story go in an extremely exciting direction.
I think what I'm going to do is get my notes for the introductory arc finished and once they're finalised, start working on the pages. I still have a new art style for the characters that I need to play about with so expect some new Crumbs concept art in the new year.
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So, a quick summing up for my projects this upcoming year:
- Be able to actually sell the Bertie Blue novel(s)
- Keep up the commissions to support myself and my projects
- Design prints to sell
- Keep up with a buffer for Crumbs
- Have the intro arc of Crumbs in progress/completed on the website
- Begin the Staghound projects
… Oh yikes, I haven't even begun to go into Staghound. And this entry is long enough as it is. This is what I get for not blogging about stuff more often.
Ooh actually, on that note:
- Blog once/twice a week depending on amount of work to share
Ok, cool, got that covered. Where was I…? Oh right, Staghound.
I mentioned this before but Ruari and I have a number of ideas where we collaborate to create some creative content. One particular idea we have at the moment is Ruari's video reviews. I'll create a quick animated logo and title card for the reviews and once the video footage has been filmed, I can then edit the footage and create the final video.
It's a project we're both really looking forward to. Ruari goes into it in a bit more detail at his blog HERE.
Official release dates of these reviews have yet to be announced but keep your eye on this blog, Ruari's blog, my twitter, Ruari's twitter, my Facebook page, Ruari's Facebook p- well you get the idea.
… good lord, this was a long one. If you read all of that, have an extra shot on me tonight. Just don't blame me for any alcohol poisoning. Now, to chill and kill time before I see the Hobbit with my buddies tonight.
… oh, and I've decided to go with Emmature Content. New logo to come soon.
~*HAPPY NEW YEAR, DARLINGS!*~
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