Sorry, Internet's gone wonky. Stream's not working. Sorry guys :/

Please pick one!

-Game of Thrones
-Sherlock
-Doctor Who
-Korra/Avatar

PLEASE AND THANK YOU!

Gonna be streaming from 9pm....That's tea minus 42 minutes

livestream.com/charco

Going to be streaming from 2 o'clock onwards [link]  That's tea minus 38 minutes

Shall be streaming some environment work this evening at [link]

Feel free to have a look and say hi

[link]

Neil Gaiman knows how to put a point. Nobody can make the art that you can make, but this immediately got me thinking. Creativity and innovation is not restricted to art, or at least not pictoral art. I've heard before that there is art in anything performed with mastery. That was probably in Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, which is very much worth a read.
Everything from farming to waste disposal is in need of as much innovation and creativity as much as film, books, TV or other media. Do whatever you will make the best positive impact in, whatever impassions you, whatever you will regret NOT doing, and just do it well.

All the better to decrease worldsuck with, my dear

DFTBA

I've long held a grudge against people who dismiss things made by art-directed folks like myself citing 'oh, but you're a creative, or you're an arty person'. I've found that kind of qualifier sounds derogatory, and takes for granted a life spent learning one's trade- whether you believe in natural talent or not. Even using the word 'creative' bothers me, but without the tone it captures what we do so wonderfully.

We create. We bring into existence things that previously were not. We get to use our sense of taste and judgement to sculpt into being ideas and theories, only applying real world practicalities as we deem necessary. If they are golden, they can live beyond us, and reach more people than we could ever hope touch, smell, see, or hear (or taste XD) in our brief span. That's an amazing opportunity and privilege.

I don't think the medium matters really. Comics, TV, Games, Film, they're all wonderful and have such uncharted potential it makes me giddy just being alive. There is so much to be done, and so many wonderful people doing it. There's been a lot of times where I feel like I'm running uphill, but there's also been some magical times where it feels like I'm flying. The first time I saw Cosmo dancing around in one of my backgrounds I nearly cried. I no longer saw the lines and the tones, nor the animator's flash interface. I saw a world, with people living and breathing on it. Again when I did a design for a machine and then later found a 3d version had been made of it (toonshaded). It was a genuine Penny Crayon moment. I built that idea, and to then see it turn around, looking exactly as I imagined it was pretty mindblowing. I've been blessed to have friends (and by friends I mean ) do 3d sculpts of my work too, and that's a whole different feeling. Magical. Pat's influence in translating the design to 3d feels like it's grown legs and is acting of it's own accord, growing as its own thing. It feels like magic.

It's worth noting that all the BEST moments in my life, creatively, have all been collaborative. In comics it's probably Danger Academy or Reed Gunther. In TV, it's Cosmo. In film, the Illusionist. My solo stuff, while enjoyable, has never given me that same rush. Not until other people get involved. Then it can be magic.

So draw, write, collaborate. Make films, write stories, make a comic! It's addictive, it's fun, it's additive. Imagine you wrote the story that saved someone's life when they were down, or inspired them to change the world. What if your story IS what changes the world, and what if, what if, what if....and that's how stories begin.

I came home from the cinema just now and opened the fridge to see what there was to snack on, and I had to smile at the contents that lay before me. It reminded me of one night one when I was eight or so, and I was sleeping over in my neighbour Rory's house. I remember the smell of that house vividly, like it was mildly lingering with the smell of old people- namely Mrs Healy who used to live there before Rory. But it wasn't just that, there was the smell of freshly cooked roast, tea that had been left on the stove for too long, and a faint smell of mud-my mind puts this down to football gear, but if you asked me now I couldn't tell you what mud smells like. In any case, I really liked that smell and had some great times in that house.
This was one of those, minor in nature but one I'll never forget. His mum Anne had made us sandwiches, with INCREDIBLY fresh white bread, white cheddar and crisp iceberg lettuce served with a tall glass of milk. That's it. It was the nicest sandwich I've ever had in my life. It may not have been the first time I had white cheddar, but it was the first time I noticed it. Sandwiches in our house were always consisting of 'everything please' which meant lettuce, cucumber, tomato, ham, cheese, scallions, mayo; pretty much everything sandwichable in the fridge at once.
I was perplexed how a sandwich with fewer ingredients could be so much nicer. Surely the more nice things on a sandwich, the better it would taste? It was the first of many reminders in my life that more often than not, less is definitely more. Focus on making quality over quantity, and it will be remembered all the more for it.

I can't say it's completely sunk in yet, as I still make mad dashes and doodles to keep my presence on the internet alive, but I am learning to hold back and only post the good stuff (mostly). So if it seems like I have been a ghost here lately, it's because I'm channelling all my energy into Cosmo, and I know (and hope you agree) that the end result will speak for itself and justify my relative absence from deviantart, the world of comics and the internet as a whole.

Stay frosty peeps. Or more appropriately, stay WARM.

May you spend the holiday with the people, places and things that you love.

Next stop, SUMMER.

Hey guys, hope it's all going well over this side. Just so you know I seem to be posting a whole lot more over at [link] if ye wanna check it out. Quick doodles, tests, and step by step walkthroughs of stuff I do for fun

Melchior arrived this afternoon, and currently has nothing on it, and no wireless connectivity. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Adobe needs to verify things before they'll let me download my upgraded yumminess. Still, it's pretty and huge, and even though I'm spoilt for RAM already those empty slots are staring back at me, like a poster that just reads 'Shave and a Haircut'

Just downloaded a demo of PSCS6 to my portable HD, should be interesting to see if it works.  If not, I've a small slab of music to transfer.
REALLY THOUGH, I should be cleaning up my roomoffice. It's fallen into disrepair while Glados was off dying in a corner. I tried gutting her for her wireless card earlier and scared the crap out of myself (thought I may have killed Melchior the same way I killed her predecessor) but have now left her as a smoldering mess. The HD is screwed in ridiculously tightly, like rip out the motherboard to get at those screws tightly. WTF HP? Melchior's set up more like Thomas O'Connell, my first machine, with easily removable HD slots and begging for an upgrade even now.

Hah, it's nearly bedtime. Which means that this demo is probably going to work, and I'll be left facing a DILEMMA. Paint or sleep. Paint or sleep?

XD

Also, Nom Con happened. It was very warm, I sold out my pandas, and promised they would be the last I would sell. Of that picture. Because srsly, old picture is OLD. Found a heap of prints of other work afterwards- all the ones I lost on GLADOS, which is nice to know I have SOME of.

Fingers crossed, normal service will resume shortly.

So my computer underwent a slight incident involving a power surge and is now well and truly dead.

So unless I can recover the hard drive (which I REALLY hope I can do) allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll my PSDs are gone. And all my lovely software like Manga Studio and Photoshop and all those bad boys. I think I have backups on my external, but a whole heap of my hi-res stuff just went bye bye.

Ah well. Make more better things time. And then back them up.

So I'm gonna be off the radar until I'm back up to speed, which should be a week or two. I've a new beast in transit, and can't WAIT to cut my teeth with it.

So, yeah, carry on :/

So my computer underwent a slight incident involving a power surge and is now well and truly dead.

So unless I can recover the hard drive (which I REALLY hope I can do) allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll my PSDs are gone. And all my lovely software like Manga Studio and Photoshop and all those bad boys. I think I have backups on my external, but a whole heap of my hi-res stuff just went bye bye.

Ah well. Make more better things time. And then back them up.

So I'm gonna be off the radar until I'm back up to speed, which should be a week or two. I've a new beast in transit, and can't WAIT to cut my teeth with it.

So, yeah, carry on :/

I've done a very bad thing. I've been reading comments on other people's journals. Though there may be wisdom out there, it's mired in a swamp of idiocy, and those who plum those depths may swallow some or drown in an attempt to escape.

One such comment, in a journal on work techniques commented that people will often shun something just because it's easy, and that it should not be done.

This incensed me with rage, largely because it was surrounded by a thread of ignorance, waffle, and flat out bullcrap and it of itself is not really worth a journal.

I have, however, been thinking about this subject for a while, so I may sit and type a spell.

Nothing worth doing is easy. I've heard it before, and usually hail it as an incentive to do hard work to attain a desired result. Cool.

There are a lot of hobbyists out there, content to draw big ass manga faces or the same snarling musclebound dragonball characters until they're blue in the face. For years, even. Is that easy? Yes. Very. I did it for years. Comfortable, repetitive. Easy. Worth doing? .......ehhhhhhhhhhhhh to me, for me, no. Holding a piece of paper with something like that up I'd ask 'why do this? What did you learn, create, or express with this?' Artistically, it's like mumbling a song. If you're gonna sing, SING. If you're gonna draw, DRAW. There are some uses for it as an emotional vent, but that can get old very, very quickly. Or carry on doing the same thing, no one's stopping you. Just don't expect to improve anytime soon.

Drawing is not easy. Drawing WELL is not easy. I don't consider myself good at drawing*, but I do consider myself committed to improving, and that's about all one can hope for.
(*If someone asks, I will say 'yes I can draw' There's modesty and insecurity, and then there's flat out stupidity. I get paid to draw things, QED I can draw)

When someone thinks about a band, they think about the guys on stage rocking out and being surrounded by a room full of people who think you're amazing. That's like, 5% of a musician's life. There's more carrying things and driving, waiting for people to set up and sitting on your own learning songs than there is anything remotely cool. All of a sudden, that great hourly rate diminishes to something that's borderline 'do-it-for-the-love'

Art is the same. For every 5 minute sketch, there's 50 hours of studying, research, analysis, being nothing shy of antisocial and frustration at things not coming out quite the way you hoped. Nobody gets to the stage where they can draw comfortably, publically without putting in SERIOUS and ongoing legwork, and to write this off as 'easy' is something that doesn't sit right with me at all.

They say you only live once. That doesn't mean you can do anything, but more that you only have one chance to really do SOMETHING. A commitment, a passion, a lifestyle.
That doesn't sound easy in any respect.

It's been bugging me lately, pieces not slotting into place. As if it's the exact opposite of being in a rut. Ideas are there, just none of them sing. Going through the same (and some new) processes, but the end result has an altogether Brother-Bear anticlimax to it.

I really liked Brother Bear, but it was no Lion King. Knowing they could make that, it really cheapens the lesser pieces.

I say this not as a moan, because I'm going through some stuff at the moment so I don't EXPECT to be hitting every punch with my personal work, but what I really want to talk about is HONESTY.

was tweeting about 's work, wondering why it's all so good. I replied saying that is was completely honest- most of his pics look like they come from happy moments in his life, and the emotion's dripping from the page.

Some people's whole careers seem to veer towards their perfect project, the one thing that it seems like they were absolutely made for. There is overdoing it , like the Burton-Depp-Elfman triumvirate of doom, but that's the kind of zest I'm talking about.

The most recent example I've come across is Tommie Kelly's Holy Numbers. His struggle with religious themes has come to fore before, and he's been trying different things over the past few years to push his storytelling visually. His actual linework always seemed very....thick to me, and when he got onto DOWN it really started gelling for me with how he tells stories. There's something gutteral to it (in a good way), and it matches the topics he goes for 100%.

Tommie sent me the first few pages to read just before he launched, and I held off. Kinda like caviar- it's not something you have at the drop of a hat, the occasion and your mood needs to be right. Today was the perfect time for me to check it out, and I'm genuinely curious to see where it goes from here. It's really great to see one artist and writer who seems to have all the pieces really slotting into the right place.

Honesty, in form and in fiction


Here's Holy Numbers by the way: [link]

Tommie's also behind Irish Comic News (amongst a crew of awesomefolk) [link]

But Choose your own Course.


Rrrar, so it's been ages since I updated this. :double checks:

OK, a REALLY long time. To fill ye in, I'm living in Dublin (yay), now working as a background artist for Monster on a show called Cosmo (double yay) with some lovely people who are as polar opposite to me as I could devise.  It's interesting though, hearing other people's priorities,
processes and opinions on things I'd normally take for granted.


It's a new chapter, definitely.

Not really painting as much as I'd like to, but I've found a powerful ally in Flash, and some better workflows in Photoshop through my day-work. Oddly enough it's the techniques I picked up in the ballyfermot course that I seem to be using the most, which is nicely suprising. Editability and flexibility seem to be the key there really, and a lot of my comics workflows are very rigid by virtue of the need to keep the lineart as-is.

I think I'm drifting to the point where I'll start trying some work like Pascal Campion's- his work has always enamoured me but the process always seemed foreign looking. SOON. I believe this is what weekends are for. Also on the list is some actual in-the-flesh painting, but I'm gonna hold off for better weather and other lesser excuses.

Somewhere between Ben Hickling and Pascal Campion, that's what I'd like to stab at next. But for now, I am very full of pizza, and I need to get back to the events at King's Landing.

Stay classy everyone.


-C

EDIT- GOING LIVE IN 5 MINUTES [link]

I've had people say in streams before that they'd like to see how I go about it from start to finish, so this evening I'm going to go through a new pic from start to finish*

I'll do a bit of research before hand so you don't have to sit through alllllll that, but what I SHOULD cover:

-Thumbnails
-Character designs
-MAYBE some 3d mockups, depends what I need.
-Grayscaling
-Converting to colour
-Texturing
-Final Adjustments

It starts at 7.30 Greenwich time. If I carry through to finish, I see it taking about 5 or 6 hours at least, probably more if I get chatty. Leave a comment if you've any soundtrack preferences. Otherwise, it'll PROBABLY be Bon Iver.

Spread the word, or come along and say hi

HERE-> [link]

This'll be my 6th time writing this- never know quite how to phrase these things.

First and foremost, hope you all are safe and well, and may the new year bring you what you need, what you want and what you'll love.

2011 has been different. After years of burying my head in the sand, I decided fairly early in the year to start facing my problems head on. This didn't always result in success, but it got things done. Sort of. Personally, I moved out of my parent's place, started learned to drive, earned my living through art and took up a sport.

There are caveats to each and every one of those, but they are all things I wasn't doing 365 days ago that have nothing to do with work.

Back in make the pixels pay the bills land, I got to work on some great projects including Agent Mom and Danger Academy with Dan Boultwood and Tony Lee, Reed Gunther with Shane and Chris Houghton. I also designed all the chars, environments and animation for an app that's still in production, made a children's book and lastly got to work on backgrounds for the lovely folks at Aniboom.

MACGYVER. It hasn't happened yet, but I wanna mention it. We have Will Sliney onboard for the lines, which is a double blessing. I think he's a great fit for the book and I've wanted to work with him for ages. Keep an eye out guys, it's gonna be great.

But as for resolutions?

I'd had ideas in my head to make a short called LIGHTFORGE and that may very well happen, but priority number one in 2012 is gonna be me.
Sounds incredibly selfish, but I've put my health and fitness on the backburner for too long, and if you haven't got your health you're not much use to man nor beast.

My aunt has had an awe inspiring year, dropping 7 stone and becoming almost a completely different person.
It's inspired a lot of my family members to join in, as a lot of us are on the chunky side and it's time to hop on the band wagon.

With that, I'm also gonna chill out a bit more. I'm wound up tightly enough at the best of times, and could do with a bit more mellowing. I'm still trying to find the balance between work and play (note, new year's eve, working!) and round about June I was pretty much burned out. Life's too short for that sort of thing.

In short, I'm going to try and be the man I want to be.

All the very best for the New Year,

Ciaran

Season's greetings to all of ye

When people hear that I'm a freelancer, they usually say one of two things.

1- That's AWESOME. You get to work whenever you want.

or

2- That must be HORRIBLE keeping yourself motivated.

I never really had a problem with the motivation part until recently, until last week it clicked with me why, and how I had been self-medicating up to that point. So with that in mind, I'm gonna share some ways I find useful of staying focused.

----

= POMODORRO=

This is a great way to cut through the crap and distractions and get LOTS done. Essentially, you set a timer and

Work 25 mins
Rest 5 mins

Work 25 mins
Rest 5 mins

Work 25 mins
Rest 5 mins

Work 25 mins
Rest 30 mins

Enough of a break to pee, get a cuppa or whatever. I use a little program called pomadairo to keep track, but there's downsides to this. The downside being the stopping. I generally plug in and work for about 45 mins to an hour before my brain demands distraction, or longer if there's actual problem solving going on. The pomodorro cycle sometimes wrecks my flow. Useful for boring things though.

=RELEVANT ALBUM=

Music is a great way to keep yourself pumped, and you can use it in multiple ways. I try and shoot for the hour between each break, so I often use albums as milestones. If you're familiar with the album, you subconsciously KNOW how long until the break is coming so you don't keep glancing at the clock and can stay tuned in. It's also a great way to stay in tone for the piece you're working on, with soundtracks being a great choice. Gladiator, Matrix, Lord of the Rings. Battlestar Galactica is one of my favourites for this.

If you're doing the late night deadline super mega crunch, I'd recommend grooveshark's Ambient station. www.grooveshark.com keeps you mellow and constant. I swear by it.

=MOVIES AND TV=

This is a useful one, albeit tricky to find a balance. You need a show with a strong score and narrative. House is dialogue driven and enough characters to follow like a radio show. MOST of the time it doesn't depend on what's on screen (well directed though it is). Breaking Bad is VERY visual, and is a perfect example of what NOT to have on in the background. It's a great show, and deserves your full attention. Not for working to. Long series are better, as it can keep you hooked in like a long album. I use FullMetal Alchemist, Avatar and Battlestar Galactica (trying Doctor Who) for this all the time.
Community would be perfect, except the episodes are too short. Which is a shame, I'm loving that show.

=SELF PROGRAMMING=

I don't wear my headphones unless I'm working. Now when I put my headphones on it acts as a trigger to drown out everything else and stay involved with what I' m working on. Even if there's nothing playing. Incredibly useful tool.

=STARTING EARLY=

I find if I start work after 10am, it's like I'm constantly trying to drag the work out of me. If I begin closer to 8am, not only do I have longer to complete my work but I find I've more energy for it and results are more forthcoming. Better still is when I take the take to visualise what I'm going to do the night before as I go to sleep, that way I can be subconsciously addressing any problems I might have with the job at hand.

=GETTING SLEEP=

I usually get 7 hours sleep a night, at least. This is non-negotiable, barring deadline days themselves. You don't sleep, you don't think, you don't perform. The same goes with getting out of the house, exercising and all that jazz. Energy begets energy. The more pumped you are, the more you can put into your work.

=SET GOALS=

I have a whiteboard behind me with a short term to-do list, and a long term one. Crossing off completed tasks is exceptionally rewarding, particularly off the long term one. Writing lists is the BEST thing you can do. It keeps you organised, it keeps you focused, and its a great way of charting progress.

Hope those help!

-C