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Well its been at least a month of actual work for me, with bits and bobs stretching back over the last year, CAD, 3D design, Graphic Design, and long train journeys but my first real work project is reaching culmination. Firestorm Armada launched today, it has started shipping to distributors and shops, with product on shelves in time for Christmas. The last month has been pretty busy with late nights and no weekends free but its done, I have a lot of work to put in my portfolio and more to follow soon enough.

It feels good to actually do a real project, sure uni work was just as bad at times if not worse, but nothing beats the actuality of a commercial launch. And if all goes well it may lead to a full time job, designing spaceships, tanks, gunships and all sorts of fun toys for people to paint and play with. Its really quite something.

So I'm back home after nearly three weeks away at work, with a nice break to relax, but since I've been pushing photoshop for most of that time away I feel like continuing, I want to do some art, not just some packaging graphics, or some wallpapers, cut and pasting bits here and there, just something....pointless.

Not that art is pointless, just making something without a goal, without a destination, commercial or otherwise. Which gave me some inspiration. I always have ideas, my brain is constantly abuzz with stories and images, but I don't have the patience to actually write anything of substance, so I'm taking the easy way out. I'm going to make a cover for one of the many nonexistant books/films/comics that reside in my brain. Now all I need to do is pick one...

Alright so its not really a proper job, probably classed as freelance but its moneys for work and that counts. Anyway where was I:

Long time since I posted on my pseudo-blog, final year of uni basically killed all my artistry in lieu of getting a good grade, and I did well enough so yeah. Now that I am free I was planning on doing some more digital artwork and I still hope to but something game up; Design work!

Yes my old friends are Spartan Games have given me a number of projects to work on, earning a nice bit of cash to do with as I like, and its fun work, CADing and drawing miniatures and scenery etc. better than working at some soul destroying fast food joint. As a creative, have the opportunity to just have fun and get paid is something I cannot be too grateful for. And judging by the quantity of things being thrown at me I may well have a stead flow or work which is nice.

So; money and creative outlet, hence; I love my job.

And for any of the wargamers out there who play a Spartan games system, The stuff I'm doing at the moment isn't to do with any current range. So expect some new systems out in the future.

C'mon, who doesnt like cake?

Anyways, been super busy with fourth year at uni, not had much time for artz, commercial or otherwise, which is a real shame. Practice is the key to improvement and I'm taking steps backwards with this.......oh well, theres always the holidays.

that is all folks, hope youre all good.

A little late by....oh a month or something but big news all the same.

I got PAID.

PAID.

FOR DRAWINGS.

Ehem, yes so after a long period; sent the stuff in around april-ish and after about a month later the money was deposited in my account. According to my friend this is to be expected as organisation within the organisation isn't very organised.

But who cared right, because theyre PAYING ME, PAYING ME TO DRAW!

so yeah, not much hard work, good rates, nice job what can I say? Its too intermittent and not lucrative enough to be a career but as a part time job its pretty nice. You can see one of the pieces in my gallery as Work in Progress, they were a number of pencil illustrations of fantasy model ships to be used in a rulebook, almost like technical drawings. For the most part I had fun doing them although some were laborious.

But yeah as the story which can be pieced together from previous journal entries, friend at uni who does modelmaking like a goddamn pro, works for a guy whos starting a small wargames model company. Friend likes my drawings shows a few, gets him interested. After a while we meet up and BAM, I'm working.

First game is a fantasy naval game, I joined late so just illustrations of the ships, all the source material is covered already. There'll be some explansion down the line I may have input on though I dont know. Should be released this year at some point, will keep people informed.

Later down the line is a scifi game, starting with spaceship fleets with a similar ruleset, then followed by a ground based game. Scifi is where I shine, and a lot of the designs in my portfolio were enjoyed so I can look forward to seeing those made in the future. Hopefully I'll have some input on the backstory and stuff, as it goes it looks like I may have the creative responsibility for one of the races (the human good guys, w00t!) already got a nice logo (its my desktop) and I look forward to expansions.



So yeah, I can now call myself a Paid Illustrator (well, may have to wait for my stuff to be in print) and hopefully soon enough a paid concept designer.

You can check out the website at:
www.spartangames.co.uk

Though none of my stuff is on there......YET!

This is a statement of dissatisfaction, not a technical specification or a lewd proposition.

Between a mouth ulcer, sore tonsils and having fillings put in, I am not pleased......

*grumble grumble*

On the plus side fillings werent painful as expected, my first real anything at the dentist beyond a checkup, about the only problem was spending the afternoon with one side of my mouth numb, which was annoying.