recurring

It's been yonks since my last submission because it's been yonks since I put hand to paper! In the creative sense. Mostly this is because I've become more and more ambitious with my use of Maya, the very comprehensive 3D modelling and animating application.  I get these ideas in my head on how dramatic and insane I want my scenes to play out, and I just HAVE. TO. MAKE.

Again, it's all about LlamaLAN.  The vids I do are for the LAN events, played during and at the conclusion of said events, for the entertainment of our punters and to propel the storyline ever forwards.  I enjoy what I do, else they would just never happen.

I've also had a heck of a year.  Actually, two years, but most of it culminated in the last 12 months wherein all sorts of changes took place in my life, and some of those changes were hard, heart breaking, most of it necessary, all of it for the ultimate good.  I've moved to Blackpool in the North of England, living here since November 2012, and have yet to unload most of my stuff from storage.  My living arrangements are also short-term, so I doubt I'll be setting up my easel again any time REAL soon.  

I would love to get active again though (active for me is like, twice a year, but it's something).  I'm currently super busy on two sets of animation projects which must be complete before I even think about doing anything else creative, and after that point I'll post links and maybe, all being well, be in a better position to carry on using up my A3 boards!

Well let's see.  It's been a while but that's because I haven't done anything worth shouting about.  Until YESTERDAY!

The latest one, Llamatopia, really is a rushed bit of work.  I'm not massively happy about all of the colouring (some of it was quite lazy) but I just needed to get it done.  Besides, it's more a bit of work I've used to practice on and refresh a few techniques before tackling the next one.  Which will actually be SOON.  And in my world, soon means maybe two months.

If you're reminded of a certain dystopian movie about a certain guy who forgot to take a certain pill one morning, then my work here is done.

I've finally done my homework and looked into dA groups, specifically ones that honour the magnificant Llama.  dA seems to be as obsessed about Llamas as my little bunch of LAN associates are and there are something like 250 llama-related groups out there.  I have no idea what's best for an artist who spends most of his artistic activity drawing the darn things, so I picked three which seemed to fit.  Hopefully they'll like what I do.

We love utter destruction, when it's not real of course.  I guess there's an intrinsic relationship between terror and intrigue when it concerns some fictional characters, or in some fictional setup that concerns the things we love in real life.  For example, Independence Day was sold because something about our nature is captivated with the idea of our own devastation, and I wonder if the real drive behind it is the question of what happens next.

Anyway, LlamaLAN 13 is coming!  Our next LAN event is April 16th 2010 - see more details and sign up here: www.llamalan.co.uk/

This theme is the best yet.  We knew we were going down this road even when we were coming up with the whole Pirates vs Ninjas thing for the last one.  This is a great theme because we can do so much with it.  And when I'm doing the art, I can draw from so many scores of cultural icons of apocolypse.  

The LlamaLAN XIII: LLAMAGEDDON poster took AGES to do.  A good few days worth of hours, perhaps.  But worth it.  I couldn't do this and not stuff it with action and elements of all sorts.  I needed the vengeful AI, alien invaders (thank you Half Life and Jeff Wayne), natural disaster (asteroids!) and viral/zombie apocolypse.  Left 4 Dead's influence is perhaps the most obvious.

So now it is done.  It was tough, but I enjoyed it.

I thank GENZOMAN for his brief but highly influential tutorial which helped me to finally clinch how to acheive smoother more realistic shading and textures.  Find it here: genzoman.deviantart.com/art/Qu…

When it was proposed that we get a pirate theme going at the next LlamaLAN party, I hesitantly suggested that we hop aboard the endlessly flogged Pirates vs Ninja thing that seems to get so many people excited.  Before all this, I never really thought much of the meme, particularly why people screamed about the notion so much with such fervent joy.

But, now we're on this path, it's turning into quite a bit of fun...

Beyond the basic concept that there are pirates and we have ninjas and neither of them get on very well, we also had the issue of whether or not we involve the number of the event in the theme as well.  We tried some calulations ("Eight pieces of gold plus four... points on a shuriken?") but the answer slowly resolved itself into shape after an incidental glance at a clock on the gym wall.  Eventually it became this idea for a mythology, one that we could exploit to parody several iconic works, including other tales about all-powerful potentially destructive golden rings...

So now, we know why this is THE battle of battles between these two old enemies.  There are twelve llamas that, when combined, effectively give their masters control of the elements, of eternity.  And thus, a way for one side to finally bring the other to its end.  But is it that simple?  Thanks to the theme that finally emerged, it may not be...

Meanwhile, at the LAN itself in October, we have another reason to dress up, throw inflatable cannonballs and paper shurikens at eachother across the hall, and decorate the room with inflatable palm trees and dragons!

Planning for the next theme and associated artwork has already started, and meanwhile I have a picture draft provided by my 14 year old sister that she wants me to reimagine.  I will try, but time is never on my side...

Well... originally I posted a smaller full-view version with a link to the detailed view.  This is following tips to avoid image theft.  But, I've allowed a larger res full-view now because there are details being lost when it's only 600px wide.