New art, new projects ... fantasy, dragons, guy-candy, websites...

I know I keep saying, "Well, I'm back, to quote Sam," and then vanishing again. Life is like that. You name it, it's happened in the last few months -- doesn't mean I haven't been painting, rendering, doing all kinds of work --

So, what have I been up to in the last couple of months? It's been busy, and a lot of art has been produced, but it's mostly been more commercial in nature ... less experimentation...

...in fact, I would dearly love to get back into CG work. DAZ, Iray, Terragen, Bryce, whatever. I can't believe it's been close to two years since I regularly did that stuff!

What slows me down (read: brings me to a complete, dead stop) is the price of new props. Those 3D toys that put the zest into the work. They've become waaaay more expensive at the same time as the cost of living has blown out to kingdom come, and my income stream(s) have dwindled away. So, for me it's digital painting, plus the fun of using AI to generate elements for re-re-re-composition. In terms of creativity, I've been "all over the shop," up to and including children's illustration...

...but one of the things I've enjoyed most is going back into older work and matting it, reworking it, turning something old into something new:

...but the major job I've completed recently is a website for the Sherlock Holmes novelist, Dr. Mike Adamson. This was a challenge, because to complete it, I had to illustrate it -- that was part of the deal, and it meant creating over 100 pieces of fresh art in just a few days. Impossible? Mmm, it would have been, in the days before you can source the elements from AI before the work/fun of painting and compositing begins. Suffice to say ... I managed it. Here's a few of my favourite plates, in their original form, prior to painting:

Well, the website was done on time, and ... wow. Not only was it a fabulous experience producing this, but the finished result made me soooo envious, I had to tackle one of my own! Mine, of course, is based more around art and photography than writing, so it's fraught with practical issues that Dr Mike's more text-driven site was not. 

Here is the first site, all done:

...and here's a sneak preview of mine, which is still under construction...

And mine is going to take some seriously hard work to complete, because it'll have something like 500 images, all of which need to be "called" from thumbnails, lest the pages be a 70MB download each. Even given today's speeds, this is impractical. Even a slightly sluggish connection would make for a horrible download experience. But -- when the site is done and uploaded, it will replace the old galley. So, if there is anything you want to grab off that ancient gallery, get it while you can, because when it's gone, it's gone. 

Now, on top of all that ... pile on a nasty case of Covid. I'm currently coughing up both lungs and seriously considering lying down at two in the afternoon. In fact, I believe I will --!