rhaidley's Journal

Sekhmet
Sekhmet, one of the less well known of the Egyptian gods. As a war goddess who had to be sedated to end her bloodlust, she makes an obvious pick for Ragnarok.

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Ragnarok
I've been working on a set depecting the gods as wrestlers. I posed the question; what if Ragnarok was a pay-per-view wrestling match to settle the end of the universe ? Which gods would make it through to the final rounds of the contest ? And then I drew 6 possible contenders. Here's the first of them, Loki.

Loki gets through on the strength of his offspring; not least Fenrir, destined to eat the sun.

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New version of website coming
I'm working on a new version of this website. Bear with me please; I'm assembling it offline because I don't want to smother the site with ill-fated "under construction" signs !

Exhibition
I currently have an exhibition of my paintings at the Brewhouse arts centre, Burton-on-Trent.

The paintings can be seen at any time, but I will be hosting a mid-run open evening on tuesday the 5th May, at 7.30pm. Drop me a line for details !

Painting: Doorways
This is the first in a series of paintings exploring the theme of doorways, taken as metaphors. The Door as a portal that can be seen through and moved though, chosen or left shut.

This first is the past and the future;

Acrylic on Canvas
Mixed media editions
800mm x 400mm

Of the two principle characters, the leftmost is carrying a diary, sand-timer and baggage. He looks backward into the past. The second character looks into the future, and carries a compass pair as a symbol of the cartographer.

A third character has already made his or her choice, and disappeared into the future. They have literaly turned the corner of the painting

Taking the place of the sun, a large clock-face illuminates the dreamscape that they pass through. The pieces falling from the clock represent that time has no absolute hold on us, and that it is a subjective experience more than a mechanical one.

Childrens book

Here's a page from the ( as yet untitled ) Children's book that I'm working on. It's taken an extremely long time to settle on a style - or even a story - but I figure it's worth it !

Produced in mixed traditional and digital media.

Desk Top Publishing

This weekend I had the opportunity to run a workshop in Louth, as part of their storytelling festival. It's a good age to have desk top publishing; I was able to run off the leaflets shown above full of info on drawing comics and websites.

I really enjoyed the workshop, not something I've done before. There were 13 kids between the ages of 11 and 16, and they produced this .

First they created the script using story-telling cards, then they split into groups to take a section of the story each and edit it down to a managable size. Then they organised themselves to layout and draw the story.

I'm hoping it was a rewarding experience; I get my copies of their feedback forms tomorow ;)

Childrens Books

A welcome return to my characters from last year, Tommy and Mr Moo Mar.

This is of course another style test ! Very much the same approach as with the solid-inked comic book material ( of which you can see plenty on my site ) but without the reliance on either solid blacks or outlines. I'm very pleased now; we'll see how I feel in a few days time, as that always gives me a bit more perspective on things.

Hmmm. Tommy's foot looks a bit bent outa shape :/

Further Digital Painting tests

Almost digital - still based on an underlying pencil drawing. I wanted to see what an image would look like without those heavy 'comic-book' blacks that I normaly use.

Results ? The contrast could do with a little tweaking, I think, and some of the edges need a bit tightening up. But overall I think the image still holds itself together nicely. I look foward to the day that inking becomes an unnescascary thing-of-the-past.

T Shirts

Recently I've been doing T-Shirt designs for several folks; most particularly though, for Wild Dawg Gear ( http://www.wilddawggear.com ). This is a series featuring their mascot dog engaging in a range of action sports and vehicular activities; in this case, as part of a Biker clan. Needless to say, I'm enjoying these.

I'm not normaly big on using photshop effects, but in this case I figured I'd make an exception for bevel. Sometimes, it's just what you need.

Elf Girls are Easy
... to draw and colour, that is !

I've been wanting to put a video tutorial toegher for some time now, as an experiment. So here it is; my colouring tutorial. It's about quarter of an hour long. Thanks to Kim n Dave for putting me on to Camtasia.

http://www.rhaidley.com/tutorials/coloring%20tutorial/coloring%20tutorial.html

It's certainly been a learning process !
I probably won't repeat it solo, although I'd be willing to do it again with a collaborator. Main points ...
* It takes longer than you think to write a 15 minute script.
* Camtasia is buggy, and rather limited compared to any of the editing software I'm used to. But the screen capture works well. There were some technical problems that I wasn't able to work around.
* Most of my effort was consumed editting, rather than illustrating or teaching/talking. It's not a good use of my time.
* Apparently, that's what I sound like !

... in summary then, I figure any future tutorials are going to be written and illustrated, but not filmed !

More Caricatures
No, really !

I've been embroiled in some kind of frenzy of finding freelance work, now I've got some steady stuff I can sit back and take stock a bit. And I figure there's two things I really want to work on; first, the quality of these caricatures, 'cos I reckon I can get really good, and second, there's an empty space in my hand that's itching to hold a paintbrush.

Did I say two things ? I'm also playing with the idea of recording short tutorials on some of my image making, particularly on computer colouring. It seems like a good idea to get some traffic through my site. At a very minimum I need to get my grubby, paint-spattered little mits on a Videocam and some editing software.

Caricature

Next !
I haven't posted here in a while, but there's a lot going on behind the scenes. I'm working on a series of pitches for a range of short term illustration jobs, the most exciting of which is a possible deal with a children's book publisher.

I'm also revamping my website , as it was simply embarrasing. It's not a good thing when you realise you're sending off job applications and deliberately leaving out your website details as a liability. I've got most of the tech now operating the way I want it, now I need to get up some more recent content.

Caricature

And this one ...

Caricature

I've been umming and arring a bit about whether to put this stuff up, because it hasn't exactly been going according to plan. But I figure it's important to get work in progress up here, as well as finished stuff !

This week and last ( as well as working on the long-waiting Richard Nelson's sci fi comic ) I've been concentrating on caricature; for me, possibly the hardest art in art ! For the full face version, I think the balance between sketch and finish is out of whack.

More tomorow. Wait and see if I get any better at it ;)

Last but not least, I've got a list of 130 magazines who require editorial images and I'm mailshotting them. I'm going to burn out my printer !

Yet More Kafka

Still on the theme of Gregor's dehumanisation within the system, with Gregor so part of the machine that he has cogs beneath his skin. He looks up with a mixture of desperation and hope, because he still hasn't accepted what has happened to him.

Paintings Online

The bulk of my paintings from the last couple of years are now online, and can be viewed here;

http://www.rhaidley.com/paintings/

It's alive !

I've been neglecting my journal while I work freneticaly on everything else; A Children's book, A set of editorial illustrations, Illustrations for Kafka ( some of which I've posted ), Sci fi comic strip the Sivid Menace, painterly illustrations for writer Eight Rooks ...

and this !

I'm doing the illustrations for Jackson Pope's board game It's alive!

With so much course-work on, it's good to be working on something for publication.

Kafka

So this is Kafka again ! It is an interpretation of metamorphosis, in which Gergor's transmutation into an insect is instead represented by his facelessness. I want it to contrast gregor's fate with that of his sister, who metaphoricaly becomes a butterfly. At the end of the day, both have been reduced to insects whose perceived value - or otherwise - have little to do with their inherent nature.

The butterfly photgraph is used with the kind permission of Gene Hanson, a keen photographer whose galleries of insects and landscapes are well worth a look.

Finaly, for those with an interest in the construction of these digital images, you can see the layers in this psd. Warning though, it weighs in at about 6mb ( the full resolution version is about 100, so you'll understand why it's not up ! )

Fight the power !

Illustrations for Kafka's Metamorphosis - here the 3 lodgers watch on judgementaly as the family struggle to adjust to life in Gregor's functional absence. This is a broadly interpreted book, but I want to explore the angle that it is about Gregor's dehumanisation at the hands of capitalism; hence the IMF and CBI slogans scrawled on the wall behind the lodgers.

The Lodgers are often interpreted as representing the Trinity; I'm not convinced myself, given Kafka's Jewish roots. But I do like the image of them as stern patriarchs.

Keen eyed readers will note that the rendering style stems directly from the science fiction experiment a couple of weeks ago.

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