When I created the site, I just wanted to keep it super simple. No bullshit. Plus, I wanted to make it easy for me to adjust for mobile. I’m slowly tweaking this WordPress theme to fit with what I’ve done for my portfolio.

Don’t think I’ll merge the sites, instead I’ll keep them separate and try to make it clear what each site is for: co.uk = blog and .com = portfolio. Got it? Good.

Update: Totally changed my mind. Going to merge them.

The Last Trophy

The Last Trophy project really needs a proper update of its own, so that’ll follow shortly. We finished the first term with a reasonable amount to support us in the New Year, though having a dissertation to do over Christmas isn’t ideal. I’m hoping to have a first draft done before going back to the studio.

Just before finishing the term, we had a full (but un-tuned) block-through animation completed. On the last day, I began learning how to unwrap UVs and create textures, since there is going to be a considerable amount of texturing to be done. Simon has pointed me in the right direction for good tutorials and such, so I can learn a bit more before returning on the 10th.

PC Gaming and a New Computer

My Christmas has mostly been spent getting giddy about FINALLY building a gnarly computer. My good friends have been helping me get into the fantastic world of PC gaming, which my poor old Dell has never been able to satisfy the requirements for. I’ve been rubbing myself all over Steam this Christmas, buying games I can’t even play yet. The holiday sales are just too good.

Of course it isn’t just for the gaming. I think it makes a lot of sense to learn as much as you can about the tools you use – and get as much out of them as possible.  Most will be aware of how much I love discovering efficient software and cloud applications. That stuff gets me wet. Hardware though, it has just been a big mystery, which I left well alone. Well, not any more. I want to build stuff.

Drawing

Drawing was almost non-existent last term, except for the Dr. Sketchy’s events. Myself and Simon Acty made a deal to do 6 hours of personal drawing a week. I managed to do a week and a half leading up to Christmas, but it got a bit much the last week or so. Probably best saved for the New Year. If we can keep it going for a couple of months, throughout the year, I’ll be impressed.

2011 and beyond

This is going to be a pretty mega year. Probably the most mega in my life so far. I’ll be finishing my Honour’s Degree, my last year of prescribed education. After that, I’ll almost definitely need to get a driving license, because I can’t hack a train and bus combo to/from work each day. With no homework being set, I’ll be  able to concentrate on building up my portfolio, ready to flash at interviews.

Let it commence!

If you happen to be down and around the Cornwall area and want a bit more spice added to your life drawing sessions (and perhaps even a little alcohol),  you may be interested in checking out the upcoming Dr Sketchy’s Falmouth, which will be taking place at Mango Tango’s, Church Street, Falmouth between 19:00 – 22:00, on Tuesday, 29 June 2010. It will be the opening night of what is being set to be a monthly event. Tickets are going to be £5 each, sold at the door (you must be 18+). Big thanks to Leah for the heads up.

In case you haven’t heard, Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School takes away the silence of regular life drawing classes, replaces the model with burlesque performers and lets you hold a drink in your hand. They hold crazy art contests within each session, with prizes for the winners.

“Dr. Sketchy’s will cure you of every boring art class you’ve ever been to.”
- The Sunday Age, Melbourne

If you are planning to attend the opening night, or are perhaps intrigued enough to attend future nights, be sure to hit these guys up on Facebook. Links are below.

June 29th Opening Night Event

Dr. Sketchy’s Falmouth Page

[UPDATE] – Dr. Sketchy’s Falmouth now has an official website.

To find out more, check out the regularly updated  Dr. Sketchy Blog, or click on the images below to check out a selection of previous NY sessions.

Cherry Shakewell is one of the performers lined up for the opening night session.

http://www.myspace.com/cherrishakewell

So remember guys and girls, Tuesday June 29th.

I got a few things over Christmas which will hopefully help kick start the year. I got a lovely new scanner and mechanical pencil. Also, a personal present from me, to me: an electric eraser. My girlfriend also got me some nice frames to hang up some inspiration on my empty walls. Finally I can put up my Dan Mumford screen print and Wesley’s Ice Cream Man.

Not such a ‘Big Christmas Draw’ this year, though I did get a very important drawing done. A few years ago I was asked by a family friend’s son to draw Spiderman, while we were on holiday. I said ‘yeah sure, I’ll draw one as soon as I get home’. It kept getting put off and I was getting a bit worried about what they would expect after such a length of time.  Just before Christmas, I spent the best part of a day doing a few poses for him on an A3 sheet.

Below are some of the other sketches I did over Christmas.

Well I haven’t posted for over a month. With good reason; I’ve been very busy. A lot has been going on during the last couple of months, mainly in the form of work and trying to make use of the spare time around that. With it being my blog’s Birthday and all, I thought I’d let you know what I’ve been doing.

Over the last few weeks I have been re-building my portfolio site (under the domain www.royzy.com). The simple re-design is well over-due; and although it doesn’t deserve any awards, it will allow me to bring that domain back out of the shadows.

The re-build should be up within the next week or so, depending on how much time I get to spend on it. You can expect to find a post all about it on here, which will follow shortly after it goes up. Although I had originally planned to draw all summer, I decided that it would be better spent learning about the web. I won’t have so much time to spend learning web techniques once I return to university, so it made more sense to me.

Adding to the excitement, we have also just got our second and newest, highly-anticipated automatic t shirt printing carousel up and practically running. We have been waiting for this machine for some time now. It is finally, after some sketchy transportation, in our hands. We can finally put multi-colour jobs with tight registration onto our automatic.

It has been a great summer at work, even with the obstacles that have been testing us over the last month or so. I’ve been promoted twice (in my mind); getting to print most of the auto carousel t shirt print runs over the summer, and most recently have been filling in as temporary designer. Which means I’m now included in the tea club (major bonus).

After the tragic news that my Reading Festival ticket did not really exist, I had one thing left to look forward to and that was Ripcurl Boardmasters. Overall I was not that impressed with the line-up for Unleashed this year, but there was 3 bands on the Saturday bill which I was very keen to see. Headlining were Gallows; with Ghost of a Thousand and Johnny Truant lined up to play before them, so I was prepared for an action packed evening. I was not prepared for the weather mind.

As we approached the festival the rain was pretty bad, but nothing compared to when we arrived just after lunch. Until about 6pm we stood mainly in the Jägermeister bar, hiding from the rain and speaking briefly to one of the guys from Johnny Truant until he ran away. The day was boring. It was tedious. We almost went home. It was only after the No Half Measures stage (sorry, but the only band worth mentioning on the main stage was Cage the Elephant, but they canceled anyway) had its structural problems sorted out, putting the festival 2 hours behind schedule, that things began to look positive.

The last 4 hours of the event made it all worth waiting for, because the sets which were played were immense. You could tell a lot of people had been waiting for Johnny Truant to come on, because when they started to play, the crowd finally kicked off. And that is when it began. I think initially the lead singer was pretty angry when the first handful of wet mud exploded against his clean white vest, but after a while he began to encourage it. The combination of hardcore metal/punk and mud slinging really gets a crowd riled up. Especially when they have waited all day for it. The ground was so sloppy by now that your feet actually disappeared under the mud.

Ghost of a Thousand I think owned the evening, with a really intense set. I think even though a lot people may not of known of them before hand, they generated a huge amount of energy. People were by now covered from head to toe in mud, due to either throwing each other into the ground or just getting it rubbed into their faces. When the Gallows came on, Frank Carter played the set in just boxer shorts to express his gratitude to the fans for sticking around for so long in the appalling weather. Unfortunately, due to an injury he sustained when slipping on mud, he had to cut the set short at 6 songs and was taken to A & E. To cap off the night, the still rowdy crowd pummeled the poor chaps taking the instruments off the stage with mud. What a bloody good night.

Below is the Official video for Ghost of a Thousand’s single Black Art Number 1.

Oh yeah, and I threw the socks and my favourite pair of shoes straight in the bin when I got home, they were beyond scraping. I struggled enough getting it out of my hair.

Now bring on Reading Fest! …2009.

Royzy (is half asleep and apologizes for his poor structuring of this post)