Testing...testing

Yippee the Beta testing site is finally ready for the visual dictionary project i've been working on!
Remember I blogged about it a couple of weeks back- here.
Its all been very hush, hush so I wasn't entirely sure until now what it was all about. The site is now up and its actually a game to help people learn a new language. As mentioned it is only the testing site so the full thing has not been released yet. Eventually it will become an app.

The company developing the game have asked me to try out the game & give feedback.  I said i would also share it on here, so if anyone wants to have a play and offer some input then leave a comment (constructive please) and i'll pass it on. This link rebootlanguages.com will take you to the beta site. You'll need a PC to download the various versions of the games - sorry Mac users. Being a Mac bod myself I had to borrow Dave's laptop.

Before I sign off, here are few food related illustrations for the project which i've been working on:

Byeeee

Animal mug shots

When it comes to the colouring in bit for my illustrations I often use predominantly digital techniques. For ages I've wanted to revert to using more traditional media such as paint, ink etc, or at least have this play a bigger part in the image, but I'm sort of out of practice, so i'm setting myself a weekly task which will hopefully help me brush up (no pun intended) my inking abilities.
This little project will also be a regular blog feature.

Once a week i'll create a 5 x 5ins 'bust style' original illustration, of a different animal character and post the result here. My even start taking requests if I can keep this up for long enough.
Right here is the first of many (I hope) complete with his own bio:

Name: Gerald
Age: 14
Favourite colour: Red
Favourite food: Red Mangrove leaves
Favourite quote: The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have. Woody Allen

Once I get into the swing of things a bit more I'll start a weekly giveaway of the mug shot original or print.

The talent for being happy is appreciating and liking what you have, instead of what you don't have.
Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/being_happy.html#x4d4HpGRdTiGYBst.9Once i get into the swing of things a bit more I'll also start a weekly giveaway of the mug shot original or print.

This week I've....

....been sketching.
Around Sept last year I decided to write a story for a children's picture book.
Initially the plan was to write something very rough and unfinished that i could produce a few illustrations for, mainly to bump up my portfolio. I wasn't really planning on spending a lot of time on the story, but it was just to be there for the benefit of the illustrations.
However i got quite into it and ended up producing a finished story which i quite liked.
I'm now working on a book dummy - rough mock up of the book and will follow this with a couple of finished illustrations which I plan to send along with the manuscript to a publisher. Who knows if it will get anywhere, but I figured its worth a go.

So this week i've been sketching for the dummy and here, in no particular order are a few examples -

Hope you like them. I'm looking forward to doing lots more, there will be 28 in total.

Before I say toddle pip must mention that from Tuesday there will be a new feature on the blog which will involve a weekly giveaway. If that didn't grab your attention enough then heres a sneaky peak at a work in progress which will be part of the 1st installment. Stay tuned!

Birthday Folksy Friday

Whoot! Its my birthday and I'll blog if I want to.
Here is a special birthday blog post of a curated selection of lovely things I would like from Folksy. A wish list if you will. Who knows perhaps if I get some birthday money I may even be able to fulfill some of the wishes on the list hehe.
You'll notice a couple of the things on the list are really meant for kids, but hey I'm a big kid at heart.

 

 

Well that's all from me. Looking forward to a birthday night out at Lane 7 - a boutique bowling alley no less. Have great weekend all & see you next week.

Words and pictures

For the last six months or more I have been working on a project for a Canadian company called 'GlobaNova', producing illustrations for an online visual dictionary.

I've been doing around 5 images a week and now in total produced over 270 images. The illustrations they require are all very simplistic and created entirely (from scratch) in Photoshop. This is something before the project I had never done and without the Wacom table & pen it I think the work would have been virtually impossible.
It's been quite a random job in that one week to the next I don't know what i'll be illustrating.
The website for this project is still being developed, but in the not too distant future there will be a Beta testing site up and running, which hopefully I'll be able to share the link to.
In the meantime here are some of the images i've created.

'Peanuts' =

'Wine Glasses'=

'Coconuts' =

 'Helmet' =

 'Lemonade' =

'Sandal' =

'Fish (for food)' =

'Hens' =

'Traffic Light' =

'Park' =

This week I've mostly been illustrating concepts for the word 'under', 'in' and 'closed'. Hmm..I wonder what next week will bring.

p.s. forgot to say Happy new year...yeah ok so its a little late :)