Lloyd and the Bear

I had taken a stab at this post a few days ago but it came off a bit whiney so I’m doing a redo.

Okay, so the art package that I use sadly stopped working last weekend and although I was annoyed at first as I had work to do I seem to have gone through a bit of a journey.

So I use Paintshop Pro 7.04 and yes it’s old but it does what I need and that’s great but for some reason since the weekend I found some of the features that I use would make it close. I mean, it would freeze for a bit but then close. Floomp. I tried to run a repair, fix permissions and even reinstall (and on another PC as well to compare it) but it was not to be.

And I felt sad because I LOVED this package and have been using it for an absolute age. But I realised that it was time to move on and trial the latest version of Paintshop and get my head around the new features but more importantly get the basics back that I know and love from 7.04. And this took a few days, which meant a few days of not doing any artwork. And that felt horrible.

Here’s the thing, whenever anyone compliments my work I don’t quite get it. In part it’s because I don’t take compliments well (and there’s a bit of old school Britishness stiff upper lip mixed in to that) but I also think that it’s not a big deal. Like, I’ve been drawing for as long as I remember so it’s just a part of my life. Like breathing or talking to yourself when there’s no one else around (we all do that, yeah?)

So here I was not only being unable to do any artwork but also not sure if I’d be able to carry on with my LatB project as I had been (with the style I use) and it really got me down.

BUT I got on with it and I’m currently getting my head around the new art package. There’s lots of cool things in there to discover but for now I’m getting to do the things I need to do. The more important thing though is that I’ve realised my self-worth from my time away from doing art and that I should appreciate what I can do.

It’s a thing, and it’s cool, and I’m all newly proud of that!

Is there a moral to this story?

Keep working hard? Appreciate what you do? Don’t admit that you talk to yourself?

I don’t know, but I’m oddly happy with how things worked out! I mean, I have to now go and pay for said art package but hey, I’m feeling better about myself so that’s cool.

This week has been a bit poo and I really just wanted to share my story so I hope that’s okay.

More soon!

Bear hugs!

So I’m still dragging my feet with my new project and not even done anything with it. I don’t know, I’m scared to even start and at this point I’m only doing character sketches to ensure that I’m happy with everyones look! But yeah, it’s freaking me out!

But hey, artist got to art so I’ve been working on updating the cover to issue #14!

Below we’ve got the original, updated and the UPDATED updated cover (which isn’t quite finished!)

So looking back at the original cover Rizos didn’t even look like she did IN the book(!). I made some changes and corrected things here and there but it still didn’t sit well with me. I mean, I get she’s talking to the reader but the cover is lacking any kind of action and looks stiff as!

The new cover has Rizos in an action pose although I’m totally going to have to redo what she says as she’s taking up so much more space – I have some ideas but it’s certainly a work in progress.

The background will be full of knocked out aliens again but this time totally matching characters from within the book and because of that I want to hold off until I’ve finished colouring the book so I can place the right character in the right spot which will then keep all the colour choices I use balanced. I’m not wanting a massive section of just blue aliens for example which will totally skew your view of the page! It’s bordering on some kind of big mathematical question but I’m sure it’ll be fun putting it all together!

More soon! Bear hugs!