Hi Everyone! 👋

Whilst these Newsletter updates might seem inconsistent and a bit all over the place most of the time (like me!), I always promise to keep you guys in the loop of what projects I'm working on.

Art > Marketing

I've taken a little step back from social media mostly to focus on actually making my art and on using this newsletter as my rather dated form of social media. I'm still on Instagram, but writing these feels more personal and way less stressful than trying to maintain a presence on a very busy platform.

Anyway, here's some of the stuff I've been working on from the first month or so of 2024:

"The Comic"

You may have seen a few cropped shots of some comic panels i've been sharing on Instagram recently. This is a project I want to focus on this year. It's a comic idea i've had in my head for a while now and although it's in too early a stage to really talk about it in detail, I wanted to share what I can with you because I'm really excited and it's been a lot of fun to work on. I hope you like paladins and cursed swords!

Originally, I had planned to have it as a regularly updated page-by-page webcomic, but even after setting up a website and having a couple of pages all ready to share, I felt a bit uncomfortable every time I hovered over that "publish" button. The idea of suddenly having an expectation- even if it's just my own- was a bit overwhelming.

It's probably not the best idea marketing wise, but working on this comic has been really fulfilling and I'd like to avoid adding unnecessary pressure if I can and just enjoy it. I'm very used to handling deadlines in my job and freelance work, but i'd rather not rush a personal project and have it effect the outcome. So instead, I'm planning on releasing the first chapter of the comic once it's ready. But until then I'll continue to share some progress pics with you all as and when I work on it!

WARRIOR OF LIGHT Painting

I've been a long time fan of the Final Fantasy series and recently discovered the NOCKAT podcast where two friends attempt to play and complete every game in the series. I've been fascinated by the brokenness and difficulty that these guys have experienced playing FFI. Despite the hilarious nature of the podcast, I found the game sets an oddly eerie and dark tone that I don't think the series is known for these days. The characters' personalities are not pre-written like most of the other games which leads a lot to the imagination too. The sprites on the NES are very basic as expected from a game that's older than I am. I wanted to try and bring some of these little adventurers to life in my own style and I've had a lot of fun doing so with the Warrior using Watercolours and Ink.

I love doing fantasy splash illustration and would love to do more work like this so if you're interested in comissioning me for your project, do feel free to reply to this email to discuss options!

3 Favourite things from Jan - Feb

• Final Fantasy XIII

  

  Despite buying this game at the UK launch in 2010, I am still yet to complete it. I've picked it back up recently and it is honestly running gorgeously on my PC. I know this game has a lot of mixed opinions, but i'm having a great time playing it as my "down-time" game. Check it out and feel free to steal these screenshots of mine for your desktop wallpaper!

  

  

• NOKAT Podcast

  

  I know I've already touched on this, but it's honestly great. It Reminds me of when me and my friends were younger and we'd spend all day taking it in turns and watching each other play through games together and the in-jokes that were born from that. It's something I'm trying to do more of with my girlfriend on FFXIII, my best friend on Elden Ring and with my eldest on Half Life 2. I've found single player games played as if they were turn based couch co-ops to be a really underrated experience!

• A Forest worthy of sharing...
  Despite a disappointing start to the month where the holiday for me and my girlfriend's anniversary got cancelled, we spotted this on the drive back home from the heliport. Judge my childish sense of humour all you want, it makes me smirk every time.

  

Hope you've all had a pleasant start to 2024. I'd love to hear what you've been up to whether it's what games you're playing, stuff you're making, pets your petting, etc! So feel free to hit reply :)