I don’t use this blog very much, and I probably ought to, Livejournal isn’t the community it once was, where this community seems to be ticking over quite nicely if one can dodge the flying shit and know to shelter when it hits the fan.

Anyway, I have something of an announcement to make. Well, I say announcement, it’s nothing so grand really; I just have something to say.

I wasn’t too pleased with the last batch of things that I put up in my gallery. I mean, technically they were fine, the linework was up to standard and the people who bought them in whichever auction they ended up in don’t have an inferior drawing, but I wasn’t satisfied with the thought behind them, they felt a bit rushed on the development side and they didn’t satisfy the indulgent artist in me.

I like to spend a few days thinking about my work before I put pen to paper, do a few sketches and just have some time to process the imagery and get the cerebral stuff in place. I find I’m happier with the result and I have a chance to work some interesting ideas and symbols that go beyond the initial idea. I suppose the last lot of artwork felt like it was made on a production line and the ideas were a bit superficial, with only one or two having any significant amount of time lavished on them.

I know that this is the reality of professional illustration, but I’m not a professional illustrator. I do this for fun, and I stopped enjoying the process while I was producing drawings for the RBW art show.

This is partly why I’ve not uploaded anything for months, I’ve not wanted to draw or paint for pleasure.

This is all changing now. I have a couple of commissions in the works, one of which has been running for months, I mean you could grow a baby in the time this thing has been gestating. The commissioner knows who he is, and I cannot express how grateful I am for his patience, as I’ve had the chance to do the process in my head properly. Needless to say, it’s looking good.

This leads me to my little thing to say.

I will be finishing off the current commissions I have on my books (both of them), after which I have decided that I will only do things I enjoy. This doesn’t mean I will stop taking commissions or stop producing work for Art Shows, but I will be more selective with the commissions I take and I will be producing fewer, better pieces for conventions.

I need to enjoy what I’m doing, which means slowing the process down and having capacity to experiment a bit, play with materials and techniques and not worry too much about the result. Much as I love fine pens and crosshatching, I want to roll in paint and throw myself at a canvas, just to see what happens, figuratively speaking.

Hopefully this will mean I will be posting more on here as I will be producing work for me and not to a deadline for a particular audience, which will be nice.

That’s all, nothing earth-shattering, and in all honesty you probably won’t notice any difference, but it feels good to get this in writing.

The next con’ I’m doing will be Confuzzled, and I hope to have a couple of pieces for that auction, I'm not sure what they’ll be or what they will look like, but I can’t wait to find out!

Peace.

~Theo