Christmas Is Coming

So I managed to get a preview done of how I will do the Christmas commissions. I'm hoping they go down well but I will admit I'm a bit worried. I always am when I open for commissions. I always get the feeling that they won't go down so well or that people will tire of me. But this is my only source of income now so I really need to push....or perhaps I need to learn how to pull. 

Here's a copy/paste of the info on how the commissions work : 

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I have decided to do Christmas themed commissions this year as well , using the 12 Days of Christmas!

How it Works:

You give me the character you would like drawn, and I will put them in one of the scenarios of the 12 days (eg as a maid o’ milkin, or you know, drummer boy).

As you can see here, Andro is appreciating a lovely partridge given to him whilst standing next to a pear tree.

There are only 11 slots available.

Each commission comes with a printable 5.5 square inch PSD file, so that you may make cards and send them on their merry way.

They should all be finished before Christmas.

Wouldn’t it be lovely to send your best buddy a card with -their- favourite character on it? You bet your ass it would.

How to contact Me:

You can either on tumblr, note me on dA , or email me at c.bedfordart@gmail.com. I reply to every message, so if for whatever reason I do not respond in 24 hours, please use one of the other methods to contact me.

Oh man, I just need to say, Happy Thanksgiving to all you out there across the great pond. And get ready for Christmas.

Have some glamorous Christmas shopping music : 

Soil&’PIMP’ Sessions - My Foolish Heart

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I sometimes think perhaps I try to put too many ribbons and bows aroung my presentation but I really enjoy dressing things up. I think maybe I could get better, and be less over the top, but that's something that comes with practice.

Anyway I hope someone buys one! Time for some sleep.....

Pressure

Another speed paint commission from a dear good friend I call Panda. This is her character Salcate, and he's a type of god thing that is fire and destruction personified.  He's normally supposed to have tattoo's (which you can see a version of this with them on my tumblr), but I have this thing about skin. I just like painting it bare I guess.  I think I just prefer things very simple these days.

Working on my preview for my Christmas themed commissions. Doing the 12 days of Christmas (not sure if I mentioned already). I'm not sure if I'll get all 12 slots filled up, but hopefully someone will want them right? Only one way to find out! I'll post about them up here as well I suppose when I get everything all sorted out.

I've been trying to focus on getting tasks completed, but it's always easier said than done. I guess it's because I'm still having this mentality of "I'm almost at the end! I'll be finished soon!", and in reality I need to have a steady stream of work coming in. So I shouldn't be seeing an end to it, or a "I'll be finished soon!".

I think it's the timing. I need to have better estimates and accuracy with when my work will be done. I need to actually focus on my tasks at hand, and not taking twice as long because I keep distracting myself with other things.

On that note, I'll go do those other things that need doing.

OH!! and I should also add that you can buy prints of this at my storenvery :

cbedford.storenvy.com!

Rising

As I said before I'm going to try and post more often. Not that I want to post everyday or anything. But I figured if I post today, I hopefully won't leave it for another 5 bajillion years. I love the word bajillion by the way. Though Chrome is trying to correct it to "bazillion" but I prefer bajillion.

I started this painting a few weeks back, but I thought I'd just touch it up and finish it otherwise It'll never be done and just sit on my hard drive forever and eventually be too ugly for me to release it into the light of day.

I played Metal Gear Rising : Revengence not too long ago. It was amazing. I played through the entire story once over in 12 hours, no breaks, save for dinner. I will admit that what kept me hooked was the constant screen time Raiden's precious booty had, but at the same time it was just generally fun to play. I really enjoyed the character designs (particularly Raiden's heels). The story it self was fairly engaging, and though I haven't played the other Metal Gears yet, I didn't at all feel lost , so it's incredibly friendly in it's approach to new people within the franchise. I think this is probably due to the fact that this is Raiden's own separate story which has little connection -I believe- with the rest of Metal Gear. It wasn't shy of small bits of humour, and some of the dialogue injected some real world events which I suppose surprised me, but I hear this has always been the case for the MG series.

I don't get hooked on many games, but this is certainly one of the ones that I have. This may because of it's striking similarities to Bayonetta (Platinum Studio helped with the end polishing of the game and mechanics) in both style and game play. A bit flash and over the top, while somehow getting booties on the screen.

My personal favourite aspect to the game is that Raiden is simultaneously the protagonist while being cast in a fairly sexual light. In fact, he's one of the very -very- few male characters in the gaming world that have an overt sexual appeal, and was created especially for that apparently because of some fan mail the creator Kojima received from a young lady, saying they didn't want to play as an old man. Thank you, Kojima....

...Hm. Other than that...not much else. I need to bake my pumpkin pie. And I keep saying this but never do it.

Back to work though, have lots of commissions and shit to catch up on.

And Ye Heart Wanders

Okay so it's been quite a long time since I've last uploaded here, but I've really been trying to bust my ass with my art...career...thing. I'm not sure if I can call it a career just yet, as I'm still a baby in the nest.

I mostly post on my Tumblr these days, but I don't really write about life or anything up there, so it's just really another way for me to share art and sketches and things. Part of me feels like having a blog, website and tumblr,da,ca,whateverother art things is a bit redundant, but then I also remember some people prefer keeping tabs in different ways.

This cheese I'm having for lunch seems rather strong....

Things are generally going good though! I am getting a much more regular stream of commissions and seem to be slimming down my turn around time (key word slim). Over all I feel I've learned a great deal within this year and if I keep doing the things responsible adults do, I should be doing even better the next.

I still need to spend more time trying to push my art out in front of faces in the real world, but something about having to explain myself and my work still seems difficult. For whatever reason I feel people won't take me very seriously, particularly because of the content of my work. Or maybe because I'm not taking myself more seriously? I can't be sure. Need to reflect on that more.

There's not much else I can say. If I tried catching up on what happened between my last post and now I think I'd be here for hours. Probably better to read my tumblr for what's happened since then.

I always try to remind myself that keeping a personal blog is semi important as I'm allowed to talk to myself without having to put it out in front of people who are otherwise uninterested...

Oh and I have started baking more often. Trying to. I want to start cooking things properly, I think there's something to be had in the preparation of one's food. It's such an essential part of our lives, and I think more time should be made to appreciate what we put into our bodies....

I'll return again with more work, and try to update more regularly. The top image was a speed paint I've done with a more recent friend I've met online.

Anywho. I'm off , and I'll -try- to be back.

And a track, as always :

Mid-Air! - Midnight Sun