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 : 

----------------------------------------------

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

-------------------------------------------------------

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

Storenvy

Okay so I haven't been keeping up with my blog as I had hoped I could, but I've been fairly busy. I had opened up for commission (which is closed for now but I'll be opening back up relatively soon), and managed to get a few orders. I still think I'm underselling myself just a bit but, with time I think I'll get the price right.

I've finished a few other pictures, which I'll probably upload individually now that I've remembered my blog exists. I've really been trying to cramp ever minute of the day with painting. I've also kept my promise of giving D worthwhile walks. While I was still working in town I'd often wake up late, and really only able to give D a ten minute walk (if that much) in the morning and a 15 minute one in the evening with tom. Didn't really seem fair to her....ANYWAY

I wanted to mention that I've now opened up a store front at shopenvy.com

You can check it out here : www.cbedford.storenvy.com

I decided to switch over from etsy for a few reasons, and I think it's just more functional. I also like having a bit more control over it's appearance. Now I already have a Society6 account, however using shop envy allows the profits come to me (rather than getting like $2 per sale). I like that I can have all the items on S6, so I think I'll leave that one up as well....

Other than that it literally has been painting like, everyday. I've been trying to keep up with Andro on the weekends, while working on commissions durring the week but even that doesn't seem to follow through sometimes (people asking to see me and Tom over the weekend and what not). I've literally got like, 3 pages left to ink before I can unleash the 21 page update, but time! Even this weekend , just after I have my lunch in a few minutes I'm going to have to go do some cleaning, then go to toms parents house this evening, see his granny tomorrow, then see his parents again Monday evening (it's his mother's and granny's birthday).

However I will post this current commission I'm working on. Preview of it anyway.

A full digital commission from someone who goes by Cuteleesie (who is an absolute sweetheart). I have a bit more done since this last preview but couldn't be bothered to update the livestream preview thing that often. I have been livestreaming a lot (nearly ever day of the week) but I think I should probably cut down. Even though it stops me from reading gaf for like, 2 hours, I end up spending 2 hours chatting with people. Which I love to do, don't get me wrong, but there comes a time and a place.

OH and I have a collab I will be doing with another awesome artist named Sethard. Absolutely amazing and I can't wait. Not one bit. We're doing a sort of SNK Joe, vrs Capcom Guy picture that's a sort of homeage to Leyendecker's Saturday Evening Post paintings....does that make sense?. Check him out because he's just brilliant.

Alright I need to run away. Lunch is ready and all that. And..yeah I'll post those other pictures as soon as I can!

Dusting off the Book Shelf

Okay so I have finished this picture ages and ages ago ( around October last year. Feels like decades almost) and thought I better post it up here. I spent about 4 weeks on that one at the time and I think it's worked out alright! I'm not having so many mixed feelings about it as I typically do with older works, but it really sealed the deal that patience and actual hard work on a piece does really pay off in the end. I'm currently working on another right now, and has been sort of 4 weeks running already. I'm not so sure about this one, if it will have the same kind of completed feel as this one as it's a much softer and more subtle picture. Part of me feels like I've upped my game but another part of me looks at the new work and just... Feel like it's maybe a bit too plain. Part of me wonders though if that's just because I want some "wow" factor in it or not. I always have that feeling of "less is more" and I'm just not so sure that always translates so well with an audience. Especially being that my last picture was all wam-blam with colours popping out of its ears. Anyway! This piece posted here is now available at my society6 shop now!



So check it out!

In other news, now that I have more time for myself once again I'm going to have another go at reading these lovely things :



I keep looking at them and I know I should read them. I've started off with the Divine Comedy, which I already wrote about previously as I started reading it when I received it for my birthday.

Not too much else going on. I bought a screen calibrator this way I can know how my prints are going to come out. The whole thing is pretty convoluted and complicated, but I think I've managed to understand it now. I've got a few other things on the matter I want to read and get familiar with yet. I will actually be writing a little tid bit about what I know and explaining it pretty cut and dry for some others who were asking about it all. Anyway, I'm going to run off. I have a headache the size of...something.

Not sure if I mentioned about Flying Lotus before, but here's a lovely track :

Flying Lotus - Phantasm (ft. Laura Darlington)

Have a lovely one.

Society6 Shop now Open!

SO. I am still alive (somehow) and as I said before I felt the need to revive my blog. And now I have plenty of time to do just that as I've recently quit my job. To cut a long story short, my boss tried to guilt trip me into staying, but I knew what I needed to do. Which was not stay there and try to at least go and full on focus on my art while I still have the chance.

After a week of being out of there I've finished my last commission (that I've taken sometime in the summer of last year) and managed to open my Society6 account. So I've got plenty of goodies up there for grabs so have a look! :

www.society6.com/CBedford

I only just opened it yesterday and have since just added the two products. Though mind you a lot of editing went on to get the other products in order. I wish they had guides for the products because the only way you can tell how it's come out is after you've uploaded the image and squint at the little sample image. Anyway, the things I made!

So I'm fairly happy with the out come. And it was particularly easy with this print as the image is nicely contained.

It's actually a commission for a lovely little lady called Natasza who was so very patient the entire time while waiting for me to finish.

I'd love to actually write more but my head is starting to feel all headachey. I have to go down to Boscanova cafe on tuesday. I had to kind of convince the dude to look at my work as they stopped hanging up local art he said. But he was really cool about it all so. Yeah! Hopefully that goes down well!

Oh and if anyone happens to already have an account with society6 then please, by all means hit the promote button for me please! I'd be so happy if you did. In the mean time, I'm going to go crash. I havn't had a day of sitting around doing nothing since I quit work so. I think I'll go do that now.

OH and Mid-Air! has did this little gem.

Mid-Air! - Sleigh Bells - Run the Heart (the beat in our feet remix)