Wales, D&D and Elemental Cheese

Wow, it's been like... a couple of months? How are you doing?
Though I've not made my internet presence felt for a while, I have, at least, been fairly productive :)

I've finally got a game of D&D up and running with Kat, John, Helen, and Lee, and we've had a few sessions now, despite having had a few weeks off because I was away in Wales with Kat (more about that later).  It seems to be going well, I've got a lot to learn about being a good DM though, and I feel I need to engage some of the players a bit more. Lee seems to be getting right into it though, and his character, Rangu, has a tendency for the insane (setting fire to a table full of flasks of volatile liquids in a necromancer's lab and trying to leap 20 feet from a table onto a bookcase to name just a couple of instances)

ANYWAY, onto the productiveness! I've drawn some pictures of the characters in the group which I've used to make minis (laminated and stuck in little card stands) for use in the game. Which I will post pictures of when I actually get round to thinking about taking some.

These first three pictures we done as a colaboration with Lee, who came up with the rough sketches and designs, which I elaborated on:

Rangu, Human Mage

Ellie Halfpenny, Halfling Fighter Paladin

Fallon Nor'hi, Elf Warpriest

and the next one was an excercise in drawing Kat's character on my own:

Harriet Havenborn, Human Thief

She's supposed to be pressed up against a wall, about to look around the corner, but for the sake of clarity I decided against proper backgrounds (the texture was from a tutorial in making battle maps by Jonathan Roberts, which I found at http://www.newbiedm.com/, here)
I want to draw some proper scenes with them all in at some point when I have the time :)

As previously mentioned I also recently spent two weeks in Wales with Kat, which was awesome. Spent a week camping in Llanwchllyn just south of Lake Bala (or Llyn Tegid), which was really nice. Had a ride on a steam narrow gauge railway up the side of the lake, went for walks, had awesome food at a local pub, went on the lake in a deflating dinghy (and Kat swam in it) and rescued a sheep at one point.
The second week we spent in Pembrokeshire, in a cottage in village called Solva, with Kat's family. That was also fun, and the weather pretty much held out all week, so we got to go to the beach a lot. I got tonnes of photos (which I may post on flickr at some point when I get round to sorting them out) and did a couple of small watercolours:

Solva



Traeth Llyfn beach

 I wish I'd had the chance/willing to do more actually. I need the practice!

Also, on monday, I went to London with John and there we me up with Timothy Winchester! He bought us lunch and ice creams and a lovely day was had by all!
Here's a photo of those two stood in front of a giant M&Ms shop that was too scary to go inside

Fan-Art Friday #15: Kirby Sketches

I'm back, with a couple of Kirby sketches I've just doodled up because I really needed to post something!

Fighter Kirby is my favourite :)

In other news: I've become obsessed with D&D 4th Edition (despite not actually playing it properly yet...) and I've discovered I like dice!

Fan-Art Friday #14: Wizard Week!

Toda is a bit of a cheeky Fan-Art Friday because I didn't technically draw this for today, I drew it for Timothy Winchester's Wizard Week!

Embiggen Me!

In other news, Fan-Art Friday may be updated a bit sporadically for a few weeks because I'm working on a comic with my friend John

Fan-Art Friday #13: Samurai Jack

Long ago in a distant land, I, Ben, the shape-shifting master of darkness, spent 3 hours trying to sort out a wireless network bridge to get the comp in the bedroom connected to the internet...

I failed...

Here's a rubbish samurai jack watercolour!

It was a bit of an experiment because I thought I'd try and not pencil any outlines first! I'd done a rough sketch on a scrap of paper, but just went straight in and painted this. It's not turned out great, but I learned a bit from it :)

Fan-Art Friday #12: Ramona Flowers

Another last minute Fan-Art Friday! This week I have been busy doing sketches for a COMIC, that I'm working on with Jobby the Job :)

I wanted to draw a lady today, because I (generally) suck at drawing the fairer sex, especially trying to keep them in my style (which is hard enough to pin down at the best of times). Anyhoo, after a few failed attempts at drawing the lovely Amy Pond (suggested by my even lovlier girlfriend Kat ^_^), I sketched this pic of Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim Vol. 2

Brian Lee O'Malley has excellent skills at drawing characters of both sexes in a consistent, expressive style and (despite being a bit of a latecomer to the whole Scott Pilgrim thing) his books have been a massive influence on me.

Fan-Art Friday #11: Rincewind

Didn't think I'd make it in time today but Hah! Look!

Anyhoo... I'm too tired to write a post right now so I'll do that tomorrow (that's not against the rules!)

G'night!

:update:

It's Saturday Morning (who's gonna play with me?) and I'm feeling much more awake! Also, it's Free Comic Book Day today!

So, yesterday's Fan-Art Friday picture was everyone's favourite failed-wizzard Rincewind. I wasn't sure what to draw this week, but then I saw this posted on Timothy Winchester's blog, and I've been listening to a lot of Discworld radio series on BBC Radio Seven 4extra (cringe...), and so inspiration hit.

I would send this over to Mr. Winchester for Wizard Week, but I've had another idea for what to draw for that!

Fan-Art Friday #10: Totoro!

A bit of a quick sketch this week I'm afraid, as it's been rather busy round these parts recently (despite me being off work more than I've been there the past couple of weeks...)

Right, now I'm off camping in Leyburn for a couple of days! Au revoir!