Week 13 - Being a Slob at Christmas

   Well, the holidays have flown past and now it's not long until I return to Leicester. This christmas has mostly consisted of eating. That's not an exaggeration either, I don't think I've ever consumed so much in such a short amount of time. I don't regret it though, Dad's Christmas dinners are to die for!

   Aside from eating, I've been spending the holiday with my friends and family and, for once, ACTUALLY PLAYING GAMES WHAT?! I've been playing Dragon Age Inquisition the most which, even though I got it when it was released, I'd only played it a little bit what with projects and such. I'm in love with it as well. I thought there would never be a game I'd fall for as much as Skyrim and well, I was wrong. I've been playing Pokemon Alpha Sapphire as well, which has been a lovely bit of nostalgia, because the third generation Pokemon games were always my favourite. 

   As well as eating, being with my family and friends and playing games, I have been drawing quite a bit. I had meant to do more work, finish the little girl from the last project and so on but, to be honest, I've really enjoyed just seeing people, being with my family and having a holiday. It's been great to just do some relaxing studies. Below are a few of my favourites that I've produced recently.

   This was supposed to be Alex Turner from the Arctic Monkeys. I'm not sure I've completely captured his likeness, but I do quite like this drawing. 

   Model reference for all of the studies below was found at http://artists.pixelovely.com/practice-tools/figure-drawing/.

   This is probably one of my favourite studies I have done in a long time, because I really enjoyed mapping out the highlights and shadows. I think that's why I've come to really love using Conte pencils with mid tone paper, because you have even more manoeuvre and control over the tone of the piece and the results are fantastic. 

   I've been taking this opportunity to do studies of my family and mostly my boyfriend as we're just sitting around as well, which is something that him and my friends have got used to me deciding to do from time to time. 

   I received some brilliant presents for Christmas this year as well! Amongst dvds, games and other lovely things, I got two art books! Which is always so exciting! I got The Art of Dragon Age Inquisition and The Art of Frozen, both of which are so gorgeous I could sit looking through for hours and hours. 

   My boyfriend's present to me was perfect; he's bought tickets for us to go to 'Video Games Live' at Birmingham Symphony Hall. It's a Symphony Orchestra and Choir that play scores and the best music from Video games, which I'm so excited to see!

   Speaking of exciting events! I've booked tickets to go to one of the VFX festival days in London in January, which will be really interesting and (hopefully) a chance to network and build contacts. I think it'll be a really good day and I'm really looking forward to it!
   
I've also started to set up an online portfolio on Behance, please take a look!

 >> https://www.behance.net/gacollinsart# <<