Skyrim Remastered - Excitement Sketch

Is anybody else excited about Skyrim Remastered being release on next-gen consoles?? It's only about the most exciting game-related news I think I'll hear all year, apart from Uncharted 4's successful release that is!

I'm so excited about this news, I have gone ahead and painted a quick Dragonborn sketch in honour, listening to Skyrim music on Spotify the entire time of course...

 

I've been missing Skyrim desperately lately, and having only played the PS3 version in the past, I was seriously considering saving up for a proper 'master race' PC to fulfil my dreams of playing Skyrim properly with all of the mods and the better graphics.

So how delighted was I after hearing about the future release of Skyrim Remastered for PS4! Now I can forget about getting a PC and just get a PS4 instead (which I was planning to get anyway - hello Detroit: Become Human!) Don't you just love when everything just pans out perfectly?

Just look at the teaser trailer, LOOK AT IT! :o



So, come October 28th, I'm getting hold of this baby, and I'm spending at least a couple of months devouring it, heart and soul, in all its hi-res beauty!

If you'd like to read more about Skyrim Remastered this page will fill you in:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-06-17-skyrim-remastered-ps4-xbox-pc-mods-everything-we-know

All the best :D

xLouisax

OMG I've made a wonderful discovery - the classical painter Hans Zatzka, why are you not super duper famous??

"Why on earth isn't this guy really, really famous??"

I came across a wonderful discovery while partaking in a little Art History research recently... The wonderful classical Artist Hans Zatzka! Who? He also went by the name P. Ronsard, and was an academic Austrian artist born in Vienna, 8th March 1859.


Img Src: http://www.fineartlib.info/plugins/p17_image_gallery/images/9/2472.jpg

I think in a split second he became my favourite classical artist of all time! All of his work is so BEAUTIFUL and imaginative and masterfully painted!

The only thing that's been running through my head while I've been devouring his work on google images is: "Why on earth isn't this guy really, really famous??"


Img src: http://www.cdpaintings.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Hans-Zatzka-The-Card-Players.jpg

Why haven't I ever heard of him and why is he never in any classical art books, or in any classical art galleries I've visited? Why did none of my teachers and professors at Art School never tell me anything about him? Did they know who he was? Why is he not as well known as Michelangelo, Da Vinci and the other equally skilled celebrated classical artists?

Apparently, Zatzka dedicated most of his career to painting churches across Austria (which he was highly regarded for) but he was always more widely known for his beautiful paintings of women in mythological settings. He later reproduced most of his paintings as postcards, which are still widely sought after by collectors today!


Img src: http://img12.nnm.ru/0/1/6/1/d/b54d52288e3a5a48881f7add7b3.jpg

I could just look at these all day...

The thing that attracts me the most is his wonderful use of colour, and the light-hearted and happy spirit of each of his paintings. The ladies also are all painted gorgeously and with such beautiful dresses and attire (those who know me well know that is totally my thing!)

If you're interested in seeing more here is a link to a great site displaying a lot of his works:
http://www.artnet.com/artists/hans-zatzka/past-auction-results/2

xLouisax

Exciting Career Progression!

In terms of my career I've been in a bit of a dream-like limbo for the last few months! I was away travelling and exploring the world for most of 2015 (which was amazing! :D), and the plan was to return home and lay low for a few months before moving on to a new full-time job. The idea was to spend a few months doing some personal projects and also to study coding in more depth to satisfy my insatiable thirst for learning, and also to open more career doors in the process - the cherry on the cake!

Where it started to go wrong...

So my idea was to 'fund' this study time with freelancing... but what actually happened was that when my freelancing began to really kick off, it started going SO well that it completely took over my life, to the point where I was working such long hours (and sometimes a 7 day week) that I had no time for personal study, let alone time to refresh and recharge between each working day. To make matters worse, I realised that I wasn't even making a great deal of money from all of this time and effort, partly due to my mistakes (which I've now learnt from) and partly due to me buckling under the pressure of competing with fierce competition (which I now refuse to do - nothing is worth lowering your rates to an unsustainable amount :p).

It's been a tough few months but I've learnt ALOT along the way and I've finally brought everything back down to a manageable level. Everything is finally back in line with my original goal: to spend the majority of my time learning and growing, and 'working for money' as little as possible. I now spend the majority of my working day studying and drawing, and only do bits and bobs of (well-paid) freelance work. I also spend a few hours a week doing bar work which is great because I've found that having two small sources of income has massively reduced the stress of worrying about bills, which in turn makes everything else easier to manage.

Where I am now

I'm so much happier with how everything is going now! I love the fact that I'm back in the family home at the moment, my sister has just moved back for a few months also, so we are all living together as a family (for perhaps the last time in our lives!). We also have a new puppy, Charlie!

Dedicated this time to studying and drawing is the best thing I ever did! I'm learning and growing everyday and all of it is catapulting me towards my dreams! Life is good!

I'll be making an ace personal website and an app with my new found knowledge so watch this space!!

xLouisax

The Maze Runner - my new obsession

"If you're about to have a long plane ride definitely read this trilogy."

Oh my Gosh, I watched the Maze Runner film when it was in cinemas and LOVED it. Since then I've been desperate to read the books to find out what it's all about. I finally started reading the first book about a week ago and since then have completely devoured all three books! I couldn't put them down!




I LOVE these books, and they're definitely a lot better than the films - like usual, the film adaptations leave out quite a lot of cool things in the story and change much of the plot for the worse (especially in the second film, oh God!). Although I do appreciate that sometimes this has to happen in order for a film to work, I do have a little sympathy for James Dashner - I'd love to see this as a long graphic novel series or a TV show or something so audiences could see all the cool little details and plot twists in much greater detail!

Anyway, if you were at all thinking about reading the books, I'd strongly recommend it! They're so exciting and gripping, and have completely re-ignited my imagination - what more could a person want in a book?!

If you're about to have a long plane ride definitely read this trilogy.

Also, I really love the cover designs of the UK versions - ooh shiny!!

xLouisax

Heavy Rain - Game Review *SPOILERS*

"...if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D"

So I finally got round to playing Heavy Rain! After playing Beyond Two Souls last year (which I LOVED) I had to give Heavy Rain a try too!

 
Image Source: http://static.tumblr.com/73xd9qg/xX3lpulq3/heavyrain.png

What a great game! The story completely sucked me in! I started playing after tea time and basically didn't put the controller down until I'd finished.

It's a narrative-driven game based mainly around Ethan Mars (see below) and the relationship he has with his son, Shaun. All of the characters have their own storyline and gameplay which occasionally interweave. Your actions and choices determine the fate of each character.

 
Ethan - Image source: http://www.gamesknit.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/heavy-rain-1260106446.jpg

 
Ethan with his son Shaun - Image 3: http://bulk2.destructoid.com/ul/165034-heavy-rain-proves-ebert-was-right/bb-noscale.jpg

It is pretty cool how much your decisions can affect the storyline - you'll only notice this by partaking in a little plot googling after completing your game.

I loved all of the characters; loved the mood of the game; loved how the game looked, and most of all I loved the way tons of the gameplay is just controlling the character to do every-day mundane things. I love games like that - I don't know what it is, maybe it's something to do with feeling sucked into someone else's life and really living through them in another world? This is why I loved putting make-up on Madison and brushing Ethan's teeth. ^^

 
Ethan brushing his teeth! ^^ - Image 4: http://firsthour.net/screenshots/heavy-rain/heavy-rain-ethan-brush-teeth.jpg

So to summarise, what a great game! If you're into narrative heavy games with a little bit of mystery and thrilling action sequences this is the game for you! Also, if you love nudity it's the game for you - but don't play the part at the club with the volume up around older members of your family... AWKWARD :D

xLouisax


P.S. Now I want to draw the characters so bad @@

P.P.S Also if you want to watch an awesome video about Heavy Rain watch this :)

Merry Christmas everybody!

Merry Christmas everybody! I hope you all have a lovely holiday, and have a very happy new year! Bring on 2016!


P.S. are you kids looking forward to a visit from Father Christmas and all his little helpers? ^^ xxx

Travelling to Japan!

Out of all of the countries I've travelled this year, Japan was the place that stood out the most to me! I visited mostly Tokyo and Kyoto, but also shortly visited Nara and Osaka :)...

... and IT WAS EVERYTHING I'd DREAMED IT TO BE! Everybody there was so nice to me and so respectful and cute! And EVERYTHING was cute: the houses were cute, the trees were cute, the cars are cute, the people are cute, their uniforms were cute... One of my favourite things was that you could be walking down the street (almost anywhere) and in the split second that you recognise that you're thirsty there's a drinks machine no more than a few metres away from you!

And the toilets... oh my... that was a real treat, while backpacking to leave a country with some of the worst toilets in the world, to go to the place with the BEST toilets in the world! :D

Japan is such a nice place to visit in terms of aesthetics - so many beautiful and interesting Shrines and houses and Gardens everywhere! I loved every minute of my time there, and can't wait to visit again someday (and get me more of that delicious noodle soup!!)




My only regret is that I don't follow Anime very much! I was having kittens over all the video game merchandise I found in Akihabara, Tokyo! Imagine if I'd also been finding posters and figurines of my favourite Anime characters! Maybe I'll have to get into Anime properly before I visit again!

Kindle Fire HDX - Autodesk SketchBook - Digital Paint - Review

During my travels, sure I could sketch in a sketchpad, but I didn't want to be completely cut off from painting digitally. So on investing in a Kindle Fire my thought process was that I could kill several birds with one stone -

1) having something to read on,
2) having something that essentially could act as a personal computer,
3) something to Paint and Draw on!

I used an app called 'Autodesk SketchBook', it's free and it's pretty good but you pay a small fee to unlock more advanced features (to replicate a normal digital painting program much better).

However, painting on Kindle is a bit like smudging paint around a canvas with your bare fingers (even when using a stylus). It's Jittery, unresponsive and generally very frustrating to work with. You'll find yourself constantly drawing and erasing areas you didn't intend the paint to cover. You can create nice artwork, but it's a bit like two steps forward one step back the entire time, because the stylus just never is precise and accurate enough.





Nevertheless, I've soldiered on with a few pieces and did come out with some nice artwork, but I feel that drawing these on my normal Macbook with Graphics Tablet would have taken a lot less time (maybe four times quicker).

So my conclusion? Definitely don't rely on digitally painting on your Kindle, it just isn't developed enough to work properly for that. I have heard that this isn't the case with painting digitally on Ipads, so maybe it's worth trying, though I have no experience of that myself so couldn't say for sure.

Overall? 4/10 - I'll be sticking to my beloved Macbook and Intuos Tablet for now :)

All the best,

xLouisax

Travel time!

So I've been a little busy over the past several months going on an adventure around the world! I just got to a point in my life where I was happy with how well I've done with my career. I'd graduated and got a good few years of experience working as an Illustrator and Designer and worked incredibly hard for every day of my life up until this point, so I thought it was definitely a good time to go off and have a gap year which I never had the chance to do before!

And its been great!!

I've ended up in Australia where I'm staying with a friend I met on the road and working part time in a local cafe to help save up for my next portion of backpacking around Oz!

I couldn't possibly share everything I've done while travelling this year because I'd need an entirely separate blog for that, but here's a few photos to give you guys a glimpse of my adventures! This whole experience has been incredibly inspiring and rejuvenating and I'm looking forward to coming back to London to work! 

Thailand


 Vietnam and Laos


Cambodia and Japan! <3 nbsp="" p="">
Peace out,

xLouisax

HAPPY HALLOWEEN - just some casual line-art!

Happy Halloween everybody, hope you all have a great day! This is my this year's Halloween line-art.



And do you guys like my Scary Clown outfit? (I won 1st prize in my office yaaay!) I'm not surprised as I can't even recognise myself in these photos!






And does anybody fancy one of my rotted fingers? (red humous and ham haha)



xLouisax

Hen Party T-shirt design

I recently designed something to go on some Hen Do t-shirts for a friend ^^.



Here they are in action!
xLouisax

Ellie - The Last of Us

Hi guys,

I've been doing a bit of painting today! One of my favourite video-game characters, Ellie from The Last of Us. If you haven't played that game yet, seriously go buy it now it's one of the best games ever made!

Just a little more work and this will be done :)



xLouisax

Beyond Two Souls & Heavy Rain

Just bought these two bad boys and really glad they arrived in time before the bank holiday weekend! I've only had a chance to play a little bit of Beyond Two Souls because I've got a lot of freelancing to do this weekend but so far so good! I've never played anything like it before and I'm really getting sucked into the story and feeling really protective over Ellen Page's character Jodie haha! Can't wait to play more!! *dances*




[EDIT] Omg I loved Beyond Two Souls!! The game’s events aren’t in chronological order which basically really shakes it up and you have to play more and more to be able to piece together Jodie’s amazing life. I found myself really getting sucked into the story and becoming very protective over Jodie and always wanting to make choices and decisions that would make her happy. It’s a great captivating story and actually also has some fast-paced action in it also so really it has something  to offer for everyone. Not to mention the guy in it Ryan is like SOOO HOT!! Omg look at him!



xxx

New iPhone case ;_;

So I recently upgraded my iPhone, meaning it was good-bye old iPhone case, hello new iPhone case :(

 

My last one was a cute little cat that can stand on its own, it just about doesn't fit on my new iPhone 5c, so had to get the next best thing! Oh new iPhone case, you shall now be known as cool pink gameboy case!

 Louisa x

Pirate Crew - Cook

Hiii, here's my latest Pirate crew character! She's the cook! Watch this space for the final image! xLouisax

Pirate Crew - Maid

Here's the Maid from my Pirate Crew series ^^

WIP - Lady

Hi guys, Here's a sneak peak of a WIP I've nearly completed! I love her ;_;
 Yes I still love 18thC dresses and ladies @@

 [EDIT] Here's the completed image! [/EDIT] xLouisax

Bunny Pirate - Crew

I've been drawing a collection of animal pirates, here are the majority of the initial pen lines and basic gradients for the latest character.

It always looks so weird at this stage but that's kinda what makes the process so magical for me. Vector art can take so much longer than a painting and sometimes I regret doing detailed parts in vector, but at least the final result looks amazing and always seems worth the effort in the end.

I love her, :D can't wait to see how she turns out in the end!




[EDIT] 21-5-14



Thumbs and foundation of the background and outer circle. Not long now my sweet! :D

xLouisax

B&W Girl painting

B&W girl painting x

Happy Halloween everybody!!

X