Afternoon creativity

Rather than play videogames, which I have nothing against, I decided to try something a little more artistic this afternoon. Afterall, I love purchasing drawing books and drawing equipment. I thought I would put some of my gifts to good use. My wife bought me these Letraset pro-marker pens and I have used them a few times but not to any great purpose. This time I thought I would put things to use. I bought a codex book a while back now on the Warhammer Space Marines and I haven't really used it, so I thought I would select one of the  images from it that I thought I could draw. There are lots of great images in the book.

Here is the progression of my drawing to the finished piece. After drawing the image and inking it in, I made a black and white scan of it and coloured that in.

About to start, getting my music ready

Main character outline done

Main inking done

These are the main colours I will use

Starting to add colour

Main character colouring complete now

Added some background colour

Cat play

The latest addition to the house is another gadget supposedly good for stimulating the cats. In our case, it is another piece of equipment that will remain dormant on the floor, like the play tunnel and the archway grooming brush. They are just not interested. I don't know why we bother. Yet when we try to make the bed, they are all over it.

London MCM Comic Con

On Saturday of this fine Bank Holiday weekend I took my son and one of his friends (a girl, indeed) to the MCM London Comic-Con. I had bought us general entry tickets this time, rather than the Priority Tickets and to be perfectly honest, I was fine with it all because we didn't have to queue to get in. Admittedly, it was really busy by the time we got in at around 12 but in fairness the priority entry doesn't afford that much luxury as the halls soon fill up anyway. This time though, I only shot one photograph, which still amazes me.
Here is the shot I took, I took it only because my son likes pixel art and I thought he might like to see the art made from these little plastic beads, which reminded me of pixel art.

Eurovision 2016

This weekend it is another year on for the Eurovision Song Contest. This year's host is Sweden. I usually instantly forget what the winning song was from the previous year and this is no exception. I haven't heard what the entry is from Great Britain but I bet it will be utter crap as usual.
That won't stop me from supporting it though. I do expect nil points and anything better than that will be regarded as a bonus!

BHS (British Home Stores)

I was sad to hear that the high street store chain BHS were in administration. As a chain it hasn't done as well as others and I have wondered how come they have lasted so long when other long standing chains have collapsed. The truth is that they not done so well really, which is why they are now looking for buyers. With the pension problems as well, it is the staff who I feel sorry for.
I have bought clothes from the store, the clothes seem reasonably priced and pretty good quality, they do seem a little out of step with modern trends though. I think the chain needs a brand overhaul. Similar to what M&S went through.

EU Referendum

The important date is Thursday 23rd June 2016. This is the date that the people of the UK get to decide their fate in Europe. We get to choose whether we want to stay in the European Union or to leave it and go our way as a country.
Everyone seems to want a say in this, including president Barack Obama. I respect Barack Obama. He made a stir in the UK by suggesting that if the UK did leave the EU, it would mean a step backwards in terms of trade affairs - he made use of the unfortunate phrase "back of the queue", which seems to have stirred up some feelings.
Personally, I don't side with David Cameron on many things but on the subject of Europe, I think the arguments for staying within the EU are sound. I'm not arguing we can't do everything we do now, in many ways we will continue to be able to do them and it might help in some areas if we did leave the EU. But I believe we have to look at the long game. We also have to consider our security and how we protect our country by the sharing of intelligence information across borders with other national security agencies.
There is still time to read more and consider the arguments from all sides. I shall be doing this and urge everyone whether undecided or not to do this.

Nelly the elephant. Trump trump trump

Well, it looks like Donald Trump is going to be the Republican candidate in the running for the White House and presidency of the US of A. Although if he does, win I doubt he will bring much unity to America. He seems to divide opinion wherever he goes and whenever he opens his mouth.
I have to say, after reading various articles about the man that he seems to be thoroughly unlikeable human being. In that context and in as much as it matters to me personally, I hope he does not beat Hilary Clinton to become the next president. The thought of someone apparently so vindictive and small minded with that amount of power worries me greatly.

Fine weather with Hay Faver

The last couple of weeks have seen temperatures rise where I live. This weekend, it has actually been dry enough and warm enough to sit outside. I have actually been able to get out my bistro table and chairs. I am sitting outside and working on this blog post even now, just wearing my shorts and T shirt. The temperature is into the twenties, I think however that next weekend will be a different matter.
As the weather has been getting better I have unfortunately been suffering. I thought at first it was a cold but my eyes have been so irritated that I know now it is Hay Fever. I haven't suffered a lot from Hay Fever in my life but some years have been worse than others. This year, for whatever reason, it seems quite bad. So I started taking daily allergy tablets yesterday.

Captain America: Civil War

Last weekend was a Bank Holiday weekend in the UK, officially known as the May Day Bank Holiday even though the 1st of the month was last Sunday. So all public sector workers and a good many private sector ones got a free holiday day on Monday. It was so good to get an extra weekend day. So good infact, that I didn't even spend my time blogging about it!
On Sunday last week I took my son over to sunny Milton Keynes Cineworld cinema to go and see Marvel's latest picture called Captain America: Civil War. A tale about Captain America's obsession to help his friend and wartime buddy Bucky Barnes but also about internal divisions within the team of Avengers about oversight and who is best positioned to protect the human population of Earth from the Avengers themselves. During the film, we are introduced to a new Marvel character called the Black Panther and to the baddie Baron Zemo (although I'm not sure he's a baron within the film universe. There is more to say about the film, a lot goes on which is really good. The film is well-paced and has a lot of action and some drama as well as comedy moments. It's very well made all-in-all.