KoshimeArt

How to design/re-design on a existing IP - part 1

2011-12-22T09:43:00.002Z

Hi Folks,
Seeing as I am probably not allowed to share anything commercial for the next ten thousand years, lets go one better than look at the thought that undergoes the design of design.
Hopefully, this can be more of a interactive conversational aspect that may pique folks interest.
Lets start with a look at sacred cows - IP franchises

How to design/re-design on a existing IP

Above is a comparison of two stills. On the left (Prometheus) and the right (Alien 1979)
When the original film is re reviewed (minus the lens of nostalgia), it stands up to the test of time, admirably well. This is primarily because of good old school basics, good use of live action, miniatures (kit bashed0 built with skill and a good eye of maximising (the most from conventional means - another great example was the recent movie Moon)
Sometimes less is more, and although Alien probably represents cutting edge VFX in 1979, you could say we have advanced the pioneering front further. BUT, in many many ways we have lost (collectively) our cutting edge eye in the unholy name of digital

Digital, is just like another tool, akin to a a saw or a hammer or a screwdriver. Each has its purpose, although sometimes commonsense seems to be lost - much like trying to drill a hole with a screwdriver, instead of a drills or worse, emptying a bathtub with a thimble

Developing a Good Eye
Some of the great visual artist have a rock solid foundation in basic art skills (be this traditional or being able to sketch down one's ideas effectively) and being able to communicate this coherently to the viewer (client)
What is lacking of late, is the critical eye
There is sometimes a total dis continuity of practical applied design, favouring wild fanciful aesthetics, or whatever is used to make a image look "pretty". As a illustration that is totally the right approach, but the forethought on design is often missing. And it is this aspect, that can really sell and enhance the believability of any illustration or design further

Much akin to allowing someone to run, without going through the steps of learning to stand, walk or crawl - have you ever noticed that its only toddlers who run around aimlessly with pure joy. but as soon as it confronts obstacles or needs to stop, it becomes hesitant/unsure what to do. This is the fundamental crux that may confront most current artist - they enjoy the flight of painting pretty pictures, sometimes just going into the zone (but this is really painting on autopilot like a mindless zombie, without much active cerebration)
Getting back to design and fundamentals, it is thus vital to instill a sense of practical design and reaching a nice blend of design forethought without getting too bogged down in a illustration.
Once a illustration gets too firmed up, its far too easy to render and noodle details and before you know it, some parts of a image may look great in isolation, whilst other elements languish
So, with that lengthy preamble, let us analyze the idea of tackling a existing IP

Body Suits
The newer Prometheus body suit designs tend to reflect a more contemporary slimline look and feel. The bubble helmets become suddenly clear thoughout, and the more conventional cosmonaut look/feel has been ditched.

For a producer, this can create some creative pains.

Does one stick faithfully to that of old for the sake of continuity, or does one re intepret it totally from scratch eg. JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot and give it a new lease of life (in a new alternate timeline)
Ridley Scott keeps some of the main defining cues, and probably with the lens of experience has decided to ditch that which is clunky (that may look quite out of date) and go with a compromise of new and old

Reintepreting existing old IPs in a new lens is a total minefield, and if one is faithful to the source, there can still be space to produce somethign fresh and liberating as long as one has a skillful hand to curate what is needed to tell a good story

Next time: Old CRT and monitor displays vs newer flat panel displays, sexy holographics and User Interface.

Wacom Cintiq 24HD | Flagship process

2011-09-14T17:40:00.000Z

Here is a simple developmental process for the collaboration with Wacom's new flagship Cintiq 24HD launch

July Updates

2011-07-18T16:23:00.000Z

Hi Folks,

We've been busy at Opus Artz and I thought I'd add a small update and thoughts.

inFamous2: Production Design & Concepts

With the launch of inFamous 2, we're finally able to share a load of character concepts and designs over at our Opus Blog.

Now, what I would like to add is these character developments also share a snapshot of how a concept undergoes an iterative design during production, called production design. And as such, one will be amazed and the large combined effort required to produce a sum total better than its parts.
Which is why, one should always remember that the concept artist alone, is not a rockstar or works in isolation. And rather, the combined input, feedback and artistic, creative efforts are what help produce the character, creature, transport or environment into the current end game result that you as a gamer enjoy.

PRODUCTION DESIGN

To help elucidate this less glamarous but core essential duty of the game artist, I have penned some aspects of game production at our digital art eduction site to help share and put a spotlight on the challenges and rewards of producing game art.

Google image Ripper 1.5

2011-07-03T02:59:00.000Z

For those who have gotten used to your reference hunting via Google image ripper/greasemonkey but have been outfoxed by the upgrades of google to the way their image searches work, well some kind folks have upgraded the greasemonkey scripts to version 1.5

http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/105523

And hurrah, full sized images are back again thus leading to a more sane way to search for your image referencing, as all responsible pro concept artist should for your day to day production.

Long Live The Art of Game Design

2011-07-03T02:07:00.001Z

LIVE METRICS

With the advancement of social games, and networked blogging, folks in the game industry are constantly trying to quantize a gamer's experience via Live metrics. In the unholy quest to improve product placement, gamers experience and thus the overall game - metrics for everything is now available to a large extent....

BUT, this is only a tool.

It cannot replace hardcore experience of making and producing a good polished game.

Just look at the release of semi mediocre sequels of existing titles these days, and you will know personally that rarely do any of these series title improve on its predecessor in general.

SCIENCE - the new religion

There will always be those wanting to quantify an experience - be it the mystical, spiritual, the unknown, commerce, gambling, human behavior and pattern recognition.

To a extent, it can be observed and classified. But science is NEVER absolute. A law is only a perceived truisim. Newtonian physics only works to a certain extent. Gravity is a quantified experience but we still do not really know how it exists...much like electricity (that we were taught in school) we still do not really know how it works at the nano level.

We think we are reasonably good and labelling and categorizing our immediate everyday experience. that we have mapped out the entire known world. That everything can be rationalized and explained.

The fact is, the more we delve into out science, the more we seek to understand our experience. Our journey in live. And thus, similarly with games we seek this unholy grail of how to make a super game with metrics. But this is really not a great way to go about making games.

What was it our forefathers and early legends understood that made iconic games still a great experience to this day and age, re-birthed on portable gaming and tablet devices.
No one really knows, but they will sure keep on trying.

THE ART

And then...there is the Art.

Intuition, a gut instinct, human amalgamation of life experiences, anaecdotal, science, humanities, perfect geometry...these all become distilled into the Art that is a greater sum of all its parts.

And thats what is great about being creative about Design. It does not adhere to some law or observe facts (for too long). Maybe it can help fine tune a experience..but it only goes so far. Because at the end of the day, its the individual uniqueness of each designer, each game team that makes a game product unique.

DONT fall for the sheeple sameness mentality.

Be strong, on your own. Design games for gamers.
Even if it means going in the opposite direction. Rules are just tools and with each shift in a game front, are made to be broken.

Metrics can help, but only so much. It should not be evangalised as the way to success or how to make a game good. Thats as naff as using focus groups to make a core character only for it to turn out vanilla 9/10 times (anecdotal evidence).

ENJOYABLE GAMING EXPERIENCES

Players want to enjoy the experiences and richeness we bring to the fold. So, lets just remember that.
Uncharted 2, Bioshock, Mass effect, Little Big Planet, World of Goo, Journey, Sword & Sorcery are gold standards of recent times we can allude to. It says, that in this short (gaming) life, we can achieve greatness by being true to your core audience and with polish, the experience and thus the end gamer enjoyment will enjoy true success.

Monetary gain is a beneficial side effect.

Long live the art of making games!

Game Art Jobs Strategy

2011-07-01T16:54:00.000Z

Hi Folks,

I've taken time out to write a small topic about Game Art related jobs and how to be strategic in getting a new jobs or move on from an existing one

Check it out at our Digital Art Education blog!

In other news, we've just added additional news & art for the projects we have worked on for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 and InFamous2 !

Have a great weekend!
Next time, I'll talk about photography and having the creative mindset switched on at all times, everyday to better improve your visual database through life experience.

Digital Art Education

2011-05-30T08:08:00.002Z

Finally, we have gotten down to penning a few words of advice and the start of what will hopefully be a useful continuing education repository for fellow digital artist looking to start a career in the Entertainment industry through to useful advice/scenarios of working on the job as a professional games artist.

In addition, we will have guest editorials from various colleagues, and artist from the whole spectrum of the Entertainment Industry, to better educate ourselves in this ever blurring world of digital media.

Please feel free to add any useful feedback, or first hand experiences at your recent educational experiences or your journey as artist as a shared community.

Digital Art Education

Pen & ink - Architecture

2011-05-02T20:16:00.003Z

Hi Folks,

Been a while upgrading skills the past few moons.

Here are some pen & ink architecture design from the recent steampunk/dieselpunk archives to share

Old London Bridge reimagined

Inland Sea Pier Village

D'Vinci Gran Cathedral
This set of illustrations are based on elements of ship breakers. I imagined in the distant past, a mountainous inland sea that has an ancient vessel thrust into the belly of the deep mountains, its waters since receeded and a city township that has since grown up around it, as purveyors of things ancient and obscure, and fine craftsmanship.

Yamato Lives on!

2010-06-28T22:38:00.000Z

Some lovely retro sci fi goodness just made my day! Bring on the love!

2D Artist mag - Steampunk Tutorial II

2010-03-20T17:50:00.005Z

Part 2 of 5 of the (Five Ages of Steampunk) environments tutorials are now available at 2D Artist magazine. In addition, this month's edition has great company in the form of enviro tutorials from R Tilbury and R Ruppel. Both great and respected Enviro artists.

2D Artist lite (preview) version

Age of D'Vinci

In this chapter, we journey to the mountainous Village of D'Vinci via the retrofitted TramMetro and discuss world building and ideation set in a alternate medieval/high renaissance realm.

Wacom Cintiq 21UX (2nd Gen) - Hands On Review

2010-03-14T05:25:00.009Z

Initial Impressions
Due out later for sale officially this month, I had the opportunity to appraise and test out the 2nd Gen Cintiq at the Wacom booth at GDC San Fran 2010.

Summary: Worthy ergonomic improvements, with improved scratch resistant glass and Intuos 4 pen/nib and tactile handling including 2048 levels of pressure and rear mounted touch strips.

What's Different//The Rear

The great thing about Wacom is the continuing feedback and evolution of its digital tablets with each iteration. Thus, with this 2nd Generation Cintiq, the good folks at Wacom have relocated the sensitive touchstrips to the rear. Brilliant. Straightforward. Intuitive!

Crucially, this next logical evolution in improved product design actually feels very comfortable and intuitive to use when set to zoom (non painting side). The angle of reclination, and natural angle title is smoothened and thus I found painting again a intuitive case of rotating the tablet, much like one would angle a piece of canvas/sketchboard which makes development of hand drawn sketching and lines a more naturalistic process - especially handy for the drawing of digi marker and final illustration designs for transport and environmental drawings.

Previously with the 1st generation Cntiqs, I personally felt that the Cintiq was better in use for drawing of organic shapes and less intuitive for environments/sketching per se. Thus, the use of an improved surface & tactile feedback is certainly what (I felt) the Cintiq should have been in terms of optimized digital tablet for everyday industrial use. i.e I'm finally a Cintiq convert.

Design from Intuos 4

Pen stylus, nib and holder - appear the same as a Intuos 4 (in terms of styling, grip and nib choice/selection and containment). Compatibility with the Intuos 4 range - unverified/unknown - the Pens have now 2048 levels of pressure. Translated into actual use, the stylus has improved tactile feedback and naturalistic feel
Matte greyblack styling & ambidextrous configuration - the dual orientation layout allows for easy customization for both left and right handed artists (or the lucky ambidextrous few)
Express keys & Rotary select button (Show select key) - displays the current key selection on-screen. (I am not sure if the key selection (dot) utilizes a simple LED or OLED design used in Intuos 4. Suffice to say, it is styled similarly)

London Bridge Deluged

2010-02-11T18:18:00.004Z

A imagineering of the London Bridge Quarter underwater and decayed in some distant apocalyptic future.....

Notes: I often pass through London Bridge on an almost daily basis, and there are so many possible images and layers of history attributed to this area. Thus, I thought, how nice it would be to flood the whole area, and how the colour/lighting could be like. Coupled with the elements of steampunk and deco buildings within the area, this area is ripe for all sorts of imagining.

Metro Tram reimagining

2010-02-02T15:20:00.001Z

Took the opportunity to rediscover Holborn Trams that used to run through the City of London, and reimagine a alternate victorian tram city link as part of the 5 ages of steampunk workshops being help with 2D Artist magazine.

FIVE AGES OF STEAMPUNK - 2D Artizt Magazine

2010-01-28T11:47:00.003Z

Hi folks,

Here is a quick preview of the upcoming series of workshops on 3D Totals 2D artist magazine,
called the Five Ages of Steampunk - starting with the Victorian Era.

During these workshops, we will try to cover a visual troubleshooting appraoch in developing new IPs, visual art direction and production methods under the sub genre of Steampunk

2009-12-28T15:44:00.005Z

Had a nice bunch of drawings posted up on IO9 (sister site to kotaku) during the christmas period.

Pity, am not able to comment/feedback about the basis/origin of the space wrecked serpent imagery. But essentially, this basis of the illustration was the discovery of a ancient ship wreck whilst exploration and drilling of a new open space mine shaft

Io9 - Link

Frozen Caisson

2009-11-19T19:16:00.003Z

Above: Reworked image
Below: Original sketch

Sometimes, returning to an old piece can be rewarding.

After a year or so, whilst sorting through the image archives and folders, I thought i would take a stab at tidying and refining the composition more..albeit I got slightly carried away and ploughed a swath through the thick ice.

Charon's Junkard - Part I

2009-10-29T22:42:00.005Z

Images May Morph

In keeping with the festive occasion,
I started this Halloween piece with an initial idea, but ended up with a more involved iteration. Thus this shows how a image can morph (when working on a personal piece).

Initially, it started as a strange sacrificial altar, however with further firmamation of various objects, ghouls, figures, lecterns, this has suggestion more of Charon's junkyard crossing the proverbial River of Styx.

Image Challenges

I liken each illustration as a new bespoke challenge, complete with seemingly straightforward challenges (that may turn out to be disastrous); appear ambitous but with lucky accidents, turn out rather well.

In this particular piece, the challenges I surmise would be:

Low monochromic key - moonlit landscape tends to have a silvered diffuse lighting. Any coloured glow eg. lava can easily distract/draw attention for the viewer.
Details - It is far easier to add key details to areas in shadow/relief. The drawback may result in overrendering of various areas.
Heirachy of Values - large shapes in the composition work best when grouped. At best grouped no more than 3 in recession as a general rule.
HOWEVER - far objects tend to get desaturated and lighter in atmosphere (daytime), but underwater/nighttime - far objects tend to get desaturated and meld into grey (nothing)

Extra Info: Book of the Dead

Its origins are perhaps quite interesting in that much of current day mythology and religion has strong Egyptian origins which centre on the Egyptian funery text: rw nw prt m hrw (popularised as the Book of the Dead)

The Egyptian afterlife was a dangerous place, whereby the soul in its afterlife had to endure, dodge, survive and fight to survive nefarious demons, monsters, gods and challenges.

If successful, you managed to survive to challenge the Halls of the Gods/Dead whereby a Book of the dead would be commissioned (Chapters 130–189) per family to allow you to have a Guidebook that coudl help you survive the Land of the dead so your soul may be judged by Osiris, and be weighed - hence the term light hearted/Heavy hearted.

High Mountain Valley Watchtower

2009-10-29T19:42:00.005Z

Today, I had the opportunity to really practice a few things I have been grappling with the past few weeks. Thus, I took the opportunity to paint another semi fantasy piece. I imagine a lonely watchtower complex guarding a small village community in the middle of a mountain valley pass with the grey misty clouds rolling in from one direction and a small brook emptying to form a small lake.

My main challenges were:

Lighting a Form in colour. To have a well lit subject, it seems to work best if there is a side that is also in relief/shadow. (seems obvious until you ahve to paint it instinctively and wonder why somethign is too overlit)
Ice and permafrost - Its great to do more snow and ice work
Mood, Fog and Mist - the great thing about sombre landscapes in UK is they make for moody images. Here, in contrast I went for a more eastern influenced saturated happy happy coloured approach initially with elements of a moody desaturated grey in the background. The two do not probably mix well (the colour and value information may tend to end up as coloured mud) but worth a shot. Not living if you havent tried.
Brickwork - I had fun trying to paint suggested brickwork and peeling paint
Painting shallow water - Learning how to make thigns look wet, is certainly a ongoign challenge. I decided to submerge part of the pathway, becasue it looked more interesting for the subject matter (and just for the heck of it to get some painting exercise out of it as well).

Dharvish Ship at Klorken Port

2009-10-29T18:33:00.003Z

I decided to delve more into the good ole epic fantasy realm this week, and helped birth this monster.

Sketch - Skylar Sky Hunt

2009-10-27T07:36:00.002Z

This week, I thought I delve into the realm of mythology and the outcome of this mornings sketch looks promising

Tokyo DIaries

2009-10-21T12:05:00.002Z

Whilst attending Tokyo Game Show 2009, we had the fortune of making a pilgramage to the inspiring and spiritual home of Ghibiland

Best visited with a 8-10 year old. There is even a GIANT catbus playground but alas only for children under 10/hiehg restrictions. At one point, the polite Ghibli staff told the children to please not throw the dust motes about. Naturally, the children delighted in shooting dust motes
through the Cat bus windows...

Google MAP

Official Ghibli Cream Puffs
from Shirohige no shou cream kobo (which means White-bearded’ cream puff workshop)
You can follow a nice set of instructions from Anna the Red to make your own cream puffs!

Space painting e-book

2009-09-14T21:46:00.003Z

Hiya, the good folks at 3DTotal have decided to release a complete edition of the year long space tutorial series, originally published monthly on 2D Artist magazine.

It's quite something to see it all together as a 161 page tome. Here is what the folks had to say:

This mammoth 161 page eBook is an extremely detailed exploration
of the techniques and design approaches behind creating epic and lavish digital artwork relating to the theme of Space and Science Fiction.The series is divided into three main categories; Planets & Starfields, Transport and Environments and spans across 12 in depth chapters in total. The tutorials on offer cover a multitude of techniques and useful tips and tricks to painting all aspects of space and deals with the tools in Photoshop used to create such effects.

The author covers a multitude of the aesthetic considerations behind producing the wide array of both digital and traditional artwork alike,
as well as much of the scientific theory relevant to the design process ensuring a measured and realistic approach to the subject matter.
We look at traditional sketching techniques common to many design studios and how these practices work hand in hand with digital methods and all along ensuring a practical approach to solving the artistic issues, producing both plausible and yet imaginative concepts.

2009-05-06T12:16:00.004Z

A retro styled Deep Space Mining Base, depicting the Vernier - DSEV (Deep Space Exploratory Vehicle) Mining Rig off to harvest and break down asteroids for raw materials for local manufacture. Asteroids are an amazing resource of water, rare metals and iron. A perfect stepping stone towards the stars

Designing the Vernier Rig

The secondary aspect was to design and provide a rapid mockup of a hero vehicle, in this instance we design a Deep Space Exploratory Vehicle (DSEV) Mining Rig named Vernier, based on the Vernier Thrusters used in high altitude adjustments.

The Initial designs were thus:

Once the side profile was mapped out and designed, it was a relatively straightforward affaird to paint in a front side profile and apply a quick colour pass.

Monster Hunt

2009-04-17T02:52:00.008Z

This piece is a experimentation in multi asset character driven environment

Note: Please note, the initial workup is quite semi-random with the image jumping from composition to composition, and different lighting methods. Hopefully, you are able to take away what you can from this.

For what it's worth, you can think of it as trying to frame the right shot

FRAMING THE RIGHT SHOT

Initially - I have an idea of sorts. this involves the general gesture of the monster, and a ninja/shadow kind of warrior attacking it
If you have one, what happens when you have more. So lets add more guys, attacking in the fray against the central monster.
Tell you what, lets add some blood, or streaming magic from the creature
Hmm, or maybe...some sort of plated armour. yeah... and it could be underlit to make it more dramatic.

CLOSEUP SHOT

The background is psychedelic, however the shot works reasonably well as a one on one, with perhaps the lone shadow warrior , sticking some sort of sharp apparatus into the ogre's brain pan.

LIGHTING ISSUES

The colourful lighting in the background just isnt quite working, lets fall back on a more dramatic cliche. A fight in the bowels of a fort or courtyard perhaps.

SPECIAL EFFECTS

This is a quick test to see how it would look with some sort of magical barrier/beserker rage from the Armoured ogre.

DETAILING

Back to unifying tiny (tiny) tiny details and corrections that are barely perceptible

THERE AND BACK AGAIN

Sometimes, lovely details need to be sacrificed and colours desaturated, to unify the overall image. The initial dark shadow warrior on the far right, had transform into a bulbous figure but the form was not well defined. I know! Lets turn the warrior, into a fat bluborous dungeonkeeper. Classic!

It seems to work (Hey, I dont make the rules, but whatever works to make the shot work)

DAGGERS EVERYWHERE

Added an Obsidian dagger to the Ogre, and refined the armour somewhat

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COLOUR GRADE

Its almost 4am in the morning. I think the brain is on the fritz, and a few colour variations are explored. In addition, I decided to add some alternative bandings, and homogenise the image overall.

Object Studies

2009-04-16T11:39:00.005Z

Every now and then, it is good to do a honest study of everyday still life to get a grasp on the illusion of art.

And to finish, it was quite therapeutic to convert a known model Gundam Mk-II RX-178 into an part illustration/form and lighting study. More and more, I find the value in painting from real life or maquettes to appreciate form that much better.

March 2007 Updates

2007-03-06T15:22:00.000Z

It has been a while since my last update

In brief, here are a chronological sequence of events

October 2006: I run the Enviroment Support Group forum at CG Society
Nov 2006: Tied the knot in swanky Mayfair, London with my beautiful wife. It was a lovely evening and we had 3 bridesmaids!!!

Jan 2007: Reach an epiphany in terms of learning how to paint more effectively and enter two of my more recent paintings for the ballistic publishing book , Expose 5. Fingers crossed.
Jan 2007: Infinity: the quest for earth MMO project which I have helped produce concepts for over a year has won a visual delight award, editors choice and players choice award 2006 at ModDB.com and it is really a great thrill and incentive to keep producing more works!

Feb 2007: Held a large chinese wedding reception down in Portsmouth, and learnt how I had a large extended family of 14 cousins who are mad as anything in terms of socializing nad welcoming me to the family. A large collection of over 500 chinese members of the community and relatives turned out for the event. I was fortunate enough to have Kim Taylor, a professional matte artist at Moving pictures Company and girlfriend be the best man.

March 2007: Won 1st place in the national space society calender competition for my asteroid settlement entry: Titled slingshot to the galaxy. This spurs me on to get more interest in producing space related artwork for visualization and other related production

March 2007: I feel like I have reached another milestone in painting in helping achieve mood and feel in an illustration

Home setup

2006-08-24T14:01:00.000Z

KoshimeArt - At Home

A few people have been asking how my basic art setup is, so here it is in a simple 1-2-3.

1/ Tools: Good ole pen and paper, using mainly a hi-tec 0.4 black pen varying with variouw grey marker types. I vary between Prismacolours and Copic markers (as their greys are alot cooler than pantone's letraset version)

1.2 Rennaisance PDA (Sketchbook): The right sketchbook is vital to each artist, and I arm myself with a swarth of Fabriano Artist's Journal sketchbooks - which afford uniformity, optimal A5 size, great paper quality 192 pages of beautiful Ingres paper ) which are either
1/ Multi-toned (left)

2/ My favourite: blue cover with white and cream pages.

I find them great for any media, be it marker, ink, pencil, pastel, watercolour. Ideal for sketching or writing, this journal is sure to spark inspiration wherever you wander. A ribbon bookmark permits quick reference.

2/ Digital setup: Dell24" x 2 + A4 wacom + 2g ram Intel system

3/ Reference: A good collection of artbooks and history/architecture books

ConceptArt Brussels annual sketchfest

2006-08-14T17:22:00.000Z

After 8 months of constant work in Chelsea & Westminster NHS, it was good to take a small weekend break in Brussels kindly hosted by freelance concept artist Hyver and wife Eva (TV producer) in their palatial 4 storeyed apartment, replete with back garden, forest and BBQ pad.

It was Oktoberfest fused with inspirational art and a generally good all-round time that makes this short trip full of fond memories. To make the occasion more festive, Sketchling (MPC matte painter) , managed to book a last minute ticket on Eurostar,and we travelled there in style, ala semi Business class (called the leisure select). It was a good opportunity to showcase our digital tablet PCs (and strike terror into the heart of Euro Mac-philes) Here are some provisional images showing a brief snapshot of the high from the lovely Euro weekend; ranging from all night sketching, 48 hours of Ian McCraig gnomon DVD demonstrations ("you must be willing...to murder your darlins"), trip to the Imperial war museum (complete with WWI armoured tanks to Post WWII artillery canons, tanks, modern armour and the best of all...a complete aircraft hangar featuring the history of flight from the baloon to the latest Russian Hind helicopter)

"I'm Singing in the rain"
Sketchling arrives via tram to Hyvers palatial grounds with a warm wet reception

Staging ground

The ground floor lies barren, ready to recieve its spawn of euro-international artists within the warm confines of a four storied apartment compelte with its own forest, BBQ set and garden
Typical morning
Panoramic: An interior shot of the ground floor, from living room to dining room to kitchen. The staging groudn is now replete with artists and a great atmosphere is brewing...albiet after a crate of jupiter beer is devoured

Head injury Competition
Floris and co compete in a no holds barred, who gets brained via small 2-3 wheeled contraption after hours