H a p i m e s e s

04 June 2008 @ 08:59 am

Josie tackles the obstacles of life

Josie's doing a sponsored Obstacle Course today at 1pm for her nursery. I really should have mentioned this earlier, but I forgot. Anyway, if anyone would like to due their duty to God and to the Queen (well, Stanwell nursery), drop a post here before 12pm today, so I can add it to her sheet. There are 10 obstacles in total, and she's eating an energy bar now in preparation -- they will go down!

And, yes, I understand this is probably far too late, and that most of you (perhaps all) will miss this by the deadline, but I thought I'd ask nonetheless.

:)

Current Mood: knackered (bleh!)

Current Music: Big Cook, Little Cook

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09 April 2008 @ 05:41 pm

Empire Map 2

Having received a couple of emails and some PMs at my site, I've decided to post a WiP of the Empire map so far. I've made some posts regarding the thing in my forum, and intend to update it fairly regularly.

Current Mood: anticipatorily excited

Current Music: Carrie And David's Popshop Songs

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06 April 2008 @ 07:27 am

Empire Map

I'm making a detailed map of the Empire for my gaming group. It isn't a typical map for WFRP. I'm drafting it as an atlas map, using modern stylings (well, kinda), and showing the curvature of the planet. It goes into faily exhaustive detail, and includes most of the various locations mentioned in most of GW's books, and then some. It's proving to be a useful tool in my gaming sessions already.

That said, it doesn't look anything like any other Empire map, as the whole making-the-existing-Warhammer-World-maps-fit-on-a-globe thing caused a whole bunch of major distortions, but I like that. It kinda gives the impression that the existing maps are rubbishy in-character iterations made by ignorant Empire folk, and this map is the underlying truth. Not true, of course, but as it's just a game aid, what does it matter? After all, this is a map for my games, not for print.

:)

Current Mood: cartographically tired

Current Music: Crazy Locoroco Tunes - Josie is on the PSP

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05 April 2008 @ 02:22 pm

Gallopy Gallopy

White horses have been galloping through my dreams.

This may seem odd, so let me explain: My grandmother was an artist. Well, in truth, before she retired she was a nurse, for all that I find it hard to conceive of her as anything other than the old woman that lived in Rattery Street. She painted a picture of three white, galloping horses before I was born -- just the heads, with a plain background. It used to hang in the stairwell that led up into her house. I remember spending much time as a kid sitting on those stairs (or, more commonly, jumping down them, seeing how many I could clear in a single leap), occassionally looking up at the painting, wondering what drove those horses on.

Later, when I lived in Golspie, my mother -- a stay-at-home type, much like myself -- worked as an artist -- also, much like myself. She painted portraits of kids and local landscapes, and was known for it. She also painted those three white horses, but in her own style. I remember it being sketched; I remember asking my mum about paint and how it worked as she put her brushes to the canvas. Watching my mum paint inspired me to do the same, and I'd sketched all manner of things in various pads. I remember drawing athletes when the 1984 Olymics were on television. My mum did the same to encourage me -- she always liked that I was arty. Unsurprisingly, hers were a lot better. Eventually my mum finished her painting to her satisfaction, and the finished work hung in the hall of whatever house I lived in for all my childhood. The horses were always there, always pounding onwards.

And now, unexpectedly, I hear them beating their tireless tattoo in my dreams. Perhaps it's my turn to paint some horses? Of course, I'll do it digitally, as I now do almost all my work, so the final piece will be very different from my mother's, or my grandmother's; but that's the point, I think. But, I'll probably print it out on canvas; that feels right... Or maybe I'll buy some oils? But, it's been a long, long time since I painted with oils. I'm not sure I'd even know what to do anymore.

I might phone my mum and ask her about it. I've never drawn a horse in my life (somewhat amazingly, considering my line of work). Time to practice, methinks.

Current Mood: Quietly contemplative

Current Music: Oblivion music -- Lindsay is playing it on the PS3

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09 March 2008 @ 01:07 am

Oh, what a night...

Just watching The Descent (adverts just now) -- great film so far!

woblin and I watched Gosford Park earlier. We've seen it before and enjoyed it muchly, and would have watched it again anyway, but we watched it this time because we thought it might help inform one of Lindsay's characters. Y'know, Julian Fellows can be a bit of a prick at the best of times (or, so it seems from his telly persona), but his script is really, really good. Oh, and the film did help with the character.

The Descent just ended (this post has taken a while to compose -- watching movies kinda slows the words per minute). Nasty movie. No heroes here (or heroines, more accurately). Good stuff.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. I'm on the early with the kids tomorrow. Unfortunately for

woblin, she won't get much of a lie-in, as she has an appointment for a haircut tomorrow morning at 10am.

Sucks to be her.

Current Music: Dodgy intro music to 'Mischief Night', the next film on Film4

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07 March 2008 @ 09:31 pm

The Day of Rockening!

Singstar -- a game I should hate with a passion, and I bizarrely find I kinda adore -- officially rocks! As I sit here feeling like Arnie hit me in the face with a shovel (I'm a bit poorly) Lindsay is rocking out to Lordi. Hard Rock Hallelujah! And Alice Cooper (she is poison)! And Silver Machine!

I.... I just took a ri-i-i-i-ide... in a Silver Maa-a-achine... and I'm stillll feeeeeling meeeeaaaaan!

Man, there is something so wrong about this game, but so-o-o-o-o-o right.

Rather amusingly, Josie is currently in the top30 online with her rendition of Junior Senior's Move Your Feet. She looks so super adorable that apparently people are voting for her and keeping her up there.

Sweet.

Anyway, I'm off to slither to the loo and continue to feel like crap.

Current Mood: miserably elated

Current Music: Men At Work - Down Under

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07 March 2008 @ 04:16 am

Note to self:

I will post here more often. I will remember...

Current Mood: mildly exasperated

Current Music: Toccata and Fugue in D Minor

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07 February 2008 @ 10:00 am

State of the freelancing...

So, since I've been away for a while, I thought an update or two for those of you still reading would be useful. First, I'll tackle work.

I was very, very busy during the end of last year, and the fruits of that work should be seen by you all very soon. Beyond my normal gigs for WFRP (of which one job was pretty huge), I was also working on some maps for 40KRP, and for Dragon Warriors, both of which were pretty big jobs. Unfortunately, I was plagued with a host of minor disasters during this time as well, some of which made drawing maps or pictures pretty difficult (having no PC, for example). But I seem to have got through it all pretty much unscathed.

This year, I've started with more maps, and received a bunch of copies of new books I worked on (such as this, this, and this). However, not all is good on the freelancing side, as the company I do most of my work for has just announced it will close. Less than ideal for someone that works for them, but I'll make a post that covers this later. What I will say is that I'm going to use the closure as an opportunity to review my freelancing work, and to decide whether I wish to concentrate on it anymore; after all, I'm also working on several projects for my gaming group (such as a ground-up rewrite of WFRP), and it'd be nice to have the time to finish them.

Anyway, that'll do for the mo'. Until next time.

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04 February 2008 @ 02:24 pm

Really, I am alive, honest...

Sorry for the prolonged silence, people. A mixture of disasters rolled through Chez Law these last few months, meaning I've hardly had time to hit my old online haunts.

So, what's been happening? To be brief, I've been working, my kids have been waaaaay cool, and

woblin has been the bestest wife in the world -- y'know, the normal stuff.

Anyway, I'll see about making some proper post about some specifics later.

Current Mood: aggressively contemplative

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11 September 2007 @ 01:52 am

Well, my copies of the Tome of Salvation arrived today. Looking good! Unfortunately, a credit for my art is missing, which annoyed me more than it really should have. Not only did I write for the book, and do the maps, but I did a bunch of piccies, as well; but no credit for that. Never mind, huh?

That all aside, the book looks like it's going down very well with the fans. Here's a selection of the opinions so far from BI's site to give you an idea (and before you read them, a big thank you goes out to all these posters that have provided feedback on Bi's forum):

'Tome of Salvation BRILLIANT' - Necronomicus

'Tome of Salvation: *****' - Warden

'Tome of Salvation: **** 1/2
'It's hard to imagine a more complete WFRP supplement. This level of detail is what WFRP's all about. It also contains answers to criticism put against WFRP. I'm only keeping the last half star because while this supplement shows BI can do the Empire, they still haven't expanded the game much beyond those borders.' - capnzapp

'Tome of Salvation: 9
'Again a wonderful book, limited in scope (rightfully so, in my opinion), but very thorough in what it covers. In particular, I just love all the different and contradicting (and conflicting!) ways of worship, and most of all the 'small gods to be elaborated on by you the players' (which I've been doing to my hearts content. The only thing missing is more rituals (as the authors conceded), but that's forgivable.' - Dr Rudolf von Richten

'Tome of Salvation! Oh my god! It's bleeping amasing! ' - Sol. P.

'I received Tome of Salvation as my reward for running WFRP at Gen Con and I've enjoyed reading it so far. There's some nice verbal acrobatics in the Intro section which patches up many of the metaphysical contradictions that have been discussed on the various fora. Left plenty of scope for 'mystery' while offering a reasonably entertaining and substantive read at the same time. ' - Herr Arnulf

'I have [the Tome of Salvation] for about two weeks now and I just can't stop reading it, it's awesome. So now everybody vote on this supplement for next years Ennies.' - Santiago

There is more, but you get the idea.

:)

Current Mood: pretty pleased

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07 September 2007 @ 04:56 pm

Back on track

All those images I lost have been redrawn and received by the publisher concerned; to rave reviews as well, fortunately.

So, now to WFRP again. I have a juicy project to complete for the end of the month, and I'm relishing getting stuck in properly.

Unfortunately, Lindsay is back to work on Tuesday, so I'll be back to full-time house-dadding during the day, and mapping until I sleep in the evenings. Who needs freetime anyway? I hear it is vastly over-rated; all you do with it is play console games and watch TV.

:)

Current Mood: pretty pleased

Current Music: none today

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28 August 2007 @ 03:04 pm

Snapshot

So, everything is pretty much back in place after the unfortunate events of the weekend. I'm redrawing the work I lost (which is very depressing), and preparing the way for the next job.

Lindsay and the kids are back today after a long weekend at the grandparents. I was supposed to use the time to clear out some work so that Lindsay's last two weeks of maternity leave would be largely free of work interruptions. It seems that certainly won't be the case now, which is annoying.

Damned PCs.

Other than that, my house is a mess, and I really need to get on top of it before Lindsay goes back to work. Somehow, I get a feeling that won't happen either.

:)

Current Mood: surprisingly chipper

Current Music: The Drugs Don't Work - The Verve

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27 August 2007 @ 01:42 am

Never any time to post

I'm so busy I've forgotten what's it's like to have a normal amount of work. This month I've drawn 45 illustrations and maps and written 20,000 words. For me, that's a lot. This month I have far less work lined up, and I think I'm going to keep it that way.

Y'see, Lindsay finishes her maternity leave in two weeks, and that's kinda terrifying. Soon I'll be looking after both my kids full time as well as doing the freelancing thing, and that's going to be hard.

Maybe I should stop freelancing for a while? After all, I've written about 100,000 words for my own update of my favourite game, and I'd really like to finish that...

Nah! It'll never happen. I kinda like having the extra cash -- in fact, I kinda need it.

Ah well, let's ignore that and talk about cool books!

Just released is the Tome of Salvation, a book I've written a large chunk of and also drawn some pictures and maps for. People have been getting it all over the world and, so far, the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive.

Yay to us!

Here's the cover:

Tome of Salvation cover

Other than that, I've finished the maps for the Kislev book, Realm of the Ice Queen, and I've also finished the a bunch of maps and diagrams for the 2nd edition of Dragon Warriors (no links for this one yet), which were an absolute blast to do, primarily for nostalgic reasons -- I loved that game as a kid! I've also recently completed a bunch of diagramatic maps and images for Grudgelore, which proved to be a longer job than I initially expected.

I've also suffered from a PC crash and lost all the work from the current project I'm working on.

That was not cool.

I didn't cry too much.

Anyway, I'm off to bed. So, until next time,

Must back up more often. Must back up more often...

Current Mood: bloody well knackered

Current Music: none

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25 July 2007 @ 01:17 pm

Questioneroonies

Hey all,

My wife is doing a post-grad thingy and needs LJ people to answer a few questions about LJ. So, if you have a free minute (really, it takes almost no time), drop by here, say hello to Lindsay (well,

woblin), and I will be eternally grateful.

:)

Andy

Current Mood: pretty good

Current Music: too tired for music - much work to do

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24 July 2007 @ 02:35 pm

Yuppers, still alive

Man, I've been a very, very busy man.

Anyway, I'll not bore you all with the details. In short, I've not been around due to a mixture of realife and work, always a poisonous combination when it comes to updating my LJ. So, this post is here to say I'm still alive, and everything is great in the Andy household, and to tell you all I've not been keeping up with your posts. I'll see if I can resolve that.

As for work, there is a bunch of new examples of my stuff online, so I'll have to sort some links, but that'll have to wait until next time.

For those looking for a more immediate Andy fix, drop by facebook, join up (if you haven't already) and say hi. I've been kicking about on that site a lot these last few days, urged there by

woblin. I've found it does a whole load of things that I wish LJ did, and, more importantly, involves less typing to keep in touch with people I know and love, which gets my vote when I'm busy.

Also, if you've never seen what I look like, my profile even has an... ugh... photo.

:)

Until later,

Andy

Current Mood: kinda stressed

Current Music: none today - I'm too busy for music

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19 March 2007 @ 03:40 pm

Conpulsion, maps, and more...

I'm running a game of WFRP at Conpulsion this year for BI. After a bit of humming and hawing, I went for a scenario tied in with the upcoming Night's Dark Masters supplement for vampires. The Sylvania map I posted some time ago is for that book. The scenario is shaping up nicely, although I don't expect to finish it until maybe Thursday this week; I have a lot of fine-tuning to do to it. Anyway, if you want to pop along and sign up to play it (I'll be running the scenario on Saturday and Sunday morning), here's the blurb (with a title I stole from an early draft of NDM):

The Bride of von Carstein
Elyssa von Tauer, beloved daughter of Baron von Tauer of Ostermark, has been kidnapped. Horrified, the Baron stakes an enormous quantity of gold as a reward for her return. However, when it transpires the girl has been spirited away to haunted Sylvania, dread land of the Vampire Counts, the scores of would-be hunters that had gathered for the reward scatter. Now, only six remain: a Sigmarite Priest, a Vampire Hunter, a Bright Magister, an Assassin, a Witch Hunter, and a Knight of Morr. But not is all as it seems, and soon the threat of undeath is the least of the six's problems.

It should be a laugh; or, at least, I hope it will be. It's a one-shot scenario designed specifically for a convention, so is pretty atypical, but I'm liking it so far.

On other news, BI posted a map I did of Marienburg for a BL novel, A Murder in Marienburg. I never expected to see this online, so it came as a bit of a shock when I was contacted explaining it was going up. However, I think it's a good thing, as many roleplayers have been looking for a map of the city.

Lastly, my email and website are down. Hackers attacked my host this morning, causing all manner of problems. So, if you want to contact me, it may be better doing so here, or on another forum you know I frequent; at least until tomorrow.

Anyway, I have stuff to do, so I'm out of here. Until next time,

Andy

Current Mood: ticking along

Current Music: Dracula Soundtrack

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12 March 2007 @ 11:22 pm

Freeport

Well, as I mentioned a while back, I've been involved with Green Ronin's update of their Freeport setting. This time, I've been doing maps, and you can read about what I've been up to on the Freeport Blog, here.

Further, you can see one of the maps here.

( And here, behind the cut, you can see a low-res of the map itself! )

Now, go read the Freeport blog already!

:)

Current Mood: piratical!

Current Music: A Pirates Life For Me (Yo Ho!)

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09 March 2007 @ 05:58 pm

The Dangers of "Shadow Run"

Man, those roleplayers are total freaks:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/6430683.stm

On unrelated news, I had a triple deadline day today, which was cool until my PC upstairs decided it was bored with working. But, regardless of that, I got them all in - which is nice.

So, I'm languishing in the post-turnover glow. I've decided I'll take the day off tomorrow, do some playtesting on Sunday, then organise a WFRP scenario for Conpulsion on Monday.

After that, I'll go back to work.

No peace, and all that.

Current Mood: glowing

Current Music: People Are Strange - The Doors

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23 February 2007 @ 11:01 am

Sylvania

BI have recently posted my map of Sylvania along with a short article about how it was created.

( The map's huge - so I'll cut it out to save on your Friends' space. )

Current Mood: a bit harrassed

Current Music: The World Is A Vampire - Smashing Pumpkins

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19 February 2007 @ 11:38 pm

Monitor goodness

Well, I got a new monitor, and it's HUGE (well, huge in comparison to what I had before)! What a difference! I can see so much more when drawing!

Anyway, gushing aside, this is the one I bought. And if you hadn't guessed already, I'm liking it lots. Widescreen makes a massive difference for my work, one I had not even considered.

Anyway, I'm off to play with it a little more...

Current Mood: well pleased

Current Music: I Feel Like Dancin' - Scissor Sisters

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