Hello again! My last couple of posts have focussed on the details of making a couple of portraits, so this one is about the little projects I've been doing inbetween.

First up, a few more in my series of sprites with box art backgrounds:

I have some more of these ready to go, but I haven't photographed them yet. And I have even more in the pipeline, but I need to buy some more frames first!

I've framed a few Nintendo sprites:

I also beaded a scene from Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening on Gameboy. This was the first Zelda game I played, and I even managed to finish it too (with the help of a magazine guide or two!)

In case you're wondering if I'm going to do anything non-Nintendo, then worry not, because I'm currently working on a pretty cool Streets of Rage 2 sprite designed by a fellow beader (Amanda L Kent on Instagram). It's turned out pretty big, and I'm going to have to wait for a delivery of neon red beads to finish it, but I think it's going to be pretty awesome. Here's a preview:

Last week I also made another Punch Out piece of Little Mac and Glass Joe, and fixed the background on my Mac Vs Tyson piece.

I currently have one commission in progress, and will post pics of that when framed. Then I have another commission to be done by mid-July, and another one I'll be starting early August. I would start it earlier, but I'm feeling the pressure to build up stock for the London Gaming Market (3 June) and London Film & Comic Con (29-31 July)! So the next two weeks are all about gaming art, and next month is all about movie and comic art!

In other news, Game Over Gaming are having success with selling my art on their site - just last week the last of my Streets of Rage fighters sold, and my "I Am Error" Zelda 2 piece went to an international customer too! If you want to see what else is available, check out my For Sale page!

Last time I teased you with this while it was in progress - today I can show the end result, and how I got there.

Below is the original reference picture, and to the right of it is the computer design.

As usual, it was generally ok and provided a good basis to work from, but a lot of the detail wasn't good enough in my opinion. Firstly, she wasn't blonde enough! This is obviously a problem, given the subject, so I accentuated the hair a little. I felt the glasses needed some definition too, and also made it clearer where one lens ends and her left eyebrow begins, as in the design it just looked like an oddly oversized lens. I also felt the reflections needed touching up, as it's not very clear what they are in the design.

Lastly, the lips needed fixing. I thought the design didn't make them as pronounced as they are in the picture, and that the shading wasn't accurate. So a lot of time was spent reshaping them by eye!

Overall I was very happy with how it turned out, and so was the customer, which is the main thing!

There have not been many updates lately, but I have been busy! Ever since returning from my American adventure holiday I've had commissions to do, as well as gaming-related pieces to prepare for the upcoming London Gaming Market.

Here's an in-progress shot of one of my commissions, can you guess who it is?

Most of the rest of my time has been taken up with prep for London. I've been playing with a box art background theme that I'm enjoying. There is so much great box art out there, giving me plenty of opportunities to create good stuff.

Here's a sample of what I've made so far:

MANY more of these to come - I just need frames, as usual! The other stuff has just been random sprites from various games.

I have a couple of larger gaming projects I want to get done before London, but I'm waiting on a bead delivery before I start them. I don't want to spoil them now, so you'll have to wait I'm afraid!

The last big project I finished was a portrait of everyone's favourite 80's manbot, Robocop. This is the picture I used, and the design I made of it:

As usual, the design came out a bit messier than the original, which has colours that are very definite and separate from each other. I also noticed that on his neck you can see a reflection of two hands! I realised this picture was a photograph of a framed picture, so removed the hands from the bead picture. 

After about 6 hours of work, the finished article looks like this: