My past life as an illustrator

I’ve been blogging now for nearly a year (wow), and I guess it’s natural about this time I start to think about my numerous past lives, especially in my online existence. For a large chunk of this I was an illustrator posting on www.deviantart.com, and spent a lot of time on a website called http://www.gaiaonline.com/, where illustrators made up a cog wheel in gaiaonline’s surprisingly intricate micro-economy! I don’t illustrate anymore for reasons I can’t fully explain. It was a combination of a huge loss in confidence and starting to work full time, which made it hard to sit down for long periods to draw.

Images from the very last time I was able to pick up my tablet pen just after Christmas in 2010…before my massive and current art block.

I don’t always count this one, but it’s when I was doing some oil work – portrait for my mum for Christmas 2010

In my sketch only phase of 2008 and 2009, selling commissions on ebay:

My favourite pieces from my gaiaonline sketch shop. My style was heavily influenced by Kim Hyun Tae of Magna Carta concept art fame. When I opened the shop I started selling sketches for 500g, but it became so popular that they were going for 400,000g a pop within a few months! Eventually the pressure got a bit too much!