The Slow March Of Progress

It's an accepted belief that all good things take time and that's the same here at Grinning Loon Headquarters. Art for my submission to the Age of Savagery project is coming along nicely with most of the line work finished. Just a lot of painting and lettering to worry about. We (Myself and Kev from Deadstar) have received several pitches for stories and even a couple of first drafts and concept art. I'm really excited to see this project growing in momentum and can't wait to unleash it on the world properly. For now though, here's an early set of sketches from Linzi Gold, part of a story written by Dr. Squee and one of the very first story pitches we received when this whole project was announced.

Again, I'm so happy to see everything building up. Thanks to Linzi for letting me post this. If Anyone wants to get involved, all the relevant information can be found HERE

In addition to Age of Savagery, I've continued my work on the next batch of Dwarf sculpts, the original line are now available to by from CPmodels for a bargain if I do say so. The new batch will be command figures; captains, standard bearers and horn blowers.

I'm aiming to have a full range of these little blighters. I'm waiting on getting a set for my personal collection, so I'll put some painted pictures up when I get them.

Well that's all I have for now. Until next time.

Many Happy Returns

It's been 1 whole year since the first Grinning Loon post. This blog started out as nothing more than an experiment off the advice of a friend to try and showcase my art and all the various projects I work on. Since then it's been used to highlight all the cool stuff that other people have been kind enough to let me get involved in. So to everyone who gave me work, feedback or even just stopping by at a Con to say hello, thank you. Because of you I've been able to find things to actually post about on a regular basis. Here's to the future of the Grinning Loon Project and all the random tat that comes with it.

Now I've got all that out of the way, on with the fun stuff I've been working on. Very little finished work this time around, but lots of WIP. First are some sneaky peaks at some more dwarfs. The last batch got picked up by CPmodels so keep an eye out for them on their website. Hopefully these new ones will find a home there too.

I've also used the time to practice sculpting blades. best way to practice was to make repairs on a few LOTR models I had. I'm pretty happy with the results and now I'm confident that I can do some cool swords and wot-nots further down the line.

And finally. I've been banging on about the Age of Savagery project for nearly a month now, guess what, I'm still talking about it!

Work continues as usual, but now the pace has really picked up. Several writers and artists have now been in touch and a few have even submitted early drafts of their stories. I was always afraid that this project would struggle to get enough people on board to hit the page count we needed to make print, but initial projections have proven me wrong. The early work that is coming in is fantastic. If you want to be a part of this, or know someone that would, check out the project info and guidelines HERE.

That's all for now. I'll have more soon.

So Much RAGE in Those Eyes

Hello all. With the lovely weather we've been blessed with I've taken the chance to get out and enjoy it before it goes away for the rest of the year (Insert relevant joke about British summer time here)

Firstly for this post, another update on the Age of Savagery anthology. I've had a few synopsis for stories sent through and they are looking SWEET! Violence and fantasy sword play a standard and as a special treat for everyone, here's a character concept form Arfon Jones.

Arfon has already cut his teeth on horror comic titles for Hellbound Media and is teaming up with Writer Matt Warner again for Age of Savagery. These two creatives LOVE the gore so I can't wait to see what they turn in for this project.

As ever, if you have a story you'd like to try out set in a Barbarian fantasy world, or maybe you're an artist looking to make your mark in the world, then go HERE and download the brief for the project. We still have space for more submissions and we want to show off as much talent as we can for this project.

 I've been busy rounding up various half finished projects and starting on some new stuff like this spiffing watchtower and large hill for my gaming board. Nothing too fancy, but I'm really pleased with the spiral pathway around the side of the watch tower. Just need a lick of paint to finish them.

Speaking of paint, a friend of mine gave me some advice regarding paint stripping miniatures, my goodness what a revelation! I've had a bunch of GW's Numenorians from Lord of the Rings kicking around for ages now and thanks to my helpful friend I can paint them up from bare metal.

Look at 'em!! If I hadn't told you you'd think they were brand new, but NO! They had 2 layer of horrible 2nd hand paint job on 'em. Not any more thanks to Detol, boiling water and a pair of rubber gloves!

Well that's me for now. Enjoy the weather while it lasts kids!!!