Of Steampunk Games, Krakens & Being Kind to your Engineer

Good Morning!  How are you guys today?  

I feel fantastic and I can't wait to embark on a weekend of gaming!  I play in a really fun D&D game run by my bandmate Rion & his wife, Sarah a couple of times a month.  Right now we're trying to beat up a bunch of evil dwarves who have stolen, among other things, huge amounts of cheese from the surface villages and towns.  I assure you all that my being lactose-intolerant will not quench my heroic fire one little bit.

I also run a steampunk/fantasy game about twice a month called RookeMare.  I've been GM'ing games for a number of years now, but they have always been fantasy-based.  I'd been dying to run a steampunk game but I'm having an interesting time of it.  I have to keep reminding myself that the setting is Victorian!  Here's an example of a typical encounter:  "You see before you a really mean-looking orc! Ummm yes... it's got a big 2-handed sword... oh, I mean rifle!  Yes... a steam-powered rifle.  With gears on it... ya... and ummm, he's wearing Victorian-styled armor and a bowler hat - ya, that's it... a bowler hat!  Oooh - and he's wearing goggles..."  It's a pretty new game and we're all having fun, it'll just take me a little while to shift gears.  Oooh - didja catch that?  "I said, "Shift Gears!" ha ha ha... never mind...

My girlfriend, Emily, her sister, Sarah (different Sarah) & I all went out to Mimi's for dinner.  (Mimi's jambalaya is amazingly good!)  Sarah had just gotten back from a biology conference in Salt Lake City and she was telling us about the various lectures she attended.  Really fascinating stuff, especially the knowledge that there are life-forms we have yet to lay eyes on because they live so deep underwater.  As you can imagine, being an artist, this really began to fuel my imagination. What if things like the Leviathan and the Kraken are still swimming around today?  Because no one really knows what lives down there, no one can say with any assuredness that those kinds of "fantasy" creatures don't exist!  Remember that the next time some silly muggle says, "Dragons aren't real."

Now for some art!  Yay Art!  I did a piece called, "Steampunk Sally" a couple of years back and while I loved how the figure came out, the muse was off eating a sandwich when it came time to do the background.  This year I vowed to do up a new background for her and I finished it Thursday night.  So here she is - all dusted off and ready for the new year!  Incidentally, you can purchase this piece here!  Let me know what you  think.  :)

And remember - always be kind to your engineer and other members of the support team when you're bounding about on your adventures! Saving the cheese is rarely a one-person job. 

- Chaz -

Buy my art here:
Look at my art here:
Listen to my band here:

Of Workouts, Twitter, Steampunk & Josephine

Heya, world!  It's me Chaz Kemp with another installment of my blog.  Woo Hoo!  That makes 2 in a row!  I'm on a roll.  :)  Thanks to everyone who read my inaugural post.

A good art tip is a cool way of starting off a blog ya?  
Exercise.  Ya, I said it.  Exercise.  I try to do it first thing every morning so that I feel really good all day.  You know all of the benefits so I won't get into that... All I'll say is that it puts me in a confident, positive and happy frame of mind.  Simply put - I draw better once I've done something physical.

Yesterday I got to hang out with an old friend of mine named Jyoti. He runs his own business as well and we talked about ways to stay inspired, goal-setting, motivational techniques, etc.  We hadn't really seen each other in quite a few years and a few weeks back he called me out of the blue!  He's a really great guy and though his business is different than mine, I got a ton from our conversation.  Life really does rock!

I created a brand new Twitter account and I'm clueless as to how it works.  I understand Facebook, MySpace, my email, the internet and this blog.  I'd jump on Twitter and ask for help but that'd take up some of the 150 letters that I can use to create a tweet. siiiigh  I only joined it because the Artist's & Graphic Designer's Market 2010 said I should.  It's a very good book, by the way, and the one for 2011 should be out now so buy it here.

On a side note - my girlfriend Nessa & I love to have little role-playing side adventures over email. They're like creative writing exercises for our own amusement. Today's was a rousing steampunk adventure wherein we fought a whole dirigible filled with cross-dressing villains. I won't get into too much detail except to use the words: Leather harness, cowboys, exploding tapioca, unibrow, pump, job opening, spiked whip and cake.

Moving on... Here's a line drawing I'm doing for a project called Gaslight Underground, which is a steampunk live action role-playing game.  It's going to be so completely awesome your head might fall right the heck off.  Anyways, I promised I would show you guys some work-in-progress kinds of things so you can see my work as it's happening:

I call her Josephine, which is a groovy Victorian name.  I've decided to make her elven and give her a sweet jacket because that kind of puts the "punk" in Steampunk.  When my client is ready, I'll do up a version with just the base colors, I'll tweak the outlines, do the shading and then do the background to give it the Art Nouveau flavor that I love so much.  I'll make sure I post drawings at each stage.

OK - until next time... DON'T eat the cake - you really don't wanna know where it's been.  - Chaz

Buy my art here:
Look at my art here:
Listen to my band here:

Welcome & stuff!

Heya!

My name is Chaz Kemp & I'm a freelance illustrator.  There.  That will just about sum it up.

Well... maybe I should expand upon the theme a little - maybe even tell you why I'm writing a blog.  I want to share my adventures with you and I want to promote my art.  

I thought that it might be cool to share my experiences as a freelancer so that maybe... just maybe... they can help someone be a successful (insert your particular freelance field).  When I first started out a couple of years ago - I had to figure things out for myself.  I took steps forward and I stepped on a few landmines too.  I'm still learning... which is why I say, "The continuing adventures..."


With the new year I feel like a new person.  This is a new start to a fantastic career and an incredible life.  That's why the blog is called Chaz Nouveau... nouveau being the french word for "new".  Not terribly original, but hey - that's why I'm an artist, not a writer.  

I'm also going to show you my art at various stages of development and give you a link to where you can buy the finished piece.   Just in case you feel like throwing a little support my way.


I'll wrap this up by saying that you are all very welcome to comment.  Please feel free to let me know what you think.  I'll leave you with a recent piece entitled, "Battle Faerie: Sera and chat with you again very soon.  :)

 - Chaz
Buy my art:  http://www.etsy.com/shop/Avarra
Look at my art: www.chazkemp.com
Listen to my band:  http://pandoraceltica.bandvista.com/