Of Gaslights, Questions du Jour, Line Drawings & Google Alerts

Heya! HAPPY 1/11/11 to everyone!!  Emily and I had a "Question du Jour" session last night... No it's not some french pastry that you have in bed with your lover... (Although... hmmmmm.) It means, "Question of the Day."  So here's your question du jour:  "What has been your proudest moment so far?"

I jumped into Google Alert a few days ago and it's really pretty cool, I have to say.  It allows you to monitor the web for interesting new content.  You can check it out here.  So when I type in something like, "Art Nouveau", it sends me all of the articles, blogs, etc. that talked about Art Nouveau today.  It's extremely useful for my business but it's also a HUUUUGE time sink.  (Must... resist... the.... shiny.....)  As if I didn't already have enough trouble staying focused.

Working from home is hard.  That is all.

I've been talking to Steve about some of the rules for his new game called, Gaslight Underground.  He has to put on quite the balancing act in order to please so many gamers who would like the game tailored to their style of playing.  The questions that come up: How do you please everyone?  Can you please everyone?  Should you try to please everyone?  I say make the rules fair and make the storylines AMAZING.  The rules don't matter as much when people leave the game going, "OMG! Who'd have thought that the librarian was actually a dragon stuck in human form?!?  See?  The adventure is everything!  Awwww Yaaaaa.

Creating a fun game for everyone is hard.  That is all.

Speaking of Gaslight Underground... let me introduce you to another artist on the GU project - her name is Magpie Bones and not only does she draw extremely well, she also does the website, makes awesome costumes and she sculpts!  Magpie's like the Michael Jordan of the art world!  You should definitely check out her stuff.  (By the way - you can click on her name to go to her portfolio... just sayin'.  Do it... Do it now then come back.)

OK now back to me!  Here are some line drawings that I've done for the rulebook's interior... I'm kind of pleased with them and junk.  :)

You should be able to click on these to see the larger image.  I'm off.  Feel free to comment.  Thanks to everyone who's been reading the blog - you guys rock!  That is all.

- 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: