They are watching...

You know that feeling when you are out walking and you feel as though you are being watched?
The chances are that your senses aren't lying, the good news is that it was probably just these guys watching, and they mean no harm!

If you try to look at them directly they move away, and I bet you were wondering what those little black dots are that appear in your vision from time to time.

What do they do?
Nobody knows.

Why are they here?
They might not be!

Do they have a name?
Not yet, perhaps you can help me think of one!

I was inspired to create this after playing a rather beautiful and challenging little game called Night Sky on my 3DS earlier today! Give it a go, you won't be disappointed!

Funny Bunny!

Good evening one and all!

I drew a bunny rabbit! This idea popped into my head as I was about to fall asleep a couple of nights ago, the second it happened I had to grab a pencil and sketch it out before my sieve like memory let it slip away into that weird oblivion where great pre sleep ideas seem to go. I might try to make a series of animal based characters in this style, I love how this little chap looks, he makes me smile!

Anyway another week is done and I am feeling ready to spend an evening in front of the TV, watching stuff on it, not just sitting next to an electrical appliance, that would be odd...

Whatever it is you are doing this weekend go ahead and have a great time like the happy bunnies you are!

GRAAAINS!!!

New week! New day! NEW DOODLE!

To celebrate last weeks return of THE WALKING DEAD, and the fact that I watched it whilst eating a bowl of cereal, I decided to draw the above 640 thousand pixels of utter nonsense!

Well, actually, if you think about it, in the even of a zombie apocalypse, one of the brightest things to do would be to ween the hoards of undead off their almost 100% diet of brains, and get them to understand the importance of getting a daily intake of wholegrain! If that doesn't work, I guess grab something you can use as a weapon (spoon not recommended).

Creating this doodle was great fun, I have learned tonnes more about textures, the use of gradients, and shadows, and also believe it or not that was my first ever attempt at drawing a human (ish) hand! Woohoo!

Right, I need to make a cuppa, I've been meaning to do it for ages!
I strongly suggest you watch Black Mirror on Channel 4 tonight (if you live in the UK). If you live elsewhere: -First of all  HEY THANKS FOR VISITING MY BLOG!
-Secondly, I'm sure there is somewhere online you can watch it!

Ok...tea...seriously!!!
Until next time! Look after your brains, and lock up your brekkie cereals!

Special Valentine's Day Edition!!!

Well a big Howdy doody,
To you from your's troodly!

It happens to be the 14th February today, which means that it is St VALENTINE'S DAY...
Yes, a day so important that it deserves to be written in text of a slightly higher point size, stylised with bold and colourised in red!

I hope that you all are able to spend today with your someone special, who (or what) ever they may be, I'm not here to judge! If you don't have anyone to receive a card from, consider the above image my present to you! You lucky lonely people you!

Don't eat too much chocolate, or over indulge in gourmet restaurant food. You need to be able to perform "upstairs" later this evening!  And believe me, having a stomach ache totally ruins your concentration when playing rude words scrabble in bed!!!

You thought I was going to say something rude there... be honest! You filthy people!!! Have a good evening everyone! What ever you choose to indulge in...

Pixelpuss

Now I know what you're thinking...

"This looks quite simple compared to your other work Nick! WTF? ROFL? OMG etc etc"

And actually you would be incorrect in this assumption! Because the above doodle is actually significantly more simple than my usual and recent kinds of experimentation! However it is great, and I LOVE pixel art, since I am a child of the 80's and therefore spent a lot of my youth looking at images made up in a similar fashion.

I actually made this for my wonderful girlfriend (who likes cats just a little bit), so kisses to you if you are reading this me darlin'! And for anyone else I wish you well, but I'm not going to kiss you all, I don't want germs unless I know where they've come from (see activia and other such silly products for examples).

Anyway I've waffled on for long enough. Just enough time more to say WATCH THIS.

See you later! With something AMAZING WHICH I'VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS NOW!!!!! Capitals make everything louder...it's true! G'nite!

WANTED!!!

What crimes did they commit?

Actually none, I just really fancied some chili peppers!

Happy Saturday to you all! I hope you have all gone out and done your panic buying in preparation for the incoming blizzards about to hit our fair isles! That means that the shops will be quieter for me tomorrow!!!

I won't gabble on any more! I want to go and relax!!!

Hope you all have an amazing Sunday! See you again soon!

My website! AT LAST...sort of

It's here! IT'S HERE!!!
It's...not quite done yet, but at least I've managed to get the beginnings of my new portfolio site uploaded.

http://www.nick-steel.co.uk/

At the moment all it does is look very pretty and guide you right back to this blog. So functionality is a bit lacking at the moment, but the heart and soul is there at least!

In the coming weeks, months etc you can expect to see some MAJOR updates to that page, and very soon I'll add some webby portfolio pieces!!!

Other than being captain lurgy all week, it's been a fairly good-un! Off to see an exhibition of work by the marvellous Quentin Blake in the beautiful town of Halifax: (click here if you are interested).

Anyway! Enough for now! Will get a new doodle up on here tomorrow! Here's a hint, 'it's a bit chilly"!

Keep clicking that website! I appreciate all your support and love!
Have a great weekend, and don't get snowed in y'all!!!

Claws on a blackboard

How are y'all doin today?

I'm feeling pretty awful thanks to the hoards of winter lurg zombies caughing in my general direction whilst travelling on a train last Saturday. Thanks go out to the kind, kind folks of West Yorkshire, some of whom do not feel the need to put a hand over their mouth whilst coughing... -_-

Although, the lack of sleep which results from crazy illness hallucinations, has inspired me to do some more experimentation. This time with various brush effects in both Illustrator and Photoshop. And the above cutie is the result of said crazy inspiration! For all of you out there who grew up having to decipher text, diagrams, and graphs written in chalk on a blackboard, this is for you! And if you were fortunate enough to be born into a generation of white boards, and digital screens, yeah you can be a part of this too, just ask your parents/ grandparents/ ungle Google.

Right, I need to go and inhale some vicks for a while. So until next time! Keep your board rubber handy! And don't get caught typing 5318008 into your scientific calculators!

Creepy minty texture fun!

Even minty fresh things can be creepy!
And hey, if you are having trouble with an annoying flat/house mate, why not print this off and stick it somewhere they will see it. Film the reaction for all round hilarity!

This sure was fun to create! And hey if "modern artists" can get away with flinging paint at a canvas, or painting parallel lines, or pickling animals, then why not eh?

I hope that you've all had a fabulous weekend! We ate some rather marvelous food at Red's True Barbecue in Leeds (if you live near, or even if you don't, I highly recommend it!), and endured the relentless Yorkshire weather once more!

See you all next week for more doodle fun!

I've been in cyberland

So yes! I've been away for a little while, not doing things for the blog. And you know what?

 I'm gutted about that since it's something that I enjoy so much!

On the other hand, it's because I've been busy doing some real work and building a website! So really the time has been well spent!!!

I've been learning tonnes about CSS, and Javascript, and PHP, and Wordpress AAAAAAND a whole cacophony of other coding madness! All in the name of future career development, so fingers crossed all of this typing and info cramming will pay off!!!

I feel however that time is ripe to get back on with the doodling. I feel I have fallen out of practice and gotten rather lazy on the doodly portion of my life! It's also time to have a break from the computer for a while! So on that note, off to have a restful weekend of going for walks, playing video games and...doing more artwork...on the...computer... so never mind that computer break I was mentioning (I'll divert my eyes to the world outside the window each hour to remind me that I am in fact a human being and not a computer program).

I've kept you reading for far too long! Just be joyful and dance around because I've actively given myself the task of doing more doodles from now on! Got some brilliant ones to come, looking forward to it!

Peace love and pixels!