The short stories I’ve published thus far have all featured covers produced by me. I studied computer graphics at university, and have been working on artistic ventures to a lesser or greater extent ever since.
I think Tolkien is probably the most famous author to also illustrated their own work, with many editions of his books featuring his artwork both inside and on the cover.
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Tag Archives: art
Behind the designs 1: Adventures of a Soft Kitty
Welcome to what will be the first in a series of blog posts looking at the creation process of some of my favourite Lair of the Nerd designs: Adventures of a soft Kitty.
Adventures of a Soft Kitty: Issue One
The cat is named Pippin and is the brother of Newton, the cat who appears on other Lair of the Nerd designs such as Keyboard Cat and Meow
Click through to find out more 
And so it began…
So, now the dust settles, the leaflets and business cards have been delivered, myriad forms have been filled out, sent off, sent back, and so on… Press releases have been released, things have been arranged… And the waiting… oh god so much waiting, and some of the waiting is not over with yet.
Yes, Lair of the Nerd v. 1.0a has been live for a little more than a week, and people have been sharing things, liking things… some people have even been ordering things which is awesome. More information after the jump.
Scrabbling up a cliff
So, I’m still here, still out of work, still trying to Make Good Art* and keep myself alive
Working on writing things is becoming increasingly difficult, as my depression has caused motivation to be very hard to come by. I stare at a blank canvas and nothing seems to flow.
I am trying to continue to be positive, making little dumb animations – made from CG cardboard for a reason I can’t quite recall but hell, doing something stylistic is reason enough sometimes. I’ve also tried putting my opinion out there a bit in a pixel-art inspired video too.
And yet, I feel like I’m falling at times, like I’m scrabbling up a cliff-face made of loose shale, cutting at my fingers and knees and only succeeding at slipping ever backwards. I try to get people interested but it doesn’t seem to happen, engagement seems always to be so low; I feel disheartened.
There’s no positive twist to this blog post unfortunately; I can do nothing more than explain my feelings and thoughts and then I feel as though nothing more can be done. 
* thanks to Neil Gaiman for that one.
Pets and microchips
So, I made another Cardboard Theatre animation. 
If you like it, please like it on Youtube, go to http://facebook.com/lairofthenerd and like the link on there, and share it with your friends.
I admit, I am quite new to this whole social media promotion thing and am struggling to know how to get more people interested. Any real meaningful word of mouth or “going viral” all seems very far from what I am capable of, and all the while is the ever-present doubt, and the feeling that I may be struggling in this area simply because I am actually just.. well, shit.
Oh, and for those who missed it, here’s the first Cardboard Theatre video:
Mappe
So, as you may know, I’m doing my best to write a fantasy epic that I hope to get published properly and be like a real author or something.
All fantasy epics need a map, and that’s what I’ve been working on today.. It’s slow going because I’m effectively making it poster sized (much larger than the cropped extract on the right) and am doing my best to make the quality as good as possible. Basically I’m a perfectionist..
It got me wondering what other (real) authors do to get their maps worked out.. do they do them themselves? I’m curious.
Lair of the Nerd – New Designs
There are a bunch of new designs up on the Lair of the Nerd site, for you to peruse, check and look at.
I figure I’d make a blog post talking about a few of them..
Where there’s a will…
The Act of Creation
I live to create. To produce things that can inspire or move people, or make them laugh. So, I guess that means I live to create art.
Art; it’s a word that I don’t often use to describe what I do, because part of me worries that others won’t see it that way or that people will find me pretentious or weird. It can’t be art, it’s not framed, it’s not in a gallery and I haven’t been paid to do it.
But I realise, whether it’s something amusing to put onto a tshirt, or whether I’m referring to the novel I’m part way through at the moment, I can’t deny the truth of it – it is Art. Capital A, for emphasis.
Bargaining With The Muse
Where to start… perhaps with something that looks like a quote, but is actually written by me… yeah that’ll do.
The muse cannot be ordered, or tricked, for she comes when she will.
She can only be cajoled, persuaded, or bartered with, and any bargain may both weaken and strengthen he that makes it.
Creativity is a difficult pursuit, and a difficult goal, for simply expressing a desire to be more creative is no more conducive to actual output of ‘stuff’ than wanting to learn to drive is conducive to becoming a racing driver.