Been awhile since my last update.. but Im still alive and kicking and painting.

Im about half way of my internship now.. presuming that I get to stay abit longer =) Which Ill hopefully hear soon. But heres all little round up of what I've been upto the last 4 week(ends)..

About 3-4 weeks ago LT came over for the weekend. We went down to Durham, alittle town not far from NewCastle. There's a big castle and cathedral there where apparently a few scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed. So we walked around town abit and then went uphill to the cathedral. It really reminded me of Diablo while I was walking around there. And when we went into the courtyard I reconized the location that they used in the Harry potter movie.

The castle ended up being closed sadly so we just went back to town and had a great lunch outside on a terras.



2 Weeks later I went back home to Holland, it was luckily a long weekend so I got to spend some time back at home with my girlfriend relaxing on the couch which was great. And I got the taste of a clean house again.. oh how I miss that sometimes =P

My sister and her boyfriend had just had their 2nd baby so ofcouse I went by to see him! Was really cute, but you cant really interact much with new born babies. Also got to see all my family, everyone got together for a brunch.



Everythings been going really well at work to, learning lots of new stuff and having alot of fun with my collegues. We've been out a few times too this last month.. eating lots of sushi and drinking loads of beer!

Also got some great news the other day too. My boss got an email from one of the Sony Developer we work for.  I've done a few concepts for them, and they really liked them.. they liked one of them so much that they said they are going to enter it into a competion.

http://www.intothepixel.com/

So hopefully it gets picked... and if it does.. my piece will be in an awesome art expedition!
(it will be revealed at the E3 in june).. so fingers crossed!
And no I cant show the piece.. its still under NDA =)

Pretty Picatures

I've been kinda lacking with picatures/photos the last few blog posts.. so this blog post is gonna be full of em. Enjoy..

 This is my house.

This is my path to work.. you can maybe just see it, right above the orange tree's in the middle.

This is my work. Where I sit all day painting awesome stuff.

This is my bank, where I keep my money. See it has my name on it.

 This is my little bank where I keep my change.

This is my pharmacy where I keep my medicine.

This is my boat, I used it to get here.

 

This is what a sink looks like when you live with alot of people that have a cleaning handicap. Notice the cloth in the top left hand corner. So close to the dirt, but yet so hard to reach it. Every now and then I break and clean up.. but theres alittle hope every time that someone might pick up that same cloth and clean up after themselves....

Ahhh spring is here.. notice the beautiful flowers in the tree's!

Now for some arty stuff.

Been practicing some stuff on the weekends, trying out new technique etc. Some dark sci-fi environments. Still need some work, but Im making some progress.. I think =)

Soldier sketches, thinking of polishing these up some time... if I ever get around to it.

And watchin LOTR inspired this quick sketch.

Arty Stuff

This week I want to talk more about the art side of things and what kind of experiences I've had the last few weeks.

Working at Atomhawk means that I get to work on alot of different things and alot of different projects. One day I'm designing an awesome boss monster and the next morning I'm coloring in a kitchen, so things tend to change around alot. Which is pretty great most of the time but it's something that took abit of getting used to. Working in a concept art bureau means that you have to work together as a team to meet the deadlines of projects meaning that sometimes you have to work on each others paintings, because someone else might not have the time to do it. So one day you might be like Fuck yeah I get to design a cool monster and then at the end of the day it gets sent off to the client for feedback. But then the next day comes and the feedback hasnt arrived yet, so you get put onto something else that might not be as thrilling but it also needs to be done. And just as your knee deep into the next painting the feedback arrives but your not ready to work on it yet so, someone else carries on with the work...

And other times someone else has done a sketch of something but doesnt have the time to take it to the next phase so you are asked to finish what they were doing. So it turns into a collaboration which is different and can be quite fun, but in the end I still find it abit weird, you cant say "hey, I did that!" bece you only did part of it really.

Thats just something that I hadnt really experienced yet, but because this is a job and we are working as part of a production pipeline we are not painting picatures for ourselves. The things we make dont even belong to us because you are beings paid to make them. Which is quite obvious if you start comparing it to other jobs I guess. But I think its still weird!




Another thing that I had to get my brain around is the different levels of finish of work. Because Atomhawk Design is a concept art bureau and not part of an actual game development company it works with alot of different clients and art directors. Each client is different, and that means that they expect different kinds of work. For example one client could have a very experienced art director that also has his/her fair share of painting experience, so when you design something for them they know what you mean by just a quick sketch or thumbnail. But another client might need a more rendered image to give them more of an idea what the concept would look like in the game because they cant picature it for themselves. And ofcourse thats what concept art is for, its just that when I get asked to come up with a whole lot of designs I dont spend alot of time polishing them to a finished level. But know I know I just need to ask what the client is expecting and work my way towards that.


But the first 2 weeks I thought what they meant by a quick sketch was 10-20 min sketching something and then moving on to the next design because before this I'd always had the idea that concept art was all about being quick and getting as many designs out as possible in the time that the client gives you. And sometimes it is but working with so many clients means that every time its different and that was quite confusing. So I need to make sure its clear to me what the client is expecting. But I'm getting used to it now.

Sometimes when I'm just sketching for myself I'll just spend a short period of time working on it and then move on because I get bored of it. But at work I have the time and even have to put that time into taking the design to the next level for the client. Which is good for me because sometimes you just need that extra push. And having the time to just focus on a few designs and make sure that they are all good n well defined and not pump out loads of designs  that are suggestive and only have a couple that are good is actually quite satisfying. Forces me to think more instead of just trying loads of stuff. But hey sometimes that works to... its just different every time I guess.




Im learning alot from my collegues too, they give great feedback and help me push my stuff to the next level. And sometimes the lessons arent always at work, sometimes they are at 2'oclock in the morning at a local bar hehe. But these guys know their shit and its great to talk about concept art with them.


And to the other guys at school that are also doing your internships at the moment.... comment below and let me know how it is over there and if there are things that you have in common or are totally different. Seeing as you guys dont have to write a blog about all the stuff you do =P .I'd like to get an idea what its like from your point of view over there.



Oh and did I mention how awesome audio books are?! I really enjoy listening to them while I work, once I'm finished designing and just have to render.. my brain goes into auto pilot so I can just listen to books and let my thoughts drift away. I really recommend "The Hunger Games".. busy listening to the whole trilogy.. first one was brawesome (brillant and awesome!!!) One of the guys at work loves combining 2 words into 1...and brawsome seams to be catching on at work hehe

Super super awesome time

Been awhile since my last update.. but as they say "time flys when your having fun!". Days have been going by so quickly at work.. but I cant really call it work, I'd rather call it Super super awesome time. Everyday is a treat, dont have to spend half the day looking at the clock counting down the hours left until I can go home because that time just comes and goes and I gladly work overtime. All the hardwork and determination is finally paying off abit. I'm not there yet because this is just an internship but I know 100% that theres no going back now...Ive tasted the sweet honey of my dream job.. I will become a (AAA) professional concept artist and nothing's going to stop me.


But enough about super super awesome time...

About 2 weeks ago was pancake day (in france), yes apparrently some people think pancakes are so special that they made a special day for them.(nah im just kidding it has something to do with cleaning out the kitchen and using up let over ingridients or luxorious ingridients back in the day when people were poor and didnt have gigantic Tescos with walls of food big enough to kill you). My housemate Lucie asked me if I wanted to eat crepes (I heard crap) on friday with her and acouple of friends. And I was like whaattt do you want to eat?!! Then she called them pancakes.. so I accepted her offer even though I dont really think pancakes is a propper meal.. I need meat!(no homo). But Lucie reinsured me that they ate their pancakes with all kinds of meat and cheeses so that helped.

Speaking of meat... english people have some weird dishes. One of em that I saw in the store was called "Toad in a hole".. its a couple of sausages in dough with spices, that you then put into the oven. I tried it, but mine turned out all crappy and half cooked so it was pretty terrible. But my housemate Christina told me how I could make it from nothing. (magic) So I might try make it myself some day.

Anyway back to pancakes.. on friday only one of their friends showed up so it was just the 4 of us and alot of pancakes and wine. Which turned out great because there was just enough pancakes for the 4 of us hehe. And they were good too, they fried the pancakes first.. then turned them over, put cheese(sometimes more then 1 different kind) and some ham on, then closed the pancake and fried it all together. I think it would make a great breakfast.




Last week thursday LT(my girlfriend) arrived here in Newcastle just as I finished work, so I picked her up from the station and we walked back to my place. It was really great to see her(in person) again.. because skype is just not the same.

We had alot of things to celebrate this weekend
- 12th feb was our 1 year living together anniverssery (even though I'm not there atm)
- 14th feb was valentines day
- 18th feb was our 5 years together anniverssery!!!

We kept thursday night pretty simple because I had to work on friday. So we just stuck some pizza's in the oven and spent the evening together catching up.

 Friday after work LT came with me to a local pub with a few guys from work where we had a burger and beer. On saturday we had alot plannend, first off we went to town and to a local musuem wanting to see more of what Newcastle had to offer. The musuem was called The Great North musuem but...... the only great thing about it was that it was for free.. thankfully.  It had alot of different stuff but not alot of anything and they didnt have alot of information on the things they had there either. But they had alot of interactive stuff for kids so I guess its a great place for parents to go with their kids or for schools. We also went to a small planetarium there which you did have to pay for. I thought it was going to be about planets =( but it was short documentary about the space race (america vs russia to the moon etc).

After walking around town we went back home to rest abit and get changed to go out for dinner. I'd reserved a table at a place called The Living Room. It has a big white piano, big chandeleers and the menu looked great. People at work also recommended it. So off we went back to town for a delcious dinner. We both had king prawns for starters, Lts fried in spicy oil with herbs and mine were deep fried in beer batter YUM! For the main course I had some lamb and LT ate salmon. We didnt really feel like dessert so we skipped that and paid.

After dinner we walked around town for abit cause there was a whole commotion going on. We saw loads of people in the street gathering in different places. So we walked by to see what they were all looking at. Apparently there was some kind of silent street plays going on. People were all dressed up and some had a small set doing all kinds of stuff but without speaking. It was interresting but not entertaining enough for us to stand there in the cold and watch so we headed back home.

There we met up with Yann, Lucie and Euwyn (a couple of my housemates) and then we went back to town!(yes for the third time, luckily you can buy a metro ticket here called the day saver. It costs about 1.5 times a normal oneway ticket costs.. people normally buy them as return tickets. But once you buy one you can use it the whole day as many times as you want... i think?)

Anyway we went out to party together in town, we started with.....

yes you guessed it..

Lloyd's Bar!

We first just sat down upstairs together, had a couple of drinks and chatted abit. But after awhile LT couldnt sit still anymore so we went downstairs to the dance floor. Euwyn told us that he was the best dancer of Scotland so we couldnt wait to see all his moves. Once we got down there he let go of all reality and went into a totally different zone of dance-sensation and did the most awesome dance moves I'd ever seen.... is what I would have said if he had done any cool moves at all =(  If he was the best dancer of Scotland then the Scotish version of "So you think you can dance" must be really entertaining on a comedic level.

LT noticed that the girls here are very different to those in Holland.. and in some ways quite the opposite. They dress up like hookers but they dance like teenagers at their first school dance...keeping boys an arm length away. But it might have just been the bar we were in.. I dunno.
One thing I do know.. is that the chicks here really like to get smashed.. and as I said in one of my previous posts drunk chicks + high heels is not a good combonation! This one girl we saw fell 3 times while trying to cross the road...But on the plus side.. she was crossing the road to catch a taxi home.

When we'd had enough of the dance floor we went back upstairs to sit down, Yann and Lucie said they were going to have a quick smoke outside so they would be right back. But after about half an hour they still hadnt returned.. until suddenly Yann showed up with the manager... He came to tell us that they wouldnt let Lucie and him back into the club because they had french passports and werent english! Kinda messed up, but I''m guessing its gotta something to do with the French and English history and it was getting close to closing time so maybe they didnt want more people inside... but still I'm kinda dissapointed in Lloyd's Bar now.


We then just went to another bar, had a couple more drinks and after awhile took a taxi back home.


Sorry I didnt have any picatures this post... I really need to take more photos...
Hopefully my next post will be filled with glorious ones of my many adeventures.

End of my First Week

My first week at Atomhawk is finished and theres only one word I need to describe it and thats awesome! Ive had a great time so far, it took alittle getting used to working 8 hours a day again but its good to be back in a rhythm.

Im really enjoying the work that I get to do and the work that I see getting done around me. As I mentioned before Ive got a great seat in the corner where I can watch a few of the screens of the other artists and see how they work. Every now and then I walk around and ask them some questions and they also come by to see what Im working on and give me some feedback which is great.

Atomhawk is really busy at the moment, theyve got a quite a few projects running, so not everyone is working on the same stuff and sometimes they dont even work on the same project all day, but work a few hours on one then switch to the next.


Ow heres the view from the office window that I said I would post.

At the end of the week a couple of us went out for a drink at a local bar which was great because in the lunch breaks we usually go to the local store and get some food and then when we get back people sit at their desks and eat and dont talk that much. But I got to talk to the guys (and girl), find out where they were from and where they'd worked before they came to Atomhawk.

Anyway.. with all the good.. comes some bad (we must bring balance to the force)

I dont have to get up super early in the mornings but the mornings are still crappy thanks to the shower -_-. Its like a freaking enigma... I have to turn the hot water on 100% and then when I turn the cold tap on the water goes from scaulding hot to freaking ice water! And theres a tinnnnyyy sweet spot that takes me about 1-2min to find every time. But when the tempature is right the water pressure is crap. Oh and did i mention that I have to bend down to get my head under it.....ugh I miss my easy shower back in holland.. just had to turn it ON! end of story.


This saturday was also loads of fun!(but not really) I had do food shopping for the coming week and do all my washing from the last 2 weeks. I had to get really creative with finding a places for my clothes to dry because I dont have one of those drying racks(yet). Thankfully the last guy that was here left a load of his hangers in the cubboard.

I also cleand out one of the kitchen cubboards. I found out a few days ago that it was from the guy that used to live in my room so.. I could use it now. But when I first opened it I got scared and closed it straight away...It had things growing inside....look at the photo if u dont believe me...(its a potato)

But I got rid of all the rubbish inside and purified it all with loads of anti bacterial spray. DIE SCUM!

While I was shopping I found this... BEST Ice creams ever! Combonation on my favorite childhood chocolate with ice cream and popping sweets! Gonna be eating alot of these the coming months...

First day of my Internship

Today was my first day at Atomhawk Design. I was only surposed to start on Wednesday but I asked if it was o.k. to start earlier because I was really looking forward to working there and didnt want to waste any more time.

They asked me to come around 11 because they still needed to prepare a few things for me before I could begin. Once I was there I introduced myself to everyone again (I'd seen them once before when I came to NewCastle in november but I couldnt really remember anyones names, plus there were some new people). Then Amy showed me my desk. An awesome spot in the corner of the office.. with my back to the wall, so I can see what most people are working on. Its a long office and one of the long walls is all windows... with a great view of NewCastle.. Ill try get a picature of it tomorrow.

Amy told me to settle in, customize photoshop and the wacom to my preferences and then after that I was aloud to look at all the projects Atomhawk has and is working on. I was like alittle kid looking at a collection of all the shiny pokemon cards. After awhile of doing that, Dan showed me a video in the meeting room about Atomhawks own IP they are working on called "Realm". The things I make for that project I'll be aloud to show to people luckily. All the other stuff is under NDA's... so if I'm lucky I can show that in a year.. or maybe 2.. or never O_o.


After that it was nearly lunch time and Ron (the boss) said he'd give me something to do after lunch. So I took a break with some of the others, we went down the road to get some lunch. When we came back everyone just went back to their desk and ate their lunch there.. so I did the same. I still had about a half hour so I went back to the project folder and started looking at some more awesome stuff.

Ron came over later and talked to me abit, showed me which project I would be working on and showed me where the style guide was. After that time flew by, every now and then I walked past my colleges to check out the awesome stuff they were making and Ron came by a few times to check up on me and give me feedback on the work I'd done. At about 18:30 I finished for the day. They are really flexible with your starting and finishing time here at Atomhawk. Im aloud to come in between 9-10 and depending on how late I start I finish between 17:30-18:30.

Time for bed.. looking forward to tomorrow!

Night Out in the city

On saturday morning Jan (the french room mate of mine) asked me if I wanted to go out in town with Lucy and him that evening, it was a friend of theirs birthday and they were gonna meet her in town for a couple of drinks.

Around 9 o'clock we started with a beer at home...but no not a normal beer.. a huge pint of australian Fosters. It tasted pretty oke, was alittle different to the beers at home in holland. I had a good chat with Jan, and he told me that he hadnt been out much in NewCastle either so he wasnt exactly sure where to go. But I didnt mind, I said thats all part of the adventure!

At around 10 we made our way to the local metro to grab a quick lift into the city centre. Its a real short trip, about 1-2 mins. Once we were there they phoned their friend and she said we just had to make a right and then a left and then we would be at the bar...but.... we couldnt find it. While we were standing outside I noticed we were standing at a place called Lloyd's bar! This is about the 4th time Ive seen a building with my name on it. Im gonna start collecting picatures of all the different things with my name on it here, because its quite common.

While we were standing there... outside in about -2*C, I noticed how little the girls here in NewCastle were wearing. I just couldnt believe it but all the girls here were in short skirts/dresses, high hills and no jackets! And some of them were already drunk out of their mind and it was only 10 o'clock! Walking all wobbely on their high hills, falling all over the place.

Anyway after awhile Jan and Lucy's friend (Rachel) came to get us cause we just couldnt find the place. It ended up being about 2 blocks further. Inside we got a couple bottles of beers and went to the back of the bar where Rachel and her friends were sitting(3 girls and a guy). I introduced myself and then sat next to Jan and Lucy.. but the music was so loud in there that I couldnt really talk to anyone on the other side of the table so.. I just chatted with Jan and Lucy some more, we talked about how weird it was that there was a huge group of girls going crazy and then there were a couple of guys sitting at the next table not even looking/talking/mixing with them.

The beer that I got there tasted terrible... I think they made it with sewage water or something. But once I finished it I really needed to pee. I went to the toilet and when I got there it was empty except for 1 cubicle that was closed. I took a wiz and then turned around to go wash my hands.. and as I was doing that the door of the cubicle opend and some guy dashed out behind me and went straight out the door and then a few seconds later another guy walks out and comes and washes his hands next to me. O_O I put 1+1 together... and got the hell outta there!

When I got upstairs I told Jan about it.. and then we started to notice things around us. The girls were all together.. and the guys were all together... could this be...a.. gaybar!!

We decided to make our way out after our next drink.. which was thankfully a Heineken.. or so I thought. I dunno what they do to their beer here but even the Heineken didnt taste the same...I wonder if they mix their water with it or something... because the water doesnt taste that great either.

We made our way to the next bar which was... Lloyds Bar! It was quite a nice place.. it had 2 floors.. up stairs was quite mellow, a good place to sit at a table and drink with your friends. But we headed back downstairs to the loud music and crazy dancing people. NewCastle is apparently famous for bachelor parties, I saw quite a few groups of people dressed in the same clothing. For example a whole group of girls were dresses in red and white striped clothing from "Where is Wally", and a few of them even had big round glasses.

The guy friend of Rachel was standing next to me, just drinking his beer. But after awhile Rachel started tempting him to dance...and oh how I wish she didnt..but she unleashed freaking Bruce Lee!!! This guy did the funniest moves.. I had to try so hard not to laugh. He was waving his hands all over the place. Kinda reminded me of this...but without the leg movement and turning hehe.

We danced, drunk and had a good time till about 1 o'clock.. when the lights suddenly came on and we got told to get out.. Wasnt quite what I was expecting for a place called Lloyd's Bar.. but o well.. Off we were to the next pub.

We followed Jan and Lucy's friend Rachel to Cozy Joe's I think it was called. Another pub with 2 floors.. downstairs was a big party area and bar.. and upstairs there was a smaller party area with karaoke and then there was this long hallway with doors, which apparantly all have their own small party area behind them which you can rent to party with your friends, sounds pretty fun to me. After listening to some reallllyyy drunk blond chicks and a not so bad italian guy we went down stairs. The music was alot better there so we ordered a couple more drinks and danced. After awhile Jan and Lucy wanted to go for a smoke.. and I wanted alittle rest from the loud music so I followed them to what I thought was outside.. but the bar had kind of built abit into the alleyway next to it, there were shelves on the walls for your drinks and heater lights that you could turn on if you were cold.

While I was standing there some random guy started talking to me, he was very kind but I could hardly understand a thing he said because of his heavy geordy(not sure how you spell it) accent. I then told im that I was from holland and asked if he could speak abit slower so I could understand him. I then introduced him to Jan and Lucy and we all chatted abit. Then some super drunk lady showed up and started asking us how old we thought she was. And to be nice we made some really low guesses, which made her even more happy. Then she told us she was so happy cause the guys at the door asked her for her ID and she was 31! So I can understand why she was so glad. She then started telling us about her 11 year old son and then next thing she tells us that the guy next to us was her boyfriend. So we all had a good laugh together.

Shortly after they left the italian singer from upstairs showed up next to me. He also started talking to me asking me how I was and where I was from. I then complimented him on his singing upstairs cause it was way better then all the others that tried. He was a really funny guy and told us how he was born in Italy and that his grand father had a beautiful name "Giovanni Valentino". I told him I was born in South Africa and now lived in Holland. Then suddenly a girl came up to us and asked who was from South Africa, I told her it was me and then she immidiately started talkin in Afrikaans to me. I laughed and said I couldnt speak it but I could understand everything she was saying (mostly because its alot like Dutch).

We finally went back inside, there we danced and laughed. Around 2:50 the DJ started shouting that it was the final round at the bar because after 3:00 they werent aloud to serve. 3 o'clock came and went...they stopped serving drinks but the club didnt close. The DJ said once everyone stops singing along with the songs he stops playing music, which is quite a cool way to close a club I think. Things kept on going back at around 3:30 Jan, Lucy and I decided to make our way home.

We dont live that far away from the city center so we walked home.