Photos, a disturbing pig, and news

Well, my notions of updating this blog regularly might have had water poured on them again, but to be fair, that's because I've got a big art project on. No point being secretive about it, really; Facts About the World is finally returning after 7 years in the void. Six pages are complete so far and yeah, that's not a massive amount, but it's very time-consuming to make, and I'm challenging myself with the artwork, so that means redrawing things numerous times, messing about with colours, layouts, shading, all that fun stuff.

For now, here are some pictures from earlier today, having a leisurely wander in the sunshine. I forgot it's a bank holiday, so town felt eerily deserted. A bit of peace and quiet is lovely, but there's a point where the quietness just becomes a bit unsettling, and it was circling around that vibe today.




Heading up the 108 Steps, the appropriately named Short Street has been reopened after being closed off for a while, as the drystone wall further down needed to be repaired. This is a nice example of one of those squirrelly little labyrinthine streets that really appeal to me. They bring a lot of character to the place.

Coming up past the church, it was about this point that I noticed the lack of activity in the town centre; for the place to be that quiet at around midday, it was pretty jarring.


Walking past an antique shop, this pig caught my eye... send help.

Seriously, I love a bit of kitsch but this thing is just a monstrosity.

Coming home, Alan was basking in the sunshine. Absolute picture of elegance.

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Further rambling

Twa Thousand Corbies

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Going to start this post with an illustration, because of this blog layout, posts lacking images tend to look a bit pants. The art here is by G. Howell-Baker. A while back, I was joking about gathering together as many versions of Twa Corbies as possible, and finally, here we are. This is going to be a continually evolving list, so if you know of a version that needs to be included, or if you've recorded one of your own, then by all means, let me know. You can put a comment here or e-mail me at looksinnocuousnenoughchaps [at] gmail [dot] com. Part two, with versions 50-100 can be found here . Let's begin! 1.  Folly Bridge - My personal favourite, performed completely a capella with some beautiful, eerie harmonies. 2.  Hamish Imlach - A live version, and a very close second favourite. Hamish's distinctive voice works wonders here and we're treated to some elegant sitar as well. 3.  Ayreheart - This one features the lute and a passionate vocal performance, it's qui...
'Ave a gander 'ere

Some doodles from last night

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I went on a bit of a spree last night, trying out some different brushes in Rebelle 7, trying to work out what approach I might want to take for reviving Facts About the World, and here are some of the resulting doodles. First, a swoonicorn investigating Blarglflorp, the tiniest comet in the cosmos. Ara, done entirely using ink brushes with varying degrees of water. It's been a bit of running joke that their markings are different every time I draw them, and this time is no exception. (They were initially based on a striped dolphin but at this point, it's anyone's guess. Cynosure was a futuristic thing with cyborgs anyway, so what kind of dolphin Ara resembled wasn't exactly a pressing logical concern.) And one from the end of the night, which didn't end up being coloured because I'd been up since 3am again and needed to go to bed.
'Ave a gander 'ere

Fridayposting

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It is Friday, continuing the theme of the spooky video games, I'm currently revisiting Still Wakes the Deep and trying to finish up the blog post about that (it's a good job this isn't an audio effort because noone needs to hear yours truly going "Fuckin' 'ell, McLeary!!!" in an incredibly questionable Glaswegian accent whenever the mood so takes me.) Sod's law, I completely forgot to actually get the pictures off of Mariner... it was late at night. For now, it's time to return to the comfy slippers of The Callisto Protocol, not in chronological order and not really with a theme in mind either, just a bit of fun for today. Starting with these artfully arranged Crunchy Creatures, with a bit of an HR Giger kind of vibe. I also appreciate the elegantly flowing mist around here. Hmmm . (This one's off the PS4 version, I redid it on the PS5 but a big cloud of mist was obscuring one of the monsters and we can't have that.) This hexagonal effort...
'Ave a gander 'ere