Chris Hack Artblog

Should Old Acquaintance Be Forgot

So here we are at the end of another year... And it's been a productive year art wise... 

I've been working a little over the Christmas period, despite the fact I seem to be getting ill right in the middle of my holiday! Bloody typical! Sob!

I have lots and lots of new things I want accomplish on the art front starting tomorrow... But unfortunately this will mean taking a little break on the blogging side of things while I get my arse into gear! 

Just a few weeks, a little breathing room, be back by my birthday later in January... In fact that may be the perfect time to start sharing again. I have projects I've always wanted to do. Bigger and better things... Anyway, if I get itchy feet before then I might pop a doodle or 2 up on here. But I want to get my head down for a while. Make some real progress.

So until then... This is the last of my older drawings... From my very first Moleskine... Above is a crop of my favourite section... But here is the whole thing stitched together...

 

I say stitched, because this is rather insanely 4 pages tied together... As in the middle is a 2 page spread, and the ends are the back of those 2 pages in the sketchbook. A rather silly idea that seemed so clever at the time... Hey ho... Click on it for a better look...

Anyway, I wish you all a very happy New Year... Have lots of fun celebrating tonight. And I'll be back before you know it in 2010!

Take care all... And thank you to every lovely person who's followed my artwork this year. Followed me on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, and here... And thank you to each and everyone who's left me comments and feedback. I appreciate every single one.

Struggling For Words...

I love posting work on my blog. Sharing pieces I'm proud of in some way. Building up an online portfolio, one step at a time. But sometimes I struggle with writing anything meaningful...

Maybe I need to work on a project that ties in closer with my little corner of the internet... Like a step by step or something. Something that lends itself to some sort of insight...

Until I figure that out, here's a portrait of Nicole Kidman... Pencil on cartridge paper. With no words of wisdom. No witty comments. Letting the art speak for itself in a way.

Back next week with something new...

 

Something Old... Something New...

So here's a new piece... And an experiment of sorts... I've been spending some time playing with simple lead pencils on normal cartridge paper. Nothing fancy. Just your standard arty tools of the trade. Mainly because I feel that as an artist, I really don't do enough plain old drawing. So this was an experiment working on a subject I find quite easy, an experiment with textures and pencil tones. And I find, the more drawings I do, the more comfortable I become with the medium.

So as much as I keep falling back on the tools and subjects I've become comfortable with, I also can't wait to just draw... Really draw... A whole load of new things!

Finish The Fight

It's safe to say I'm a bit of a gamer... I have an X-Box 360, which I can admit I play way too much when i should be doing other things... Like drawing! Take this last week for instance... Barely any art done beyond some tinkering here and there, and all because of the new Halo game. So todays post is at least an attempt to marry the 2. Halo's Master Chief. In pencil.

And now I'm done with Halo ODST... It's time to get back to the serious business of drawing... It's time to get some real art finished... It's time to make forward progress... Well at least until Call of Duty 6 comes out!

The Last Crusade

So this was supposed to go up a week ago... Except it didn't... Obviously... Cos it's going up now!

I started drawing what I'm calling my last Indy, while I was blogging all my other drawings. But it didn't go well. So after nearly finishing it last weekend in ballpoint pen, I scrapped it and started again. In pencil.

I realised that for someone who draws, i don't do a whole lot of drawing... You know, with a pencil. So that's what I'm doing for a while. Dr Jones is my first piece since I made this decision. Finished him on Friday. But wanted to give it a couple of days so I could come back with fresh eyes and tweak a little. I now have 2 more drawings started which I'll be sharing soon.

Until then, I hope you like what will be my last Indiana Jones for a really long time! HaHa... Sick to death of the bloody man in the hat!

One Year Ago Today

One year ago today i decided to get serious about my art... Which happened to coincide with meeting a certain lovely lady! Well one year later I'm still trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with all this. But I'm still drawing all the time. Still ploughing on. Plugging away! And my portfolio is growing stronger everyday as a result of that.

So this post is dedicated to that special someone that inspires us all to achieve what we want to achieve. We all need our muses... People that encourage us... Push us to achieve our dreams... Whether they're friends or our better halves... Everyday, because of them, hopefully we all get a little closer to what we want in life!

So, here's to them... And hopefully in another year we'll all be a little closer to what we want to achieve!

The Truth Is Out There

Another day... Another portrait... This time the lovely Agent Scully! Pencil on Bristol Board, which has a practically glowing white surface, and barely any texture... But can be a real pain to work on. To the point where now I use cartridge paper for my non Moleskine work! To many hours spent wrestling with board!! 

A New Beginning

Hi and welcome to my shiny new blog.

This is a new beginning, a fresh start for me. For anyone that's followed my work before, then this is my new home. Let's just say my first attempt at creating an online presence for myself kind of disintegrated. So I've spent the last few months recharging. Working on things without the worry of posting. And I've realized why I was so unhappy towards the end of my last art blog. There wasn't enough quality control! Too many pieces I wasn't happy with. Too many things rushed to finish so I could post something. Well lets just say I've learnt my lesson.

And that's where this new blog comes in...

It's a chance to begin again. To do things right this time, with all the experiences I gained before. So that was a dry run. And this is the real deal.

Now the best pieces I produced before are not gone forever. In fact over the coming months I'm going to be going back, reevaluating them, a bit of polishing, and reposting them anew.

Also my new home's going to take a bit of redecorating, a bit of fine tuning, so they'll be plenty of additions as the weeks roll by.

I've also started a brand new flickr... Which you can access here... or through the permanent links I'll be setting up on my blog sidebars in the coming days.

Anyway, once again, welcome, hope you visit often, and I hope you like my portfolio of artwork that will grow and develop over time. Here's to a fresh start! cheers!