Happy Birthendirthen (Blog)

It was my birthday at the start of March. I think the older you get, the larger the sense of dread is that your own mortality creeps ever closer.

I prefer to reverse the numbers.

However, this year was quite pleasant in that a friend came to visit and he made a lovely mango-frosting cake for me. I also managed to see some of my friends from uni during the weekend just before, and went back to band the weekend after (where I play a trumpet).

The day after my birthday, I visited the city of Birmingham for a bit, which is something I haven't done in quite some time. One thing that struck me was my urge to suddenly draw some stuff again. For those who don't know, back in the day I would often draw things in my free time and do a lot of artwork. This came to a head where at the end of school, I had a choice to make for further education - to pick something art related (graphic design was my leaning then), or written-work related. I ended up picking the latter and the rest is history. As such, I eased off any art-related stuff to focus more on writing, which has always been my other love. So, to have an urge to actively draw some stuff again was pretty odd to me. I found an art shop, purchased some greyscale copic markers and suitable paper, and decided to draw an up-to-date Smaz.

Smaz was my nickname in school, which I then ended up using in online Crash Bandicoot forums as an alias. It's a name that has stuck with me throughout the years. However, Smaz was also the name I gave the Kyote (arctic fox-like being) character in one my first novels, Sea of Seals. The character has also stuck around in various guises over the years, which ended up being modelled in VR for me to play as. So, I drew a new Smaz.

Smaz is just chillin'

Playing around with copic markers

My friend, Kath, was also feeling particularly down about things as of recent. She has been developing a game of her own with her boyfriend. To cheer her up, I drew one of the characters of her game. She seemed to like it!

You've probably noticed they're mostly greyscale, but that was always the colour scheme I preferred to work in, with a few choice highlight colours on occasion. I used to favour graphic, but I did also enjoy working in copic markers, as seen here.

My friend and I also ended up watching all of the Reverie arc of an anime called One Piece. He's been pestering me to do that for a very long time now. So, it only made sense that I acquired a Luffy figure (the series' main character) for my cabinet, as a birthday treat. I'm just glad I got to do something this year and see people, since the pandemic has made this difficult... and 2021 had the caveat of booking it off work, only to then be called back in for that day. Ah well.