I've been a Deviant for 3 years and this is my first ever journal entry. It's 3am, my eyes are heavier than an American dad's buffet lunch plate (no offence) but dammit I'm going to give this a try. I don't think I'll approach this like a blog; I figure if people are going to read this on DeviantArt they want to read about...well, art. So I'll chat about what I've been up to art-wise and hopefully not bore you all (that being like, two people) to within an inch of your lives. If you're on a second storey floor or higher then you have been warned. Death may be a window away.

I've been trying to do realistic-looking drawings since I can remember. In school I'd have my nose to the paper, trying to draw every spec of dirt and every imperfection on the still life we'd have to draw. Thank God we never got a nude model! Although naked person...in a school. Maybe it was a good job we didn't lol. Anyway, I soon realised that I was spending wayyyy too much time drawing small sections, and it was affecting my marks. I don't think I ever got higher than a C in art throughout my years in school, which is a real shame because it was my favourite subject (although I do remember my first ever A*. It was year 4 or 5 and I drew Sonic. The teacher thought it was so good she printed it off for the whole class to colour in. The winner won a lollypop!). Still, since then I think I've learned a thing or two. One such thing is that drawings don't have to be perfect.

One of my biggest problems is that I don't do an awful lot of original work. I really want to, but whenever I get an idea in my head it never quite turns out the same on paper. Most recently I drew a portrait of Lady Gaga. I don't know why or how it came about. I just heard a song of hers, got it in my head that I was going to draw her and that was that. Don't get me wrong, I think she's fucking gorgeous and I enjoyed painting it...but that sort of drawing is out of my zone, if you know what I mean. I usually draw skulls and monsters and shit, not successful pop stars. Anyway, people seem to like it which is always a good thing, and I always appreciate critisism.

I have so many things on the go at the mo. I'm designing 3 tattoos; a Liverbird design, an Everton one and a tribal wolf. I'm also working on a traditional painting of the movie Highlander for a mate in work, although I think he's given up on the idea of me doing it. I promised him I'd paint his World of Warcraft character about 3 years ago and never did...I still feel really bad about that to this day. Oh, and I'm working on another thing for someone in work, a Transmetropoliton Spider Jerusalem thing. I'm all busy and stuff. I still keep finding myself going off and doing other random things when I should really be doing those things mentioned above, which is probably why I never finish anything!

Does anyone know what Vector Painting is? Neither do I, but I've just been looking at some guy's stuff and oh my God, it was like looking at photographs! How can I compete with that? It's something I'm going to look into and try to reproduce, but some people will always be way out of my league. So much for my dreams of being a concept artist! I can't draw original stuff and there are people who can make their drawings look like photos! I'd give up on the idea, but I know I have it in myself to get better. If I didn't believe it, then who else would?

I think I'm going to wrap this up. I've probably made a ton of spelling and grammar mistakes but so what. It's nearly 4am! I think I'll go watch QVC in bed, or maybe a paid-for presentation for a Rug Doctor carpet cleaner. "Ruuuuuuuuuug Doctor, steaming mad at dirt!". Yeah, I've seen that one about a hundred times. Another favourite of mine is the Jack Lalanne power juicer. "No need to slice your fruit, the Jack Lalanne juicer can take whole fruit; whether it be whole apples, bananas, or even 5kg watermelons, no fruit is too much fruit!". Oh, and the amazing V-Slicer! "It slices, dices and even peels fruit and veg! Ever accidentally chopped a finger off with your clunky old-fasioned kitchen knife? Well now you can slice, dice or even peel your fingers!".

Laters