I was lucky enough to travel over to New Zealand early October and spend a week working at Weta Workshop. I got to chat to some of my favourite concept artists, including Greg Broadmore and Jamie Beswarick. I also got to go over some of my pieces with my friend and mentor Richard Taylor. Some major modifications are going on with some of my older pictures to bring them up to scratch.

Richard Taylor is an amazing guy. I met him at a SupaNova convention in 2004 and struck up a conversation with him. The following year he allowed me to come and work amongst his sculptors and concept designers, even though my skills were very crude compared to the talent he had there, including Ben Wootten who I have in my deviant watch (he works mainly for Paizo and Wizards these days). Richard has been a great source of inspiration and it's pretty weird getting emails from an Academy Award winning artist. Working a full week there has again inspired me to work at my crafts and develop as an artist, so thanks again Richard.

I also learned something else whilst I was there. I realised that as fantastic it would be to work there full-time, I am happy to create my own works in my own time. Being married with kids, I also realised that working in a contract work environment is not the stability I need to provide for my family.

So what now?

I'm currently working on the interior art for a Paizo based RPG company called Sagaworks. It's old style B&W work but I'm finding it rewarding. My full time teaching job is approaching the Christmas break and as much as I would like to bury myself in art work, family must come first.

Cheers all.