Winter's Embrace

I'm going to have to find a way of warming my gloves in the morning before riding to work because damn that wind is cold. Half way to Robertsbridge I think my fingers are going to fall off... and it's not even January yet! I've taken to leaving my gloves on a radiator pipe at work all day so they should be toasty warm for the ride home tonight.

Last night I finished Assassins Creed. There was a wee bit too much you are trapped and must listen to me justify my fiendish plan to take over the world but other than that it seems like the designers wanted to get people on the edge of their seats for the sequel. I doubt people will be as crazy for it as they were for the Halo sequels but I know I'm looking forward to it. Oh and I really hope they don't take away water's lethality. Only twice did I curse when falling into water in Assassin's Creed and not once did I think "If I could swim this game would be so much cooler", if I was angry at anything it was the inaccuracy of my own jumping skills. Seeing NPC pickpockets would be cool in the sequel, so would variation in the "help the citizen" side quests (such as chasing a pick pocket and returning the stolen goods to the citizen for a reward). It would be nice if drunk/crazy/poor people harassed NPCs as well as the player.

In other news I have produced yet another picture! What is going on? I'm spewing forth creativity left right and centre. Well, perhaps not to that degree but I'm on a roll. Tonight I'll start the rough plans for adventure 5 (called "Liberation"). The image I drew was of Bob's character in the campaign so that when I'm running it I can visualise his adventurer easier. Nick and Bob gave me really good character back stories and descriptions to work with, I already know what Sam's character will be like because he has played the same halfling rogue for four out of six campaigns. I still want to develop his character along with the others though, perhaps the presence of two veteran role players in the group will help.

Anyway, here's the image. It's also on my site's artwork page (naturally). I'm still not happy with my capability to draw women. Why must they be so... so... subtle? An orc with more muscles than brains, and armour that increases his already imposing mass is easy to draw. He's even easy to draw in combat or while dead. But women, oh no, they have to be complicated to illustrate. I suppose that's why so many fantasy artists favour feminine characters to bring to life; it's much more difficult to pull off but the reward at the end is so much more satisfying because in the face of such a challenge you've created a more aesthetically pleasing expression.