I just learned today from SFX that Neil Gaiman has already penned a Doctor Who script for the second "Matt Smith" season. I remember when Neil did a script for Babylon 5 (Day of the Dead) and turned in a beautiful, haunting and personal bit of TV that in my opinion was the best epsiode they ever taped. This is good news. This is great news. Its like a birthday.

I hope they can give him a walk on roll as well. We've seen the Master, we love the Doctor and we hated the President....how about a small role as never before seen Time Lord? The Dreamer perhaps?.....The Sandman would be a bit too obvious.

It will be interesting to see how his episode stacks up to Steven Moffatts Hugo Award winning episode 'Blink'. Not to mention 'The Girl in the Fireplace' and a two parter 'The Empty Child' and 'The Doctor Dances'

I, however, have complete confidence in the Doctor Word...ah...I mean...Neil.

Can't wait!

This is another podcast I find myself listening to quite often while painting or working at the animation studio. Host Tony C. smith is the most energetic and enthusiastic host you'll ever run in to.

The podcast is a free download or stream from Starshipsofa.com as well as a free subscription from iTunes! There are occasional book reviews, non fiction pieces relating to science fiction, the odd movie review and much more. I really like this podcast. Its got character and charm. I'd hoist a pint with Tony any day!

There is a possibility some of my work may be featured on the StarShipSofa website in the near future as Tony has book cover art for each months Aural Delights episodes.

Taken from the Queenston Heights Park. I had a great day spending time

with some friends at the park using the old style pit Barbeques.

A view of the Niagara River from Queenston Heights, Ontario, Canada.

This monument sits high on the Niagara Escarpment looking over the village of

Queenston Heights. The monument is dedicated to Major-General Sir Issac Brock.

Hint: (He is the little guy pointing at the top)

Ok. Last Toronto pic for now. Maybe.

This photo was taken from the waterfront of Lake Ontario. You

can just see the white domed roof of the old "Skydome" Arena. Now called

the Air Canada Center. First CN Tower photo

This is the view that greets me every morning at the end of my morning commute to the studio.

It is easy to take this tower for granted...but the skyline would certainly be a great deal less impressive with out it.

Another shot of the Falls taken with my Canon this weekend. I
think I may try to make a habit of taking small photo excursions
around my local area.

Happy Birthday Canada! You are still one good lookin' Country.

This is a photo I took at Pigeon Lake, Bobcaygeon just before heading
out to do some fishing with some friends. Thought I would share it with you.

Hello All,

The contact page is now fixed for those of you that were having problems. Thanks goes out to my 'Web Ninja' Pierre at Imagery Fusion who fixed it within minutes. Now thats web support!

Drop me a line!

Oh and just another reminder that the Premiere episodes of the new animated show Stoked that I have been a part of airs on Teletoon Canada at 7pm this Thursday!

Also keep sending me those tutorial ideas! We've had a few good ones already sent in.

Thats all for now,

Brian

Last evening we gathered upon the shores of Lake Ontario (fitting for a Surfing Themed Show) to celebrate the Premiere and completion of the first two episodes of Stoked. The show is set to premiere in Canada on the Teletoon network June 25th at 7pm ET. As I have mentioned before, I have had the great luck to be a small part of this production, mainly in the Background Department and the Design Department building the occasional prop.

The best way to learn is to learn from the masters....and so I am. The series was created by Jennifer Pertschch and Tom McGillis (Total Drama Island). There is definitley a great deal of talent here at the studio and I believe that shines through in the finished shows. The kids are definitely going to get this and the Pros are already wondering how we did it using Flash.

The weather, which had been sunny and darn near to perfect as you could ever hope for turned rainy and damp on the day of the party. None-the-less we soldiered on and prepared to let the good times roll. The evening was a blast for the young and the old. This following is a picture of me with an actual surf board made from a design right out of the show. (Picture: Some artist with a surfboard)

Today I took the first hike of the year along the Niagara Gorge. The weather was a fantastic 20 C / 68 F and the sun was shining most of the time. Its easy to forget what kind of beauty surrounds us here at home and today was a great reminder. Along the way, about an hour into the hike, I came upon this Canadian Goose, nesting high up on a rocky out cropping. I didn't know they could fly gracefully enough to land in a spot that hard to get to, but I guess they obviously do. Tomorrow a post about A5-35 for sore muscles and why you should wear sunscreen before going on a hike.

There has been very little time these days to update the blog as I have recently started a 2 hour commute to an animation studio in Toronto that does various shows. While there I am doing some background paintings for the show as well as designing or rendering various props to be used thoughout the scenes. The background painting was a no brainer for me as I am quite familar with Photoshop (Even though we only use paths to create our images...can you say 1 millions layers per background!) The props, which I have been working on this week, are all done in Adobe Flash. Flash and I haven't got along with each other for a very long time. Unfortunaltely, I had to kiss and make up with it this week and learn all its deep and dark secrets so I could draw 8 million variations of a dress. A dress on a hanger, being held, being thrown, being washed, being held from the opposite view, now 3/4 view...you get the picture. Such is the life of animation! Still, there better not be any dresses next week! and I made a new friend... her name is Flash.

It is cool to hang around so many other artists. People who think in the same terms as you do and have very highly developed senses of humour. Or maybe its very crude senses of humour?

As for the show I'm working on, well its a new show, so hush-hush for now!

All is revealed here!

Well this first batch of pictures aren't cajun of course! These were some of the meals we had for breakfast a a franchise called Waffle House. There is a Waffle House every 10 feet down South! The first picture is hashbrowns with most of the fixings, the second is biscuits and gravy, the third is eggs and toast with a side of Grits (had to try grits) and the last is loaded hashbrowns...there must be at least nine items on there!

Next we had some great Cajun food in New Orleans. First is the crab stuffed mushrooms, then fresh oysters, then on to half blackened gator and half popcorn gator mmmmm!, then blackened Catfish topped with a Crawdaddy sauce served with collared greens and whipped potato, a seafood platter (stuffed crab, popcorn shrimp, breaded catfish, and deep fried oysters) and finally a Shrimp Po boy! Damn that was some good eating!

Well, I made it to Bourbon Street. We arrived early this morning at the bus terminal and walked for an hour and a half. Lesson 1: Remember to bring the map before you leave as your hotel is really only a 10 minute walk from the station.

Next we headed down to the waterfront and sampled some Southern Cooking. A heaping plate of Craw Daddies and an alligator sausage.

It was "Lundi Gras" as it was Monday and the Zulu celebration was in full swing.

Read the first trip post click here or the next trip post here

Space Channels' Mark Askwith recently had an interview with long-time friend and author Neil Gaiman about his novel Coraline and the just released movie of the same name posted on Spacecast.com. Listening to this got me reminiscing about a show that I believe was Mark's brainchild 'Prisoners of Gravity' or POG as we affectionately called it. I used to watch it on TV Ontario (now on Google Video) at weird hours in the early morning. On that show Neil Gaiman was voted as the writer fans most wanted to hear from, then mostly due to his success with the Sandman Series. It was and as far as I know the only show that truly talked about the art and craft of the books, comics, and films being created. This wasn't an 'Entertainment Tonight' publicity grab, but actual interesting and in-depth insights into all the things we loved. People are incredibly more accessible with the advent of podcasts, blogs and twitter to name a few, but back then this was the only way for me to connect with these people; other than going to a Convention. Neil's blog is actually one of the bigger ones on the net! I distinctly remember thinking how smart, talented and thoughtful the interviewees seemed about their work. It was inspiring.

Its good to see that Mark is on the Space Channel payroll and it can only mean good things for the viewers. Sometimes at night I pray to the heavens that POG will be reborn, seeing as the world of Video podcasting makes this more attainable than ever before. Hey a guy can dream. Until then, I'll continue to stare up into the heavens and cry, "Commander Rick why have you forsaken me?" and imagine that he's still up there in orbit reading these words and smiling.

'Nance' the often scene stealing AI of the show.

Until then, there is always this POG fansite, Signal Loss, who were kind enough to let me use these pictures.

Rick Green as Commander Rick / Enrico Gruen

Its time to say goodbye to my old sketch book. I filled its last pages today and get to start another identical one that some good friends purchased for my birthday back in November. I am excited to start this next one. I know the images for this year will be better than last years and to be honest good ol` sketch book No.1 WAS A BIT OF A BITCH to get through. It did however teach my a few things about beating creative blocks and also a great deal about anatomy. Although I`m glad to see you go...you`ll live on in my memory and...on my book shelf as well. As you can see I prefer the coil bound books as I bring my sketchbook with me just about everywhereI go now. I find this type better suited to drawing on a park bench, coffee shop or even standing. I`m hoping to fill all 100 pages in no more than three months. Thus I will need to commit to at least three sketches per day, which is what I`m averaging these days anyways. Maybe I should aim for two months instead! Time to up the anty!

On that note I am going to try an experiment this time round. I`ve always been inspired by the book cover art on Sci-fi and Fantasy novels. They also tend to be the genre I read the most. So for this new sketchbook, the theme is going to be scenes from BOOKS I`VE READ. I will not limit myself to this, as a sketchbook is supposed to be a sort of record of your thoughts and scribblings. Some pages contain more writing and notes than images! Right. Off to sharpen a new pencil!

For those of you who have been asking, here is the way I started my chainmail Hauberk. After making the rings from 14 gauge galvanized steel wire, i used the cutters to cut the rings out of the coil. I then closed 4 rings and put them on an open ring. (See 1st pic) Close the open ring.

Then I fan them out as in picture 2. Also in picture 2 is an open ring with two closed rings. I simply attach the open ring to the ist section I completed and continue to do this to add length to the chain. You can see the pattern the 4-in-1 ring mail makes. Looks like Celtic knotwork

Well it was movie night again and another drawing session has been completed. Tonight being Rabbie Burns Day, Scotlands most beloved Poet, the movie of choice was Braveheart. Naturally. Don't be surprised to see some kilted warriors in the sketch book some time soon. Nothing beats a creative block than a movie with lots of great battle scenes, castles, horses and crazy Scottish warriors. A little malted barley never hurt either. Strangely all my characters have a passing resemblence to Mel Gibson tonight???? Speaking of passing resemblences...this picture of Robert Burns reminds me of some strange artist guy?

And on to other business.

For those of you that have been asking that I post a clearer tutorial of how I am making the chain (mail) Hauberk; I will try to get that up this week and possibly even tomorrow.

Right now I'm off to paint my face blue and white.