Weekly Update - 13th of April

Anything interesting happen this week?

I found out on Wednesday that the company I work for wants, starting tomorrow, to change my role from being a pure developer to an application support role. This means that I'll do less coding than I did before and focus more on ensuring the products we manage tick over and resolving any problems that may emerge. This may seem like a demotion, and that is how I initially took it, but I've been assured that is not the case and simply them re-focusing me in a role I am good at. I've been doing a lot of application support since I first joined the company in 2007; it's what taught me a lot of product knowledge and the general ins and outs of the systems. Heck during big development cycles I was the one who'd tend to look after this while my colleagues would focus on developing. Not necessarily what I wanted to do but it needed to be done and I was the best man for the job. So far I've been generally mixed but overall positive on this. Yes it will mean I do less coding, at least initially as we set up the new support team but it does take off some of the stress and pressure my job tends to press on top of me, particularly when it comes to learning new coding languages which I have always struggled to do in my spare time. This is a new team for my company and I'll be forming it with a new colleague (who is also happened to be named Peter) tomorrow who's been an application supporter for about ten years, so while this direction may seem slow at first there is likelihood of us becoming "the first line of defense" regarding bugs and issues, i.e. they come to us and if it's deemed something we could/should fix we will do so. At best this will hopefully help expand my experience with languages and coding practices that I may normally not get involved in without all the aforementioned stress and urgency to learn things faster. A number of people I've spoken to have said this is a good direction for me as they feel I'll excel in this new role and maybe even not want to go back to pure coding so we'll see. I'm going to give it about twelve months and see how I feel around then.

I'm hoping that by being moved to a field that I am generally better suited for and therefore likely to have less stress and pressure pushing down on me, I'll have more energy for some of my hobbies outside of work, particularly drawing. A few people I've spoken to believe this will be the case, which is certainly a good thing so fingers crossed.

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Current Projects

After receiving some excellent feedback on the Meritza piece for BigDead93, I find myself now filled with more vigor regarding getting this and the other trades done so I can pay off my "debt" (apologies again to those I have left waiting) and move onto to some other projects. I've also had a few ideas on what to do for my trades with CMBaggs and ZAKKIDO.

Athena for User-2018225d       - First wip done and uploaded for feedback
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Meritza for BigDead93       - First wip done and uploaded for feedback



The Elements - Water for ZAKKIDO      - Possible pose/concept thought up
Cusirimay for CMBaggs      - Possible pose/concept thought up
Illia Westwind for StaciNadia       - Nothing thought up so far
Lulu for Koimii       - Nothing thought up so far
My interpretation/redesign of Red for Galvathom       - Nothing thought up so far
To Be Decided for Syo-11       - Nothing thought up so far
To Be Decided for toonartist       - Nothing thought up so far

Received Trades
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I'm also contemplating sketching a few topless bikini pictures later this evening to try and practice my anatomy, more natural poses and dip my toe in the "artistic nudity" concept I've been interested in for a while. Much like the Noir picture from a few weeks back I will probably scan and upload that and then re-work it digitally. I'm also planning to start work on my Sentai projects soon as well. For a while I've contemplated drawing my teams in simple poses, with the idea being to focus less on what flashy action pose can I put the character in and more what their design is (which is something I struggle with). Once that's done I'll then look into moving onto a more elaborate pose of them showing off their power and weapon. I bring this up because of some of the recent discussions toonartist and I have had on Sentai, as well as the excellent "Gokai Violet civilian form" (one of two custom Gokaigers I've made) he uploaded earlier this week (which I will plan on featuring the week after next) has once again re-sparked my desire to work on Sentai related art, but I do want to get some of my other projects done first.

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My Characters

If people ever want to draw my OCs they are more than welcomed to do so without having to request my permission first. You are of course more than welcome to contact me first if you want to run any ideas past me, but in general I'm open to anything, i.e. re-designs, using their abilities in new ways, fan service/ecchi style stuff etc., so long as it doesn't portray my character being portrayed out of character or being severely beaten/killed by someone else. This has happened to a friend of mine many a moon ago where a villain he had spent his series building up as a formidable threat was easily dispatched of like some monster of the week.

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Want to contact me on social media? If so:

Twitter - twitter.com/pawcanada
Tumblr - pawcanada.tumblr.com/
Steam - steamcommunity.com/id/pawcanad…
Skype/MSN - pawcanada/pawcanada84@hotmail.co.uk
XBox Live - pawcanada
PS3 - pawcanada84
3DS - 3969-4834-4532

I do also have a Facebook account, but this one is a bit more personal as I mostly use it to interact with friends and colleagues so if you'd like to add me on there please drop me a note first and please don't be offended if I choose not to add you. It probably means I've not gotten to know you that well yet.

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Weekly Feature

I will admit I can't quite remember what lead to me discovering the amazing work of User-2018225d. It was most likely me discovering his portrayal of a certain Greek Goddess that caught my eye, and since then I have had the pleasure of watching his style evolve and grow in a very short amount of time. And considering he's doing this whilst being in medical school, I truely dip my hat to him for being able to solder on and improve. The detail and colour he's put in some of his pictures is outstanding and really helps bring it all to live and there is also the possibility of him creating a comic/manga that will focus on the various Gods he's adopted and modified.

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