RSKowalski

It's been a while since I put pen to paper and even longer since I put fingertips to keyboard - I've had a big change this year inasmuch as my day-job has moved on and now I'm looking for something new to do. The obvious direction would be to concentrate on making art and pictures but, as anyone with more time on their hands will tell you, you suddenly become inundated with the minutiae of life and find that there's even less time for anything.. Anyway, nevermindthat, let's talk pictures and what to expect next on DA: The good news is that I've been commissioned to bring some stories to life for writers who have contacted me. Some of these will remain private commissions whilst others may bring a few selected pics to DA. In both cases, I'm extremely grateful to those who are prepared to trust me to bring their ideas to life - collaborations DO work (small nod to FFS there :) ) and every new story challenge gives me another XP point towards being a better artist (at least in my head).

I don't really do journals exactly - this is more of a ramble, but hey - it's all harmless fun isn't it... :) First up, thankyou to everyone who is watching my DA page, adding Favs, making comments and feedback etc. It is all, indeed very much appreciated. Watchers may note that much of my recent output has been somewhat dominated by a long fight between Charlene & Chris. This is by far the longest story I've ever illustrated, in fact it's a commission devised and directed by 'K' which, believe it or not, will eventually run to a couple of hundred pictures. Whilst this does mean that my short stories (Nikki, Victory, RWF and the gang: I'm talking about YOU!) are rather sidelined for a little while, the commission is a brilliant opportunity for me to explore the longer format - the visual equivalent of a novel I guess. It can be quite exhausting but it's really stretching my thought process; keeping moves fresh and trying to avoid repetition. In amongst all this, I recently lost

I knew that 'Hands of Rock' was going to be a tough story to bring to life ever since I read Redmanx's first draft back at the beginning of the summer - his accompanying mail asked the question 'Have I gone a bit OTT with the beating?' in my head, the answer was 'Yes', but there's always an element of challenge for me when I bring Nikki to the screen; whether it's the 'fireworks intro' pictures from Blast From The Past or the RWF invasion of US Military at the end of Hands of Rock (not to mention the sadistic beating that Rox dishes out) - it always sends me in directions I wouldn't normally explore when I'm writing my own fight stories. It did occur to me that some of Nikki's fans would find this a bit too much, but I guess that's part of life; parts of MY life have been temporarily ruined when my heroes have passed away - from Rik Mayall to Kirsty MacColl, from John Lennon to Iain Banks. Mercifully, they've all left us with something to remember them by and the world is a better