The character concept sketches continue. Here are the five character portraits for my Dark Heresy game. They are a mix of found and shot imagery using only Photoshop. Each portrait took less than 6 hours and are a result of a collaboration between myself and the player who has an initial idea in his or her head of what their character should look like.
Thailand is a magical country, full of smiling patient locals, overweight red tourists, delicious food and furry mosquitoes. The thai massages are a daily indulgence. The water is warm and very salty. The ladyboys like me (go figure) and it’s hard work doing nothing all day. 
Here are some doodles I have made on the iPhone using brushes between moments.
Ever since I first saw space marines and genestealers back in the late eighties, I was wanted to roleplay in that universe. The table top mass combat was fun and all, but I was (am) a roleplayer, not a miniatures general. So, when I first saw that Dark Heresy (original from Black Industries, but now under license with Fantasy Flight Games) was released, I knew I had to buy it. I didn’t even care much about the game system; I just wanted to read more about the Warhammer 40k universe.
Well, the game is truly exceptional. The rules are based off Warhammer Fantasy (2nd or 3rd edition) and are quick and gritty (especially so after the laborious miniature-obsessed D&D4e) but it’s the setting that is phenomenally presented. Dark Heresy is a low power game where the players are acolytes working (usually secretly) for the Inquisition to root out heresy amongst its citizens. It’s about rewarding subtle and smart play and discouraging heavy handed full assaults, but it’s always good to mix it up. My players and I are hooked and I have since bought all the books, including the two other systems that raise the power level: Rogue Trader (you seek your fortune with a warrant of trade on the outskirts of civilized space) and Death Watch (you are one of the famous space marines asked to serve in the prestigious Order known as Death Watch).
I have made a website for my players (and me) to keep track of all the non-player characters the players meet. I’ve named our campaign Dark Horizons, after the ship that is pivotal in the story arc.
I also made some character sketches for the Rogue Trader game my friend Dave ran.
Here is a time lapse movie on how I created Fortunis.
I have left Ogilvy in June 2009 and started my own small one-man digital design agency. It has been going really well and I love the balance of working on really arty pieces of work (Big Bang Love) and far more “serious” corporate fair from large multi-nationals. I have a one pager (who has the time?) for Hylen Digital, my company.
I walked up Table Mountain along Platteklip Gorge on Sunday and I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I went with friends Greg and Shaaron, neither of whom had done the walk. It took us two and a half hours; quite a leisurely pace. I’ve posted some pics of the 5 hr trek (4pm to 9pm) on my flickr account.
Well me. I’ve been to both and uploaded my photos to flickr. The Bahamas were taken 5 years ago, December 2003 and Cannes was this year July 2008 at the advertising awards show. Enjoy. 
http://www.flickr.com/photos/21073784@N07/sets/
Hold on to your molars! The Audi A5 microsite that won gold at the Loeries 2008 also won Site of the Day at http://www.theFWA.com. This is a truly remarkable site as it has a new (usually Flash) site daily that’s worthy of consideration. If you’re a web designer you have to know about this site for inspirational (ripping off) purposes.
Lesser known but equally interesting is http://www.fwatheater.com. This has movie clips like Youtube, but with much better quality and faster download times. The site doesn’t feature silly videos though and has a decent collection of showreels, animated clips, advertising and trailers. Check it out.
I’m on twitter! So now the whole world can know immediately how I’m living my life. 30 years from now I’ll compile the one-liners into a memoir called “140 characters”. chuckle.
I’m torgnyhylen on twitter so look me up and get a sneak preview at the eventual book. 
http://www.ffffound.com is a site were users upload interesting pictures, sometimes photos but mostly illustrations, that appeal to an aesthetic. These aren’t jokey pics, so don’t expect to see kittens falling off tvs. The best bit is that when you click an image you go to a page with similar images. Hours can disappear from your life by just following the images. Its awesome.
I’ve made a screensaver by batch downloading a whole bunch of ffffound images and then point my slideshow screensaver to that folder. I’ve got about 5,000 images and the best screensaver I’ve ever had. Coolest thing is I got 3 screens at work and each of them displays different images. Bliss.
