"What art offers is space - a certain breathing room for the spirit." – John Updike

For the last six months when I haven't been writing or running workshops, I have been reacquainting myself with an old friend - 3D modelling. It was over seven years ago I left the game industry and longer still that that for the last time I did any serious computer graphics work. However, more recently the passion that took over everything else has been my writing. Not anymore. I have dusted down old skills, retrained myself in the latest 3D packages and started work on a labour of love...the image you see above. This scene depicts the airship Athena from my book, Cloud Riders, and has been modelled in intricate detail.

I have also produced this image ahead of the release of the second book in the trilogy, Breaking Storm. The picture depicts Athena flying over the ice sculpted landscape of Hells Cauldron, a parallel world version of our Iceland. 

As an artistic project, an indulgence, this image has been an utter joy to work on and left me hungry to produce more work. I'd forgotten just how important visual expression has always been to me.

I'm planning to release this as the first of a limited addition set of images themed around Cloud Riders.

I hope you like this first glimpse of Athena as much I enjoyed making it.