Journey for Child's Play auction in December

Every year I aim to do 3 paintings for Child's Play - Penny Arcade's charity that buys toys, consoles and video games for children's hospitals, including Manchester Children's Hospital, about 9 miles from where I live.

As a small child, I spent 6-7 weeks at a time in Newcastle City General hospital (sadly, closed down now) undergoing a range of surgeries aimed at giving me a usable thumb on my left hand. My family lived in West Cumbria; I only saw my parents at the weekend, when they would travel across country on my dad's BSA 650 Gold Star, and I didn't see my little brother for weeks and weeks.

I remember being sad, lonely and quite miserable at times; the high point of my week was when some school work would arrive in the post! When I found out about Child's Play, it just made sense for me to paint to raise money for it.

This year I took the Assassin's Creed painting with me to PAX, and handed it over to Kristen; I've also decided to paint an image from Journey - an incredibly beautiful game from ThatGameCompany,, who also made Flow and Flower, all games I love.


Here's the source image I'm using:

and here's the pencil outline:

I'll start painting it later on this week.