Hello and welcome to my blog! You wouldn’t believe the grief I had getting this site live… but it’s at a semi-usable state now and that’s good enough for the moment. This is ultimately my personal blog, it is going to go through endless revisions and updates so there really is no need to get it 100% perfect right now!
Anyway onto the important stuff. Me!
I’m Paddy, I’m a web developer and digital artist from West Sussex, UK. I’ve been employed as a professional web developer for a little over a year and a half, and before that I freelanced on and off since 2020. Before THAT, I was a Ground Worker, the devilishly handsome chaps that do the roads and foundations. Which was loads of fun and better paid!
It looks like an odd career change on paper, but I had always dabbled with “tech stuff” and “art stuff” I even attended college many years ago to study Graphic Design, so as I was getting older, had taken a few injuries and then had kids, it seemed that now was the time to focus on finding something new, and softer to do with myself!
I am currently on a level 7 degree apprenticeship, studying a Digital and Technology specialist degree with an elective in Software Engineering. We’ll see how that goes.
Aside from that I am father to two extraordinarily awesome children, Rory 5, and Niamh (almost) 2, I’m married to a total hottie called Nicole, whose patience for my endless projects and mad schemes is regularly tested to its limit, but she loves me none-the-less. I also have two dogs, Murphy and Archer, both pushing 10 now, so they’re old boys like me!
My life is not without it’s trials and tribulations, but on the whole I would say I am an exceptionally lucky bloke really. I certainly don’t know what I did to deserve them.
Why a blog?!
Well, I’ve always wanted one. To put it simply. I’ve come up with loads of ideas over the years for blogs, primarily marketing blogs so I could make a bit of money and showcase some SEO skills, but my addled ADHD brain just doesn’t focus for that long when there’s actual work involved.
I’m an ideas guy I have decided.
But on a serious note, it’s one thing doing the labour when someone is paying you a wage, it’s harder to get incentivised when they’re not, and with that realisation I realised I had wasted a lot of years trying to find the perfect business for me. Especially as I am not that fussed on running a business anyway.
What I am fussed on is making cool stuff. Whether it is a gaming website, or handouts for Vampire: The Masquerade games, or making wargames terrain from scrap or 3d modelling (and the limitless horde of other interests). That’s what I am motivated to make content about, and that motivation is primarily to get to know fellow enthusiasts, regardless of which of my hobbies, crafts or skills you are enthusiastic about, and maybe together, we can create REALLY cool stuff.
What’s next then?
Pfft… that is a question… that I asked myself…
Next for the blog is just uploading projects in various states of completeness as I feel the urge, and talking trifle about it to be honest. But there are broadly three main categories that I will be posting.
Digital Art
I have always been the sort of person who lives in their imagination as much as practically possible. It has been both a gift and a curse over the years and is expressed in a variety of mediums. Digital art and creative writing are probably the easiest and most accessible to document on a blog, but more practical/crafty projects will also be lumped into the art category.
If it turns out that there is a lot more craft, or toy soldiers, or creative writing than I initially expected I will go ahead and create a new custom post type for them and they will be sections of the website alongside the rest! Although maybe they could be rolled into the basic blog type. I don’t really care. There’s no planning here. Welcome to the inside of my head.
When it comes to creating art, I focus on what’s cool! I’m a big sci-fi/fantasy nerd. I sold my soul for Warhammer a long time ago. So expect a lot of monsters! My Biggest artistic influences have been, John Blanche, Ian Miller, and Mark Gibbons (All GW artists), Brian Froud, with a heavy dose of H.R. Giger, Hieronymus Bosch, and a whole host of surrealists which is a genre I think coloured my taste in art perhaps more than any other.
Coding
This was originally going to be my sole focus but I do too much other stuff. Even at work I end up being part graphic designer and part marketer. I’m like a techno-odd-job-man. There are worse niches to occupy though, I am always busy with something!
This section will be split between game dev in Godot (usually with Rory too) and web development stuff. While this is a WordPress blog, I am involved with all sorts of projects. A Lot of Laravel these days, but I am a big fan of the MERN stack as I can just spew JavaScript everywhere and watch more traditional backend devs weep. MWA HA HA HA!
I also like to play around with React Native and a limited selection of drag and drop tools just for the Craíc.
It will all be haphazard and will change on a whim.
just because.
Design Stuff
Really I am intending to showcase web and graphic design here. When time permits I thoroughly enjoy optimising UI/UX. That said, when freed of my corporate shackles, I will make everything look like a heavy metal or gaming mag from 90s/00s and You can’t stop me!
So expect a lot of that.
Expect everything from custom icons, to web page or document layouts, interspersed with gaming handouts and no doubt more besides. There is no niche I’m chasing. The only niche being chased here is whatever I am motivated to work on at any given time!
The End
Dunno what else write now to be honest. The muse has left me for the moment. But I suppose I should sign off with something meaningful.
I guess the ultimate purpose of this blog is networking but on my own terms. You can take me or leave me and it makes no odds!
That said, if you have a project you’d like to collaborate on, or you just wanna talk geek, drop me an email at paddy@paddymccabe.com