Hello all, and a massive thank you for all the support over the past year.

You may have noticed I haven’t posted much over the last month or so, but I haven’t stopped working hard. Toward the end of 2025 I wrapped up the Self-Employment Assistance Program, and I realised I wasn’t happy with the direction things were heading. This website is built on a  platform that is heavily focused on merch, and that’s not where I want to take the project.

So over the end-of-year holidays, I removed all distractions. I stopped streaming, I removed social apps from my phone and turned off notifications on my PC. I read a lot of books and tried to come up with a new plan.

You can read that whole story here

What I realised is that my strength is in my broad interests. I need to go back to exploring wherever my creativity takes me, instead of trying to force myself into a niche.

I’ve started a new site on a platform that allows growth and long-term presence, instead of platform hopping. I’ve also made everything completely free and public — no paywalls at all. The people who need inspiration the most can also be the ones doing it tough right now, and I don’t believe in locking positive creative content away for only those who can afford it.

And by “positive creative content,” I mean long-form articles — not quick “here’s what I’m working on” updates. I’ll be sharing detailed breakdowns and thoughts around projects I’ve finished, failed, or abandoned.

You can also sign up for the newsletter. It’ll be sent once a month, with a summary of the past month’s articles and a peek at what might be coming next. No marketing, no advertising — just a pure creative space for inspiration, experimentation, and exploring the human experience.

https://www.houseofnormal.com.au/

Since the release of Arc Raiders, I’ve been inspired. The concept art from that game is mind-blowingly good — the kind of artwork I’ve always been drawn to but never been able to do, because it comes from fundamentals like oil painting, architectural perspective, life drawing, etc. All the things I didn’t do in my art journey.

I developed my own particular style because of that — always drifting away from reality, drawing arms as tentacles, etc., simply because I couldn’t draw realism. My parents were super religious, so I was never allowed to join the life drawing classes at school, and I never learnt those fundamentals when I was young. So now it’s time to go back to the drawing board (lol) and start filling the gaps in my fundamental art knowledge.

This is honestly really hard, because everything I’m learning now is stuff I avoided at all costs… probably because it was hard.

I’m starting with 10 minutes a day of life drawing (using a life-drawing app), and eventually I’ll join the local life-drawing classes. Plus more time experimenting with blocking in shapes and colour.

These images are just the beginning. I’m posting them here as a reference point to see how I can develop these skills.

Texture Experiment 005 
A4. Acrylic on 300gsm Water Colour Paper 
Tools: Sponge. Brush. Posca

#damienquick #houseofnormal #art

After weeks of work this piece is finally completed. I've never used all these mediums together and it was quite a challenge, however I'm very happy with the result. 
Airbrushed Acrylic Pigmented Ink, Layers of brushed thinned pouring paint and metallics, Posca Pen outlines and finally Polychromos pencil shading on the background. This gives a super Matte background and gloss metallic foreground. 
I also noticed the highlights really pop in different colour light. 
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UPDATE
This along with several other pieces are currently at Prolab receiving the premium scan treatment which will allow for future limited and signed print runs. 
Also the Southern Forest piece is in for framing and has been entered into the Ipswich Art Awards Coming up in November. 
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I've been a bit quite over the past month however many shenanigans and goings on in the background. 
By the end of September I will have merged both websites. 
House of normal and the sketchbook completely onto the Fourthwall framework. Then both web addresses will link here. 
The store (currently Empty) will have a complete overhaul and both original and limited print stock will be added over the coming fortnight. 
This allows for complete store integration into my Twitch Live Streams. 
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On another note. Australia Post has temporarily suspended postal services to the United States due to newly imposed Tariffs. 
I hope this will be rectified soon and I will keep the store updated. 
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Chat soon. 

I have been working on this one over  the past week. Reminiscent of the previous 'baller worm' drawings over the past 20 years and seems to be a repetitive theme. This one's almost done. Acrylic pigmented inks with the airbrush, brushed pouring paint, metallic washes, posca pens and Polychromos pencils. 
Once this is finished I will be heading to the art reproduction house to get several pieces professionally scanned at national Art gallery quality, which will allow for limited archival print runs, stay tuned. 

Flashback Friday - Some Ball point pen drawings from my 'carry always' sketchbook. 
Mostly black ball point pen with some highlights done with a white chinagraph pencil. (a kind of wax pencil)

Pouring paint on canvas. Bit of an experiment as I don't really use pouring paint. 

The Bush Stone Curlew is one of my favourite  birds. Howling like a horror movie in the night. The one thing that really stands out is their giant eyes, which I made a feature. 

1220 x 800mm Airbrushed Acrylic / Glazed pouring acrylic, Pigmented ink, Posca Paint Pens on 2.2mm Ply. 

This is going in for an archival film scan ready for a print run. 
Stay tuned for details .

Airbrush Acrylic and Marker pen on Acrylic sheet.450mm x 450mm
Way back in 2001, I released a solo noise/experimental EP called The Initial Signs of Sodpops.
It featured four tracks, each quite different from the others.

The cover—like most of my art at the time—was drawn on whatever material I could get my hands on. This one was painted on a 5mm sheet of acrylic, with the original masking paper still attached. You can see part of the masking peeling up on the mid-left.

The painting still exists, though it's pretty worn now after suffering some water damage.

Originally drawn on paper in the sketchbook, scanned, linework and colour in clip studio. I had huge issues with selecting a colour palette and tried many versions however I ended up grabbing a palette from Stimpy, (Ren and Stimpy) which in the end. made this look like Stimpy on an acid trip.