18 Dec 2012

Merry Christmas

Oh gosh, It's been really hectic these past few months...


 I have changed jobs to which there has been a lot of training to do (still doing some to be fair) and with it getting ever so closer to Christmas the shops have been extra busy, so much so I have been doing a fair few hours these past couple of weeks. It doesn't mean that I haven't stop drawing it just means I haven't been doing as much as I would have like, but hey Christmas is nearly here so it will get much quieter soon.

 So apart from a few cons  I have been busy on with a few little projects, The first are a few commissions for Christmas, (I'll post them up soon as some are gifts for peeps and we wouldn't want to spoil them) so been doing them in between shifts, I also brought out the little sketch book for MCM and Thought Bubble which went down OK, I know it's not to everyones taste but I kind of wanted to bring something out seeing as I wouldn't be able to get Honeydew out.

 Speaking of Honeydew, I had originally wanted to get it out for Thought Bubble at the latest, but with things going how they were I really didn't want to get it rushed out so I have put it back till next year, what pages I had designed I am now re-drawing. I had made some slight changes to clothes and little things here and there which were fine at first till I realised that it affected the whole comic. (Boo) So the plan maybe to get a Kickstarter going for it maybe mid 2013, get some sort of cool little extras to go with it too and see what happens. Gives me some time to have a little think and see what I really want to do.

 I also need to re-print Vol.1 of Herald and Vol.3 which is good but again it's going to cost a fair few pennies so will be putting that on hold, I need to go through them and get rid of some spelling and grammar mistakes but may do another cover for three ( it doesn't fit with vol.1 and more) but that is just a minor thing I ponder over....

 The main thing I wanted to say is a big Thank you to everyone, thanks to everyone who buys my comics and still keeps on buying them, I really enjoy getting feedback off you and hearing what you think of my comics, you guys are awesome. Have a good Christmas everyone!!!! (probs won't post now till the New Year)

26 Sept 2012

....

Wow, I hadn't realised that the last post I did was from the Paris Expo, that really isn't good. 


I've been working away at things and have one or two things to show for it but nothing much. I have been working on trying to get my new comic Honeydew and Magic out for this year, which was going well until I had a few awesome little projects to do. I also really didn't want to rush it and make a hack job of it so sorry to say I'll have to put it back to the beginning of next year, but hopefully it will be of a better standard and in full colour.

 I was asked a while back to do a little picture for Jon who is a super chap and does a lovely little series called Afterlife.inc, if your going to Thought Bubble this year you will be able to pick up the new book there which I would recommend, there are some sweet little story's in it. But any way I did him a little drawing of his guy Jack which I'm quite chuffed with

 

I have also been working on a film poster for an exhibition about horror films, you can find out more info here, but if you are in the Sheffield area in the next month or so pop into the showroom and have a little lookie. I got to do An American Werewolf in London which I really didn't think would go so well at first but really did, I am super happy with it because it is something that I wouldn't normally do.

But to finish off, If anyone is going to Mcm expo or Thought Bubble you should be able to pick up a sketch book off me, it'll just be full of ideas and whatnot that may or may not see the light of day, just a fun little extra for my table really.


14 Jul 2012

Paris Con 2012 part 1



So it's been a while since my last post but I had been slowly getting ready for the Paris expo and starting a new job, (I needed a new job so I can get moneys together and print stuff, it's hard living on the money from a four hour job, but I won't go on about that too much)

Anywho, Paris con was a blast... I have never been to a con as big as this and never been to one with so much goodies, I'll go on about the con itself in another post, but let me show you all the amazing book I got. It's worth just going to France just to pick up lovely books, I got a few but everyone else who I went with  brought so much more than me (which is both a good thing and a bad thing).

OK so first of is Time Killers, This won't be for everyone but I really like her covers to Blue Exorcist and the Manga isn't half bad either ( I've been wanting a new Manga to get into, I was reading Naruto and Bleach but lost interest in them a few years back).
Time Killers is a group of short stories in one book with (what I think) is an idea that lead on to be Blue Exorcist.
 
Bearing in mind that the whole book is in French and I don't speak or read a work of it, you can tell what is going off fairly well,  her characters are very nice and there is a lovely level of detail through out, (some of the boys have elements which repeat just a little, but I don't mind), thanks to Will for finding this for me,


 Debaser was one French type Manga that everyone had picked up at Paris con last year and said nothing but good things about it, like an idiot I forgot to get one but was given a copy cause Will had already got this volume.
Debaser has A LOT of energy running through it, lots of nice characters and nice shots through out the book (plus some squishy boobs), I'm keeping an eye out for an English copy but worth a pick up for sure.
I had seen Ojingogo a while back on the forbidden Planet blog ages ago and was meaning to pick it up, It had totally slip my mind till I spotted it in a small comic shop for only 4 euro,
Ojingogo doesn't have much text and what text it does have is easy enough to get the idea of it, I know you can get this in the UK but for 4 Euros it was worth a buy, some really nice spreads in this as well (one of my faves is this fish one)
  I got Anguille & Baldaquin from the comic con, but it was the last copy I could find... they may have put others out the rest of the Con but I only came across this again once and it was second hand.
 I was firstly taken in by the cover, it's a lovely thick hardback with an off white finish to the pages, I loved the pencil line work and soft shading, upon looking inside I wasn't disappointed, there are a lot of lovely coloured pencil drawn pages (which I am finding out I am a sucker for), a little different from the rest and super happy I got the last one. If your a fan of Adventure time and other such fun cartoons I think you will like.
 This is the start of young adventure books I picked up, I'm wanting to do something like these so to me as well as being great books they are also top-notch research.

 I was first drawn in by the colourful cover of Elinor & Jack, I really liked the shadowy monster on the front combined with the dragon train so I gave it a try.
 From what I make out, a young girl goes on an adventure to a strange land, has fun and japes along the way whilst growing as a person, but there are some lovely little ideas, one that stuck with me was she toasted a cheeseburger on a campfire and shared it out with the gang, only for them to spit it out saying it was horrible, Fun little things like that.
 Malie & Catastrophe was one of the weakest of the lot, but has a few fun ideas. I picked it up for 5 Euros so not too worried that it's not 100%, but what I do like is some of the layout and room shots.
 There is a nice use of colours through out, maybe if I was the target audience and read French then It would shine a little more but I am still quite happy with this little find.
 Zblu cops was one of the first books I picked up, and it is hilarious... again it is french through out but the expressions and movement from the characters make it really easy to follow, I was going to pick up volume one but saw that volume two had a better cover.
 Some really good characters in this book, each one is just a little bit over the top for their personality but so funny as well, not to spoil it too much but the main chap has a funny to-do with a playmobile figure, I laughed when I realised what was going off.
  Whilst in the young reader section I was drawn in buy the cover of agito Cosmos, I really like the group shot one the front cover (reminded me of old adventure books I had when I was younger),
  The reason I got this one was again nice pencil work but it has some really nice shots of being underwater which I find hard to pull off, plus some nice panel layout too.
 This one was another bargain bin purchase ( I think it was because it was damaged but the damage to it is so minimal I didn't notice it till yesterday), only cost me 4 euros.
 This is a super little book but it is so much fun, the world and characters are really squat and bendy apart from this one character who the chaps meet who is very realistically drawn through out, but it all works really well, it's a strange mix of cartoon type things things with realistic world elements thrown in.
 I had to get this one cause the cover is so cute, yes I am a idiot for cute things which has been a bad choice in the past but with this one ended up being one of the better.
 It's a simple idea, the world to start off  with is grey and boring until the little girl shows up and makes things colourful again. what makes this is her expression, they are funny and whimsical through out, almost as funny as the faces in Yotsuba & but the elements of colour make it a nice little package.
 This was the last book I picked up, it has so many different elements to it that I had to pick it up, it is really quite a pretty little book. It is full of strange animal creatures, big floating machinery and a good mixture of different weather patterns.
 It's like a strange mix of Spirited away, Avatar (the last air bender), the last unicorn, summer wars and lots of other cartoon series that I just can't put my finger on, But it is  beautiful. I will defo be using this as an inspiration kick in the face.

Wow, that was a lug to do... and I haven't even shown you what I picked up from the con...
 I had been to Paris in the past and not got on with it too well but this trip has defo made me want to go back.

31 May 2012

Catch up

Oh dear me, I can't believe it has been that long since I last posted, I've been to a few comic cons this month and have been busy putting together some of my new comics, planning them out and what-not. But I'll not talk about it all in this post I'll try and do some small snippy blogs about art work and such.

 But I'll talk about cons the two cons that I went to this month, before I forget...

 So first off I went to Bristol comic con, which overall was very quite (which everyone else seems to say), but I had a good time...It was nice to catch up with everyone and see what they had been up to, I think it was because it was so close to Kapow comic con (which is set in London)... but I forgot to take my camera so I don't have any pictures to show. I only just managed to cover cost on this con, I'll just have to see if it happens next year.

 Next up was MCM expo, which overall had a mixed response, although it was the busiest I had ever seen it a lot of comic peeps say that they didn't do as well as they could have done, I don't know if it was down to layout (the comics village seemed to be shoved all over the place, and there was hardly any room to move behind the tables) or there was just too much going off in one area but I feel like I have missed one or two peeps who where at expo.
  I my self did good, I got a nice number of new punters for Herald Owlett and I sold my original Journey Cardart, Thank you to everyone who dropped by and said hi, here is the lucky chap with his nice new Journey art (and his Link friend too) sorry but like an silly moo I forgot to ask the chap his name, I'm no good talking to peeps!



 I also managed to do some original art on the day, I did do a Marceline drawn card art but forgot to take a picture of it, I did manage (at the last min) to get a picture of my version of the monsters from Attack the block, thank you lady for giving them a good home!
 I also drew Hot dog princess and a Long tailed tit which went to good homes too!

I did a couple of doodles for peeps who brought or traded Herald Owlett, these are the ones I remembered to take piccys of ( I am so rubbish at doing things like this)

Oh Will did a pretty wicked card art too, he drew it on the sat and sold it within the first 30 mins of it going on sale cause it is well wick!
 
But apart from that, it was a very fun weekend, I brought lots of things (which I'll put on real soon) so now I have new material to keep me going for about a month or so, the good thing about the con tho is I now have a bit of energy to do Honeydew and Magic, with a few other factors lining up I may get it done for next MCM, but I'll keep you updated if anything happens.

Bye Bye






17 Apr 2012

Journey and what-not



So to start things off, I had another lovely person buy a bunch of my comics so for them I painted an nice little watercolour of ol' Bufu, I've not dabbled too much with that media but I've come across some really nice piece done with it, I never really thought of using them so I dusted of my set and had a go with them, they are really nice just to use and knock some ideas for colour practise. I do hope the chap who got the Bufu picture didn't mind it being too crude.

 From that if you didn't already hear, I've had my little Herald comics reviewed over at the Forbidden planet Blog, Thank you so much Richard for doing it, this just pushes me to do better next time!!!!
 I've also been looking through some of my stuff that I am supposed to be doing for this book for France and I pretty much hate it all, This one being one of them, it's fine as a doodle piece but I don't think I am, going to put it in the final version, but I've managed to finish my Miku picture just in the process of moving it from one computer to another. Plus I have been working on some more card art, (as seen below) a few ideas I've been doing and trying to get them finished off, as always I start one and then move onto something else.
 The one idea thou I would like to get done before MCM (the one on the left) is to do a really nice card art of Journey, that game is so nice and lush and although it is a short game I would recommend it to you to play, even if it is just for the artwork itself, I can't say how lovely it is but if you do play on it, the shiney sand section just took my breath away, one of the best games I've played so far, ans I have seen some super fan art for it, It won't be as nice as the game itself but I really am aiming to get a card art and print done for the next bunch of cons (I've got to have something new, I guess)... Just going through Mass Effect 3, we'll see how that pans out.

5 Apr 2012

I've had a couple of lovely peeps buy a set Thank goodness for Herald Owlett of my Etsy account, so I drew them some little Herald pictures which I think I'm going to do now, so if you go to MY SHOP I'll do you a hand drawn picture if you buy the pack.  Lovely stuff.


Thanks so much chap, really appreciate it!

I also thought I would put up a day by day trail of that Herald card art I did, nothing really of interest but they do take a long time, pretty much took me three days solid to do something as simple as this, I would love to get to the level the Brittney Lee does but that is going to take a lot of practise.



 Oh also I thought I would post up the progress of the F.ART book me,Will and Lou are doing, it slow work on my end but I've finished inking My Miku picture, I really did try to get a cute one of her done but had a bit of a rubbish turn out, I did a little (what i like to call) Bubblegum punk one of her and was happy with it (let's see how long this last), but I'm finding I'm happy with it for a day then hate it the next...which is just a little frustrating... but I'll give this a little colour and see what will happen with it...I'm thing of Bright electric colours for this and acid greens, you know the stuff that really burns your eyes...
 

23 Mar 2012

End of march, oo er


Blimey it seems like ages since I posted on here, Prob well over a month now... I've wanted to write one but with my writing skills it really takes me a long time to get things right. I'm working on it but please bear with me, I'll get my ass into gear.

So it's not all doom and gloom, I have actually been doing some work, I have... honest,  since Cardiff I've been slowly planning out Honeydew and Magic, although I'll have to put this back cause with work going down the pot-hole I won't have the cash to print it so will have to be later on in the year when I get myself a new job, but I have been doodling some of the characters just to get a feel of the type of clothes to wear and other bits and bobs.

So I did a little doodle of Goji, I can't resist to do some sort of action shot of him, he's really bendy and fun to draw, I was thinking of colouring him in but I've can only do photoshop in short stages before I get really tired, I've been working on a couple of different projects on Photohop so It's just nice to get down with some pencils and draw.

Oh one thing I forgot to mention on this, was in the back of Herald Owlett Version 2.0, I did a little advert for Honeydew and Magic, Here at least you get to see all of the main hero characters in the story, I've changed the colours and looks of them slightly like I said... pretty chuffed with the colours in the poster so here is hoping that the comic can stay the same too.
 Also been doodling some ideas for prints too, I've sold out of the Adventure time print I had so I am planning doing another one hopefully for MCM, but this time it having a few more characters in it, they are quite fun to draw and I also want to put Hot dog Princess in as well (she is my favourite princess), but here is my Marcelline in some duds I made up ( I didn't have a reference at the time so she is a little off)


It's also been a long time since I've done a collage, I really do enjoy doing them but with the situation at the moment I don't have the space for all the ingredients to make them, I don't have half of my textured card or spray paint, but I thought what the heck I'll give it ago. I recently came across some of Brittney Lee's work and was inspired to do some, I would love to try and do something on the same level as that, so here is a little process of one I'm doing at the mo of Herald.

Photobucket 

 Phew, so i'm working on these but I'm also in the process of making a fan book with Will and Lou for Japan expo in France, doing a comic page and chapter page for Dan and his awesome comic Vibe, make new prints, make new business cards, It's all go really.

27 Feb 2012

Cardiff con 2012

 Bloody hell it's good to get back into the swing of things with comic cons, I always come back from them tired but they are very much worth it.

 So this was the first time going to Cardiff con (and Cardiff as a whole), and I must say it was very good..it is quite a young con (this being the second year it was on) so it wasn't bursting but there always seemed to be a good flow of people walking past. 

 First of all thanks to Adam for putting us all up for the weekend, and as always thanks to Lou and Will for the comic company and fun times, 100% fun times.


 So  I managed to sell quite a few prints at this con which was good, that means I can get some new ones done... (long overdue),  but through out the day we had episodes of adventure time playing on Adams ipad, this would lead us to make adventure time art, Will started it off and I added my version of Bubblegum Princess...(as seen above),
And then we got Lou to add Jake, Finn and Lady Rainacorn (she did well to say that we took up all the room), some lucky punter picked it up for £10, he got a bargain there...

 I also (on the second day) drew a picture of the first boss in Herald Owlett, on some card out of a collection of Sharpies I had in my pencil case, not too bad I think although nobody brought it so I'll prob be putting it up on my shop or selling it another con, whichever comes first really


I also got talking to this lovely lady, her costume was super rad and super cute so I had to have my picture taken with her, She was also super lovely too...just super!! I hope we cross paths at MCM, (this time I will ask your name too)
 

Apart from those I didn't really take many pictures ( I always forget) but here are some of comics that we had, Cardiff con was great and I would happily do it again next year, I didn't get to meet everyone I wanted (certain people are always busy, and I don't want to interrupt them or get in the way) but I also hope that everyone that went had a great time too,

 I'm going to catch up on some well needed sleep and crack on with some more comics,
 All the best guys!