Upcoming conventions

First post of the New Year after a bit of a hiatus!

This year is proving to be quite busy on the convention front. I have three lined up so far, with hopefully more in the pipeline.
The ones I'm definitely attending at the moment are:
Kitacon - 1st to 3rd April (Hilton Metropole, Birmingham)
MCM London Expo - 27th to 29th May (Excel Centre, London)
Ayacon - 19th to 21st August (Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry)

I'm going to be selling the "Anime Convention Survival Guide" prints and Team Fortress 2 postcards that I've had at previous cons, along with a few other works in progress which will be posted in the coming months (and hopefully Trololo Man prints since it seems to be a hit!).
Also, my Expo appearance will be alongside a table with the Midlands Comics Collective where we will be selling both anthology comics and work from individual members, so come and say hi if you're planning on going. We will also like you very much if you buy things. : D

Some new artwork is on the way and will be posted sometime this week and I'm still going to finish off the final eight Project 52 drawings as well. Even if it didn't quite work out as planned, it has most definitely helped me get back into the habit of drawing regularly, which was the big reason I set out to do it in the first place. : )

Until then!

Project 52: Weeks 37 to 44 - Vincent Cass style meme

Happy New Year everyone! My last submission for 2010. : D

I've never tried memes before but I've seen *Goku-chan's pop up several times and it looked quite fun to do.

Anyway I chose Vincent as he's probably the one who would vary the most with different styles (especially the manga related ones). If you've not seen him before, there's more information about him here.

I'm a little unsure about the Yoji Shinkawa one. It looks better than I hoped it would but perhaps doesn't quite match his style. Same with the Disney one as well, with the eyes probably being the most accurate part. Also, the head shape of his realistic counterpart is quite a bit different to the original (should be a bit more triangular rather than squared). Still, they felt rather refreshing as drawing exercises at least!

And yes I know I cheated a little by using Mike Krahulik for "DA artist style", but it is technically correct. : P

Until next time!

More...

Weeks 35, 36 and 37 - The Batmen of BICS

With special guest, Swiss Army Wolverine.


Okay so it's a month after BICS, but here are some doodles based on a few things that happened that weekend.

1 - One of my friends came back to our table and commented that she'd seen one of the four Batman cosplayers texting somebody. We reckoned this was the only thing he could possibly be doing (I think Batman would have an iPhone).
Adam West and Burt Ward Batman and Robin used for comic effect. :P

2 - On the Sunday, three of the Batmen (we think it was a comic Batman, Adam West and the Tim Burton version) stood near the table talking about utility belts. I tried to take a picture of them, but I think they're too well seasoned at it because they all posed for me before I caught them. XD

3 - When we were all out for dinner on the Saturday (eating Chinese food), most of us were using chopsticks so we were thinking of how to use the surplus cutlery. Probably not all that surprising that this was one of the uses that were mentioned.

This is my first time drawing any version of Batman or Wolverine, so comic geeks please be gentle!

DeviantArt link

A Beginner's Guide to Photography

Today we have moving pictures!
My MA project was to produce a set of animated shorts that explained some of the basics of photography (in this case, aperture, shutterspeed, ISO and exposure) to first year BA Photography students at my university. So after a year of being an ex-student, I'm finally posting the videos for aperture, shutterspeed and ISO here. :D







Enjoy!
There is also a video for exposure (linking the three aspects together) and a short introduction in the works, so hopefully I can finish them and put them up soon.
The model for the main character is photographer Shaun Joyce and the voice talent is freelance journalist Matt Kamen.


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These videos were developed for Birmingham City University and are for educational/ non-profit use only. Feel free to share the link to this blog post, but please ask permission if you wish to show them elsewhere.

Weeks 33 and 34 - Soulsnatchers pages for BICS

Continuing with comic work for the MC² BICS banner, I redid the first two pages from a Soulsnatchers oneshot that I'd entered for Tokyopop's RSOM contest a few years back (never bothered with the contest after that either!).

My drawing ability and technique have come a long way since then (I'm a lot better with anatomy and perspective for a start). I also ditched the greyscale shading it originally had because I think black and white suits it much better.
I'd be very grateful to receive input from others so I can improve it further when I eventually start the story properly.

Deviantart linkDeviantArt link

If you're really curious, here are the original pages for comparison. :B
Page 1
Page 2
I changed the scenery on the first page because I wanted it to look more like a rundown part of town than a city scape.

Weeks 31 and 32 - Preparing for BICS

Been a couple of weeks at least since I last uploaded anything. I've been preparing stuff for the British Internation Comic Show next month, including artwork for the Midlands Comics Collective exhibition banner and free sampler comic that we'll be handing out at our table.

First up is the brief bio and cartoon portrait for the sampler:
(I'm not that bad with cats, but they are distracting bundles of cute (mostly!) : P )
DeviantArt link

And second is a new drawing of Alusius to go on the MC2 banner:

DeviantArt link

There's more BICS/ comic related artwork to come in the run up to the show, but I should be back to regularly scheduled uploading within a week or so. : )

Project 52 - Weeks 29 and 30: Requests and daft things

Another two-fer this week!
First up is character request my friend made while at Amecon (drawing his character in my style). I've been trying out some more dynamic poses recently and I think I'm getting better at them. : )DeviantArt link


Second is some Professor Layton/ Futurama inspired silliness:

For some odd reason, whenever Don Paolo escapes I always imagine him running away like Dr Zoidberg. : P

DeviantArt link