Hey! Listen!

Last night I went to the Legend of Zelda 25th Anniversary Symphony concert at the Hammersmith Apollo. It was a memorable event, with The Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra playing a series of arrangements based on the music from The Legend of Zelda titles. The music was introduced by Zelda Williams, daughter of actor Robin Williams, who was actually named after the titular princess of the video game series.

It was a really amazing evening, made even more unique by the guest appearance by Koji Kondo who has been employed as a musical composer by Nintendo since 1984 and has produced many memorable scores for the company. He ended the evening by playing Grandma's Theme from The Wind Waker on the piano.

Anyway, inspired by the events of the evening, I wanted to create a musical Zelda-based image, so here is a drawing of Link playing his ocarina...

Anders Nilsen in conversation with Tom Gauld at Orbital Comics

Yesterday evening I attended an event at Orbital Comics with Anders Nilsen in conversation with Tom Gauld, as part of this year's Comica Festival. Although I am a big fan of Tom Gauld's work, I wasn't that familiar with the work of Anders Nilsen, but it's always interesting to hear two creative people talking.

Here's a quick sketch I did of the pair before the talk began – and while they are both looking rather unanimated in my drawing, when the conversation got under way they were both very lively, engaging and interesting!

I got a lot of inspiration from the talk for my own comics work, and am keen to pick up Big Questions by Anders Nilsen, which has just been released by Drawn & Quarterly.

AND after the talk finished I was able to get my copy of Tom Gauld's Hunter & Painter signed!

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

Another day, another page for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook...

You can view all my previous pages here: http://www.arthousecoop.com/users/PaulShinn/artwork

Never Mind The Bollocks...

My friend Tom is talking bollocks! And not for the first time. But on this occasion it's for a good cause!

Tom is taking part in Movember, where thousands of men in the UK spend the month of November growing facial hair on their top lips to raise funds and awareness for both prostate and testicular cancer.

And I've leant my support by drawing him a portrait to help promote his efforts...

You can visit his donation page here: http://uk.movember.com/mospace/1424566/

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

Here's a couple more pages for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook for the theme Heroes & Villains...

Sketchbook Project 2012 (Work In Progress)

Here are my latest pages for my Sketchbook Project 2012 sketchbook for the theme Heroes & Villains...

One Flew Over The Penguin's Nest: The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Prize 2011

So as well as the i newspaper's Comic Idol competition, I have also been working on my entry for this year's The Observer/Jonathan Cape/Comica Graphic Short Story Competition. I completed my 4-page comic story yesterday ahead of the deadline this Friday, and here is the result...

I enjoyed the challenge of producing a longer comic story, and am pleased with the final result. I came up with the idea for this story after reading news reports back in June about an Emperor penguin that arrived on a beach in New Zealand after supposedly getting lost while swimming from the Antarctic. Then I started thinking: What if he wasn't lost, and really wanted to go to New Zealand to get away from the Antarctic?

The winning entry will be printed in The Observer newspaper on Sunday 6 November.

i's Cartoonist Idol Competition

A friend of mine told me about a competition being run by i newspaper – a spin-off from The Independent – to find new cartoonists to feature in the paper either daily or weekly. The competition is open to a variety of different styles and the entries could take the form of a pocket cartoon, cartoon strip or large-format single image piece.

I wanted to work on a cartoon strip, and so came up with three examples featuring two characters that I came up with around ten years ago: Doug The Dog and his friend Joe.

The deadline for entries is tomorrow, so hopefully I'll hear soon about the result. I'm also rushing to finish my entry for another comic competition by the end of the week, so I'll be posting the finished result of that one very soon...

Fingers crossed!!