Sketchbook Project 2015: Winter

I've signed up to take part in the 2015 Sketchbook Project. I've taken part in previous years and it's a fun project to be part of. You sign up, pay $25, and get sent a 32 page 105 x 148mm sketchbook which you then have until 31 March 2015 to fill and send back. Once they receive your sketchbook it then goes into a permanent collection at the Brooklyn Art Library where it is viewable by the public, as well as taking part in a touring collection.

There are various themes you can choose from as a starting point for your sketchbook, and this year I decided on the theme "Winter".

And I've just achieved the first major obstacle with any sketchbook: completing my first page! And I'm pretty happy with how it's turned out. I found a quote by William Blake about Winter and drew an image to illustrate it: "In seed time learn, in harvest teach, in winter enjoy."



I used a Sky Blue Pentel colour brush pen to sketch out the image lightly, before inking it with a Zebra fude Brush pen, and then using the Pentel brush pen to colour the sky.

Birthday Card Catch-Up

Here are a couple of birthday cards that I've drawn recently...

Emmy The Great recently teased the announcement of her upcoming EP and UK tour with a photoshoot including this image...

...which I used as my inspiration for this card for her birthday...


Here's a drawing I did for my friend Ayano's birthday recently. I scanned some patterned papers for the background and her shirt...


Here's a card I drew for my friend Sarah's birthday...


And finally (for now!) here's a card I drew for my friend Maria's birthday, based on one of her photos...

Thought Bubble 2014 Round-Up

So I thought I'd write a follow up post to my previous entry about the Thought Bubble Comics Art Festival.

Here's a slightly blurry photo from my phone of my table, all set up and ready to go on Saturday morning...



Fellow comics creator (and my hotel roommate for the weekend) Richy K. Chandler took this photo of me at my table on the second day of the Convention...



And here I am recreating the cover to my new comic Look What I Drawed..., which I was launching at this year's Thought Bubble (photo courtesy of Jess Cave)...



Although I was feeling a bit nervous about my first time with a table exhibiting my work prior to travelling up to Leeds, once I was there I really enjoyed myself. My comics sold quite well, and it was nice to see people's reactions to my work in person. One woman picked up a copy of my Haiku Comics book, read the first strip, laughed and said that it had passed the test and she'd have to buy a copy. There's such a great atmosphere at Thought Bubble and it's definitely my favourite show that I've been to, both as a spectator and now as an exhibitor.

I met a lot of great people over the weekend, some for the first time, and it was really inspiring to see such a wide selection of comics on display. As well as selling my own work, I did get a chance to go around and pick up a few things from other people...


(Clockwise-ish from top-left)
Last Days of Nobodies by Mike Medaglia. The first in a three part series looking at the days leading up to the deaths of three artists who were little known in their time. The first book focuses on Vincent Van Gogh.

The Cauliflower Fields by Enoki - One of the great things about going along to an event like this, is the chance to discover the work of someone you hadn't previously been aware of. Enoki's table was directly opposite from mine, and after looking over at the cover to her comic during the Saturday, I went over to have a look through the pages on the Sunday. And was very glad I did. Intended as the first part of a longer narrative, Enoki's artwork is intricate and detailed, but what really grabbed my attention was her use of page layout and space on the page which paces the story just right, as well as incorporating elements of animation in places as you turn the pages. Definitely somebody to watch out for!

Totoro print by Chibi-Shibby – I love this Risograph print of Totoro AND fifty percent of the sale goes to Cancer Research UK, so it looks good and does good too!

36,000 Feet by John Cei Douglas and Alessandra Genualdo - it was fun to be sharing a table with John and Alessandra for the weekend. This is a comic they created together with a really beautiful story, which Alessandra wrote and John drew.

Safe Place by André Pereira – another new discovery during the weekend was Kingpin Books who publish the work of Portuguese comic artists, like André Pereira. I had a flick through this comic and really liked the style of it, which felt both unique and familiar at the same time. They also had an anthology comic that I meant to go back and buy later, but never got the chance to...

Expecting To Fly by John Allison – I liked the format of this comic series by John Allison which is a two part tale, presented as two single issue comics. The fact that the covers featured videogame references encouraged me to pick them up...

It's A Bird by Matt Duncan - a fun mini comic focusing on the gathered crowds during a superhero fight that rewards repeat reads!

Turtles Fighters by Jack Teagle - pitch perfect Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles parody.

I'm already looking forward to next year's Thought Bubble and also planning to exhibit my work at more comic shows during the year!

Thought Bubble 2014

Thought Bubble is the annual week-long Comic Art Festival held in Leeds, which culminates in a two-day comic fair this weekend. And for the first time, I'll be exhibiting with my own table, selling my comics! If you're going along, you'll be at table 65 in New Dock Hall sharing with John Cei Douglas.



I thought I'd give a quick summary of the comics I'll be selling this weekend...



Look What I Drawed..., as well as taking it's title from the name of this blog, is my latest comic and will be debuting at this year's Thought Bubble. It's a collection of various comic strips, single page comics and a couple of longer stories I've created over the last few years, including this two page story, The Orb, which I produced earlier this year...





Look What I Drawed... includes a wide range of comics, featuring vampires, werewolves, feline superheroes, Shakespearean penguins, and more!



March Of The Penguins was released earlier this year, and is a collection of comic strips featuring a pair of penguins who live alone in the middle of an isolated snow-covered wasteland. I originally produced these strips daily during the month of March, which is where the title comes from. What started out as an attempt to produce a comic strip about nothing, gradually evolved to develop more of a longer narrative, and I'd still like to come back and do something else with these characters at some point. Here's a sample of a couple of strips...







I'll also have two penguin badge designs on sale alongside the comic!

And finally, I'll also have a limited number of copies of my first self-published comic, Haiku Comics!



This was my final project for my MA Illustration degree, where I decided to adapt English translations of three-line Japanese Haiku poems into three-panel comic strips. Looking through these again now, this is also a project that I would love to return to. Here's a couple of sample strips...





So there you go! Now you know what I'll have with me and where to find me, so I look forward to hopefully seeing lots of you during the weekend! Do come and say hello!

Every Man Remembered

Today I went out on my lunch break from work and did a sketch of Mark Humphrey's Every Man Remembered sculpture in Trafalgar Square...

Halloween rundown

So yesterday was Halloween and while I didn't go out dressed as a ghost in an attempt to elicit sweets, I did do some drawing...

I changed my Facebook profile picture to one of me dressed as a slightly apathetic vampire...


I also did a couple of Halloween-themed biro sketches during some downtime at work...




And I carved a pumpkin...


My mum and brother also got in on the pumpkin-carving action...


Happy Halloween!

Happy 70th Birthday Dad!

My Dad celebrated his 70th Birthday on Friday! And here's a card I made for him...

Happy Birth Day Kai!

My friend Shirlene gave birth to her second child and first son, Kai, at the start of September. And slightly belatedly, I got around to drawing a card to celebrate the occasion...

Congratulations Rianne and Adam!

My friend Jenny commissioned me to draw a portrait of her friends Rianne and Adam as a wedding present. She told me that Adam had wanted to get married wearing a Stromtrooper outfit, so thought it'd be a nice idea to make his dream a reality. I got some photo references from Facebook and after drawing a rough sketch, which Jenny approved, I drew the final portrait...



Jenny bought a frame for the picture and when they got back from their honeymoon this week she gave it to them...



I think they liked it! :)

London Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt #BigDraw

Last night I joined a group of people taking part in the London Sketchbook Scavenger Hunt, a Big Draw event organised by Jenny and June from the StoryHands Illustration collective.

The theme for this year's Big Draw is "It's Our World" and Jenny and June interpreted this theme as a call to notice and appreciate what we see around us in the city, and in particular the city of London. Once everyone had arrived and been issued with their unique hand-made and responsibly sourced sketchbook (made from donated materials at the Children's Scrap Project charity) we set off...



The walk took in various locations around the city, some of which were familiar and others that I hadn't been to before. At each location we were given a list of things to draw, both from observation and imagination and a set amount of time in which to draw as many of the items as we could (usually between 10–15 minutes).


Image courtesy of StoryHands Collective

Jenny and June were great hosts and provided a bit of background information about the area at each stop before assigning us our drawing challenges. In keeping with the unknown nature of the evening, I'm not going to specifically mention where we went, and have removed the names from my photos below...











The evening was a lot of fun, and I found it good to only have a limited time to draw at each location, as it made me more instinctive with my drawing, working quickly to capture the essence of what I was seeing. And that quick drawing was taken to the extreme at the end of the night, after everyone had added up their scores for the evening, there was a Draw Off where we had to draw as many identifiable London Landmarks as we could in 60 Seconds...



I even ended up with a prize at the end!



Jenny and June will be running the event again on the 1 November and there's a Facebook Event page here: http://www.facebook.com/events/1487342084846994/. I'd definitely recommend it!