I Heart Awesome Commissions!

A commission for a 6 year old girl's birthday. She loves Optimus Prime.

Octopus Crossing!

Childhood Influences: Garbage Pail Kids

Gross things fascinate kids. I'm still kind of fascinated by gross things although I shouldn't admit it but I think I can say that Garbage Pail Kids had a hand in that. I still remember my brother's huge collection of them (still much coveted but apparently he gave me lots of swaps years ago which I then lost - I have no memory of this) and he refuses still to part with the 60 or so cards he keeps with his Micro Machines and M.U.S.C.L.E Men (I'm nearly 32, he'll be 30 this year). Every now and then I will try my luck with him and ask if he wants to give them to his loving sister - along with an original Skeletor figure which he insists is his but was bought for a birthday gift for a friend and never given, therefore is NOT his -but he remains unshakable. So imagine my immense delight when I found this book the other day:

This amazing book collects all of the artwork for the first 5 original Garbage Pail Kids trading cards. What's so great about these? They were gross and brilliant. I can still remember looking at certain cards for ages, thrilled at the grossness of the pictures. It's no wonder parents wanted them banned - they really pushed it in terms of decency! I mean, look at Ned Head (below) - he was one I always remembered and still think is pretty bad taste. But these things left a lasting impression on me as a youngster; they were pretty popular at school which I guess would have been about 1988 even though the cards came out in 1985. I can't be totally sure, but I think teachers started to boycott them in our school. I know they were definitely frowned upon.

As an adult (I use this word in the loosest possible way) I still love these things; to me the artwork is gorgeous; I love the painted style that artist John Pound used and it wasn't totally lost on me as a kid that they were a parody of Cabbage Patch Kids. I also love that they hark back to the days when stuff for kids was a bit less "contains mild peril" and a lot more risky. They certainly made an impression on me and I can still remember the taste of the horrible hard stick of bubblegum that would come with every pack. The designers of the book have made a nice nod to this, not only by putting an image of a bubblegum stick on the hardcovers but also by making the dust cover from the same weird greaseproof paper the cards came in. Genius.

They're disgusting and immature, sure, but children still love stuff like this, no matter how much their parents wished they didn't. I still revel in the books I loved growing up and several of them feature potty humour and even now, working in the children's book field, it's still pretty popular; one book I nearly drew but which sadly got cancelled would have been an activity book about gross stuff for kids. My art director excitedly said in an email "We get to draw poo and snot!" which made me wonder if she liked these as a kid too.

Something Weird Is Going On: Car Keys

Something Weird Is Going On: Civl War Koala

W-what are you?!

“Grraaahhh…blaaaarrggg…” (I’m Zombie Batman)

L'il Loki!

More Avengers!

Agent Coulson, Hawkeye and Black Widow!

All Kinds Of Stuffs!

No-one can say that 2012 has been a dull year for me so far and it's only the end of March. I drew two kid's books over January and Feb and I've just finished the major story art for the first of four kid's books for an American publisher (20 pages with 48 separate full-colour panels in just over a week). That's pretty much a book a month; no wonder I'm so tired! XD I've also got some cons coming up so I need to get stuck in with making new prints, keyrings, stickers and hopefully, if I get time, a new small press book to go with my Lovecraft book. I have 2 weeks off of work now for Easter so let's hope I can cram in as much as possible! I've also got the next three books in the American series to do over the next few months as well as another activity book starting in mid-April. Come August, I'd have drawn 7 children's books which is a huge accomplishment for me; I'd always hoped I'd get this far and being the pessimistic, under confident person I am, never thought I'd be able to do so much work alongside a part-time job. It's a good job I don't have much of a social life to go with all this! :P

Steel Chap!

I figured I should draw Iron Man as there’s some film coming out in a few weeks…? I forget what it’s called.

Art Thievery = NO

Ugh, I've had a few instances as of late of people either using images of mine and THEN asking me if it's okay to use them (no, it's not - ask me before hand otherwise don't bother even using it) or just plain using my images. Last night, a very kind follower on DA alerted me to an artist selling Star Wars prints on Etsy with several of my painted versions of the characters. Now, I obviously don't own the Star Wars characters but it was my artwork she was using. I quite kindly and professionally asked her to remove them. Then I found her Facebook page and website where she had traced several of my original images and passed them off as her own. The Star Wars thing annoyed me but using my own totally original characters and art? NO FREAKING WAY. All I can say is she pissed off a lot of people, got very scared and took everything down. I feel no sympathy for her what-so-ever as I do not believe for a second that she didn't know what she was doing when she traced (and openly admitted to tracing) my work. I'm also wondering how much of her work is actually hers and not stolen from other people as her portfolio is very erratic. I'm not going to link to her as I believe the damage for her is done. However, my fiancee tallyed up that she's made at least $500 on Etsy alone from prints and tees that include my work and she was also selling my stuff on Zazzle. We're looking into this as that's a month's worth of mortgage I've lost through this hack. The one good thing to come of this however is the immense support from friends and artists in a very short space of time. I was actually pretty overwhelmed by the action taken and am so grateful to everyone. Taking some one's artwork and passing it off as your own is lazy, insulting and very damaging not only to the artist who created it but also to yourself; once you're branded, the damage is done. I've seen other people mention struggles they've had with this problem and it's so stressful and time consuming. Why bloody bother doing it? I'm very glad I managed to get this issue resolved and if the wonderful person who alerted me to it hadn't dropped me a note, I'd be none the wiser and the thief would still be making money off of my work. I work bloody hard at what I do and seeing someone take my work and make money from it left me feeling sick, angry and upset.Thank you to everyone who supported me in this like a Voltron style robot that brings down art thieves! I only wish it was as easy for the rest of the art thieving shits on DA and the internet to get what they deserve. I will now be watermarking everything I post as some people have no regard for copyright laws as they stand.

He Say You Blade Runner!

My Desk: Lightboxing!

This weekend has been a productive one; I'm currently working on the first of a series of 4 kid's books for an American publisher (I can't say anymore than that for now but as soon as I can post and talk about it, I will!) and have been working on the second draft of roughs. My lightbox has seen a fair bit of action this weekend for re-drawing, re-formatting and tidying up the first pass roughs. What else is going on at the desk this week?

1. I booked tickets for Distant Worlds: Music From Final Fantasy for November and have been listening to the soundtracks for FF7, 8,9 and 10. I can't wait!

2. I'm on a big Akira Toriyama kick at the moment; Cowa and Dr Slump are awesome. I just ordered Sandland too - can't wait for it to arrive!

3. Lightbox action for super secret kid's books.

4. Stack of kid's book character designs and roughs, paper and my finished Lovecraft comic.

5. Hilarious animation cel of Bow from She-Ra bought at Roll Out Roll Call!

6. £3.99 John Barrowman bank note, made by the awesome Mr Lewis Terry; this was counted as legal tender at London Super Con.

Cosmic Fun!

I've finally finished my Lovecraft small press comic! It will be available at the Bristol Comic Con in May as well as MCM and LFCC too. It's 28 pages with a colour cover and grayscale innards. I hope it appeals to all fans of Lovecraft and maybe even non-Lovecraft fans too!

Wolverine Variant Cover!

A few cons ago, I was asked by someone to draw on their Wolverine variant cover. After the initial panic of ruining their comic passed, I gave it a go! I think I might try a few more of these and possibly sell them as prints!

From Beyond!

I've finally been able to make some progress on the new small press book I'm hoping to get done for cons coming up this May. It's going to be a H.P Lovecraft colouring and activity book! I'm having a whale of a time drawing it and I'll hopefully have it finished soon. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek at one of the pages!

Cthulhu's Lullaby!

I've managed to get more than 10 minutes to myself so I thought I'd work on my Lovecraft comic that I'm desperately hoping to get finished for May. I coloured up this page and thought it might make a cool little print to go with the comic when it's done.

Comic Con Bingo!

I'll be at the London Super Con this weekend and I'll be handing out this fun little freebie! I think this will work better at the MCM Expo but hopefully there's enough for people to be amused by! :P

My Desk: Projects A-Go-Go!

Things have been crazy since 2012 started and I'm working on possibly more than my brain can handle at the moment and I haven't even started my new part-time job yet. Here's the current state of my desk at the moment:

1. 
   
   Bucket of coffee - inevitable toilet going will follow but the caffeine is needed.


2. 
   
   Character designs for 4 upcoming kid's books.


3. 
   
   Waiting for ink to dry on bits for 2 separate kid's books.


4. 
   
   Brief (with pages ticked off) for awesome doodle book.


5. 
   
   Out-dated To-Do List.


6. 
   
   Awesome artwork by other people and a Poop sign.


7. 
   
   My Kindle close at hand for break time.

Only time will tell if I can keep up with all this but I'll try my darnedest!

Tea Bear 3D!

One of the reasons I love doing comic cons is because I meet some really awesome people. At last October's MCM I met the lovely KaniKaniza who I recently did a commission for. She asked if she could do a crocheted version of one of my pictures and I could not wait to see how it would turn out - take a look at this!

This is quite possibly one of the best things I've ever seen! Look at his face! XD Thanks so much, KK! This made my week :P