All New Website!

I've spent the better part of this week finally giving my stale old website a much needed going over. As I use a template site, I wanted to add all of my own title bars, menu icons etc. and it finally looks a bit more like I always wanted it too! Hopefully it's okay; it was hard to know how much/little work to add. Any opinions would be much appreciated as this is where I'll be directing potential clients; I want to make sure the work on there represents me and what I can do so have a look and tell me what you think!

Squid Bits Comic #54

Science and maths were my two weakest subjects in school and although I still hiss whenever maths comes near me, I'm getting to know science again! Few things stuck with me from my days in Ye Olde Science Lab, and one was inertia. I also always thought it was weird that there was an inertia option in the Zool video game for the Amiga!

Recent Painterings!

I've had a nice spate of painting commissions as of late, so I haven't been totally lazy since culling my daily comic!

Quite possibly the oddest commission I've ever had: Deadpool in drag! The costume he's wearing belongs to Marvel Girl and is in reference to this rather funny X-Men story :P

This was for the lovely Kat Nicholson; he's one of her original characters and was a blast to paint!

A painting of Stitch for a friends daughter; this was really fun to paint!

Another painting for Kat of one of her characters. Awesome little green panda! (Bad photo with no flash and early morning hue! :P)

Another big undertaking over the next week or so is a complete re-design/overhaul of my main website. I've held off sending stuff off to publishers for the time being as I'm not all that happy with any of my stuff at the moment. My website is a bit out of date and could do with a major tweak; I figure that since it's the main place I want to send people to get an idea of my work, there's no point if I don't like it and keep re-directing potential clients to my blog. I've drawn the main elements for it and it's really just a matter of choosing the right artwork for each gallery. The new look site will hopefully be less dull than the current one and a lot less cluttered. I'm looking forward to getting it together and will no doubt be asking for opinions when it's done!

Japanese Kid's Shows are the best!

In 2007 I went on an awesome two week trip to Japan. One of our favourite things was watching Japanese TV in the mornings before we left and when we got back in the evenings. The mornings yielded some amazing kid's TV shows and I could quite happily have spent a day just watching them! I couldn't find the ones I wanted on Youtube, but here are some other awesome ones!

Squid Bits Comic #53

When I get bored at work, I start to read Wikipedia. As always with Wikipedia, one thread can lead to another and another and before you know it, when you started off reading about what clouds are made of, you're looking at a list of the most unusual deaths throughout history. Type in "End of the World" and have a gander at some of the very interesting theories there-of! These are my personal favourites :P

Also, a huge thank you to everyone who has left a lovely comment on the giveaway post; I know people like to get free stuff, but it's nice to know you want MY free stuff!

Super Massive Print Giveaway!

The summer is finally here and I feel like giving stuff away! I have a massive batch of prints for one lucky person, and three sets of five 4x6 prints for three more lucky peeps! The big batch contains a whopping sixteen prints: 4 slightly-bigger-than-A4 and 12 4x6 inch (photo size.) The three runner-ups will get to choose their five 4x6's from the pics below. As always, all you have to do is leave a comment with your email address (and name if you aren't on Blogger) and I'll pick the winners on the 8th of July.

These would make a delightful addition to any mantle, bathroom, outhouse or slop cupboard!

Good luck everyone! :D

More Fortune Cookies!

What's yours for today?

Fortune Cookie Fortunes!

As my baking skills are less than admirable, these will be packaged in small envelopes rather than pastries for people to pick up at cons and given away with orders from my shop! Or, for some random fortune telling, you could print this page off, put it on the floor, close your eyes, drop a penny and wherever it lands is your fortune for the day!

Transformers Mosaic Preview!

This is a preview panel for a Transformers Mosiac I've just drawn, written by my rather spiffing boyfriend. After literally months of putting it off I finally got it done and despite my fears of drawing non-Jess style robots and vehicles, think I did okay! How the fans feel about it will be another story entirely...! As soon as it's posted on the TF Mosaic site, I'll put up the whole page. I'm looking forward to doing a few more of these as they're a bit out of my comfort zone. A great program that JP showed me which I used for certain vehicle views and which I think is pretty indispensable as reference for artists is Google Sketchup; you can download a free version and it's bloody brilliant. Basically, you can create buildings and environments and play with perspective to use as reference for drawing. You can also upload pre-made 3D vehicles, furniture - you name it. It's easier to play with than it is to explain what to do!

New Look Squid Bits Daily Comic that may not be so Daily!

Okay, so you may have noticed a bit of a lull in my Daily Comics for which I apologise. After a bit of a crappy week of creative block/doubt, I'm hopefully now back on track and with a new look Squid Bits Daily Comic! Well, I say new look; more like new frequency of posting! As much as I love doing my Daily Comic, I've realised that the worry of getting it done every day has kind of pushed back more important work. I have a part-time job too so I can't always get the time I want to do it. Until I get a better timetable, I've decided to keep the Daily Comic as merely a comic, posted as and when. I will miss all the feedback from doing them daily, but hopefully they'll be just as good!

I haven't been totally moping this week though; I've been working on a Transformers Mosaic comic with my talented boyf, which has been fun and frustrating in equal measure! I've had to suck it up and draw cars and stuff! Well, as much of a car as I can draw anyway...! I'm looking forward to doing some more though, so here's hoping my vehicle drawing skills improve a bit!

More exciting news in the form of a table at the London Film and Comic Con where I will be selling more character paintings. William Shatner is the guest of honour which means Star Trek pictures will be a big yes! Looking forward to it as it's always a fun con and to be an exhibitor will be even better. JP will be selling some exclusive TF prints too so we're officially a comic con couple! XD

I'll also be doing a big push on the Milk Town website and finally adding new buildings and more goodies for members as I've left that on the side for a bit. Already looking forward to it!

Feedback on the Daily Comic situation is very much welcome. Here's to (hopefully) a less grumpy week!

Super Shop Discount!

I thought I'd do a bit of a special offer in my online shop for the next week and I'm offering a whopping 20% off of all items! All you have to do is enter the discount code SQUISHY on the payment screen. This applies to all items in the store. Happy shopping!

Tiny Planet!

I thought this image from one of my daily comics would make a nice little pic on its own!

Squid Bits Daily Comic #51

Squid Bits Daily Comic #45 - 50

Quite a mix for this bunch!

Squid Bits Daily Comic #44

The result of playing too much Animal Crossing.

Catching up!

I'm back off to Swindon for a few days for a break, even though I've packed my sketchbook and all my drawing materials; I know I wont last long until I need to draw again...! I'll be able to catch up on my daily comics and some reading (Stephen King and H.P Lovecraft packed and waiting) and just to catch my breath as I'm a bit tired. I've had an awesome week of steady commissions which has been great, but now I'm getting the old voice of doubt back about my work in general so I'm going to have a diet of books, DS and DVD's for a few days. It'll pass like it always does but it's not much fun in the meantime!

Also, had a brilliant day on Thursday; the absolutely wonderful Sarah came to Bristol and myself and Katie took her on a tour of the city (that destroyed my feet) and generally had a natter about all and everything! Hopefully I didn't freak her out too much with my constant manic chatter and general oddness! :P

Hopefully I'll be able to drop a post or two from Swindon, but no doubt there will be a stash of daily comics to come back to!

Squid Bits Daily Comic #43

Green Bean Zine!

Working in comic shop from 2003-2007, I met a lot of people with the same interests as me; not just with comics, but with illustration too. One of those people is still a good friend of mine now and an awesome illustrator to boot! Katie Green is an omni-talented artist who, on top of all the other cool stuff she does, produces a monthly zine which is well worth a look. The Green Bean is packed full of recipes, sewing patterns, book reviews and lots of lovely artwork. The first two issues are available in Katie's shop.

Katie asked me to be involved in issue 2 which was fantastic; I had a small interview and we collaborated on a conversation comic in the same vein as James Kochalka's conversations with artists like Craig Thompson and Jeffrey Brown. It was an absolute hoot and we plan to do another longer one in colour soon! Katie has very kindly let me post our comic here:

As you can see, we both very different styles but I think that's what makes the comic so much fun to read! Where my style is bold and absurd, Katie's is very detailed and grounded. This made the whole process of drawing together very interesting to say the least!

Squid Bits Daily Comic #42