My Desk: A Productive Day

It's been a while since I did a My Desk update so I thought I'd do one now, on a day where I'm full of caffeine and glucose and being productive! So what have I been doing today?

1. 
   
   Making Roughs: Three (well, two and a half) of the roughs for the kid's books I'm doing. I'll probably be starting on the final artwork this weekend for the first book. Whoop!


2. 
   
   Zombie Stuffs: Extra pages for the soon-to-be-published-again Brains Etc. with all new pages! Having fun coming up with extra goodies for the book and getting ready to scan and reformat everything. Hopefully it'll be worth it!


3. 
   
   Visual Stimuli: Rather than listen to music today, I was in the mood for some horror films while I worked. Having already watched The Blair Witch Project while drawing cute animals, I'm ready to watch Ginger Snaps (a guilty pleasure film) and attempt to watch a recent purchase, Yo-Yo Girl Cop.


4. 
   
   Energy Drink: I look forward to the coffee-followed-by-a-Lucozade-chaser comedown later in the day.


5. 
   
   Making Key Rings: Work to be done for 2011 B.C on Saturday! An excessive amount of number 4 means shaking hands and scissor fun.

More Emirates work!

I'm never disappointed with the briefs I get for the Air Emirates in-flight kid's magazine; here are a couple of the latest pics I got to do. I really like doing the big pictures with lots going on - especially when I'm told to draw lots of cute animals! :P

I really enjoy this job; I just wish it was a monthly gig instead of quarterly but it's always something I look forward to doing!

Tattoo Design!

I got a very exciting commission a while back to design a cute, Japanese-themed tattoo for someone. I really enjoyed doing this and hope it turns out well! I'll be posting pictures when the lovely lady who commissioned me has it done :D

Awesome New Toy!

I'm a huge book fan, but have more than my little house can hold. Most of my precious tomes are up in the loft and I will admit to hanging onto stuff I don't really need more often than not! I made the decision to buy a Kindle so I can continue to buy graphic novels, art books and kid's books but get novels electronically. I have to say, it's bloody brilliant; I've already got over 100 books on it and you get can tons of free books for it. There's a lot of stuff that's very cheap, mainly older sci-fi and fantasy but that suits me fine! Here's a look at my new toy:

Brains Etc. looks pretty good on the Kindle, which bodes well for the digital version being published soon! It's quite a flexible little gadget and I can't stop playing with it. Of course, it's easier to spend more money on books because they download straight away. But it's worth it! Here's a look at some of the books I'm reading at the moment:

I love the Conan film with Arnie and even though I'm not huge into fantasy, this is pretty good. I sometimes find fantasy a bit hard going but pulp master Robert E. Howard makes for an enjoyable sword and sorcery romp!

Another classic series by Robert E. Howard, Solomon Kane is a quieter hero than Conan but the adventures he get into are dark and creepy and I like the pacing. Good pulpy action and very atmospheric.

I've just discovered this guy and don't know how I didn't know about him, being a big Lovecraft fan. I'm already enjoying his work and I've only read two stories so far; one about a sorcerer who kills and dismembers his brother (who's also a wizard) only to have the limbs come back, re-form and kill him. This is looking good already!



I just read this for the first time and WOW. What an amazing book. Two men on holiday discover a strange pit and the remnants of a house in Ireland and soon find a journal that belonged to a recluse who used to live in the house. His story is disturbing and almost unbelievable - the house seems to sit on a gateway between dimensions and the man is soon driven mad by attacks from strange pig creatures, time and space start to meld together and no-one else seem to experience quite what he does. Brilliant sci-fi/horror that kept me reading because I NEEDED to know what was going to happen! There's an amazing few chapters where the man experiences time speeding up to where minutes become thousands of years and the universe ends that just left me in awe. Awesome work from William Hope Hodgeson and I can't wait to read more of his stories.

What I love about the Kindle is that all of the above were either available for free or entire collections of the authors work where under £3.00. Money well spent I think. Time to get my sci-fi on! :P

Rorys!

I had a fun commission to draw Rory Williams from Dr Who over the weekend. Here he is in his normal and Centurion form!

Dog-Bot!

HAL

A while ago I was asked to do some robot designs for a website where computer programmers can test their skills on a variety of tasks/games. They wanted a robot character named HAL that would act as a kind of advancement marker for players as they used the site. HAL would start off as a crappy robot but as programmers progressed through various levels completing different tasks, you could get upgrades and new parts for HAL until you reached his ultimate form. I thought this was a neat idea and had some fun designing new heads for HAL that corresponded to different games. Actually, I don't need much persuasion or excuse to draw a robot so I was happy from the start! :P

Manly man illustration samples!

I recently had the opportunity to do some samples for a possible illustration job with Harper Collins which was really cool. Unfortunately, I didn't get the gig but enjoyed doing something I wouldn't ordinarily have done. The work was for an up-coming humour book about men and their quirks. Luckily, I live with a man who isn't a total stereotype in this department so I didn't have to base any of this on real-life experience! I enjoyed drawing the BBQ guy in the top picture and the magazine with boobs on it in the bottom one :P

More Exciting Things In Art Town!

Well, no-one can say that this last month hasn't been eventful! I've just found out that as of next week (hopefully) I'll be starting on a series of 4 children's activity books for Carlton Publishing, the lovely people I worked with for the NRM activity book I illustrated at the end of last year. The books are aimed at younger children and sound like a lot of fun. I'll be able to post more info when I hear from my awesome art director later in the week!

Another rather exciting piece of news is that I will be taking part in an exhibition in December, organised by myself and the uber-talented James Stayte and featuring four other amazing artists. We are just getting things sorted at the moment, including promotion, but the show will be held at the Centrespace gallery in Bristol. No doubt I will be pimping this like nobody's business as soon as we get started!

Exciting things in Art Town!

This last week has been a bit crazy: I've been approached by a lot of people about a lot of work and can now confirm two very exciting projects that I will be involved in! The first is that my comic Brains Etc. will be published by an all-ages Canadian publisher very soon! It will be slightly different from my small press effort and will now be 32 pages (new material will be drawn) instead of 26 and will also be available as a digital comic for various platforms. I'm really happy that not much needs to be done on it and I get to tidy-up and add some new material. I'm just sorting out the final format guff with the publisher and then it'll be time to get stuck in!

The second project is something I'm super-excited about: I get to design a range of t-shirts under my own label! The range is being produced by a major tee distributor and will hopefully be 16 original designs. I have some themes to work to but get to put my own mark on everything. The line will hopefully go to a London fashion show in September for initial reactions and we'll see how it goes from there. I'm hoping this goes well as it's been one of my all-time dreams for a long time! I'm starting work on both of these projects amongst a billion other things so the next month or so is going to be a bit manic. Bring it on, I say! XD

MCM Expo and LFCC Zombies!

Here are some more of the awesome peeps who took part in my Draw Yourself As A Zombie activity that I've been running at the cons I've attended this year. Thanks to all who have shared their undead artistic skills!

Sticker Attack!

I now have lots of cool new vinyl stickers for sale in my shop! There are 6 packs to choose from. These stickers are one of the more popular items that sell well at comic cons. I have many more in the works!

Busy busy!

What a busy couple of weeks! LFCC was a huge hit and a very enjoyable show - thanks to all who came along last weekend. I did really well and had a lot of fun - already looking forward to next year's show! As well as trying to recover from that, I've been making stuff to re-stock my shop with, doing t-shirt designs for a charity (the awesome VIVA!) and I also have a couple of other awesome projects lined up - more on those soon!

I'm also (when I can) working on my own children's book which I hope to pitch to publishers at some point. It's slow going but I want to get it right before I send anything off. When I'm happy/not terrified about what anyone will think, I'll post some pictures!

Updating Milk Town!

It's been a while since I did any new stuff for my Milk Town website so I thought I'd pay it a bit of long-overdue attention. Hopefully over the next month or two, the library will become a bit more active, the hotel will be open with rooms to view and the Milk Town Graveyard will be full of spooky goings-ons! Milk Town is mostly just for fun and a place that I can populate with weird characters. I do have plans for a series of proposed children's books featuring the characters of Milk Town but for now, that will have to remain as part of my very long list of things to do!

Dr Who and LFCC!

The London Film and Comic Con is less than 2 weeks away and yet again, I'm frantically making and preparing goods to sell! I'll be there with my talented beau JP and our talented friend Ed for some talented fun! Here are a couple of new prints that will available; the Eleventh Doctor and Amy Pond!

USA Road Trip!

I recently returned from a trip to California which was fantastic; very sad to be back! My awsome bf and I did a roadtrip of sorts from Pasadena to Las Vegas, Las Vegas to San Diego and then San Diego to Los Angeles. Here are just a few photos to give you an idea of the madness we encountered:

You can see these in Torquay, but it's not quite the same!

My bf John-Paul and our amazing friend Casey at Bot Con in Pasadena.

In Central Perk at the Warner Bros. Studio!

My favourite place name of the trip.Most patriotic birdhouse ever.I miss Las Vegas!I also miss the tasteful gifts availableJust some guy we met on the stripLuchadores! Me being embarrassing in Target!

I had such a great time; when I get around to it, I'll also scan and upload some pages from my travel journal!

Atom Cat!

I'm back from California, very tired and groggy but sane enough at the moment to do a drawing to get back into the habit after only having kept a travel journal for the last 2 weeks! I'll be doing a big holiday based blog soon, but for now, enjoy Atom Cat!

Adventures over the Pond!

I'm off to the U.S of America for 2 weeks to attend Bot Con and have other zany adventures! My online shop will be closed while I'm away but fear not; it will be open again when I get back and will be filled with lots more goodies! Toodles! :D

MCM Expo May 2011!

This past weekend saw me selling my wares (ooh la la!) at the MCM Expo in London and it was amazing! The show was packed; we barely got a break all weekend and the table was almost always swamped. I had a great time and met some lovely people. My table got a fantastic reaction from people and all in all, it was one of the best cons I've ever done! I also got interviewed and babbled for several minutes for a couple of podcasts too, links when they're up!

My table, laden with goods!

The awesome Aaron AKA Gagaman and his lovely GF, Stacey. Our across-the-way neighbours for the weekend!

Spiffing Tea was by far my best-selling print of the weekend.

Zombie Moogs!

Zombie Marisa!

Zombie Deakin!

The fantastic Jenni Bryan of Creaturekebab!

The absolutely lovely Jamie Smart took time out from his Chaffy signing to say hi and draw a zombie!

My Draw Yourself As A Zombie activity was even more popular this time! I will be posting all of the zombies at some point, so check back if you drew one!

The Wall of Zom! There were too many to fit on the board!

I met the awesome Billy West and made a tit of myself. As you can see.

The awesome Phil of Genki Gear!

I can't wait for the October MCM now too. A huge thanks to anyone who bought stuff, had a chat, drew a zombie or gave us a laugh - it was a brilliant weekend!