M is for...

The Rather Odd Alphabet!

What started as an experiment with type and format has now become a full-blown project! Thanks to all who have left comments on my alphabet pieces as it's pushing me to complete the whole thing and try and turn it into something. I've decided to make a colouring book out of it for the Web and Mini Comix Thing (with free crayons!) but would also like to make it into a limited edition book as well. I'm currently looking into funding to get some colour copies printed so if anyone is interested in buying a copy, let me know and hopefully I'll be able to put it into action when the book is finished. There will also be a glossary in the back for all the words and animals - I deliberately went for "big" words to make the whole thing a bit more interesting and not be a standard ABC book.
There are a couple of pages I'm already not happy with so I'm already thinking about changing them. The main two at the mo are A and Q but there are a few more I would like to tweak. Abandoned Astronaut mainly because as the alphabet goes on, an astronaut doesn't seem to fit with everything else. I did intend to have a whole range of things in there, not just animals but the more I research things to include, the more animals I find that are just too good not to draw.
This project has also given me a boost of confidence as I included a couple of pages in my email submission pack to publishers and have already had one very positive response off of the back of it after sending out a batch yesterday! Fingers crossed!

Q and D are for...

X is for...

J is for...

G is for...

A is for...

U is for...

F is for...

Super Fun Happy Giveaway Competition!

I've been writing this blog for a while now and I thought it was about time I did a giveaway to thank all the peeps who have been supporting my artistic endeavours thus far! Katie of Green Bean Studio has done a couple of cool giveaways which has inspired me to do my own. I'm gathering together a package of prizes that will include prints, postcards, badges, stickers and whatever else I can find that people may want of my artwork!

However, rather than do a random "post here for chance to win" giveaway, I'm going to be mean and run a competition. Over the xmas break, I spent a lot of time doodling in my sketchbook and have the perfect piece for such an event as this! I'll be making an official competition post later today so keep an eye out! :D

S is for...

Well, that's the first thing that springs to my mind with that particular letter! I'm working on a little alphabet project at the moment and I knew if I started at A, I'd get bored very quickly so S it was!

Job of the Future!

Inspiration and break!

I'm off home tomorrow for my Christmas break and I have to say I'm muchly looking forward to it! I'll be doing some drawing but it'll mainly be doodlings and research on children's books. I'll also be making a hella lot of promo items to spam publishers with when I get back. I've already emailed a lot of samples off to various children's book publishers and had a great response from Egmont Books so fingers crossed for the New Year!

Hope everyone has a great Christmas! :D

Milk Town Deli!

Milk Town has a lot of specialist produce that the townsfolk like to eat, and where better to pick up a tasty snack than the local deli!
Why not try a Sea Cucumber, Fire Drop or rasher of Rainbow Bacon? Radishes and gherkins are chock full of vitamins and goodness and Rainbow Coral is expensive but damn tasty! :P

Milk Town Dentist!

He may look like a bit of a maniac, but Milk Town's resident dentist makes sure each pulled tooth becomes a new citizen! I'm having a great time creating characters for my new character series called Milk Town. I'd like to expand this into a comic series as I just seem to do a lot of character work without actually having them in any kind of situation. I'm aiming to make this my next challenge! Milk Town will soon have it's own website too which I'm starting to design at the moment. When the New Year brings a more stable money situation, I'll be getting some Milk Town stuff printed too!

Milk Town Choir!

Website Pondering

The last day or so, I've been prepping myself to contact publishers (seven emailed at time of blogging) and so had to update my website. At the moment, my website just serves as an online portfolio for people to look at (the whole point of it, I guess!) but I'd like it to be a hell of a lot better. There are 2 things that stop me doing this though: 1. I'm not a great designer when it comes to these things and 2. I always feel that I can't invest the time it would take to redesign it. My site is hosted through Moonfruit which for someone like me is great because it's easy to edit and update and is pretty flexible when it comes to layouts and what-not. The downside is it's a lot more expensive than most people probably pay for their sites.

Who do people use for their sites? How do you go about deciding on the design? Any help would be much appreciated as I'd like my first port-of-call for potential clients to really stand out!

More from Milktown!

The Mayor of Milktown!

Fantastic idea executed to perfection!

This animation from Sugimoto Kousuke is absolutely stunning and makes me slightly envious that I can't have and pull off these kinds of ideas! It reminds me a lot of the ideas and projects of Michel Gondry who similarly manages to bring to life the most implausible-on-paper ideas to a jaw-dropping extent. Enjoy!