Sunday, November 30, 2014

Brisbane Supanova 2014





A few of the doodles while waiting in my seat above- there were more but they were an actual story idea so I'm not posting that....yet
yes I do have electricity- thats just my bad photography making it look like work by candlelight.

So I made it to another Supanova. A bit down sized this year- not my usual luxurious 2 table spread - just the one because it was so expensive . They say that the number of people attending is way more each year- so why do the prices for artists in artist alley rise so much? It is an artist alley not 'merchant banker alley'.
Friday was a write off- not a whole lot of people and the ones there weren't buying.
(I felt really aching and tired Saturday- turns out I was actually sick.)
The Saturday and Sunday were better for me- and thanks to those people who came up and recognised my Wombat books or who had bought Dinosaur Rocks and said how much their child loved it. Very much appreciated. I do sort of worry that Supanova itself is no place to peddle childrens books- I think I need to go with the fantasy side of my work fully (at Supanova and in general). Need to do a comic I think or have art books to sell really.
Other thoughts- the coffee at the convention centre was the worst I've ever tasted- I don't know how those people at the G20 survived. If I was a visiting dignitary it would have been first on the agenda- "get decent coffee you idiots". Fortunately coffee was around the corner at Southbank. Unfortunately it was only on the Sunday afternoon that I made it.
The food was also diabolically bad- I avoided it.
The people at surrounding tables were nice- so that sort of keeps your mind off your coffee starvation.....well a bit.
I might be able to try Oz comic con this coming year- people said it was a bit better as far as being creator focussed more than foreign  merchandise behemoth focussed.
Australian creators really need a con or show for them- people like writers, artists and illustrators, animators.... but there really isn't anything I'm aware of....
but I worry that australians are so slack (esp Brisbane people) that if you didn't have those actors turning up and all the merchandise sellers... would they turn up/be interested?


Supanova drawings- Dragon



Supanova Drawings- Dinosaur



Supanova drawings-Surprise



Supanova Drawings-Lion



Supanova Drawings-mermaid





Thursday, November 27, 2014

Off to brisbane Supanova today.

Once more  over the top

Heres a 2xA0  (8xA2) drawing I did really quickly (30 min) at  Book Expo earlier this year.
Girl is a bit small for horse etc- but considering how quickly I did it and how big its not too bad.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Wombat Christmas- Cover Roughs

 Yes a Wombat Christmas book in the works but not for this christmas.
Mind you if it weren't for the pneumonia in the house thing and a few other disasters it could have nearly been.
Some of the initial candidates









Just right

Trying another scribble with the whole "achieve result with no work" method.
Trying to not labour everything  is a bit hit and miss.
Obviously I'd like it to be "just right".
Expressions are alright.
M c Escher would be proud of the bed- but lets call it rustic.

A5 Scribble of Epicness

Another bit of watercolour tomfoolery.
Kind of at the limits of my (failing) vision and brush tip at the teeny size- guys face is less than 1cm.

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Kind of bandersnatchy rough image

On the super absorbent  handmade paper .

Marginal

Corner of the page doodle


Red riding hood- a start.

Yes- delivering pizza to grandma-

Another experiment- not quite finished.
The trouble with unfinished watercolour it seems is that they look 'broken'. There are bits I like though- just need to finish it and try again with what worked.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Trip Trap

Another experiment.
Troll thing not quite what I had in mind- kind of blobbed the paint down thought "oh no...well I guess that's him then"

Thursday, November 20, 2014

Hassan Chop!

(A reference to a funny WB cartoon. )

This guy has a tree not a sword by the looks.

And a ships sail for modesty.
(We are all about class here.)

In other news November appears to have been a wipeout workwise-
  with our children sick with pneumonia I haven't got much done :(
 Pneumonia in summer?  Yes apparently so.
Ah well.
Hopefully we can all breathe easier soon.




Go back to bed

A good idea.


Monday, November 17, 2014

Arrrrrr!

Noodling around in watercolour- pirate is ok in a rough sort of way- map sort of sucks because again I didn't think/didn't want to look up reference or anything  just started painting.
Map has an X at least.

Sunday, November 16, 2014

"How to get ahead"

Paint one I guess.
Another learning experience-
Got to the teeth and thought- "man I don't have the patience for this ......maybe I can bluff this somehow?".
So teeth are a dream of teeth.
I don't know how people who spend 80 hrs on one picture do it.
Also its amazing that whenever I forget to do a little test dab of my brush on my scratch paper- thats  precisely the time the brush is overloaded/paint is too dark and I have to go into survival mode trying to deal with blotch of dark paint in the wrong spot.
So thats why the shadow on his left cheek is a bit dark  :(

Also as I was painting away merrily on his right lower eyesocket there were two faint lines I'd drawn. "Wonder which one I paint up to? I thought"-
 then I realised I'd painted over onto the lower line which was the lower edge of socket rim highlight-
result?-
 right cheekbone thinner than his left.
Then I try to sneakily chisel a bit away from the other to make the difference not as staggering......

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Jazz!

Pig and Rooster having a good time-
 (the previous post images were a bit bleak).


Mischief

"What me worry?"
Trying out the mischief drawing program.
My first 30 mins of noodling and zooming in and drawing and zooming in.
Only using the pen,eraser and zoom/ pan.
Probably need to learn more than that in the end I guess.
No I'm not a neo nazi I just drew crosses to zoom into- then added serifs.
It would be good for large scale drawings I think- because when you export you sort of pick a size you want it.
Kind of fun.
Oh file size is 230kb for this image with the tiny detail of the girl on the cross on the skull on the cross on the skull guy.








Friday, November 14, 2014

Better red than dead

as the saying goes.
Super long right  elbow- ah well.
I could fix it in photoshop- maybe I'll do that.
Still its all practice right?

Thursday, November 13, 2014

Graaa!

Kind of ogre thing on very very rough handmade paper.
Might do another pass of watercolour on it,- it just soaks in  and gets lost.
Also need to make sense/resolve the thing around his middle.

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Purple people eater.

I think the problem with doing a barely visible loose drawing to start with is that its only once its coloured can you see just how wrong some bits were. Loose but not wrong- that's the goal.

Also when it comes to shading you realise how using reference would be a good idea- gets a bit cagey without.
Well you could try to  reference on the internet for your silly tentacle homage......... but why spoil it?

Thankfully I'm using these little watercolour blocks- no stretching of paper- so for me that equates to less stress about screwing it up (because it didn't take 2 hrs to wet,tape, stretch and dry the paper only to screw it up-  )




Thursday, November 6, 2014

Orrible troll thing.

I need to get out and do some exercise myself-
but I injured my groin trying to play 'social' soccer about 8 days back.
Hopless to try and get any sympathy from an injury when you mention 'groin' though.
No offers to rub it better- just laughter.
They call it social but when you pit untrained unskilled unfit 45 yr old against 22yr olds who actually play soccer......

Anyway- troll is in worse shape than me- thats all you really need to know.