I changed my banner for this blog. Now you can see a red paraffin lamp on the right hand side and a painting (print) in the centre. It is “Rita’s Find (Paddy’s Market)” by Avril Paton.
I used Photoshop to make it as if it is illustrated.
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Recently, I got an email confirming there will be a British International Comics Show (BICs) on this year. It was formerly called Birmingham International Comics Show. Shane Chebsey and co are running it and I urge all comic book fans to attend. Sadly, I can’t make it this time. Last year, I did go and I had a good time going to the launch party the night before the comics book event. At ThinkTank (Birmingham), I met the FutureQuake Press guys and the TimeBomb Comics team. They were great to talk to. I got my Watchmen graphic novel autographed by Dave Gibbons and he drew Rorschach on the inside cover. Cool! If you are interested in small press comics and graphic novels, head over to Birmingham. I am going to write a blog post at least once a month about my progress with script or story writing. For the past few years, I have been writing horror comic scripts. I am now branching into crime. I wrote a single crime script but plan to write some more.I’m not giving up horror and I have plenty to come up with. I am considering writing a script about a serial killer with an underlying message. The toughie is writing it out without sounding preachy. I believe people will get turned off. Oh yes, another toughie is writing dialog. I admit my writing dialog can be rough around the edges but in time it will get better. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote a script based on Count Dracula for a Scream! tribute comic at http://www.backfromthedepths.co.uk/. It was recieved well. Hopefully, the art will be ready for publication come October. Check out the blog regarding the tribute comic. BACK FROM THE DEPTHS NEEDS YOU! (BFTD Comic Submission Guidelines) A few months ago, I had bought a graphics tablet. A Wiacom Bamboo. Small enough for me. Yesterday, I tried out the ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition and I was ready to purchase a copy of the full edition. That was until I realised I already had a copy of ArtRage 2.5 which came with the tablet. This was a bonus because I was frustrated at not being able to add new layers or use stencils. I feel like a wee boy who just got a new set of painting tools. Heh. About 2 weeks ago, I got an email from Dave of FutureQuake Press to say that the artwork , based on my second script, has been completed. All drawn and lettered. I’m happy with the artwork and looking forward to seeing it printed in October. Recently, I have trying out my hand at drawing and painting digitally. I’m not great at it in Photoshop. I’m not too bad in Illustrator CS2 and that’s because Illustrator automatically makes my lines seems neat, even and often well rounded. I feel it was cheating relying on the software to make my drawing look great. I would think of it as the equivalent of someone singing badly and the man at the mixer controls makes it the singer sound great. However, I made a few logos for my friend Mark who makes soaps and candles as a hobby. As I was experimenting with Illustrator, I heard from Mark about his small project. So for fun, I made a mock logo for Mark to promote his products. It wasn’t bad. The problem was I was looking for tools that makes my art looks naturally drawn, not digitally drawn. I was unsure what I was looking for. That is until I stumbled onto ArtRage (via a blog post). I never heard of it. So I tried out the Starter Edition. I only tried it out for like 30 mins when I knew it was what I was looking for. I made a small piece of art. See below.  Sea and Dawn I’m going to keep practising my art skills. I’m getting there, updating my blog. It was some fiddling here and there. My web hosting had beefed up security to prevent hackers. So I had some trouble permissions trying to update Wordpress on my website. But it’s looking brighter now. Hi guys, I think it’s about time I brighten up my blog. I’m not happy with the bland setting. There is also the problem with spam bots registering themselves. Watch this space. At the weekend, I discovered my work commitments would prevent me from attending Hi-Ex 2009. Shame. Next year, I’ll be there. I wish Rich and Vicky all the best with their comic con. They have a large set of auction items whose proceeds will go to charity, Children 1st. it is an amazing set of items up for auction which includes:
Check out their auction webpage. Hi-Ex 2009 is taking place in a few weeks time. It is run by Richmond Clements and Vicky Stonebridge. Last year, the event was affected by the severe weather. The heavy snow prevented some guests and visitors from attending Hi-Ex. However, a lot of people attended and it was a success. This year, Hi-Ex will be held at Eden Court, Inverness on the 14th-15th February. I still need to organise booking arrangements. I noted that Frank Quitely will be attending and I would love for him to autograph my copy of All Star Superman GN. A truly impressive piece of work. I’ll be first in the queue! Check their website. |
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