Sketches of Skye

HOLY CRAP I'M TIRED

2011-12-06T10:00:00.001-08:00

- That aside, I am doing some pretty interesting work at the moment. I've started work as Art Director at Mobage/ DeNA (ngMoco etc) and have been doing some pretty interesting stuff in some pretty short timeframes (interesting = good in this case). In other news;

1) Rombies may be getting a new regular artist to take over illustration duties - this year has not been kind to the book but it WILL continue.We have 10+ issues awesomely written which have to see the light of day. They will.

2) I have plaaaaaannssssss.

3) My cover art on AFTERSHOCK made in into this weeks JapanTimes (print edition also - haven't found it yet though);

This is covering the work of the many artists in and out out of Japan who put down their thoughts and emotions in the hopes of supporting the disaster stricken nation in particular the compilation produced by Adam Pasion for which I provided cover art.

Thats all for now. Hope to update again soon but so much is happening at the moment. Shall post again when I am able.

Chao for nao.

SDCC Gestalt Comics Lineup!

2011-08-02T18:20:00.000-07:00

These 3 books debut at the San Diego Comic Convention this year and did exceptionally well. I know because I was there and worked on all of the books as Art Director and Publication designer. As in keeping with Gestalt traditions, all three books are exactly the kinda thing I'd like to read and having read them more than once, I can confidently say that fans out there will really love this stuff.

You can find the books on the Gestalt website and you can read about Tom Taylor puttng the challenge out there to get some Deep cosplay happening (c'mon, look at the Nektons - how sexy would they look in real life? I second that challenge!).

The Deep cosplay! Make it happen!!

SDCC Schedule Update

2011-07-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

So, I will be in San Diego - At the Con shmoozing with the likes of you! Where will I be exactly? Check this schedule! Thats where I'll be.So much awesomeness in a week, not... sure... feeble... human mind... can... BUDDOW! (I jus' asploded).

I do hope to see you all there. Let me scribble on yer books. Or you know... the books you have that I worked on. That would be best :D

Skye at the San Diego Comic Con! WOO!

2011-07-15T22:23:00.000-07:00

In just a few days I'll be leaving Japan, flying over to the San Diego Comic Convention where I will be manning booth #4500 and will be there daily for signings/ to scribble on your books. Writer Tom Taylor will also be taking some time out from a galaxy far far away to sign your copies of Rombies and, should you be bold enough, we will take your photo for your chance to appear in future issues as a Rombies Extra! Be zombified for posterity!

Here is where we will be on the floor (insert beer joke here) Look forward to seeing you all!;

Rombies#1 Online. Free.

2011-06-16T11:11:00.000-07:00

I really really should have mentioned that Rombies #1 is available to read online for free over at gestaltcomics.com a few new pages a week go up but hopefully the full issue should be up soon. By all means please, check it out!

Skyes ARTdepartment site up!

2011-06-01T10:47:00.000-07:00

The Japanese version of my site is now online, but even if you don't speak the language, it should still be quite easy to navigate. Why not give it a go? There's more content to come as well as an English version in the pipes. Time permitting. There are also things that need editing, so if you look now, you might get to see odd work that I really shouldn't have put up on the site (June 2, 2011).

My thoughts on psychos.

2011-06-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since the March 11 quake here in Japan and I've noticed the crazies coming out of the woodwork, declaring May 21st, 2011 the Rapture/ end of the world and trying to comment on this blog and in other places.

Well, I obviously wont have that. News flash crazies; Just because I happened to be in a big quake, doesn't mean that I will approve your comments about what ever chapter of the bible you are pulling from your heads.

I'm an Atheist. Or as I prefer to put it - a thinker. non constructive comments aren't welcome. thank you. You give christians who are still able to think a bad name.

Oh, and enough with the 'Pray for Japan' Facebook badges. Get a 'do for Japan' badge. Better yet, get off your asses and actually DO something if you care enough to put a badge on your avatar.

Japan Earthquake & Tsunami

2011-03-14T05:56:00.000-07:00

I almost don't know how to write this post. I guess I should begin by explaining why it should be so hard for me to write. I have lived in Tokyo for the past 5 years and am married with a pet fish (baby steps, a child is a big responsibility).

Three days ago Japan was rocked by what was thought to have been a magnitude 7.4 and gradually upgraded to a magnitude 9, one of the largest recorded and definitely the biggest Japan has seen (since they started recording them - before that who knows?). At 2:45 Japan time sitting at my work terminal a quake began to work its way up from the ground it quickly became more violent and I knew that it wasn't a normal quake.

I ran to the bedroom where my wife was sleeping having stayed home ill.progressively the shaking was becoming more and more violent and screamed to her to wake up 'MAI! JISHIN!!!' she's Japanese and has grown up with Quakes, her family experienced the Hanshin Quake in '95 woking up I could see that even she was shocked at the shaking because at this point the entire apartment was rocking and groaning, bottles and anything on every surface was being knocked around and thrown to the floor.

running about, I opened windows and the front door - our quick exit. When I did I saw that the homes around us shook like jelly, trees and electric poles wobbling violently as the Quake grew stronger and stronger. I ran back into the house to yell at my wife who was holding our rather large fish tank back from the edge and from falling on the floor. 'MAI LETS GO!!! INTO THE BATHROOM!' I yelled thinking that the pipes in the walls would be the best place for us to wait it out.

Frustratingly she ignored me and stayed with the fish while the quake continued to build up strength. seeing our (already broken) TV almost tip over and fall to the floor I ran back to my studio to catch my Wacom Cintiq before it dropped from my desk. Terrified that the creaking house would fall down on my head, I could only think of screaming help. Skype was open and the cursor was on a contact. I ever so slowly typed in 'quake!' and pressed enter.

At it's most violent point, the quake finally started to subside. It had lasted more than a minute. It scared the shit out of me.

My wife and I shakingly met in the lounge room, the house felt like it was still wobbling. My sea sickness began at that point and wouldn't pass for the next few days (as I write this I'm still a little dizzy from the 150+ after shocks we've had each day since). We hugged. We couldn't speak. Then... we both swore under our breaths and just sank right there to the floor. Man, if that wasn't the big one it was its f#cking cousin because it shook a great deal. After saying how we couldn't believe what had just happened, Mai went to lay down again in bed.

But it wasn't more than 15 minutes before an aftershock - one which seemed almost as powerful and frightening as the first jolted us. Mai again ran to the fish tank, I to the computer at my workstation, this time feeling a little more confident that I could get away with typing more in Skype. I described what was happening to Tom Taylor who was out of the room at the time. I can only imagine his surprise to read all that I had written because it went on to describe this;

After the second Earthquake I could hear a booming sound in the skies above. Running outdoors I saw army helicopters racing northward and directly afterward, the source of the booming noise; a commercial passenger plane traveling so low directly overhead that I thought it possible to throw something at it making a banking roll to the right. Amazed I ran out side and up the stairs to the top story of my building. to the far right on the horizon smoke had started billowing up into the sky. A fire had broken out somewhere.

After running in to report to my wife what I'd seen I ran back out hearing something. Raindrops It was a light sunshower and all the clouds were far on the horizon. It was... odd. Maybe it was pee from the passenger plane? Ew. No. Not pee. Can't be. Lalalalala.
- - I still don't know why the light rain fell. Perhaps due to the ensuing tsunami?

When Tom eventually retuned to the computer and read my messages typed some expletive messages in response to my seemingly insane, grammatically incorrect and misspelt messages his communications through Skype would in fact end up giving me the power to get through the ordeal. I grew up in Australia, A land without the need to deal with tectonic plates. The earth is meant to stay still. Tom really helped me through some of the most intense and dangerous moments I have yet to experience.

Quakes regularly until the morning and into the next days all the while we were trying to follow the news where and when we could; TV, internet, radio - any information we could get our hands on. It didn't even occur to me that the Earthquake had caused a Tsunami. My wife being Japanese knew it would come but neither of us... no, nobody expected what came. Absolute devastation is all we have been watching and like the rest of the world we can't believe that this is all happening. Now we have the possibility of various nuclear power stations north of Tokyo becoming a real danger to life here.

Yet there is no rioting in the streets. Everyone is calm and polite. One Blogger (Anna Ikeda) put it best I think;

"Millions of lives saved by good Japanese engineering and Strict government building codes"

The initial quake- a rare magnitude 9 took the lives of between 50 to 70 people last I heard. I feel very fortunate to be standing today. At the same time, the Tsunami which came after the quake was so horrific and unexpected that I'm not sure any amount of planning could have prevented it. From the videos I saw, it seemed that to flee was the only option at hand. The same gut reaction I had when the quake hit my apartment. Only sometimes, there is nowhere to flee. We in Tokyo were only shaken, the Tsunami took everything from the people it effected. I ask of anybody able to please donate.

I drew the above illustration which is available as a T-shirt 100% of the proceeds for which will be donated. It says 'NIHON, GANBARE!' or 'YOU CAN DO IT JAPAN!' or as put by a friend of mine 'STAY STRONG JAPAN!' Which is a message that I dearly want to convey. Many of my friends live here and it anguishes me to think of harm coming to any of them. Let alone anymore Japanese nationals. This event... It's been too much for anybody to bear.

ADENDUM - I've decided not to post any videos or photos of this dire situation. These don't belong on my blog and you can find them elsewhere/ everywhere else on the web should you feel the need to see them.

On my desk this week.

2011-01-23T07:38:00.000-08:00

ONE of the things on my desk. I think can get away with showing this, the other stuff... not so much.

Belated Happy New Year all.

2011-01-23T07:30:00.000-08:00

Well into January of 2011 I thought it best to mark the new year in someway on this blog. Heres a few rabbits (2011 is the year of the rabbit on the Chinese calendar) that I used as an excuse to break in one of these empty moleskins I have lying about (they are gorgeous books... its hard to dive in and start making the pages up... but its done. The pages are slowly filling. Phew!)

Some Work Printed

2011-01-16T19:18:00.001-08:00

Well, First post of 2011 and I get to show some work I wasn't allowed to show last year. Sweet.

The Quest is a range of six wines that I was lucky enough to collaborate on with West Australian based studio Lost & Found (no site up yet). Based on the Knights Templar and the search for the cup of Christ this was a lot of fun to research and Illustrate. Here are two of the figures below;

Some work going to print

2010-11-19T09:49:00.000-08:00

A sneak preview of something that I had been working on with Australian Branding specialists Lost & Found. I will of course show more when more comes. Here are some test prints for the label. What kind of label? More to come...

Different Strokes -Yongen Video

2010-10-28T21:20:00.000-07:00

Well, I promised the people who came and saw my AGDA talk last week that I would upload the Yongen/ Vowels video up to my blog. And a promise is a promise so...

And here is a screenshot from the opening of the next video ('Rococo', #1 on the 'Give me your sun album' - which sets the stage for the entire story)

Different stokes AGDA event

2010-10-18T01:52:00.000-07:00

AGDA WA will be letting me loose on Tuesday, October 26 to speak about... stuff. I'll be joined by Kyle Hughes-Odgers and tattoo artist Davey Llewes from Cherry Bomb Tattoo. It's at the The Velvet Lounge, Mt Lawley (behind The Flying Scotsman) and ticketing information etc can be seen here
Should you be nearby and willing, why not come down and say hi before I head back to Tokyo?

Rombies #1's Abraham

2010-10-01T06:38:00.000-07:00

The newest version of Quicktime has many new functions like screen recording. Thought I'd try it out. The new Rombies is (so far 100%) digital.

Rombies #1 cover art (subject to change)

2010-09-22T19:38:00.000-07:00

Rombies #1 cvr sneak peek

On my desk this week

2010-09-22T19:28:00.000-07:00

Well after spending an entire month bedridden and another nursing myself back to health and getting back on top of my work, I've decided its time to post something. Anything. It's been too long.

The above artwork is for a short 8 pager I am doing for the Hepatitis C Council of NSW. Each comic I get to try out a new style and or approach which is great for me. This one is about the the risk of getting Hep C / getting a crappy tattoo you'll regret from makeshift prison needles.

I'm also working on some animations for Poligo 24-hour English support. Lip syncing galore.

Oh and of course I'm working away on Rombies. We have a new colorist onboard to help speed up the process. She's doing a great job so far. More on that soon.

Gestalt at the 2010 San Diego Comic Convention!

2010-07-16T11:30:00.000-07:00

This marks the first year that Gestalt Comics have a booth at the San Diego Comic Convention.the crazyness begins next week and if you are there please look for booth 4500 and tell 'em Skye sent ya (for your chance to be loaded up with some goodies n lovin').

Look here for all the details

CBJ review!

2010-07-07T01:47:00.000-07:00

A very nice review of Rombies#0;
It’s a quick read sure, but one that will make most hunger for more. Thankfully, that’s exactly what we’re getting, and the teaser image below makes me salivate at the prospect of Taylor and Ogden telling their zombie epic through the ages. Really the possibilities are endless. Zombies in Napoleon’s army? An undead Hitler? Elvis rising from Graceland, hungry for impersonator flesh in Las Vegas? They could go anywhere.

Art Tutorial

2010-06-29T21:13:00.000-07:00

ok, so recently some people have been asking me for tutes on illustration. These past few weeks and for the next couple of weeks I have been super busy illustrating day and night. As such, I don't have much time to allocate to mini lessons so I normally point them to various places on the internet.

This art tutorial (by Arne Niklas Jansson - thanks!) is under a Creative Commons License and is one of the best resources I can offer to people. I even recommend professionals take a peek. Its filled with a lot of stuff you may have been neglecting in your work. It's filled with a lot of stuff I'd been neglecting, thats for sure.

yet another sterling review of Rombies

2010-06-22T20:12:00.000-07:00

This is very good. Another sweet review of Rombies by Decapitated Dan over at comic monsters.com.
All of these sweet reviews are making me revisit some of the older pages i've worked up. I really want the series to be all it can be and I'm certainly working hard on it. Still can't post any art just yet unfortunately, although we shouldn't be too far away from that point.

Sweet review and auditions

2010-06-14T12:51:00.000-07:00

So, I woke up the other morning to see a message from Wolfgang (Gestalt Publishing's editor-in-chief) with a link to an awesome review by Broken Frontier. It absolutely made my day;

'A large part of the book’s success stems from the stellar artwork of Skye Ogden. Working in a slightly cartoony style, Ogden’s art is lively and leaps off the page without sacrificing a stunning attention to detail'

I don't think anyones been so kind about my work before. I consider the Rombies one shot lacking a little on the art side when compared to the series so I definitely have hope for it! Especially as the writer Tom Taylor has gone all out for us on this.

We were also interviewed by Decapitated Dan over at comicmonsters.com and you can read the whole thing here (it's probably my most lucid interview to date)

In other news, we have decided to offer people the chance to be included in the series as either a Zombie or a Citizen of Rome. All you need to do is get on over to our 'be a Rombies extra' Facebook page and upload a pic of you acting out one, the other or both (the chances of the Citizens becoming Zombies are high after all). as they start going into the book, I will be reposting some of them for all to see. And of course you will be published in the actual series which is, lets face it... kinda cool.

Rombies is coming.

2010-06-07T21:19:00.000-07:00

Info on the upcoming Gestalt Publishing Rombies series on writer Tom Taylor's site and a new site for Rombies here. Things are moving forward. please be patient, I assure you it will be worth the wait (although I can't wait for it either!). UPDATE; yup, thats the same pic on the screen on the Cintiq in the post below.

Cintiq 21UX day

2010-05-18T00:48:00.000-07:00

I now have a shiny new Cintiq 21UX sitting in my already cramped studio - On its screen something you will be seeing more of soonish. I'm so happy I finally made the decision to get it and I'm looking forward to working on it. Which will be in a few minutes. I have a logo that needs designin' and a picture that needs drawin'. Wish me luck.

UPDATE
After a wee bit of fiddling about I've settled on the Cintiq as being my main screen with the other housing things like a second work window for Photoshop or say the hundreds of floating windows that I sometimes have open. Websites and itunes now sit in it and I need not watch footage the way I used to.

My other intuous tablets are essentially obsolete. I wont use em unless I'm going on a trip somewhere with my laptop. Not that I mind, A week in with this thing and I can't imagine going back. Money well thrown at someone else. Even if it was a big fat wad o' cash that I kinda missed. I don't miss it now.

More House

2010-05-05T00:39:00.000-07:00

Cause I've just started watching Season 5. Nice show.

Multitasking

2010-05-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Because I sit in front of a screen for days on end, I need something to keep me going. While I draw, I watch stuff. Movies, Dramas, YouTube, Ted Talks, Podcasts... My (wacom) pen almost never stops while something is playing (there are exceptions). This is what my screen looks like when i'm playing something (Photoshopped, screen capture doesn't work with DVDs);

Small box in the corner. Nothing more. I have now gotten to the stage where I don't watch anything and not be working (it's a waste of valuable time right?). Another thing I do is, when saving a file, instead of sitting and waiting for bar to finish crawling across the screen, I pick up a pencil/ pen and scribble something from the screen. Here I am watching Season 4 of House MD.

The actual job? That blue art I am working on? It is an 8 page comic for the Hepatitis C Council of New South Wales (Australia) and the comic is this;

Guess what the topic of the comic is? It's nice to be working on this kind of stuff. Knowing that these comics are being put out there to help people. I'd like more work like this.

Yongen' Rococo update

2010-04-26T22:42:00.000-07:00

Work is moving along slowly on the video. mostly because this video is much more complex than the previous video requiring many complex city scenes filled with characters. Which is where my 102 vowels characters project comes in.This is one of many cuts which shows how the characters are going into the video.

Also having fun placing vowels versions of people into the video, much like the above planned cameo. Yup, the super gifted musical duo Yongen will be making an appearance. I just wont be telling anyone where. We are still many, many months away (I'm juggling, the Rombies series and freelance illustration work) but I can say it should definitely be finished within the year.

Sketching

2010-04-11T05:40:00.000-07:00

Use it or loose it. Some days or weeks I spend in front of the computer hammering away at digital painting, design, animation or motion graphics. Which means that some weeks I don't get a great deal of actual drawing time in. Or rather didn't get a whole lot of drawing time in until I picked up 'Drawn to Life' by Walt Stanchfield, a two volume collection of lectures by the long time Disney Animator.

In it he writes 'give up the bad habit of not drawing today'. He suggests carrying a cheap pad everywhere you go and draw anything you can when you can. He goes on to suggest drawing a box to place your sketch in - to force you to think about composition, To use a pen instead of a pencil, to be quick and to not care about mistakes. To focus on gesture and not detail.

And so I have been. As an artist, I can really recommend doing this. Much like keeping the gears greased up. I also recommend 'Drawn to Life' for any artist, no matter what their specialty.

Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 (Megapost)

2010-03-27T05:01:00.000-07:00

The 2010 Tokyo Anime Fair is over now but Gestalt Publishing was represented on the floor by myself and a small entourage of Gestalt for-a-day people (no one needed to know). Now that the carnage is over I can report on what we saw there.

Buyers were rife on the floor, people representing foreign companies that redistribute films in English. But I wasn't there for that. I was invited by the super nice people from usagio and got to meet a heap of talented people in Animation, Motion Graphics, Design, Illustration etc. etc...

On top of Usagio and their whimsical and cute style, I would like to introduce a few of the people that I met which I am sure are bound to impress and inspire;

Takahashi Koya's works in particular impressed me a great deal. The animation in his showreel is made completely in After Effects. Outta the box with no plugins. Really, you have to watch it.

Ohrys bird/ Anime Tronica Co. Ltd. are fantastic. Musicians who made their own music videos, found they were so good at it that they started making more for other bands. And then animation for Ad agencies and so on and so forth. Their story is one I love.

Ishikawa holdings have been making some great animations some of which I had seen a year or so ago on niko niko douga (Japanese YouTube with more wtf) while not the funniest, this 'advertisement' for The Grand Guardian Tokyo mansion (apartments) I can't forget.

There are many more people I met and hope to keep in touch with, but for now lets move on to other aspects of the Anime Fair. Amongst all of the booths on the floor one in particular stood out shining and bright from the skimpy cosplayers, Animated figures and such. And that booth was the Behemoth booth; the company who brought us Alien Hominid and Castle Crashers

available on Xbox live and coming QUITE soon to Playstation network. Seriously, All gamers need to get this. Tis' porn. Pure Porn.

I was lucky enough to meet with Dan Paladin - the artist behind Castle Crashers and other great games (pictured above, with dodgy looking me). I told him that his working videos helped inspire me when I was working on SquareEnix stuff. He helped me quite a bit and I think he appreciated me telling him this. These guys are awesome. Seriously awesome, nice hardworking dudes and I wish them the best of luck in the future (not that they need it).

So he drew me the above picture and I offloaded the Gestalt comics library onto him and then left for more booths. Or to be more correct, collecting loot. And my oh my, there was loot to be had. I ended up with more than I could alone carry. 10 or more DVDs and my personal favorites being some gorgeous oversized Studio 4˚C (who worked on the Animatrix for those un-familar with Anime - and their AWESOME work) Genius Party books.

The experience of the Tokyo Anime Fair was great and the contacts made were... well, how can you measure something like this? I will definitely be attending next year and feel as though I have enough inspiration (and freebies) to last till then. TAF2011? I recommend it.

(cool) shite interview!

2010-03-22T21:26:00.000-07:00

Star Wars and the Authority writer Tom Taylor and myself were interviewed a month ago by the guys over at (cool) shite where we talked about the Rombies one shot and the upcoming series. Oh, and Zombie Gazelles. Listen to it here.

100 and two vowels characters.

2010-03-21T02:56:00.000-07:00

Last Friday marked my 100th day of freelancing and with it, the completion of my 100 (and two) vowels character project. Now that we are at the end, its time to ask; why? Of course it was a great way to warm up each day and get me into work mode, but was there another purpose to all of this?

Well, yes, there was. Two reasons actually; 1- I now have a set of characters to be used in general projects. Specifically for the Rococo video clip that is in production for Yongen and 2- I am thinking it would be sweet to have some vowels figures don't you? And so, I have started another side project as you can see from the materials below.

Weather they are just for me or to be reproduced at a later date is yet to be decided. That's future talk. Now, however, it would be grand if you could help me out by picking your favorite 5 from the list above and write them in the comments or let me know on Facebook or by email.

That'd be grand. ( ^ u ^ ) /

Day 100pt 3.

2010-03-20T00:35:00.001-07:00

Vowels character 102 of 100

Day 100pt 2.

2010-03-20T00:34:00.000-07:00

Vowels character 101 of 100

Day 100.

2010-03-19T22:51:00.001-07:00

Vowels character 100 of 100

Day 99.

2010-03-18T10:59:00.001-07:00

Vowels character 99 of 100

Day 98.

2010-03-17T09:34:00.000-07:00

Vowels character 98 of 100

Day 97.

2010-03-16T07:34:00.001-07:00

Vowels character 97 of 100

Day 96.

2010-03-15T07:54:00.000-07:00

Vowels character 96 of 100

Day 95.

2010-03-12T10:13:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 95 of 100

Day 94.

2010-03-11T01:01:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 94 of 100

Day 93.

2010-03-10T09:03:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 93 of 100

Day 92.

2010-03-09T06:16:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 92 of 100

The-cult-of-done.

2010-03-08T00:21:00.000-08:00

I often reference the Cult of Done and Yoda, when speaking about work ethic and more importantly, the way I work. It is something that has shaped not just my work but my way of life. Taking this way too far helped me co-found a company, learn foreign language, move to another country and pretty much dare to attempt things that I thought were just too big for me or thought that I needed more experience before attempting. Doing is experience. Done is an Awesome place to be.

While i've lightened up over the years, the done manifesto remains inspiring to me. If you've not come across this in your time on the internets then here it is;

The Cult of Done Manifesto

There are three states of being. Not knowing, action and completion.
Accept that everything is a draft. It helps to get it done.
There is no editing stage.
Pretending you know what you're doing is almost the same as knowing what you are doing, so just accept that you know what you're doing even if you don't and do it.
Banish procrastination. If you wait more than a week to get an idea done, abandon it.
The point of being done is not to finish but to get other things done.
Once you're done you can throw it away.
Laugh at perfection. It's boring and keeps you from being done.
People without dirty hands are wrong. Doing something makes you right.
Failure counts as done. So do mistakes.
Destruction is a variant of done.
If you have an idea and publish it on the internet, that counts as a ghost of done.
Done is the engine of more.

Day 91.

2010-03-07T22:36:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 91 of 100

Day 90.

2010-03-05T20:41:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 90 of 100

Day 89.

2010-03-04T19:17:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 89 of 100

Day 88.

2010-03-03T19:40:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 88 of 100

Day 87.

2010-03-02T07:30:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 87 of 100

Andie Tong's sketches of skye!

2010-03-01T06:51:00.000-08:00

And he did it quite a long time ago. I found this pic while I was visiting Australia for last weeks Gestaltapalooza and Rombies launch party and thought it would be kinda cool to post here. Andies work is great and you can see a whole lot of it here or over at his deviant art page.

Day 86.

2010-03-01T06:29:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 86 of 100

Changing Ways new trailer

2010-02-27T02:38:00.001-08:00

Something I enjoy doing as a part of my role at Gestalt Publishing is playing with other peoples art and making the comic book trailers. Justin Randall's upcoming Changing Ways book looks and reads fantastically and so I wanted to do a little more with the trailer this time around.

We Love the hell outta this but we've both decided to take it to the next stage on Changing Ways volume 2 (erm, with the trailer. Not he and I. I'm a happily married guy). Wait till you read the book. It's awesome in so many ways. Movie deal anyone?

Day 85.

2010-02-26T23:27:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 85 of 100

Day 84.

2010-02-25T10:27:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 84 of 100

Day 83.

2010-02-24T09:52:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 83 of 100

Comic Zone signing~

2010-02-23T12:47:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough to be in Perth Western Australia for this; scribbling on peoples comics. It was a blast.
Tom Taylor and I sat at the same booth scribbling, writing messages and often drawing nipples on peoples comics. Tom's work on Star Wars and pretty much everything he does has been and continues to be awesome. Which is why I am super pleased to be working with him on the future Rombies series. The stuff we have worked on together to date has been gold with deep deep layered research and characterization.
I am proud of this series before its even out... I am sure it's going to blow even my expectations. Kickass.

Day 82.

2010-02-23T10:07:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 82 of 100

Day 81.

2010-02-23T09:44:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 81 of 100

Day 80.

2010-02-22T08:47:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 80 of 100

Day 79.

2010-02-22T08:45:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 79 of 100

Day 78.

2010-02-17T04:01:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 78 of 100

Day 77.

2010-02-16T20:29:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 77 of 100

Day 76.

2010-02-14T23:14:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 76 of 100

Day 75.

2010-02-12T10:24:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 75 of 100

February Comic Signing.

2010-02-12T07:05:00.000-08:00

Tom Taylor will be at Comiczone in Perth next Saturday the 20th (Thats 572 Hay Street from 11am. for anyone wanting to get their books scribbled on) As he says on his blog, He will be signing any Star Wars: Invasion, The Example, Rombies, Flinch and Star Wars: Adventures anyone wants to shove in his face. He offers to sign other things and I don't know about you, but I am snooping about for something interesting to shove in his face.

As a foot note, I'll also be there somewhere near Tom, pen in hand should anyone want me to scribble on their stuff.

Day 74.

2010-02-10T18:37:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 74 of 100

Day 73.

2010-02-09T08:34:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 73 of 100

Day 72.

2010-02-08T08:29:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 72 of 100

GESTALTAPALOOZA!

2010-02-08T01:51:00.000-08:00

Gestalt, in preparing to launch Rombies are flying me in from Japan and Tom Taylor in from Melbourne. Tom being writer on Star Wars Invasion, I imagine that I shall have much more freedom to roam and speak with people so come down and speak with me! It's on down at Clancy's Canning Bridge in Applecross on Thursday the 18th of February 2010 From 7pm. Take a look here for more info or logon to facebook to let us know you are coming.

Day 71.

2010-02-07T18:22:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 71 of 100

Day 70.

2010-02-04T23:37:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 70 of 100

Day 69.

2010-02-04T04:12:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 69 of 100

Deconstructing Comics Podcast interview

2010-02-04T04:11:00.000-08:00

Naughty me for forgetting to mention this here but a few weeks ago Wolfgang Blysma and myself (from Gestalt Publishing) were interviewed by Tim from Deconstructing comics and you can listen to the recording online now (should the interest grab you) here.

Rombies/ coolshite

2010-02-04T01:23:00.000-08:00

Today Tom Taylor and I were interviewed by Moyle and Quinny of coolshite fame. I wont go into detailscoz I am not allowed to. Anyways, here's a zombie gazelle to tide you over until the interview surfaces.

Day 68.

2010-02-02T23:03:00.001-08:00

Vowels character 68 of 100

Day 67.

2010-02-02T06:59:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 67 of 100

Day 66.

2010-02-01T11:22:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 66 of 100

Day 65.

2010-01-28T11:36:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 65 of 100

Day 64.

2010-01-28T11:19:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 64 of 100

Rococo/ Yongen animated video (superpost).

2010-01-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

So, today I was interviewed by faster than light about the stuff I have have been and will be up to. The presenter Grant Stone quizzed me about Rombies, Briefcases and the topic of this post - the Vowels video clips I am working on for fantastic Japanese based duo Yongen.

Due to current events and reshuffling of projects, the next video doesn't have a solid time line as such. And so I thought it might be nice to let people know that the project IS in fact moving along steadily. More so - I thought I would critique the first video and show some of my techniques being implemented in the next video, Rococo.

Let me start by saying that I am a naughty boy. I haven't made any story boards for these videos. which is both odd and funny because that has been a big part of my work over the past years. So what did I do instead? I paneled the videos out as comic book chapters. Yeah, that's right. Comics. I thought that they are so close to storyboards I would give this method a try. One page for the in production Rococo looks like this;
From there I tear all the panels apart and throw the individual files into iMovie to mock up the video clip - matching timing and events to the music (Which I have heard 100's of times and am still not sick of. Nice - I don't think I could keep going making these if I didn't love the music). Almost every frame becomes a cut in the video 'Rococo' has 33 cuts. ''. From there I illustrate all the backgrounds that will appear throughout. The pic below shows one such transition;After I have finished all the BGs for the video, I proceed to plan my animation. The above is pretty damned simple to imagine. A bouncing bug. For any difficult animation, I keep reference and Preston Blair's 'how to Animate' (I've had a copy since pre-lower-region-hair) close at hand.

Thinking of the pacing of the video, I make a path and act out the movement with real objects to the music. This makes me look like a 4 year old in a 30 year old's body. I do this indoors with the windows closed. The red represents the screen size I am using with the videos. 822pixels by 486pixels - which is both widescreen and broadcast quality.
From here I mark out the basic animation using shapes in Photoshop using the Animation window. After making repeated tweeks, if the basic movement is smooth (or as smooth as I can be happy with without tearing my heir out) I begin roughly sketching in the characters shapes and subtle movements.
The above picture shows both the moving shape I mentioned and the sketched out character for a few frames. Incomplete but I think you get the idea. I will hold anything more detailed back for another time.
Now. You may be wondering why I am insisting on drawing and posting 100 vowels characters on my blog? Well, Rococo calls for street scenes. and I need a LOT of variety to fill out those scenes. Once my 100 are complete, I think at least half of those could find their way into the video. In fact, I am trying to focus on the types of characters you might find wandering about the streets of Rococo.
The biggest issue I had when I finished the 'Give me your sun, give me your moon' video clip was that I had drawn many of the animation using a pencil in Photoshop. Why is that a big deal? well, a brush gives a soft edge while the pencil gives a hard edge. Why did I use the pencil? Because I was doing 2D sprite animation for games. Using the pencil immediately means pixel art and thus makes things a whole lot smoother for work flow and of course editing with a simple click of your magic wand.

As shown here;

But I don't like the look. So I will be doing away with it completely in this video. There are other thing I would love to change would have to be the clouds and steam effects (in future videos) - it may mean going back to the earlier animations to edit them and bring them up top the new standard... I don't know. I like 'Give me your Sun, Give me your moon' - it's just that it's looking like the continuations of that video are looking much better. I am no Animation pro, and was never properly trained but I am enjoying these videos and should I manage to finish all 10 - I'll wager that I would have learned a thing or two along the way and that is reward in itself.

Day 63.

2010-01-26T10:41:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 63 of 100

Day 62.

2010-01-25T23:16:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 62 of 100

Day 61.

2010-01-24T19:41:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 61 of 100

Day 60.

2010-01-22T01:16:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 60 of 100

Day 59.

2010-01-21T10:38:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 59 of 100

Day 58.

2010-01-20T10:52:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 58 of 100

Inoue Takehiko Exhibition 2010

2010-01-20T07:34:00.001-08:00

A tale of six degrees of separation for you. Before I get to that however, why don't I let you know about a sweet (free) exhibition happening at Tokyo's MOT gallery.
One of my favorite Japanese Comic artists, Takehiko Inoue - writer and artist on Slam Dunk, Real and Vagabond is having another exhibition (I missed his 2009 one - a shame because it was on a much grander scale than this one). And, as luck should have it, I have already been to scope it out for anyone able to get down and take a peek. I am happy to report it is fantastic.
Here is a photo of MANY that I was able to take before security got to me and asked me to put my camera away. How many snaps did I manage? I got a shot of every single peice in there. So much for security huh? For those who know, the above art is based on his long running series about historical figure Miyamoto Musashi. A Ronin Samurai who... well, kicks peoples asses. It's an absolutely gorgeously made series and the art is some of the best out there.This picture (inks on paper - just as the comic pages are done) - is HUGE. standing next to it, my head barely reached the sword he holds. An exclusive video of the process is shown at the museum. How long did this take? Two days. Two days dammit. This is a guy I want to take a few lessons from. In being a fan, I guess in a way I am getting some lessons.
The exhibition shows cases his ink brushwork and story telling - the exhibition itself a story about the Musashi character. I think. It could almost be about the artist himself, but that is one of his many story telling skills. Inoue knows how to tell a great tale and we can see those skills on display even here. Inoue worked on a popular basketball comic book before Vagabond which is where I come back to my six degrees of separation story.

About a year or two ago now I was lucky enough to work on a DVD filled with street ball events - held in a way - most awesomely akin to a street fighter tourney in random places about Tokyo. I did the motion graphics on two of the seasons' DVDs which came up quite well I think.

It so turns out that one of the players on the 'Legend' basketball DVDs was a school buddy of Inoue and was actually the inspiration for the main character in his 'Slam Dunk' comic series.
I am constantly amazed at just how small a world we live in. Could it be that creative circles are even smaller? We will see as going freelance has seen me stepping out more and more into the wilds.

For anyone in Tokyo please do take the time to go and see the exhibition, Its fantastic and even more inspiring when you see a comic artist being treated like a rock star. I was so impressed I walked away with a 2DVD boxed set of footage of him planning, sketching and inking comic pages. Hours of it. And I've already seen the DVD. THAT is just how captivating his art form is.

For those not in Tokyo, check the web. Google and youtube. Ask you local comics guy about him. You will be glad that you did.

Day 57.

2010-01-19T10:22:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 57 of 100

Day 56.

2010-01-18T04:48:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 56 of 100

Weekend RnR

2010-01-18T04:34:00.000-08:00

- In sub zero conditions, I recently took a family trip past saitama to chichibu (try and say that without smiling. It sounds like the language you'd use talking to a baby) where we visited a frozen waterfall. the scenery was beautiful and inspiring and so I will share it here with you all.
That's a waterfall behind me.
here's a better shot. I have to say, it was cold but awesome. Many thanks to Naosan, Otousan and Maichan~

Day 55.

2010-01-15T09:24:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 55 of 100

Day 54.

2010-01-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 54 of 100

Day 53.

2010-01-13T06:54:00.000-08:00

Vowels character 53 of 100

Rombies concept art

2010-01-11T22:18:00.000-08:00

A little something I found on my HD this morning. Rombies issue 0 has been out for a couple of weeks now and I thought why not show this concept art?Tom Taylor named this guy after Gestalt's editor Wolfgang Bylsma and although never written in the book, it definitely kept things amusing for me as I poured over Tom's script. Possibly it was named thusly to remind him to give a real name at a later date. Possibly.