Friday 30 November 2018

November, Smashed

Drawing something every day for Inktober felt amazing. But tiring. It was a relief to finish. However, I was so proud of my accomplishment that I couldn't rest for too long. I wanted to keep going. Govember? No. No, not every month needs a special name. Months already have names.

I don't usually do tributes. But Stan Lee's impact on my life was too great for me not to do something to mark his passing. No sadness, no angels or pearly gates. Just a celebration of the man and his work.

Thank you, Stan Lee

I had the pleasure of taking part in @Calmoray's Sidekicks Collab. The project's goal was to have side characters from animated Disney movies be drawn by a different artist.  I chose Undertow from The Little Mermaid 2. I love this squished down little shark. And the Genie was already taken.

Undertow

Smash Bros Ultimate is coming out next week and I am very excited. Or at least I would be, if I had a Nintendo Switch to play it on. Still, I was at least excited enough to draw a bunch of stuff for it. The reveal of 'Piranha Plant' as a new fighter in the game divided fans. As always, I'm on the side of it being 'just weird enough to be cool'.

Piranha Plant

Nintendo also revealed that once the game is relased, there will be 5 extra characters available for download. I have some strong opinions about who those characters should be. I also have strong opinions about stopping at 5.

Banjo-Kazooie

Bomberman

Professor Layton

Spyro

Lloyd Irving

Rayman

Shantae

Shovel Knight
To be honest, I'll probably come up with more. 79 characters isn't nearly enough for one game. Come on Nintendo, make the effort.

Wednesday 31 October 2018

Inktober 2018

I finally did Inktober! The month-long daily drawing challenge started by Jake Parker. I've joined in for two or three days before, but this time I did the whole damn thing.

Poisonous

Tranquil

Roasted

Spell

Chicken
Drooling

Exhausted

Spell

Precious

Flowing

Cruel
Whale

Guarded

Clock

Weak

Angular

Swollen

Bottle

Scorched

Breakable
Chop

Prickly

Stretch

Thunder

Gift

Double

Jolt

Slice

Friday 14 September 2018

Smash Bros Used Surf


Here are the Smash Bros, but not all of of them, so we could call this 'Some Bros', which is less exciting, so let's not.


I didn't draw this 'cos I like Smash, I drew this 'cos I like Lapras, but I also like Smash, so I drew some bros surfing on her back. I think Lapras could work as a battleground in the new game, or at least as an element of a battleground, so Nintendo, if you're reading this, I give you permission to use your own characters to do that.

I haven't posted since April but in my defence I was evicted from my home, so I've been moving between hospitals, mini hotels, the homes of friends and strangers. I became friends with the most recent stranger, who helped me retrieve my computer equipment from my previous landlord so that I could draw this. Writing that last sentence has reminded me how astoundingly lucky I am, which is good, as it helps me me forget how unlucky the first one was.

Now that I'm relatively safe I bought Pokémon, Donky Kong, Animal Crossing, Mario, all with discount I received from my new job at gaming store... I've thrown myself into it pretty hard. I guess I need the comfort. Now I'm trying to put myself back into 'making things', not only with this illustration but with new episodes of my show.

It's a gaming show, obviously.

Friday 20 April 2018

The Trash Tapes, Hobo with a Shotgun


Here's the title card for episode 2 of 'The Trash Tapes', where Johann and Edward talk about 'Hobo with a Shotgun'. I wonder what it's about.

Wednesday 28 March 2018

The Trash Tapes, Troll 2


The first episode of The Trash Tapes is about 'Troll 2'.

Troll 2 isn't about events that followed Troll 1. In fact, it isn't even about Trolls. So as a podcast about terrible movies reaching cult status, there's nothing better for Johann and Edward to start off with.

I haven't seen the movie, except for the infamous 'Oh my god' clip, which Johann is recreating here. Edward is recreating the scene where characters turn into trees, so that they can be eaten by Goblins. Yes, that's a thing that happens. That is the main thing that happens. Do they at least get eaten by Trolls Too?

No. The only monsters in Trolls 2 are Goblins; who apparently have both the selfish carnivorous need for flesh AND the vegetarian pomposity to only eat plants. Now that really is a horror.

Don't invite them round for movie night. They'll probably turn a pepperoni pizza into spinach, the bastards.

Monday 26 March 2018

The Trash Tapes


These adorable boys would like to welcome you into their happy world. Admittedly Their world is blood and horror. Still, how can you say no to those faces? 'The Trash Tapes' is a new podcast from my friends Johann Chipol and Edward Harvey, discussing movies that have managed to achieve cult status! You know, the shit ones.

This is the header for their website, and the first project I've worked on since my breakup. Well that's not quite true, 'crying forever' was my first project. And then I kept myself occupied by drawing The Infamous Five for a while. But this thing involved new stuff I would then have to colour.

When Johann asked me to provide artwork for his podcast, all I really wanted to do was say no and crawl back to bed. Although, if I'm honest, I was already in bed when he sent the messaget. The point is he's a friend, I was flattered to be involved, and quite frankly I needed the money. Now here we are. I'm very proud I powered through with it 'cos it came out better than I expected.

Usually when I colour a thing, I just go with whatever colour that thing is most likely to be. This time I tried to stick to a theme. The logo is purple and green, so they had to be purple and green. I gave the VHS tapes a green tint rather than have them be standard black and white, so they'd fit the theme too but still look natural. The only other colour is red is for the labels, purposefully standing out, as there'll be mostly horror movies. Oh, and Harvey's hair stands out too 'cos he likes to look pretty.

Johann has informed me he wishes he actually owned that shirt.


Saturday 24 February 2018

The Infamous Five Squared

Before I got fired from my job - oh, did I tell you guys I got fired? I got fired. Before that, I was standing around drawing. This was not the reason I got fired. It was an art shop. We could, occasionally, get away with drawing. Occasionally. We just had to remember it was a shop sometimes.

We would demonstrate products to customers using a small pad of A6 paper. I'd often nab one of these pads to doodle in during quiet moments, and during one of these quiet moments I doodled one of The Infamous Five. Then I doodled another one. Eventually, I decided it would be a good idea to draw each member of the five, five times.

I stopped thinking this was a good idea by the tenth drawing, but I'd already started so now I had to finish. And here they are.



The goal was that each pose represents who they are entirely as a character, their personality communicated purely by what you're looking at. So that right away you would know the type of character they are. You wouldn't need to read a bio and could tell each character is vastly different to the other.

I didn't want to use too many props, to just work with body expressions. Complete improv using only their nature. Although at one point I got bored and went all in with the props. Ha. Each row has a theme.

1. Infamously Casual - How they mostly behave.
2. Infamous Hand Jobs - The hand gestures they use.
3. Infamous Stand Jobs - Even standing is unique.
4. Infamous Props - The shit they use.
5. Infamously Sexy - I kinda messed this one up...

...with the exception of Ant, the middle guy, who I imagine really would think rubbing his nipples is sexy to others, I just drew the rest in feminim poses. 'cos it amused me.