Expo Artist's Alley

Still in full recovery mode from last weekend at the Expo. Not yet had a day free since then so feeling human again is a steady process. I've not actually had time to draw anything for a whole week now, but thought I'd share the last thing I did.

The above pic is my Artist's Alley entry for the Expo. The theme was 'Self Portrait' so went a ways to reveal a bit of my eeeevil side! >:-) It didn't place anywhere in the contest (congrats to the winnars! ^_^ ), but I had a lot of fun doing it. Does it look anything like me? That depends I suppose, heh...

Still feel very much in an experimental stage where I test the waters with various techniques at every opportunity. With this one I had a big play with inking... hatching, cross-hatching and 'let's do a thousand more lines' hatching were all in full swing. Kind of went overboard with it but at the same time I almost feel as though I didn't do enough. ^^;

Oh and please excuse the signature thingy in the bottom left. I'm normally loathed to do that on illustrations, especially one so big, but there was big white gap in the corner that needed filling somehow (maybe that's the wrong attitude...). I made the siggy up at the last minute and came up with that funky little thing. It's a bit unusual so might stick with it for now, lol. Oh and I'm still trying to work out the best way to draw hands, damn them. Think I got about half of the fingers okay, but it's always hard!

I entered this on Saturday and later saw it nestled in the top left corner of the over 16s section... if anyone saw it there I hope they liked it! ^_^

Expo action!

Today and yesterday were the days I'd been waiting for with a mixture of excitement and stress - it was the London Expo!

Things went pretty well, especially considering this was my first time out and not m/any people knew my work. D.R.U.N.K., Beholder of the Eye 1 and Japanofail 1 all debuted at this event, with Japanofail outselling the other two put together! 0_0

Thanks to everyone who took a look, and even more so to people who risked buying something - you guys rule epicly! Even cooler are the people who bought one, and then returned later for more - how awesome are you!? ^_^

Seriously, this could have been an embarrassing disaster with a worst case scenario of me throwing the in towel, but thanks to all the people who gave me the benefit of the doubt and gave my work a shot I'm really looking forward to producing more work. You hear that? MOAR! XD

Japanofail 1 - Official Preview!

Getting close to the Expo now, so about time to finish my title announcements. Just got the hardcopies in the post so everything is good to go!

Japanofail Issue 1 - 24 pages of 4-panel jokes based on or around Japan, anime, manga, video games and pretty much whatever else I think up. Starting out mainly as a testing ground (found here), the feedback so far has been really positive so ran with the idea.

The online version's nearly up to number 20, while the comic goes ahead to nearly double that due to a frenzied drawing session a couple of weeks ago. There are a couple of extra strips in there as well so it's pretty cool I'm pretty pleased with it - it took less than two months from between the first page upload to holding a finished copy in my hands. It's been a rough road but I hope people enjoy it!

Here are a couple of previews, but as half of it's already online you can go here and read some more! Hope you enjoy it, but remember: Physical comics are better. ^_^

Interested but can't get to an event? It is now available on my little shop: http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

Codename: Pepsi

I'm not really sure how it came about, but a random discussion on the Sweatdrop forums has resulted in a collaborative comic that contains everything from spies, evil bunnies, nazis and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Hats off to Willie Hewes of Itch Publishing for going and making a full comic based on little more than a random whim, and also opening the project up so that anyone interested could throw in their own ideas. The above picture is my contribution, and will be reproduced inside the comic. It's one of the first times my work will be printed without me having to fork out for it, lol! It's a really nice little community piece, but anyone who picks it up should enjoy it.

There'll only be 50 copies ever made, so click the image to get linked to the pre-order page to avoid disappointment. Hopes are high for an Expo release, so please look out for it. ^_^

Beholder of the Eye 1 - Official Preview!

Here we go - comic number 2 official preview!

Not much to add from what I said on the previous announcement, but here are a couple of preview pages to check out.

Currently being printed, so should be fine to bring to the Expo next weekend! I'm absolutely petrified about the idea of selling these things and its repercussions. I think I'm getting better at it, but on the scale of things I've still no real clue on how to write a comic or anything like that. I'm just going with the flow for now and hoping that people like what I've done. I resist the urge to descend into a screaming panic. There's no room for regrets! Onward! XD

Beholder of the Eye is available at my online shop: http://www.ushiocomics.co.uk/

Title Announcement! - Japanofail! 1

Not a new title, but the first official confirmation I can give that a physical version of Japanofail has been completed! Spent my entire week off work getting this done so am a bit drained - people seem to like it so hopefully it will go down well despite the psycho-garish cover. XD

Not much else to say. If you want to read some of it, check out: www.drunkduck.com/japanofail, but be warned the comic goes well beyond what's currently available online. ;-D Will reveal more info once I've got a physical copy to show. Please look forward to it!

And now for something completely different...

Well kinda... lately everything I've drawn's been for a specific project, so it'd been a while that I drew something simply for the sake of it (you know, because it's fun? ;-D ). Anyone out there remember Dogtanian?

Not really one for fanart, so this is an unusual impulse for me. Didn't take long to do and had a lot of fun doing it so perhaps more will appear as time goes on.

Meh, that's it really. Back to the grindstone for more Expo-related shenanigans. The Japanofail comic is around 75% complete, so time's running out! Keep going! XD

Two and a half weeks to go!

Mega hyped at the moment as I just recieved my pass for the London Expo. There's no backing out now! So yes, I will be here in one fortnight:
http://www.londonexpo.com/

I can't relax just yet as there's still lots to do! Current comic-making status:

D.R.U.N.K. - totally finished. I have a stack of them ready and waiting to be sold.

Beholder of the Eye 1 - Finished and over at the printer. Will get a proof and then decide on how many I want done.

Japanofail - SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT! I am hoping to get a hardcopy of my webcomic ready for the Expo. I've got about 13 pages worth of material done so far, just really need to dig in and get that page count up! Reckon I'll be working on this all this week so fingers crossed I can make it in time. If you want to check it out it's still ongoing here: http://www.drunkduck.com/Japanofail/index.php

It's all happening then! Will I rise to the challenge, or fail epicly? We'll find out very soon! ^_^