New year - new comics!

It's been a while since I last updated here.  Basically I've just emerged from hibernating since October Expo and am now knee-deep in comics that need my attention.  My own fault really.

I'm currently working on six different titles, most of which are only in the writing stages.  3 of them you might already know if you're familiar know my work, so you can probably guess those ones, and the other 3 are entirely new things.  It's not worth giving more details as it's too soon for anything like that, but basically I'm writing to say I'm back in the game, and actively working on new comics!  No idea which one will be finished first, but will keep you posted.

I'll also have a table at next month's London Super Comic Con, so if you're attending feel free to pop over and say hi. :-)

September = Pain

Just a statement of intent for the next months or so.

First up, I've confirmed my spot at London Expo this October.  So yep I'll definitely be there selling all my comics.

And that is where the guarantees end. >_<;

I'm currently working at trying to get Beholder of the Eye 5 done for the event.  I really want to get it done in time, but it's proving to be a bit of a beast.  For an idea I've just pencilled page 60 with the ending still unwritten - it's big!  Once that's done I still needing to ink, scan, letter and tone the thing before it can get sent off to the printer.  So yeah I've made some decent headway into it, but it's far from the point I can promise it'll be finished in time.

I'll do my best to work as quickly as I can, but not to the point I rush/spoil it.  September's gonna be intense! :-)

I'm sure there are a few anime and manga fans out there, so thought this worth a mention. :-)

The guys over at eyeonanime.co.uk have recently relaunched their website. There's still quite a lot for them to do, such as linking up the complete archives from the old version of the site, but it's a start and updates will be much more frequent from now on.

As for my involvement, I am a contributor for them. And while my drawing antics have pulled me away from there quite significanlty over the last year, this new blog-type format should allow me to get back in the mix. So if you want to hear about interesting and unusual manga series, I'll do my best to keep you in the know. ;-)

Go to: www.eyeonanime.co.uk

Additionally, I also drew a set of 5 avatars that represent each of the staff members. It was a new thing to do work that wasn't a project just of my own initiative, so it was fun to do something different like this. There's also a nice little forum over there. The community is small, but very welcoming and knowledgable. Feel free to join in! ^_^

Comica Comiket 2009 report!

So Comica Comiket went down yesterday - and it was a lot of fun! The room for the venue was compact, but everyone was very nice and some laughs were had. Instead of my usual table photo, I took a picture of something different that I've not experienced anywhere else.

Everyone exhibiting got given a numbered slip of paper with a random quote on it, a stick of charcoal and intructions to go out and fill your assigned spot as you saw fit. The quote I got was: "You think this is our first argument? Dan living with him you don't know what it's like..." Didn't really know what to make of it - what would you have drawn? o_o; All the quotes were from the same graphic novel (I think it was Watchmen) and everyone went out and did their thing.

It was kind of weird having to draw with other people around, but as everyone was doing it it was easier to get in and out ninja style without drawing too much attention. ^^ I came up with an angsty shojo thing for fun. It was cool to see just how varied all the other artists' drawings were, so it's a pretty neat idea which was fun thing to be a part of - will probably go again if there's half a chance. ^^

This is what I came up with:

Lots of things to share! ^^

Happy Halloween folks! :3 Got three big news things to share today so it's all going on! :D

Firstly - A community event on the sweatdrop forums of a 'Serect Satan' is happening today where everyone puts their names into a hat and does a drawing for another member. The above drawing is my present for fellow member Alpoynter. I also recieved a great picture from Gothich_Madines_ who drew me a zombie-filled party. Rather than rip her work for the blog, you can see it on this thread:
http://www.sweatdrop.com/forum/showt...d=1#post180998

Great stuff all round - woot!

Next - One of my very early comic strips has seen print in the UK Anime Club magazine! They guys over at Anime Connect have been kind enough to be the host of Otaku Bytes - a page of two 4koma strips in a similar vein to Japanofail. I'm hoping to have a page in the new issue as well, so if anyone's a member of the club please look out for it! ^^

Last, but my no means least - I should be attending a new event... next week! 0_0;

I'm a newbie to the self-publishing scene, and so only heard of this event for the first time a few days ago, but the ICA will be holding a comic market next Sunday called Comica Comkiet. The ICA is near Charing Cross station in London, and the doors for the event will be open 1-6p.m. on Sunday 8th November. Only just applied for a spot there at the last minute - but should be good to be there will all my comics amongst a mixture of comickers of varying styles. Should be fun!

Secret Colours

Leading up to the Expo, Kairi-Moon will be selling Secret Colours, an art book with step-by-step guides as to how they were made. The quality of work in their looks amazing to be honest, there are a couple of previews on the Sweatdrop community forums here.

One section of the book will be a general sketchbook-type section, where everyone of a wider range of abilities was asked to submit a random doodle (this was my point of entry ^^ ). Mine's here which is basically a random sketch that I got carried away with. I'm looking forward to seeing how it looks in print alongside everybody elses! ^^

Be on the look out for it at the Expo - I think there are a lot of different artists within those pages, so it will be a good chance to see everyone's work. Yay!

Ellerbisms fanart

A few of you may or may not be familiar with his work, but Marc Ellerby's diary-styled webcomic Ellerbisms just hit a landmark of 200 pages. To celebrate, he put a call out for people to submit any strips, fan arts or anything else that people wanted to share.

I'm a bit of a fan of his comic, and we've met a few times, so did him a drawing for fun. I know Mark likes his manga, so I hope this slightly tongue-in-cheek tribute was to his tastes.

Not familiar with his work? Click here!

Expo's soon - I should have news about that very soon... ^^

Getting all shojo...

Totally out of my safe zone, but I've entered a Manga drawing competition for a make-up company! Eyeko were present at the London Expo giving out some freebies, but they came over to my table with a leaflet about it so thought it rude not to accept!

I've done little in terms of a real range, but so far it's been totally non-shojo in terms of style. Was a change of pace from other stuff I've done, and was glad to have an excuse to experiment with colouring again. The challenge was appreciated! All things considered I think I came out relatively unscathed.

I got my entry in before the deadlines at the end of May, but it was since extended until the end of June. It does mean that us early birds are already on there here. While I did it, I think copyright now lies with them so I hope they don't mind me talking about it here. ^^; Will be interesting to see how many other people enter - I look forward to seeing everyone's work!

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! ^_^

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. ^_^

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

They are coming!

Not much in the way of specific news, but I wanted to post to say what I'm currently up to with my drawing. Sorry there won't be any previews *yet* as there's no point showing stuff so far in advance, but seeing as it's what I'm spending all my free time on I still feel like talking about it.

There are currently 4 active projects in the pipeline that I've been working on, so here's a little info about each of the in order that they'll likely appear.

1 - This will be a (very) short work in 4-koma format (4 panel gag manga). There's not much else to say as it's so short any more info would spoil it, but the strip itself is done and I'm currently working on the logo. This will most likely be my printed debut, so will try and make an announcement at an appropriate time. ^_^

2 - A complete 23 page story. Again, the work itself it completely done, it's just a case of getting it organized properly. Around 90% of it was drawn early last year, with the finishing touches done last month so it's perhaps not my absolute best work to date, but it's quite fun and I hope people take to it in its own little way. I'm hoping to get this one ready for the London Expo - which would mark my self-published debut!

3 - Another comic, 24 pages long, and the first chapter to a longer story. Have probably worked on this one for arond 4 weeks now, and in that time all the pencils have been done, as has most of the inking. What's left are some final details, a few backgrounds (which will likely take most time) and all of the toning. I've working quite hard on this one, doing a couple of hours every day, so after having tried so hard I really hope people like it. I don't want to spend perhaps a couple of years working on something that everyone hates!

4 - I really enjoyed working on project '1' and the 4-koma format, so started mucking around with some ideas to do a bigger project. It's quite random and has a slightly more evil sense of humour in regards to otaku-based humour. I'm a little worried people won't get some of the reference-based jokes as they do require a bit of general know-how. I could test the theory out by starting it as a webcomic, but out of preference I'd rather it on a hardcopy book. Haven't figured out the length yet as the bitty nature of 4-Koma means the sky's the limit really. Probably around the 20-page mark. Work is ongoing between sessions on project 3, but in terms of idea and drafts I'd say about 75% of it is ready to be drawn properly.

Phew! That's a lot of info (did anyone even read this far? lol!), but it somehow lacks real substance without artwork previews! I'm actually quite nervous about this whole business, so only want to reveal info when I'm 'ready'.

Ok, to reward anyone who made it to the bottom of the post, I'll throw in a very early sketch for Project 2, it was actually the initial concept sketch in fact - it's really old now (getting on for 18 months)!

The proper announcements and revealing of secrets will come, I promise! ... just not today.

And so it begins...

Well, it's after midnight which is when I start to feel most social, so I decided to get myself a blog - ta daaaaa!

... ... ...

Now what? >_>;

Ok, introductions! I'm Ushio (not real name) from London, an anime/manga fanboy with a desire to draw some illustrations and comics in said style. I figure a blog will be a bit more productive than just sitting around doodling at home - must get stuff out into the real world!

I've been doodling on and off for a few years now, but life has been getting on my nerves lately so reckon it's about time to start taking the drawing more seriously in a feeble attempt to run away from it all. Not much work that I'm ready to show just this moment, but there is definitely some stuff in the pipeline (the next two months at least should be fairly active on here ^_^ ).

For now though, here's a fun thing I did that was introduced in a thread on the Sweatdrop forums (found here). You have to draw out a character in each of the listed styles. Didn't spend very long on it, but it was fun and produced some random results!

Think that's about it from me for now, will post again later when there's something new to say! I don't really know anyone, so feel free to comment and stuff. See you around! ^_~