#animalchallenge

After the Jackal and Magpie images I did for Secret7s I was eager to do more pictures of animals, but didn't want to spend hours browsing Google Images until I found one. Instead, I asked Twitter what I should do -- first answer back was 'A Liger' by Anxiety Decending and after 5 mins of Google (including double-checking that Ligers aren't bred for their skills and magic) came up with this:

A Liger

And since then (starting Friday lunchtime, writing now on Sunday night) I've done another 7 animals, including a Degu, a rat, a monkey, a turtle, a hippopotamus and an elephant.

I'm really enjoying it -- it's nice to have a change from the purely abstract, which is what I've been working on recently -- making cutups for 'the secret project'. It's like I needed to prove to myself that I could draw figuratively if I needed to, and a few of the images I've done so far have suggested I can. I'm planning to work a couple of these up to fit in with the Secret7" stuff I did, too.

As well as adding them as I go on Instagram and Twitter, I've started a dedicated gallery on my Facebook artist page -- feel free to like the page while you're there, y'know. If you want to.

Oh, hello 2013

A new year brings with it a new set of promises to myself that I'll blog more. And maybe even update my website. But we'll start with the blogging and move on from there.

I've already started on one front, having posted two blogs to the Abstract Comics blog -- one about Collider and one about a pair of Intercorstal strips I did. 

But I feel kind of disingenuous there, because they both cover old work that I'd forgotten about and come back to, which would normally be the recourse of someone with no new work in the pipeline. Which is, thankfully, totally not the case.

I'm currently working on four images based on the character Mr Soft from the comic New Statesmen by John Smith, Jim Baikie, Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo. Getting people excited about this is pretty difficult, as the comic was around in the late 80's/early 90's and nobody really remembers it with any clarity, and Mr Soft wasn't even an actual character in the comic. So my first task, which I endeavor to complete in the next few days, is to put up a post about Mr Soft and The New Statesmen. If you feel particularly eager, I strongly suggest you read these recent reviews of The New Statesmen on the exemplary Suggested For Mature Readers blog:

Part One: http://suggestedformaturereaders.wordpress.com/2012/10/01/a-big-gaudy-picturebook/

Part Two: http://suggestedformaturereaders.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/a-headful-of-loose-change/

Part Three: http://suggestedformaturereaders.wordpress.com/2012/10/15/what-its-like-for-real-people/

In the meantime, have a peep at these WIP photos -- the process of making the pictures is being pretty robustly detailed through Instagram at the moment.

Cutting up a picture done on stickers prior to application elsewhere for No4.

Early work on No1.

About halfway through No2, although this image might still be scrapped.

Early work on No3, where pages from a P&O brochure were chopped into comic panels. Excuse the holey sock and toes on show.