News!

Some stuff has been happening!

For starters, the Cintiq fundraising succeeded better than I could have imagined!

I am now the proud of an amazing tablet that has made drawing digitally so much faster and more efficient. As a result I'm moving ahead with some projects that were much more intimidating before.

In other exciting news, my Batman vs Sherlock Holmes comic has ended up being much more popular than I imagined it would be, popping up all over the place! Although it's been a few weeks since I've done a crossover comic, I still plan to do more! I'm moving away from a weekly schedule for now so I can make:

More comics! The crossover page is now a generic comic page where I'll be posting all manner of works.  Check back soon!

MOCCA FEST 2011 ROUND-UP

I attended MoCCA Fest again this year, easily one of my favorite conventions. Meeting new and local artists is always a delight. It's especially interesting to meet artists that I've been following for a while without ever really knowing what they looked like. Getting to interact with them for even just a few minutes makes their style all the more meaningful.

As before, some highlights:

Johnny Wander - My girlfriend and I fell in love with this adorable slice of life comic earlier in the year, so we were super excited to get to meet the creators. They were both as nice as could be and had plenty of merch for us to peruse and purchase.

Love Me Nice - Another comic that I discovered this year. I didn't know the artist would be at the convention, so it was a nice surprise to spot her work and chat with her about it for a little while. Love Me Nice is a charming webcomic about the stars of a cartoon show that exist alongside humans.

Katie Shanahan - Once again, I spotted a piece of art that I recognized but didn't know who the artist was. That changed as I talked with the charming and talented Katie and bought a couple prints.

Scott C - The ever talented Mr. Campbell was at the show again, fresh off a year of amazing showdowns. I bought a bunch as coasters!

Joy Ang - It can be hard sometimes to track down the artist of a piece you particularly like. Joy did the lovely character illustrations for the Mass Effect Galaxy iPhone game, but it took me a while to figure that out. Fortunately, I did so in time to recognize her at the convention and buy a lovely print.

Paigey! - My glamorous artist friend Paigey continues to put me to shame with her level of output and work ethic. Even with a full-time job she just keeps cranking out art and crafts to sell at cons.

Alisa Harris - I always look forward to catching up with Alisa at the local cons. She had another cute cat comic this year, and continues to organize the local sketch crawls, which I look forward to attending as the weather warms.

Design A Day Review

Although I only made it through a third of the year, looking back on the designs I did for my daily project in 2010, I decided to pick out my favorites and post them here. This one ranks highest, and I might do something else with it sooner or later.

Double Daily Blogs

 

As part of my New Year's resolutions, I began a daily design blog to keep me working on something every day. The goal is to make something small while still getting a bit of practice with a design technique or program trick. Ten days in and it's going great. I haven't had trouble finding the time to whip up something, anything, and while the designs are simple I'm proud of how they've come out. The blog is part of my flickr account, found here.

It's been going so well that yesterday I decided to start up a second daily blog, this one for quick sketches. Again, the idea is not to produce a masterpiece every day but to get a basic sketch done every day without fail. While I still aim to do more complex and complete designs and illustrations, even if I did just these blogs that's over 700 pieces of work, however small, in one year. That's a lot of practice and it adds up. The sketch blog can be found on a new, simple tumblr page.

I would recommend a daily project to anyone that is looking to improve a creative pursuit. I have started these blogs along with some members of a forum and the public nature creates a sense of obligation that is a lot harder to shrug off than private projects.

Happy Holidays from the Ink Asylum

Happy Belated Holidays!

The festive image above was done for my day job's holiday card, well received by my coworkers. It was a fun bit of creative design to cap off my first full year on the job. The background is an interpretation of Times Square here in NYC. It was a challenge coming up with enough non-denominational holiday images, and I had to stretch the definition to fill enough signs.

Now that I have my blog up and running I have a few New Year's Resolutions:
1. Post a new entry on the blog at least once a week.
2. Redesign the blog theme to something more reflective of my design style.
3. Post a new quick design every day on a new flickr photostream.

That's a good start for next year that should help me push my design abilities and establish a better online identity. All of which can be found here.