The Times Review

Hey! We got an excellent review in The Times last Saturday!
I had to dig a copy out of a restaurant bin while I was in Bristol over the weekend, and wow, it was worth the potato peel horrors. It's glowing.
But the digital version is behind a paywall, so... here is a glimpse, blacked out by yours truly to protect copyright.

orange beast

This chapter has nice animals in it. I decided to colour them based on Orang-Utans.

Rats

Rats Rats

Draw draw

It's raining at last, and the wind is rattling the studio roof. I've bound and started my new sketchbook, and with that a new picture book: about rats this time. They won't look like these drawings at all, that's just me working out what rats are all about.

I drew a load more, then I cycled back home before it got too wet out there.

Workworkwork faster!

I'm colouring colouring colouring today. Feeling not unlike this guy here in those panels I just finished. I really want to get at least two pages done today and two more tomorrow so I can go to Igfest on Friday without worrying about my deadline...

LINEWORK FINISHED!

Enter the monkey!

...I've been hard at work finalising the linework for "Sleepwalkers". A lot of it needed to move to fit with the text, and some needed tweaking in other ways. Now all that's left for me to do is colour it all up and add the sound effect lettering. HOORAY!

Today, however, I am going to have a party.

HOORAY!

Some Bottles...

Experimenting with digtal colouring. Am beginning to understand masks and channels.

These didn't come out quite as serious as intended.

Frozen Banana

This is actually artwork for the "Sleepwalkers" comic. I was feeling gloomy today, so I decided to do some painting in the studio. No reason why this particular page should not be painted in ink.

New Laptop! And freelance frazzle.

WOW!!!
I just bought a second hand macbook because my netbook was slowing down, and also because it seemed a good idea to have a portable studio computer... and it's BRILLIANT!
You can't see it here but this is me looking at it.

So Shiny!

Otherwise: all is well, I'm mostly finishing he graphic novel. A page a day of adjusting linework to actually fit the speech bubbles, and then colouring it in.

I've been slightly out of sorts because I made myself a strange schedule - I suddenly felt I should work more, and I did not realise my plan added up to nine hour days working on three books. This made me feel kind of rather unwell. I promised myself to remember that four hours of creative work a day are THE LIMIT. And sometimes two are ok, especially if there is a mountain of admin to be dealt with.

Freelance work is great, but more stressful than you'd think - being paid in extremely uneven chunks of money long after you finished your work so that sometimes you're paid while you do nothing and sometimes you're poor while working double shifts. Keeping track of what you need to do and when without working yourself into the ground or freaking out about maybe being lazy... it's hard.

I wouldn't want it any other way, though.

PREPARING FOR THE ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE

We had fun at the Hackspace modding nerf guns for Firehazard: we added torches, and a camera...

We took them out the next night and tried out some new zombie games on the heath.

I've also been drawing quick and wobbly achievement badges for players, here's one:

You saved the V.I.P!

Studio

Charles. a handmade present from Anna. He really looks after the place.

The Paint Mixer. Is a fine neighbour.

A growing bird collection.

Paperwork and random paintings. 

Bike!

Desk.

Launched, now silence

Yesterday we launched the new book - here is a picture, Sarah has more.

Picture by Sarah McIntyre

Thank you all for celebrating with us!

I managed to leave my wallet in the studio, so I had to do some running around to pick it up in the morning and catch the train to Plymouth for another couple of days of teaching. I decided to arrive early this time for a change, planing to have a lovely sunny day by the sea, but instead I shall stay in this lovely friendly silent B&B, drink tea and work on my novel.

Blueprints

I'm working on the extra pages in the comic... maps, blueprints, instructions. This is a digital sketch of the Safe House, or at least two floors of it. And I just realised that I made a mistake drawing a scene in attic, forgetting the massive central vent... I was very lazy implementing all the plumbing. I guess I might add some bits in when colouring as I notice them.

I also just noticed that there are loads of corners left over that the comic never shows where I can add extra items now... I wonder what the sheep would like?

Aloso: Yes there is a toilet.

 

BOOK LAUNCH TOMORROW

And nice readers of my blog are invited!

Here's the Facebook Event Page, or RSVP via email.

Copenhagen

We saw excellent buildings

Playing drawing games

I went to Copenhagen with Gwyn to visit my friend Frøydis and bring her my old apple laptop so she can use it to make illustrations. It was an excellent holiday - we went to an old comic shop, tried out the local night life, doodled and ate raw food, and I felt brave for renting a full sized bike. I'm frightened of them, as I am of horses, because they are always too tall as far as I'm concerned. I spent the whole bike-riding part of the trip in a state of barely contained anxiety, screaming and drifting uncontrollably, crashing into things, falling off and often just getting upset about some vague feeling of imbalance. But it was okay, that's just life. However - It did remind me horribly of crying when I was given my first proper sized bike, learning that the "proper" saddle position takes your feet right off the ground, and the loathing I felt about having my training wheels taken off, and the bafflement of my friends picking me out of barbed wire fences and hedges I had been unable to avoid, and most of all the pained expression of my first boyfriend when he realised that we would never, ever go on jolly cycle trips together, and that I really wasn't a plucky adventurer, and that bicycles could go straight on the long long list of things he had thought everyone liked as much as he did until he met me. In fact, I realised, with my head stuck in the bike basket and my heart stuck in my stomach, that I was fully expecting to be told how many points I had lost on this trip, relationship-wise. Instead, to my confusion, we all stopped for ice cream and had a laugh.

It's funny but I would cycle down a hill backwards and blindfolded (and screaming) with this here boyfriend, and enjoy it more than cycling up a hill with anyone else pretending I'm having fun.

So anyway, it was an excellent trip and I want to go again, but if I do I'll take my own little foldy-bike.