Posts (page 2)

Oh, and I forgot to post the last member of the team: Agent 'K'

I'm not sure there's going to be any comic at all this week, not because I have been working on this project though, just because I am useless.

So, I'm back at work today, but the 'project' is almost finished. One of the cool things about this project is that I'm going to be working with another great artist - while I love doing the pencils I've always hated inking (it's basically like drawing everything you've just drawn all over again, and you can't rub it out if you make a mistake) and I'm terrible at colouring, but fortunately my pal Brandon swooped in and offered to do all the boring parts for me (haha! The fool!), so here's a look at what he's done to my characters:

So I have been offered the chance to pitch an idea to go in a new children's comic. I am very nervous about the idea of having to produce something good enough that someone would actually pay me for it, and to make matters worse it looks as though if I did somehow manage to get the job I might even be able to (dare I say those four magic words?) quit the day job. Words do not exist to describe how mind-bogglingly wonderful such a situation would be, and as such I have now gone from nervous to flat-out terrified.

I really don't know what I'm going to try to send them, and this had got me in what could politely be described as 'a bit of a tizz'. They contacted me because they like Beaver and Steve, so I should probably play it safe and send them something Beaver and Steve-ish, right? (though that would probably mean no more B&S because I am not sure I could write two comics that are exactly the same.) But then they say submissions could be up to 5 pages long and possibly serialised, so perhaps I should send something a bit more story-ish (I've had an idea floating around in my head for a few weeks now that maybe possibly could sort of work, but it is not really in any kind of coherent form that I could present to anyone). But then of course maybe neither of these ideas is any good and I should do something else altogether: the problem is I am just making these ideas up. Who is going to pay me for stuff I am just making up out of my head? That would be silly.

So mostly I am just running round in little circles saying 'ohgoshohgoshohgosh' to myself and not really deciding on anything, and I have a terrible feeling that I'm going to let this whole opportunity slip by without even giving it a go. I'm not sure I'd ever forgive myself if I did that, which only serves to make me even more panicked.

Really I need some time off work to get this thing done, and while I do have a week off booked for the start of November I am convinced that will be far too late (even though there isn't really a deadline), but according to HR we have to give five weeks notice if we want to book a week off. Five weeks! Who on earth is that organised? I may have to just slip in an extra holiday request anyway and just hope they don't notice. Did I mention how incredibly nervous I am? Glerp.

Oh and I have a pay review for my real job coming up tomorrow, because apparently I am not worried enough right now. Half of me is hoping that they just tell me to sling my hook because at least then I'd have some spare time.

and breathe...

I'm a little annoyed this morning because someone who bought two of my t-shirts has claimed that they didn't authorise the payment, and so paypal has taken the money back. I don't know if someone used a stolen credit card to order Beaver and Steve t-shirts or if someone just decided they didn't want to pay for them and so asked their credit card company for the money back, but either way they got two free t-shirts that I had to pay for. Yah-boo and sucks to them!

This week I am trying to do a big push and finally get book 2 completed, so I didn't do a comic today, but here are a few pages from my sketch book that I scanned in just for YOU:

INTERESTING FACT! the little square guy and the guy with a triangle for a head are called 'Elvis and Boxy'. They are the precursors of Beaver and Steve that I used to draw in my university days.


INTERESTING FACT! dinosaurs are the COOLEST


INTERESTING FACT! I have a hair in my scanner.

I think I just remembered why I don't post pictures from my sketchbook. They are entirely unfit for human consumption

I did a quick colour job on the cover last night, and realised that 90% of the characters I decided to include are GREEN. I'm going to have to have a bit of a re-think...

I've finally found the time to come up with an idea for the cover image for the second Beaver and Steve book, so here's a little sneak preview of what I've got so far:

Graaa!

There's a lot of work to do still (I think I'm going to put a giant shoe in the background that the ship will be flying around, and I am not even sure what they are all climbing out of yet), but hopefully once it's all coloured up it will look fairly cover-like. Now I just have to come up with a title - it's going to be hard not to include the word 'trouble' again with a cover like this.

And continuing on the subject of t-shirts I just rediscovered this colourised version of the old old MEAT shirt I printed once upon a time, and I think I rather like it:

I want to get back into the shirt design business so here's something easy that I've been working on to get me started

Lobster_demo_3

I did also try playing around with this idea, but after playing with it for ages I just couldn't turn it into a nice looking t-shirt:

NeuroDemoBW