Life Drawing - October 2014 and March 30 2015

It's been around 6 months since I had time to get out to do any life drawing. Home projects and a comic deadline kept me quite busy but now that my projects are all wrapped up, I thought it was time that I got back to it.

As expected, I felt quite rusty after such a long break. During life drawing with timed intervals, I feel like I'm back at school writing a test with a buzzer threatening to go off. I've attached a couple of drawings from the Halloween session at Kagan's (10 and 15 minute sketches) and two pages from this past Monday's session (1 minute and 10 minutes). I definitely need more practice and practice makes perfect, right? Haha.

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The Monster Artist Print

I created this print based on the story's main character, Lily, happily reading the Toronto Comics anthology (meta!) to some of her friends and I thought it might be fun to do a take on the READ posters.

The print will be included in some of the Toronto Comics Kickstarter pledges. Below is the process from thumbnail to final. I hope you like it.

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The Monster Artist News

I'm back with some stuff to show - Yay!

Between the last post and this, I've finished working on Oliver Ho's story, the Monster Artist, and I'm excited to share that it will now be part of Volume 2 of the Toronto Comics Anthology.

To check out some of the other amazing artwork and stories being included in the book, follow the project on Twitter at @torontocomix and find out how you can get your copy. They will also be selling it and and other goodies at table A320 at the Toronto March ComiCon from March 20 - 22nd so don't be shy and come on a by and say hi.

Below are one of the completed pages, some of the revised character designs and one of the rough pages. It's been a very busy few months but it has been a lot of fun and it gave me a chance to learn more of Manga Studio.

UPDATE: It turns out that Volume 1 will be available but only a sneak peak of Volume 2 will be on hand. Although, there is a Kickstarter now where you can pledge for Volume 2 or both!

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Sneak Peak at Monster Artist

Last April, I participated in my first 12-hour comic jam with writer, Oliver Ho. I didn't finish the story in the allotted time but I wanted to complete it at some point. It was a good story and I had some ideas on what the final visuals might look like if I had more time to work on it. When Oliver recently approached me about including it in an anthology of monster tales he was putting together, I was excited to revisit the story.

Attached is a sneak peak of some of my exploratory drawings of the characters. I hope you like them. :)

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Life Drawing March 31 2014

I went life drawing last night and found myself a little frustrated because no matter what I did, I just couldn't seem to get in the zone. I tried going through some techniques that usually help me get into the right frame of mind like gestures and breaking things into blocks (deconstructing the anatomy into smaller and more digestible shapes) but it wasn't working.

For a better part of the evening, I was distracted by my frustration. I eventually realized what was happening and calmed myself and focused on doing the actual drawing rather than how they would turn out. In the end, I managed to draw a few that I was happy with.

Being a creative person doesn't necessarily mean you will have a successful drawing each time but try not to let the failures distract you from getting to your successes.

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Heady Mental Cover - Second Issue - The Full Reveal!

With the second issue of the Heady Mental series comic about to be released, Sam Noir (the creator of this and other fun-filled series) has given me the green light to share the full cover and the steps I took to get to the finished piece. As with most of my artwork, I began with some rough thumbnails, and then drafted the perspective out on paper. Once satisfied with the overall layout, I scanned the image into Photoshop for inking and painting. For this piece, I outlined the woman in ink to make her stand out and to give it that comic book feel.

If you happen to find yourself at the Toronto ComicCon (Mar 7 - 9th) don't be shy and stop by to say hi to Sam and I at booth A245. For those interested, I will have some prints of the cover and other goodies available for sale.

The print can also be purchased through my Society6 store.

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Life Drawing

Below are some life drawings from a few sessions at Kagan McLeod's studio who is a pretty well-known illustrator .

While drawing, I almost always feel like my proportions are wrong but when I've had a chance to step back I'm often surprised that the sketches turn out better than expected. I still have to work on getting in those 10,000 hours.

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Heady Mental Cover - Second Issue

Back in April, Sam Noir approached me about contributing a painted cover to his anthology, Heady Mental. I had a good chuckle when he told me his idea for the cover. Because of other commitments at the time, I told him I was interested but couldn't immediately commit. Luckily, he wasn't in a rush and was willing to wait. Some other obstacles arose further delaying things...but at long last it's finished! I can't show the full image yet but below is a sneak peek. When the issue is published in a few weeks, I will post the cover here.

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