All Events in Savilles Hall (1)

Life

I have been so utterly crap at updating things recently. I seem to keep taking photos on my trusty iphone and then forgetting to do anything with them, besides the odd twitpic. Curse you, twtter - you are too convenient! XD

So, before anything...here is a pic I took of the lovely Sarah McIntyre over the weekend of the IBBY conference in Roehampton that I totally forgot to post up!

Sarah signs yet another copy of Morris the Mankiest Monster....you need this book. Your kids need this book. It's selling out all over as well! ^_^

This is Fairtrade Bob. He is our friend. Sarah and I met him on the tube.....

...

what?

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This weekend was Thought Bubble in Leeds, and ohmygodohmygod what a FANTASTIC weekend I had! I was preparing to take a deep breath and shout out to all of the people I saw and had a great time with at the event...but damn there're a lot of them XD Too many in, fact, so here's a taster:
Pud, Nana Li, Faye Yong, Sonia Leong, Yishan Li, Ben Templesmith, Andie Tong, Antony Johnston,The Geek Syndicate lads, Andy Diggle, Jock, Al Ewing, Leigh Gallagher (and Nikki!), Steve Wacker, Illya, Anna Petterson, Marc Ellerby, Adam Cadwell, Doug Wallace, Paul Cornell, Kieron Gillen, Jamie McKelvie, Han, Paul Gravett, Tim Pilcher (and his amazing shirt), Lisa, Tamsin, Clark, Rose.....OHMYGOD SO MANY PEOPLES! I know there are a shedload not even mentioned here. 0_o

Many of us spent some quality time in the 'hell bar', as you may have seen on twitter. Here demonstrated by myself, Antony Johnston, Ben Templesmith and Andy Diggle.


hehe, the tables were lit up with red borders. Truly awesome. And you couldn't tell a coke from a vodka and lemonade....

Huge hellos to the wonderful people I met at my table and in the bar. *waves to the 'table party' gang* . There were so many people I wanted to chat more to, but darn was it busy.

I can't wait for next time around. A few of us already said that the hotel (which was amazing) had that air of comfortable familiarity by the end of the con that said 'yes, I can see myself spending a lot of time here in coming years' ^_^
The Team should be amazingly proud of themselves, it was a wonderful show enjoyed by all *hugs*

Now I have to get my voice back in time for the Grand Cosplay Ball next weekend, ehehehe....wish me luck!

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Reading material random:
Have you guys checked out 'Talking to Strangers' from Sweatdrop yet? I don't think I mentioned it here yet...
Written by Fehed Said, it has shorts from artists: Nana Li, Wing, Chloe Citrine, Sonia Leong and Faye Yong...and good god it's bloody gorgeous. Seriously impressive writing over several varying topics and moods...and the art is just breathtaking throughout. 'Flowers' especially (Faye Yong) just blew me away. It is an example of perfect, flawless comicking. The pacing, the layouts, the lovingly handled characters and dialogue. Fred and Faye have made something very special with it.
But yes, the whole book is just edible....if you want a fab comic read, check it out! ^_^

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Work:
So, it's been a weird year, work wise. Next year promises to be pretty darn exciting as, amongst other things, I'm set to start working with two fab writers, Nunzio Defilippes and Christina Weir on a pretty exciting project with Oni Press. Can't offer any more details just yet, but it's going to be fabtastic! ^_^
I'm also still hacking away at my rework of the early issues of Dragon Heir. Really enjoying the challenge! latest chapter (7) is behind the banner.


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I have to leave you with this amazing blog post from the lovely Wil Wheaton...because it's awesome. I heartily endorse this sentiment...we all need to GET EXCITED AND MAKE THINGS!

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Christmas? Don't talk to me about Christmas....*cry* I'm normally so organised, but this year is just bouncing towards me with a leering grin...I'm scared!

Thought Bubble!

Wooot! I'm finishing up some work and then I pack and jump in the car with my trusty steed (umm, husband) to head to Thought Bubble! I'll be at my table, offering sketches, prints and a smile for most of the weekend. You can also find me in these places:

Saturday:
11:00 - 11:30 - SelfMadeHero signing
14:00 - 15:10 - Cosplay judging (with Sonia Leong and Yishan Li - should be a blast!)
16:00 - 16:30 - SelfMadeHero
18:30 - 19:30 - Women in Sequential Art (with Mel Gibson, Yishan li, Sarah Lightman and Nicola Streeten)

Sunday:
14:50 - 15:50 - Character Workshop at Leeds Library

Be sure to check out the rest of the amazing lineup as well - it's going to be a fantastic show! ^_^

The final cover.

Oh yeah ...!



This was the cover that ended up being used in the final book design! The image is cropped a little bit on the cover, and it's a veerrrry slightly different colour (more yellow in the shadows, I seem to remember), but this is basically the picture ^_^

Oh my god, I drew this about ... three or four months ago now? I cain't remember. I do remember it was a couple of pages [of comic] before I started on the section with Bottom with his animal head, so I wasn't used to drawing the donkey ... as such, this image took about two hours to edit together so that the problems I had with the head were sorted into a more or less convincing ... er, image. Originally, Titania was leaning on him, but now she's ... er, not. Um!

I learned during this comic why, in most illustrations of Donkey-Bottom, he is really rather well-built ... and it's because trying to fit a huge head onto a skinny body really doesn't work. Of course, MY Bottom is quite thin (never thought I'd be able to say that in context, hahaha). So I had a lot of problems!

.............. p194

... finished.

p177

I've .... I've just drawn an amphitheatre. *cough-hack-die*

To those who don't know - which I'm guessing will be about 100% of you - my absolute pet hates in drawing are (in order of lowest to highest Hate): feet-and-toes, chairs, curving scenery/things that involve circles, and stairs. So obviously, a ROUNDISH theatre COMPOSED OF STAIRS is not high on my list of likes. Oh god. Oh god. I haven't pencilled the lines yet, it's still at rough stage. IT COULD ALL GO VERY WRONG.

I had a count-down to the day I had to draw Bottom with his animal head (it was called D-Day, hur hur hurrrr), but THIS one sneaked up on me. I only realised today was Amphitheatre Day when I sat down to draw.

At any rate, all I can hope for is something that resembles an amphitheatre to some degree ... whine, moan, etc.

I have HOWEVER thumbnailed the entirity of the sequentials now. I finshed the buggers off (I hate thumbnailing too) the other week and now feel much better for it.

I'M NEARLY DONE I'VE NEARLY DONE THE WHOLE THING OMG.

The Book is Here!!

The Tempest has been printed! :D I received a copy in the post a few days ago, and it's looking great! It's amazing to actually see and hold a book that's filled with your own illustrations, I'm pretty excited!
It's also good to be able to read it through in its intended format. I'm quite pleased with the pace of the read, although I can't really comment objectively, since I know the story inside out now. Well, next step, release date! The launch event is later this month :)

It's in the trees! It's coming!

I'm out of the woods! I'm out of the woods!! I DON'T HAVE TO DRAW ANY MORE TREES OMG so happy. *headdesk*

Fnurgle.

OOOooooh. Coffee and F-Zero X for breakfast does not a steady hand make. Urrrgh.

... page 138 ....

Off To Print!

Proofing on The Tempest is now finished! Hopefully every last spelling mistake and image-based error has been found and sorted out. It should be a few weeks at the printer, and then I get to see the finished thing :D I can't wait! It's going to be my first complete book!
I'll check back when the finished thing is ready.

Proofing

I guess it's common opinion that once you've finished working on all the pages that's it! You're done, the comic is finished and the printer just needs to print it (or at least that's what I naively thought XD).

But no!

Proofing turns out to be quite an extensive and intense process! So far about 6 or 7 people (including me - many times) have read The Tempest through, making notes and suggestions that will help the final product to be at 110% quality.
In this process, all sorts of things are picked up on, such as inconsistency in images or characters, page order and page numbers, confusion about speech bubbles and who they belong to, page flow, legibility of text etc etc.

So far, more than 20 pages have been tweaked and edited. It's amazing how many mistakes a fine-tooth comb can pick out! However, this process has gone quite smoothly, and is now almost over... the day that the book goes to print is truly growing near, and I'm really looking forward to seeing it printed and bound!

Thanks to Kate, Charlie & Simon for taking time out to have a look over it :)

Lysander is a meanie

To be honest, Lysander is my least favourite character in Midsummer Night's Dream. It always shocks me how awful he becomes when under the influence of the flower (just say no, kids). Like, ACTUALLY horrible. Look how upset he makes Hermia:




Of course, it's not really Lysander's fault. The dear couldn't have done ANYTHING wrong, really. So with feminine lightning-quick recovery, Hermia beats on her best friend instead:




Haha! Hmm. Well, regardless of his nastiness, I'm not keen on Lysander. There was something about him that left a bad taste in my mouth from the beginning, and although my opinions of each of the characters has changed variously as I've worked with them, he's ... still way at the bottom of my scale of Likeness. Mm.

My most favouritist character is Helena. She's genuinely wonderful :D She's so ... kind of ... flappy! I don't know how to describe her. I think her edit for the Manga Shakespeare version has worked really well, too.

The character interactions are very delicate in general, especially during the long scenes in the wood ... I really appreciate these parts. It's been really cool breaking them down and deciding (as fast as possible, hur hur), what to do and how to place the couples and etc.

I am just about to start thumbnails for 130 - 161! It involves more screaming and shouting and Oberon.

FINIIISHED

Wahey! I've finished The Tempest! That's 193 b/w pages and 9 colour pages, plus a cover illustration and various revisions/tweaks.
It feels great to have completed something so large, and I'm really excited to see it go to the printers. I'll be getting a copy of the proofs in a few days, and after all the checking has been done, it'll be a month or two before the actual shop release date. There's already a provisional page for it up on amazon.

I have to say, having completed the project, I now respect/appreciate Shakespeare in a whole new light. Previously, I'd only studied his plays for educational purposes, and never really enjoyed it properly, but the act of constantly referencing the edited version with the full version, and trying to deconstruct the prose and verse into images and solid meaning is a real eye-opener. If you want to do well on a Shakespeare-based exam, I suggest trying to edit down and illustrate a few famous passages! You won't forget those bloody quotes after you've had to create a character to deliver them! And you'll really appreciate the poetry of the language when you're bashing your head on the table thinking 'how can I create an image meaningful enough to replace this bit of what I previously though was just meaningless embellishment!?'.

Anyways XD I digress... I'm finished! And taking a short break from work, which is a pleasurable relief after 12 hour days 7 days a week for months.

Cosplay Ball - dress???

Hmm...

After trying to sing with my chest binder on and finding it a chore (as emmav and I will be performing at the Ball), and also thinking about the work I need to do this week and the amount of sewing left, and I'd need to cut Matt's hair, and considering that me and Matt will be doing our Rosencreuz Orden uniforms for Minami and definitely for May Expo 2010...

I'VE DECIDED THAT MATT & I WILL BE GOING AS GENTLEMAN/WOMAN PIRATES!!!

Sorry Trinity Blood fans... I hope that you don't mind...

(I bought this dress a few months ago and I haven't had an excuse to wear it as a whole yet, so there)