I’m in the process of putting together a new comic book, that I’ll hopefully be releasing for free on the web. Possibly here on my blog, maybe on another website altogether. I’ll see how it goes.

This is a sneak preview of the comic book, titled ‘A Monster Comic’. Written and illustrated by myself.

This is page 6 of the 14(ish) page comic (first one I’ve finished colouring)… so if I do end up posting the whole thing here, you’ll get to see this page again… even if I don’t, you’ll get to see it on whatever website I put it up on… unless you never saw this post, and are just looking at the new ones… but then you wouldn’t know anything about this thing you’re reading now, so the whole thing gets confusing….. Um…. here’s a comic book page!! More soon! Enjoy!

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Hard at work on a bunch of things at the moment. The re-design of BooYippee.Com is almost complete. A couple of weeks and we’ll be launching the new Beta. I’m currently working on a couple of comic strips (big news on those soon), and three children’s books.

One of the kid’s books I’m working on at the moment is titled ‘Sandstorm’, and features the young lady below..

Lolo is a tribal princess, who we join on a mission to discover the origin of her people. To accompany her she has ‘Kip’ and her pet pig ‘Oyster’… I’m still in two minds as to whether to release the comic/book as a web comic, or go to publishers with it… I’ll see how it goes. At the very least I’ll be posting a few more pictures as I put them together.

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I got an e-mail this week from a student, asking what pens I use/recommend…. not the most simple answer in the world actually.

It depends entirely on what I’m drawing, and the style I’m looking for. So my collection of drawing equipment is huge, and growing all the time. As I find something new that I like to use, I just add that to the long line of bits and pieces I use. There are however a few things I consider to be essential…. those things I just couldn’t do without. So here is a little run through:

PENS:

The pens I find my self using again and again are, a very cheap/affordable Pilot fineliner (around £1 each). These things are great for drawing cartoons, and have a nice crisp line. The downside is the tips do deteriorate pretty quickly. Because of this I have a pot of 20-30 next to my drawing board.

Zig Art & Graphic Twin (TUT-80) brush pens are also excellent. Again, not the most expensive pens in the world, at about £3 each but they are perfect for quick cartooning, and inking in medium to large areas.  They have a medium tip, and a brush tip, and are pretty much the only pen I used for inking in those large areas.

I always have to have a couple of Pilot DR drawing pens (01), for any fine work and cross hatching.

A lot of my illustrations are done using Rotring XONOX pens, but these seem to be getting harder and harder to get hold of, so I wouldn’t recommend getting too fond of them.

PENCILS:

Although I keep a couple of sets of pencils, ranging from the very hard to the very soft around all the time, there are only a few I use again and again. I prefer using Staedtler Lumograph pencils for any rough work ( 2H, 3H, 5H work well for any linework/sketching that has to be erased), and tend to vear towards Cumberland Graphite pencils for any detailed work. There are plenty of excellent pencils out there, butI usually go back to these, for the cost as well as the quality.

OTHER BITS:

It’s always a good idea to keep a pot of Process White, and Process Black to hand if you’re inking in cartoons. (I use Winsor & Newton, but there isn’t too much difference between makes). They can be used for erasing mistakes, as well as creating artwork. (Not much better than process white for creating snow over a black sky).

I swear by any Staedtler erasers. Again, I keep a selection by my drawing board, ranging from the harder/plastic erasers, through to kneedable putty rubbers. I get the most use out of the tablet erasers, because of the versatile shape but it’s down to preference.

When a paintbrush is called for I tend to use Pro Arte POLAR nylon brushes for inking. They may not as good quality/durable as some of the more expensive alternatives, but they do have a very nice feel to them, and work brilliantly with ink. For very fine ink work, my favorite brushes are the Pro Arte Prolene range.

And that’s about it. The basics anyway! I personally think that one of the great things about illustration is exploring new materials and ideas, new ways of working. As you try out new equipment you’ll find the things that suit your style. Some things just feel ‘right’ as you use them, so experiment a little….

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Mungogram.Com is a fantastic new idea in the greetings cards market. The website actually allows you to record your own messages, either via the microphone on your computer, or via a low cost telephone call

Your recorded message is then added to the card of your choice….. and I don’t mean the text is added… it’s actually your recorded message. As you open your Mungogram card your personal message will be played back to you using Mungograms own sound aplet.

So, you can get the kids to record a personal greeting for grandma in spain, or maybe sing a little ‘happy birthday’ for someone. This great little device make each Mungogram greeting card that little bit more personal. What better than hearing your loved ones voices on that special occasion.

The cards are original, personalised and affordable at just  £4.99 for a ‘Sound’ greeting card, and just £2.69 for a regular one.

I have a bunch of design over at Mungogram, 100+ at the moment. There are also a bunch of other great artists working there. So for a truely original greetings card, check them out! www.mungogram.com.

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We’ve just finished making yet more updates to Pijoo.Com, our popular blog community.

As a nice little addition to commenting on blog posts, you can now insert YouTube videos, images and links into your comments, as well as formatting the text to really get your points across. Along with our swanky voting system, you can now interact with other bloggers on a whole new level.

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I’m getting seriously narked with Kingston Communications. It’s bad enough that I live in the only part of the country not to have a choice in phone/Internet provider, but they’re also unbelievably useless in every single way!!!

The download speed is pathetic (and I use their top package, that incidentally is way more expensive than other providers), they’re constantly cutting off, and when you EVENTUALLY manage to get through to someone on the help desk, its a spotty faced oik with less brains than a herring. ‘Uuumm.. wots the intrafernet??’ Surely business’ that are stuck with KC suffer?

Pleeeease can the nice people at BT buy up Kingston Communications or something…. So, you’d loose a few million repairing what they’ve messed up, but on the plus side, I’d think you were just brill!

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