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Manga Sketch
Anime Girl - Something I doodled over the weekend. I was experimenting with different drawing styles again and after this one, I finally decided to give up on my Edding 1800 profipens. I’ve been using them to ink for a while, but the ink flow sucks, they’re not true black and they generally seem too dry to draw a consistent non-grainy line. I want to find a new set of super fine line-line pens which work for me. Suggestions welcome!
Face Sketch
Generic girl face - doodled the face over the weekend and chucked in a few digital tones on top.
Manga Sketch
Manga Guy - something I doodled over the weekend.
Back from Japanorama
Exhibiting at Comic Con
It was my first time attending a comic convention-like event as an artist. Japanorama - The Japan and anime themed event was at the National Space Centre in Leicester from 4th-5th of May 2013. It was described as:
The National Space Centre is an all-weather attraction for all the family, situated in the heart of the Midlands, located just two miles from Leicester city centre. Why not take a tour round the centre, or check out our special events and birthday parties for a full range of ideas to make your visit out of this world.
I was described as:
Ben Krefta from Organic Metal, is a hugely popular artist and designer, who runs online tutorials
I was asked to attend as a guest in artists area, talking to fans, selling my signature and taking commissions. To be honest, I probably wouldn’t have considered it had I not been invited but glade I did- it was a great experience. Really nice to meet fellow manga inspired artists and fans alike.
I spent most of my time in the Artists Alley along with talented artists: Chie Kutsuwada, Laura Watton-Davies, Jodie Azhar, Emma Vieceli and Dock, selling postcard prints of some of the character pin-ups I’d worked on and chatting to fans about what I do and art-related things.
I’ll probably attend a few more similar events in the future to get a greater feel for the whole con-going experience and see how they compare 🙂
The art which doesn’t make the grade…
Some things aren't worth posting
I’ve drawn hundreds of unsuccessful sketches like theses over the years, which ultimately get thrown away. They represent the worst of my ability! But I wanted to share them so aspiring artist know that:
- Drawing something good is hard! Be proud of yourself when you achieve it.
- Everyone has off days
- Just because you drew a thing, ask yourself is it always worth throwing it up on the internet?
Also here's some caricatures
I doodled these in an attempt to merge real people into a comic book or manga style. I'm just experimenting here and still need practice. But, I learned a thing or two.
OLD Art
I was going through some of my artwork archives from around 2000-2001. Some of it still looks just about okay even by current standards. Other stuff makes me appreciate how much I’ve progressed over the last 12-13 years! Check out my first website 'Organic Metal' for more Old Art !
My Profile
For those who don’t know me, I'm a 30 year old (as of 2013) artist living in the UK. Here’s a few short bios from the interweb to get you started before I begin posing in this new blog:
From Organic Metal:
Born in Kent , England in 1982. I’d describe myself as a freelance illustrator and designer typically creating manga inspired character designs, although throughout the years I’ve crossed over into graphic design, photography and most recently, tattoo art.
From Squidoo:
After graduating from the University of Creative Arts 2006-2009 he was awarded a 1st Class BA Hons Degree and began working on high quality art and design projects for 100s of clients for years. This type of work Included:
* Hand Drawn & Digital Illustration for video games, books, magazines, covers, posters, web
* Character & Mascot Design
* Advertising Illustration and Graphic Design
* Book Layout & Design
* Logo and corporate ID
* Posters, Banners, Leaflets, Flyers, CD Art, Stationary
* Web Design, Photoshop, HTML, CSS, WordPress, Dreamweaver
* 1-1 Photoshop Tuition
* Photography & editing
From Wikipedia:
Ben Krefta (born October 10, 1982 in the UK) is a freelance manga style illustrator & graphic artist.
Krefta has created several ‘how-to’ books on the topic of drawing manga, including ‘The Art of Drawing Manga’ (2003), ‘Step by Step Manga’ (2004), 'Digital Manga' (2014) and was also one of three winners of 2004’s ‘Character Design’ category at the International Manga and Anime Festival (IMAF).
Krefta currently works on a wide variety of art and design projects including: advertising, promotional artwork, web design and specializing in character design using a combination of traditional media and Photoshop. Some examples of these works along with more information on Krefta can be found at Organic Metal.
Interests and hobbies:
- Art -
- character design, concept art, graffiti, galleries, comics, lighting effects, photography, digital design, sexy art, tattoo art
- Music-
- chillout, dance, electro/synth, chillstep, liquid drum & bass, euphoric trance, game/movie soundtracks and modern classical, classical crossover, new age, pop punk, some rock
- Science stuff-
- physics, space, technology
- Debating philosophy and ethics, theorizing about the universe, and existence
- Internet forums & Blogging
- Finance & Business
- Sports-
- Climbing/bouldering, Table tennis, snooker & pool, darts, bowling, gym training, swimming, tennis, basketball, softball, bike riding, skateboarding, frisbee, kite flying, shooting, air hockey, martial arts and MMA
- Movies-
- Sci-fi, action, thrillers in particular
- Anime, manga and comics
- Japan
- Video games
- Psychology-
- Learning about people's, their beliefs, standards and opinions, behaviours, personalities
- Stand up comedy
- Personal development, life hacking, bettering myself, self-analysis
- Board games-
- Current Favs include: Blokus, scrabble, pictionary, boggle, poker
- Modern Fashion, Furniture and architecture (with a sci-fi edge)
- Jamming on Keyboard, Music Creation
- Cars & Driving
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