BLOG

The 5th comic convention on my circuit at London's Excel centre has come to an end. I'm still enjoying the cons, and will be attending Olympia in a few days for another- The London Comic and Film Festival. The London Super Comic Con was definitely more artist orientated, with a preference for the western scene over anime, manga or film. I got to check out some work by some other amazing foreign artists who don't attend many/any other UK cons and now I'm totally eager to commission some original pieces by one or two of them as soon as I can budget for it. So much good art. If anyone has a spare million lying around anywhere, feel free to send it my way!

The 4th comic convention on my circuit in Telford, West Midlands has come to an end. I enjoyed it- met some great people and received some awesome comments about my work. Means a lot. Dealing with insomnia during a busy weekend event doesn't help matters, but I'm glad everything went smoothly.

Right now I'm in the middle of checking and amending proofs for my latest book, 'The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga'.  It's looking nice, and hopefully will be available for sale in the coming month or two once it goes to print.

Back from attending the London Anime and Gaming Con. Managed to finally get my Deathnote fan art inked, coloured and printed for the event which got a lot of interest. I'll add it to my portfolio gallery in due course and make prints available for sale through my store soon.

I'm booked up for several UK comic conventions this year. I'll be selling my artwork prints and books.  Feel free to stop by at my table and say hi if attending any of these:

• London anime and gaming Con : 6th / 7th February
• MCM Midlands Comic Con : 13th February
• London Super Comic Con : 20th / 21st February
• London Film and Comic Con : 27th / 28th February
• MCM Liverpool Comic Con : 12th / 13th March
• Medway Comic and Screen Fest : 19th March
• MCM London Comic Con : 27th / 28th / 29th May
• London Film and Comic Con : 29th /30th / 31st July

I'll be updating this list later in the year as and when I'm able to make bookings for other events, so watch this space.

New How-To Manga book in the works!

For those that don't know, I'm currently working on a new How-to-Draw Tutorial book relating to manga and character art. 113 pages down with another 15 to get done by the end of the year!

My first book 'The Art of Drawing Manga' came out 12 years ago. I still have people come up to me or message to say how much it helped them when they were starting along their artistic journey. Even though back in 2003 I didn't feel I was at an artistic level to be teaching how to draw, I always hoped that it might at least inspire a few beginners to give it a go and I could provide a few words of wisdom and tips and I'd picked up along the way. I'm glad it could help so many 🙂

For 2016 I'd like 'The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga' (TAGTDM) to help a new generation of fans learn some useful techniques to create their own manga inspired artwork. Unlike with Youtube tutorials or tutorial web pages in general, my latest book provides the opportunity to detach from the internet and take some time to read through a dedicated resource housing several key learning guides or chapters all in a single package. TAGTDM allows users to either flick through, dip into, or follow from start to finish.

It's better to read a book than browse online

While researching parts of the book via the internet I found a lot of free manga art content online, some of it totally awesome! Although there's also a far more poor quality information which isn't very concise, well written or explained, and so much is scattered throughout the web at different locations. I might find a great tutorial on how to draw a manga eye, but then might need to spend a fair while looking for a tutorial which shows how create a full manga page, then more time finding tips on how to ink or colour my work digitally, or answers certain questions I might have.

Web tutorials are often given by different artists who have different approaches to their work, making things confusing for newbies. And they may not have the time to be particularly concise, or have their words copy-edited by someone else.

Along with my near 30 years of love for games, comics and animation, I'd expect that if any beginner were to follow TAGTDM from start to finish they'd definitely level up and increase their skills and knowledge. I'd imaging even artists with some experience would be able to gain a few insights also.

Even if people already own a how-to-draw book, or 10, a fresh reminder of how it can be done or reading a different professional artist's take on it can always help 🙂

Recently finished a 2 day comic con stint at the NEC. People stopping by at my table and taking an interest in my work is always very much appreciated. It was interesting to see what artworks fans were interested in- with 20+ different prints, there weren't many that didn't get either a positive comment or purchased, so not sure how I might better cater for shoppers in the future. For now I'll just continue offering as much variety as I can 🙂 A good experience sampling both this and the London Con last month, and expect to attend some more shows in 2016.

This Photoshop character composite features artwork from my next How-To guide currently in progress.

The book will give readers the chance to draw their own versions in 10 simple steps. As these will be from the 'How to draw figures' section, I deliberately gave them figure-hugging outfits to help make things a little easier to understand without baggy clothing or too many drapes and folds interfering with the body shape.

You can check out Digital Manga if you'd like to learn in-depth Photoshop techniques for achieving the same colour results 🙂

I'll be attending MCM Comic Con in Birmingham on 21st-22nd of November. Second time having a table in the Comic Village and looking forward to it 🙂 I'll be selling original art prints and copies of my book Digital Manga. It'll be interesting to see how the smaller 2 day event compares with London's 3-dayer last month.

Here's another selection of some of my older manga, game or anime inspired artworks (originally posted on my Instagram and cropped). Let me know if you have a favourite out of these 🙂

Check out Art Dump #1 for more.

Here's another selection of some of my older manga, game or anime inspired artworks (originally posted on my Instagram and cropped). Let me know if you have a favourite out of these 🙂