Creating Kaleidoscopes

After completing my Unicorns Colouring Book, my publisher asked if I'd work on some sample pages for a potential, new Mandala / Kaleidoscope Colouring Book.

Pattern work isn't something I'm especially known for creating. I wondered, would I be able to create something worthy of being published? I was willing to give it a shot. Thankfully, after having now been producing artwork for decades, I felt like I've become versatile enough to tackle most styles of illustration. And so I began creating a short series of symmetrical patterns, kaleidoscope images and mandala artwork.

To try something new like this was great fun! The possibilities for creating unique, abstract images is limitless. Without the technical requirements of drawing, say, a figure or a scene, this type of line art is quick to create. It's artwork that can be completed in a matter of hours, as opposed to days or weeks.

I've never considered myself a particularly spiritual person so the religious or traditionally symbolic significance of the Mandala is somewhat lost on me. Although, once you spend some time immersed in these types of patterns, there is definitely something to be noticed. Something which has a sense of depth and meaning.

Here's some samples for the book:

[caption id="attachment_5347" align="aligncenter" width="918"] The cover art sample was provided to the client. Despite being a black and white colouring book on the inside, I wanted to give it a colourful, psychedelic vibe.[/caption]

[gallery type="square" columns="2" size="large" ids="5351,5350,5349,5348"]

You can't win them all:

As is the nature of these things, the book never ended up making it into production. My publisher had tried pitching it along with dozens of other titles to their customer (a big US- based publishing house). They liked the direction it was going in, but with so many similar books already available on the market, it made it harder to justify producing another.

I'd like to one day have the chance to pick up the project again. If there are any book publishers out there who produce similar titles, give me a call. I sure we can find a way to improve upon existing, similar books already out there!

Benefits to Creating Mandalas

I'd read that creating mandalas (and I'm sure is true of all self-repeating and symmetrical patents) can:

• Help reduce stress and anxiety
• Help connect with one's self and others
• Activate creativity
• Improves one's sleep
• Enhance focus
• Produce feelings of happiness and calm

Certainly it's something I found myself enjoying far more than expected. Even though I tend not to produce abstract art, there is something amazing about it. Well, some of it. Some abstract art can also be a load of pretentious, ugly-looking mess with the label "art" slapped across it.

If done well, a good abstract artwork can reach something deeper and feel more significant than illustration. Sometimes too much true-to-life detail can just get the in way of what is real and true.

Although there is an art to create good-looking patterns. What makes aesthetically pleasing shapes? It's difficult to put in to words. I found that the more of these kaleidoscopic patterns I worked on, the better they looked. Using a re-iterative process of trial and error is often the best way to hone in on what works. Or at least, that process works for me. It's very strange that certain shapes and arrangement of shapes are pleasing, while others feel unpleasant and disjointed.

Designing a set of Art Prints

I create several new mandala artworks. Each with a motivational message.

Sometimes life gets tough, and negativity limits our potential. Inspirational quotes can help remind us how to live or that adversity can be overcome. And so the idea to was to fuse these messages with a mandala. Something to help give the the message focus, while making for an aesthetically pleasing image. An image people might like to have displayed on their bedroom, kitchen or living room wall. Unlike the black and while line artwork for the colouring book, they were each given a unique colour scheme. Then converted to A3 size images suitable for high-resolution print.

If you're interested in buying one to decorate your home or give as a gift, they're now available for sale in the Shop. Each sale helps support my artistic endeavours and lets me know what type of artwork people like. 

[caption id="attachment_5355" align="aligncenter" width="900"] You only live once. But if you do it right, once is enough[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5356" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Dream without Fear. Love without Limits.[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5354" align="aligncenter" width="900"] The best way to predict the future is to create it[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5357" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Turn towards the sun and the shadows fall behind you[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5358" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Seasons change and so do we[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5359" align="aligncenter" width="900"] Don't wait for the storm to pass. Learn to dance in the rain[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_5360" align="aligncenter" width="900"] To be the best, you must be able to handle the worst[/caption]

A final comment

Are you a fan of the mandala? Would you like to see me continue work on the Kaleidoscope colouring book? What's your favourite motivational quote you'd like to see turned into a kaleidoscopic artwork? Let me know 🙂

My Art theft experience

It's still happening. Every month dozens of new products spring up on the internet featuring my artwork. Art which I'd not given permission to use. I'm not a fan of my work being taken by someone else without consent- especially when it negatively impacts sales of my own products. I've added a video discussing (and ranting about) my experiences on YouTube and thought I'd share it here:

Removing infringements

After posting the video, I went on to remove 182 instances of copyright infringement! That's at least 300 removals so far in total. There's still more which needs taking down, and no doubt there will be hundreds more to remove over the coming year. For now it's a job I'll have to maintain like cutting my hair or mowing the lawn. If anyone reads this and wants to use my work, that's fine: For non-profit use, be sure to include my name and a link back to this site. For commercial use, send me a message and we can discuss rights to licence high-res versions of artwork you're interested in.

Your thoughts

Has art theft of this nature always been around? Am I wasting time by stressing over it? If people take your art/music/writing/content and sell it without permission online, would you try to do anything about it? Should companies such as eBay or Amazon for example take more responsibility for moderating products for sale on their platforms? If so what might you suggest they do about it? I'd love to know your thoughts.

Also see my previous related posts: 'Art theft and stealing images online' and 'Art theft and further criticism of pod sites' and most recently 'Art theft: The Story continues' for further reading.

It was about time I created some new artwork. This time, an anime style school girl; A design I thought might work well as on a T-shirt or Art print with appeal to fans of Japanese anime and video games. I needed an object or symbol floating between her hands in the middle to denote a video game theme. A '1-up' mushroom (an in-game asset granting 1 extra life as originally seen in the Super Mario games) was added. The piece then gained the title 'Get a Life'! To start with, here's some progress images explaining the process.

Digital Sketching

The digital sketch was created to begin with. As with other recent works, I'd use multiple colours to separate out different parts of the image. This makes its easier for me to read should the line work start getting too messy and complicated. I also sketch the clothing and hair on different layers in Photoshop just in case I decided I wanted to change the hair style or outfit to something else, but still didn't want to lose the pose information. Then the outlines were digitally inked with a thin brush. The original canvas is big- About 12,000 pixel height. this means the image should like sharp even if printed out huge.

Adding Colour

Next I added the flat tones, followed by the first layer of shadows. For a higher quality 'cel' style (using flat tones) I'll usually add at least 2 tones of shading for added depth. Sometimes I'll add another layer of highlights as per the hair in the second coloured image. As mentioned earlier, the 1UP mushroom was added in and some Kanji added to the background. Time-wise I think it took around 20 hours to complete. 15-40 hours for a single character illustration is pretty typical for me.

Now available to buy

[gallery link="none" size="medium" type="square" ids="4963,4964,4965"]

If you like the artwork and would like to support my artistic endeavours, I've turned it into an A3 print, available to buy on my store. It'll be hand signed and shipped internationally. Alternatively, the design is available on a T-Shirt in either Men's or Women's fit. All shirts are currently on sale in the site's shop at a reduced price. Thanks for checking it out :)

Draw and Chill

Growing up as a kid I'd always be creating my own monsters, mutants and robot characters. Now, as an adult, whenever I have a few free hours to draw something, I often turn to my 'Monsters and Mutants' sketchbook to see what I can come up with. The aim isn't to create anything glossy and polished like a lot of my typical digital work. Instead, it's just about having fun and seeing what ends up on the page.

Creation Process

Most of the time I'll just start drawing random shapes and a creature seems to emerge from the page. Occasionally I'll have an idea to begin with. It might be to re-work one of my childhood drawings, or I'll use something from a film, or game as a starting point.

No-Pressure Drawing

To be honest, I never intended to share any of these. Whenever there's an intention to show off my work it creates an added pressure to try harder or even be more self critical. That's not the point of this sketch book. It's all about drawing to relax and have fun with it. If you're an artist or creator, perhaps it's worth also considering the idea that just because you made a thing, it doesn't have to get posted online. It's quite freeing. But if you decide at a later date to share what you do with the world, there's no harm in that either.

Pen and Ink

For some reason I decided to stick with black and white pen drawings for these. Each image starts off as a pencil sketch. I use my trusty Pentel mechanical pencil with a 2B lead. After I've got the basic gist down, I take over with a Zig Manga Ka Flexible pen. I use Fine for the lines and Medium for larger areas of black. Occasionally I'll use black Kuretake Fudegokochi Brush Pen. Although the Fudegokochi pens have a nice flow of ink, sometimes they can over-flow and spill out a bit too much. I've quit using them as I don't want to wait for ink to be drying. I've recently bought a set of white Gel pens, which I expected to use on these, but not had too much opportunity soo far.

These are all drawn in an A5 Molskine sketchbook:

[gallery size="medium" columns="2" ids="4823,4821,4824,4822,4857,4856,4855,4854,4853,4852,4851,4850,4849,4848,4847,4846,4845,4844,4843,4842,4841,4840,4839,4838,4837,4836,4835,4834,4833,4832,4831,4830,4829,4828,4827,4826,4825,4820,4819,4873,4864,4872,4863,4865,4866,4867,4868,4869,4870,4871,4862,4861,4860,4859,4858,4818"]

More creatures to come...

I'm just over two thirds through my sketchbook so far. I intend on finishing it, even if it takes another year or two! If you're interested in commission me to draw you a creature of your own like the above, let me know. Otherwise, I'll continue to rely on what my crazy mind can come up with :)

I'd recently finished binge-watching the first 4 seasons of super-hero anime 'My Hero Academia'. Despite initial reservations after the first episode, I ended up getting into it and really enjoying it. My goal was to create some All Might fan art in a similar style to the Tattooed Goku I'd created a few years back. Here's some work in progress images to show the process:

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch using reference from bodybuilder Jay Cutler who reminded me of All Might. This was then refined and tidied up, adding his "I am here" catchphrase to the banner- a line he must have used a million times in the My Hero Academia anime!
Time: 7 Hours to draw

Adding Colour

The first image on the left is probably around 60% through the colouring process. It was getting a bit dark, so brightened it up and added colourful background splatters to finish. I'm very happy with how it it turned out- makes a nice little tribute piece to the series 🙂
Time: 10.5 Hours to colour – 17.5 hours total.

Own The Art Print

As the icon of virtue, hope and strength, All Might can remind us to do good, help others and be strong. Would you'd like the symbol of justice to hang on your walls? And would rather display art which looks a little prettier than a copy-and-paste screen capture from the My Hero Academia anime? I've turned it into an A3 print, available to buy on my store.

[gallery type="square" columns="2" link="none" size="medium" ids="4387,4390"]

Buy The T-Shirt

I'd thought about creating and offering shirts featuring this and other designs in my store for some time. There was enough interest to make it happen, so have also now added All Might:

[gallery type="square" columns="2" link="none" ids="4683,4702"]

Thanks for supporting my artistic endeavours, and if you're a Hero Academia fan, let me know. See you next time :)

I wanted to create a couple of new fan art pieces for fun. This year I decided to take a crack at Bowsette and Boosette (aka Booette)- a couple of spin-off meme creations from Nintendo’s Mario game series. The goal was to go full-on kawaii manga style with these two- huge eyes and small mouths.

Digital Sketching

I started with a digital sketch. Using multiple colours helps prevent getting confused by too many messy lines all over the place. After Bowsette was finished, I used her as a template for creating Boosette.
Time: 16 Hours

Neat Outlines

Then came time to clean up the artwork by digitally inking it. I kept the line work pretty thin for this project and not using thicker, heavier lines for the outside or varying line weighs like I might do in previous images.
Time: 11.5 Hours

Flat tones

The next stage is laying down the flat tones. The process of sketch, ink, flats and then rendering the flats is a technique and workflow I’ve been using in digital artwork since the late 90s. It’s a process that works out great for being able to isolate certain colours and parts of an image, keeping the artwork looking tidy and smooth, while retaining the line art, rather than painting over it.
Time: 1.6 Hours

Colours and Shading

Then it’s time to choose colours and a light source. This time light is coming from the centre/ top left. I start with an ‘anime cel’ style to figure out how much shadow the put down and I could leave it at the cel stage by sticking with the flat tones but I’m always too tempted to start rendering and adding gradation to tones. As much as I love anime, I thing I prefer a more rendered artwork look aesthetic.

Finished Artworks

Lots of rendering time later and both are finished. They make a good pair- by having opposing colour schemes- one with red/orange and the other with purple and blue. The artwork is tight and polished, making it suitable for large scale printing with the original images each being close to 14,000 pixels high.
Total time: 56 Hours – 28 hours each.

What’s next? I love experimenting in different styles, so I’ll probably take a break from the Kawaii manga look for a while and try something else. But this project showed me if I ever want to create more artwork in this style, I know I can nail it successfully 😊

Prints for sale

Print sales both online and at comic conventions have increased this year, which is a definite bonus. I've always been a commission artist; taking on projects for both business and individuals alike, and it was only in recent years I'd made some effort to produce art prints to sell. I'm focusing on A3 size and still keeping them at the lower rate of £11.99 on this website, compared to £15-£16 at other online retailers. They'll continue to be sold for this rate for at least the rest of 2019, so head over to the store for last minute Christmas shopping.

Colouring Book

I've more or less just finished working on a colouring book I had been commissioned to create around 3 months ago. The title is 'Manga Unicorns' - Yep, a combination of Unicorns with manga characters! It will be released next year and will post some more info once it's available. To work on a colouring book had been on my to-do list for a long time after the adult colouring book boom started around 3 or 4 years ago but at the time I was still busy finishing The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga whilst working on my tattoo business. Although now I've finally got one colouring book under my belt, I'm considering working on at least another for 2020.

Tattoos

Despite my website focusing on my illustration and manga artwork, I'm still spending half my time tattooing and like the mix of working with a customer in my studio as well as times to lock myself away and sit in front of the graphics tablet for hours each day. My thought right now is finding time to produce some custom flash (tattoo designs) to pitch to potential customers. You might be surprised at how many people like and want tattoos but don't really know what they want. They often end up settling for whatever is fashionable at the time, so if I can provide an alternative to 'pocket watches' and 'dream catchers' then I'll be able to start cultivating a tattoo portfolio showcasing the artwork I'm best at and like to produce.

Finding the time

Like with many creative types, I think the tough part is often finding enough time to complete the many projects and ideas floating around in my head, and in that to-do list I mentioned earlier! If artworks like the ones above can take 10-20 hours or more to produce, there's only so many images that can be made each month alongside the usual tasks of admin, social media management and client communication. The challenge then becomes trying to narrow down exactly what to work on and when. Taking on new projects is exciting. I just wish there was enough time to turn them all into reality!

Will I make money as an artist?

Years ago I documented my early experiences with 'Print on Demand' Site, Society 6. It was short article, mostly to complain about a few problems I had with S6's platform. This time I'm going in-depth. Addressing my experiences, thoughts and issues with a similar Print on Demand site- Design By Humans (DBH). With so many aspiring artists asking me, "how do I make money online?", this article should give some insight.  It doesn't necessarily point the way to the pot of gold every artist is looking for, but hopefully you'll appreciate an honest, critical perspective.

What is a Print on Demand (POD) site?

There’s now dozens of online stores/platforms which allow artists and designers to create their own store page and upload their artwork, designs and digital assets to be sold on prints, products such as phone cases and apparel such as t-shirts. A royalty or commission then gets paid to the artist after the store sells, prints and post orders which make use your artwork.

It seems like a great idea. You earn a small passive from income your artwork without needing to develop and run the platform from which you sell it on. You just spend a little time putting the art online (which you may have already have created) and then wait for the money to begin rolling in! Or rather, more often than not, then wait for the tumble-weed to go rolling past!

What is Design By Humans?

It's a USA based POD site, born over a decade ago, which specialised in printing T-shirt designs and has now branched out to offer other products in addition such as prints, stickers and mugs. Several years ago when I first joined the site, it was a small artist's hub offering up designs which other artists and customers alike had voted for in a competition-like format. The voting system generally ensured that everything the site printed and sold featured a quality design worthy of being worn in public. A number of years ago the site updated their business model to allow anyone (artists were initially vetted however) to populate the site with their designs without needing votes, in the same way POD sites like Tee Public and Society 6 work. This now meant artists like myself could at least have the opportunity to sell our designs in a more open market system.
However without the voting system, the quality standard across the site has, in my opinion, significantly dropped. Without wanting to sound like I'm blowing my own horn, many of the more professional artists like myself are now firmly in the minority. Both as an artist and consumer, I find this frustrating. The vetting process for designs that DBH now allow is somewhat lacking, which I'll discuss later as it's kind of amusing.

What Does Design By Humans pay?

DBH is one of several POD sites I have experimented with over the years, which does typically earn me at least something each month; even if it's just a couple of bucks. Although it's hard to say whether or not I'd recommend other aspiring artists and designers bothering with it.

To format your designs, upload your work through their 'add a product' system and create the relevant keywords to aid search results takes a long time, like with any POD site. And you may not end up being adequately financially compensated for your efforts. Like all ventures of this nature, there's some risk involved and whether or not you'll succeed on such as site is not a simple answer.

As an example- I might upload a design which takes an hour to format into the correct size PNG file, upload and configure. That design might not make a single penny over the course of years. Other designs might make a few dollars, while others still could generate hundreds of dollars.

Patience required

In my experience, generating hundreds of dollars for a design isn't common for most but with POD sites it's worth noting you're playing the long game; you go to the effort of uploading your designs in the beginning and might have to wait a number of years before seeing a significant financial return.

For example, one of my Sugar Skull Girl designs has currently generated me over $50 total on DBH. The design was uploaded nearly two years ago. So let's say the design is earning me $25 a year. Not much, right? But providing the design carries on selling for 10+ years, that's $250 of passive income. Is that worth it to you? You decide. Keep in mind I use this same design across several other POD sites. Each earning a few bucks here and there. This design also sells on art prints on my own site or through conventions and events I attend. Therefore when you add up the amount of money this one design makes across different platforms and sales channels over the course of a decade, it's considerably more than if I were to instead work solely as a commission artist who charges, say, $250 for a single, one-off artwork or design which I then never derive any further income from.

How much money can I get?

To answer the question of pay-out royalty; DBH currently offers a designer around $3 every time they sell a $25 shirt. DBH state they offer competitive rates, which is true compared to some POD sites which only offer a dollar per sale. As an artist, do I think $3 is fair? No way! The only reason a T-shirt sells is because the customer is buying the design on it. While I appreciate Print-On-Demand / order quantities of 1 are going to carry a higher cost to produce compared to a mass-produced shirt printed in the thousands, I'd imagine the artist isn't getting even a third of the net profit on each sale and without the designs us artists provide POD sites wouldn't exist in the first place.
When it comes to retail, the artist, inventor or original creator taking the smaller share for a sale is nothing new. It can equally be true to say; without the opportunity to sell on their site, us artists would also have nothing. And so the market determines if DBH's rates are profitable enough for them to run their business whilst satisfying the expectations of enough artists who are willing to give it a go and populate their site.

Are POD sites a reliable money earner?

With all POD sites, you should never rely on them as your primary source of income. Some people seem to have found the magic formula to be able to do this- I know of a few people who make thousands of dollars a month from POD sites, But like with a lot of these types of venture, those people make up a very small percentage of total sellers. For most it's a complete dead-end or just a trickle of passive income you could never expect to live off, especially if living in a first-world country.

While a design has the potential to keep generating a passive income for years, maybe decades, it also has the potential to dry up at any time. The business could cease trading, the search algorithm used to find your design could change (either on-site or via external search engines which point to your designs), or your design could get buried under a pile of other designs which come after it.

Also expect dry spells and more active selling times of the year towards x-mas, where sales will suddenly spike compared to previous months.

Too much garbage

So many POD sites have emerged over recent years, and you can understand why. It seems like the perfect business model: You provide a platform then get online designers and artists to populate it with products for you to sell and make a profit from whilst paying the majority of your work-force (us artists) nothing unless the product sells! And even then, the amount they pay seems a little unfair to the artists. Sure, these POD companies advertise their platform which brings customers to their site, but any business needs to do this regardless. So to reiterate, even though it might be worth artists experimenting with POD sites it's also worth noting you'll likely not earn a great deal and the royalty is kinda lousy (even if it is considered the going rate or better for such sites). If any designer out there is making mega bucks and wants to prove me wrong, great! And let me know. I love a success story :)

What type of artwork and designs sell?

The fact the pay-outs and earning potential is relatively low for most POD site artists, means many top-end professionals are probably going to avoid bothering with it, and instead it attracts designs from the likes of lazy opportunists, kids, novices or amateurs whose standard of work is pretty bad. Part of DBH's mission statement reads, "Embedded in the culture of Design By Humans is a passion for brilliantly designed tees, detailed illustration and a strong appreciation for all things creative." While we can try to appreciate the 'all things creative' part, there are a lot of tees which are certainly not brilliantly designed or illustrated in detail. You might be thinking, but isn't that a good thing as it means your work will stand out above the competition? Sure, it's always a bonus if a large portion of your competition on a site is producing sub-par work to make your stuff stand out. However it's not so good when such work pushes your designs to the bottom of the pile, effectively banishing them to page 10+ of an on-site search result and otherwise making them difficult to find.

DBH, like many POD sites are a bit of a free-for-all allowing almost anything to be uploaded and sold. I'm putting a lot of time into my art and designs, bumping up the quality, adding the "detail" and trying to produce something which I think might sell and do well on the site. It's not just me, but any competent artist in this position who can generate sales on DBH deserves to have their work more prominently placed in search results, yet this isn't always the case.

While I agree it's fair to give every designer the opportunity to upload their work, it's not necessarily fair to give equal allowances or privileges to artists of lower ability levels or standards when it comes to a design holding it's place at the top of a search result.
If an artist practices their craft for decades, gets pretty good at it, attempts to get eye-balls on their design and thus potentially make a sale, that's fair enough, right? But it is unfair for an amateur or lazy designer's work to get bumped to the top of the pile whilst pushing down the experienced pro's offering just because the amateur happened to be the last person to post or because they have lots of designs to populate search results. Basically I'm all about fairness and rewarding designers on a meritocratic basis.

To some degree this issue could be mitigated during the submissions process. Once upon a time DBH only used to allow artists to open a store if they could prove their artistic worth (perhaps they still do, but people are now lying about their credentials?). But I don't think that's the case any more, and I'll show you what I mean below. Therefore the design submission process needs to be a little stricter in regards to quality control.

Examples:

I did a general search for "anime girl" since I've listed several designs with those keywords and here's some of the not-so-great examples of what came up within the first 10 pages, much of which frustratingly pushes my artworks/products further down the search results list:

[caption id="attachment_4171" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Not formatted for a T-shirt[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4172" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Again, not formatted for a shirt[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4173" align="aligncenter" width="660"] The emotion is conveyed at least[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4174" align="aligncenter" width="660"] A poor copy of existing character art?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4175" align="aligncenter" width="660"] This style is better suited elsewhere[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4176" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Not at the commercial level yet[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4177" align="aligncenter" width="660"] How did this pass quality control?[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4178" align="aligncenter" width="660"] This seller posted 4 near identical versions of this stolen and poorly optimised art! Why?![/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4179" align="aligncenter" width="660"] This artist also uses other artist's stolen artwork in their store[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4180" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Consistent style but...[/caption]

"But Ben, who are you to judge? Art/beauty is subjective". That argument simply doesn't apply in many cases. The artistic rules such as anatomy, proportion, lighting, rendering, colour theory, composition and style apply regardless. By all means draw, paint and design no-matter your level of experience or ability, but please re-consider attempting to profit from what you're doing if you've never encountered the rules above. On the flip side, there are some worthy designs listed also. Again, searching for the keywords "anime girl". And like I say, if you can't tell the difference between the 10 examples above and the 5 below, you shouldn't be looking to sell your artwork or designs on T-Shirts just yet. Level up your skills and come back when you have something of value to offer. And I'll just take this opportunity to make the point that I don't want to appear conceited about my own abilities. My work is by no means perfect but it's good enough to sell, and does.

[caption id="attachment_4181" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Colourful, nicely composed design. Seller: Retkikosmos[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4182" align="aligncenter" width="660"] This guy's a master of exaggerated proportion and anatomy. Seller: Rafchu [/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4183" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Art by yours truly: Seller: bomazu[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4184" align="aligncenter" width="660"] Looks good on a shirt and artist has a consistent style in their store. Seller: Freeminds[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_4185" align="aligncenter" width="660"] This is a cute sticker. Seller: Cayzi[/caption]

I guess ideally DBH expects you, the artist to direct customers to your unique DBH Store page and bypass the need to use their search engine? Personally, if I'm going to market my designs as well, I'd rather direct customers to my own website and have the designs printed myself, or use a drop-shipping service to do this on my behalf. I expect POD sites to direct traffic to my products if they're taking the lion's share of the profits.

What does DBH get right?

My intention isn't just to hunt down all the flaws with their platform and the site has some benefits over similar sites I've worked with:

No pay-out threshold: Some sites, such as Displate and Zazzle require you to earn $50 before they pay you YOUR money. DBH don't try to unfairly skim off the top from their designers and always pay monthly no matter how much you've earned.
Decent Support: I've contacted the staff on several occasions and they've always been helpful and try to resolve problems.
Quality T-shirts: I've bought a number of shirts from DBH in the past and the quality and fit has always been good.
Less Piracy: Some moderation takes place to limit the number of stolen, infringed designs being sold on their site. There's nothing worse than a huge free-for all POD site such as Red Bubble which is happy to allow art thieves to profit from re-posting art they pull from an internet image search. DBH still has too much of this, but not in such high numbers.
Measures to prevent art thieves: Unfortunately It's not uncommon for artists to upload their design to a POD site, for it to then be stolen/downloaded some time after by an immoral dick-head who re-posts it on another POD site without consent. Luckily DBH used low-res images in their store, making this harder to download and use elsewhere.

Final thoughts

DBH- a nice idea and company filled with lovely staff, I'm sure. It creates opportunities to make money which artists wouldn't otherwise have, but the experience of competing on the site can be frustrating and isn't something you'll ever get rich from. If it's not for the fact you're up against the selection of dominant 'popular designs' (which forever prevent new work getting noticed by ranking top of the search listings,) you're also having to deal with the site's many amateur designers and art thieves unfairly given a place at the table. I'll carry on supporting DBH and using their site, but can't give them a strong recommendation to other artists or designers. Making any money from them is too hit and miss.

For independent reviews of designs, shirt quality and POD sites themselves, Check out Teefetch. I stumbled across them recently and noticed the site had featured some favourable reviews on a couple of my own designs which was cool to see.

And feel free to click here if you want to check out the range of anime or tattoo inspired t-shirts and I have available on DBH which features artwork from yours truly. If you want to purchase one too, I'll greatly appreciate the $3 of royalty!

Now available to buy!

New anime inspired prints are listed in the site's shop including: Mokoto and friends from Ghost in the Shell, Tattooed Goku from Dragon Ball and Kitty anime girl - an original. See above image. 

Each print is individually signed and dated (with the year). I'm happy to add a name (e.g. To Tom) or sign the back rather than the front if you want to keep it tidy. Just add a note in the order box  at the check out stage. I'll do my best to accommodate each order :)

Limited Time Offer:

For now I'm keeping the prices at £11.99 (currently around $15.50 in US dollars) which I'm considering to be an introductory price, and they may rise to £14.99 in the future. These aren't mass produced or are big, bulk orders, so each time a sale comes in I need to manually pack the work and drive to the post office to get it shipped out. £14.99 is a reasonable price for art and print collectors to pay who can't get to me at the occasional comic con I attend each year here in the UK.

Further Discount:

If you'd like to purchase more than 1, I'm also running a short-time offer: 3 prints for for £24.99. Just mention the names of the prints you'd like (currently available in the store) when you get to the order checkout stage and I'll have them sent together. This is pretty much a buy 2 get 1 free offer, saving £10.98 along with reduced shipping cost if buying individually.

And speaking of shipping and postage costs, it's currently £3 to send a single print in the UK. £8 to the USA. I don't make any profit on shipping. If anything, a small loss but I know how annoying shipping costs can be so want to keep this as low as I can.

Thanks for your support, and I look forward to sharing more anime art prints in the future :)

Here's a cropped and grouped collection of some of my digital art. Some bits dating back to as early as 2001 and others I'd done over recent years. Kind of interesting to see the different styles I've played with over the decades and crazy to think how long I've been doing the whole art thing for. It seems pretty common for artists to look at their older artwork with shame and embarrassment, but while I might notice a few flaws and things I'd do little different now, to be honest, I still kinda like a lot of it. 

[gallery columns="1" size="large" ids="3695,3696,3697,3698,3699,3700,3701,3702,3703,3704"]