From time to time I like to tidy up my portfolio

Never an easy task to decide which works stay and which ones go. There's usually at least one thing I like about every image I create. Or one thing that demonstrates a different skill or technique I'm capable of. Originally my portfolio on this site was only ever going to be around a dozen pieces, but my gallery layout allows for more without looking over the top, so decided to populate it with some extra works.

Bye Bye Ninja Girl

I've decided to remove this ninja girl commission I did back in 2013. I don't hate it, but the anatomy and colour use some improvement. It's a little basic compared to some of the more recent stuff I've been doing. I'll miss the bold red background and the flower boarder. Maybe I'll use those elements in a new piece some time?

Hello Harley

I'm replacing ninja girl with the Harley Quin Fan art I did this year in Markers and Ink. I've since sold the original to a customer in France.

Also a more monochromatic Skull/Wolf/Girl image I created for chrome/mirror prints (which can be ordered in the Shop) This one was created in Photoshop CC with my Wacom Cintiq tablet. That now makes 31 portfolio pieces.

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I spent the weekend adding two new projects to Benkrefta.com's Projects page. The Artist's Guide to Drawing Manga, which is my new tutorial book due out in two or three weeks time, as well as my G7 Leaders character art - promotional illustration I worked on for Save the Children. Like all the projects on the site, they're more or less quick overviews or case studies of some of the client work I've completed over my artistic career which I hope visitors will find interesting :)

Both of these took way longer than I expected. Some days consisting of 16+ hour stretches at the computer to get things done before deadline or sleeping over at the studio, so it's a relief to have them all done and dusted. Here's one of the G7 illustrations I produced and given a black and white manga screen-tone overlay:

My old site Organic Metal- moved it to a new server today and half of it needed updating as the code was so out of date...

It is nearly 15 years young now, with the latest web design being around 10 years old. I still like it, but the internet has changed- people want relevant content and quicker. Most people aren't looking to read through 100s of pages of content on a single person. Especially now that nearly everyone who draws, paints and designs has some kinda web presence, be it on their own personalized sites, or through social media platforms.

I'm still planning to keep it up and running in the background for now as a testament to the 100s of hours and many months I'd spent creating then tinkering with it :)

During the start of the year I was asked to give 1-1 tuition to a talented 11 year old girl interested in bettering her anime and manga drawing skills. Although being more used to older students working solely with digital media, it worked out well. The tuition consisted of setting small projects, demonstrating, drawing together or sometimes just overseeing with the lessons shifting more towards digital as the weeks went on. Here's a compilation of some of the sketches I'd worked on during our process:
Drawing heads, discussing shading, coloured pencils, inking.

Hands, time limit life drawing from manikins, chibi!

Constructing figures, Posemaniacs time limit reference drawing and adaptation.

Time limit Backgrounds using reference.

Photoshop original character drawing using Intuos Pen & Touch. Student used Intuos Pro & a Cintiq 22HD. Who's Jimmy Jonh?