My new cartooning setup - iPads Rule!

It's been a while since my last post - much has happened.  I've been through a 25th anniversary, various domestic issues and a heavy workload, but finally, I am happy to report that I'm moving over to the dark side - yes chaps, I've started to go "Apple".

I bought my wife and I an iPad Air each recently, and I thought "How good would this thing be for cartooning?"  Well, after a few false starts, here is my current cartooning kit (minus the iPad)...

At the top is a Wacom Creative Stylus - this monster of a package is well made, pressure sensitive, and feels lovely in the hand - but it's crap.  The stylus feels lovely, but it's far too thick to see what you're doing, and that's really frustrating.  I got so annoyed, I started looking for another stylus - and found the GoSmart 300 Stylus (the little rocket ship thing bottom left!).  This has a tip that looks like a wire hoop...

This allows you to see what's under the tip - great for detail work, and the stylus is solid aluminium!  It may not be pressure sensitive, but so far, I'm not finding that a problem.

The final trial was which software to use on the iPad.  I was given lots of recommendations, and it's a good thing that most of these apps are cheap, because you can soon waste money - however, I did find an app that let me work the way I wanted to work - ladies and gentlemen, I give you Pen & Ink

Pen & Ink is essentialy a Moleskin journal & full art set in one neat package.  It has full layer support, variable size pages and runs really quickly, but I really love it's inking engine.  When I ink using a pen, I tend to ink the same way I sketch - small short lines, that make up one whole line.  Pen and ink feels like I'm really using my pen again - and I love it.  In fact, I did this picture the other day...

This is a quick piccie of Sir Samuel Vimes, from the Terry Pratchett "Discworld" series, but using Sam Neill (of Jurassic Park fame) as the base.  All done in Pen and Ink, with the GoSmart stylus.  Neat eh?

In summary, I really love this setup.  it's quick, easy and gives great results.  It might not work for everyone, but at the moment, it's working for me...

CCGB #255

Pon Farr Cat

Here is a little video I did for my Sons & Daughter-In-Law of their cat - Coco.  I was round there one day and My son started to play-fight with the cat, whilst humming the Vulcan "Pon Farr" fight scene music (we're all such nerds).  I thought it was great so I knocked this up - enjoy!

Well, here we are with another puppet update.  Our brown furry friend is coming along nicely....

 

As you can see, his red mouth has finally gone (much happier with it this time), and I used Fast-Tack fabric glue rather than spray adhesive, as it gave me a much longer working time.  On my next puppet though, I may glue the fabric to the mouth-plate first, and then glue the fabric from the head to the mouth, rather than stich it...

 

I also added ears, but I made them so small they ended up more as bumps on his head!  Never mind though, as I it gave me other ideas....

 

So anyhow, I've started on the hands and arms.  Here's a hand....

 

It's made from two pieces of foam, glued together.  Inside the foam is a wire armature that allows the hand to move, as well as a piece of plastic tube that will be used to connect the arm rods...

Arm Rod Hole!

Next came the fur outside, stitched using "muppet stitch".  Once I'd made one arm, I realised just how BIG the hands are!  On my next puppet, I'll make the hands much smaller...

 

Finger pointing!

The size of the hands and the length of the arms has given me an idea.  This puppet will be a drummer in a band, and my other puppets will be the other band members.  as this puppet is a drummer, I'm toying with the idea of him not having any eyes - maybe just heavy eyebrows.

Maybe they'll be a "cover" band.  It would certainly give me a platform to use my music skills!

CCGB #249

Pernicious Anaemia Cartoon....

CCGB #248

Puppet Update - the plot thickens....

Just thought I'd do a quick post to let you know where I am with the puppet...

It's in bits.

Actually, that's not entirely true.  I've restitched the left hand side, and I have the neck / head seams to do.  The biggest change however, is that I've ripped the mouth felt out!  Yup, I got sick of seeing that ridge, so I've pulled it all apart and I'm currently planning on putting a piece of black felt in, and using Hi-Tack glue as metioned before.

Extra bits I've just purchased include eyes, silicon tubing and wire - why they are required will become apparent in the fullness of time.....   :)

CCGB #243

Puppets - part 2...

Well, here is our next puppet update.  I mentioned yesterday that my stitching left a lot to be desired - well, here's proof...

 

This is at the top of the head, where 3 seams come together.   As you can see, the seems are very visible - not only that, but they're staring to give (yes, my stitching really was that bad :blush:).  In the next picture, you'll see the side seam

 

This is on the left side of the puppet - if you were to look closer, you'd see the same thing here, trust me.  So as I mectioned yesterday, I re-stitched the right body seam using the Puppet Stitch....

 

...And here's the result!  A much better look to the seam, and it's twice as strong.  The downside to this method is the time taken - puppet stitch takes forever to do (especially with fur) - but it's worth it!  So it's back to the puppet to do the remaining seams, and then the ears/eyes/nose comes next!

PUPPETS!

As some of you may know, I love the Muppets, and I've been promosing myself to build my very own.  Well, my first prototype will soon be with us.  My original plan was to base him on my "Frankie" character....

 

For those who've never seen him before, Frankie was my Frankenstein's Monster - a wise cracking hamster with a large brain, who featured in my short lived "It's Alive" comic...

 So a few weeks back,  I grabbed a pattern, some brown fur and upholstery foam, and started work - and here is the result....

 

This first view, shows the puppet face on.  As you can see, there are no eyes yet, just the body and mouth...

 

I learned quite a bit doing just this basic puppet.  The first mistake was the mouth - you'll notice there is a ridge of felt rising up - that's because I used spray glue - great stuff, but far too strong and quick setting.  Next time, I'll use hi-tack fabric glue - gives me a bit of setting time and doesn't give me headaches (the fumes of the spray glue nearly blew my head off)...

The second mistake was the stitching.  Not only did I do it too loosely, but the stitch I used allowed the fabric to pull apart.  Later on tonight, I'll start re-stitching it using the puppet stitch...

 

The good news is that the little guy has a LOT of character!  Once I've restitched him, I'll be looking at his eyes, ears, nose and teeth next

 

 

The really interesting thing is... strange.  I put the puppet on, and it's really wierd, but he started to develop a character right there - and it wasn't Frankie.  This guy comes across as cool-smart, rather than sassy.  He may not even BE Frankie!  I won't know until he's further along.

CCGB #242

CCGB #241

Cultpens - Artist of the month!

My favorite online pen store has always been Cultpens, because they make a point of stocking all manner of weird, wonderful and hard to get items.  Well, this month, I'm their featured Artist of the Month, and I'm very excited!  As part of the honour, I designed their banner for this months blog...

 

It's made using my preferred CultPens products - Paper Mate Flairs (Nylon and Fine) and Koh-I-Noor polycolor pencils, and features a super hero pencil!  I could have done something a little more digital, but I wanted to show how good their products really are.  They seemed to like it!

While I'm at it, here's a caricature of UKIP's Nigel Farage...

See you soon everyone!

CCGB #238

  

The caption this week is silent - the theme: "BLIND DATE" ... ;)

February already?

Wow - been really busy this last month.  I've decided to give caricaturing another try - here are two of my latest.  The first is Nathan Fillion as Malcolm Reynolds from "Firefly"...

The second is the latest subject of the CCGB caricature competition - Olivia Colman...

I'm quite happy with both of them!  I've used Xara to colour in my pencil drawing, and it seems to work quite well, but I've got a loooonnnnggg way to go before I consider myself a cariacturist!

Merry Xmas to you all!

It's been a while since I last posted, but things have been very busy at "Chez Raven".  I've had quite a few commisions, been given a FREE upgrade to Xara Designer Pro X9 (thanks Xara!), and I've discovered a new colouring technique, using colour pencils with Zest-It pencil blend (the xmas card above is a good example).  I've moved to using Paper Mate Flairs (Ultra & Nylon) with Koh-I-Noor Polycolor pencils, and I'm really loving the "painterly" effect it gives...

The change in technique has sparked a few other changes too.  I want to do more animation in 2014, so my lovely wife has obtained MotionArtist for me, so I can animate my drawings (I do own Anime Studio, but I think MotionArtist will sit in my workflow better).  Tying in with that is the ambition to do more musical compositions to tie in with the animation, so we'll see how that goes.  My main change however, is in focus - I think this new style lends itself to childrens illustration work, so I'm going to combine everything and do some sort of crossover project - I'm not sure of the details yet, but I'll work them out over Xmas.

One last thing - I've got some fab news that I can't share yet, but hopefully I'll be able to let you know after Xmas - here's a teaser...

I think 2014 could be a VERY good year for me - keep your fingers crossed everyone!

CCGB # 225

CCGB #223

CCGB #220