As I’ve stayed up WAY too late again trying to get stuff finished, instead of trying to hammer out a sensible article, I’m just going to list a few of the things I’m looking forward to most about this Christmas!
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Mei Wu - Book 1
18 comics.
And thus, book one of Mei Wu draws to a close! I hope you guys’ve had fun reading it, it’s definitely done me a heck of a lot of good to draw something a little bit different for a while. I’ve started illustrating the next Elf Blood arc already, and I can definitely feel the benefit of the changeup!
The next steps for Mei Wu are to provide additional artwork for the print version, and make a number of corrections to the artwork. However, as a thank you to you guys for letting me take this little detour, the next page will be an Elf Blood-exclusive Mei Wu extra! Normal Elf Blood service will resume after that!
Aloha, readers! Today’s blog post is a bit of a plug for a good friend of mine. If you’re interested in animal welfare, or if you want to find out more, check out my old school friend Jill’s blog! She recently received her doctorate following years of insanely hard work and study, and the added bonus is she’s a damn fine writer as well, so you’re guaranteed a good read whenever you check in!
Also, if you haven’t been reading it, do check out my own other blog, Slimblog, which has been going for a few weeks already. I’ve had a reasonable amount of success, albeit with a blip last week, and the most recent article concerns how to recover from such bumps in the road!
Hullo all, just a quick update today, as I’ve just gotten in from my work’s Employee Roadshow, and really should be in bed if I’m to have any chance of getting up on time in the morning.
Toodlepip for now!
M.
First off, I want to offer my condolences to those who have lost loved ones, and those who have been injured in Friday’s Clutha Vaults crash in Glasgow. I’d also like to offer my gratefulness to those who showed their courage and heart by helping in the rescue of those trapped in the pub. It’s a shock and a tragedy, to be sure; I don’t think anything quite like this has ever happened in Glasgwegian history. Certainly, not so far as I can remember. I wish all those affected a speedy recovery, and hope that we’ll never see anything like this again.
It’s been about a year since I went into therapy for depression and anxiety. It’s not a subject I approach delicately – I’d rather be honest about it, and through open discourse encourage others in my position to seek help where necessary!
I’d never sought help before last winter. In all honesty, I had been too afraid to do so; not a fear of being rejected, or being outcast from society, but afraid that I would be ‘wasting’ medical time. It was only through two very good friends of mine that I finally went to my GP to discuss my options, who assured me that I had done the right thing by going. I’m really grateful to all these people; Bob and Laura for not only supporting me, but for also having the fortitude to not treat me with kid gloves and encourage me to actually get up and go, and the doctor for not using drugs as her first resort.
So, recently I’ve been thinking about my non-comic art, and how to develop it further. I’m fairly proficient at landscapes, while my human representation could definitely use practice. What I’d REALLY like to do, though, is to turn my skills towards the fantastic. Rather than simply take the landscape and transfer it to medium (in my case, mostly ink-on-foamboard), what I want to do is exercise my imagination like I do in my comics.
However, I’d also like to work towards being able to sell off pieces. With landscape art, audience is relatively simple; Illustrate famous local landmarks or iconic scenes, market them to locals looking for recognisably local art or to souvenir-seeking tourists (neither of which, I should point out, I’ve actually done – save for the illustrations of Hong kong I gifted to my parents). While my skill level on these may be reasonable, it just doesn’t feel that these pieces really give a massive amount back to the (potential) buyer. Whereas, with a more fantastic subject, you can incorporate more in the way of story, or symbolism, or subtext. Or hell, just do something appealingly weird.
Aiyaa, it’s getting really cold here, now! Even my little fan heater’s struggling to heat up the flat. I can just about maintain a temperature of about 20 degrees centigrade, but beyond that I can only really achieve if I’m roasting something in the oven at the same time, or playing a graphically intensive game.
Which, I think points to the fact that I should eat more roasted food and play longer on Battlefield 4.
… Oh wait, I’m on a diet, and I’ve got an art schedule to stick to 😛
Bon anniversaire! Elf Blood was four years old, a few days ago!
Blimey, four years already. Hard to believe that it’s been a while since I was first scribbling stuff down in the common room at uni, instead of doing coursework! Which would… Which would explain rather a lot, actually.
I jest 😛 My artwork and my storytelling ability has advanced in leaps and bounds since then, and even as I look back on last year’s stories, I continue to improve on my theory and practice! Even though, on this year’s birthday, we’re telling a different story, I’m hard at work on the script for the next block of Elf Blood. I’m having a great time with Mei Wu, and it’s REALLY good to get a bit of a break from writing and drawing Elf Blood, but I’m itching to get back to it now, and to expanding its canon a bit! However, I am floating plans to separate each Elf Blood arc with the next book of Mei Wu, as it seems to have been reasonably well-received. I’ll probably ask about that again at the conclusion of this book, though!
Hola, tout le monde!
Just letting you know there maaaaaay be a slight chance of a skip on Monday – It’s unlikely, but it’s worth informing you just in case! Basically, I installed new memory into the machine, and it wasn’t starting up after a few tries at powering it on, but it seems to have sorted itself out after a proper cycle. I really must get myself a backup machine! Hmm, I wonder if a cheap laptop would be able to handle photoshop…
Anyways, don’t forget to check out Slimblog tomorrow morning! I must say, the response I’ve been getting from friends, colleagues and readers has been amazing, and it’s really given me the strength to power through this week’s diet! Your support is very welcome, and hopefully the articles I’ll be writing are worth reading! 😀
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