July 28, 2011 // 4:55 pm
From the United States! It was a fantastic month, and I had a great time seeing some cool places, meeting new people and catching up with friends. I also got engaged, which I’d describe as the high point of my trip (which was itself fairly full of high points to begin with)!
In other news, I fixed the blog — again — as apparently none of the recent posts were displaying to anyone but me, for some reason. Since I’m usually logged in when visiting my own blog anyway, it wasn’t drawn to my attention until the other day.
More (and more interesting) news to follow in the coming week! For now though, time for me to get back to work :)
// 4:40 pm
Here’s something I did last year for some friends of mine; they needed an invitation made up for a baby shower and wanted something a little different, so they asked if I could do something with Totoro and pals from the (fantastic) Studio Ghibli movie My Neighbor Totoro. This was a lot of fun to do, even though it was fairly simple, and apparently Travis & Jessica were very happy with it too!
(I actually finally got to meet their kid a few weeks back, and she is just adorable!)
June 10, 2011 // 2:46 pm
Currently working on a new set of comic strips for As You’re Up, along with a new site to upload them to. It feels like forever since I’ve drawn and inked anything completely traditionally (having been working mainly in digital these past few weeks), and I was a little fearful that I’d be somewhat rusty at it!
I’m actually liking how they’re coming along so far though!
My Tumblr
May 15, 2011 // 12:11 pm
Some more work done for Touchstones Marketing/Rainbow Seeker: a set of vector icon designs in a Celtic style, and utilising Celtic Knot techniques. Certain aspects of some of them became fairly frustrating to work out (for example creating the form of the Salmon without letting the lines get either too clutterd or drifting too far apart), but once I got the kinks worked out it became a good exercise in alternate styles; certainly an educational experience!
More designs after the jump
(Read On…)
April 30, 2011 // 12:36 pm
Click to see animated!
More Portal 2 art! Animated pixel piece of Chell and Wheatley this time, kinda inspired by oktotally’s kickass stuff.
As far as I’m aware, this is my first attempt at pixel animation (or pixel art at all for that matter), kinda happy with how it turned out!
My Tumblr
April 29, 2011 // 6:24 pm
So I drew Chell from Portal 2 during a sketch warmup, and then got a little carried away with it. (Click to embiggen)
Posted this up on my new Tumblr, where I’ll hopefully be uploading some extra stuff from time to time, on a more casual basis!
April 10, 2011 // 10:25 pm
Touchstones Marketing asked me to design and illustrate a series of character pieces for use in a presentation for The Rainbow Seeker; these needed to communicate the overall message of each slide, whilst at the same time fitting in and around the main content, and corresponding to the individual slides’ colour schemes (each one representing a different colour of the rainbow).
More images after the jump!
(Read On…)
April 2, 2011 // 1:10 pm
I was recently approached by Joel from Anchor End Studios to create a logo and business cards for the design & printing company.
Everything was designed with a semi-grungy, but still appealing aesthetic, in a “stamped-on” style to suggest a hand-made and original feel. This is taken further in the business cards, where the ‘oceans’ beneath the anchors were made by using ink with cloths and fabrics (to further emphasize the studio’s clothing & screenprinting services) to create an interesting texture.
Again, another fun project to work on, and a really nice person to work with!
December 25, 2010 // 10:17 pm
Every year I do some silly Christmassy illustrations in the cards I send out — I only managed to scan a couple in before sending them all out, but figured I’d upload those anyway! I think it’s clear that I have the spirit of Christmas down in these cards:
I hope everybody has had/is having a wonderful holiday, whatever you celebrate, if you celebrate at all! And if you don’t, then have an awesome weekend!
November 30, 2010 // 12:27 am
Last week, whilst trying to draw the Harry Potter comic, I could not stop sneezing. So since I couldn’t really concentrate on drawing, I decided to just work through it with a speedpainting; this guy turned out to be a bit of a therapist in that respect! (I’m considering forcing myself to do at least one of these per week, depending on how much free time I have; you can subscribe to the RSS feed if you want to stay updated, as I’ll be uploading them on this blog as they come!)
Took about 2-3 hrs total, though a fair part of that was spent sneezing >w<
November 2, 2010 // 2:00 pm
A short while back I was able to watch the Star Wars movies again, all the way from I through to VI. Both trilogies were very different, in the way they were put together and executed, and it was interesting to take a retrospective glance at those differences in production. That retrospective glance led to this comic, which in turn led to the following post, which gets kinda nerdy/ranty — consider yourself warned!
(Read On…)
September 7, 2010 // 9:44 pm
This week’s comic is online!
Every once in a while I’ll realize that something — be it the strange way that anthropomorphic chair sat opposite me on the train made of toothpicks is looking at me, or the fact I seem to be walking up the sides of buildings a lot more efficiently than I usually do — isn’t quite right with the world.
I’ll then come to realize too that the reason for this is primarily that the world in question exists entirely in my own head.
And then someone will say something to nudge me back into whatever strange story my mind has concocted, the same way a character in a poorly written play might attempt to distract an audience from their growing disinterest by reminding them that there is presumably a worthwhile plot line forthcoming — and find myself drawn in again, every time!
I’m just a sucker for narrative.
September 1, 2010 // 12:33 am
The latest As You’re Up strip is live!
Had a lot of fun making things a little more Hanna-Barbera-ish — it was a little tricky getting the balance of styles right, without letting one really overshadow the other… but I’m happy with how it turned out!
August 30, 2010 // 7:59 pm
Front book cover design for PR 4.0, a guide to utilizing social media to help optimize business publicity, by Edrea Davis. Currently scheduled for release in September 2011.
The links of the chain were intended to represent social connectivity and interaction, while the focal blue link conveys the notion of still standing out in the crowd.
I also chose to use the visual of a chain to communicate this, as it symbolizes both strength and reliability, as well as being evocative of hyperlinks used on the web.
Client feedback:
“Chis is very professional and creative. I had developed a concept that he captured very well. However, he is so creative, he was able to come up with a better concept that I love. I have worked in the media for over 20 years and can say from experience that Chris is uniquely talented.”
