Sebastian Chow

Yesterday I attended the second ever life drawing session at the Orbital Comics Shop. I've been waiting for something like this to be organised and had missed it the first time round. It was a great opportunity to draw with artists interested in comic book illustration. Many artists attended with us all crowding around the main table.

Des Taylor lead the class providing helpful tips into his own process. Des follows a similar style to Bruce Timm, using minimum brush strokes to get maximum detail on the page. Typically he tries to get as much information down on the page quickly to provide a rough form. Then he refines the picture and finally adds detail before inking and colouring.

The sessions were split into 15 to 20 minute drawing stints with two great models posing for the class. Nina Hearne and April Banbury provided many interesting poses and did a great job holding form despite getting numb limbs from the poses. There were many great artists who attended and it was refreshing to see a variety of styles, particularly from a group of tattoo artists who came along.

This was really my first life drawing class and I learnt a lot from it. Firstly I draw way too slow... like really really slow. I've always known this but the class really highlighted it. Getting as much of the drawing down on the paper in rough form not only helps with the flow of the drawing but really helps to improve eye-hand co ordination. As I continued, anatomy weaknesses started to come through particularly when drawing hands and feet. I also realised half way through the class that I was trying to draw in a traditional art style when really I was interested in comic book illustration. When I applied my usual comic style I produced a piece I was fairly happy with and even got it signed by Nina Hearne when the class finished.

I really do hope there are more of these classes, they are very useful and above all great fun.

Check out the pics below (click to enlarge) as well as one of the sketches I did (there was only one sketch that I felt good enough to post).

These books are great for sketching in. The paper quality is really smooth and works well with brushes. This one was a gift from some old colleagues and I thought its time I put it to good use.

These are just some random doodles. I had an passing idea for different t-shirt designs based on the theme "Astro-Zoo". Each t-shirt design would be an animal in different Astronaut garb, although don't ask me what the monkey below is wearing on his head... antenna?

LSCC 2013 saw a marked improvement on last years event with a better layout of tables, more creators attending and more exhibitions and stands set up.

Many cosplayers turned up with some impressive costumes, many of which have found their way to YouTube. Personal favourites included the Tim Burton Batman costume.

Highlights of the event were some of the panels scheduled. David Finch, Neal Adams, Brian Bolland and Gary Franks sat on the panel for "Batman through the Ages" which started out with Neal Adams sharing his singing voice. Many great questions were asked including whether Robin's character added or detracted to the Caped Crusade, to which the general consensus was that Robin should have stayed in the circus.

I managed to get a quick portfolio review with Zenescope's Anthony Spay. I had a very limited portfolio to share but it was good to get some feedback from working professionals in the business. Portfolios should consist of a variety of sequential pages displaying different scenarios, characters etc. Anthony confirmed much of what I thought were my weaknesses (some anatomy issues, background, stiffness on final pages and a lack of content).

I managed to get some interviews with different creators including Grant Perkins who delivered a great sketch of Spiderman (to be posted on the blog soon) as well as David Finch who had queues of fans waiting to get books signed and con sketches completed.

Below is the interview of David Finch who was super nice despite having fans around him constantly and having a long list of sketches to complete in a short time. Check out the interview with David below (note the work that David will be doing with Comic Experience soon in the future).

Cons are a great source of inspiration especially when try to get your stories off the page and into production of some kind. Many teams/creators have achieved this and it's always good to discuss how different creators have overcome some of the obstacles of the creative process.

Onward with my creator owned story Clandestine!

Here are some general photos of the event including some of the cosplayers. Enjoy!

I have just changed jobs and inherently moved to a new office. Check out the front door of the office below to see why I was ecstatic when I found out its location.

Note: The front door of the office is the black door next to Orbital.

This November sees the start of the yearly 30 characters challenge: to create 30 characters in 30 days. Creators are encouraged to produce one new character for each day in November. Writers and artists alike are invited to participate.

Last year I registered but didn't take part. This year I improved by attempting to take part. I have created one new character: The Cleanin' Munster. This guy comes out at night to clean your mess, a bit like a cross between the boogeyman and Mr. Muscle.

I doubt I'll find time to create anymore but check out the link below to see some of the creations that people have come up with.


http://www.30characters.com/

I recently discovered that the original self published story Drones, is being stocked in Orbital Comics in Great Newport St, central London.I had the chance to meet the writer, Chris Lewis, at Kapow Comic Con earlier this year (check the picks in the Kapow post).

The copy I picked up at Kapow was a black and white first print. Soon after Chris and his team worked on producing a colour version which is being stocked at Orbital Comics. Issues 2 is already out and issue 3 is almost finished.

Drones is also being released digitally through Graphicly, DrivThru and ibooks.
Chris will be one to watch as Drones has already received great reviews. Keep updated with Drones news and other works from Chris Lewis by visiting the Epigamics site (Chris' own imprint). Check out the link below.

http://epigamics.com

Drones:
Stinger and Angel Eyes are Predator drone operators: high tech soldiers who hunt Taliban insurgents by operating remote-control aircraft from the safety of a base outside of Las Vegas, Nevada. It’s a surreal job next to the strangest city on Earth. But after a failed mission, the war hits home, in a bizarre journey that will take them from a terrorism-themed hotel to a drone-filled sky over the Strip.

London Super Comic Con has been announced and it is due to take place on 23rd & 24th Feb 2013. There is a fantastic list of artists and writers including David Finch, Gabriele Dell’Otto, J Scott Campbell, Bill Sienkewicz, Simone Bianchi, George Pérez.

Last was the first LSCC and was made memorable by a visit from Stan Lee. Some complained at the lack of organisation and the problems with early queuing but hopefully 2013's event will improve upon some of the issues encountered.



http://www.londonsupercomicconvention.com/

I went to a car boot sale (first in a very long time) where I saw lots of vintage and retro gear.
My only purchase of the day was an old Super 8 camera.

As soon as I saw it it reminded me of the JJ Abrams film of the same name.
The film itself was good but I really enjoyed the DVD extras that looked at the inspiration behind the film.
It was really interesting and also mentioned JJ's first run in with Steven Spielberg.

I'm not in to film making but for £2 this was a bargin. I stuck in some batteries and it seems to work although some of the buttons are either stuck or broken, but it looks great in my drawing corner.

A colleague at work (thanks Bec!) had kindly sent me the details for a presentation and workshop in Brick Lane that centered on making comics.

It was hosted by IXDA and took place at the LBI centre in Brick Lane.
Presentations were give by Matthew Sheret (who has edited the Paper Scient Anthology) and Sam Smith who is a “Senior Interaction Designer” at RMA by day and comic enthusiast by night.

Matt talked about his experience in collaborating with artists on stories and what processes are helpful in working togeher successfully. He also touched on a few points from Scott Mccloud's books which I have recently read and have found very useful.

Sam talked about thre relationship between scripts and sequential art and examined some examples from Neil Gaiman. After this presentation we organised ourselves into teams and were tasked with creating script and art for a simple advert slash story. It was for "Origami Clothes", an app where users can select different clothing and print out patterns that can be folded into clothing.

Our team split into smaller groups to work on different parts of the story.
Below are some snaps of our efforts. A fun evening with a practical workshop, good fun!



 Below is a post from Matt's bloggs with some of the notes he used in his presentation.

http://matthewsheret.com/2012/08/22/six-pages-and-process/

Tried my hand and a watercolour picture. This was along the beach, but didn't actually draw the beach.

Somehow I was drawn to the bin and palm tree...

I recently attempted to letter a page I had pencilled, inked and shaded.
But something didn't look quite right.

If you ever need tips on lettering, head over to http://www.blambot.com/ headed up by the great Nate Piekos. He also has a blog with some great tips, http://blambot.blogspot.co.uk/.

After reading some of his tips I revisited the page and now I'm alot happier with it.

Here are some pics from the recent Kapow convention and the Business Design Centre.
It was great fun and the best convention I've been to yet.

I met some great creators and as well as some comic book ledgends (Joe Quesada).
I also met independant comic book writer Chris Lewis. He was super kool in sharing some of his process in making his book "Drones". Head over to http://epigamics.com/ to check it out!