Archive for ‘Blog’
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Draw Something Pics and a follow up on the NZ Breakers
April 29th, 2012 |Posted In: Blog, Uncategorized
While I’m working on this next comic, I thought I would get some more of my Draw Something pics up for a laugh. Sometimes it is fun to go off on a tangent, or do a quick sketch in that game. Often times you can be struggling with a comic, and Draw Something can be a nice way of trying to loosen yourself up. Although I think at this stage I’m currently behind on most of the games I am running again. Doh!
Here are some of the ones I came up with:
It now occurs to me, if I wanted to be more obscure, I could have drawn Nick Fury – who is an Agent of SHIELD. This one I think was a bit more obvious though.
Oh and just as a follow up to my mention of the NZ Breakers vs the Perth Wildcats in the grand final. My team, the NZ Breakers won the championship in front of a sold out home crowd in Auckland. It took all three games to get there, but it was glorious. Back to back. Can they make it a three-peat? I certainly hope so. I’ve been following this team since they began, and there were some very hard years in the lead up to this. It’s so awesome to not just see them win the Championship, but to win it back to back. Man, it makes the road worth traveling. Good work, NZ Breakers!
NBA Playoffs has now begun, so it’s exciting that I can watch even more playoff Basketball.
As always, thanks for reading!
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Draw Something and Basketball – it’s all happening!
April 13th, 2012 |Posted In: Blog, Uncategorized
The comic is still under way. I got started on it late due to a very busy Easter weekend. The glorious weather that weekend kept me out and about with various activities, so it was a late start to drawing this weeks page. It has been started. I’m just getting into the inks. I’ll get it completed over the weekend and up early next week. Hopefully I can get a start on the next page this weekend as well.
Meanwhile, I thought I would post up some Draw Something pictures I got a little carried away on. I’m sure by now everyone knows what Draw Something is, right? If you don’t – it’s basically a Pictionary type of game for mobile phones. The cool feature about the game is you can actually watch someone drawing in real time – though I’m sure this is horrible for all my opponents, as sometimes I take too long and they might still be waiting to guess what it is. Either way, it is fun, and I sometimes use it as a way of just drawing something fun that I would not think to draw – outside of my own comics. If you have access to a phone that is capable of playing the game, it’s a fun game to play against friends.
At the moment I’m right into my Basketball. The NBA has a reduced season thanks to labour negotiations – and while the season started late the same amount of games are being played in a shorter amount of time. It means as a spectator its been fun to watch games essentially every day, with teams turning out for a game over couple of days.
On top of that, The NZ Breakers are in with a good chance for back to back finals in the Australian Basketball League. They won it all last year, and last night I was able to witness them win the first game in a Grand Final series for this season. It’s win two games to claim the championship. They’re playing against the Perth Wildcats, so now they have to back up their first victory and fly to Perth to try and win the championship over there. If that doesn’t work it all comes down to a big game three here in Auckland. Either way, it will be awesome.
Fun times!
Thanks for reading,
Marc
I had some extra down time this week. I decided to use it, by doing some extra drawing. Been playing a lot of games on Draw Something this week. It’s ridiculous, but fun. Hopefully it doesn’t become all consuming though. I have like seven games going, and it could get a little demanding. Ha ha!
Good practice aside, I had enough time to draw another piece in Sketchbook Pro for the iPad. I’m loving this app. It’s great. I can only imagine what results might be achievable on the newly announced third generation iPad with the Retina Display. Looks like you have to sacrifice some layers for the extra pixels, but that’s just a work flow thing you’d have to get used to. It’d probably be worth the trade off for the extra pixel density.
Anyway, I present to you Adam, and a pizza. Yep, I felt like Pizza when I started drawing it. The night I finished, I had Pizza for dinner. Thus the circle was complete.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
Still playing with Sketchbook Pro for the iPad. It’s a pretty amazing app. I mean the amount of versatility you get out of it, versus the cost of the app, talk about value! This app can do so much. It was certainly worth the investment. If you like to mess around with digital art, and you own an iPad, I can’t recommend it enough.
Get yourself a really good stylus to draw with though. I’m using the Cosmonaut, by Studio Neat. It’s definitely the best one I have tried. Some are a little touch and go, but this one is just a really good option, for writing or drawing. They’re affordable too.
Hey, two years ago today I started posting comics online! Nice.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
The Big Day Out Auckland always arrives on the Friday of the 3rd week of January. It’s a date I look forward to in my calendar every year. Just a day in the sun watching bands – some old favourites and hopefully making some new discoveries as well.
This year leading into the week was the news that this would be the last time I’d be able to look forward to the festival in Auckland. Due to the lack of support this year, Auckland will be left out of the festival tour henceforth. Very sad news indeed, but completely fair. If New Zealanders can’t make the show viable, then there isn’t much point in putting on a show that can’t cover it’s own costs.
The show was dramatically re-aligned this year. Less stages, no Boiler Room tent at Mt Smart, and only one main stage. I wasn’t sure how this would play out over the course of the day, but I was optimistic that the streamlined approach might be a good thing for the show.
Sure enough it was definitely the least attended Big Day Out I’ve ever been to. It hardly came to a point where it felt like the volumes of people were even close to that of previous years. This was bittersweet. On the one hand, it’s total shit because it means hardly anyone there for the artists to play for. Not to mention this is exactly the reason why the show won’t be continuing on in Auckland. On the other side of the coin though, all the annoyances that usually exist with a festival environment weren’t at all present this year.
It was easy to get around. Queues were manageable. The lack of volume on the mobile networks meant it was easy to communicate. It made for a very pleasant day. Those of us attending the show were making the most of the reduced capacity.
Onto the music!
Cage the Elephant were the first band we saw. Their enthusiasm was great. I haven’t heard too much of their stuff, so I’m going to check out more for sure.
Das Racist were having fun during their Boiler Room set. The AV visuals they brought with them were pretty damn hilarious. With mash-ups of television intros from 90′s X-Men cartoons and Law and Order, through to Kindergarten Cop and Bart Simpson. Awesome stuff.
We snuck away early to catch Wellington’s Beastwars playing the Skate stage. I’m glad we did, as they played an impressive live show. I’ve been playing their album for a while now, so it was good to catch them live, finally.
Right after on the main stage the Cavalera Conspiracy came on to rip through some metal numbers. They were tight and heavy as shit. It was pretty fantastic. They played some old school Sepultura songs and that really got the mosh pit going. These guys were the welcome surprise of the day. Blisteringly awesome.
Time for another wander around the festival, which allowed us to take in some Best Coast. I had time to give them because they had a video with kittens in it. I guess you could shelve them under inoffensive sunny pop music.
Then we went to the Boiler Room again (weird calling it that seeing as there was no super top tent any more and it was just an open stage like the other stages. Where was the room?). We caught Battles, whom we had high expectations for, but found completely boring. It just wasn’t working for me. Maybe after that Cavalera Conspiracy set I was critiquing a little differently? Who knows? Other people there seemed to be enjoying though, so it wasn’t a complete loss.
Resting our feet in the late afternoon seemed necessary. The crowd had gotten larger from earlier in the day, and that was a good sign that there might be a respectable crowd once we had reached the finale of the show with the headliners.
Eventually we made our way down to the main stage and position ourselves in to see Kasabian and Soundgarden. We were in pretty close, which generally means you can expect some aggression from folks who also want a good vantage point at the front and will do some pretty awful things to get there. I have to say, I was surprised that all the bad behavior in our immediate area came from women this year. They weren’t just being annoying either, some were outright bitches. As always, I burrowed in tighter when people tried to challenge me for my spot. It’s a simple rule. First in first serve. Nothing else matters.
Kasabian were fun, and worthy of their spot on the main stage.
However Soundgarden was who we came for. I’ve been a fan for a long time and never seen them, so I was pretty excited for them. They didn’t disappoint. The band was very tight, Chris’ vocals were sharp. It was just a great performance. Loved it. They dedicated a song to Christchurch as well, so extra brownie points for the consideration there too.
Awesome day out. Sad to see an old friend go, but a lot of great memories, this year included. I put together a small collection of photos and some short video clips as a Big Day Out retrospective Set on my Flickr. If you want to go check that out, you can do so here.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
I started this sketch on the flight back from Christchurch on Sunday. I eventually finished it a couple of days ago on my lunch break at work. Kinda cool to be able to bust out a colour sketch without having to carry a series of markers around with you.
I’m still playing with the whole drawing on the iPad deal, but I am getting more comfortable with the Sketchbook Pro app. The main thing that gets me is the couple of steps it takes to switch your drawing tools out, or to change a color or something of that nature.
With a little more patience and practice though I’m confident that I’ll get used to this way of working. Who knows, maybe after I get used to the process, I’ll be able to make some comics on it? That’d be pretty neat. Digital drawing is pretty great.
Thanks for reading,
Marc
A couple of weekends ago I was lucky enough to have briefly met Jeph Jacques of Questionable Content (QC) at a fan meet up he had arranged in Auckland. It was fortunate for me, and the other fans at the meet up, that Jeph and his wife had decided on New Zealand to spend their vacation.
If you haven’t heard of QC, then you are missing out! It’s a great comic. This was evidenced by the turnout in the middle of a park in the city centre on a very miserable rainy day. The meet up tweet was sent out the day before, which was gloriously sunny, however the summer here has been horrible this year, so that eventually turned into the rain we were expecting. About half an hour beforehand, Jeph sends out another tweet confirming the meet up is still on, and that we’d be taking shelter in the old band rotunda in the park.
I was hanging out with my brother that day. We arrived at the location of the meet up about 10 minutes before 3pm. There are already twenty or so people hanging out inside the band rotunda. The Rotunda has perimeter seating, and everyone is slowly starting to fill in. We are all there for the same reason, to meet someone who makes an awesome comic. This doesn’t make things less awkward though, as while we all share an interest in the comic, everyone is keeping to themselves. What you end up with is a bunch of strangers turning up, not talking to each other, and seating themselves inside a band rotunda, in the middle of a public park, on a wet Auckland afternoon.
Two homeless residents of the Rotunda, who had obviously claimed the spot as a quiet shelter area from the rain were starting to get weirded out by a bunch of folk quietly entering their dry space. One of them, on a foam mattress in the middle of the Rotunda starts to get a bit self aware, and eventually stores his mattress under one of the bench seats. It doesn’t take too long before his friend seats himself next to me to make small talk.
“Hey man, uhhh, what’s going on?” was the lead in question.
I tried explaining as best as I could why we were all there (with more people filling in as we were talking) and I also apologised for us all, intruding on their spot. Deciding that it might be best that they find another quiet area, the two homeless guys eventually take their leave.
Soon after Jeph and his wife Cristi arrive, and greet everybody. Jeph breaks the ice by breaking out his sketch pad, and drawing some sketches for people. At this stage there is about 50 people at the meet up. People eventually mingle and get talking before they have a chance to talk to Jeph himself. It was a nice relaxed atmosphere and fun.
Jeph himself was a really nice dude, he comfortably chatted with everyone, and drew a picture for them. I got a nice sketch of one of the newer characters of his comic – Padma. In return I gave him one of my comics to read. He was gracious enough to pose for photos if people wanted them too.
All in all, a really fun meet up. It was good of Jeph and Cristi to make time for everyone while on their own vacation time. Incredibly generous. Thanks so much. I believe another meet up is happening today in Sydney. If you’re a reader of the comic, I encourage you to go say hi.
Marc
Hey, 2012! Can you believe it?
Kinda cool to be starting a new year. It wouldn’t take too much to top last year on the good side of things. Let’s face it, last year was a rough one. I have high hopes for 2012 though, so as long as the world truly doesn’t end, I think we’re in for a good one!
Meanwhile here is a drawing I made on an iPad. It took a little while, as I was learning the drawing programme I was working in, but it was fun. Hopefully I can get some more sketches going soon.
Hope to get the comics going again, soon!
The other night I drew Anthony Clark’s character Beartato for fun. He’s such a cool little guy, I put a hat on him…backwards! That’s rebelious.
Beartato appears regularly with his friends over on Anthony’s website Nedroid. If you’re a fan of laughter, or comics, or even better the two combined, you owe it to yourself to go enjoy.
Then after, maybe spoil yourself with an ice cream too, might as well be indulgent, right?
The rest of our holiday in the USA was spent in New York City. A life long dream for my wife. It would be my second trip to the Big Apple, the last time I was there was in July 2003. I was expecting a lot of change. Actually no sooner had I left during the ’03 visit and the city was shut down by a power outage. It looked horrible, so I’m glad I missed it. Having experienced the New York summer, I had planned our trip late September/early October to try and avoid the uncomfortable humidity, and maybe get some more reasonable autumnal weather.
After the six hour flight however, we soon found out NYC was still having a late burst of summer, and we’d be in for some humidity. Just my luck. Oh well, you get what you’re given. Why did I pack my hoodie though? Heh.
The hotel I booked proved to be in a very handy Midtown location, with two different access points to different subway lines easily accessible on the opposing end of the block from each other. Between the two stops, we could basically cover almost everything we wanted to see. The thing I love most about New York is the fact that it is a very pedestrian friendly city. There are people everywhere, and they’re all walking. I mean, sure, there is traffic, and the city is well covered with buses and the trains too, but eventually you’re gonna have to hit the pavement, and look around for yourself. It’s still the best way to experience the city. No open air buses for me.
There is always something going on in the city. The day we arrived was the first day of the Occupy Wall St movement which is now spreading right around the world. Radiohead were putting on a couple of concerts. There were events I would have liked to attend on either side of the week that we stayed. New York Comic Con was the week after we left (how could I have missed that when I was booking the tickets?). It didn’t really matter. Just like the weather we were going to get what we were given, and there was still plenty to see and do.
Mandatory tourist trap activities were planned in advance. We got them out of the way early so the rest of our time could be spent doing stuff with friends, and just chilling out in the city.
Our friends took us out for a whole day. We started at the High Line and then made our way through the Meatpacking district. We reconvened in the evening for a fun night out in Brooklyn. It was great, so big thanks to them for giving up some of their precious time to show us some fun in their city.
There were too many cool things to mention. My wife took a few hundred photos of Squirrels in Central Park. That was pretty amusing. Cute little bastards. As always, the city leaves a big impression, and you do want to go back and do it again immediately after you’ve left. The flights getting there though…they are brutal. I’m so happy we had some down time in LA before we flew out to the East Coast.
More photos from the trip can be found here.
It was fun! Comics resume next week. Thanks for your patience everyone!
Marc