Saturday, January 23, 2016

Welcome to my new blog!



My last blog was underutilized over the years, especially when I was working in the games industry. In this new blog, I hope to post more content and be more active than I have previously been. Theres a lot of things happening in my studio and I've not shared any of it with anyone. It's a bit of a shame. Let's change that here.

NOTE: All Archive posts that follow are old posts from my previous blog, should anyone be interested in going back over some of the things I've been doing.

ARCHIVE POST: The DEEP animated TV series trailer


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
01-12-2015


Very proud to have been involved in this. Especially happy to see that my 'The DEEP' Logotype made it to screen as is. Season 1 has 26 episodes for you to enjoy. Check www.gestaltcomics.com for more info on the series. So damned cool. Congrats to Tom and James and everyone involved.


ARCHIVE POST: Wastelander Panda


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
10-08-2015

Unofficial Wastelander Panda art;

ARCHIVE POST: Wastelander Panda book


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
29-06-2015


The Wastelander Panda DVD release includes a 100 something page comic book (by Victoria Cocks, adapted by Wolfgang Bylsma) which I Illustrated With cover art by Justin Randall;

ARCHIVE POST: Happy New Year


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
31-12-2014

2014 was a strange year for me. Here's hoping that 2015 has more awesome in it.

ARCHIVE POST: Seasons Greetings!

*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
25-12-2014


Happy Holidays all. See you in the New Year!

ARCHIVE POST: Glen Vilppu visits Tokyo


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
25-08-2014

Last week I was lucky enough to spend two days with a real Master of Masters, Glenn Vilppu teaches professionals at Disney and Dreamworks amongst other places. He set down a set of 'tools' we can use (in what he calls the software of the mind) to draw figures in the manner that the Renaissance Masters were thought to have.


Here are a few of my sketches from what I have to say was an extremely invigorating and inspiring lecture session;


ARCHIVE POST: Killeroo Art

ARCHIVE POST: Vowels wins Ledger award


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
05-06-2014

Although late in posting this, I am extremely proud to be the recipient of a Gold Ledger award for my work on Vowels in 2008. This is to say the least a HUGE honor. Vowels is the book which brought Wolf and I together to form our company; Gestalt Publishing.


More recently Vowels was reviewed on the Capsule Computers website scoring a smile inducing 10 out of 10. Some sample comic pages can be found here.


UPDATE - Some pictures of the event (Which I was unable to attend). Other Gestalt books I assisted on - Changing Ways and Flinch also took home awards. Very happy about this;

 

ARCHIVE POST: BBDC - Batman


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
19-03-2014


It could happen (Brush & Ink, Photoshop).

ARCHIVE POST: Happy New 2014


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
01-01-2014


Here's a picture summing up how 2013 felt for me, looking forward to being healthier- mind and body this year. Ding ding! Here goes another round.

ARCHIVE POST: SDCC Gestalt Comics Lineup!


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
02-08-2011


These 3 books debut at the San Diego Comic Convention this year and did exceptionally well. I know because I was there and worked on all of the books as Art Director and Publication designer. As in keeping with Gestalt traditions, all three books are exactly the kinda thing I'd like to read and having read them more than once, I can confidently say that fans out there will really love this stuff.

You can find the books on the Gestalt website and you can read about Tom Taylor putting the challenge out there to get some Deep cosplay happening (c'mon, look at the Nektons - how sexy would they look in real life? I second that challenge!).


The DEEP cosplay! Make it happen!!

ARCHIVE POST: Skye at the San Diego Comic Con


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
15-07-2011

In just a few days I'll be leaving Japan, flying over to the San Diego Comic Convention where I will be manning booth #4500 and will be there daily for signings/ to scribble on your books/ I'll be available to scribble over your Rombies copies.

Writer Tom Taylor will also be taking some time out from a galaxy far far away to sign your copies of Rombies and, should you be bold enough, we will take your photo for your chance to appear in future issues as a Rombies Extra! Be zombified for posterity! 


Here is where we will be on the floor (insert beer joke here) Look forward to seeing you all!;

ARCHIVE POST: Rombies#1 Online. Free.


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
16-06-2011


I really really should have mentioned that Rombies #1 is available to read online for free over at gestaltcomics.com a few new pages a week go up but hopefully the full issue should be up soon. By all means please, check it out!

ARCHIVE POST: Earthquake & Tsunami


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
14-03-2011

EDIT - I'm replacing the long winded original post with a follow up. When the Quake hit Japan I was working on the cover to Rombies#2. It was big and so were the aftershocks, which kept coming for months. I closed the file for the cover art and opened a new blank document. This is what I drew;

 
It was shared and used in many places. It made it on the front of Japan times, went on a t-shirt for fund raising and eventually became the cover of a book (which also donated profits to support rebuilding Tohoku). Image below is pulled from the Aftershock website;


Much like the first time I wrote about the tragedy of that day I am not sure how to end this post.So lets just do it. At this full stop.

ARCHIVE POST: On my desk this week


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
23-01-2011

ARCHIVE POST: Belated happy new year all.


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
08-01-2011

ARCHIVE POST: Some work printed


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
16-01-2010

Well, First post of 2011 and I get to show some work I wasn't allowed to show last year. Sweet.



The Quest is a range of six wines that I was lucky enough to collaborate on with West Australian based studio Lost & Found.  Based on the Knights Templar and the search for the cup of Christ this was a lot of fun to research and Illustrate. Here are two of the figures below;

ARCHIVE POST: Some work going to print


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
19-11-2010



A sneak preview of something that I had been working on with Australian Branding specialists Lost & Found.  I will of course show more when more comes. Here are some test prints for the label. What kind of label? More to come... 

ARCHIVE POST: Rombies is coming


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
07-06-2010


Info on the upcoming Gestalt Publishing Rombies series on writer Tom Taylor's site and a new site for Rombies here. Things are moving forward. please be patient, I assure you it will be worth the wait (although I can't wait for it either!). UPDATE; yup, thats the same pic on the screen on the Cintiq in the post below.

ARCHIVE POST: Cintiq 21UX day


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
18-05-2010


I now have a shiny new Cintiq 21UX sitting in my already cramped studio - On its screen something you will be seeing more of soonish. I'm so happy I finally made the decision to get it and I'm looking forward to working on it. Which will be in a few minutes. I have a logo that needs designin' and a picture that needs drawin'. Wish me luck.

UPDATE
After a wee bit of fiddling about I've settled on the Cintiq as being my main screen with the other housing things like a second work window for Photoshop or say the hundreds of floating windows that I sometimes have open.  Websites and itunes now sit in it and I need not watch footage the way I used to.


My other intuous tablets are essentially obsolete. I wont use em unless I'm going on a trip somewhere with my laptop. Not that I mind, A week in with this thing and I can't imagine going back. Money well thrown at someone else. Even if it was a big fat wad o' cash that I kinda missed. I don't miss it now.



ARCHIVE POST: Multitasking

*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
01-05-2010

Because I sit in front of a screen for days on end, I need something to keep me going. While I draw,  I watch stuff. Movies, Dramas, YouTube, Ted Talks, Podcasts... My (wacom) pen almost never stops while something is playing (there are exceptions). This is what my screen looks like when i'm playing something;


Small box in the corner. Nothing more. I have now gotten to the stage where I don't watch anything and not be working (it's a waste of valuable time right?). Another thing I do is, when saving a file, instead of sitting and waiting for bar to finish crawling across the screen, I pick up a pencil/ pen and scribble something from the screen.

 

The actual job? That blue art I am working on? It is an 8 page comic for the Hepatitis C Council of New South Wales (Australia) and the comic is this;



Guess what the topic of the comic is? It's nice to be working on this kind of stuff. Knowing that these comics are being put out there to help people. I'd like more work like this.


ARCHIVE POST: Yongen Rococo update


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
26-04-2010



Work is moving along slowly on the video. mostly because this video is much more complex than the previous video requiring many complex city scenes filled with characters. Which is where my 102 vowels characters project comes in.This is one of many cuts which shows how the characters are going into the video.



Also having fun placing vowels versions of people into the video, much like the above planned cameo. Yup, the super gifted musical duo Yongen will be making an appearance. I just wont be telling anyone where. We are still many, many months away (I'm juggling, the Rombies series and freelance illustration work) but I can say it should definitely be finished within the year.

ARCHIVE POST: Sketches


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
11-04-2010

ARCHIVE POST: Tokyo Anime Fair 2010 (Megapost)


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
27-03-2010

The 2010 Tokyo Anime Fair is over now but Gestalt Publishing was represented on the floor by myself and a small entourage of Gestalt for-a-day people (no one needed to know). Now that the carnage is over I can report on what we saw there.


Buyers were rife on the floor, people representing foreign companies that redistribute films in English. But I wasn't there for that. I was invited by the super nice people from usagio and got to meet a heap of talented people in Animation, Motion Graphics, Design, Illustration etc. etc...


On top of Usagio and their whimsical and cute style, I would like to introduce a few of the people that I met which I am sure are bound to impress and inspire;


Takahashi Koya's works in particular impressed me a great deal. The animation in his showreel is made completely in After Effects. Outta the box with no plugins. Really, you have to watch it.



Ohrys bird/ Anime Tronica Co. Ltd. are fantastic. Musicians who made their own music videos, found they were so good at it that they started making more for other bands. And then animation for Ad agencies and so on and so forth. Their story is one I love.

Ishikawa holdings have been making some great animations some of which I had seen a year or so ago on niko niko douga (Japanese YouTube with more wtf) while not the funniest, this 'advertisement' for The Grand Guardian Tokyo mansion (apartments) I can't forget.

There are many more people I met and hope to keep in touch with, but for now lets move on to other aspects of the Anime Fair. Amongst all of the booths on the floor one in particular stood out shining and bright from the skimpy cosplayers, Animated figures and such. And that booth was the Behemoth booth; the company who brought usAlien Hominid and Castle Crashers
available on Xbox live and coming QUITE soon to Playstation network. Seriously, All gamers  need to get this. Tis' porn. Pure Porn.

I was lucky enough to meet with Dan Paladin - the artist behind Castle Crashers and other great games (pictured above, with dodgy looking me). I told him that his working videos helped inspire me when I was working on SquareEnix stuff. He helped me quite a bit and I think he appreciated me telling him this. These guys are awesome. Seriously awesome, nice hardworking dudes and I wish them the best of luck in the future (not that they need it). 





So he drew me the picture to the left and I offloaded the Gestalt comics library onto him and then left for more booths. Or to be more correct, collecting loot. And my oh my, there was loot to be had. I ended up with more than I could alone carry. 10 or more DVDs and my personal favorites being some gorgeous oversized Studio 4˚C (who worked on the Animatrix for those un-familar with Anime - and their AWESOME work) Genius Party books.


The experience of the Tokyo Anime Fair was great and the contacts made were... well, how can you measure something like this? I will definitely be attending next year and feel as though I have enough inspiration (and freebies) to last till then. TAF2011? I recommend it.

ARCHIVE POST: (cool) shite interview


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
22-03-2010


Star Wars and the Authority writer Tom Taylor and myself were interviewed a month ago by the guys over at (cool) shite where we talked about the Rombies one shot and the upcoming series. Oh, and Zombie Gazelles. Listen to it here.

ARCHIVE POST: Vowels characters, Day 100


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
19-03-2010



and two more for good measure;

ARCHIVE POST: Vowels characters, Day 99


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
18-03-2010

ARCHIVE POST: Vowels characters, Day 98


*The following is a repost from my old blog: Sketches of Skye
17-03-2010