I had a fantastic weekend.

Things were busy, as always, but time opened up for some strange reason. There wasn't any looming immediate deadline, things at the college were rolling along well... I actually had time to hang back a bit and socialize. It was great.

Friday night we went out for Korean food down the street, engaged in great conversation and then dragged people back to Zub Haus for cocktails and video games. Street Fighter IV and LittleBigPlanet playing ensued. I can't remember the last time we just spontaneously hung out without needing an event, birthday or holiday to serve as the reason. It was great just hanging out because we could. Using the house as our headquarters was comfy and way cheaper than partying it up at a bar. Everyone had a ball.

Saturday morning I woke up and joked to Stacy that I had so much fun on Friday that I wanted to do it all again.

"Well, why don't you? We don't have anything planned for tonight" said the wise Stacy.

And so we did! We invited more people, pulled together a greater variety of wine and spirits, people brought amazing snacks and we all chilled out, chatted, laughed, played Apples To Apples, competed at video games and enjoyed cheeses, cookies, chocolate, crackers, fruit, dips, Halloween candy and much more. I finally shooed people out the door at 4am but I honestly could have kept going until dawn.

Today Stacy, Chris, Eric, Derek and I ventured up to Pacific Mall for shopping, wandering and more good food. We just got in the door a little while ago and I'm feeling completely satisfied about our weekend. A burst of social goodness that was much needed and appreciated.

Our friends kick ass.

Two parties last night for Halloween. Good times!

Stacy and I went as the Gate Keeper and Key Master from Ghostbusters.


Click on the photo below for the full spread of pics from the festivities.



PS: Eric Kim BECAME Macho Man Randy Savage. Don't Believe me? Check this video I shot of him ranting old school WWF style.

Some offshoot of H.P. Lovecraft's big'un I call a Thoolie and a tentacled stranger.

"Don' know where that masked tentacled stranger dun came from... but he sat inna corner of the bar, mindin' his own business..."

It seems I'm having fun with the monster stuff lately. Experimenting with tools and textures a bit.

Happy Halloween!

(click on the thumbnail pics to see larger versions)

Here's the piece I put together for the Labyrinth's ambitious Iron Giant Project. Have you submitted your Iron Giant-inspired art yet?

I can't believe it's been 10 years since the film was released. I remember exactly where I was when I went to see it in theatres and the effect it had on me was substantial. The quality of the animation, direction, pacing, characters, emotion... it has it all.

This piece is all digital, done on the Cintiq. Here's the process steps:
Step 1: Brainstormed the composition in Photoshop with this ultra loose blue line sketch. Normally I mess around more with multiple ideas but this piece was pretty solidly in my head, so it came together quickly.

Step 2: Looked up actual ref of the Giant to make sure my construction/proportion was accurate and then revised it in Photoshop on a new layer. Took a broader brush and laid down some rough environment planes and ideas for composition.

Step 3: Digitally inked the piece in Manga Studio Ex. From there I exported the vector solid line art as a 600 dpi TIF and laid in the subdued tones in Photoshop.

More cintiq inking, this one over top of a monster sketch I did a couple weeks ago at a Toronto Drink & Draw get together.

I've never felt confident dropping blacks on my traditionally inked pieces, so having the ability to try an area and then wipe it out if it doesn't work is exciting. Strangely, even though I had the ability to back things up, I barely used it... just knowing it's there gave me confidence to place the black areas better.

Here's the original rough sketch:


I have a few other monster sketches from that night, so I may ink more of them soon. This was a fun exercise.

(click on any of the images for a larger version)

I know it's been quite a while since I've posted up any artwork. Job(s) have been really busy and I've been juggling all kinds of crazy stuff.

I finally bought a new tablet. My old one, an original Intuos, started dying after 9 faithful years of service. So, I finally retired it and took a dive into the Cintiq 12WX to go along with my new desktop machine. It's taken me a few days to get the hang of it, but now I'm starting to feel comfortable and am enjoying the new challenge.

Here's a little doodle I digitally inked up as a way to practice working with the new tablet. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. The freedom of inking with confidence and no mess with the saving grace of an undo key is quite amazing.

Here's the original rough sketch:


And a zoom in on some detail of the little astronaut:

Whoah, where is October going... weren't you just starting a minute ago?

It's the 19th already. Time is going by way too fast.

I was away for the Ottawa Animation Festival over the weekend. The festival ran the gamut of good, bad and ugly. Some inspiring workshops and presentations, some good films and some horrible, horrible films that have possibly scarred me for life. In any case, it was a neat experience with networking, good company and fun times overall.

Attending the school presentations was also interesting. Each animation school has their own way of hyping what they do and seeing them all back-to-back was illuminating. Given the limited amount of potential students in Ottawa and the unlikely chance that someone is attending the festival from out of town to see the schools there, it's mostly an exercise in being seen rather than doing much actual recruiting. Still, it taught me more about how we can market Seneca's program and things to watch out for with our own school pitch.

Speaking of recruitment, we had our first portfolio hand-in tonight for the January ANI class start. It was a relatively full lecture room and I think I gave one of the smoothest presentations I've ever done, which was kind of nice. After showing some student artwork and our demo reel, explaining the portfolio and admissions process and the importance of core drawing/observation skills, then answering questions and handing out the drawing tests, the applicants worked away and the whole room was quiet.

10 minutes into the 30 minute test, one of them got up and handed me his papers and left the room, which was quite a surprise. I opened up the test and instead of artwork I saw some faint erased-away sketch marks and a short note:

"Gotta draw more. See you next year."
It may sound odd but I have a lot of respect for that. He had the clarity to realize he wasn't at the right point yet. I'll have to send his name over to the Art Fundamentals coordinator to see if they want to make him an offer for a foundation year he could use to improve his skills.

Things are steady and quite busy, but there's a weird sense of near-calm that's washed over the Fall now that conventions are done and the college semester is underway. I have more standardized hours and there's a semi-regular schedule to keep. I can mentally step back a bit and see that there are a lot of things to juggle, but it doesn't seem too bad at this moment. Compared to the break neck pace of the summer, the Fall feels slow, even when it's not.

Between the grey skies/rain, cold & flu bug going around and slight chill in the air there's a bit of a dreary vibe. I'm hoping once the leaves change and weather evens out things will perk up a bit.

That's the long and the short of it - pluggin' away and doing the best I can. Aren't we all?

Stacy is featured in Toronto International Film Festival coverage at the National Post today! Yay!


Click here for it!


Artwork by Steve Murray

The first time I ever watched anime was in high school. Oh sure, I'd seen shows like Starblazers or Battle of the Planets when I was a kid, but I didn't know they were from Japan and had no real frame of reference for the changes that had been made to them for the North American market.

My brother went to the University of Waterloo and came across a group of hardcore anime fans who hooked him but good. Laserdiscs, fan subs, manga and the rec.arts.anime newsgroup... the whole sheebang. When he came home to visit the family, he brought his new obsession along and I soon caught the bug as well. It was a whole new world of animation spread across unexpected genres - comedy, fantasy, romance and sci-fi.

Within those first handful of movies I watched, I distinctly remember Silent Möbius. Its blend of cyberpunk-laden sci-fi and supernatural critters was right in line with the Rifts RPG my friends and I were eating up at the time. Lasers versus demons, spaceships and sorcery... good times. The fact that Möbius had a decent story pulsing underneath that slick exterior was icing on the cake.

Thinking about that makes this whole thing even more surreal.

Here I am 17+ years later and UDON just released the first volume of our Silent Möbius Complete Edition manga series. It's weirdly amazing looking at it again, now with our logo on it and my name buried in the credits. The previous English release of the series never finished and was printed really poorly, so this new remastered edition with additional full colour material should be quite a revelation for fans, myself included.



Click on the above images for a preview of volume 1

Yay for geeky job and nostalgic anime memories. :)

I finished playing through Batman: Arkham Asylum on PS3 yesterday after busting my butt on project stuff. I wasn't originally planning to get the game, but the excellent demo and raving reviews online pushed me over the edge.

I've gotta say, Paul, you did a stellar job on the writing. Most video game stories are unbearably lame and this felt like a dark and gripping Batman tale through and through. Writing for games is very different than writing for TV/movies and you translated the Batman mythos and cast to an interactive goal-oriented play style incredibly well. You even managed to work in some Bruce Wayne/Batman psychosis with the Scarecrow material, which was a complete thrill. The story didn't overwhelm gameplay and the game aspects didn't wreck the story - that's a sweet balance to strike. Kudos are in order.

Any minor problems I had while playing were almost instantly washed away by the responsive controls and consistently excellent atmosphere. Freeflow combat and sneakily striking from the shadows makes you feel like a complete bad ass. Stacy walked through the living room grinning as I mindlessly chatted at the screen...


"Oh buddy, you just made a terrible mistake. Now I'm gonna go all Batman on your ass."

"Time for a takedown. Ohhhhh~."

"Grapple line to the top and... boo-ya."

"...And here's a batarang for you, and you too... and now I'm gonna beat your pal into paste."


It's easily the best comic-based game I've ever played. Sweet stuff.

Back from this year's Penny Arcade Expo. You can check out photos by clicking the classy pic below:


Click here for PAX Photos

The last con of the season was a good one. Hanging out with the Oni Press folk, playing some games, networking, all of that.

I had to leave Sunday morning due to flight bookings and things that need to get done here at home before the new semester begins at Seneca. Waking up this morning was painful. My back and neck ache something fierce and the late nights at the show are throwing my brain off a bit. Once I get caught up on e-mails I'm going to take a long hot shower and possibly even have a nap.

Media I've been Ingesting:

I took some books along to Cuba to read and last night we went to the movies...

Pluto- Urasawa X Tezuka Book 1 is stellar and I'm really glad I picked it up. Even though I'm involved with manga and Japanese art book production it's rare that I actually get a chance to sit down and read series being put out by other publishers. Pluto is moody, well written and engrossing. Unlike the American comic market, where creators constantly vie for the chance to make a mark on classic properties, manga is creator-driven with original creations being the norm. Seeing Urasawa at the top of his game tackling Osama Tezuka's Tetsuwan Atom (Astro Boy) storyline from a fresh angle has me hooked.

Mouse Guard Winter 1152 is another excellent volume of the medieval mouse series by by David Peterson. His incredibly appealing artwork and atmospheric storytelling is a joy to read. Standard medieval fantasy tropes seem fresh when they're fueled through the mice characters and the many obstacles they have to overcome are epic and entertaining. The world is rich and it's easy to see why this series is on the New York Times Bestseller list.

Pyongyang- A Journey in North Korea is a personal story of Guy Delisle but it manages to convey so much more about the people of North Korea, their government and the jaw dropping cognitive dissonance that they live under. The simple artwork and expressions perfectly conveys the humor and creepiness of his work term in the captial. I was amazed at how in sync it was with the video footage Vice put together showing their trip to North Korea. The same exhibits, the same propaganda, the same unwavering robotic process... chilling stuff.

The Age of American Unreason wasn't the book I was expecting but it was still very solid, discussing politics, science, religion, education, media and the role of intellectuals in America. The quagmire of entertainment media slamming into political agendas and a society where comfort is more important than achievement isn't something most people would think of as vacation reading, but Stacy brought it along and I was intrigued enough to dig in.

Last night we finally checked out District 9. The high concept of the movie was great but the writing unfortunately didn't carry through on it as strongly as I would have liked. All in all it was a visual treat, but left me hollow. Weeks worth of hype built up my expectations and the film couldn't deliver on them.

Stacy and I are back from two weeks away in Cuba. The timing worked out well for us to get away and veg out for a week and that was originally our plan, but it grew unexpectedly.

When we talked about what we wanted out of our time off, Stacy and I both agreed that having some solid “creative time” would be amazing – time to work on personal projects we’ve been putting off due to other commitments. Originally we thought we’d do that by working on stuff at home, but on a whim we checked pricing for a second week at the resort as we were booking it and realized that a second week in Cuba was only about 25% of what the first week cost – once you’ve flown there, the resort is quite cheap. So we decided to book 2 weeks and use the second one as our creative time – meals and all the rest were taken care of, the environment was relaxing and we weren’t distracted by work, phone or internet. Stacy worked on her next novel and I worked on art/comics. It’s something we’d been meaning to do for quite a while.

Anyways, here's a link to a small selection of photos (Stacy will probably post more later on) and a couple videos of neat stuff:


Click here for some photos.







We want to throw a Cuban-themed house party (cigars, rum, tropical shirts, you name it) and we're trying to figure out the timing. This weekend would be ideal since the Toronto Fan Expo is on, more friends will be in town and the next few weekends after that are looking very full. You guys interested?

And now... every Hollywood TV/movie panel at San Diego Comicon distilled into one comic strip:



Thank you, Magnolia.

A friend of a friend asked me for some portfolio advice before they headed off to San Diego Comicon. I looked over their artwork and wrote them a critique/reality check so that they'd know what they were getting in to. I wasn't originally intending to reprint it here, but they came up to the UDON booth at the show and warmly thanked me for the feedback and advice, so I thought it might be good to post it up here for everyone. It incorporates a bunch of things I've said before, but there's some new little bits as well, so...

------

Hi (name),

Yes, (mutual friend) passed me your gallery link and mentioned that you were looking for feedback.

Although I have my own deviantArt page and post some artwork up, the majority of my time is spent as Project Manager for UDON, working with artists at the studio on projects for comics, video games, toys and other illustration. I do a lot of portfolio reviews for the company and also teach part time in Seneca College's Animation program here in Toronto. I've met a LOT of people looking to break into comics/illustration/animation.

I've written a couple articles about breaking into comics/art that you could find useful:

HERE and HERE.

If this is your first time going to San Diego Comicon, I'd highly recommend heading there to take it all in, do some research on art and the industry and try to make some good social contacts. The chances of you bringing your work cold to the con and landing a well paying job is incredibly small. The social aspects of the industry are just as important as the technical ones. Not to sound mean, but if you spend a ton of time jumping through hoops trying to get a portfolio review from Marvel, DC or Top Cow (which is where your DA gallery is focused) you will have used up a lot of your time there without making any headway. I'm not saying this to be mean, I'm trying to be 100% honest.

The larger comic publishers have no reason to hire an unknown. They have dozens of freelancers who have a slew of credits already at their disposal. It's the equivalent of trying out for the NHL before you've even played hockey in your backyard on a homemade rink. It's impossible and not going to get you the results you want. The fact that Marvel and DC even do portfolio reviews at the conventions is kind of cruel, as far as I'm concerned. It's a PR move so that they don't look like they're turning people away flat-out. At least NHL teams don't pretend you could do a random try-out out of the blue and get a position on their team.

You have to build up your portfolio and a body of work before those companies will even have a chance of taking you seriously. I know it's a paradox - how can I build up credits without being given a chance? But it's not about drawing for the Big Guys right out of the gate. It's smaller illustration projects or creating your own comics as a way to improve your drawing ability and hone your storytelling craft. It's making the hundreds of mistakes you need to make in order to get better before you show them your work.

At the base level, I think you need to focus on drawing from real life, preferably figure drawing from a live model instead of just rehashing the style of comic artists you admire. In the end it's great to have influences but the only way you're going to fully grasp character posing and storytelling is to understand the real human figure from observation first and then bring that experience back to comic drawing. Anything else and you become just a bad photocopy of a photocopy - a bunch of stylized shortcuts instead of a solid drawing foundation.

I know this won't be what you want to hear, especially if you're spending a load of money to go to San Diego Comicon with your dreams in your hands. All I can say on that front is that time and effort will make a difference, but it has to be focused in the right direction.

Sincerely,
Jim

Stacy and I have been recovering since we returned home late Monday night... I finally had a chance to upload and notate photos from the two week con blitz.



Click Here for Otakon Photos


Click Here for San Diego Comicon Photos


Both shows went well. Counting back this morning I realized that this was my 8th San Diego Comicon. So insane. I can't believe how fast the time has flown by.

And then, while chilling out with people here at the hotel, I'm getting caught up on blogs and news when I see a post that makes me laugh and nod over and over... if you're an art student, animator-wannabe, fan of art/animation or comic hopeful, you should really read Faith Erin Hick's dead-on accurate summation of taking Classical Animation at Sheridan College.

I can just imagine a pamphlet advertising the program with a few zinger quotes from her sprinkled in there as a successful graduate... heh, I think every person I met at the school could add some choice quotes of their own to that.

On a roll here.

Otakon went incredibly well. We sold out of the Darkstalkers Tribute hardcovers we brought by first thing Saturday morning and then zipped through the rest of the artbooks by mid-day Saturday, leaving us with just Darkstalkers posters and manga to sell for the rest of the weekend. In turn, Sunday was quiet, but since we'd sold all the big items, the show was very successful.

The east coast crowd was voracious and awesome. We will have to bring more stuff next year. Yay.

San Diego is shaping up well too. Our booth position is rockin' and we are organized enough that yesterday I actually spent half a day chilling out, swam in the hotel pool. Stacy and I went to see Harry Potter in the evening. Weird indeed, especially on Tuesday of the big show.

• UDON's extensive San Diego Comicon rundown.
• I wrote the Spyborgs promo issue Capcom will be giving away at Comicon. Get it signed by our gang if you're there.
• We're releasing the SF20 artbook in the Fall. Yay!

We arrived in Baltimore late this morning to get ready for Otakon and so far it's been stellar. Check-in was easy, unloading our product and setting up the booth was a breeze. UDON did up a bunch of artwork for the convention, so our artists have pieces on the official convention booklet, t-shirts, badges and even the official convention pin... so everywhere I'm seeing UDON art. It's pretty cool. We have a great booth spot and a big ad on the inside cover of the full colour con booklet enticing people to come by and get Darkstalkers Tribute. Yay!



Speaking of Darkstalkers, we just got an e-mail from our distributor that Darkstalkers Tribute is the #1 Foreign Language Book on Amazon Japan right now. Not art book, or video game book... #1 book! As I check again it's fluctuating in the top 3, fighting with a couple Michael Jackson biographies. Diamond, our distributor, is shocked and amazed. Everyone's really pumped about it. So crazy.

Look, Stacy grabbed a screenshot of it:

Click on this for the full screen.