Archive for October 30th, 2010

30 Characters Challenger: Drew Williams

| October 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

Where do I begin…?

I’m a 20 year old Computer Science major at the University of Chicago, minoring in Visual Arts.  I have yet to start my sequence for my minor, and my skills up until this point are self-taught, having a foundation in a love for anime and american cartoons and more recently being inspired by Disney and modern comic books as well.  I like sweets, techno, old Disney movies and Apple computers, and do my work on my iPad, in my sketchbook and on my iMa

c with an old Graphire 4 that I remain very proud of/pleased with.  I did writing back in the day, and won a few contests with it, but I have shied away from the art of writing in more recent years, in favor of quick sketches that can be done between classes.

I used to have a deviantart, but I grew fed up with the website’s politics, so I closed it.

I value fluidity, action, motion, and color in my drawings, and you’ll probably see a lot of urban influences.  I have a love for steampunk, fantasy, and science fiction, and I am inspired everyday by the students in my dorm, but I try to break free from repetitive characters and thus will try and mix it up a bit.

I want to do this challenge because I have been in a slump in the art department as of late, Computer Architecture taking over my life and all, and thus I want to get back in the groove, so to speak.  🙂

Also, the samples of art I include in this post are all from 2+ years ago.  I tend to sketch in notebooks more than on the computer.  Stay tuned to see how much my style has improved!  (Adding in the obligatory my-old-artwork-is-horrible, etc etc)

30 Characters Challenger: Koko Sou

| October 30, 2010 | 0 Comments

Hi everyone. I am a pharma sales rep by day and an artist whenever the time will allow. I live in Manhattan, but grew up in Rhode Island. I hope to some day launch my own webcomic; all I need is time and energy. I wanted to do this challenge last year but I missed the deadline.   Anyway, I’m hoping this challenge will kick start my creative juices, get some of theses characters out of my head and force me get off my ass and get my webcomic together.

30 Characters Challenger: Zoë Kirk-Robinson

| October 30, 2010 | 2 Comments
A quick self-sketch of Zoe Kirk-Robinson

Wanted in connection with the disappearance of many chocolates

Everyone else seems to be doing these “introduce yourself, people!” posts so I thought I’d throw my ring into the hat along with everyone else. So “hi!” I’m Zoë Kirk-Robinson. I’m the artist and co-writer of The Life of Nob T. Mouse and All over the house and I also write a webcomic-related advice website called The Webcomic Builder.

You may have heard me on The Webcomics Company podcast (but I won’t hold it against you if you haven’t!), where I’m one of four people who fight for truth, justice and the webcomics way. Or something.

I’m a writer for a living rather than an artist, but I’m hoping to one day be able to make my comics, or at least some cartoons I draw, how I make my living. Hey, a girl can dream. My backup plan is to become a barrister and since what the world really needs is more artists, not more lawyers, I’m sure I have the forces of good on my side when I pick up a pencil. 🙂

I started creating webcomics waaay back in 1996, when I put Portly Stoutmaster’s Journeys online for the first time sometime around March or April that year (I remember it being before my exams in May). I followed that up in December of 1996 with The Life of Nob T. Mouse. Portly Stoutmaster may still be around, I’m not sure. Nob Mouse certainly is. The comic turns 14 in just over a month, making it older than several members of my family. That’s just plain freaky. It’s even more funny, from my point of view, when you know that I only made the comic as a way to look busy while slacking off from physics exam revision.

Now I’m planning my third webcomic, Ink Proof Cannon, which will be produced in conjunction with the publishing company I started to manage The Life of Nob T. Mouse and All over the house. I’m hoping to design the main characters for Ink Proof Cannon‘s stories during the 30 Characters Challenge, plus a few more that could appear in comics later. The fact that I’m combining this challenge with NaNoWriMo, a day job and two existing webcomics means I don’t expect to get much sleep this November, so here’s a tip: buy your shares in Pro Plus now because stocks are going to run short!

My weapons of choice for the Challenge are a collection of trusty HB pencils; a sketchbook I’ve designed all my All over the house characters in; a lovely HP scanner/printer combo; and my Nisis graphics tablet (ever heard of them? Neither had I but it works!). If any of them fail me, I may resort to pen & ink and uploading the characters by taking pictures on my ‘phone if necessary.

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that.

30 Characters Challenger: Adam J. Smithee

| October 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

These “who am I” posts seem to be all the rage, so I figure I might as well throw my biography upon the sacrificial pyre.  My name is Adam, and I am a webcomic author and artist, humorist, inventor, and geek.  I run the occasionally-controversial The Apple of Discord as well as an ongoing story comic called Apple Valley.  After a few failed comics back in the early 2000s, I rediscovered my webcomic aspirations in 2008 with AoD and have never looked back.  In addition to my own comics, I also occasionally frequent conventions, speaking about webcomics and Giant Robots.

Fun Related Fact – I really like giant robots.  Like, an unhealthy amount.  I have several hundred, and am a walking, talking database of anything coming out of Japan with rocket fists and laser eyes since the 1970s.  At a recent convention, I was supposed to be performing my “A Brief History of Giant Robots” panel on Sunday… but I wound up hijacking an abandoned Giant Robot panel Saturday night (the guy doing it never showed) and doing a nearly two-hour long imprompteau “comedy” version of the panel to a standing ovation.

Back to the fact sheet – I got into webcomics as a break from novel-writing, as a release for my neverending fountain of creative impulses, and to help loosen up my right hand, which has a double whammy of a badly broken wrist in my youth AND early onset rheumatoid arthritis (I’m only 31).  Due to my physical constraints (that, and the fact that I have had almost zero actual art training in my life) my work tends to fall more on the simplistic side, featuring strong, smooth, and bold lines and bright balanced colors. 

My weapons of choice are the Wacom Bamboo Fun Medium and Paint Tool SAI.  I also build things (like my buddy “Hal Servo”, a fully working custom puppet designed off of Tom Servo from MST3K), though I’m not sure if that skill is going to actually be useful in this contest.  I may surprise you.  Heck, I may surprise me.

A lot of my more popular work is parody-driven and derivative (and cynical and offensive and dark and disturbing and…), but I really enjoy creating and working with my own ideas so I’m looking forward to this chance to open up the flood gates and be as wonderful or horrible as the muse takes me.

30 Characters Challenger: Amanda Ohsiek

| October 30, 2010 | 2 Comments
Mahewa and Me

Me with my internet visage, Mahewa

So. Hi.

I guess the best place to start is to talk about myself a little, eh? First, I’m a 19-year-old undergrad majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Mathematics, but alongside my academic interests have always lain creative ones. I’ve been both drawing and writing since I was very young. I’ve taken a couple of odd art classes during my youth, but for the most part I’m a self-taught artist. I’ve always loved animals, both real and make-believe; in the past few years I’ve drawn mostly anthropomorphic art so that I could practice human anatomy while still keeping my characters “wild” and unique. I’ve still got one tentative foot in the furry fandom, leftover from my affinity for anthros in the past few years. (In fact, you may know my lioness persona, Mahewa J. Huntress, from elsewhere.) In recent months, though, I’ve finally started practicing human faces and thus introducing many more human characters into my work.

My favorite genres of fiction are fantasy and sci-fi, preferably with a dash of romance. As such, the characters you’ll be seeing from me in the next month are probably going to fall into one of two different fictional canons that I have created: Teyra, a fantasy world governed by the four classic elements, and Race, our own world in a time far in the future when the galaxy’s sentient races have finally approached each other. I’ve constantly been changing and refining Teyra since I first dreamt up a story for it in 9th grade, while the world of Race was built quite recently out of some sketches from this summer and an abandoned short story from 10th grade. I’ve been vaguely considering making one of these two canons into a webcomic of my own. I may also create the occasional character that does not fit either mold, though these will be rare.

Why am I taking on the 30 Character Challenge? Because I want to push myself to draw more. Since I’ve never officially enrolled in any sort of art regime, my sketches are rarely more than doodles in my lecture notes. With this project, I will be pushed to refine my ideas and learn more about the vast library of digital art techniques out there.

Thank you kindly for your time in reading this. I very much look forward to the events of this coming month!

~Amanda

30 Characters Challenger: Matthew Goodmanson

| October 30, 2010 | 1 Comment

Hey everybody!

I’m Matthew Goodmanson, and I must be crazy.

I haven’t updated my website since 2008. I’m a procrastinator, I have trouble with deadlines, I get distracted like a five year old with ADD and my motivation is constantly at war with the rest of me and that picture makes me look like a wizard. 30 characters in 30 days. Yikes.  I must be crazy.

But aren’t we all?

I work for a company out of Halifax, Nova Scotia called Silverback Games where I’m the head of the 2D department. We make casual games, with dreams of bigger things to come and I love it. I’m 32 and I live just outside of the city with my beautiful and talented wife, Meg who is a bastion of patience (one has to be when married to someone in the video game industry) and my tiny, adorable yet slightly despotic two-year old son Alexander. I’ve worked in kids TV production, was concept artist for a failed MMO and I’ve done sketch cards for Marvel, DC, Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. As for non-work stuff, I’ve been playing Dungeons & Dragons for over 15 years now, so I have a little bit of experience creating characters, but I have an intense love for comics, contemporary and classical fantasy art, sci-fi or any half-geeky genre out there. Part of this challenge for me is going to be drawing out of genres I don’t usually dabble in. I know everyone here has their reasons for doing this, and I’m very impressed at how willing everyone is to share. As I mentioned above, I know my weaknesses on and off the paper (or Cintiq if I’m lucky!), and this is a challenge that I need to face.

Working as a professional illustrator, at the end of the day the LAST thing I want to do is draw for myself. But isn`t that why I got into this business in the first place? I love my job, but it’s time for me to take my creativity back for myself, if only for a few hours a day. I have to give big thanks to Tyler for setting this all up and giving all of us a chance to flex our creative muscles and show the world what we’ve got. It’s going to be a crazy amount of fun watching how the days are going to unfold and the genius that I’ll be seeing on my screen from all of you. I’m looking forward to it.

A few samples of my older stuff and if you want you can follow me on Twitter @Gensanova or on Facebook HERE

Good luck to all of you!

~Matt

30 Characters Challenger: Chad Welch

| October 30, 2010 | 2 Comments

C4 you later!

I’m Chad Welch, and I’m a conceptual designer and illustrator who grew up near the coast of Texas.  I currently freelance illustration and license my artwork from Tulsa, Oklahoma, though I hear Chi-town or Californication is in my near future.

As you might have guessed, I like to draw stuff.  Classic movie monsters, superheroes and high fantasy round out my childhood, and give me the fire that fuels my drawings and designs.  Thundercats rule, He-Man is not gay, and long live the Friday Night combo of Dukes of Hazard/Incredible Hulk.

I’m going to enjoy flexing my creative muscles for this challenge with you all.  Best of luck, and keep creating!

Chadimus Welchimaximus
http://www.chadwelchart.com
Twitter: @ChadWelch
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