Wednesday 29 December 2010

A Comic about toast

It's been a few days since I wrote anything here or uploaded any drawings but I've been very busy and have still been doing lots of drawing and artwork. I think it's about time i got something uploaded!

A while ago I drew a portrait of Lauren (Here it is) If you remember, that's the one i drew the little toast character in!

Ever since i drew that I've been wanting to do a comic about toast....does that sound a bit weird?

Don't care....I did one anyway!

If the writings a bit small for you to read please click the image to make it bigger.

Now i know what your all thinking! You don't 'chop' bread, you 'Slice' bread! Well in that case your right! but it's too late now!

When i started drawing this i thought I'd have a look around the web to see if anyone else has done a comic about toast. Guess what... someone already does a web comic about toast, and it's awesome! much better than mine in all honesty.

It's drawn by a guy from California called Dan Goodsell, here's his site The world of Mr Toast

Enough about Toast!

Yesterday I finished a giant canvas commission I've been trying to find the time to get done for a while. I can't tell you anything about it yet until I've shown it to my client but I'm very happy with how it came out. I will upload a photo of this as soon as I can!

I've also completed a t-shirt design for a competition I've entered. The contest title is 'New Year, New You' the design reflects the title. All designs will be open to public voting from the 1st Jan so expect another update about this very soon.

I've also started seriously planning a Graphic Novel that I've been wanting to do for about three years now!

Exciting times, 2011 will be a busy year!

I'm off to make some toast....

Friday 24 December 2010

Christmas Comic!

I thought it would be appropriate to draw a Christmas comic. This can be my present to you all, everyone who i didn't buy anything for!

I've had a great couple of days spent with people who matter to me, There's a few more people I'd have like to have seen but there's plenty of time over the holiday season.

Anyway, here's the comic, enjoy


I imagine Santa Claus would come across the same problems as us mere mortals. Over the last month or so It's been a running theme for me, forgetting that my car will be iced up in the morning before work, that dreadful feeling you get when you step outside and see it.

Although i suppose the big man would have a team of Elf's specially to de-ice his slay for him on Christmas Eve....

I think i need some De-icing Elf's, I'll pay them in tic tacs!

Merry Christmas everyone!

Thursday 23 December 2010

Charity Draw! - Kevin & Katrina

I didn't upload any drawings or write anything here yesterday, I was really tired and didn't feel i could do it justice.

The good news is, to make up for it today I'm uploading TWO drawings! woooooahh!

First up we have Kevin

I've known Kevin for about 4 months now, I work with Kevin and he has become a permanent 'fixture' in our office.

Kevin gets turned on by LED's... especially the type that change colour!  I started working on a exciting project together with him designing some fittings, it would have been awesome if it came to something.

Kevin is a bit special on Microsoft PowerPoint, seriously...If you ever need a presentation doing and you have 3 months to spare, Kevin's your man!

Initially Kevin arrived the perfect modern professional, The polished salesman, well shaved, fake tan, shoes immaculately polished every morning, yes sir no sir ball bags full sir.



Then....We corrupted him and he became one us, He hasn't bothered having a shave for about three weeks now, i think the beard should stay.

On a serious note, Kevin is a great guy, very funny and always has lots of stories to tell, usually about lady boys in China. He's one of the few people at work that can make me laugh even on a really bad day.

Next we have Katrina!

I also work with Katrina, I don't really know a whole lot about Katrina because she works down stairs and i don't see her so much.

What I do know is that Katrina has always been very pleasant towards me. It can sometimes be quite intimidating walking downstairs into the production area at work. Especially when i first started working there and didn't know anyone.

I remember Katrina being very friendly and welcoming.

I'm friends with Katrina on facebook, looking at her profile it says she likes Mariah Carey. Mariah Carey sings possibly the best Christmas song ever written 'All I want for Christmas is you'

What do you want for Christmas??


I'm hoping to get a Christmas comic finished in time for Christmas day, I have an idea for it but haven't had time to draw anything yet, Hopefully i will.

Today is my last day at work, I brought my Santa outfit in :-)

Tuesday 21 December 2010

Charity Draw! - Jonny

Today's 'Subject' is Jonny

Hello Jonny!

I've been lucky enough to meet Jonny through an unfortunate situation... We work together! I've managed to position my computer monitor perfectly so it blocks his face out.

Over recent months he's become a good friend of mine, even if he does act like a massive pumper at least 50% of the time.

Jonny does graphic design, likes indie music, hiding his face with his hair and going to gigs. We went to a gig once and i beat him at Foosball seven times in a row. Epic tale.

Jonny owns a full colour spectrum of hoodies, today he is sporting the red hoodie, it is Christmas after all.

Possibly one of the most enthusiastic and passionate people i have ever met in terms of design and music, even when he has it beat out of him un-justly on a daily basis! He will no doubt move on to bigger and better things.

He needs to grow a beard, a massive beard.

Monday 20 December 2010

Charity Draw! - Gem

Time for another portrait drawing,

Today we have Gem!

Here she is...

Gem is an old friend of mine from the glory days we spent in Leeds. Back then, there was a big group of us, The sky was blue and it was summer every day! That's how i remember it anyway.

We spent our time dancing to Punk rock at a club night called Hospital Radio (Hozzy) for short . Other activities included going to gigs, park days, eating pizza and performing high fives. Smack wham! (That's the sound a high five makes) I miss these times...

Nowadays Gem is a real life proper working person doing Digital marketing. She has always been a very enthusiastic person and puts about a million percent into everything she does.

This is Gem's profile picture on Twitter now, Thanks Gem!



I still have a few more of these portraits I've been working on to upload, I have a few more ideas for some web comics i want to work on and get up on here too.

For those of you who are interested, Fridays Inkitout works do was a success!

Needless to say, by the end of the night I was on my way home dressed as Santa singing Phil Collins songs!

Works do.

Friday 17 December 2010

Mad Friday!

Traditionally, tonight is Mad Friday, probably the busiest night on the town all year (excluding New Year)


Building up towards Christmas, tonight is the night a lot of places have their annual 'Works do' or Christmas party. Everyone hits the town, people that normally don't, the amateur drinkers will be there. Everyone will drink far too much and fun times will be had, stories and memories will be created.


However...


This isn't the case for me and my work place, we don't have a works do. Well, we do, but for some ridiculous reason we have it in March when no one cares. Humbug.


In the spirit of Christmas, myself and a couple friends have decided we will have our own fake works do...Even though we don't work together! maybe make it the Inkitout works do. Maybe we can even hijack someone Else's works do?


I was inspired to draw a comic on this




This is half based on something that happened last week and half based on what I expect to happen tonight. I did enjoy drawing this and really need to start drawing a lot more comics now.


I haven't done a lot of web based comics before, only comics made for print. There are massive benefits towards doing comics made for the Internet. The main one being the use of colour, generally it's too expensive to make print based comics in colour so in the past i have had no choice but to work in black and white. The story lines can be much shorter and hopefully being a free comic, much more people will see them.


You know you would love to have 'DJ Dog Socks' playing MC Hammer at your works do! I kinda decided that all works doooooo's have to play MC Hammer, it's the first rule of works do. I don't know what the second and third rules are, I never thought that far ahead....you decide!


I was thinking of Ricky Gervais and Stephan Merchant when I drew the two guys at the bottom right hand corner, typical office people on a office party!


If your on a Works Do tonight, make sure you shout 'Woooorks Doooooo!' in a thuggish voice in your bosses face. Please!


P.S - I wrote this on my dinner break or something. xxx


Enjoy :-)

Thursday 16 December 2010

Charity Draw! - Lauren

Who's next, who's next?

Could it be? No, it's not!....It's just Lauren

Here she is, everyone look at Lauren!

Only recently did I meet Lauren, We met through a mutual friend at an Alexisonfire gig. She's a great girl and we got on like a mouse on fire.

Lauren makes toast for a living at Leeds corn exchange. Her toast is legendary and people come from all around to eat it. This may be a very vague and inaccurate version of her life made up by me.

I drew a picture of a little toast beside Lauren on her request. I like him, I'm going to call him 'Crispy'

Personally I like to eat my toast with a bit of cheese on it. Fact.

Thanks for letting me draw you Lauren.

Please note. No mouses were hurt in the writing of this blog.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

Charity Draw! - Simon

I've had a fair bit of interest in the charity draw!, I'll be uploading them all here one at a time.

I've done a fair few of these now and I'm only just uploading the first few.
It's interesting to see how my drawing is improving with each one I do.

Today we have Simon,

Here he is, look at Simon!

Simon is a top bloke and has become a good pal of mine over the last year or so.

Simon does X-Rays at Leeds hospital and likes Warhammer.

He also likes going to gigs and especially likes Deftones, we went to see Deftones play. Fun times!

I drew this from a photo taken in the summer at Simon's birthday this year. Not this Simon's birthday...another Simon's birthday that myself and Simon were at! Confused? I hope so!

We all bought ties from a charity shop. Simon is currently sporting the silky orange tie, good choice!

Hopefully I'll keep getting requests to draw these because I'm really enjoying drawing them.

Arrivederci! (Italian for ...Bye)

Tuesday 14 December 2010

Jessica Fletcher Week

About a month back I was lucky enough to visit the Thought bubble comic con in Leeds.
While I was there i met an interesting fellow named Timothy Winchester.

Timothy draws comics titled 'People I know' they're really cool! He introduced me to Jessica Fletcher week and encouraged me to draw a picture to send in, so i did!

Here it is!

To see more check out Timothy's blog


There's some great artwork on there with entries from a lot of great artists.

My Jessica Fletcher has a bit of a hypnotic effect going on with the background, I don't know what i was thinking when i did this but.....i like it!

Monday 13 December 2010

Charity Draw!

I've been pretty busy with this! It's fun

In light of the recent facebook campaign to change your profile picture to a cartoon character which actually turned out to be a hoax and a smokescreen for nasty people, not actually helping children at all.

I offered to draw cartoon portraits of people for their facebook and Twitter profile pictures.

This was the deal

Choose a picture of yourself that you like and I'll draw you in cartoon style.
This will cost you £4 English Pounds, £1 of which I will donate to charity.

The charity is for kids with cystic fibrosis.

I will upload the drawing for you myself and even post the original artwork to you! Good deal right?

I have a bit of a backlog of these that I've been working through but I'll be uploading them here!

First up, we have Ash!

Ash is a Web designer and Lives in Sheffield.
He likes Punk Rock and Video games and is a generally awesome guy.

Here is my attempt at drawing Ash.

With my portraits i generally try to bring out the best features in people. which i guess is a bit different to your classic caricature where stand out features are exaggerated massively to get a laugh.

Ash now has this set as his Twitter picture.

Cheers Ash! 

I'll upload more of these as I do them.

Also, I have Inkitout Badges! I'm really happy with these, I'll have to get a good picture uploaded soon.

Over and Out

Friday 10 December 2010

Hello!

So I made myself a Blog...

I've just been spending some time trying to link it to everything else,
I plan to use this as a regular update as to what I'm doing with Inkitout, illustration and art wise.
Rather than updating my main site all the time i figured it would be easier and quicker to put work up here! It might also encourage me to do more!

So hopefully I'll be adding drawings here quite regular, possibly web comics too!

So yeah! watch this space :-) ...

Malk