Dave McKean signing

I was at Dave McKean's (Sandman, Cages, Mr. Punch) signing today in Easons. He and Neil Gaiman (whom I met at a signing in the same store last year) recently released a children's book called Crazy Hair. Unfortunately, he came expecting an audience of kids so his slideshow wasn't particularly aimed towards the people that did come, but Dave McKean being the brilliant bastard he is, is interesting at whatever he does, for whomever. We got to see some pics of upcoming works, such as his new feature length film project Luna.
There was a short Q&A after that, with some interesting insight from the man into his creative processes and methods. And after that was the signing. I got Varjak Paw, a Graveyard Book poster, Arkham Aslyum: A Serious House On Serious Earth, Sandman volume one and Crazy Hair all signed! He even did an awesome Batman sketch in Arkham, and a full-page Morpheus in Sandman (as as I requested :D). He's a really, really nice chap, and it was certainly a pleasure meeting one of my favourite artists of all time.
I'll have some pics of said drawings soonish.

Here's some recent art, a WIP.

Black Jack fanart

Just a tribute to Osamu Tezuka's classic manga character Black Jack. I was given a copy of Vertical's third collection by a very awesome person on the internet, and being a Tezuka fan as it is, I lapped BJ up.

Just a quickie... (part deux)

I was going to name this post 'Just a quickie' but I realised I already used that exact title before, hah.

24 Hour Comics Day was absolutely fucking brilliant. An experience I'll never forget. Suprisingly enough, I did manage to stay awake the full time. Unsuprisingly, I didn't get 24 pages done. In fact, I only got five done. Being the stickler for detail I have always been, I got too bogged down on particular panels. Oh well, I learnt my lesson.
I'll have a full report on the day on Friday or Saturday sometime.

I only noticed today that I've never scanned in any pics from my sketchbooks. So here's a few;

Resurrection

Wow, I really haven't posted since July? Fuck's sake.
Well no matter, here I am again. Hopefully returning to writing on a consistent level now.
I'm in Ballyfermot CFE these days studying Animation (Animation Drawing Studies in particular), and its fucking great! Its only been a month and I reckon I've improved a fair bit already. Layout & Design is currently my favourite class, but the rest are enjoyable too. Five-hours of life-drawing is well helpful and interesting, although it saps you of energy for the rest of the day.

Saw Up last Friday. We opted to go see it in the Savoy for once (Cineworld being our usual cinema) because Cineworld was only screening it in 3d. Suprisingly, the Savoy is a really fucking amazing. Toilets in the screening room, curtain drawbacks, comfy-as-hell chairs, and only €6.50 for students! I know where I'll be watching films from now on, that's for sure.
Oh yeah, and the film itself was astonishing, possibly one of Pixar's best efforts. Fantastic overall design, great score, a really engaging storyline and the usual Pixar host of creatively brilliant characters.

As some of you may know, the Irish 24 Hour Comics Day is happening this Saturday. I was at last year's event, although I only stayed for a few hours due to the Leaving Cert. You can see my one page here.
I plan to go for the full 24 hours this year. Quite a daunting task, going without sleep for a full day and tring to retain focus on my drawing for the entire time, I'll admit. But damn if I didn't enjoy the short time I spent there last year, so staying the night will most likely be a blast.
Not sure if I'll bother with any of the workshops. I'd rather focus on my comic more than anything. I might take an hour or two off to read the free comics though.

Well that's it for now. Gotta get an early night in tonight and tomorrow in preperation.
Here's a piece of artwork. Its a page from the unfinished short comic I was doing up for the 24 Hr Anthology. Some problems came up so I unfortunately had to abandon it, despite the entire thing being pencilled fully.

Beneath A Neon Sky

A quick post to say I just finished pencilling the first page to my comic project, Beneath A Neon Sky. Its a science-fiction cyberpunk noir tale of a robot detective who works in a bustling metropolis on the verge of welcoming extraterrestrials onto Earth for the first time.
I'll have sketches and more on it later.

Pic is what would happen if Henchmen #21 and #24 (Venture Bros.) were to fight Jailbot (Superjail).

Fuck titles.

I was at Oxegen on Saturday. I'm kinda tired now though, so I'll post about it in a day or two. It was great though, aside from the shitty weather...
Attached pic is of my take on an old obscure Wonder Woman villain named The Blue Snowman, who is actually a woman behind the mask. Yeah, confused the fuck out of me as well.
Someone anonymous on the internet kindly coloured this for me and it looked twice as good, but I forgot to save the damn thing. Shame too, considering how little colour work I do.

The only Borders store in Ireland is closing down very soon. It was a great, if a little expensive bookstore that had an awesome selection of comics.

Fuck the sun.

Today I walked from Maynooth to the next town, Kilcock with two of my friends, Richy and Brian. We travelled along the canal. When we got to Kilcock, we stayed for a while in Brian's grandad's house. His grandad was an incredibly interesting guy and all round nice person. His house was just as interesting as well! It was lined with old decorations, clocks, porcelain figurines, newspapers, small art prints etc. that kind of thing.
We ran a quarter of the way back, since we were getting tired. Doing soonly proved how unfit I truly am, hahah. I think in total we walked around 8 miles. I'm pretty happy with that.

Man, this fucking heat is killing me. I can't stand days like this, where the flies are everywhere, your trousers stick to ya, the computer overheats, and you just don't feel like doing jack shit.
All I ask for is a petty breeze! Christ...

The drawing above is something I did yesterday. Its Dream from the Sandman comics having tea with Paprika from the anime feature Paprika.
Man I'm getting great use out of that black Letraset marker...