There are broadly two dominant fields of thought and approach to drawing. These are Observational Drawing (also referred to as life-drawing, visual realism, and…
Comics are widely studied by academics in the humanities. Discourse around metaphors and messaging found in the superhero genre is abundant, while comic narratives…
Art can easily be dismissed out of hand, misdiagnosed as simply a leisure activity, or compartmentalised as a skill of production, thus reducing the…
In the second month of daily diary comic making in 2024, I already felt the stress of invalidation from posting on social media. The…
Autumn Winds
This comic was inspired by a moment where my new life was starting to become settled. That is to say, it was no…
In 2022 I had the opportunity to delve into the intricacies of three pivotal technologies: microgrids, hydrogen power, and advanced electricity networks. Through a…
After writing and researching the paper ‘Graphic Storytelling: Teaching Experience and Utility’ (now published and available to read here- https://www.closure.uni-kiel.de/closure8/fisher), I wanted to share…
I’m a keen drawer- always have been. For different reasons, it’s an ideal pastime for me. I’m a little bit obsessive-compulsive and can tend…
Let me show you how to get started with an automatic drawing using my patent-pending ‘snake’ technique. I’ll show how you can gradually add…
In this activity I’ve taken a drawing by comic artist legend Kevin Maguire (below) and attempted to redraw it, adding light and tonality. Pretty…
Some months ago I caved to my tech tendencies (even more difficult to resist where they Venn with my penchant for drawing) and bought…
Created by Anthony Cheung and myself, based on the Chinese Fable
I grew up enamoured with Monkey Magic. Something about the liveliness of the show, the kooky characters, the music, the absurdity of it, as…
In my ‘day job’ I recently worked with some brilliant people on a trans-disciplinary assignment task. The idea was that students from Creative Writing…
I started on character designs for Entwined: A Recurrent Romance as an Inktober project in 2017. It’s about Superheroes and Aztec Gods, and in…
White Mamba is one of the protagonists of Entwined: A Recurrent Romance (see HERE for a recap on what that is!).
He is Alejandro Vargas,…
I haven’t made many diary comics since I drew a moonlit bushwalk for New Year’s Eve, 2015 but I still make the occasional one here…
The second Aztec god in the Entwined roster that I gave a design overhaul is Death/Lightning, the deity formerly known as Xolotl. Dr Mike describes him…
The first of the character designs for Entwined is the Smoking Mirror, Tezcatlipoca, god of jaguars, sorcery, beauty, strife, and obsidian. Mike’s original character design pictured…
Just getting back to life drawing after a bit of a hiatus, and within the context of in-class demonstration. So everyone in the class…
Drawing is equal parts experimentation, exploration, design, and play.
It’s also about the willingness to stay with it. To keep going.
In the last two posts, I was…
After settling on a rough layout, the drawing phase began. I used reference of an eagle so it wouldn’t come out looking like a…
Watching Kim Jung Gi’s live drawing demonstrations gave me permission to draw in my sketchbook directly with ink pen. No planning, straight-ahead drawing, allowing the theme…
Drawing a page on the Cintiq again after a few weeks away.
Focusing on attitude and body language. And a timelapse of the process, if you’re…
When watching television or movie, even the most mediocre of offerings, the enthusiastic artist, I’ve found, can keep the pen moving and the hand…
There’s an adage that 10,000 hours of practice is what’s required to become a master. While that is more of an incentive for persistence…
Douglas Wolk in his book Reading Comics: How Graphic Novels work, “whereas the great majority of mainstream comics are made by teams of writers and…
I’m at the stage of the graphic novel that I’m referring to as the hump. The big, horrible, hump.
I’ve turned 15679 of a total…
Scott Bukatman, in his essay Sculpture, Stasis and Hellboy found within Critical Inquiry, Comics and Media (Chute & Jagoda 2014), ponders on the ideas of…
More drawing like a madman, recording and adding commentary. This one goes for six minutes. My voice is like warm butter. Enjoy.