http://welsheldorado.com/ en Copyright 2010 Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:35:35 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Pecha Kucha tonight. Lots of really talented people coming in to talk about what they do. I'm excited because I get to go first, so I'll actually be able to enjoy the night after speaking, instead of sitting with guts in knots until my turn. I'll be talking about comics and reading and showing pages from "Trailer Park..." Speaking of which, now that the drawings are finally done and I've been moving through to paint the last pages, I've had a chance to reevaluate how I've been coloring things all along. Got hit by a bit of a bolt from the blue and I've now gone back and recolored the first 150 pages and am getting started on the rest. Here's a before and after shot of how things look. These are the first two pages of the book. It's fun because, where before I was using spot color, but using it haphazardly and using lots of spot colors, the symbolic nature of the color was getting lost. And production wise, it was turning into a 4 color book. With the revisions, I'm just using one blue ink, one red ink and variations within them. The book ends up looking much more unified as a result.]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2010/02/pecha_kucha_tonight_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2010/02/pecha_kucha_tonight_1.html news Wed, 17 Feb 2010 00:35:35 +0000 Pecha Kucha, then well, that's where I was last November. But I was taken along to one of their events on my birthday and loved it. A series of ten speakers come along and present on any number of topics. The clincher is that the format is that each speaker is given 20 powerpoint (or Keynote if you're an Apple person) slides and each of them is shown for 20 seconds. So, you've got 6 mins 40 seconds to get your point--whatever it may be--across. Here's the esteemed company I'll be keeping. Check them out and please come along. Rory Walker Illustrator "Happiness abounding - Stealthy lines and excessive colour" www.roryroryrory.com Jake Spicer Painter/Printmaker Drawing as a vehicle for social good www.jakespicerart.co.uk (I'm psyched about this because this is the same Jake whose life drawing class I've been going to. He's a kick-ass painter and an all-around nice guy. Jonathan Gilhooly Artist/lecturer Apparitions and Illusions www.jonathangilhooly.com (Yours Truly) Illustrator/Graphic Novelist Aiding and Abetting: Reader Complicity in Graphic Narrative www.welsheldorado.com Woodrow Kernohan & Helen Cammock Directors - Brighton Photo Fringe Brighton Photo Fringe - towards the 2010 festival www.photofringe.org Das Petrou Advertising Copywriter The Main Influences on My Graphic Novel: Ring of Roses www.dasandjim.co.uk John Watkiss Film, Visual & Story Development Selling Sherlock Holmes www.seventhsealproductions.com (I'm really excited to see this guy. He's been a visual development artist on a lot of wonderful movies and his paintings are pure expressive gorgeousness!) Scott Sansom Film maker Creating a film to meditate to www.sacredearthmedia.com, www.tibetmeditations.com Juliana Sissons knitwear Designer Inspiration from the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries Nelson Evergreen Illustrator Illustrating for Little Kids and Big Kids www.nelson-evergreen.com And just to keep things interesting, here's the pregnant model from last week's session. Yup, she was pregnant and it was pretty different type of drawing class, but it led to some interesting drawings. ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2010/02/pecha_kucha_night_brighton_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2010/02/pecha_kucha_night_brighton_1.html news Tue, 09 Feb 2010 23:15:30 +0000 New Year, and I've just gone to the first life drawing class of the year. It was good. Even used the event to crack open and start a new sketch book. My goal this year is to trying and get back to some of the experimenting I did in art school and not limit myself to what I do for work (the above image not withstanding--it was just the best one of the lot tonight...) So a couple of things are in the offing: 1) I joined a local illustrators group down here in Brighton. It's going to be fun meeting more artistic shut-ins who've come to spend their dotage by the sea as I have... The site is pretty cool and has a nice bespoke portfolio section where I put some of my work up recently. 2) I've been playing around with color in "Trailer Park..." and think I've found a solution that's been bothering me for months. I'll post some samples to get some feedback soon. 3) If "The Wire" were a drug, then I am a crack head. If you haven't partaken, do so soon, but make sure you've got about a week free with no social obligations... Craziest thing is that two of the main characters are British... Anyway, I hope you enjoy the tattoo above. I'll get back to Portraits of Sad Men shortly. Thanks, Nye]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2010/01/new_year_stuff_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2010/01/new_year_stuff_1.html news Thu, 14 Jan 2010 23:45:31 +0000 ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/310_pages_down_none_left_to_dr.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/310_pages_down_none_left_to_dr.html news Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:19:51 +0000 ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/fat_steven_seagal.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/fat_steven_seagal.html misc Sat, 12 Dec 2009 01:38:06 +0000 Next time, I'll give you fat Steven Seagal...]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/van_dammage.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/van_dammage.html news Thu, 10 Dec 2009 01:37:41 +0000 Get Carter. Though it changed out the nihilistic ending of the 1971 Michael Caine original for a relentlessly hopeful American one, the parallels of Jack Carter - a has-been small time hood -- and Sylvester Stallone, the former apotheosis of Reagan-era machismo and foreign policy were striking. Whether he was playing or being was kind of a moot point, he was a sad and hollow man. Anyway, I hope you dig; more to come... (sadly this is procrastinating from the book, but it's good procrastinating right?)...]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/portraits_of_sad_men_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/portraits_of_sad_men_1.html news Sat, 05 Dec 2009 19:45:59 +0000 Smith Magazine recently did this pretty cool tribute to comics madman, Harvey Pekar by getting 70 Cartoonists to do 70 different portraits for his 70 birthday. I was checking them out last night and got excited. I wasn't one of the cartoonists asked to contribute (my prolonged exile while I've been working on my book means I've dropped of the face of the cartoon earth). And I figured, just because I wasn't asked, doesn't mean I can't contribute. So, I snatched some reference from the internet (there's a limited amount so you can see what reference almost everyone worked from; some with better results than others), and this is what I came up with. Speaking of my own book, 4 pages to go, 306 done. Lots of coloring still left to do, but that's the easy part. Now off to bed and a rare lie in Saturday morning...]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/harvey_pekar_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/12/harvey_pekar_1.html misc Fri, 04 Dec 2009 23:57:44 +0000 More life drawing last night before heading to Florida for a few days to get together with family, both nuclear and – uh - post nuclear? It should be fun as Lyndsay's mother has been prepping the food extravaganza for weeks. ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/fun_with_a_biro.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/fun_with_a_biro.html news Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:35:45 +0000 ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/gardener_pugilists.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/gardener_pugilists.html misc Wed, 11 Nov 2009 23:41:39 +0000 ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/gratuitous_kitten.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/gratuitous_kitten.html misc Tue, 10 Nov 2009 22:13:56 +0000 Portico Quartet literally around the corner. We first heard them busking on the Southbank on a Sunday afternoon in London two years ago. And then Lyndsay spots this poster that they're playing in a venue 5 minutes walk from our place. They were sublime... They were playing with Sweet Billy Pilgrim different but equally good in their own way. And now, for your viewing pleasure, a blue kitten... ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/neighborhood_sublimity_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/neighborhood_sublimity_1.html misc Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:41:08 +0000 life drawing (fourth class in four weeks last night) is really helping me to build up my art muscles. It feels a bit like Rocky on the stairs in Philly. If you actually go to those stairs, they're not that big. But they're a pschological victory for ol' Rock. My steps are better because I get to look at naked people. Anyway, here's what came out last night. ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/6_pages_to_go_304_down.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/11/6_pages_to_go_304_down.html news Thu, 05 Nov 2009 12:03:23 +0000 One of the things that everyone says is so amazing about Brighton is the creative vibe. Work's taken my focus for so long but I'm finally starting to have time to explore that a bit and I'm loving it. Through a google search I found Brighton Life Drawing Sessions run by a lovely guy named Jake Spicer. He hosts sessions a couple of times a week out of his studio. But this past weekend, he also hosted an all night draw-a-thon as part of Brighton White Night. We spent the evening in one of the bars of Komedia and drew models in poses meant to represent the Tarot Deck. It was awesome. Anyway, these are a few pics from last night at one of the regular sessions (the whole thing nearly got derailed because of a fatal misinterpretation of the words "toilet" and "train"... but that is a tale for another time). Enjoy. Thanks, Nye ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/10/return_to_life_drawing_1.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/10/return_to_life_drawing_1.html news Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:05:19 +0000 The Walt Disney Family Museum which had only opened mid October. It was astounding. Yes, I am a geek and it would appeal to me, but I'll also admit that I've often been weirded out by the whole "family values" "eugenic" perfect America image that seems to seep out of the very foundations of Disney Corp. So the exhibit was a refreshing tour through Disney's life as it happened, each room unfolding another portion of his life chronologically and at the same time serving as a mini-history of the development of animation in the United States. The man struggled and strove in ways that, at the time, were Herculean. And he truly was a force of nature with how he drove the development of the art of animation. That would have been enough, but there was also an exhibit on celebrating Maurice Sendak at The Contemporary Jewish Museum. It was jaw dropping to see the breadth of that man's vision and to see originals of some of my all-time favorite children's stories. My trip also happened to coincide with APE, the Alternative Press Expo where I was able to drop more cash than was prudent on some great mini and independent comics. Still working my way through the pile. Finally, I'm starting to get back to regular creative output and taking advantage of Brighton and it's artistic community (more on that in later posts). But here's a peak at a photoshop-colored sketch from my trip to Italy to see my sister get married (this is Lyndsay sleeping in a Tuscan grove)... ]]> http://welsheldorado.com/2009/10/serendipitous_global_travel.html http://welsheldorado.com/2009/10/serendipitous_global_travel.html news Tue, 27 Oct 2009 21:48:01 +0000