Bloodwhat comicbook is now available through Lulu.

£12.

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http://tinyurl.com/3lul46m

I've recently started a new job at Studio Liddell in Manchester as character animator on a childrens TV series. Can't reveal anything about the show but will post any work/info when I can. In the mean time I am fired up for doing my comics stuff again and I think being in a creative atmosphere at work will help me get more done on the side. Plus I have a half hour commute in the mornings which I'm hoping to utilise for writing/brainstorming ideas. Watch this space!

Working on some animal shots and some fight scenes for a new reel focused on VFX and games animation. This is something I have very little experience of so it's fun trying something new and expanding my horizon's a little. Video reference seems to be the mantra from most people in the VFX world so I have studied lots of reference footage and cut together a couple of parts for this shot. Think it's going well but the polish is where it gets difficult. I really want this tiger to look and feel real.

I have been drawing a lot more recently. Hopefully building up to a new film/personal project. I wanted to do some background studies and tests so I took a journey through Flickr and drew some random images. These are both traditional pencil and coloured in photoshop. They bear no relation to the upcoming project. More on that later. Just exercising the drawing muscles at the mo!

Bloodwhat is now availabe for pre-orders via IndieGoGo: http://www.indiegogo.com/Bloodwhat?a=34040&i=shlk

Help me raise funds for my next comic book by pre-ordering it. There are different levels of involvement from just buying the book to getting a printed credit in the thank-you section and your very own original artwork from the comic. Thanks for looking. Please share.

Bedwitchery Poster

I offered to do a free poster design for a local amateur dramatic society. Since I've been getting the watercolours out recently I decided to use them for this aswell. I thought it came out quite nicely and a bit more proffesional than their previous posters. Unfortunately they decided to go with another design so that's what I get for being charitable! In the end I think they just grabbed an image from Google image search and pasted their own info underneath it which I wanted no part of as it is obviously infringing someone's copyright! I guess since they are not really doing it for profit they can get away with it to some extent but I still can't understand why they didn't go for this poster.

Humphrey's Corner

Humphrey's corner by Sally Hunter is a mini business empire based around these little elephant characters she based on her own family. They started off as greetings cards and have been licensed into books, clothing, furniture and everything else imaginable. Quite an inspiring story for independent artists. Anyway I did these art tests for a portfolio submission to the company when they were hiring illustrators. I was unsucessful but I'm quite pleased with how the watercolours (above) and digital watercolours (below) came out.

Website Design

www.dougwilson.co.uk has had a re-design recently. The site has been constantly evolving from the moment I launched it but this is the most substantial change I've made. I wanted to add a bit more personality to the design. I've made the menu bar quite playful and amusing and hopefully having that same link panel across the whole site makes navigation a little simpler.

I also wanted to add hand written notes explaining a little more about what I am trying to do with the site and it's contents. I wanted to back-up the handmade, personal aspect of my work in the design. The idea for the blurb on the homepage came after listening a TED talk by Simon Sineck on how great leaders inspire action. A very interesting lecture.

Freelance Concept Work

The image above was done for a local graphic design agency, they were looking for some cartoony designs to pitch to their client. Unfortunately the client didn't really know what they were after so I put loads of work into something that I eventually didn't get a penny for. After they rejected the above image they gave the feedback for something more ICONIC. So I developed this next set of images:

They were quite quickly roughed out but again they didn't go for it. I thought I would put them up here to show some of the things I've been up to on the freelance front.

Bristol Comics and Small Press Expo Roundup

We had a great time at the con, the reaction to all our comics was very encouraging and we sold enough to make it worth doing again. Thanks to all who bought books from our table! Learnt a lot about how to improve for next time. For a first con experience I think things went very well. Met a lot of other creators and managed to ask some people about books and printers etc. Should help for making the next book. Below are links to some of the interesting people I met.

http://www.dirtyrottenfred.blogspot.com/
http://smoo.tumblr.com/
ttp://www.dirtpony.com/
http://www.c2d4.com/
http://enolianslave.deviantart.com/
http://www.williehewes.com/
http://www.karenrubins.com/
http://theetheringtonbrothers.blogspot.com/

I wish I had more spare cash to buy up all the interesting looking things people had! Especially the etherington brothers humongous skecthbook. Maybe next time around I'll have a little spare change to splash around. I spent a lot of the quiet moments of the con skecthing so here are a few...

Drivin' Dinosaurs

Thought this was a fun idea for a set of illustrations. Gonna give myself little briefs to do so I can keep adding to my portfolio. I'm considering doing prints of these to sell at the convention. I don't know how popular they'd be... I will see what people's reaction is like online first. Less than two weeks to the Con!

More Girls

Trying to think about interesting colour palets for these pages. Trying out just using pencils with no inks on the top image. I think I prefer having the variable line-weight with my brush pen but it does give a more subtle feminine quality to the drawings.

Pinup Girls

I wanted to take a break from comics and animation etc. and just draw for the love of drawing. These are all referenced from image sources. I suck at drawing girls so I need to practice anyway. I think I am going to try to do more life drawing and post it up on the blog.

Freelance Animator/Illustrator/Comic Artist

I have been freelancing in multiple areas for sometime now. A lot of my time is spent working on independent projects that will hopefully generate enough interest in my work to give people a reason to hire me to do work on their projects. So far I've found I am forever making plans for things that don't happen. It can be incredibly frustrating but the advice given from people who have succeeded in most art related subjects is always "Never Give Up!" So I continue to apply, email, and generally badger people relentlessly. I currently have about 4-5 possible freelance jobs in the pipeline and they are all on hold for various reasons.

Anyway I thought I would put down a blog post detailing what I do in the hopes that someone out there has a use for me! Please get in touch if you have any work that might benefit from the below skillset. http://www.dougwilson.co.uk/ dougwilson83(at)hotmail(dot)com.

Freelance Animation

This is my Animation Show Reel, I have experience working in Maya, 3DSMax and Toon Boom on Film, TV and Independently Directed projects.

Freelance Illustration

Cartoon illustration using Photoshop, Illustrator, or good old Pen, Ink and Markers. I can also provide character design, and background design.

Comic Artist

I have spent the last 2-3 years writing, drawing and self publishing independent comic stories.

Bloodwhat 1st Anniversary

That's right, Bloodwhat comic started exactly one year ago today! The very first post on the old wordpress site was 29th April '09 and I thought it would be a good idea to look back and see how far this strip has come.

Tommorow's update will be strip #150, and just this week I have finished writing the script to the final conclusion of the story. When I started out I was planning a series of animated shorts, but I soon decided to make a comic and never looked back.

Obviously the comic is based on a computer game and it is one that my brother and I would play over and over when we were younger. It still held it's appeal over the years and with PC emulators and PSP's we've always been drawn back into playing it again at some point. For some reason this game was just hugely immersive and addictive so I am very happy to have created this tribute in the form of parody. I would suggest anyone reading the comic should try to get a copy and play through it... although maybe it is one of those things that requires nostalgia.

This was the first ever strip

And this is the One Hundred and Forty Ninth!

I think my drawing has improved a lot, during the process of drawing the strip 3x a week I have simplified the characters and boiled down the designs to fewer and fewer lines. I think my storytelling has improved dramatically too. I am now building up longer storylines that will unfold over the next few weeks. It is a gag strip and I try to make it funny every update but sometimes I like to break up the pacing and try something different. In #149 for instance there isn't a punchline at all, but it is building up a recurring story with Murlack having found a walkthrough guide to the game. I think when I eventually compile all these strips into a book it will be a very satisfying read through and that has always been my end goal.

I have learned a lot from making this strip, I often hear the advice handed out to create something that you would want to see... This without doubt is purely something I am doing for my own amusement and it seems like a few people might be enjoying it with me.

If you would like to leave Bloodwhat a birthday wish by leaving a comment or sending me an email I would really appreciate the support. dougwilson83(at)hotmail(dot)com

Read a years worth of comics here!

Bloodwhat Mini-Comics

I've been busy making mini-comics for Bristol spexpo. These Bloodwhat books contain 40 strips and are bound with a hand-drawn unique sketch on the cover. I'm hoping the original art aspect of these mini's will attract people, there are only going to be 16 copies of these so if you want one come early! Or not, I doubt I will sell out all weekend! Still if you're a fan of the comic this is a nice little collection and something to keep you quiet until I can sort out a proper book.

K-9Lives Book2

Look what just arrived in the post! K-9Lives ClueClucksClan. I'm very happy with how this second book has come out. The cover design looks much better than the first one, feels a more cohesive design and has a nice fake barcode on the back which I'm particularly proud of. I stole the idea from NobbyNobody at www.odd-fish.net but gave it my own twist. I'm feeling ready for my first convention now. I should have a lot of stuff on the table, including a few T-Shirts and Mugs (pic below). You can order the books from my online store http://www.dougwilson.co.uk/store.htm Or come see me at http://www.thefallenangel.co.uk/spexpo/exhibitors.php in Bristol May 22nd-23rd.

Promo Postcards

Here's the final designs for the free giveaway postcards I'm taking to the comic convention next month. I think it is a cool enough image that people will want to keep it and then it has two sample comics on the back which should appeal to everyone. I was very conscious of wanting to put the most accessible strips on the promo material. I ordered 100, I've no idea if that's enough but going to my first convention is all going to be a bit of a guessing game.