SO recently I was approached by an American film company, and asked if I'd be interested in doing the graphic novel which accompanies the film.


The message read if I have time would I be interested in doing 3 pages of a script, now the trick here was that they supplied no character details or info and left me to come up with whatever I wanted to.

I agreed signed a Non Disclosure agreement and proceded to work my tiny white ass off to deliver on the 3 day deadline they offered.

3 days yup, pencilled coloured conceptualised the whole trip, I eventually did deliver on the deadline.

A few days passed and no new mails, another few and still none then one fateful day of which the date right now escapes me.

Bling there it was a mail from the contact who hired me, and It read something like this, we love what you've done and feel you've captured the essence of what we are trying to achieve.

Wait it gets better, I quoted them and we settled on an amount for my services. Then went to do formal meetings and such on skype.

And not only will i be working on the graphic novel my work will be used for the videogame and movie.

(DREAM JOB HELLO)

This is he important part and I am referring to you my fellow South African Artists.

The main reason I was hired aside from my artwork was that

a) I was the only guy to meet the deadline (ergo I was serious)
some guys submitted 2 weeks later.

b) They liked my attitude and were happy that I not only did what they asked for but actually tried to exceed their expectations, within in my time limit. (originally only wanted pencils)

c) Also understand I like most of you work 9 to 5 and I work on weekends so when I say I worked my ass of I was up till 4 in the morning.


The Moral

If you want something, you will work your ass off for it, you will exceed your own expectations of yourself and you will go for it.

Because if you don't, you don't deserve it, and I just wanted to post this to let you know it can be done and if your positive and willing to put in a lil effort in your work you'll get very far no matter if your South African or what.

Also this comes after 2 personal defeats in my art career of which I won't mention.

I have faith in our local talent, so come on guys shine, put your stuff out there, learn practice get better and MOST OF ALL BE POSITIVE HAVE FAITH IN YOURSELF AND LOVE WHAT YOU DO.


And yes it's a huge undertaking I'am scared as hell, but Ill push, move forward hone my skills every second I get and be positive and just do this and hopefully ill do very well.

I know I was lucky, but it can be you too.

I hope this helped you guys out there a lil.

No I can't disclose details of the film or other related factors, I would love too but legally not allowed too.

And thanks for reading, and thanks for all your positive comments on my work.

Also submit your art everywhere you can on the web and listen to that little voice in your head (the one that say'e you can do it)

SOOOOOOOO

It finally arrived after much excitement and hard work I finally have a serious tablet.

THe intuous 4 is an amazing piece of kit and I highly recommend it to any creative, not only for it's value for money but for the very smart features that have been included to make an already great product better.

For starters with monitors going wide screen as a standard, wacom have released all the intuos 4's as widescreen tablets which makes browsing your pc or mac alot simpler albeit in a small way for creatives though it allows you to directly interface with your working area.

The 8 express keys and function wheel are excellent additions, and coupled with tiny oled displays make assigning hot keys a pleasure.

I can for example Ive set my express keys up in such a way that when I'am painting I don't even touch my keyboard. Brush resizing is handled with the the touch wheel which when you've gotten used to it works very well.

These are just some of the features available on the new Intuous 4 and there are some i haven't even tried out yet.

The only complaint I have with it, is the express keys, they are brilliant but they can be very hard to press down, this is especially apparent when your using an express key to substitute your space bar for scrolling an image.

Also it would be great if the included a feature to allow you to rotate the stylus, to adjust your stroke direction eg if your using a flat brush, it would be great if you didn't have to access your brushes to alter stroke direction.

However this could be more Painter Photoshop related than a Wacom issue.

I got mine through a reliable local online store called tech buddies [link] there service is great and they cater well for the digital art community of sa aswell as all other computer related goodies.

So i've finally reached 1000 page views awesomeness, and i'd like to thank you all who have faved my work and who view my page, seriously it's much appreciated and makes me feel rather well loved.

And next on my agenda I am in the market for the the new excalibur ok the new semi excalibur.... wait that sounds dirty... see told you.

Ok once more with feeling, I'am very close to purchasing a L wacom 4 for myself it's a huge thing for me, scuse the pun but I'am seriously amped to upgrade my arsenal of artistic gear and well the wacom 4 has arrived and it just feels right.

So i thought i'd just share if any of you have one feel free to brag here as i'am dying to know details from those who are currently using the new Intuos 4's.

Ok people remember respect each other, yourselves and don't forget the love if you have lost the love then wiki John Lennon and see what he say's cos apparently it's all you need. Later.....

So today I got the opportunity to lecture at the American embassy school, here in South Africa and it was tons of fun, getting to meet some of the futures talent.

A big shout out to the elementary school art class for inspiring me today with your amazing superhero ideas and your enthusiasm for for artwork.

I've always believed we can learn from other artists, but you often forget that Kids have an amazing unbridled creative spirit and that we as adults can learn a lot from them. This is important to me as I'am working on a childrens book and it helped me get in touch with my inner creative child. I was reminded that the main reason I enjoy drawing and writing is because it's fun.

So yeah today I did a cute lil character artwork which you can find in my scraps, as a result of getting in touch with my inner child

I hope you guys get to do something silly and childish today and try to maybe have it find it's way into your creative output.

ROCK on people

Ok so after a few grueling weeks of hard work, love and lots of photoshop madness I've finally submitted my entry to Udon.

I wont say who I submitted, as I wanna keep it a secret, but I put a lot of love into it and I feel my work has improved so I REALLY hope I get in.

Also I just want to say thanks to my friends for their support and criticism as I feel it has helped me create an awesome artwork.

So now I hold thumbs and have faith in my artwork.