Christmas Time

Well, it's that time of year again. Christmas has come around quite quickly this year, sneaking up on me from behind November like a Jack in the Box. I'm more or less ready present wise, just a few bits and bobs to get for the family at the weekend and I'll be fine.

The Comic is ready again this year, while we're in the middle of our mini "Moo & Keo in South Africa" storyline we won't be touching on Christmas as part of main continuity we will however be marking the occation with a special two part strip on Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. Both strips were inked at the weekend and I'll be doing the colouring this weekend, so there should be nothing stopping them being up on time.

I've been doing a lot better time wise with the comics of late, I'm finding that writing in bulk helps very much. Also I've acquired a few more copic markers, and will be getting a few more again for Christmas. This gives me a lot more flexibility with what I can draw.

New Copics

More Sketches

Seeing as it is Sunday (or it was up until 20 minutes ago, I really should get to bed) I thought I'd share a couple of sketches of M&K with you. Yet again these are me trying to get better with the copics, hope you enjoy:

Keo reads today's comic script

Let's go fly a Kite!

Keo

Copics

So, Copic markers have always been in the back of my head as something I'd like to try and mess around with. For those of you that aren't familiar with them they are basically alcohol based makers from Japan that are used a lot by professional manga artists. They allow blending between different colours, are re-fillable and can be re-tipped.

Anyway, Philippa Rice (a.k.a. The Juzzard, the wonderful artist behind My Cardboard Life) announced on her Twitter feed the other day that she'd been playing around with some. After a brief chat about what she thought and her recommending a supplier I decided to take the plunge and try them out myself.

So far I only have enough colours to draw Moo and Keo themselves, copics are expensive, but it's been enough for me to fall in love with using them. I've found that I'm goig to need some better paper stock to be going forward as tey do tend to bleed through very easily (I have just ordered some copic pads). Below is one of my first tests of Keo:

Keo Drawn with Copic Markers.

It needs further experimentation to be 100% sure but at this stage I'm tempted to make the investment of more copics, better paper and eventually to do Moo & Keo's art 100% by hand.

Anyway, more drawing ho!

EDIT:
A couple more examples for you

Moo on the phone

Keo, also on the phone