Started this little piece while on plane flight back from watching a music gig about a month ago; finally went back and finished inking it the other night. It’s based on a time travelling character from a comic series I’m currently working on (whenever I get free time, which is pretty rare at the moment).
Uni has started to pick up again too. Man, I forgot how quickly semester gets out of hand!
Away for a small break in Brisbane this weekend to see Porter Robinson and Madeon’s “Shelter” concert (if you actually look at my “about me” page you’ll see that these two artists both rank in my top 5, so imagine how excited I was to see them both at once!) It was absolutely amazing and something I’ll remember for a good while.
Of course this meant I didn’t have my scanner and computer to finish cleaning up this piece, but my phone and little Surface managed to just pull through with it. Still playing around with concept art for my next comic project, but I have also started doing the pencils for the first issue too.
Well I’ve finally got internet again after having it go down for over two weeks because my ISP couldn’t figure out how to transfer my house to a different plan… I’m not bitter at all, nope.
One good thing did come from a fortnight without internet: lots of time for art. I’ve finished a few zines I’d been putting off for a while and I’ve just outlined my next mini comic project (the piece above is some concept art for the comic’s cover). All things going to plan, it will be a 12 part mini series published through sneakily hidden zines.
Hope you’ve all had a better fortnight than me, I’ve definitely missed keeping up to date with everyone’s different blogs, that’s for sure!
Commission I did for one of the fantastic con volunteers
***Commissions are go! If interested send me an email at mechanicalpen.wordpress(at)gmail.com***
***Original inked A5 sketches done to the detail seen on this blog are $30 usd +postage (happy to ship world wide)***
With that out of the way, I attended my first con as a vendor on the weekend and it was amazing! I met so many great people (shout out to >Zac<, >Ash< and >Katie< who you should definitely check out at their respective youtube and tumblr accounts) and it was fantastic to talk to the like minded. My goal for the day was to break even with table and printing costs and I absolutely smashed that goal, so you could say I was a little ecstatic come the end of the day.
Overall, definitely can’t wait until my next opportunity to attend a convention!
Table set up and ready to go!
Handwriting looks much better when intentionally bad
Found the time this week to finish up an entry for my town’s local pop culture convention art competition that’s happening next month. Overall, pretty happy with the end result. It was a bit of an experiment in drawing at A4 scale too, as I usually draw at A5. Understandably, it took about twice as long to complete, but I think making it larger in this case was the right choice.
Just for fun, here’s a little gif comparing my initial sketch to the final outcome:
Here’s one to make up for lack of posting last week. Sketch Weekly is finalised for tomorrow, so at least it’s guaranteed to be posted on time!
The time has come to be a fucking super hero!
I’ve been a long time fan of Deadpool; Marvel has me hook, line and sinker. I read the comics, I buy the merch, and I’ve been drooling over all of the promotional material in the lead up to the new movie.
It was brutal, violent, crude and offensive.
In other words: perfect.
So I thought, what better way to celebrate this achievement in cinematography, than by drawing the Merc with a Mouth himself?!
So now I have a bunch of photo references of my hand saved to my phone because of this…
Today’s Drawlloween prompt: Zombie
Drawlloween/Inktober day 8
Just scraping in for the first day on Inktober (at least by Australian time)! Here is my latest minicomic; have a read and let me know what you think.
I’ll be doing my best to keep up with Inktober, but it’s the end of semester, so I have a shittonne of assessment I need to get through over the next 2 weeks. Really looking forward to seeing what other people produce for it though, as (if you hadn’t already guessed), ink is my favourite medium.
Due to a few set backs, inking took a little longer than I had planned, but nevertheless here it is: my first zine/minicomic (not really sure which category it falls under, so if someone knows the difference between the two, please fill me in!).
I will be doing a print run of these and secretly dropping them in random books at my local library too (shh don’t tell the librarians…), so it’ll be interesting to see if someone picks one up. And if by chance you ARE one of them, I’d love to know, so please leave a comment or send me a tweet (@MechanicalPen_).
If you would like a physical copy, I’d more than happily send one out in an envelope direct to you, send me an email at ‘sam_mulhern(at)hotmail.com’ and we can work it from there
So I’ll stop talking now and let the art take over:
(For those who read all the way, that QR code actually takes you to a hidden part of my site with some secret art, so be sure to give it a scan!)
My town had a regional comic convention last weekend, and after speaking to a number of the exceptionally talented indie artists there, I decided it was time to kick my butt into gear and get some comics out there.
So, instead of my regular “Sketch Weekly” this week, here is a dump of a whole bunch of practice work I have been doing in preparation for my final minicomic/zine.
With everything going to plan, I should hopefully have the final piece inked by tomorrow (after doing the pencils all tonight)! In the mean time, here are the thumbnails for the comic, so be warned, spoilers below!
Excuse the piece of hair that’s been scanned in. Should wear a hair net next time…
Whilst on my uni break, I thought I would turn that procrastinating time into something a little more productive (however I have been watching an unreasonable amount of cartoons too).
This productivity has taken the form of plotting out a graphic novel on the most riveting action/romance/coming of age story ever imagined all based around: bird migration!
Slight re-work has taken place since this sketch, and it is now being called “Southward”.
Better pick up your socks, I know! But in all seriousness, I have been thoroughly researching bird migration and the struggles the Eurasian Dotterel faces year after year as it migrates from its Summer mating locations to winter nesting grounds, and thought it would translate nicely into a visual form.
Whilst I finish out the plot a bit more, have a look at some of my practice sketches. A few look ended up looking like malformed dinosaurs, but that’s why I’m practicing.
I hope to keep you regularly updated with my process through this venture.
mechanicalpen 