Art O brother fan art process Last week, I got a hankering to watch O Brother, Where Art Thou? and after I'd watched it, I got a hankering to draw some of the characters. As I did most of the work digitally, it was fairly easy for me to export the various steps as I went
Design Systems Typography in Design Systems (rebound) About a week ago, I read Dan Mall's article, Typography in Design Systems, and I've been meaning to write a quick rebound post to expand on the section about the system in code with something I've been doing in my own work. In the original article, Dan shows how he
Comics 3 pages inked! My schedule doesn’t usually allow me time to smash out page after page of comics but having a week off work afforded me time to do just that. A comic I started weeks ago and decided to redraw the other day, is finally taking shape. 3 down, 2 to
Comics It’s ok to start over I’ve finally started work on a comic I’ve had bouncing around my head for years. The characters and story are starting to slot into place but there’s still a lot to do. The comic will be a fairly long story but broken down into smaller stories, which
Learnuary Learnuary resources I've not really had a chance to contribute any visual stuff to the Etherington Brothers #learnuary campaign yet but wanted to get something quick out there for people to start mulling over so I thought a short list of useful resources I find help me when drawing and writing. Drawing
Comics My process I’m nearing the end of a project for Bottleneck Gallery to produce 50 illustrations for their customers. I’ve been posting photos and time-lapse videos to Instagram and Facebook along the way but these are always just snapshots of the overall process so I thought it might be interesting
Comics Wrestling with character Most people who know me will probably be sick of hearing me say that I’m working on a comic. Hell, I’m sick of telling people and not just getting on with it. I have a protagonist, some characters he meets along the way and an antagonist and his
Sketch app Open .ai in Sketch Today I was sent an Illustrator (.ai) file from a client which I needed to use to output a .svg file. The only problem is I don't have Illustrator so I had to go searching for a solution. A quick google didn't offer much. Some solutions assumed you had access
Process Creative spotting When I draw, it's often in isolation. I don't have any friends nearby with whom I can just hang out with to shoot the shit about drawing cartoons and comics. I get really inspired by people I follow on Twitter and Instagram. Seeing the work they're doing makes me want
Grid Systems Create a cross-page grid in Sketch Yup, another post about grids! This time it's less of a mind dump and more of a quick tip I've picked up this afternoon. Earlier this week, Tim linked to a Sketch plugin called Symbols which allows you to keep layers in sync by way of a simple layer naming
Process Slaying pedantry and trolls Since December 2008, at least once a year, I listen to Stephen Fry's podcast on language. The subject in itself is fascinating but the delivery has all the rhythm, pace and in some sense even a melody making it a listening experience which rivals many a tune out there in
User Experience Thinking beyond the web A couple of things has shaped the way I approach projects recently. Discussing design with Tim over beers has shed light on a better design process. And seeing Aral Balkan speak at Wuthering Bytes last month has started to change my outlook on the overall work I do. As designers
Process Staying relevant Last night saw a group of creative types congregate in Huddersfield for another HuddsDigitals meetup. As a change to the usual format (casual meet in a bar over drinks), we saw ourselves involved in a more structured panel/group discussion talking about keeping up-to-date in a fast moving industry. By
Process Just do it Having the ability to just have an idea and go "right, we'll just try and make this thing because we think that's a problem that needs to be solved". And I highly recommend being naive, because it will get you so far... ...naivety means you don't really know
Self-improvement Life after RSS... Back in 2007, I bought my first MacBook. I remember spending an hour or so that morning setting up the apps I needed, dropping some music into iTunes and adding email accounts to Mail. I discovered that here in the Mail app was where RSS feeds were dropped. I immediately
Apps Writing on the move Recently I've seen a couple of new services popping up on Twitter which use a combination of markdown text files and Dropbox to create a blog. Since they we both free to sign up and I have a Dropbox account that I use religiously, I thought I'd give them a
Photography Compose, then recompose So for my first real article on this blog, I wanted to write about something that only really registered with me on a conscious level the other day and that is the idea of moving around a scene while shooting for better composition. This is a simple idea that most
Process Evernote for writing When I first built this site, I started a blog which was terribly built, not in a CMS and a nightmare to maintain. Back in those days, I didn't think about keeping copies of things so that site is now lost in the depths of time but the motivation to
Photography Coffee and bokeh This weekend Luisa and I made the journey down from Yorkshire to Kent visiting her family. On the way down the M1 we stopped off to get some much needed coffee. Before we hit the road again, I took a shot of my cup of coffee sitting on the car
Web Development IE6, sorry it's just not working out With IE8 on the verge of release in the next month or two, I'm probably not the only developer in the world who can't help but think this may actually be the beginning of something good. There'll (hopefully) be a lot less headaches and fewer wasted hours fixing CSS problems.
Process A day in the life of an Editorial Cartoonist A great video created by Justin Fowler on the day in the life of an Editorial Cartoonist.
Process Struggling with motivation... How do you stay motivated and focused in a world of distraction? I'm teeming with inspiration and ideas but I can't seem to rustle up the energy to start bringing the ideas into fruition. After getting home from work and eating food, my brain starts to shut down. Does anyone
