Touch

A doodle I've been fiddling with all week between work, GNURRR I need to keep studying anatomy and drapery, there's still so much I don't quite understand. Keep moving forward!

Guys with Pencils interview DEUX!

Adam and Andrew invited my brother Shaggy and myself back for another hilarious episode of "Guys with Pencils." An hour long podcast loaded with shenanigans, our tale of the making of "Silly Kingdom," the trials, tribulations and triumphs of DIY book publishing, and all kinds of geeky/arty/animationy/comicky stuff.

CENSOR WARNING: This podcast contains cussing and naughty language (sorry mum!)

If you enjoyed this, you can check out the first Guys With Pencils interview I did here!

(I also really dig that this is episode number 42.... )

Comic Creators for Freedom

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” -Margaret Mead

I was invited to participate once again in the very important "Comic Creators for Freedom" drive to help raise awareness and funds to combat human trafficking. Over 120 comic artists teamed up to compile a massive "snow ball fight" wallpaper incentive for donors as thanks for their generous contributions (you can see our Princess from "Silly Kingdom" preparing to loose a snowball into the crowd!)

In the first week alone folks from across the internet banded together and helped raise $5000- every penny of which will be split evenly between "Love 146" and "Gracehaven". For more information on these  preventative and aftercare organizations, and to donate or read more about Comic Creators for Freedom, please check out the website.

super quick super girl doodle

Silly Kingdom on CBR

"... Shanahan's charmingly expressive art is always worth checking out."

Oh awesome! A small write up about "Silly Kingdom"on the Comic Book Resources website (sweet!) 

Con Bravo!

Last month I was asked if I'd like to design a banner for the "ConBravo!" comics/games/anime convention website by convention-chair Mark Tjan. Of course I said "YES!" and today the new site went live. Here's a look at some of the miscellaneous background characters, including a few cameos (because I just can't seem to help myself...)

Bunch o' Life Drawings

(20 min^)

(2 min^)

 (15 min^)

 (20 min^)

Nofret and Miu

A #fanartfriday tribute to Johane Matte (Rufftoon) who draws everything with insane amounts of appeal and always pumps up the fun factor by 500%!!! It’s about time I finally drew something for her-  Johane’s a huge source of inspiration for me and I’m super honoured to have her as a buddy :)

I recorded my inking on Ustream in case you guys were curious to see my process!

First post of 2012!

I’ve been getting lots of questions about the heart shaped sticky notes in my studio, so here’s a close up of a section. They’re little inspirational quotes and life-reminders to myself, something I can turn to and get myself pumped up whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or blue. I anticipate filling the WHOLE wall with these things this year!

Also, here's the first non-storyboard related doodles for 2012! Link sketches for an IndieGogo commission.

You can watch me draw these on this week's episode of "Shanahanigans Live!" (airs live every wednesday 7:30 pm EST. Showcases nerdy talk and random rants with me and my bro Shaggy!)

A look back at 2011...

If I had a mantra for 2011 it may have gone a little something like- "GO! GO! GO! DON'T LOOK BACK!! AAUGH!!!" While some days it seems to have all whipped by at the speed of a fast-thing, when I actually stop to pause, breath, drink some tea, nap, and look back, I'm really happy with what was accomplished in this one short year. 2011 was definitely a very productive and adventurous years in my life, and if you'll indulge me for a few minutes here are a few of the highlights... (INDULGE ME!!!)

I drew comics and illustrations for beautiful anthologies...

The Anthology Project 2,  Flight 8,  Girls Drawing Girls 4,  Womanthology

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Kept a roof over my head and food in my belly storyboarding on fun animation projects... 

Wild Kratts,  Johnny Test,  Mia and Me

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Travelling, LOTS of travelling!

Quebec, New York City, Portland, San Diego, Los Angeles, Disney Land, and San Francisco! While on the road I reunited with fabulous friends, met wonderful new ones, got engaged to my best friend Gerry, got into plenty of sibling shenanagins,  explored new cities, ate tons of tasty food and experienced a whole shebang of fun adventures! While I like travel for travel's sake, most of these trips were of the nature of "business trips." And by "business" I mean COMIC CONVENTIONS!

location: All over th' place

Comic conventions in 2011: 

Wizard World (Toronto), Mocca (New York), Stumptown (Oregon), Anime North (Toronto), TCAF (Toronto), San Diego Comic Con, Con Bravo (Ontario), APE (San Francisco)

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Built up confidence and fell in love with inking by brush 

Prior to October 2010 I'd never even picked up a brush expect for sloppy painting attempts

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Self published"Silly Kingdom."

Started and published a brand new comic called "Silly Kingdom" with my brother Shaggy.  Printing was financed through pre-sales of the book by our amazing friends from around the world (who helped us reach more than double our original IndieGogo fundraising campaign request and made us feel very loved indeed!) 

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Drawing art for some excellent philanthropic projects-

One of the greatest compliments anyone can give me is to tell me that something I drew made them smile and made their day a little bit brighter. This year I was invited to help out with a couple great charity projects- drawing fun and goofy illustrations for the power of good.

Several of my inked originals were auctioned off to charities focused on cancer research. Comic Creator's Alliance fights to end child trafficking through Prevention and Aftercare programs, and Womanthology is a charity comic book anthology with all profits being donated to Global grassroot organizations.

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"And  many more..."

Setting intentions for 2012!

As I'm still in the thick of finishing project deadlines I probably won't relax and start planning my goals for 2012 until we're well into January, but the BIGGEST focus for 2012 is to find a healthy balance between love, career, and friendships.

Aaaaaaand I also want to go on more adventures, fill my head with knowledge, and draw comics and pictures that make people smile. I want to learn to read French (so I can finally read my French comics!) and go to the Angoulême International Comics Festival (with a big collection of Silly Kingdom stories!) Try my hand at  violin, parkour, fencing, aerial arts, paint a mural, volunteer in the community, and... uh... draw more Shrub Monkey comics!

Thanks so much for reading! My very fondest wishes to you all in the new year. May 2012 be filled with laughter, love and lots-of-inspiration,

My current studio set up

(I'll tidy things up after my storyboard deadline!)

A note to our amazing IndieGogo sponsors!

Happy Holidays everyone! We hope you've all been enjoying a lovely Winter Solstice, Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa, winter/summer/what-have-you-DECEMBER-MONTH-DAY!

We've posted an update for our Silly Kingdom pre-sale donors on our IndieGogo page, but for those who missed it WE HAVE SHIPPED ALL YOUR BOOKS! Yay!

If you haven't received your packages yet (we've sent out art print and button rewards) it should be arriving any day now. The last remaining funder rewards are the commission-level ones that I (Katie) am working on piece by piece. So if you haven't written me to let me know what you'd like me to draw for you yet, please drop me a line at: sillykingdomcomic@gmail.com

Thank you all so much for your enthusiasm in helping my brother Shaggy and I get Silly Kingdom made this year! We learned a lot getting this first book out, and we couldn't have done it without the support and amazing encouragement from each and every one of you.

A very happy and inspirational New Year to you all! See you in 2012 :)

The making of... Silly Kingdom!

Now that almost everyone of our IndieGogo book orders and Christmas rush comics have been shipped out, here's a little behind the scenes look at the making of my brother Shaggy's and my latest comic project "Silly Kingdom"

Silly Kingdom BACK IN STOCK

At long last my brother Shaggy's and my comic "Silly Kingdom" is BACK IN STOCK! (December bonus: Free shipping WORLD WIDE)

We realize this is pretty last minute for Christmas gifts, but if you order by Friday Dec 16 noon EST we'll be shipping everything out by airmail that day and your books should take no more than 5 business days to arrive. With the high holiday traffic we can't 100% guarantee it'll arrive by Friday the 23rd, but bonus after-holiday gifts are fun too, right? ABSOLUTELY!

Let us know in the check-out descriptions box (or email us at sillykingdomcomic@gmail.com) if you'd like us to personalize the comic to someone special! :)

Silly Kingdom winter art print

Here's a peek at the art print that will be going out to my IndieGogo donors :) 

And BAM! Jason Caffoe has knocked it out of the park once again with his colours. 

Womanthology preview in Diamond Bookshelf

Hey nice! The comic I drew for Womanthology got a giant one page preview in "Diamond: Bookshelf." Story by Joamette Gil and the rest of the pages coloured by Mary Bellamy. Fun stuff! (nice to see an awesome Kali Fontecchio illustration too!)

Womanthology will be available in January and you can preorder it (and support your local comic shop) by giving them this order code:

Cheers gang!

Shanahanigans at the Small Press of Toronto Winter Fair.

"Shanahanigans are a foot, you say!"

This past weekend my brother Shaggy, myself and my lovely table-buddy Adriana Blake attended the Small Press of Toronto winter book fair in the University of Toronto's Hart House campus. It was a humble event of about 50 vendors and a nice sized gathering of the curious, but I think what delighted us especially was how freakin' awesome the Hart House campus is!

Table buddy Adriana marvels at the Gothic Revival architecture pre-set up.

Now, the serious and stuffy kinds of scholarly folk might cringe at the notion of Hart House being compared to a certain Wizarding school, but I was delighted to hear "Feels like I'm at Hogwarts!"at least ten times while I was there (my own utterance being one of them). Took long enough, y'dumb OWL.

Adriana peeking out from behind our merch.

My bro and I had a handful of fresh-off-the-printer copies of our new-run of "Silly Kingdom" books and were all out of them by the end. Thanks to everyone who bought a copy and kind thanks to all our generous IndieGogo patrons who swung by to pick theirs up, you guys are the best! 

Aside from selling books, checking out books, buying snacks, eating cupcakes, and running amuck on campus filming the rest of our IndieGogo "shout outs" (more on that later) my brother and I were lucky enough to have one of our pals (and notorious cupcake supplier) Chris Cater indulge us a photoshoot to celebrate our new comic. 

Fun times! I'll update with more info on adding Silly Kingdom to the online shop as soon as we pick up the remaining boxes of books this Wednesday!

Cheers gang, thanks for reading!