Kt Shy's Sketch Blog!

2012-02-02T09:33:00.001-05:00

Madly working through some storyboards so I'll have to share my hourlies once I get time to scan them in this weekend. In the meantime here's a peek at a comic I'm working on with my bro Shaggy for the "Cautionary Fables and Fairytales" comic anthology.

In other news HOLY MOLY! Thanks so much everyone who jumped aboard yesterday's Silly Kingdom comic sale! We'll be packaging up all those orders and hauling them to the post office first thing next week :)

Hourly Comic Day SALE!

2012-02-01T10:10:00.000-05:00

If you haven't heard of "Hourly Comic Day" its a challenge taken on by a whole bunch of cartoonists around the world to document every waking hour with a comic panel or two (or more).

To celebrate these crazy awesome (crazy) endeavours we're having a sale on Silly Kingdom books and pdfs for the day (sale ends at midnight EST)!

I'll also be participating in hourly comic day (while juggling comic/storyboard deadlines) and you can check out my attempts from last year here!

Cheers gang! Thanks for being awesome!

Commission: Link for Candace

2012-01-27T22:19:00.001-05:00

2012-01-27T20:34:00.002-05:00

My roommate's cat... APPROVES.

Touch

2012-01-22T01:57:00.000-05:00

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!

2012-01-16T10:23:00.003-05:00

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

2012-01-14T20:16:00.002-05:00

“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

2012-01-14T04:54:00.002-05:00

Silly Kingdom on CBR

2012-01-14T02:06:00.001-05:00

"... 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!

2012-01-14T01:00:00.001-05:00

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

2012-01-13T18:05:00.001-05:00

(20 min^)

(2 min^)

(15 min^)

(20 min^)

Nofret and Miu

2012-01-07T02:40:00.001-05:00

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!

2012-01-04T23:19:00.002-05:00

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...

2011-12-31T04:46:00.001-05:00

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

_________________________________

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

Wild Kratts, Johnny Test, Mia and Me

_________________________________

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)

_________________________________

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

________________________________

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!)

________________________________

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.

_________________________________

"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

2011-12-30T02:30:00.000-05:00

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

A note to our amazing IndieGogo sponsors!

2011-12-29T16:39:00.002-05:00

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!

2011-12-23T22:56:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-15T03:12:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-14T11:55:00.000-05:00

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

2011-12-13T16:40:00.002-05:00

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.

2011-12-12T23:23:00.006-05:00

"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!

SPoT

2011-12-09T20:40:00.000-05:00

Holy last minute promotion Baman! What are you guys up to tomorrow afternoon? If you're in Toronto and the answer is "nuthin" then why not swing by the Small Press of Toronto (SPoT) book fair and say "hellooooooo" to my table buddy Adriana Blake and myself. We'll have art prints, originals, sketch commissions and I'll have a small batch of SILLY KINGDOM books available!

Yes the second print run of Silly Kingdom is here at last! And while most of the books are being packaged up for IndieGogo donors or held overnight to let the binding glue dry properly, I'll have a handful of books at the table tomorrow. If you'd like to grab a copy then swing on by early! (Tables are first come first serve so I don't know where I'm sitting yet). Otherwise we'll be restocking the online shop again after the weekend so if you're looking for a last minute Xmas gift consider picking up a copy for your loved ones and frenemies.

Cheers gang!

Live model studies

2011-12-08T01:26:00.000-05:00

(20 min ^)

(2 min warm ups ^)

(2 min ^)

(15-20 min ^)

Shanahanigans at ComicCon

2011-12-04T21:57:00.012-05:00

HA! Found the photobooth folk who were at the ComicCon party for Jeff Smith's 'BONE' posted pics of my siblings, Johane Matte and I as sample photos for the event. It was such a fantastic party in a ComicCon weekend FILLED with awesome events. This video on their page shows more photos of party attendees with the craziest ones being with Flight people (of course).

Five months later and I don't think I ever really did much of a recap from our California adventures (been so busy with Silly Kingdom, storyboards, Womanthology...) but we came back with some great stories that I'll do something with someday :)

...like this photo Tony took that looks REALLY BAD out of context...

(Taken during the Flight booth shut down at the end of ComicCon. FLIGHT I love you!!!)

Jackie Rose

2011-12-04T17:59:00.001-05:00

Guest art for Josh Ulrich's upcoming Jackie Rose book (which you can also read online here). I've always had a love for world-travelling-adventurer stories, bizarre ancient treasures, and scrappy clever heroines (with freckles!) That Jackie has to work crappy part time jobs to finance her own adventures was that extra slice-o-life humour that made me really dig Josh's story.

And here's the rough cintiq sketch!

SK Funder Commissions

2011-11-24T21:43:00.000-05:00

(plus preliminary sketches)

2011-11-21T11:09:00.001-05:00

Thursday night life drawings are BACK baby! After tracking down my camera (in the Cave of Wonders that is my ridiculously cluttered studio office) I took a couple snap shots of the studies I was happier with. This week we delved into drawing with ink, brush and chopsticks, which I rather quite enjoyed.

(2 min ^)

(5 and 20 minutes ^)

2011-11-17T01:48:00.000-05:00

My half of a loooong delayed art trade with sisterbelldandy for a lovely drawing she did of my sister's character Sci-Gee.

2011-11-16T18:24:00.000-05:00

A work break sketch inspired by some wicked Day of the Dead photos my pal Elaine Bogan took at an Aztec Blessing Ceremony last month. Here's the one that got me drawing:

Womanthology Sketchbook

2011-11-16T00:52:00.000-05:00

(cover art by Renae De Liz)

With the gigantic comic anthology "Womanthology"about to hit the printers at IDW Publishing (I just corrected a couple spelling errors in my art tutorial today) the coinciding project sketchbook is now available on Amazon.com! There are 100 pages of art work (including some of my character designs and page roughs), scripts excerpts, and rough page layouts from over 69 of us contributing artists. Should be fun! My comp copy will be on its way soon so I'll do a snazzy review to show it off when it gets here.

"Dancer and Muse"

2011-11-15T12:24:00.000-05:00

Made for a postcard project that the creators of “Namesake” are putting together. All done up digitally on a cintiq. And here be the pencils:

Womantholoy Preview

2011-11-15T01:45:00.006-05:00

Hey sweet! Preview pages from Womanthology are now online! I pencilled and inked a short story called "Margarite and Leopold" (written by Joamette Gil, colours by Mary Bellamy) and also put together a 3 page drawing tutorial. Looking forward to seeing this big ol' book in print!

2011-10-26T10:34:00.001-04:00

We're officially sold out of our 1st run of "Silly Kingdom" comics, thanks so much folks!! Shaggy and I are absolutely floored by your enthusiasm! We're working on ordering a new shipment from the printers and will have more books ready to order/ship out later into November. I'll add updates here and on the SK blog as they come, meanwhile digital PDF copies are always available: http://sillykingdomcomic.bigcartel.com/product/silly-kingdom-digital-pdf-comic

Thanks so much folks. You're all awesome ♥

Canzine!

2011-10-23T09:25:00.000-04:00

Hey Toronto! I'll be at Canzine today (Bathurst just north of Bloor $5 entrance) with copies of "Silly Kingdom, " art prints and a few original inked pieces- Come say hello!
I won't know my table number until they give it to me when I get there, (happy hunting!) but will start tweeting when I know more. Cheerio!

Canzine website: http://www.brokenpencil.com/canzine-3

Aaaaanimation... BOARDS.

2011-10-20T12:34:00.005-04:00

Yo KT! What is UP with the drawing dry-spell? Glad you asked, it's because I'm working full time on storyboards again, ya nutty darlings! Wild Kratt's season 2 (and Silly Kingdom) has been keeping my drawing hands preoccupied for the past two months. It's a fun show to work on and if you've got little one's (or are a little one) who enjoys animal learning action adventures with lots of nifty gadgets you can catch it on TVO Kids (and all over youtube).

YAY CARTOOOOONS!!1!

Silly Kingdom preview pages

2011-10-17T14:54:00.002-04:00

Hey folks! We've included the first 5 pages of "Silly Kingdom: Alengrimrickshaw's 211th Birthday" in the about section of our Silly Kingdom website to give those unfamiliar with the project a taste of what's to come.

Check it out here!

2011-10-16T16:49:00.000-04:00

A chilly autumn day doodle.

Silly Kingdom Fanart by JAKE!

2011-10-16T15:00:00.000-04:00

Our first official "Silly Kingdom" fanart by my insanely talented buddy Jake Wyatt! He drew the young desert witch Milsly, and I am TOTALLY stealing this colour pallet for canon. Thanks Jake!

Marla Bea Benefit auction for Cancer Research

2011-10-13T13:04:00.002-04:00

Hey folks! My “Power Girl” pencil & ink original is up for auction with all proceeds going to fund breast cancer research. Want some original Katie fanart and to help a good cause? Check out the listing on eBay.

More info on the Marla Bea Benefit Comic Art auction.

Xavier Institute for Gifted youngsters

2011-10-12T11:58:00.001-04:00

A morning doodle for the #fanartfriday tumblr. Jake Wyatt's student uniform designs are so rad, I had to try my hand at one with my fav childhood mutant, Rogue.

Silly Kingdom is HERE!

2011-10-08T00:37:00.005-04:00

"Silly Kingdom" is now available in our big cartel shop http://sillykingdomcomic.bigcartel.com/ as either a printed book shipped to your house or a digital PDF comic downloaded fast and easy to your computer! This is my brother Shaggy's and my first official self published comic and we are thrilled to get it out of our brains and into your hands and eyeballs. Thanks so much for your interest and enjoy your visit to Silly Kingdom!

Silly Kingdom Website: http://sillykingdom-comic.blogspot.com/

Big Cartel Store: http://sillykingdomcomic.bigcartel.com/

After all it's only one more sleep 'til Silly Kingdom!

2011-10-07T10:35:00.001-04:00

As of tomorrow we'll be opening shop to take in book orders for "Silly Kingdom"! A few people have already caught on to me sneakily putting the digital comic version available for purchase and gotten their downloads early (oh yooou!) We've been getting awesome feedback from readers and hope you all enjoy the comic as much as we enjoyed making it- let us know what you think!

*And kudos if you caught the Muppet Christmas reference

2011-10-06T19:06:00.000-04:00

A cute gift box droplet86.deviantart.com put together for her friend's daughter using my owl painting (with permission). This makes me want to get more crafty with stuff, I am in front of a computer way too much these days!

Silly Kingdom available at "Dr.Comics & Mr.Games"

2011-10-06T18:12:00.004-04:00

Hey Oakland folk! Before leaving California Shaggy and I dropped off some copies of Silly Kingdom at Dr.Comics & Mr.Games so if you missed us at APE you can nab them there! We're super stoked to have them carry our comic, it's a wicked shop (we hung around for a good long while browsing all the great titles)!

4014 Piedmont Ave. in Oakland

Going APE!

2011-10-06T13:05:00.005-04:00

Silly Kingdom. Shaggy wrote it I drew it.

Last weekend my bro Shaggy and I scooted over to San Francisco to adventure about the city, gorge on great food, and to debut our newly printed comic "Silly Kingdom" at the Alternative Press Expo (or APE). We had a jolly good time and San Francisco was beautiful and super good to us, I cannot wait to go back for another visit!

Shaggy and Chloe

We shared a table with cartoonist Chloe Dalquist who was a pleasure to hang out with all weekend. Thanks so much to everyone who came by to say HELLO and pick up copies of Silly Kingdom! It was super awesome meeting and chatting with you all!

Thi and Jake

One of the highlights was hanging out with two of my amazing ACA Comic Camp pals Thi Bui and Jake Wyatt. Thi was promoting the second chapter of her graphic novel "The Best we could Do" and Jake was representing "The Anthology Project: Vol 2" with much charismatic ferocity (he sold out of most of the books on day 1). These two were such a joy to be around and there were plenty of good laughs and great times all weekend. Mega thanks to Thi for taking Shaggy and I into her home while we were in town (and thanks to her son Hein for giving up his bunk bed to two Canadian vagabonds and for being so cool with sharing his legos!)

All in all our first APE was a big success with lots of fun extras thrown in: naps in the park, checking out the giant back storerooms of the local comic shop, manga themed restaurants, a dueling piano bar, cutting the pre-party to go get tapas with Craig Thompson and friends, sushi burritos, chocolate pasta, discovering that oyster shooters can indeed get you drunk -scale of the fish, anyone?- and many more.

Here's to good friends, good food, good comics, making good comics and having tons of comical adventures, BAAHHNG!

The Bossest Comics on Girlamatic

2011-10-05T20:14:00.001-04:00

So I was googling my name today (WHAT) and found this article written by Shaenon Garrity from "The Comics Journal" about the female friendly webcomic community Girlamatic.com and some of the "bossest" webcomics that can be read there. Shaenon does a sweet write up about some of her favourite strips (including my very own Shrub Monkeys).

Thanks Shaenon! The community at Girlamatic.com (or GAM) has been a little quiet these days as everyone's out pursuing their individual comic dreams, but there's still a good collection of comics updating regularly. There are also large backlogs of great stories created by artists who've either taken their early GAM stories to print (Raina Telgemeier's Eisner Award winning "Smile") or gone on to create awesome new projects (Svetlana Chmakova went on to do "Dramacon", "Nightschool" and plenty of other rad comics after her "Chasing Rainbows" was discovered on GAM).

Girlamatic's done some great stuff for me too, it gave me a structured platform for a webcomic that was kind of half formed and floating around in my head looking for a home, and introduced me to a whole gamut of wonderfully talented and friendly creators. This past weekend at APE I got to meet up with "Gammers" Karen Luk, Kory Bing and Michelle Mauk and I've bumped into many others on my world traveling comic related adventures. Reading Shaenon's article above made me nostalgic for the earlier days on GAM but it also makes me feel super stoked for all the different pathways we've taken and what stories we'll find and create along the way.

And now if I can only get myself to update a little more often ghu hu huuuuy...

Silly Kingdom digital copies released to backers

2011-09-27T23:44:00.001-04:00

Today my brother Shaggy and I sent digital copies of "Silly Kingdom" to the 274 amazing people who supported us in getting this comic made through IndieGogo.

We gave it our all and now it's time to push it out of the nest and see what it'll do!

Buttons!

2011-09-27T12:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday evening my bro Shaggy and I put together button packages for our IndieGogo button-level-perk-reward backers. The comic logo and 2 random characters each. Which two will you get? We'll have a handful of extras left for APE this weekend (one free button with a comic purchase) so get em while they last! (table #542)

PonyUP!

2011-09-26T11:26:00.006-04:00

So a couple weekends back my brother Shaggy threw a 'Ponies Marathon' where a bunch of us got together to eat cupcakes and analyze why "My Little Ponies: Friendship is Magic" is so insanely popular. Here's the resulting podcast (spoiler: we become shamelessly addicted to the show) http://talkingtothemicromaphone.blogspot.com/2011/09/tttm-030-pony-cast.html

Silly Kingdom release date: OCTOBER 8TH!

2011-09-26T09:39:00.001-04:00

Hey gang! The official release date for "Silly Kingdom" is Oct 8th! Running at 36 pages with b&w interior, this comic will be available to order in book form or as a digital PDF at http://sillykingdom-comic.blogspot.com/

For our IndieGogo supporters, the digital PDF of the comic is going out to you tomorrow and we'll start shipping books Oct 3rd. Check out the IndieGogo site for info regarding your perks! (click the blue 'updates' tab). http://www.indiegogo.com/Silly-Kingdom-at-San-Diego-Comic-Con

Thanks so much for helping us see this project all the way through!! :)

APE: Alternative Press Expo 2011

2011-09-23T19:13:00.002-04:00

Hey folks! If you're heading to APE in San Francisco next weekend (Oct 1-2) my brother and I will be hanging out at table #542 with cartoonist table buddy Chloe Dalquist, come on out and say hullo!

(Click to view bigger!)

#fanartfriday: Amulet

2011-09-23T16:10:00.000-04:00

Had to take a quick break from storyboarding, commission work and comic organizing to wind down with some fanart. Here's a tribute piece to Kazu Kibuishi’s “Amulet.” A fantastic adventure comic!

Alice in a Tea Cup-coloured

2011-09-21T22:19:00.001-04:00

The coloured version of this commission for my pal Nico!

Precipice of Darkness

2011-09-21T13:55:00.001-04:00

Drawn for Allison as a gift for her friend, both fans of Penny Arcade and their RPG computer game "Precipice of Darkness". Here are the rough thumbnail sketches.

The proof is in!

2011-09-21T12:54:00.001-04:00

I just checked out the proofs for my bro Shaggy's and my comic "Silly Kingdom". At long last we're GOIN' TO PRINT!

Spring for Zack

2011-09-21T00:01:00.000-04:00

A digitally pencilled commission of Zack's character "Spring!"

And several rough thumbnails from earlier.

Pentel, you are swell!

2011-09-20T20:33:00.001-04:00

The folks at Pentel are so amazingly sweet. After inviting me onto their site as a featured artist they went and sent me a goody bag of drawing tools including (a personal favourite) one of their pocket brush pens (I carry mine everywhere I go).

I'm having fun playing around with the different brushes and pens. I'm planning to do an inking demo this week as part of a feature for Womanthology, but for now here are some doodles drawn on the back of one of my Wild Kratts storyboard scripts using the brush pen and the hybrid technica.

Such a lovely gift, thanks Pentel!

Jesse and Sonali

2011-09-20T09:59:00.001-04:00

Commissioned as a wedding gift for my friends Jesse and Sonali who tied the knot last weekend. Here the happy pair are surrounded by their wedding party of friends and favourite fictional characters!

Margarite and Leopold finished page

2011-09-15T14:02:00.002-04:00

While I'm wrapping up on "Silly Kingdom" here's a finished page (minus text) from a comic I drew in collaboration with writer Joamette Gil and Mary Bellamy (who coloured the rest of the comic) for the 100% all-lady comic anthology "Womanthology" which will be published this winter through IDW Publishing. Fun times!

Silly Kingdom cover FINAL

2011-09-12T13:24:00.005-04:00

Can I get a round of applause for my friend Jason Caffoe colourist extraordinaire please? CLAP CLAP CLAP!

And here's some closer detail (including a fly doing the backstroke hyuk hyuk!)

And with text thrown in...

With the cover done, "Silly Kingdom" is ready to go to print this week, OH MAN SO EXCITED! :D

Portfolio and site updates

2011-09-08T18:46:00.003-04:00

Hey folks!

I've just made a couple quick changes to the site, the biggest being that I've added a page up top linking to an easy to browse portfolio collection of my work. MUCH nicer to look through than scrolling endlessly through this blog.

Secondly I've updated the site shop with some new prints and an easier to order paypal set up. I'm always open to suggestions so please let me know if things look alright or if you might have any ideas that can help my shop and the overall site be as convenient and simple to navigate as possible!

Thank you as always for visiting my site and for your lovely comments. I've been fairly quiet art wise but there are fun things on their way! Cheers!

Pentel Arts

2011-09-07T15:45:00.001-04:00

I'm super stoked that Pentel Arts invited me to be one of their site's featured artists. I've been using their lovely refillable pocket brush for a while and really dig it. They're sending me some sample products to try out for fun and I CANNOT WAIT to get my hands on them! :D

Comic Con Travel Show 2011

2011-09-07T15:14:00.005-04:00

Hey folks! My brother Shaggy has uploaded all 6 parts of the San Diego Comic Con segment of our travel show! Join us on the colourful, fun, weird and random journey that is SDCC. As I spent a majority of the con hanging out at the Flight booth, most of the screen time is shared between Shaggy and our little sister Heather as they wander around and she experiences SDCC for the first time.

There’s still more to come with the travel show as we did a bit of adventuring around on our own after the Convention ended. The show will conclude with our massive shout out to each and every one of our IndieGogo comic project funders! So stay tuned!

Little Island Comics

2011-09-07T14:34:00.002-04:00

While many eager intellectuals and young aspiring minds went back to school yesterday, my brother Shaggy and I decided to celebrate and flaunt our no-more-classes-no-more-books-freedom by popping into the comic shop for kids "Little Island Comics!" YAY!

Little Island Comics sits nestled between toy shops just south of Bloor and Bathurst on the "Honest Eds" side of the street. Like the title suggests it's a little shop, but it is PACKED wall to wall with an amazing assortment of beautiful children's books and an awesome comic collection which includes manga, graphic novels-both new and classic-of all genres, and a little section up front of large hard cover French comics (I can't read a lick of 'em but love staring at the pages.) Self described as the first kids-comic book store in North America -maybe even the world!- Little Island Comics is a sister store to The Beguiling comic shop which is just around the block.

(Shaggy spies Flight 8, an anthology we have a story in!

Not sure why he's making that expression...)

There's a big curtain sectioning off the back wall that Shaggy and I were hoping lead to a tunnel back into the Beguiling... maybe ending in a swirly rainbow slide into a ball pit. Talking to the friendly staff, we were told it'll be a space for comic work-shops and for guest talks and signings when book creators are in town. Toronto has a super supportive comic community, one of the reasons I love living here, and something like this excites me to no end about the future and growth of that comic culture. As a kid, sticking close to my dad while we wandered around dingy comic dungeons had it's own sense of fun and adventure, but if I had a place like THIS available back in the day? Twenty-eight year old me was excited being there, eight year old me would have melted into a hyper-glee-spasm.

(This trip's haul: It was hard only picking a few... and come on,

it's an INDIANA JONES comic. I've had a crush on Indy since I was 10)

I wish Little Island Comics much success and good fortune. If you're in Toronto swing on by and check it out. And don't be surprised if glancing in and seeing the small space you expect to only be there a minute or two but find yourself sticking around for a good long while.

Happy reading!

Silly Kingdom Cover Progress

2011-09-06T01:41:00.001-04:00

A work-in-progress on the “Silly Kingdom” comic front cover. Gorgeous colors by my friend Jason Caffoe (of Flight and Amulet comic fame). Still a couple tweaks left (yes dad I'm putting that fly in there!) but I'm super stoked at how amazing this is looking!

And the interior cover design. I had quite a lot of fun designing the Medieval border and messing around with look of the title. For those of my backers getting original sketches with their books they’ll be going on this page!

Orange doodle

2011-09-05T01:21:00.000-04:00

Orange colerase pentel and pencil pocket brush pen.

Another year older...

2011-09-01T22:11:00.000-04:00

I was completely blown away by all the lovely b-day messages sent my way yesterday, and realizing it was impossible to reply to each and every one of them individually, drew an all encompassing thank-you-Tapir instead! Thanks for checking out my comics and drawings, here's to another trip around the sun with plenty of doodles to share!

... and what's the significance behind the b-day Tapir? I dunno, I just like Tapirs. Some gals want a pony for their birthday, me... Tapir.

Comic Con Travel Show 2011

2011-08-24T17:52:00.000-04:00

Missed out on going to San Diego Comic Con this year? Well then, why not tag along with my siblings and I in our annual comic-con adventure video and pretend you were there with us!!? Guaranteed more fun than your ol' cousin's-uncle's-aunt's-twice-removed vacation slide show from their trip to Hoboken (unless that was an amazing slide show in which case WHY weren't we invited to watch??) So far episodes 1 and 2 are online with more to follow, and the very last episode will showcase a massive shout out list to thank everyone from our IndieGogo "Silly Kingdom at Comic Con" campaign for helping us fund our book and take promo copies to Comic-Mecca!

... I do not know why the iconic image youtube chose was of my breakfast crepe...

And here are a bunch of photos taken by my buddy Tony Cliff of shenanigans in and around the Flight Anthology booth where the whole group of us were stationed.

More Comic Con reports on their way!

Commission: Alice in a Tea Cup

2011-08-24T17:00:00.002-04:00

Commissioned by my uber entertaining and talented buddy Nico!

Plus some extra luv...

Commission: Phoenix Jr.

2011-08-24T15:11:00.009-04:00

MARVEL GIRL! Rachel Summers, daughter of Cyclopes and Jean Grey, commissioned for Aurélien.

(Fancy Instagram makes everything fancy)

Final inks above plus a couple roughs below from before we nailed down an approved design:

(oh man... that phoenix fire does not look happy.)
Phoenix Fire: "BuhQUEEEEH??!"

Uberfriendship Live-ish (Lol Miserables)

2011-08-20T19:27:00.003-04:00

A couple months back I had the pleasure of prancing around in a musical spoof my brother Shaggy cut together as an invite for a film screening cocktail-party-gala-extravaganza... it was an amazing party! A bunch of friends, bags of costumes, a smoke machine, and high-school-play quality props made for a super fun shoot.

Dr Sketchy sketch dump

2011-08-20T00:23:00.001-04:00

Hey folks! Many pardons for the lack of art posts- between finishing my pages for "Silly Kingdom" and "Womanthology" there hasn't been much time for extra drawing. However! I finally got around to scanning a few pages from my sketchbook drawn during two Dr.Sketchy's sessions back in early July. The two gorgeous models are Toronto burlesque artists Obscura and Mahogany Storm ("Toronto's Prince of Glitter").

Good ol' fashioned sassy fun!

Womanthology Sneak peek

2011-08-14T01:53:00.002-04:00

A peek at something I'm working on with Joamette Gil for the upcoming Womanthology book...

Animators Making Comics panel

2011-08-10T23:48:00.002-04:00

While at Con Bravo I had the pleasure of co-hosting my first ever panel at a comic con about "Animators Making Comics." I'll admit it was utterly nerve racking the first minutes before starting but as we got into it I started having a lot of fun (it helps to actually know what you're talking about too!) Friend and photographer Chris Cater took some snap shots while my brother Shaggy moderated and some friends and myself discussed how we got into animation, how we got into making comics, and how they affect, inspire and feed off one another.

From left to right we have Stephen Daymond (creator of the webcomic "Specimen B-28") Heather Leach (one of the amazing Con Bravo creators also working in animation) Adriana Blake (creator of the webcomic "Fall on Me") myself and my brother Shaggy (creator of awesome videos and comic writings).

So yeah! The only draw back is we ran out of time for questions, one hour goes by super quickly, but I'd happily jump on board one of these panels again at a future convention!

Summer Art Sale!

2011-08-10T13:08:00.000-04:00

As my end-of-August birthday approaches I’ve decided to sell off some original illustrations to good homes to make room for a whole new year of drawing! Each piece is only $50 Canadian (what a steal!) and comes with an 8.5x11 coloured print of the final digital drawing (or grey scaled if its a b&w piece) and an original “Thank you” doodle drawn by myself.

Check out the listings on my TUMBLR if you're curious and email me directly if you're interested in a particular piece.

I'll be putting up a couple new pieces every week until the end of the month, after that they go back into my portfolio for convention touring.

Cheers gang!

Shrub Monkeys #129

2011-08-09T22:56:00.000-04:00

Click the link to read this comic on Girlamatic.com!

Connie Bravo

2011-08-02T22:55:00.001-04:00

After the whirlwind adventure that was San Diego Comic Con and further California Shanahan-igans, I rolled right back into Toronto only to attend ANOTHER comic convention! Con Bravo is a fun new convention out in Burlington, Ontario, only in its second year but going strong! The folks who run the show contacted me to design their attendee badge (my take on the con mascot Connie Bravo). It was pretty rad seeing upwards of 1100 people strutting about wearing my drawing around their necks or pinned to whacky costumes. Pretty rad indeed.

And yes... apparently my name is Artist.

As IndieGogo draws to a close...

2011-07-20T01:00:00.000-04:00

(My brother Shaggy and I enjoy some celebratory gelato after picking up demo/sample copies of “Silly Kingdom” that we’re taking to San Diego Comic Con for promotional purposes- not for selling)

Thank you all so much for your insanely kind and generous support of our newest comic project “Silly Kingdom!” There are only 2 hours left of the IndieGogo comic campaign with commission level rewards still available if you’d like to pre-order the project and get some extra goodies in the process!

Silly Kingdom comic campaign: http://www.indiegogo.com/Silly-Kingdom-at-San-Diego-Comic-Con?a=117541&i=addr

Shaggy’s Q&A video for the project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEk7Hp_0Rxw&feature=player_embedded

I cannot thank you guys enough for your support. Sitting at this computer, on the wrong side of two all-nighters, and waiting for a cab to take my siblings and I in the airport makes me very introspective (introspective….? Introspective). Making comics and drawing for fun is what makes me happiest. Your comments, support and good vibes makes it all that much sweeter. Thank you for bringing good things into my life and I hope my work continues to do the same to you :)

~Kt

Okay… coffee time… definitely!

Silly Kingdom cover inks

2011-07-18T10:54:00.000-04:00

Cover art inks for Silly Kingdom. For the final comic I'm going to make a custom design title instead of using an existing font, but with limited time to print demo copies for San Diego Comic Con this'll do for now.

Silly Kingdom cover art

2011-07-17T12:54:00.002-04:00

Hey folks! I've been devoid of internet all week hence the lack of art updates (curse you Rogers!) but here are the cover pencils for my brother's and my comic project "Silly Kingdom: Alengrimrickshaw's 211th Birthday," which I'll have inked within the next hour.

There are only 62 hours left on our IndieGogo campaign and we're close to DOUBLING our original goal! Thank you all so much for your love and support! We could not be doing this without you.

And now, back to inking insanity...

Silly Kingdom Update: Q&A

2011-07-09T08:15:00.000-04:00

Hey folks! My brother Shaggy has put together a short video of Q&As for our "Silly Kingdom" IndieGogo comic project, so if you've been curious about the campaign be sure to check it out!

There are 11 days left to pledge for your copy of the comic and lots of reward perks still available!

Silly Kingdom at Comic Con on IndieGogo

2011-07-07T07:48:00.000-04:00

After using Ger's smaller wacom cintiq to pencil comics all week, my own 21UX feels ridiculously huge.

Silly Kingdom update

2011-07-07T07:41:00.000-04:00

A sneak peek of panel progress I shared on twitter as thanks for helping our Indiegogo comic project "Silly Kingdom at Comic Con" pass the 5K mark! Which means shipping of comics and rewards around the world is fully covered as well as future reprints. Yay!

Artist Introspective in Digital Artist magazine

2011-07-03T18:41:00.002-04:00

I tracked down issue 20 of the UK art magazine "Digital Artist" at my local Chapters bookstore. Editor April Madden was kind enough to invite me to put together an artist introspective for the magazine a couple months back and at last I get to see it in print!

Oh boy, oh boy, and right under "Sweaty Eskimo" no less (wha?)

I chose ten images I'd illustrated and talked a little bit about the thought process behind them and different artistic techniques I like to use (all digital).

"Artistic skeletons" all up in this cupboard! Thank you April and the rest of the folks at Digital Artist for featuring me in your sweet magazine! I am absolutely thrilled!

Thanks for your support!

2011-07-03T12:03:00.003-04:00

A thank you drawing for the awesome folks who've helped my brother Shaggy and I out with our IndieGogo "Silly Kingdom" comic campaign! With your help we hit our funding goal within FOUR days and then surpassed at the end of the week (we're at 134% of our goal). Madness! And we love you for it!!! ♥

There are still 17 days and tons of great rewards left, so do consider pledging to our campaign if you'd like to get a copy of the final comic, or even just a digital download emailed to you when it's finished!

http://www.indiegogo.com/Silly-Kingdom-at-San-Diego-Comic-Con

Flight 8 is out on bookshelves!

2011-06-28T14:28:00.010-04:00

Flight volume 8 was officially released today and so it marks the end of an eight book run from an anthology that's inspired me since I discovered volume one back in college! Flight itself isn't over, it's moved towards young adult publication with a new series which will go by the name "Flight Explorer", but the original anthology series is now complete.

It's been both a privilege and an honor to have been invited to take part in the final two volumes of Flight, an anthology that gave a lot of young artists their start in getting their works published. Huge thanks and congrats go to Kazu Kibuishi who created this series, brought so many amazing artists together, and introduced me to a whole crew of fantastic new friends and inspiring creators. Flight has definitely been a positive force in my life for which I am so very grateful!

In this book, my brother Steven ("Shaggy") Shanahan has written and I've illustrated a short story called "Buttons and Jim: What's Stopping the Gravy Train?" To celebrate the book release I thought I'd share the step by step process of how I create a page from start to finish.

I do my roughs on a wacom cintiq, it's fast and easy to make fixes. At this point I was happy enough with the set up so I printed the pale red "pencils" onto 11x14 Strathmore windpower smooth bristol...

I tighten up the pencils and move on to inking. On this comic for the most part I used a windsor&newton series 7 size 01 brush and super-black speedball india ink. For the character's faces I used micron and prismacolor premier markers, nothing bigger than a size 02.

I've heard from other artists that microns are no good and copic markers are the way to go, but I've never had a problem with microns on bristol and when I bought a pack of copic they wouldn't put down a consistent line. May just have been that particular set of markers, but I'll stick with what works for me.

Now I scan in the finished page, delete the red layer (you can see my tutorial on deviantart for how this gets done) and tidy it up as best I can until I'm ready for...

Colour! I'm no expert on colour so I don't like to get too involved in explaining my process (as I don't think I can teach anyone anything from my method of randomly sliding colour bars around in photoshop). But basically I start flat, and then build up from there. For this comic I wanted to keep the pallet flat without shading except for a bit of gradation in the background. Special thanks to Gerry Duchemin for helping me out with this stage of production!

Final polish! Huge thanks to my artist friend Jason Caffoe for tweaking the page to help things pop!

Print! I have nothing to do with this stage of the game, but I can't wait to get MY HANDS ON THIS BOOK! (that's Jason's hand in the pic). So yes! Flight volume 8 is now available on amazon, in book and comic shoppes, and hopefully soon at your local libraries. So be sure to keep an eye out for it :)

Still in the reading mood? Here are some blog posts about the final book from a few of my inspiring Flight peers:

Jake Parker
Sonny Liew

Cheers guys!

Flight 8 is available at amazon.com & amazon.ca

2011-06-26T16:14:00.003-04:00

A commission for DeviantArt's zsos and offseasonartist.

2011-06-25T15:57:00.002-04:00

From Vera Brosgol’s excellent comic (and my favourite read this year!) “Anya’s Ghost.”

IndiGoGo campaign "Silly Kingdom at Comic-Con!"

2011-06-24T09:24:00.003-04:00

Hey folks! My brother Shaggy and I are putting together a new comic project with the aim of premiering it at San Diego Comic-Con and its new indie comic companion Tr!ckster next month! We're looking to raise funds for publications and travel costs through IndieGogo, so please check it out! Every bit helps, and if you could spread the word to help us drum up the support we need to get this project off the ground that would be amazing. You guys rock!

Shrub Monkeys #128

2011-06-20T16:18:00.004-04:00

Click here to read the full comic on girlamatic.com!

Podcast Time!

2011-06-20T10:11:00.001-04:00

The fabulous gents at "Guys with Pencils" have a new episode up with myself as the guest! Listen to us talk about all kinds of arty/geeky/animationy/comicy stuff and have a blast while doing so!

A couple commissions...

2011-06-19T14:27:00.000-04:00

For Mikiko

For Greer

2011-06-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

Hoo man, been devoid of internet for a week while we switched providers, got to get more drawings up on this here blog! In the mean time here are a bunch of 20 minute studies from LD class.

Couple life drawing pics

2011-06-11T21:12:00.000-04:00

(2 min ^)

(20 min^)

(MONSTER MASH! ^)

2011-06-11T19:32:00.000-04:00

“Jolies Tenebres” a savage faerie tale with lovely painted art that alternates between the cute and creepily twisted. For the #fanartfriday tumblr.

Shrub Monkeys #127

2011-06-10T18:09:00.000-04:00

Click here to read the full comic on girlamatic.com!

Daily Doodle: DOILY DRESS

2011-06-10T01:40:00.002-04:00

Doooilllyyyy...

Daily Doodle: Focus

2011-06-09T23:58:00.003-04:00

Daily Doodle: Space Suit

2011-06-07T23:41:00.001-04:00

Gah, I've totally fallen behind on the draw-a-thing-a-day-outside-of-work-and-comics challenge for this month. Have to catch up...

How I deal with art blocks...

2011-06-06T22:58:00.000-04:00

ANGRY DANCING IS HOW!! D:<