The Boy and the Telescope

Knackered

Well my manga skills may leave a lot to be desired (in fact they're crap), but I think my doodles aren't too bad. 

I've had a really long day/week/year so I thought I'd draw myself on the way to work tomorrow (I probably won't be this well dressed).

Chibi Noggin

Couldn't find my skin tone Copic marker, so he's looking a bit pale. I like his jumper though.

Origami Kitty

I'm having a really busy week so I'll be posting some quick updates just to tide things over.

I thought I'd show off my unimpressive origami skills with these origami sticky notes. There's instructions for penguins, pianos, hats and a bunch of other things. First up is the Cat!

Plans for the Weekend

If all goes to plan I'm hoping to get my head down and make some music this weekend.

As I mentioned just before the New Year I have a whole pile of recordings with ideas for new tunes, so perhaps I'll get a 'work in progress' posted on Soundcloud before the weekend's out.

I hope you enjoy the drawing of Jules listening to his walkman too. ^_^

Day 70 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: Pikmin Short Movies

Announced during the fantastic Nintendo Direct yesterday, Shigeru Miyamoto revealed he had been working on a number of Pikmin Short Movies which would be made available on Wii U and 3DS after the presentation.

As you may know I'm a huge Pikmin fan, but sadly I didn't have enough moolah to buy them on the Nintendo eShop last night so I had to wait until this evening. (; _ ;) The wait was certainly worth it however, as these animations are fantastic, but what exactly do you get for the £4.49 price tag?

I'll try and keep spoilers to a minimum, but no promises. (^ _ < )

The bundle includes 3 short movies, altogether they last around 30 minutes, and you get a few little bonuses including two idents for Toho Cinemas starring our favourite critters and the original storyboards for 2 of the short movies.

The first short (The Night Juicer) is pretty brief, which was a bit alarming at first, but I assume this was the short that was unveiled during Tokyo Game Show (mentioned by Mr Miyamoto during Nintendo Direct). Captain Olimar is playing with a blender while 3 nosey Pikmin come along to find out what he's up to.

The second short (Treasure in a Bottle) follows a Red Pikmin's journey to retrieve a marble from an empty bottle. Unfortunately he gets stuck in the bottle and has to rely on his buddies to bail him out, with some hilarious consequences. Also on the base of the bottle Nintendo NT 4 is stamped, does this mean anything???

The final short (Occupational Hazards), sees Captain Olimar on a typical Pikmin day gathering treasure. Things start to horribly wrong thanks to a short tempered White Pikmin, a fiery Blowhog, and of course, Bulborbs.

These animations are a must for any Pikmin fan and I think they're well worth the £4.49 asking price. I would recommend the Wii U version over the 3DS version, as I don't think the 3DS's resolution will do these short movies justice.

Day 69 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: The Simpsons

It's not just South Park who have produced great episodes concerning video games. This Simpsons episode from Season 7 entitled 'Marge Be Not Proud', centres on Bart as he desperately tries to get his hands on the latest video game sensation, Bonestorm. SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

After Marge refuses to buy Bonestorm for him, claiming games are noisy and they distract you from school work, Bart sees if he can play the game some other way. 

He tries to rent it but all of the copies are out, and Milhouse won't share his copy, so after witnessing a gang of kids shoplifting from a local supermarket Bart decides to do the same.

Favourite Bit: Where Bart is standing by the video games and his conscience takes on the form of famous characters. Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong and Sonic all agree he should steal the game, claiming it's the video games companies fault for making him want it so much. 

Day 68 of 100 Happy Gaming Days: South Park

When a new console or highly anticipated game is on the horizon you're pretty much guaranteed South Park will put on a great episode. I thought I'd share 3 of my favourite gaming related episodes for this Happy Gaming Day, and just in case you haven't watched these before...SPOILER ALERT!!! 

Go God Go- in this two part episode the Nintendo Wii is due out within a matter of weeks, but Cartman would rather risk death than wait, so he freezes himself to make the passage of time seem instantaneous. Unfortunately he ends up frozen for over 500 years, so begins an epic quest across time to play Nintendo Wii.

Best Friends Forever- A war is looming between heaven and hell, so to ensure victory God searches for 'the one' to help heaven in its hour of need. Behold! The PSP has just been released and is running a heaven and hell battle sim, who will the one to guide heavens forces and defeat the armies of darkness?!

Tooth Fairy Tats- The tooth fairy has suddenly been leaving Cartman ridiculous amounts of cash for any tooth he puts under his pillow. So the boys plot a ridiculous scheme to raise money using the tooth fairy, all for a SEGA DREAMCAST! 

Penguin SWAT Team Member

Inspired by the recent swatting incident I decided to add a penguin SWAT team member to the Bobby and Jules universe.

I haven't given him a name as yet but I've enjoyed adding all the little details to make him appear more authentic. I'll be adding colour shortly when I've got the right shades.

More facial expressions with Bobby and Jules

Artwork created and owned by Andrew Gardner © 2014

Bobby: Facial Expressions

Here's some facial expressions for Bobby and I'm extremely pleased with the results. 

These are based on a Tom & Jerry expressions sheet I found on Pinterest (I loved Tom and Jerry as a kid), and practicing expressions has really shaped Bobby's design and helped me to think about how the little things project the emotions of a character.

For example the tired expression on the far-right of the above image; Bobby's extended tongue helps him to look out of breath and panting, but I also made the tuft of hair on his head lank and fallen to help him look truly knackered. 

When I continued experimenting with different expressions I began to notice how other artists design their characters to help to bring out their emotions. The folds above a characters eyes make them much more dynamic, and because of Bobby's large beak obstructing the majority of his face, I found adding some extra detail to his eyes helped to make the emotion easier to understand.

Artwork created and owned by Andrew Gardner © 2014

Bobby Sleeping

I wanted to practice drawing characters in different poses and situations, so here's Bobby asleep against a wall with a drink in hand.

I like the way his belly follows ahead of the rest of him, and I think he really suits those sandals.

Artwork created and owned by Andrew Gardner © 2014

Sailor Mitch

Here is the start of something beautiful.

Meet Mitch, professional cosplayer, in his wonderful Sailor Moon costume.

I hadn't drawn anything for quite a while and when my wife and all of her friends were getting excited for the new Sailor Moon series, I thought it would be fun to draw a dude cosplaying as a Sailor Scout.

I sketched the whole thing in pencil, it still looks a little grubby (; _ ;)  then I inked the outlines and coloured it all in with copic markers. 

Click this link to check out the picture on my new deviantart page. ^_^

Sailor Moon is owned by Naoko Takeuchi and others.

Artwork created and owned by Andrew Gardner © 2014