HotRob's SketchBlog

New Year Clear Out 2

2012-01-27T11:02:00.004+13:00

Vivian

Toni

Richard

Michelle

Martin

Kurt

Kenina

Grant

Glen

Geoff

Brent

New Year clear out

2012-01-27T10:51:00.002+13:00

Here's some more of the rest of the caricatures. If you like them and want one of your own, for you or someone else (as a present) let me know. :)

Caricature Me

2011-12-05T22:23:00.003+13:00

Where have i been? Taking my sweet time with updates and creating quite a bit of art i'll have you know, in between other more important stuff of course ;)

So I was commissioned to create some cariactures for work of the Principals and now they're all done i can start to share them with you. It was a heck of a project but i've very, very proud of the results.

To start with we have Tax Principal Andrew who used to be an airline pilot and has the TDK hi-fi poster on his wall so i wanted to do a riff on that and am pretty pleased with the result.

And they are all being printed on A2 canvas to boot! First time i've ever been printed to canvas woohoo!

Anyhow hope you enjoy them over the coming weeks :)

Cheers,

Rob

Go the AB's!

2011-09-09T08:31:00.002+12:00

Well the Rugby World Cup has finally arrived so i thought i'd do up a kiwi in support of our awesome team.

Go the AB's!

Have a great World Cup everyone!
Rob.

Shihad

2011-08-02T07:38:00.004+12:00

My all-time favouritie kiwi band is Shihad. So when i had the chance to use some thick cardboard blocks for some artwork the idea to design a Shihad logo just screamed out to be done.

So here she is, it's done pencil, ink and vivd (sharpie) and i'm really happy with how it turned out.

Let me know who you think i should do next, and we'll see what i can come up with. :)

Cheers,

Rob

Happy Smurf Day!

2011-06-25T09:08:00.003+12:00

Just found this over at article on the Smurf film and apparently today is 'Global Smurfs day'!

Lets have a Smurfin' day!

Sisters of Mercy - Mariah

2011-06-17T07:33:00.009+12:00

Back in the late 90's Poison drummer Rikki Rockett teamed up with his good friend Mark Williams and created a set of comics through Rob Liefeld's Maximum Press (an imprint of Image Comics).

Soon after this they launched under their own banner of 'No Mercy Comics'. The titles they produced were a fun, interesting and typically Image-styled comic art. Three titles were produced including "Nightshade", "Coven 13" and my favourite "Sisters of Mercy".

"Sisters of Mercy" was a post-apocolyptic tale of two sisters - Malina & Mariah - living on an ark-like island filled with the last remaining animals on the planet. There are other survivers of whatever has happened to the earth and they live on other islands away from the animals.

The title encapsulated horror, fantasty, animal protection, adventure and a bit of cheesecake. All in all a fun read and a pity they never eleased the next series of the title.

Unfortunately Mark Williams died in 1998 (he did special effects work on Aliens, The Abyss & Terminator 2) - read his bio http://www.answers.com/topic/mark-williams-horror-children-s-family

Here's my sketch of Mariah - martial artist/warrior.
Cheers,
Rob.

Brixton Bricks & Coffee Beans

2011-04-28T15:26:00.005+12:00

A few weeks ago i was lucky enough to have my guest-strip run on the Actionman Adam website
http://www.actionmanadam.com/2011/03/brixton-bricks-n-coffee-beans/

I wasn’t sure if I needed to explain the importance of the brick a bit more.

Apparently back in the late 70’s and early 80’s (around the time ‘The Clash’ and ‘The Sex Pistols’ were around) “Margret Thatcher’s Britain was the riot capital of the world. Thatcher may have ruled in Parliament but out on the street it was a different matter. From the first eruption of inner-city rioting in St Paul’s Bristol in 1980 through the July rioting across the country in 1981 to Brixton and Broadwater Farm in 1985 someone some- where was lobbing a brick or petrol bomb at Thatcher.” (IAN BONE). As far as I have been informed carrying a brick around in your pocket was a part of Punk culture as well (but I may be wrong about that).

So the Sniffles & Cough characters love punk music (especially 'The Clash') and always have a brick handy incase of interlopers. In this case the manic dude Greg.

Hopefully that's a little clearer than mud. :)
Enjoy!
Rob

Rally Mark, Brownie (the dog) and Racin' Red

2011-04-28T15:16:00.003+12:00

Here's a little pic i did a while ago that i found just recently that i thought was pretty cool, so i thought i'd share it. Pretty happy with the anatomy though Rally Mark is looking more than a little scary. :)

Enjoy!

Rob

Happy Birthday Grant!

2011-04-07T14:07:00.007+12:00

Heres a Happy Birthday shoutout to Grant! Hope you're having a great trip in the States and will have to shout you a beer when you're back! Here's a little something for your birthday :)

Have a great Birthday and a safe trip home!

Cheers,

Rob

Lady with a Gun.

2011-03-04T08:53:00.003+13:00

Howdy,

Here's two versions of a pen sketch done recently from a picture in Buddy Scalera's book "Comics Artists Photo Reference - People and Poses".

As you can see in the first one pen sketching is sometimes not very forgiving and it's taken a little photoshop magic to clean up some of the mistakes and centre the focus of the picture properly.

I've finally got some ink for my fountain pen so i'm gonna be trying it out soon, i'll be posting the results so keep an eye out.

Enjoy!
Rob.

DC Powerhouses & Retro Girl

2011-02-17T07:53:00.005+13:00

To practise a bit of variety i've been checking out other peoples work and having a go at their style. These latest two are Shaun 'Cheeks' Galloway (JLA Sketch) and Mike Avon Oeming (Retro-Girl sketch).

I've based my drawing loosely on their sketches and tried to add some of my own style too and i'm pretty happy with the results though i've still got a bit of work to do on anatomy because even cartoon work doesn't carry well if you can't get the proportions right. :)

Once again i'm sticking with the ballpoint pen but this is mainly because i waiting on an order of ink for my new fountain pen.

Ooh and just as a teaser i thought i'd include a snippet from something you'll see online in the very near future and it's something i'm really quite excited about because i've been working on it for a few months now and it features a small cameo of my favourite character and yours, "Rally Mark"!

Like i say it's only a cameo but it was a fun little detail to add. :)

Thanks for reading!
Rob.

Happy Dangerous New Year!

2011-01-24T13:26:00.004+13:00

It's been a great start to the year, sun, holidays and plenty of watersports to boot!

I've been sketching with my ballpoint pen again lately (yes i need to get some indian ink for my new pen) and also been reading the "Danger Girl Deluxe edition!" So i thought i'd have a go at Abbey Chase and i'm pretty happy with how she turned out.

On the Danger Girl front look for a new Danger Girl Miniseries this time a crossover with Army of Darkness: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=30434

Happy New Year!
Rob

The Unknown

2010-12-16T08:06:00.007+13:00

I've had a couple of lovely surprises this year when it comes to movies and comics with the most recent being "The Unknown" from Boom Studios written by Mark Waid with art by Minck Oosterveer.

The book (as described at http://www.amazon.com/Mark-Waid/dp/1934506974#_):

"The Unknown is a detective comic starring master detective Catherine Allingham and her ex-bouncer apprentice, James Doyle. Specializing in science and unsolvable crimes, the series begins with Allingham learning she has six months to live (a specter of death is watching over her) and determined to solve the ultimate mystery of what happens in the afterlife. In the meantime, she and Doyle jet off to Europe to assist a pair of physicists who have invented a superscale and may be victims of the very first Quantum Crime. Tight pacing, plenty of action, and Oosterveer’s moody artwork and sense of framing contribute to a considerable success. --Carlos Orellana"

I love reading a story that is so good you can't put it down till you've finished it. And this is definately one of those books.

The twist Mark Waid has used on a strong female lead detective trying to find out about the afterlife intwined with quantum science, devils and a great train fight sequence makes for an awesome breathless page-turning read.

Plus that spooky devil guy that pops up through the story - Minck Oosterveer has him pinned so well that every time you see him you will feel like checking the room to make sure he's not actually sitting across from you - brrrr!

Minck's art is stunning and superbly suited to tell this tale. His settings and moody inks bring the characters to life with a relish that i haven't felt from a comic in a long time.

If you're a fan of Mark Waid or just want to find out if there is a possibilityof an afterlife pick this book up, i guarantee you'll not want to put it down.

Enjoy!
Rob

Pig of a Friday

2010-12-03T15:17:00.003+13:00

One of the ladies at work has a bunch of pig pictures on her wall and with a few minutes of spare time i whipped up this little piggy and stuck him on her wall too.

He was a bit of a hit and needless to say i'm quite proud of how he turned out seeing as i have never been bale to draw pigs very well. I did use reference for him though i was amazed to find that he was similar to construct to Wal Footrots head. If you look closely you can almost see the egg shape used to construct the main part of his head.

You have to look closely though. :)

Enjoy!
Rob.

Wednesday Pen Sketches

2010-11-11T08:09:00.004+13:00

It really seems to be a pen sketch week this week. Here we have a very cartoon scared guy, two drawings of me; one now and one a little while ago, and a staunch looking 'Rally Mark'.

Enjoy!

Rob

Tech Ed Sketches

2010-11-08T13:30:00.006+13:00

While attending Microsoft Tech Ed (Geekfest) this year i did a couple of pen sketches of the presenters to see if i could capture their likeness in a quick drawing and here's how they turned out and they are Mir Rosenburg, Rhonda Leyfield & Jason Buffington.

Enjoy!
Rob

Bret Michaels - Sketch Monday

2010-11-01T16:37:00.005+13:00

Bret Michaels

Saw Bret Michaels (Poison front man and Celebrity Apprentice/Rock of Love) on Oprah today talking about his brain hemorage and by all accounts he's licky to be alive.

I'm not afraid to say i thought Poison was cool in their heyday back in '87 - guess it shows my age - but hey they were a fun, freaky rock n' roll band at the time and they have some good tunes like "Every Rose has it's Thorn", "Your Mama don't Dance", "Fallen Angel", "Ride the Wind" and "Something to Believe In".

So i did a couple of pen sketches while i was listening to them talk and this is how they turned out. I was going for the caricature look and especially with his headband and jooby lips it's not too hard what to pick to exaggerate on him. :)

Enjoy!
Rob

Friday Lunchtime Sketching

2010-10-29T15:37:00.001+13:00

Some Friday Sketch fun:

Paige Hareb, an awesome Kiwi surfer riding high in international competitions, go Paige!!

And a cow-girl. Love the hats but never really got the hang of drawing them so i thought i'd give it another go.

Enjoy!
Rob

Put a Cake on you head John!

2010-10-19T15:27:00.007+13:00

I've recently been doing birthday cards for my extended family and here's my latest piece, aptly titled "Put a Cake on your head John!". With inspiration being taken from an event early in John's childhood and surrounded by the plethora of things he likes now.

Needless to say he had a good laugh at it and certainly enjoyed it. I really enjoyed making it especially the texturing in the background as i haven't had as much fun playing with different filters and settings in Photoshop in a while.

Enjoy!
Rob

P.S. No AJB for Christmas this year, maybe we'll see the boys back in 2011.

Amazing Joy Buzzards - Stevo

2010-08-26T12:45:00.005+12:00

I've been wanting to do some Amazing Joy Buzzards sketches for a while now and this one popped into my head recently. This fella's name is Stevo and he's the bad-ass sword weilding, bass playing, martial arts expert, some also say he may be half Yeti!

Amazing Joy Buzzards is an awesome Rock n' Roll advetnure comic book about a band that battle supernatural forces along with their mythical Mexican wrestler El Champeon. AJB is created by the masterminds Mark Andrew Smith and Dan Hipp (http://www.mrhipp.blogspot.com/)

I'm hoping the new volume Amazing Joy Buzzardss : Monster Love might be out before Christmas but we'll just have to wait and see!

Let me know what you think.

Rob

Nightmares Competition

2010-08-17T23:20:00.004+12:00

I just entered a competition to try and win a sketch by the creator of Lilo & Stitch and to enter you had to create a drawing of something related to nigthmares and so i came up with this:

Not that anything like this has ever happened but i am positive it'd give me nightmares :)

The link to the contest is here if you want to have a go or can watch it and vote i'd greatly appreciate it (especially seeing as it'll screen probably while i'm asleep).

http://www.sketchoholic.com/Talent/member/my_contest_items.php?ContestID=565

The most talented Chris Sanders nightmare prize sketch is here:
http://alohalilo.deviantart.com/art/Nightmare-contest-drawing-175522035?q=&qo=

and his DeviantARt site (if the link above doesn't work is here:
http://alohalilo.deviantart.com/

Happy Nightmares!
ROb.

Gir & Cowwy?

2010-08-16T12:48:00.002+12:00

A friend of mine who lives in Australia celerated his birthday recently and i wanted to send him somethign fun. Knowing he likes the Invader Zim show and Gir and also cows i decided to do a bit of a mashup and created Gir & Cowwy (it's usually Gir & Piggy you see) :)

It was a lot of fun and Mark really liked it too!

Enjoy,

Rob

Wonder Woman

2010-08-13T09:22:00.007+12:00

I've never really drawn Wonder Woman before but here are a couple of different attempts:

A slightly cartoony Wonder Woman,

A slim wavy haired Wonder Woman,

A curly haired version and

you might be able to make out a Squee (crazy cartoony) version too.

I had a bit of fun with this though not overly happy with proportions the end result is fairly satisfying.

Happy Friday the Thirteenth!

Rob

Topical Cartoons

2010-07-27T12:23:00.006+12:00

Topical cartoons are always something i have been interested in but very rarely attempt. So after reading about how the Springbok coach was saying he'd have to teach his players to cheat because the referees never gave his side a fair deal in the two test matches against the All Blacks, an idea sprung to mind and here's the result.

Instant Inspiration

2010-07-05T09:49:00.007+12:00

Have you ever done anything on a spur of the moment inspiriation?

Well this is where this next sketch i did came from. I met up with Action Man Adam (http:/www.actionmanadam.com) created Marc Streeter at the pub the other week and am always impressed by his enthusiasm for comics art and his character.

So a few days after on the bus home i had an inspirational moment and ripping my sketchbook from my back pack I scribbled furiously on the page. It felt great, such a free and easy drawing and the pure joy of creating it was totally magic. No constraints, no expectations and viola! on the page it appeared.

I still can't get over how great it felt to have an idea and blast it out on the page with such enthusiasm. So i hope you like it, i know i sure do.

Cheers,

Rob

Following your heroes - Imitation for inspiration

2010-06-23T08:15:00.004+12:00

I'd been looking at a way to kickstart my drawing again as i've felt like i'd been slacking. It's not often that i try to draw like other artists that i really like but it struck me the other day what would my character 'Rally Mark' look like if i was able to ask another artist to draw him for me?

With this thought in mind (and little financial backing to pursue asking real artists to do their take on 'Rally Mark') i decided to have a go at other peoples styles myself. First up is the remarkable Dan Hipp (mrhipp.blogspot.com) of 'Amazing Joy Buzzards' & 'Gyakushu' fame.

Dan Hipp has been doing some rad drawings of late on his blog and amazingly can use the colour pink to make his drawings look really, really cool! Anyway here's my attempt at his style.

Cheers,
Rob

Dennis Hopper

2010-06-04T15:42:00.002+12:00

I hadn't even realised he had died but i've always thought that Dennis Hopper was a great actor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment_and_arts/10223051.stm

Rally Mark fun

2010-06-04T13:25:00.004+12:00

Just a couple more ideas playing around with body shapes and wokring on my anatomy skills with my character Rally Mark.

Why is he jumping off a cliff? I have no idea either it's just the way it came out :)

Enjoy.

Rob

More sketches

2010-06-02T12:11:00.003+12:00

I've been working on a few more sketches lately and here's the results.

My character 'Rally Mark' and two more head sketches of Quesada & Palmiotti's 'Ash'.

Cheers,

Rob

(see i am still working on 'Rally Mark')

Noh Love

2010-05-28T08:18:00.002+12:00

"Noh Love : Leave it all behind" - Tattoo design inspired by David Mack's 'Kabuki'

and Angelique Houtkamp.

One of my favourite pieces i've drawn this year.

Two Tattoo's and a Sketch

2010-05-14T11:44:00.004+12:00

After reading a book in alocal bokstore about Angelique Houtkamp (http://www.salonserpent.com/Home.html) i had a couple of ideas for tattoo designs and the following snippets are from these works in progress.

One is related to David Mack's Kabuki and the other is a flight of fancy based around the singer P!nk. More will be revealed as i get them closer to the finished pieces. :)

And then there's this fella, a character created by Joe Quesada and Jimmy Palmiotti back in the mid-late 90's. An awesome fire-fighting hero called 'Ash'. Though i'd try my hand at him by copying a character design sheet that Joe Quesada produced, and for once he's turned out quite well.

Thanks for reading!
Rob

ActionMan Adam

2010-05-13T14:18:00.001+12:00

Action Man Adam

by Marc Streeter

ActionMan Adam is a entertaining introduction to a crazy Canadian character - based in Christchurch, New Zealand - trying to fall in love with every good-looking female within eyeshot. And lets face it who doesn’t want good-looking girls to fall in love with them?

Marc’s knack for witty dialogue and often cringe-worthy situations brings Adam’s personality off the page and with the introduction of a supporting cast (Adam’s flatmate Munter) starts to bring some real dimension to the character. Fluid layouts, great toning, consistent artwork and great story-telling make the Adams adventures a pleasure to read.

You can see the development in Marc’s art from story to story within the book and I can envision Marc doing a Spiderman story in the future with the way the character tumbles across a tree branch in the first story and Adam slightly geek-ish nature puts him in a similar realm to Peter Parker.

Marc’s writing endears the character of Adam to the reader through laughing at his outrageous attempts at gaining the affections of any good-looking female within eyeshot and sympathising with him when it ultimately doesn’t work out. Adam has a good heart just a misguided sense of affection.

Unfortunately most of the stories in the book are a bit short, which makes it a quick read. Though the last story ‘Cold’ rounds out the book quite nicely and leaves you wanting to know more about the character it’ll be interesting to see where Marc will take Adam in his next adventures and how he will develop his character further.

By the look of the new pages being posted online (www.actionmanadam.com) Marc is definitely pushing it to the next level in terms of story, layout and artwork.

Keep up the good work Marc, great things await.

Review by Robin Hotter

Daily Sketch 12 - Nekkid Skydiving

2010-02-11T15:19:00.002+13:00

Weird idea's at funny times of the day or night produce weird cartoons. Think about it...

maybe it's just my warped imagination. :)
Cheers,

Rob

Hellboy

2010-01-20T12:09:00.004+13:00

Hellboy - head sketch.

A bit of fun and a great character to draw. I always love drawing his chin really big. :)

Racin' Red

2010-01-15T11:11:00.003+13:00

A Sketch of my character and Rally Mark's mechanic "Racin' Red".

Rally mark continues apace and i am hoping for release later this year.

Welcome to the New Year and i hope it's fruitful and zany, crazy and fun for you!

Cheers,
Rob

Sketch a Day - 1 - Superboy

2009-09-11T08:38:00.004+12:00

My first ever attempt at Conner Kent, done all with ink (i.e. no pencils) i'm happy with it, in fact i quite like it, there are a few issues with it but onwards and upwards I say! :)

All done in a little under an hour.

Rob

RM is comin!

2009-07-06T12:26:00.003+12:00

I've been away for a long long time, mainly due to updating deviantart and not having much PC time when not at work.

I'll hopefully post some Rally Mark stuff as we head towards the conclusion and publication of the first full story. Fingers crossed, pencils sharpened, script finished, DRAW!
:)
Rob

Carding it

2008-05-08T16:45:00.003+12:00

Hiya longtime no post. Things have been a bit busy but i thought i'd better share this little gem with you.

Some of you will recognise who this is, and others can just wonder ;D

See you in a few

Rob.

Why did the Chicken Cross the Road?

2008-01-31T12:42:00.000+13:00

"Well 'DUH!', ah say, ah say 'DUH!' boy!'

A birthday card for Deb, she like chickens so I thought I'd encompass one the great chickens of all time, (and it also goes with our chicken jokes of "Whur uz tha Chukun? :D)

Enjoy
- Rob.

P.S. January has been renamed to be 'Debuary'!

Rally Mark in Progress

2008-01-25T10:05:00.000+13:00

Well the next part of Rally mark is in progress with a delivery date around the next Armageddon at Wellington in April, so I thought I drop in a couple of panels to show you how we're looking so far.

Dem Hillbillies are still after Rally mark and his racing MkII Escort in their suped-up nitros powered drag tractor and when we left them last episode things were looking pretty 'dicey' for poor old Rally Mark. But he's a stubborn character and won't go down with out a fight!

Stay tuned and we'll keep you in the know!

Rob.

Sir Edmund Hillary 1919-2008

2008-01-25T09:58:00.000+13:00

A great, great man has passed and I thought I'd do a quick sketch in honour of him, but part way through it has become more of a project so I'll post the rough for now and post the completed drawing once I've completed it.

There's not much more to say really. Safe journey Sir Ed!

Rally Mark returns to strip form

2008-01-21T15:50:00.000+13:00

Okay that's not how it's supposed to sound.... Welcome to a new year and to celebrate Rally Mark is getting married!

This is the first Rally Mark strip in ages (and yes he looks alot like Calvin - this is because Rally Mark LOVES Calvin and it's where the idea for Rally Mark originally came from).

Hooray for a new year full of drawings and new adventures! Stay tuned faithful reader!
Rob.

London Calling Parts Two & Three

2007-11-14T09:36:00.000+13:00

Hey All,

Here's the conclusion of the 'London Calling' storyline. Kinda weird, but fun!

I remember thinking how the hell would you use a TV station and my favourite NZ rock band Shihad to shoot down an object from outer space. (The main reason being Chris is on Alt-TV and I wanted to incoporate this into the Sniffles n Cough mythos. :D)

Enjoy and see ya soon!
Rob.

Sniffles & Cough : London Calling Part1

2007-11-07T09:12:00.000+13:00

I hope you all had a happy and safe 'Guy Fawkes'. Though I've often found myself wondering why we celebrate a guy who tried to blow up the english parliament. Still the people around us had some great fireworks and we were treated to several stunning displays.

Sniffles & Cough : "London Calling" came about as Chris the coffee guy, loves 'The Clash' and often has them blasting out the cobwebs of early morning as he's setting up the coffee cart for the morning's trade.

I warped it a bit and thought maybe we could get the Queen involved somehow, and an adventure was started!

Look for parts two and three soon!
Rob.

POP goes the Popgun Anthology!

2007-10-29T16:03:00.000+13:00

Mark Andrew Smith (co-creator of the Amazing Joy Buzzards) along with Joe Keatinge have edited together a HUGE comic anthology which is coming out this November 21st.

It's called the PopGun Anthology and it's around 560 pages for about US$30 dollars. Make sure you preorder it on Amazon and you can save about 10 dollars:

http://www.amazon.com/Popgun-Erik-Larsen/dp/1582408246/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-2366076-7090246?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1193042875&sr=8-1

The tales are wild and varied and it is sure to be a smash hit with already being the highest ordered anthology book from Image comics!

Here are some PopGun press and previews as well:

http://comics.ign.com/articles/825/825932p1.html

http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11971

http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=130072
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?t=130228
http://www.comicbookresources.com/ne...m.cgi?id=11982

So what are ya waiting for check it out and go geddit!!!
Cheers,
Rob

Sniffles & Cough in The Lost Episode

2007-10-24T09:42:00.000+13:00

This is one that didn't make it into the InUnison magazine for whatever reason just around the time of St Patricks day. Pity it's was one of my favourites for the year. :D

Still to come:
more Sniffles & Cough
and a post-Armageddon report! (eventually! :D)

Yay for short working weeks!
Rob

Axl Inked

2007-10-23T15:48:00.000+13:00

Well here he is, all inked up. Included him in the title bar for the last installment of the Axl Rose interview storyline in "Sniffles & Cough" which I'll put up soon in it's entirety.

The year for "Sniffles & Cough" is over so check back soon for lots of updates of all the years stuff including (if i haven't already posted it) the missing St Paddy's Day episode! :D

Hope you had a great Labour/Armageddon weekend!
Rob.

ARMAGEEDON is HERE!

2007-10-19T10:07:00.000+13:00

And so is a new episode of Rally Mark!!

Here's a wee teaser to get you up on the storyline :D

See you at the Aotea Centre this weekend, pop by the Gotham Comics/DMC stand, pick up a copy of New Ground #8, a sketch and be sure to say "hi!"

Cheers,
Rob

GYAKUSHU!

2007-10-18T12:58:00.000+13:00

Dan Hipp, co-creator of 'The Amazing Joy Buzzards' (with Mark Andrew Smith) has created and published through TokyoPop! part 1 of 3 issues of Gyakushu!

Which i believe in Japanese loosley means 'REVENGE!'

The book is an awesome romp through blood n' guts with a cunningly twisted storyline that will entertain you all the way through. I am looking forward to parts two and three, with Part two due sometime late this/early next year.

Here's a piece of fan art i created with the main character, his wife and their child.
Cheers,
Rob

Puffy the ITSC Slayer!

2007-08-08T08:36:00.000+12:00

When one of the ladies here at work had asked me to cariacture her as 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer', it took me a little while to find the look I liked.

I actually find caricaturing fairly hard as I fell i often don't find the right features to exaggerate.

The semi-superdefromed chibi style look is something I seem to be able to pull off quite well so I went with that and quite a cute look. With some reference from the Dark Horse comics covers for the Buffy series I created the below images.

The recipient was stoked with the result too, so a win all round!
Enjoy,
Rob.

Next : More Sniffles & Cough!

Girls and they've got Slingshots!

2007-08-03T09:24:00.000+12:00

A little while ago Danielle from www.girlswithslingshots.com was going on a trip and called for guest strips for her site while she was away.

It took me a little while but iI came up with the following strip and got Danielle's permission to use it for the InUnison cartoon for that month too, which incidentally happened to be the 'International' themed issue. So this worked in perfectly with Sniffles & Cough being in NZ and GWS being from the States!

Here ya go!
Rob.

P.S. Kiki, this one's for you!

Messerschmitt

2007-07-27T10:05:00.000+12:00

Holy moley! I haven't posted all month eeek! Sorry about that!

To compensate here's one of my favourite 'Sniffle & Cough' strips. The Messerschmitt was really fun to draw and I especially like the third panel all 'in your face' with coffee beans!!

Enjoy!
Rob.

Kabuki

2007-06-27T09:51:00.000+12:00

I have been a fan of David Mack's comic 'Kabuki' for quite a while now.

Though calling it a comic doesn't seem to fit, it's more of a 'reading experience' where the reader becomes entwined in the story by the way David interlaces words, images, to create a reading experience unlike anything I have read before.

So I urge you to check out his work especially Kabuki Vol5 : Metamorphosis, this is the book i really got hooked on.

Here's some fan art inspired by David Mack's 'Kabuki' characters:

Drawn by Thommy (see his blog in my links section) coloured by me.

Tigerlilly by me

Snapdragon by me

Signing off!
Rob.

Hail to a Monster of Rock

2007-06-25T15:27:00.000+12:00

One of my favourite bands of the 90's is back in town touring this week (tho only with 1/5th of the original members).

And after watching the VH1 : Behind the Music : Guns N' Roses Special I just HAD to do a sketch of the enigmatic, wild, crazy and brilliant singer - W. Axl Rose!

Doin' his signature intro to 'Welcome to the Jungle' :

I'll tidy up the tattoo's a bit and ink then colour it sometime soon. :D
Cheers,
Rob.

Poetic send-off

2007-06-01T07:39:00.000+12:00

The first Sniffles & Cough that InUnison printed was the last issue of last year. I came up with the idea of a lament adn was really quite happy about how it turned out.

I scripted the whole strip first (a novelty for me at the time as i usually just plow in and start drawing and worry about the end result later), and the flow & execution are something I'm quite proud of.

Till Next time!
Rob.

First Sniffle... and Cough

2007-05-21T11:56:00.000+12:00

So here it starts. This strip was actually created BEFORE the coffee ad but is the one that kicked the whole idea off.

Chris (the coffee dude with the mohawk) loves Punk music and is always singing along with The Clash while making coffee's. So i adapted a little and ended up calling the strip 'Coffee Love'.

This is also the strip that got me the gig in the loacal student magazine InUnison. :)

Enjoy!

Where it all began : Sniffles & Cough

2007-05-03T09:03:00.000+12:00

I created a faux ad for the WONDERFUL staff at my local Coffee cart 'Expresso Plus', really just for fun.

While showing the staff there one of my other creations I was then approached by the students doing the Unitec student magazine 'InUnison' about doing a regualr strip for their magazine.

I threw around a couple of ideas and approached them with a student based idea and one based on the strange happenings at the Coffee cart.

The Editor really liked the Coffee cart idea as they are quite identifiable on campus (and their blend of coffee is infamous) and so Sniffles & Cough were born!

I'll be post their strips from time to time including further ad's and things I dream up along the way.

Hope you're having a good week and check back soon for more on :
'Sniffles & Cough'
'Rally Mark'
and all things arty by HotRob. :D

Cheers,
Rob.

Armageddon Wellington!

2007-04-23T11:52:00.000+12:00

Winding down from a good weekend isn't always easy, especially when you get a cool sketch from a VERY cool artist like Jimmy (Young Avengers) Cheung!!

I was only there on the Saturday but had a great time with Jeremy, Waiton, Jared, Tina, and the DMC/Gotham gang, selling our new book 'New Ground #7' doing sketches and meeting some fantastic fans!!

I was having such a good day that I didn't even take many photo's but i did manage to get a couple with/of Princess Leia and Darth Vader.

Managed to do a few sketches and happliy sold my Hellboy one before realising I'd not taken a picture of it. Here's two I did near the end of the day. J. Scott Campbell's "Dangerl Girl" and Neil Gaiman's "Death".I'd like to do a shout-out to Kim and her bro, the dude from the American Embassy in Welly (sorry man i forgot your name) and the guy from the Canberra comic shop! Very cool to meet you all!!

Cheers,
Rob

Mini Racer

2007-04-16T09:20:00.000+12:00

Welcome to my first post of the year. I created this little gem for my friend Grant's birthday seeing as he loves Mini's it was the perfect choice!

Enjoy
R.