Hullo Internets!

Almost 2 months with no contact! I’m like a child just out of home, only coming back now to ask how to use the washing machine.

As usual, there has been a ton of stuff on over the last few months which has kept me away from a lot of this stuff. I apologize for neglecting you all, but I am back now. I have some work to put up, and some new ideas to bash out.

But for now, I leave you with a pic of the Blackfox artwork I did last month… what handsome arms I hear you say!

Before I go – just quickly, thanks to all the new followers that have been trickling through on Twitter lately. However, I stopped using Twitter last month and now it’s a struggle to get back into the thing. Give me time – I will start posting useless, mediocre and uninformative updates again in no time!

It’s Been Awhile…

Hey there! It’s been quite sometime since I made an update – so much has been happening so it hasn’t been from lack of interesting things to say! I’ve really been run off my feet in the past little while, which is part of the reason why things will be changing a little around here… but we’ll get to that…

So firstly, thanks so much for your responses below. It’s great to know that you all want the same thing I do! In light of the results, two things will be happening hopefully over the next month or so. Firstly, a web comic will be starting. Hopefully me announcing it will kick my ass into gear. I have the idea, the concept and story all stored upstairs – however I do just have to play around with style for a bit, trying to lock down a look and feel that I’m happy with. At this stage, it will probably be updated weekly, but like anything around here, that could also change. I will keep you all posted with its progress – I hope to pop up some concept art etc as soon as I get around to it, so stay tuned!

The second thing that I want to kick off more regularly is my live draw segments. The live streams look like going ahead on a Saturday night, around 9PM AEST. I’m not sure when that is for the rest of the world, so I might need some feedback on that. If we can find a time that suits all countries relatively equally, that would be great – but it sounds kinda impossible. Again, as development on this continues, I will keep you all updated here. I will also start saving videos and start publishing them for you all to see after the show has finished – in case you miss the live session.

In light of these two changes, probably one of the biggest things that will be changing around here is the shutting down off my commercial arm….

I’m blessed with the ability to be able to draw part time, as my full time job covers all living expenses etc. I’ve found that in light of this, I need to continue doing what I enjoy most – which personal commissions. I enjoy doing this so much, always a push creatively and everyone is different – hence I want to push my focus in that direction, refining process and giving a more polished product. One of things that this will lead to is some fixed pricing options, some “digital” commissions and a few other things, all of which I will post up hopefully in the next little while.

To be honest, I’m pretty excited about the change. I still have some clients who I will continue to work alongside throughout the changeover, but it pretty much just means I won’t be accepting any more “commercial work” from now on. It will also allow me more time to work on the comic, and get some more prints up in the store!!

Sorry for giving you all a whole bunch of stuff that is “coming”, and nothing really substantial for now. Of course, I will continue to post up new stuff as it comes – there is already a couple of new pieces in the folio that I’m pretty proud of, so go check it out! As usual, send me an email if you have any questions or comments, or if you would like a sneak peak at the upcoming commission pricing, then just let me know!

Whatcha Want?

A few days ago I chucked up a poll in the sidebar asking people what they wanted to see more of around here. The few people I spoke to said they couldn’t see where the poll was – and in hindsight it did seem fairly hidden. Until I get a team of webgeeks to point a finger at, I’ll take the blame on this one….

In the end, I wanted to give this more importance anyway. Your feedback is going to be what ultimately drives the site and it’s content forward – so it’s probably better to do it right the first time, rather than fail 5 times, wait for someone else to do it right and then just copy what they did (Microsoft).

So let me know your thoughts – and because you’re all greedy buggers, you are permitted to choose TWO answers!! Don’t choose them all at once!

Supanova Wrap-up

It’s about 2 weeks overdue, but wow – what a 3 days!! I think I’m still recovering, hence the lateness of this post. I knew that it would be extremely exhausting but in the end I really had no idea! However, it really was the most amazing 72 hours – you were all fantastic!

After setup on Thursday, we weren’t entirely sure what to expect. We had a bunch of the Supanova “Limited Edition” prints for sale and we figured if 10 people liked what I did and bought one then we would be happy. We ended up selling that in the first few hours! Sorry to EVERYONE who were after the Pokemon commission piece, I should of put a “Not For Sale” sticker on it to avoid the disappointment :(

However it wasn’t all the sales that made the event so great – in the end it was everyone who came up and had some kind words, complements and art questions. It was all great stuff – except for the person asking for “One Wacom tablet please and a copy of Photoshop also thanks” whilst taking out their wallet – that was just a little weird >___>

It was also great that everyone who had something bad to say, general off-putting criticism and general bad mouthing, kept it well out of earshot! Thanks!

Honestly, it’s people like all of you that keep us artists going. You guys all were amazing and everyone that hung around or constantly came back to check progress on the live drawings – way way awesome!

Hopefully the words of “insight” I imparted haven’t misled you all down a path of artistic destruction – I hope my babbling helped out in someway! I really wish we could make it to the Sydney event, but at this stage it just doesn’t look possible to get everything shipped down at a reasonable price :(

But never fear – we are in talks at the moment and hopefully come September we will be at GenCon in Brisbane, doing the same sort of stuff – but with a HEAP more posters! I will let you all know as details come through, but for now here are some progress drawings from the 2 live draws I did at the event! Thank you all again – can’t say how much everyone rocked ^___^

Supanova Details

So, its only 2 days away now, and everything is falling into place. I pick up the last of all the print work tomorrow morning – and the Officeworks run is complete! We have everything we need – at least I think we do?! Still not entirely sure what to expect, but definitely not as stressed as I was before – now that I can see all the physical evidence in front of me. Time to reveal my secret location!! Nice and close to the exit – in case I make nervous offensive slurs which offend an angry armed cosplay mob.

It’s been a hell of a 2 weeks leading up to things – me trying to organize prints, posters, buttons etc whilst also keeping my main priority (client work) under control. Things are starting to cool down a bit though – which I am ever thankful of. Now I can focus on these 3 days entirely and take whatever falls out the bottom!  I’m planing on taking the Mac and Wacom there, I have a powered site so one would assume I will be drawing live for most of the day. Seems like I’ll be doing what I do everyday, just with a much bigger audience (22k apparently!). I have no idea what I am suppose to draw for 3 days – I guess I’ll make it up as I go. It will be like a live improv cartoon session – with much less talent and will entertain far fewer people… ^___^

Signing off now, I shall see you all on the other side. I will most probably do an Art dump early next week with whatever comes out of the event.

Supanova Inbound

At the beginning of every year, I have to decide what to do on the one weekend I spend outside the house. This year I decided to socialize with over 18,000 other people at Supanova Brisbane.

Yup, that’s right. I will have a small little table, probably somewhere in an obscured back corner of the event where I can smile and wave at people as they walk by. This will probably then be followed by their scornfull looks and funny whispered comments made at my expense for the rest of the day. Hoorah!

At first it sounded like a great idea, so I jumped on board. Now, even though I know it’s a great idea and I’m pretty excited for it, all I can think about is the issues surrounding the 3 days. After doing some searching and seeing what other people get up to for their tables, I can’t help but think I’m under-prepared. At this stage, I have a special poster for the event planed, which I should at this stage have A3 prints of for sale. I will of course have a stack of artwork on display also, and should have a few button badges there as well – I made these up awhile ago and still have some left over.

It’s difficult obviously trying to balance paid work, and also really get some great stuff ready for the event next month. It’s a fine song to dance to, but all the more difficult.

Anyway, if you did want to come say hello, I will be at the Artist Alley – not sure of the table number yet. I will be awkwardly dressed and set for conversation – so feel free to walk around and check on me every little while. Even if you could spare 5 min to fake a quick chat, that would be cool. If you’ve never been to the event before, I really do recommend it. Don’t listen to what I say – it’s really not THAT awkward.

All this reminds me that I still haven’t framed my Jhonen Vasquez stuff from last year >.<

Off to find some Booth Babes, till then people!

Current Workings

Whether or not it’s just to prove that I am doing stuff, I thought I’d throw together a quick update on what I’m currently working on, and what you can expect to see crawling around this hovel in the (near?) future.

So as you know, Supanova is coming up and to mark that event I currently have a special poster in the works. At this stage, I’m racing against deadlines to get it ready and printed before April. I want to keep its contents under wrap at this stage – I will probably reveal it a few days before the event, so stay tuned for that!

Recently, I have just finished working on a Pokemon Commission poster. I’m guessing this is pretty obvious as it is plastered on the homepage, but I just wanted to point this one out because for me, it really is a piece of work that I am extremely happy with. I usually find myself excited about new projects, then after weeks (months?) of working on them, I tend to get grizzly and unimpressed at the work I’m doing. My shoulders begin to slouch and my lip begins to droop.

Let me just say – this is not reflective of the work in anyway. I love every job I get, I’m quite lucky in a way that I have the ability to choose projects that I love and feel passionate about. I guess it’s just one of those things.

The comments and feedback I received with this one was great – and I really appreciate all the kinds words from everyone. It was great fun to do, and the client was as happy as I was in the end. Three cheers!

The big project in the works right now which has be head-down and bum-up is something that I personally have been dying for the opportunity to be involved with. I am, as some of you may have heard, currently working on illustrating my first Children’s Book. It’s hard for me to keep my mouth shut and I can’t say much about it at this stage, but I promise more details soon.

Erm, SquishyB?

Same gig, different name – let me explain…

SquishyB originally began back in high school – when I first started mucking around on the net. It quickly began to stick, not because it was an incredibly-well-constructed-name-based-play-on-words, more so just a name that no-one had. Whether I was too lazy to form something witty or too forgetful to try and run multiple usernames, SquishyB was my internet facade.

After registering the domain name back in Feb 2005, no matter what form my work took on – it always fell under that banner. SquishyB has lived through numerous digital reincarnations, including blogs, art depos, photo galleries and CMS systems. I’ve installed and deleted Wordpress under that domain more times than I can remember. Every online signup form, username, unique id falls under this odd, meaningless, 8 letter word.

So why change?

The last 6 months have been incredibly surreal in terms of the jobs I have worked had the opportunity to work on. From the moment I landed my first commission, things have continued to grow as my name continues to crawl its way slowly through the internet. With paying clients and larger jobs on the table, it was time for me to grow up and switch out of the pull-ups.

A lot of people ask me why I didn’t just run with my name, Art of Josh Bruce or similar. No reason – I guess I just wanted to try and be more creative than that – or at least trick myself into thinking that. InkByte really to me sums up what I do, which is primarily digital art. It’s a nice shell to live under for now, and having the company name officially registered makes it feel like home.

So I’ve officially moved in, and it’s feeling a lot more comfortable. It’s pretty exciting to see where things will go from here, so stay tuned for updates!