DOJ-CON Experience

Exhibiting at DOJ-CON

I've been attending D-CON/DOJ-CON for all of the years it has been in operation and each year I've thought, or have been explicitly told, 'You should have a table here!' So this year marks a notch in my belt, and I decided to book the table before I was even ready for it. No matter what, BE THERE. Be present.

"Eighty percent of success is showing up. " ~ Woody Allen

Surprising and quite relieving to find I wasn't as nervous as I expected while I was setting up my table, but I was still full of jittery energy without the sinking feeling. My mouth kept going uber-dry as I tried to settle into my 'totally needs a cushion' chair.

I used an A3 sketchbook to prop up my folio display in a stroke of last minute improvisation and Ak secured it to the table via gorilla tape. I was ready. Slight delay in the doors being opened, but holy shit when they finally did. The glacier of people sliding past the table, in assorted eccentric dress was amazing.

Brilliant fun followed while painting live, and while I've not livestreamed much in the past its a pretty solitary experience compared to being able to look up and into the eyes of people watching the monitor. Audience interaction became tactile as I could respond to comments/reactions in realtime, often I was inspired also by the amazing soundtracks being played by the organisers.

I began to settle after I'd sold some prints - my first one being Selling a Luffy print to a Luffy cosplayer. Easy sale!

My aim was to cover costs so I wasn't losing vital income, and to gain some new audience and in this I feel fulfilled. I spent my profits feeding my friends :D I retain a folio full of prints to use in the future which are available to buy for £5, and I carry with me the experience of the event itself.

What I've learned

• I need a larger selection of prints for people to 'browse'. 7 is too low a number. People want moar.
• People like to watch digital art being created when they don't especially understand the medium.
• The most commonly asked question of the day was 'What sort of tablet is that? :D'
• 1 day is not long enough, bring back the weekend event
• Always bring along a monitor / laptop. It kicks ass!

Thanks to those who purchased prints and showed their enthusiasm, its a bolster to my ambitions to succeed as a freelancing hero artist, and to any new followers of mine online Harro! and I was super pumped that the best sellers were my original paintings over fanart.

Many thanks to my visiting friends from Edinburgh who helped keep my company, and made the evening following the event a pleasure.

PS.

Gryffindor woolen sweater for the win!

Freelance Work for Proper Games

New work update with some recent artwork for Proper Games' mobile title in development. Here's a selection of WIP environment concepts showing a variety of potential locations.

 I've been working on them in batches like this as it helps me keep the scenes in context with the others.

Map / Level Select Layout Concepts showing a path through single player.

Perspective in environments is something I'm stumbling over, I found a useful vanishing point brush which has assisted me as I've yet to get to grips with photoshops' grid system. Hope you dig :3

The Physic Garden Cover PUBLISHED!

First off, wow! Published! Today I can show you my cover for the novel The Physic Garden by Catherine Czerkawska, please visit her site to learn more about this wonderful author. :3

‘What am I afraid of? That a million thoughts, feelings, memories, will come rushing back to overwhelm me? I cannot begin to describe to you the terror - there is no other word for it - engendered by the thought of him, even now, and yet he was as kindly a man as you could wish to meet, one who inspired trust and friendship in equal measure, a man who inspired great love in all those who knew him. I used to think it an unmitigated blessing, used to envy him. But now, with the wisdom of my years, I realise that it can be a peculiar curse and a burden, to be a man whom people love.’ 

The Physic Garden is the story of a close friendship and a betrayal so shocking that it pervades the whole novel, like the memory of a nightmare. As a young man, William Lang worked as a gardener at the old college of Glasgow University but he has spent most of his subsequent life as a printer and bookseller in the growing city of Glasgow. When the novel begins, in the mid 1800s, he is in his seventies, widowed and living with his grown-up family. He has just received a parcel containing a book called the Scots Gard’ner, as well as a handwritten journal. With these volumes comes a letter saying that they were left to him by Thomas Brown, a gentleman who has recently died at his country house in Ayrshire. So many years later, the unexpected legacy of the books reminds William of his youth when he and Thomas became unlikely friends. The memories come flooding back. 

Please find the book here on AMAZON US and AMAZON UK

This marks a momentous day for me, and I am really glad to have worked with Catherine. It is a briiliant feeling to have a piece of my art published on Amazon, and I hope those who buy the kindle book enjoy reading it as much, if not more than I did making the cover to reflect the story contained within.

If any authors who find themselves reading this post, please feel free to contact me by email contact@michaeldoigart.com or facebook about your own novels. I'm sure we can work something out that will be greatly beneficial to us both!

Thanks for reading.

I told them to Stahp

I call this one, 'I told them to Stahp...'

A pivotal plot moment in next summer's Nope 3D starring Grumpy Cat!

As a freelance artist I'm commissioned to draw all sorts of things, but nobody has yet to request a cat being too grumpy to look back at explosions, but I hope this painting changes all that.

Contact me for any commissions at contact@michaeldoigart.com

Heaven's Hell Sketches

Sketch ideas for the Heaven's Hell contest.

30 Line Portraits

This week I've been working through an assignment from Sickbrush Fantastic Five Class on Crimson Daggers alongside fellow artist Craig Paton.

5 ethnicities, 2 genders, 3 portraits each for this first task.

Restricting to line, no shading to be done digitally, gets you to think, and focus. Plus, I've been wanting to draw the Doctor for a long while, and this crossed over splendidly.

4 days well spent.



Find me on FACEBOOK

Grumpy Cat, from a reference photo. Luffs this cat.

There are a few variations on this cat with additional props on facebook - you are welcome to contact me  for more information on prices for commissions, of a pet nature or otherwise. Portraits, illustrations, and what not.

Bananaman

I think there's a definite gap in the market for a @RocksteadyGames and @DandyComic mashup, don't you?

In celebration of The Dandy's final print issue, and their launch of their online comic platform today I tried my hand at a concept for Bananaman!

Ghostly Light

Photo Study: Way too long.

Comment and Crit welcome.

Revisiting Characters

 

I’ve been touching up a WIP of a Frogboy concept from last semester and creating Portraits of my antagonists, the Obligation Council in order to contextualise my story, and build a believable cohesive world.

This is what my research is tending to lean me towards, and it is what I enjoy doing most. Plus I haven’t updated here in a while.