Archive for October, 2011
2011 Challenger: Bree Smith
Starting in Sept. 2010 I created a challenge for myself call Here Be Batman where I posted a Batman related drawing everyday for a year. Unfortunately, I failed in this mission only reaching 260-something drawings of the 365.
Now it is time to redeem myself!
Hopefully by completing this challenge not only will I gain a levels in my crafting: art skill, but I will also finally put on paper some of these characters floating around in my head.
A little about me
By trade I am a teacher & web developer, but for fun I run Geekin’ Out.
Drawing has always been my first love about all other hobbies.
I’m a giant nerd who loves Batman, all things Jim Henson and the Wizard of Oz.
2011 Challenger: Paul Montgomery
Hey, I’m iFanboy staff writer Paul Montgomery. I’m also the co-host of Fuzzy Typewriter, a podcast dedicated to story, storytellers, art and artists.
I’ve decided to take on the #30Characters Challenge for the first time this year…as a writer. Though my updates won’t include visual representations of my characters, I’ll attempt to showcase my creations through a variety of methods, from prose bios to journal entries to scripted interrogations. Hopefully I can explore a number of sub-genres as well, with characters suited to tales of science-fiction, crime, historical, slice-of-life, super heroics and more.
Excited to take on this project with such a talented bunch of creators and storytellers. Let’s break some legs!
2011 Challenger: Josh Jones
Greetings, all. This is the first I’ve heard of this challenge, and I’m very excited to be a part of it, however insignificant my contributions may be.
I started a web comic a while back, but I ran out of steam after 120 or so. I still regret not having the motivation or confidence to keep going, so I’m hoping taking part in this challenge will rekindle my attitude and creativity.
You can find my old comic at floodmud.com and on twitter (@floodmud and/or @thejoshjones).
I’m looking forward to creating along with you, and can’t wait to see all the amazing work out there.
2011 challenger: Kim Biersted
Hey
just sayiing hi to everyone. found this challenge due to Tegnebordet.dk so just for the hell of it, lets try it.
so about me, there’s not much to say. I just love drawing and have had a few courses in it.
Kim
2011 Challenger : Keith Knudsen
Hello, I like this project and am just adding my measly contributions to the table! I stopped drawing when I was a late teen and would like to see if I can improve on where I was then, 20 years ago 😛
2011 Challenger: Ruben Kaae
My name is Ruben Kaae, I’m a artist from Denmark in Scandinavia. I’ve heard of the “30 Character Challenge†a few years ago, but this is the first time that I participate.
I have an animation background, but now I’m moving more into illustration, I’ve bin painting digitally for about 6 month now, and I love it. I’m also teaching drawing online.
I’m really looking forward to participating and creating some new characters + meeting like-minded artists in a new community.
You can find me on blogger.
http://rubenkaae.blogspot.com/
Cya Ruben:)
2011 Challenger: Steve A.
Hi all! My name’s Steve and I’ve been looking forward to the 30 characters challenge all year.
My hope is that it gets my creative juices flowing and helps me get out of the artistic rut I’ve been in for awhile…
There are already a few people signed up who’s work I truly admire. I’m looking forward to seeing what their imaginations spew out here. Actually, I’m excited to check out all of the work and creativity that will come of this.
You can find me on twitter as @cartoonista and very soon at www.cartoonismo.com.
Happy drawing to all!
Steve
2011 Challenger: Steve Parks
What's your sign?
Hello Everyone, I’m Steve Parks. I work for Gold’s Gym as a Fitness Consultant in Tucson, AZ. I am the creator and owner of Sparksfly Studios. I have created a whole new universe of original characters which I can’t wait to share with you. Now all I need are several new writers & artists to help me produce them!
I’m very happy to be participating in the 2011 30 Characters Challenge. I look forward to viewing all the contestant’s original characters. Please visit my facebook portfolio: http://www.facebook.com/media/albums/?id=138328686193673, click my gallery link, and my albums to view more of my art. Thank you Tyler for this opportunity, and best of luck to everyone!
2011 Challenger: Pat Higgins
Hey everybody! I’m Pat Higgins, an illustrator/graphic designer/cartoonist/teaching artist from Delaware. I’ve been wanting to give the 30 characters challenge a shot for the last couple years but for some reason or another missed the sign up. This year I’m in! Looking forward to seeing all the cool stuff everybody comes up with and hopefully making some awesome characters myself.
You can find some of my work at www.higginsmedia.com/pat
2011 Challenger: Warren Frantz
I am the cr
eator of the webcomic “Off Season“. It’s regularly published Mondays and Thursdays, with occasional extra guest strips or bonus strips on other days. It follows the adventures of a mild-mannered goalie surrounded by the zany world of ice hockey.
I have taken on the 30 Characters challenge for the last two years. In 2009 I did it on my own website, while in 2010 I joined the “Official” website. It can be a grueling experience, but I have a direction this year, which will hopefully make it a bit easier for me!
It has been a goal of mine to write and illustrate a graphic novel. I’ve been kicking around the idea of writing a story centered around my Day 4 Character from last year. During this year’s 30 Character Challenge, I’ll be taking my first steps toward making that happen by trying to develop that story’s world through it’s characters.
I can be found at Google+ (Warren Frantz) or at Twitter (@puckhogg4)
2011 Challenger: Shane Smith
Hi,
My name is Shane and I’m an illustrator for a greetings card company in the UK.
I spend everyday drawing cute and cuddly characters, so this challenge will be a good opportunity for me to mix it up a bit and try something different, although sometimes it might be hard to keep the cuteness at bay.
As a first time participant I’m determined to complete all thirty characters. I’ll also be illustrating them traditionally which will enable me to sell the originals (for a very reasonable price!) to anybody that’s interested.
So all that’s left to say is good luck to everyone and roll on the 1st of November!
Here are a few personal pieces, and you can see some of my day job art over on my blog at ShaneMadeArt.blogspot.com. All my Twittery Facebook details are on there too so feel free to get in touch, it would be cool to get involved in the community.
Shane S
2011 Challenger: Jared Lewis
Hey.
My name’s Jared.
I’m 28 years old, on the East Coast, & work editing a daily cable news show. But none of that matters. On to the important stuff.
In the very little spare time I’ve got, I work on comics that have yet to see the light of day. And occasionally (though not recently), I post a couple of things on my sketchblog. Having participated & completed the 30 Character Challenge last year, I was on the fence about joining this year’s for quite a while, as I’m now competing with a much crazier work schedule & also need to find a new place to live by the end of the year. But I really like the act of character creation, & it was enough to bring me back. I’m harboring the lofty hope that characters I create this year could go towards my portfolio, & I can get myself a new dayjob more in line with what I’d rather be doing instead of this television nonsense. Good Luck to everyone competing. As a testimonial to newcomers, I can tell you going the whole 30 is quite a rewarding experience.
Hope we all are able to come up with some awesome stuff this year.
2011 Challenger: Josh Bauman
My name is Josh Bauman and I’m an American cartoonist based in Berlin, Germany. My main project is Caffeinated Toothpaste, a daily diary comic which I’ve been drawing since March, 2010. In addition to my diary strip I have drawn lots of mini comics, short stories, doodles, sketches, and other irreverent kinds of pictures.
My hobbies include subjecting myself to extreme tests of caffeine endurance, watching horror films, playing video games, and not sleeping.
This is the first time I’ve attempted the 30 characters challenge and I have been waiting for this year’s round to kick off since I first heard about it last year. I’m looking forward to not only creating some cool characters, but also being inspired by the other creators.
2011 Challenger: Xavier Galarza
I don’t normally like to write about myself, or particularly do very often, so I guess I wont. Â So yeah, I am going to be drawing some great characters (that come directly from my over active imagination).
2011 Challenger: Matthew D. Smith
Like some of the other people on this site, I was interested in entering the “30 Characters Challenge” previously, but talked myself out of it for whatever reason. I decided to bite the bullet and give it a shot this year.
Since 2007, I’ve been self-publishing comics that I’ve been writing or drawing. I’ve been fortunate in that time to meet some really great people who have been gracious enough to work on these projects with me. With David Simonton and Brad Jaskula, I work on the superhero comic, “The Adventurers of Liberty City”, and and oddity anthology called “Wichita Gravy”. I also worked on a series of mini-comics with Katie Omberg called “Suggestion Box” and the first 8 have been collected in two digests: “Tales From The Suggestion Box” and “Confessions From The Suggestion Box”. Just this past year, I wrote two horror graphic novels: “The Curse of Stranglehold” (with art by Melanie Florencio) and “Bee Sting” (with art by Jeremy Massie). I also released the first issue of a 10 issue slice-of-life series called “Simon Says”. It’s a drama/comedy following a group of high school kids in the mid 90s. The first issue features art by Desiree Pittman (her husband, Jason, supplied the cover), and I have a different artist lined up for future issues.
I figured the 30 character challenge would help me out in a lot of ways…there are several character ideas in my head for allies and villains in “The Adventurers of Liberty City”, ideas for characters to be featured in a “The Adventurers of Liberty City” spin-off, and some minor characters yet to be introduced in “Simon Says” I want to design. I have some other ideas in my head as well for characters that may find their way into “Wichita Gravy” or some mini-comics.
You can check out my stuff on-line at my blog: www.mdsmithcomics.blogspot.com
2011 Challenger: Frank M Hansen
Hello. My name is Frank Hansen (FM Hansen). I am a professional cartoonist/illustrator & artist. I heard about this challenged last year after it had started and wanted to jump on it this year. I wanted to use it to put an extra fire under me to produce some character designs that are different, fun and push the boundaries about what a character design can be. The flexibility of this challenge is so wide open so it makes this possible.
 
Hopefully I can produce a few cool designs.
My main site is – www.fmhansen.com
My comic site is – www.animaticpress.com
2011 Challenger: Jon Parrish
Greetings to all.
You know, I’ve seen the ads for the 30 Characters Challenge and it always looked interesting. I always thought about entering, but things would happen and I would end up putting it off.
Not this year.
After seeing what everyone has done and been doing with this, I thought it would be a good time to start. I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone does.
I am currently living in Japan and working as an Assistant Language Teacher. I have been here for almost a year and a half. I am also working on a book that I hope will be out either by the end of this year or the beginning of the next one.
I’m a writer first and foremost, but I will try to include drawings when I can. Stick figures are okay, right?
Good luck to everyone and I hope that we can all make it to 30.
2011 Challenger: Trey Jackson
Not that serious, actually
Here comes a new challenger!
What’s good, people? I’m a designer/illustrator, working on comics projects in the off time. I’m taking the challenge because:
a) it looks like fun,
b) it’s an excuse to draw every day, and
c) I want to work specifically on my character design skills.
I’m also looking forward to checking out everybody’s work.
The loose plan is to pull from the numerous scrawled names and castoff concepts I have hidden away in notebooks and text files, and fleshing them out with visuals and background. If any other ideas occur to me, I’ll probably follow some of those too. Been looking at public domain super heroes as well, recently. May mess with some of those if time allows.
Umm, I guess that’s it, you can see some of my work at my website. Here’s some art:
  
Sa da tay my damies!
2011 Challenger: Jamie Gambell
My name is Jamie Gambell and I am the writer of the comic book series, The Hero Code.
I’m also the creator/writer of the series, Omnitarium – the first volume of which was finished and released in 2010.
I currently live in LA with my wife and son, and work as a sound utility technician in film and television. The day job eats up a lot of time, and the few hours I have left over I like to spend with the family, which often means that I have to find extra time in the day for working on comic books. Because of this sleep and I have an arrangement, which I’m sure one day he will come to collect on!
The Hero Code series artist, Jonathan Rector, and I both agreed that it would be fun to do something with the 30 Characters challenge as a means of working out some of the cast of the series. As I type issue one has just seen print, but we’ve got so much story worked out and so many characters coming and going, that it seemed like a good idea to have a single place to work out the look of those characters.
I’m really looking forward to participating, having followed the previous two challenges, and to checking out other peoples work at the site.
Good luck everyone!
2011 Challenger: Don Urquhart
Hello, folks. I’m not sure why, but I seem to have taken a fourteen year hiatus from drawing. I’ve just recently re-discovered the joy of sitting down to put pencil to paper, and I’m hoping that the 30 character challenge will get me back in the habit of drawing every day.
I was initially introduced to the challenge by a work chum who had entered it last year. Every day I would check the site to see what he had submitted, but soon found myself checking out all the entries (it was a great way to start each dreary November day with coffee and pictures). The whole thing seemed like too much fun; I had to participate.
I’ll try to bring an even assortment of characters, but I have to admit that I have a soft spot for robots, monsters, and aliens. I’ll try various styles, although most of my offering will probably be in pencil.
I’m looking forward to checking out everyones work. Good luck.
2011 challenger : Jay Faulkner
Jay - Headshot
Hi there everyone, as you will no doubt have already gathered from the subject my name is Jay. I attempted this thing last year and even though I didn’t finish all 30 characters I LOVED Tyler’s concept for 30Characters so much that I have come back for more even though I am not an artist! 🙂
… I suppose, at best, I would be willing to call myself an enthusiastic sketcher who happens to have a degree in art but, being honest, never has (or makes) the time to draw in order to improve.
That could be because I work full-time as an IT Services Manager, teach two martial art classes, run two indy publishing ventures, write my own fiction and still try to at least let my wife and kids (two boys – Mackenzie who is 4 years old and Nathaniel who is 2 years old) remember who I am 😉
Excuses aside I fully intend to do better than last year and, to that end, will have a piece of creative fiction written for each of my 30 characters and (Flying Spaghetti Monster willing) also some artwork to go with each and everyone of them … that’s the plan, at least but I also planned to spend the last couple of weeks researching and plotting out my characters – instead I spent the last couple of weeks pretty ill with bronchitis and 10 days in hospital being helped to breathe.
Hey – plans, ey!? 😉
Anyhoo, same as last time the honest reason for taking part in 30Characters is pretty simple: to have fun. I don’t have a comic, I am not planning to pitch for a comic, I am not thinking about going back to art full-time. I’m just here to put some of the ideas spinning around in my head down onto paper and see what they look like. I am pretty sure that they will be (mostly, at least) super-hero based, though I ‘may’ attempt to sketch out some of the characters from current and upcoming stories too.
If you want you can find out more by visiting www.jayfaulkner.com
For now though, and try to put something ‘arty’ into this introduction (as well as steal a phrase from all good kid’s TV shows) you can see some of my artistic attempts here – http://jayfaulkner.com/gallery/ – and, to whet your appetite, here are some sketches that I made ‘earlier’ 🙂
The next two images were created for Martin Eden, creator/owner of Spandex (http://www.spandexcomic.com), for a month long theme he called ‘Japandex’. In his own words this was “To celebrate the Spandex team’s trip to Tokyo in issue 2, Spandex creator Martin organised ‘Japandex’, a very special online gallery of Japanese-related art – with a Spandex twist!! The artwork was provided by some of the UK’s top artistic talent and debuted in June 2010. You can see it all here: http://spandexcomic.files.wordpress.com/2010/07/japandex-thank-you-copy-copy.jpg
My contribution was my ‘take’ on Neon and Glitter, inspired by traditional Japanese images:
2011 Challenger: hwang
Hi guys
my name is Huang Chenyang – or hwang for short
I’m from Singapore and is trying out this challenge for the first time
you can find comics i draw on
redmonstercomics.com
tks and cheers
- captain amercia fanart
2011 challenger : Joe Lynch
Hiya, my name is Joe Lynch, and I’m a wine rep from Australia.
Hopefully this challenge will give me something to do at work between taking calls at work. I heard about it last year but was too late to participate….so I’m actually pretty excited about giving it a try this year 🙂
I’m writing this post from my iPad so I can’t really upload any images….But I can be found at www.deviantart.com/kidmarvelj
I have a lot of characters to flesh out for something I’m working on. This is going to be a great outlet!
2011 Challenger: Sharon Jacob
Hello everyone!
My name is Sharon, I’m from India, and I’m a BFA student by day and freelance illustrator by night..
I’ve always been interested in character design and illustration.. I hope to finish this challenge and see if I can get some portfolio pieces out of it too! I don’t have a theme as such, but I hope to experiment with a different media and styles.. Looking forward to meeting new artists and seeing your work! 🙂
You can also find me on blogger : http://sharon-jacob.blogspot.com/
and Deviantart :Â http://irnmaiden07.deviantart.com/
2011 Challenger: Yannick Morin
Hey gang!
My name’s Yannick Morin and this is my first attempt at the 30 Characters Challenge. I’m a thirty-something dad from beautiful Quebec City where I spend my days as a mild-mannered communications consultant. When the sun goes down however, I become a wholly different dashing figure: an aspiring comic writer, forging words into entertaining plots and fighting the forces of apathy wherever they might pop up (usually around my desk).
Of course, as writing is my specialty, I’m not expecting to wow anyone with my drawing ability. In fact, apart from thumbnailing some of my pages – just to get a feel for the graphic flow of a story – I haven’t drawn much since back when I was in college. Oh sure, I leave the occasional sketch on coworkers’ whiteboards, but that’s just subversive artistic guerilla so it doesn’t count. I really don’t know yet how my attempts will turn out. I might try a lot of different techniques to see what I’m comfortable with. We’ll just call it “eclectic” – it’ll make a nice blurb for the dust jacket someday.
The 30 Characters Challenge came to my attention because I’ve become somewhat of a regular on Tyler’s website ComixTribe. He’d go on and on and on about it so I thought: “Hey, why not try it out?” Besides, since I’m a chronic procrastinator, any excuse is a good one for getting me off my butt and doing something comicky.
Just for laughs, let’s have a look at these 10-year old drawings I just scanned. Ha! Look at that guy’s hand! Hilarious!
2011 Challenger: Igor Glushkin
Hello everyone. I am a Graphic Designer by day practicing my skills at illustration by night. I am also very excited to be participating in the 30 Characters Challenge for the second time. Can’t wait to see a pool of creative talents displaying their work. Hope to have as much fund this year as I did last years 30 character Challenge.
Link to my work: igordesign23
2011 Challenger: David Emerson
Hello! I’m David, and I’m currently an aspiring artist (and, um, full time accounting student?) living in San Diego. When I’m not buried under my classwork I spend a lot of time playing video games, reading about history, and working on my webcomic: Underling. I also have a DeviantART that I never update. I hope to work myself hard and get a lot out of fun designs out of this challenge.
This is my first stab at the 30 character challenge, and I don’t have enough free time as it is, so this challenge should be pretty fun!
I don’t have any character design sketches handy, so here’s the cover page of the latest chapter of my comic!
Buy #30! – Tears of the Dragon, Volume I by Tyler James
The 1st Volume of Tears of the Dragon is now available!
To entertain his grandchildren while on a pilgrimage, a well-traveled Old Man spins a grand tale of swords and sorcery, dragons and demons, revenge, regret and redemption, and above all…love. His story begins with a young nobleman with eyes on the crown. To prove his valor, the would-be king sets out to slay a dragon, earning the undying wrath of the mighty Sythic.
Volume I collects the first two chapters of the Tears of the Dragon saga!
Order now and receive:
– FREE Shipping! (US/CA)
– Artist Edition Upgrade! Original sketch in the book by series creator Tyler James.
Artist Edition books take 3-7 days to ship.
Writer – Tyler James
Artist – Koko Amboro
Color Artists – Paul Little, Miguel Marques, Evan Surya Nugraha
56 pages, Full Color
8.5 x 6 Perfect Bound Trade
Full Preview:
2011 Challenger: Cesar Feliciano
Hello y’all. You may know me as the artist/co-creator of The Red Ten. I am a creator and loved comics and the medium. I am loking forward to joining you all on this journey. I have illustrated many comics such as Full Moon Craze, The Captains Jolting Tales, The Innovators, Ripperman, Female Forces: Sonia Sotomayor, as well as many various short stories. This will be fun and I can’t wai to get at it!
2011 Challenger: Robin White
Hi everyone. My name is Robin White, and I’m Canadian but  currently live in Japan. I do a webcomic called Doodze, which I like to describe as a cross between Smurfs and Lord of the Rings, in a setting that appears be ancient Japan.  I also have a site called SkitZo MaN dot CoM, which is mainly a sketch blog, and where I’ll be posting my character designs in addition to here.  I’ll probably create some new characters for Doodze, but am interesting in exploring some new ideas through this challenge as well.
I’m stoked to be a part of the challenge this year! Â It’s my first time. Please be gentle.
I’ll leave you with a recent page from my comic, as a preview of my work:
#30Characters Chatter…