Hello Everyone and a very Merry Holiday season and Happy New Year to you.
For those of you out there that follow my work and blogs will notice that I've been silent for a little while, even though I post artwork fairly regularly on my facebook page
Now while I've been very busy with everything from getting ready for a lot of conventions, private commissions,Silent Scream and special images for the Cons that I'm associated with, there's a bit more to it than that. This past year has been incredibly busy for me,sometimes taking on way too many different things at the sametime.
Just for example: I jumped headlong into a new site that we launched at www.bluntforcebeating.com cranking out one review after another,while still writing multiple blogs(myspace and my blogspot.com and doing interviews with artists for www.optimumwound.com and it's Masters Of Ink series and other articles) drawing non-stop( commissions,movie review images,etc), meanwhile I still have a day job.....It's a lot to undertake. Most people don't even understand how much I create while still having a family and a life outside of all of these other things I've mentioned before.....
At some point all of these things can burn you out, despite that possibility I never looked back or even slowed down, I just kept going.
Unfortunately bluntforce didn't last too long as most of us involved couldn't update as much as we would have liked to and with a small fanbase it just didn't seem to be worth the effort. If I could have devoted the time to the site I would have taken it over myself and become the administrator and built it up properly to a very decent fanbase. Okay so this would taken a while but I truly believe this site had the potential to become something so special it would have eventually eclipse most others out there. It saddened me greatly to say goodbye to the site as it invloved all of the things that I love: Movies,Comics and the Crime genre.
Last year (2009)I managed to build up my myspace blog to a decent following doing illustrated movie reviews from a zero weekly status perspective,that coupled with my experiences at Toronto's Fan Expo made me push myself even harder.
I started doing more conventions and soon realised that this was a really good way to meet a lot of new fans and show off all the new projects that I was working on,get feedback and see people's reactions up close. I'm always trying to improve as an artist and I think that's very important in any industry or profession.
I see so many other artists out there that never seem to improve or change over the course of years and that has always troubled me. That's fine for them but I know what I wanted for myself. Lately I've been attemping a lot of new illustrations that I never would have tried before and very soon I'll be taking some drawing classes led by a Master Artist that has worked for Marvel for many,many years.
Now some people seem to think I'm anti Marvel/DC/Big Companies. In reality I'm not. One day if I'm good enough maybe I'll do work for them and I don't hate supeheroes in general and I've always had a soft spot for them in my heart. I just truly believe that the comic's marketplace need variety and in the last few years I've been seeing more and more of this happening. This is a vey good thing. I've just felt I need to say these things out loud on the net as a lot of people have this certain notion that I'm a certain way and wanted to clear up any misconceptions as far as that and a few other things are concerned. I have no axe to grind with any Company per se, apart from being pushed aside sometimes because I'm an independant artist. Unfortunately this is something that will happen in the industry, this is just the way that it is.
Unless I work on a major character for a big Company this will continue to happen or I make my own characters become so popular that it leads to me being noticed in a positive way. I think there's a few choices I have to make this year and 2011 will be a very interesting one.
I've always been a very outspoken person in regards to what I consider to be unfair practices( such as being rude to fans or ignoring/bashing media/fanboy types). It's true that I can't stand when other artists consider themselves too good to talk to a fan or even show the smallest modicum of civility to anyone that approaches them. Don't get me wrong I'm a very private person but when I show up at a Con I want to interact with people and I think it's quite obvious when you meet me at a show.
If you don't want to interact with fans then why book a table at a Con for? All of you out there that read this need to know that YOU are the ones that provide an artist with his or her income and any artist or writer that doesn't treat you properly should be boycotted and his work should be as well. There's one artist in particular whose name I won't mention but has several websites apparently devoted to how much of a jerk this person is. I find this totally incredible, that this individual no matter how talented can continue to act so badly and still be given work. I think that things like this need to change in the industry.
Now a lot of things I've mentioned in this Blog hopefully makes a lot of people stop and think.
I'll also be doing a LOT more blogs on all types of subject matter. Covering everything from movies,comics and everything concerning the crime genre. Yes, all of my efforts that I was putting into BFB will be transferred here and as the New Year goes on I hope to be revealing quite a few new surprises.
Have a very Happy new Year everyone and may it be prosperous in all aspects of your life: love, money and creativity.
