AWARDS: I won an Editorial Department Award for the Silent Manga Audition (SMA24) from Japanese publisher Coamix, where the theme was "Letters"! My story is titled "Letters in Pictures", and you can read it here, along with the other winners on the SMA24 results page, at the end of the page. Thank you for the kind words from Editor Motoda and the SMA Editorial Department, and I'm interested in entering SMA25 as well!
NEXT MANGA: With competitions all out of the way, I'm using August to get back to work and catchup on commission work I've put to the wayside. I'll restart work on "Sunset Protocol" in September, and will pencil the entire 2-vol series before I continue drawing any more finished pages. I've also discovered that IngramSpark now has a "buy direct" button which means I can directly link a buy button to IngramSpark rather than ship books myself! Wonderful! This site might see some overhaul on that front!
CONS: August is quiet for cons, but BookWeek is end of August so I've got some school workshops. I've got the printed version of "Sister Holmes", my Viz one-shot, and will be selling it at cons.
Hi all! I’ve been doing some more postings on Instagram and X in order to grow these accounts a bit and document more of my artistic processes. So here are some artwork I’ve been doing in order to get back into drawing manga more.
Most of these are character designs from the upcoming “Sunset Protocol“, which is a 2-volume, self-contained manga story I’m currently scripting. This is a supernatural mystery-thriller manga set in the same location as “The Dreaming” v1-3, and involves Jeanie from that series as a side-character (she is now 27, as it’s 13 years later).
I’ve scripted 9 out of 12 chapters, hopefully done in the next few months, so I’m looking to drop more character art soon.
An art test for the character of Eugene from “Sunset Protocol”. The guy’s an unhinged psychic and one of 7 people who is part of the same “found family”, which an outsider (our main character Maddy) runs into while looking for her missing cousin Jeanie (from “The Dreaming” v1-3). I treat these character artwork as a way to hash out these character’s personalities.
A look at what Eugene would look like in the environment of “Sunset Protocol”. This psychiatric hospital is an exact replica of the school from “The Dreaming”, so much of the decor is the same. This story is partly about a group of family with “found family” dynamics, and they’re pretty strange (there’s a backstory to this), but the way Eugene looks, he fits right in with the setting.
This is Eugene, another character from “Sunset Protocol” that is connected to Alex as a family member though they are not related by blood. Here, I’m testing the “seinen” art style I should use for “Sunset Protocol”. Since the characters are older and have a range of ages, this is a grittier-looking story than “The Dreaming” is. Hence the change in art-style.
This is an image of Alex. His last name isn’t given, but it’s actually Barrett. He’s the first person Maddy runs into when she goes to the hospital trying to find Jeanie, and yes, his bandages indicate that he is the result of a lab experiment gone wrong.
This is Maddy Lim, Jeanie’s younger cousin. She is the de facto main character of “Sunset Protocol” and a nursing student who begins the story looking for her missing cousin. I hope to do more art on her as we go on.This is Minnie May and Daigo December. They are important characters in “Sunset Protocol” though their real significance aren’t shown until later on.
Firstly, my short story from Walker Book’s anthology “The Book That Made Me: What the Doctor Recommended” has been used as an Educational Resource. It’s is being used as an example of “Hybrid Text” in an English Studies teaching resource for Years 11-12 by the Education Department of New South Wales. Visit the Sample programs and resources in the “Year 11, Term 1 – Reading to write: Transition to English Studies resources” to download the teaching guides.
I’ve been doing some foam clay art! Thought it would be a good time to show it off enmasse. It’s mostly Sanrio foam clay art, but the occasional Totoro slips in there too.
Here’s a process video of some cute art I did for a friend, of her wearing a T-shirt of 90s rock band Green Day. It’s interesting that a lot of younger people are still listening to music from the 80s and 90s.
