Something a little different

A quick sticker sketch for whenever I do a pack for someone offshore next. I was sick of doing the colour markers in skin tone. I wanted to try something different. I decided a night time sketch could be cool. This is how it came out.

It's winter in Auckland right now, and it has been very cold of late. Not fun. However there are a few things coming up to get excited about. The Film festival has almost arrived, and what better way to spend a winters evening than watching a kick ass movie or two on the big screen.

If you have any recommendations let me know. Ha ha!

Cheers

Drawing Day 2008

Hey All,

It's Drawing Day 2008. If you haven't yet. Go draw a picture and upload it to a pool on either Myspace, Facebook, Flickr, or whatever.

Check the website. http://www.drawingday.org/

Here is one I did. I'll be sure to add another today too.

Marc

Custom Stickers

My friend PodgyPanda and I are planning on going out on a stickering mission together. He gave me the idea to make some custom stickers on some label paper. As that is how he makes all of his stickers.

This ones I just drew directly onto the paper. Then inked, and finally coloured with some markers.

Enjoy!
Marc

www.amacomics.blogspot.com

Store!

Hello all,

I finally got around to doing an Etsy store. Now, if you've found my sticker somewhere, or someone passed this website along to you. Or even by some dumb luck you managed to stumble across it and you'd like to know more.

Well now I have a place to sell all my ActionMan Adam goodies to anyone, anywhere. If you'd like to purchase anything, you can visit the store link by clicking here.

I added the link to the side bar on the page too. Easy as that. Right now there are just comics and stickers, but I hope to increase that with screen printed tee shirts, posters and whatever else I might be able to think up. Also you can hit me up there for a commission too.

If you wanna side track the store, you can always email me direct.

Cheers
Marc

Walking around taking in the sights

Did some walking around the inner city today. I like walking. You get to take in so much more than you would in a car, bus or train. You get to people watch. You get to check out gig posters, or art on the streets. You get exercise. What's not to like?

Today I walked from Newton into the inner city. Lots of sirens today. The police, fire and ambulance divisions were all active in the two or so hours of my walking around.

I noticed one of my older stickers, someone had given Adam a moko. I thought that was pretty funny. I would have left it, but Adam being Canadian and all that, it doesn't feel right. I thought about it for a bit, and revisited the spot later in the day to slap another sticker over the top. The artist isn't completely out of luck though. I preserved the original with a crappy phone pic. Which is here:



Quickly it was slapped with a new sticker:



And what is up with Auckland city and its love affair for shitty apartment buildings. Seriously...? Why do we keep putting up these type of buildings. Where the residents get boxes, and a view of their neighbour who lives in the same apartment mirrored. I'm down with apartment dwelling, and its cool for Auckland to have apartments. It's just depressing seeing more and more of these buildings ugly up our city because we're cheap.



Ugh! Maybe this is one of the reasons people are leaving to live in Australia or the UK?

Marc
www.amacomics.blogspot.com

New ActionMan Adam Sticker

Hello Hello.

What is up? It's Sunday afternoon. Beautiful day outside. Tragically I am not outside. Things to do as per usual. I'm OK with it though. Don't feel sorry for me.

Some new ActionMan Adam stickers are in. I have some smaller ones of the same design due soon. As always, hit me up with an email if you'd like a couple and I'll send for free.

Isn't summer great?

Awesome.
Marc

Still here

Looks like I have neglected my blogging duties again. I felt like a break from writing. 2008 has been a crazy busy year already. Is everyone enjoying it? Summer has been pretty good. This week just past it was a little cooler than it has been. A nice break to be honest.

I had the last couple of weeks off work. Since I worked through Christmas, it was nice to get a break later on. Felt good to get some things done around the place.

What to report on? I have some new stickers due soon. They should be here in about 2 weeks time. New design and all. Check it out.



I put some art up around town. These were quite a process to make, but were also incredibly fun. Hopefully some people around Auckland saw them. When I have some more time at some stage I hope to make some more. It's an incredibly arduous task though. I had to have patience. The worst of course is, getting it right on every colour and then messing it up on the last colour (black). It's enough to make you want to throw in the towel. The one in this photo has now been painted over. That is whats cool about putting art like this up though. When you put it out there, you're open to criticism. People will have their opinion, because its their space too. Like it or not, it won't last too long. If the clean up crews don't get to it, the elements will.


This week I worked on a CD cover for my friend Adam's band. Yes, the same Adam who I'm using as the basis for ActionMan Adam. They're a punk/hardcore band based in Calgary, AB, Canada. If you're curious, check out their stuff at:

http://www.myspace.com/downtownprophets

To save them costs, I made the CD cover grayscale. You'd be amazed how much a 4 colour process job will cost over one colour. The finished result.


Apologies about the late post here. Lets hope it won't be too long between this post and the next. Hope you're well if you're reading this!

Marc

Feeling the Love

I spotted one of my own stickers on a traffic light in Ponsonby. It surprised me because I had nothing to do with putting it up (for a change).

It was very cool to see, and it made my day. Thanks to whomever was responsible! I took a pic when I came across it during my lunch break.

Cheers
Marc

November Already?

Above: AMA Sticker with an Obey Giant Sticker above that


What happened? This year went by so fast. It's not funny at all. I wonder if I'll be looking back come December and thinking..."damn Marc, you didn't get much accomplished this year". One thing I am disappointed about is not getting the full sized comic out on time. I've decided to not put a time on it now. I have drawn roughly 20 or so sequential pages since I began the ActionMan Adam project in February 06. Most of them are inked. That's not much in the space of almost two years. Although I have been doing stickers, stencils, screen prints and having a life in between.

I'm aiming for maybe 30 something pages for the full comic. I have plenty more stories to tell, but I should wrap up the first comic and then move on from there if I have enough material to do another one. It's been a learning experience for sure. Everything. Drawing a comic is cool. I can do that OK. Before setting out on ActionMan Adam though, I had never really messed with lettering my own work. I had only explored with ink wash on a minimal scale. Setting everything up to print, and getting the imposition right was more time consuming than I had originally thought. It's all been an interesting learning experience. Kind of an experiment that is continually on going. I find new things that get me excited about what I can try with it next.

Right now I'm getting into a double page spread. I haven't drawn any splash pages for this comic yet. In my mind it has to be a "serve the story" scenario. This double page spread I think will. It's going to be a lot of fun to draw. Mind you, if it wasn't, why would I bother right?


Other things worth mentioning. Cross Street Studios are having an exhibition "Molloy Ahoy!". The show is content produced by the Molloy brothers. Of them, I only know of Tim. Whose comics I really like. Flyer's are appearing all over town. So keep an eye out. In fact I will post the flyer image here. For more information, check out: http://crossstreetstudios.com/events.html

Finally, a quick sketch image from myself. This is unfinished. An image I will be assembling for a screen print, or a sticker, or both?

Hope your week went well. All for now.
Marc!

Large Vinyl in Stock

These are the two large format vinyl stickers I am having made. They should arrive in the country in about a months time. These suckers will be huge. About 4.25 inches by 5.5 inches. They're nice and bold. So should stand out no matter where they're put up.

Going to see the Bourne Ultimatum tomorrow. I'm down with those films. Might walk round town for a bit afterwards and check out whats in the music store or whatever. Has anyone heard the new Public Enemy album? I think it sounds pretty cool. I need to give it a few more listens. Also, if you are a fan of the Beastie Boys, their instrumental album is great for some nice tunes while working away. Other than that, I have lots of art to keep me busy.

Peace
Marc!

This could turn into a new sticker. Still thinking about that. Was an image I drew over this past weekend. Was just something for fun before I started drafting up my next sequential page. Which I am doing now.

The wall is a representation of things I like. The Storm Trooper is obviously a pop culture thing. The Andre the Giant face (www.obeygiant.com) is a reference to art. The target logo is the image for Public Enemy, representing music. Even the Soup reference is a shout out to my friend Richard. Who keeps me laughing.

Hope you like it.
Marc!

Hey All...

I was busy last night. Seeing some of the offset stickers I have made and then put up around town peeling down fast had me thinking about my next option. The offset stickers look great and I couldn't be happier with the result. I thought, for the purpose of having something last on a car, or in the elements is to go with a vinyl sticker. Vinyl stickers can take the beating from the elements, and sun very well, and have good adhesiveness.

The only thing about Vinyl is. It is Screen Printed. Which is a really basic form of printing. Compared to offset, a Screen print has to be a simple image. Bold. With no fine details. That type of printing loses the detail. I looked at what I had, and most of my stuff has a lot of fine details. So I took an existing piece I had done, and simplified it last night. So it is more blocky, and striking. This way I'll be able to get my vinyl sticker and still have a cool striking image that i like.

Plus I get the best of both worlds, as the original stickers still look dope!


Original Image. Basis for the new Vinyl Sticker.
New Sticker art. I traced the original image through tracing paper. I then blocked up the lines with an ink pen and a sharpie marker. I created the "flat-line" effect by using a white out pen back over the top of the black.

This sticker should arrive in about a months time. Email me if you'd like one then, and I'll put one aside for you!

Marc!

My friend Richie and I partaking in a drinking session at the Dux de Lux.
New Regent Street has some awesome eateries in and around the area.
Alice wanted to have her pic taken with a Storm Trooper at the show. Fair enough.
Myself on High Street.
AMA Submit Sticker on a Chch Street. How'd that get there?


So it was my last day in Christchurch today. I want to say thanks. I always have a great time in the city. Seeing family and friends. Always reminded of fond memories. I love the place. If I met you. Keep in touch, drop me a line anytime.

Next up. Wellington!!! Awesome. Have not been to Wellington in three years. Really looking forward to seeing what is new in the capital.

See you there Wellingtonians. Marc!

Here is the colour work for the same piece.

So after promising some new art. I finally manage to get some up. This is one of three new sticker/images/whatever i have worked on recently. It was actually the first one drawn, but the last one finshed.

Also finished it faster than the others as far as the digital work went.

Pencils and inks are shown here.

You sneaky little...

Heh. When I first had these stickers printed I snuck a few around select sites in Auckland City. I even did a couple of sites in Christchurch city. It's really cool to see months down the track one still in pretty damn good condition.