thought i should propbably update this after a long hiatus. essentially the reason i stopped 'blogging' is that my friend liam kinda dropped off the radar, so i didn't really want to do this or even make comics without him. so after a few months of no comics i'm trying to get back into it- creating as many pitches as i can so tjhat i dont have to do a degree next year, the problem is finding writers who won't let me down. so yea, il try to keep this thing more up to date in case on the offchance that someone might actually read it :P

Oh yea and i did end up in uni doing a foundation, not cos i want to learn all sorts of disiplines but cos its the shortest course i could find at the closest college lol

completely random

just felt like putting this up really. me and jack have decided to go travelling together- first stop Norway!! (we wanna see the northern lights) still no idea whether im gonna go to college or not (prob not lol)

messed up computor

After half a year of using this computor i just realised a vital fact- my screen is widescreen. Therefore its stretches out my drawings when i put them up! (Also has something to do with the scanner trying to make it fit the full area) so just to prove my point above is the drawing i put in my last post but with the width adjusted- now it actually looks like the original! lol

Mike Turner passes away

Mike Turner lost his struggle with cancer last night at the age of 37. When I first heard I thought it must have been a different Mike Turner- everyone knew he was ill but no-one possibly thought it could lead to this. From all accounts Mike was such an enthusiastic guy who really cared about his art almost as much as he cared about the fans, a true inspiration who never let on how much pain he was in. He was one of the people who I was really looking forward to meeting at a con but now i will never have that pleasure. It's weird but I was genuinly reading the wizard hardback on his art last night- its still on top of the pile of comics by my bed.

Since he was best know for his take on girls i thought id do one in tribute- not thats its worthy or anything but still.

SCHOOL IS OVER NOW!!

yep last exam= done. I am fairly sure i failed it, but its done. All this time I have been looking forward to this extended break/ lifetime where I have the chance to actually get some pages drawn (i have the script for about 10 overall) and improve my art. But now I'm being told that I'm in loads of trouble for not going in to school today even tho when i spoke to barton on friday he didnt mention that i was meant to. So now I'm meant to go in for all of tomorow and im not even sure why! plus I'v got all this exhibition crap that I'm meant to do when i'd rather they just left me out of it.

Random drawing here which i entered for the Street Fighter tribute book but as I never heard back I assume it was rejected.

School work- kinda

I don't go to school anymore- which means im left entirely to my own devices as to how much revision i do. Which of course means not much. The bad thing is im to worried about not revising to draw lol- but everytime i sit down to read i find something else that 'needs' doing. Anyway this really is the sum of today's work.
Still not sure about the use of negative space- i might draw buildings in.

BUSY TIMES AGAIN

After a cock-up with the dates i was beleiving that i would be sitting my comparative essays exam next friday. That is no the case. Turns out i'm actually sitting my Shakespeare/ Chaucer next friday- 2 books written in semi (or as they say say 'old') english and have a rather poor grasp on both. Yay for me. But ever the optomist i think its all gonna be ok somehow.

In stranger news i am now working for 5 writers (including freelancer which i am writing and drawing). all of which i hope to have sent off a pitch with before then end of july.

Here is a random self portrait for ya.

The Doctors Daughter

Thats the doctors daughter. I think I'm in love..

Seriously great episode (best yet?) and great open ending as to when she'll be back. Back to work for me now lol

IRON MAN!!

sorry about the crappy photo of this ink wash drawing but its to big to scan

Its finally here! Now consider that when this movie was 1st announced i was not what you would define as excited about it- iron man was currently serving bad guy status in civil war (which was nessesary for the story). But now that I've seen it? wow. just wow. sam jackson as nick fury? squeeeel!! lol and now all the marvel movies aregoing to be connected! plus the huge box office numbers are going straight to marvel which can only mean the next films will get more money to play with.

One More Day- of morrisons

Well its finally happened. I quit. I'm not afraid to say I quit because I know they were going to sack me any way. But thats not the point. I've finally done something that completely goesw against what everyone has told me to do and I feel fantastic for it. The tight grip of exams grows ever more threatening but I couldn't care less- I don't want to jinx it but I actually feel good. Just want to give a shout out to Liam because hes having a tough time in a terrible situation- Liam, you are the strongest person I know and I know that you'll get through this- becuase the good guys always win.

and heres venom just cos i felt like it (drawn in a pub in spain if your interested lol)

jam peice

tom judge: cap america pencils

lewis hatfull: iron man pencils

liam gray: deadpool pencils

then i did spidey and put the image together and inked it :D
i love how it turned out

Millie!!!

i'v found my cats really fun to photograph- its like taking a portrait pic without having to talk to people!

the last week

very random post today.. I'm into the 'easter' holiday at the moment and whilst I have a ton of school work to wade through and got to go to work in an hour I'm quite enjoying it. British weather has stayed true to form by offering us snow on saturday which has completly dissipated by Monday. Its now pretty warm but anyway. Heres me in the middle of a snowball fight.

and heres a random pic of my cat millie cos she rules (I was testing out the posh borrowed camera this morning)

Stephen Wiltshire

Last night I saw an incredible program about an autistic artist. What made him special was that he can draw any building from memory. Exactly. Quite a skill and to prove himself he took a helicopter ride over london for 15 mins then spent the next 5 days drawing it from memory on a 4 meter long sheet of paper. Everything was to scale and in exactly the right place- experts were baffled. However whilst they were looking at his amazing talent I apreciated the art side and the attention to detail so I was inspired to have a go myself. I failed at completeing the whole building from memory but I managed to do it in sections. Heres my attempt at Big Ben which should be for the most part pretty acurate.

new art!!

finally something new to show you, alright i did it on the bus on the way home but hey who cares?

submission

This is very old news now but I thought I'd share it anyway; a few months ago i sent a submission to marvel through a competition they are holding called chesterquest. The prize was one of 12 pencilling jobs for marvel- as far as i know more than 2000 people enetered so I didn't expect to have a hope in winning but I thought it would just be good experience. Anyway, I got rejected but the letter I got back was nice:

'Thank you for taking the time to submit to ChesterQuest, Matt. Marvel
has now selected the artists who they will be giving penciling and
cover opportunities to, and at this time, you are unfortunately not
one of those chosen creators. Thanks again for your time and best of
luck in all your future endeavors. We hope to see you working on our
comics someday soon!

Take care,
C.B.'

I would have liked some sort of comment as well like work on ur figures or layouts or something but hey- Here's one of the peices from the submission too (from thor vs sentry p1).

....

ok im starting to get a bit of a handle on things; im starting to put out comic pages again (albeit at a rate far below what i want), im settling down at work - but still hate it- and my school work is moving along, again at not a good enough rate but its a start. I have also decided not to buy original art (with the exception of stuff by perez but come on the mans a god) although to tie me over and get something to put on the wall i recreated a a perez page and a bagley page.

I gotta say i thinks its a damn near flawless copy!

latest art

sorry didn't mean to confuse you with the title, I'm just putting up my latest ebay purchase. Although I should say I am on the verge of completing another 2 pages for my comic. Anyway this little gem is zombie spider-man by Arthur Suydam, the artist behind the paining covers which have been sweeping across all the marvel titles.

I get paid next Friday with the princely sum of about £300, the vast majority of which I'm going to put aside but there are two peices of art currently on my radar; a wolverine drawing by Mini Marvels artist Chris Giarusso (sp?) and possibly moving into big boys collecting with a George Perez page featuring supergirl and green lantern (among about 100 other characters, he's ridiculous) with is being sold for $250.. that's a mere fraction of what it's actually worth but it's still a lotta money, epecially since I don't know how long I'l be able to hold out at my job and I really want a big chunk of money saved.

Still no art

As the title suggests I still haven't had time to do the thing that keeps me going... drawing. I'm on the half-term 'holiday' at the moment but I've got to much work to do to actually enjoy it, I'm begginning to question if it's really worth it. But then I think that once I've completed these tasks (mammoth as the are) then theres realatively little left to do. It's a completely lie because there are many more things after this current list is completed, with the small matter of the 3 most important exams that I will ever take... probably. So between sleep, school work and shop work I am determined to knock out a few pages over the next week, especially as I have found new inspiration in Todd Mcfarlane's spider-man work ;D. Anyway I can't sit around talking I have 3000 words to write...

How can anything be this hard?

I have to 1st give a warning: if you are in a good mood then skip the following post.

No art today. The simple reason for that is that I haven't had time to do any- of any type. That kills me, it really does. I got the job I applied for which is essentially stacking shelves at morrisons. £5.50 an hour, 15 hours a week. Not the best pay and 15 hours doesn't sound like much right? That's what I thought. My 1st night on Tuesday I didn't think went to badly (this was after a 9 hour induction day on saturday), however my second night was just awful. That's not me being overly-dramatic. Seriously, it was awful. My manager (who has been there 21 years and therefore I can assume hes not going to be leaving anytime soon) made it hell for me. Now I can hold my hands up and say I'm not particularly good yet, I mean who is on their SECOND NIGHT!? For some reason the dude gives me a list of about 5 or 6 tasks to complete and tells me how to do them all (knowing full well that by the time I've done the 4th I will have forgotten) and then gives me some impossible amount of time to complete them in. Here's an example: stack meaty flavour crisps as tall as I am, stack classics crisps as tall as I am, face an end row, fill an entire display of jaffa cakes, fill chocolate fingers, fill these weird simpsons biscuits, fill in a row of bran flakes and fruit'n'fibre- IN 15 MINS. No exageration there. Its what he expects from a dispraxic and autistic guy who doesn't entirely know what hes doing. Then once I was done (and he was watching me for most of it) he told me why most of what I had done was wrong and told me about how he could not afford a bad link in the chain and that I was a serious cause for concern. I received several of these speeches which essentially mean
if I dont become as good as him very, very quickly then I'm sacked. No pressure, ay?

Basically I hate it there and I know already that I'm not going to be there long. Whether I quit or get sacked is irrelevant because everytime I realise, like right now, that I have work in a few hours time I die a little inside. It doesn't help that when I trudge home at 11 at night I am fully wide awake so I will still be up for a few hours, however I am to tired and my back is to sore for me to do anything usefull. This makes me very tired the next day for school which is really not good for the moment as all my school work is suddenly coming to a head and I am getting very far behind. I have already given up on doing any comic work for the next month but I still think if I carry on with this job my chances of passing are in serious jepardy.

So I am going to see out next week and cling on as long as I can, after all £25 a night is not to be sniffed at but this will not be lasting long. Sorry if I bummed anyone out with this post but its just the way I feel...

Timm style

Heres a random sketch of a blond (possibly supergirl now that i look at it) which was drawn with markers using Bruce Timm's 'animation' style. Its quick and fun which is good because i dont have much time for anything between school and my job atm. enjoy and expect more...

A possible cover for my comic- Nexus

IT HAS ARRIVED!!

Pretty crypic sounding title, huh? Well several posts below I stated my intent on an original drawing by Mike Wieringo (R.I.P)- heck not just a drawing a full body shot of Black Cat and Spider-man, my two favourite characters (even after OMD!). So yea I won it about 2 weeks ago, costing a whopping $150 (or £78 if you're interested). That seems like a lot when you think about it, but jeez you have to see it. Now that I have it I shake the feeling that I short-changed him. Anyway, enough build-up (although as its in pencil it hard to get a scan that does it justice, so I inked it). I am proud to present Spider-man and the Black Cat by Mike Wieringo with inks by me-
Yea pretty freakin' rad huh?!

side note- ignore the painting below 'cos I showed it to my art teacher and he basically tore it to shreds with his critism lol

Still life

Heres a random painting that I did for school, theres quite a lot wrong with it but I quite like it. Its a photo so theres a bit of glare at the top.

School gets in the way

My comic 'Nexus' (thank you for the name Liam) is well into production, or at least it should be by now. I started conceptualising the idea about two weeks and have written pretty much the whole thing since then. Above is a drawing done using my tablet of the main character. I only have a few elements left to string together but I have finally started it and finished to 1st page, with pages 2 and 3 pencilled. It's fustrating because I know exactly what I want but school keeps butting in. I'm more than a little behind in school so I'm ferverently trying to catch up, I know I will/have do fine its just balencing it between my REAL work in comics. more later...

ebay stuff

I found a sketch on ebay by the late great mike wieringo that I will win. I WILL. I already have enough money to win it im sure simply from what is left from my birthday money. Problem is that I don't really want to spend it, so in an attempt to balence it up I'm putting a few peices of art on ebay. Above is one of them although the photo is absolutely terrible, as you can see I had a light on which just gone wrong. That and the angle I took it at has stretched it out, but hey.

Forget Spidey

After the last post I wanted something a little more fun. I still hate JQ and growing up in general but for the moment have decided to stick to my original plan. Take the next year out- force my submission down the throat of various comic companies and make my trip to america. Then if that doesnt go so well then next year I'l do the whole university thing. Gotta give my thanks to Liam for helping me remember that Spidey is not the be all of comics and inspiring me to make my own story which im really excited about. Il post some designs from that later. Now as this is an art blog and all heres a pic of supergirl drawn on my tablet- still havent figured out how to colour :-? The hair isnt right at all but I still think she looks cute enough to post

Brand New Madness

OK I'm sorry for that horrible attempt to link the main issue of the post into my feelings about it. Brand New Day? Get it? Anyway..

I realised today that next month I will have been collecting spidey comics for 10 years. By that I mean real comics that are in the larger continuity. 'Cos I had been collecfting comics based on the TAS (sigh- I miss those days) since I was 4. I havent always followed spidey- there have been times where I've been swayed by Star Wars and later Harry Potter. For very long periods of time as well. I didnt even consider drawing Spiderman COMICS until I was at least 13. Heck I didnt even take drawing seriously until the last 2 or 3 years. Since then I have always said I was going to be a comic artist when I grew up but I never beleived it, not until about 8 or 9 months ago when me and Liam made Spider-man: New Genisis. I have now dedicated myself to becomming a sucsessful comic artist, its how i define myself.

Now I explained that I'll try to put my problem into words, and I can't promise that it will be entirely coherant. So after OMD I have decided to stop reading Spidey (until they retcon it back but im dubious as to whether that will happen properly) which means I'm giving up on my childhood character- sure I've branched out into a lot of other characters but my love is with spidey and always will be. Hes my real link to comics and now hes gone. That and my Dads endless nagging to send off a sample to marvel before it's too late, when I'm not sure how I feel about them. As an artist its my dream to work for Marvel but as a fan I currently regard JQ as evil. Its making my decision about whether or not to go to university a lot harder.

I thought I had made this decision already. The only course I could have got a little excited about is in Swindon, which is about 200 miles away. So I would have to live on my own with complete strangers in a place I have no idea about. Normal people would be scared by this but me in my ball of autistic paranoia is terrified by this. When most people consider university its for the lifesytle- drinking and partying and general socialising. This used to excite me a few years ago when I was part of that whole scene but now I'm happyist when I'm alone (but thats not saying much). So basically I figured it wasnt worth building up huge debts for myself when my ideal job isnt gonna pay huge. Wow, the grammer in that sentence appalled even me.

Besides I already do everything that theyr gonna tell me to do, I can show u lierally hundreds of drawings that were done as studies of artists style. What I want to improve is my actual drawing. So maybe this one course that I set myself up on isn't the only course available to me, maybe a course that is only drawing. Pure drawing not a subsiduary of it like fine art or graphics. I could propably find a course like that locally. Even then do I really need it? I know what I want to do and thats draw comics- but can I do it yet? I don't think I'm good enough.

Then again maybe I don't want to draw comics- but what else is available? Video game design? Advertising? Illustrations? I think I could be happy in any of those feilds but for that I would almost certainly need a degree. So am I being niave by pinning everything on trying to break into the comics feild right away instead of trying to find some sort of qualifcation?

See Quesada- you've made me question everything!

more later...