*phew!* long time no bumblemoo update! well never fear, we're still here and working hard on our various creative endevours ^_^

updates!

at the moment wren is working hard on several story projects, although they're mostly for competitions so we can't upload any to our website yet unfortunately...she's also just started salsa dancing, capoeira (its a brazilian martial art mixed with dancing), and got herself a dance mat for the PS2 - i can see that her feet are going to be hurting a lot in the coming weeks XD

banemoo is working with me on some ideas for the neo comp as well as doing his own 3D projects. we're back on our guild wars kick and our party has now got further than we ever have before! we're also playing a lot of fighting games - mainly virtua fighter 4, which is really cool. he's been doing ninjutsu for a few months now and is considering which other martial arts to take up as well - everyone's going to be very fit soon!

i'm working on entires for the neo and RSoM competitions this summer. i'm also playing quite a bit of katamari on the PS2 and guild wars on the PC. i'm not involved in as many dance or fitness classes as the other guys but i'm trying to step up my gym trips to 3 a week, which is working as i'm now getting used to going in the mornings before starting work ^^

other recent things

i won the march / april letraset manga hoshi competition with my snow white picture! i got a little collection of markers for my trouble which was very nice ^^ you can see my entry, as well as a gallery of other entrants and winners, here --> http://www.letraset.com/manga/shopcontent.asp?type=mangagalleryhoshi2

i never updated about last week's webcomic mole column! it covers 2 funny webcomic strips by twosideswide (i had fun reading up on them for it XD ) the column is here --> http://www.indiereview.co.uk/index.php/webcomics/webcomics-columns/webcomic-mole-investigates-hilarity-ensues.html

my webcomic, CLM Training Academy, has gone on hiatus over the summer so that i can focus on other comics projects - but it'll be back around october time with a load of new character profiles to boot! :D

the collaborative indie UK artbook that 3 of my pieces will be appearing in is nearing completion - i think the guys are on track for the may expo 2008 release, so it'll be just a few weeks until i'll be holding a copy or two in my hands! it'll be very nice to see my work in there but i'm mostly looking forward to flicking through what the others have produced, as most people haven't shown their images online in full yet so i haven't seen what'll be in there ^_^ they're considering maybe putting the book on lulu after its initial print run so there is a chance that i might be able to order more copies if anyone wants one - but if you're going to the may expo be sure to pick one up there! XD

---

right, i think that's it for the last few weeks! busy busy busy as usual... hopefully one of these days i'll produce some artwork that i can actually post up somewhere (all the competition stuff needs to be kept under wraps). but if anyone's interested i've been doing figure drawing practice every day recently - i've been posting examples periodically on my personal LJ ( wikivic ) and on my DA --> http://www.wikivic.deviantart.com/

adieu until next time!

Tags: clm, competitions, random, webcomic mole investigates, wikivic
Current Mood: artistic

...i should really kick the others to write on here sometimes *glances around* ¬_¬ ...

anyway lots going on as usual!

my review of mrs toothycat's series, Artifaxis, is now uploaded to the bumblemoo site - i'll be working on getting the review of pinkapplejam's biomecha book 1 done (its already started), as well as picking up on some notes i took for a review of mathewjpallett's 'a taste of everything'

i really would like to finish my old review of the mammoth book of BNM vol 1 as well as getting stuck in with thinking about vol 2 but they're such epic sized volumes they're going to take quite some time to get though o.O;

some of my reviews now appear on indiereview.co.uk

looking for the sun

gifted

cold sweat and tears

in other news i have now completely finished the .pdf for wikivic-y book 1 so as soon as i find an income it'll be printed XD

also, CLM sees its 50th strip today yay! its been nearly a year and a half...i can hardly believe there was a time when i never used to draw it! o.O;

Tags: clm, reviews, website, wikivic, wikivic-y book 1
Current Mood: accomplished

just more news from me today i'm afriad (i will put your fanfiction.net info up soon wren sorry!! >.< )

i've updated CLM and added another little publishment to the portfolio page - my artifaxis fanart was printed in the issue 8 & 9 book last year and i never even knew until now! o.O; anyway thanks to morag for that! XD

along the same vein there should be some reviews for morag's 'looking for the sun' and 'artifaxis' up on the bumblemoo site soon! it'll be nice to have some reviews of finished series on there as so far its been mainly issue 1's ... but then finished long running uk manga series are pretty slim pickings! what's great is that there are now some that are so close to finishing off...i think it shows a good growth and direction to the uk manga scene ^^ i'm sure looking for the sun and artifaxis (among certain other series) will have their place in uk manga history ^^

anyway in news that actually isn't related to the website *shock* as it stands i will be entering RSoM 2008! (should it run of course o.O; ) - i have a story that is entirely planned out and even a few thumbnails. i'm going to re-thumbnail the entire thing on about a5 size and then show it to lee (and anyone else IRL who may be interested) so that i can gauge if the story/humour/events work ok, then i'll be buying manga studio to ink it! this has some reasoning behind it: i want to get accurate straight lines as well as retaining line-width variation on the characters etc. and as i'm still pretty shaky with the ol natural media nib pens i think going for simulated nib pens is the next best thing (plus i'm much smoother on the tablet now having used it quite a bit in the last 6 months)

so that's pretty exciting! i'll have a lot to do so as soon as i finish the pics for mace's art book i'm going to move straight onto that ^^




 

Tags: clm, publication, rsom, website, wikivic
Current Mood: accomplished

CLM has been updated today - so far 2008 is shaping up to be an on-time update year XD (better than last year anyway, this time last year baneMoo & I were rushing from gloucestershire to cambridge for job interviews and flat viewings and then moving house! >.< )

anyway, to stick to bumblemoo news, i've also added a new image to my portfolio on the site - it's my sweatdrop secret santa image for dentarthurdent over on the SD forums, which is a sax playing version of his avatar (a ginger kitty), as he plays the sax ^^

Tags: clm, wikivic
Current Mood: okay

i've added a page of textures to the 3D section of my gallery, as well as giving it a bit of a re-gig

also, there is now a review of an independent UK manga called 'gifted' by kelinor now up on the reviews section ^_^

i've planned all of the christmas special material for CLM now, so should be getting into that soon! XD

Tags: clm, reviews, website, wikivic

hmm...long time no post! well we're all getting back to normal here after a week long bumblemoo studios get together for the halloween season! this can only mean halloween specials are in order! there's already a halloween special comic up over on the CLM website and the studio website will soon be updated with a single-page fleet halloween special!

more comic news:

CLM is moving on apace, with the cover to issue 1 being completed yesterday! of course, until yours truly find work (or somehow miraculously wins the lottery without playing) it won't be printed ;_; but you can enjoy the cover over on the CLM website if you like ^_^

i've thumbnailed the next 10 nailbiting strips in the CLM pirates arc, but there will be breaks for the 50th strip and for christmas! at the moment i'm tkaing suggestions for this year's christmas special ^_^

fleet issue 1 is entirely scripted and thumbnailed and i've begun to sketch the pages (but with the whole world, plus several individual countries on the the 1st page, followed by a rearing horse on the 2nd page, let alone all the human character poses it may take a while to finish ^^; )

rapunzel is also moving along! issue 1 is semi-thumbnailed (i know what will go on each page, but i just have a few brief sketches and notes rather than proer thumbnails) and i can now announce that it will be an exciting puzzle comic romp through 7 fiendish puzzles! (well you don't actually have to do the puzzles in order to enjoy the story ^_~ ). rapunzel will cover 2 issues all in all, which will tell the full story of the heroine, re-worked into a steampunk world and given more attitude! XD (but don't worry, the original story will be given as an extra in the 1st issue in case you were wondering how far i'd strayed from it ^_~ )

writing news:

its that time again, when we hear key-tapping into the dead of night...yep its NaNoWriMo! wren10514 has begun this year's epic task of writing 50,000 words in 1 month (erm...expect aliens XD ) and baneMoo's begun a tale too, altho he'll be telling that one at less of an insane pace methinks ^_^ ganbatte guys!

so all in all its been an exciting few weeks! wish us all luck, we may need it! XD

Tags: clm, comics, fleet, novels, rapunzel, wikivic, writing
Current Mood: artistic

my overview of sweatdrop's 'Cold Sweat & Tears' is now up on the review section of the bumblemoo site, and i've given the CLM fanfic section a bit of a facelift and added in 2 new fanarts: 'CLM meets Harajuku Zoo' by gothic_maidens and the wonderful 'Solid Spy' by nattherat! go see!!

Tags: clm, website, wikivic
Current Mood: kinda tired

publications section

as my last post outlined, i have now added a few small publications of our work to the 'products' section of the bumblemoo studios website (i kinda like how i get to work on these little updates with the site - hopefully it will continue to grow ^_^ )

anywhoo, here's the address should you not be aware already www.bumblemoo.com

there are a couple of sentences about each one plus a couple of images ^^

wikivic portfolio archive

i have also been working on the archive for my portfolio - lots of the page is done, but creating all the thumbnails and making sure my images are saved off at the right sizes (let alone just trawling through all my files of old work) will take a little while longer....shouldn't be too much longer tho!

small gallery update

i have added my pages for the sweatdrop doujinshi to my portfolio section of the site - they're colourised in a cyan-y colour ^^

CLM

i managed to spend a bit of the weekend working on the cover for issue 1, so inages should come out as follows:
- birthday pic linework
- issue 1 cover linework
- birthday pic colour
- issue 1 cover colour
- more strips
- halloween special pic
- more strips
- cover for the full-colour omake book

*phew!* absolutely masses of CLM stuff to do! >.<

more publications next year!

i am now part of a UK group artbook project, due to be self-published by the group next year. there will be somewhere between 3-8 illustrations by me in the book, more details will follow i think. however in all probability either only one, or possibly none of the images will be posted up anywhere before they are seen in the art book - exciting! but its gonna be horrible for me not to be able to show them to anyone! >.< at least i already pretty much know what i want to do yay! XD

Tags: clm, publications, website, wikivic
Current Mood: working

eep! haven't done a bumblemoo blog in ages! o.O;

so, status...well unfortunately due to a surprise project, i've been working flat out all weekend and the beginning of this week on artwork that is entirely un-comic-related *grr*

so sorry to anyone who reads CLM...darn thing is back on 'have no time to update' ¬_¬ and seriously, i don't spend any time doing nothing! (apart from when i sleep o.O; ) - i'm drawing every weekend! (and doing arty things most evenings too...as well as 3D modelling all day...hopefully i'll improve eh? ^^ )

i've started colouring the birthday pic, but i think i'll stick the linework up and follow with the colour at a later date, so as to get back to doing strips again ^^

unfortunately (for CLM at least) we're away from friday night through to sunday night seeing BaneMoo's little sister off to uni and visiting his folks...(i'll try n take some CLM strips along to do ^^ )

however all is not lost! i'm working on a few updates to the website right now - namely an art archive off my portfolio, a fanart/giftart page, and some info about publications of bumblmoo creativity!

luckily these things are a bit of a no-brainer (make thumbnails / stick on page / upload) so i'm able to do them in the evenings when i don't have the brainpower to draw (a la now ^_~ )

so in summary, things to see quite soon (pretty much in order of appearance):
- a fanart/gift art gallery on the website
- an art archive off my portfolio on the website
- info on the mini-publications we have had on the website
- the linework for the CLM happy birthday pic
- the coloured CLM birthday pic
- new CLM strips
- a standalone CLM halloween special pic
- the cover to CLM issue 1 and the CLM full colour omake book

then
- well there's the surprise project, which includes a new standalone image
- our 6-page japan-themed collaboration comic
- more fleet!

more hours...need more hours in the day! >.<

Tags: clm, website, wikivic
Current Mood: working

firstly, just for the benefit of wren10514 and banemoo i should announce that we all have our own userpics now, so we won't have to write who's posting (because it's so unlikely to be me ^_~ )

anywho, in other random news

- i have ever so slightly changed my portfolio page on the website to split off fanart from original, and to add in the picture of rodentnetworks character, fay umah, that i drew recently for her online comp...i've got a few other things of an original nature to add but i'm too tired right now -_-

- we will be putting up a little bit of info on where things by us have appeared (a kind of a precursor to actually listing our own publications lol!) - i think i'll probably upload that into our products section soon, but i'll blog here about that when it happens

- i can confirm that there will be an issue 1 of CLM Training Academy printed as soon as we have the money - it will be around 20 pages, B&W with colour cover on A5. it will include 29 comic strips (which constitue the 2006/2007 winter and spring terms ^^ ) as well as some early sketches/omake stuffs at the end ^_^

but! the more exciting thing for me is that i can also confirm that there will be a short, full-colour CLM omake book! this will be about 16 pages and will include lots of standalone art from me, as well as the excellent fanarts that i have received over the last year! the best thing about it (to me ^^) is that i'm going to plan it so that if you flip it over, you get to read solid spy (rodentnetworks awesome short fan comic) straight through with its cover as the issue's back cover XD (my copy's gonna go on my shelf with the solid spy cover facing outwards XD )

anywho...that will also be printed when we have the moola, but i'm going to subsidise it rather heavily so it won't be insanely steep to buy - however! because its gonna cost me so much, there will be a limited print run! *pockets quiver in anticipation of pain*

in current stuff, i will be working on the CLM b'day pic to be uploaded this weekend, as well as planning out the pages for printing the above books...aaand hopefully updating my portfolio and our published stuff on the website...and that's just for starters! ^_~

Tags: clm, website, wikivic
Current Mood: tired