Major site overhaul
Friday, April 4, 2008With several varying URLs and projects scattered across different sites, a major overhauling of my sites was long overdo. My blog, illustration portfolio, and neglected Machine Gum comics site needed, I felt, a more cohesive presence. So after months of wrestling with stylesheets and learning an entirely new CMS, I’m excited and relieved to finally launch this latest redesign. It’s not a major departure from the previous design; but I’ve managed to consolidate everything a little better with more uniform branding and navigation.
I’m not a professional web designer, but I am a fairly competent hobbyist I think. Nonetheless, I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help of both CSSEdit and the Blueprint CSS framework, both of which help take most of the guesswork out of designing with stylesheets. Web standards geeks tempted to look under the hood will still find no-nos like empty divs, and a somewhat disorganized stylesheet, but whatever. I’m a cartoonist, not a bricklayer!
I’m crossing my fingers that those subscribed to my old RSS feed will seamlessly pick up this new one. The new feed contains blog entries as well as comics and my growing collection of warm-up drawings. Hopefully that’s not too much information overload. Should I have separate feeds for things like the comics section? Anyone even care?
And new to the site is, finally, a store page for my minicomics and original art.
Please click around and let me know if anything’s broken, or out of place. There are still a few details to take care of, but I finally think it’s ready to go live. After a few days of solid coding, and an unhealthy amount of both coffee and Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, I’m ready for a nap.
More warm-ups
Thursday, January 31, 2008
I loaded up Flickr with some more warm-up drawings, and started a new set of images called Scraps which are scans of random scraps and doodles I’ve found while cleaning up my studio space.
And yes, Temple of Doom is my favourite of the Indy movies. YOU WANNA MAKE SOMETHIN’ OF IT?
Machine Gum in Broken Pencil
Wednesday, January 30, 2008My minicomic Machine Gum was profiled and chosen as the December zine of the month by Broken Pencil Magazine. Reviewer Sarah Pinder says of the collection:
Witty, twee one panel comics including zombies, lesser known villains, punny animal jokes and word associations. A highlight is the list of “words you may despise,” complete with matching non-representational images—a series of hairy, squelching doodles that seem to be an attempt to capture a viewer’s feelings about words like “swab” and “jammies”. A clever, well drawn and sometimes sweet collection that I connected with right away.
What a lovely review. It’s now my mission to have every review of my work include the words “twee” and “squelching”. Also, this is a kick in the pants for me to get my online store up-and-running, so fine folks can order these books. E-mail me if you want one.
Interview at ReadersVoice
Monday, January 28, 2008There’s an interview with me up at ReadersVoice.com. We talk about Drawn! as well as my own influences in illustration and comics.
Go Team Blog!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
The Blogger Team totally kicked some nation-testing butt on CBC’s Test the Nation last night. Our team came in first ahead of the backpackers, flight crew, celebrity look-alikes, chefs, and cab drivers. Rick Spence from our team had the show’s highest score with a hefty 57/60, and though I haven’t received my official tally, I think I scored 51 if I counted correctly. Though I was confident in our team going in, I did feel like we had a bit of an advantage with all the technology and pop culture questions that seemed to work heavily in our favour. Or perhaps all quiz shows favour the nerds by sheer nature of things.
Rannie, has some great photos from the night, including our entire team line-up.
I was one of the few participants that got a chance to talk on camera, and got a chance to pimp Drawn!:
Highlight of the evening? Getting to meet The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee. Swoon!
Does this make me one degree of separation away from Jon Stewart?
Friday, January 11, 2008I found out from the CBC earlier today that our celebrity teammate on Test the Nation will be The Daily Show’s Samantha Bee.
I’m excited. Samantha Bee is my favourite female Canadian television personality with a letter of the alphabet for her last name, ranking significantly higher than both Sandra Oh and Erica Ehm.
Edit: I forgot to mention that Farley Flex is the celebrity teammate for the team of Celebrity Look-Alikes. I suppose this is because he is a professional Randy Jackson impersonator?
Also: Lorne Cardinal!
I’M IN UR NATION, TESTIN UR BRAINZ
Wednesday, January 9, 2008Hey Canadians!
I’ll be on CBC’s Test the Nation: Trivia on Sunday, January 20th. The live quiz show pits various groups against each other to see whose brains come out on top. I’ll be competing in the bloggers group, and there’s even a small profile/interview with me on the CBC’s site.
Blogging friends Frank, Karen, and Rannie are also appearing on the show with me, so I’m in good company. And by that I mean, if and when the bloggers go down in intellectual flames, they’re coming with me.
Full of beans
Sunday, January 6, 2008
I was never a coffee drinker before I began freelancing. Look at me now.
BZZZZT!!#$!
Sunday, January 6, 2008
More Cintiq doodling… Trying to balance the infinite possibilities of Photoshop and the desire to keep things simple is tricky business.
It still has that “new Cintiq” smell
Friday, January 4, 2008
After a lot of hemming and hawing, I bit the proverbial bullet and dropped a wad on a Cintiq yesterday. I’m still getting used to it, but I managed to whip up this quick little post-Christmas thank-you card.
For Your Convenience
Thursday, January 3, 2008
I drew this charming self-portrait on a barf bag while flying to B.C. this Christmas. (Biggr on Flickr)
Super Santa animation
Thursday, December 20, 2007I designed and animated this promo for Space, which is probably airing now. I tried uploading it to YouTube, but the quality was pretty crap. This version is still kinda uggo, but it’s slightly better. Either way, here’s a proper QuickTime version that looks nice.
EDIT:
I of course, in my rush to post this, neglected to credit the other fine folks involved in this. Daragh writes:
The voice is the lovely and talented Steve Anthony, the titles were animated by the incomparable Tim Stainton, and the spot was written and produced by the fat and ugly Daragh Sankey.
Drawn! on best blog list
Thursday, December 20, 2007Drawn! makes the Best Blogs of 2007 That You (Maybe) Aren’t Reading list. Filmoculous says the site is “a comprehensive guide to visual culture.”
Hat tip to Matt!
Until the new year…
Saturday, December 15, 2007
I probably won’t be updating here during the holidays, so have a good one! I’ll see you in 2008.
Interviewed by the Little Chimp Society
Monday, December 10, 2007Darren Di Lieto over at the LCS has posted an interview with yours truly. We talk illustration, Drawn!, blogging, and… meat loaf?
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RobotJohnny.com is the personal weblog of Toronto illustrator and cartoonist John Martz. Read more...
The blog is made up of regular entries, Cinema Toast movie reviews, and Warm-Up Drawings.
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