April 20th 2008
Oh dear oh dear, it has been rather a long time since I updated the biro gallery hasn't it?
My lack of activity on Biro-art is mainly down to Odd-Fish of course.
It takes up nearly all of my available biro time and I simply hadn't realised what a challenge it would be to produce a twice-weekly comic strip! It's bloody hard work!
Anyway, about this new biro drawing. It's based on the username of a member of b3ta that caught my eye and is called Pickle Fairy. Strickly speaking it's a gherkin, but as the Americans call them pickles and other b3tans have already used gherkins for their versions of the Pickle Fairy I went with the flow and drew the fairy as a gherkin too rather than as a jar of Branston's Pickle which is what most Brits think of when they hear the word 'Pickle'
In site news, you may have noticed that the comments over there on the left have vanished. There are two reasons for this, the first is comment spam, that bane of the blogger's life and the second is that it simply stopped working one day for no apparent reason whatsoever. Nothing was changed, no files were altered, it just stopped working and I have no idea why. Hurumph.
February 28th 2008
I couldn't do a full colour drawing of Lovecraft the octopus without also doing one of his best friend, Howard Philips the puffer-fish.
Again made using chalk pastels with all the problems they entail. It's just such a shame that the damn things give such great results, because I really really hate using them.
Next week is guest comic week on Odd-Fish so be sure to pop over and have a look at some other comic creators takes on my characters.
February 13th 2008
Biro-art continues to evolve it seems! Today's illustration is again in full colour but this time has absolutely no biro content at all.
In fact it was made with chalk pastels and is rather larger than I usually work at, about A2 instead of my usual A4.
I apologise for updates to Biro-art being so scarce, this is down the really quite extraordinary amount of time it takes to keep my webcomic over at Odd-Fish regularly updated and indeed this illustration has far more to do with Odd-Fish than it has with Biro-Art.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy Lovecraft the Octopus and his favourite toy, Mr. Potato Head
January 15th 2008
What's happening? Three out of the last four Biro mashes I've done have been coloured!
The reason that this one got coloured is that it just didn't look right in plain biro. The iconic colours of the character were necessary to complete the illustration.
As for the content of the illustration, it came from a combination of me racking my brains for fish puns for my webcomic and the image challenge of the week over at b3ta which this week is "Crabs"
Those two things together inspired Spider Crab
January 3rd 2008
With Christmas, New Year and all of that chaos out of the way and my webcomic ticking over nicely, it's time to get back to business as usual here at Biro-art.
In an attempt to actually get things done within plenty of time, rather than my usual procrastination-driven mad rush only to find out I've left it to late habit that I usually have, here's this year's design for Valentine's Day cards.
Based on my most successful Christmas card, this is Zombie Valentine
January 1st 2008
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Here we are then, the start of another new year.
On a personal note I'd like 2008 to be the year that I finally break into illustration at a professional and self-supporting level so if anyone reading this likes my illustration style- see the Gallery for an extensive portfolio - and can offer me freelance work at the going rate, then I would very much like to hear from you.
Following the runaway success of my Zombie Santa Christmas cards via CafePress this year, I'd like to see if I could get some cards published and distributed professionally but I have no idea how to go about it. Again, any offers with be gratefully received.
November 26th 2007
I am flattered to have been invited to become a part of The Kid's Book Project, a collaboration of more than fifty internet artists and cartoonists from around the world to produce a children's book for charity.
The charity in question is the Make-A-Wish Foundation whose mission is to 'create hope and
happiness for children with life-threatening illnesses around the
world'.
I have been invited to produce illustrations for the intro page and for the two pages of credits at the back of the book listing the 54 artists who created it.
You can pre-order it right now prior to the book's December release and of course, all proceeds go to the Make-A-Wish Foundation
November 12th 2007
Today I am announcing the launch of a brand-new Biro-art project, the Odd-Fish WebComic.
A series of short comic strips detailing the unlikely, bizarre and hopefully funny adventures of some unusual aquatic denizens.
At the time of writing this there are six episode already on line and I hope to add many many more on a regular basis.
In other news, those of you from outside of the United States who are thinking about buying stuff from my store, t-shirts, mugs, mousepads, prints, the ANThology book or the 2008 Calendar now have a very limited time to place your order before it's too late to get them by Christmas. I have no idea why it takes so frikkin' long for things to get shipped from the States but it certainly does.
November 1st 2007
A couple of days earlier than expected, I am immensely proud to present the 2008 Biro art Calendar. Featuring twelve quality prints of illustrations from Biro-art.com representing twelve events from the global calendar. Professionally printed by Lulu.com the calendar is available right now but only for a very limited time.
October 23rd 2007
I may have misheard some of the details of the Nativity, because Baby Cheeses in a Manger is the third of this year's Biro-art Christmas card designs and makes a total of nine different cards in the range.
I'm trying to work out a way of making a mixed pack available rather, or as well as, the single design packs that I currently have available in the Biro-art Greeting Cards shop
Just as soon as I figure something out, I'll let you know..
October 21st 2007
I know it's still only October, but these things take time to organise, so here's another Biro-art Christmas card design but with a twist... this one's in colour!
It's possibly not the most traditional of Christmas card designs, but hey, when have any of my biro drawings ever been about traditional themes?
So without further pomp and ceremony, here's Zombie Santa Claus. You'd better watch out...
October 15th 2007
More appalling punnery today with the addition of a new biro drawing of a heart playing tennis very very badly.
His score? Well Love, of course.
Here's Loveheart.
In other biro news, here we are in the middle of October and the writer's block on my childrens' book still hasn't cleared.
There's no way it's going to get done for Christmas 2007 now so It'll have to be a project for early to mid 2008. Stay tuned!
October 6th 2007
In (belated) celebration of International raccoon Appreciation day which was the first of October, here's a new biro drawing called 'Coon on the Moon.
It's one of twelve biro illustrations that will be featuring in the upcoming NobbyNobody's Biro-art 2008 Calender soon to be available through Biro-art.com. Won't be long.
September 30th 2007
I've just added some maternity-wear to the biro-art shop. Yes you read that right, maternity wear!
It's a couple of maternity t-shirts featuring the pregnANT drawing from the ANThology series.
They're available in either black or white and in two designs, one with the image on the chest like a normal tee, and one with the image on the 'bump'. Have a look right here.
September 26th 2007
Well it's getting toward that time of year again. That festive, expensive stressfull time that we call Christmas.
Just like last year, I'll be doing some Biro-art Christmas cards featuring my usual less-than-conventional themes.
The first one is available now so raise your voice in joyus song and sing with me: ♫ On the first day of Christmas, my true love sent to me, A Peartree in a Partridge ♫
All images & content © copyright 2003-2008 Phillip Blackman. All rights reserved.
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