KTCoope.com

Misc thoughts time go.

KT — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 13:09:21 +0000

Trying to get blogging a bit more to get back into the habit of using this thing. So, here. Have some.

What I’ve been doing

Working on an the cover to an EP, and a website for Kirsty Bromley. You’ll be able to buy the former from the latter soon.
Working on a script for Crash Talyor.
Doing flats and generally being the not-really-that-glamorous assistant for Mr Andrew Tunney. You’ll be able to see the results of that soon.
Playing with new materials. A pentel GFKP brush pen, and Manga Studio EX.
Starting running. I’ve been trying to get on a bit more of a health kick lately. Needs doing. Trying out a neat little app called Get Running, it seems pretty good. I guess I’ll know how good in a couple of weeks.

What I’ve been reading

The Action Philosophers trade. It’s been out for a while but I’ve always meant to pick it up and it doesn’t disappoint. A fantastic way to learn about the history of western (and some eastern) thinking. It’s funny without undermining its subject, and has a tonne of interesting little details about the lives of philosophers as well as their ideas.
The New ‘Hark, A Vagrant’ Trade. Sure I’ve read most of it online but it’s smart, it’s funny, and Ms Beaton deserves our money.
One Piece. Yes, I know, but I only started reading it when I moved back to Manchester and was pleasantly surprised by how wonderful the characters are, and how bouncy, clean and energetic the art is. I was so ready to brush it off as yet another epic shonen saga for me to have no interest in reading but to my horror it turns out it’s actually fantastic. I’m not sure I want to watch the show, but the comics are great.
Wonderwoman and Justice League Dark. Already spoken a bit about Wonderwoman (see: ‘Yay!’ and ‘SHE HEADBUTTS A CENTAUR’ etc), and JLD is interesting but so strongly entrenched in set-up land I can’t say much about it until it gets going.
Next up is going to be REAMDE, because there has not been enough Neal Stephenson in my life. (Can there be enough Neal Stephenson in your life?)

What I’ve been watching

Spinning Penguin Drum. Strangeness from the director of Utena. Deep strangeness. And penguins. And trains. And references to national disasters and hypothetical libraries. And more symbolism than you can shake a stick at. I’ll post about this one in more detail when it’s finished I think.
Fate/Zero. Oh man. Fate/Zero. TypeMoon stuff has always been a guilty pleasure of mine and this is TypeMoon plus Urobuchi (writer of Saya no Uta and Puella Magi Madoka) plus UFOtable and Kalafina (Studio and Musicgroup that did Kara no Kyoukai) . If you don’t know the Fate universe, the set up is effectively a battle royale between a bunch of mages (who generally keep all magic a secret from the public) who each summon a legendary hero to fight for them in a battle for the ‘holy grail’. It’s a prequel to ‘Fate/Stay Night’, but where that was a grail war fought by effectively flailing newbies getting it wrong, this one appears to be run by cheating assholes and it’s brilliant. The result takes a few episodes to get going but once it does, it’s gotten better every episode. Occasionally the budget shows (it’s TV anime after all) but it’s incredibly pretty, and the story and characters keep getting better. Streaming in a load of languages on NicoNico for 7 days after broadcast, then it’s over to CrunchyRoll. Where you can have it in the delicious high-res it deserves. (If you do plan on watching it and want some F/SN first… do yourself a favour and skip the anime. Find the game or a play through and read that instead, as the show is both the weakest route of the story, and makes the lead character terrible).

LinkBloggy bit

A Brief Rant on The Future of Interaction Design. What it says on the tin. An interesting look at how we interact with our technology.
The excellent mr Sam Gwilym carries on thinking about that, and especially about styluses (styli?).
Takeshi Miike and Phoenix Wright. YES.

First Impressions: Tachikawa School-G Pen & New 52 Wonder Woman

KT — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:01:43 +0000

Okay, so neither of these are proper reviews yet… but that’s because both things I think are going to take some time to settle. But here, musings on 2 recent purchases of mine: A Tachikawa School-G pen, and the ‘New 52′ reboot Wonder Woman #1 & #2.

(I also grabbed Justice League Dark but I really DO need to read more of that before I can say anything about it.)

Tachikawa School-G Pen

So, over to the left there is a quick sketch of WW, using the School-G for the lines and some Zig Graphic Twins for the shading. The School-G is basically like a cross breed between a cartridge pen and a traditional G nib… which frankly is an awesome idea. I’ve been getting into G nibs lately, and the idea of being able to throw one in my handbag is very appealing.

Now (art quality aside), the WW sketch there shows the biggest flaw with the Tachikawa, and that’s that unless it’s on the right kind of paper, it bleeds massively. This is pretty frustrating because of course, my default sketch book isn’t the right kind of paper.

A quick test on Bristol Board shows its okay on that (but my wallet is pre-emptively crying) and over to the right is another quick test I did on some printer paper. Once I’ve done some more experiments I’ll come back with more conclusive things about it.

The big negative out the way, what about the rest of it? Well, you’re not going to get quite the range of thicknesses that you’ll get from a traditional nib from it, but you can still get a decent range—I’d say between a 01 and a 07 fineliner depending on pressure, if you can avoid bleed. Maybe a little thinner if you’re featherlight and fast, and it is available in an extra fine as well. It’s a little rougher on the page but it’s clean, fast and forgiving; It dries very fast and you’re not going to get an accidental, picture-destroying blob of ink falling off the pen. It plays just fine with watercolour markers. And again, it’s a nib pen you can throw in your bag without thinking about it. You do need to use it at least every couple of days to stop it drying out, but as I want to get better with a nib that’s actually a feature rather than a bug for me.

So, conclusions on the Tachikawa School-G for now: Needs the right paper and won’t replace a G-Nib if you like really high line varience, but it’s a really good tool to be able to throw in a pencil case or when you don’t want the mess you can end up with from the real thing. More thoughts when I’ve gotten more used to it.

Wonder Woman #1 & #2

If I hadn’t heard such good reviews, I’ll admit getting me to buy a Wonder Woman comic would have been a hard sell, especially with the less than stellar portray of women in some recent *coughCatwomanCough* comics. Wonder Woman has never been a book I’ve been hugely interested in, and I’ll admit I’ve maybe unfairly assumed it would be very saturday morning, straight laced superhero stuff, with a character who’s history has been pretty absurd at times.

But I’ve heard good things and it’s about time I read some main stream DC, so I picked up the first 2 issues and was pleasantly surprised. Here’s some reasons why:

Rather than straight punchy-punchy heroism (which for the record is fine), we’ve got mystery/horror with a dose of greek myth thrown in. I mean, I knew she was greek based but this is nice and heavy on the ‘gods and goddesses being jerks to humanity’ side of things, and Diana getting lumped protecting Zola feels almost more like something out of a noir story to me.
On that note, Diana’s attitude. She’s kinda surly and no-nonsense, and just gets on with things. I like that a lot.
Also she is huge. With muscles. She feels really powerful even without gimicks.
Also despite having a scene where she’s completely naked, she never feels that sexualised. She’s not ashamed of her body, but she’s not flaunting it either. With recent comics news, that’s just so refreshing.

And she head-butts a centaur.
Not knowing much about the series beforehand isn’t getting in the way, we get a little dose of backstory in #2 and it looks like the rest is incoming.
The art is decent, the colouring isn’t afraid to be moody, there’s bags of energy and nice bold inking. The dialogue is solid too and the characters are all interesting so far.
And she head-butts a centaur.

My only big negative is not really the team’s fault and that’s the huge amount of ads in there. If I didn’t want to support the singles due to it being good (usually my real reason for buying singles) I’d be waiting for the trade to escape having my immersion broken every 3 pages.

So yeah, I think this will stay on my pull list, and hopefully the quality stays up. As this is interesting stuff indeed.

State of the KT

KT — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 12:29:45 +0000

Gosh, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?

Things have been pretty crazy here, and I’ll be talking a bit more about some of the reasons in time… I’m hoping to start using this place a lot more in the future so keep an ear out.

What have I been doing? Well, some of the big ones:

Manchester! I just moved back to Manchester, with a posse of wonderful pencil-slingers and all round cool types, Mark Penman, Katie Hanratty and Antony Higginson. Also puts me right in range of my good buddy Andrew Tunney. I’m acting as his assistant/webmonkey/partner in crime on a few things, one of which should be making a sneaky appearance at ThoughtBubble con next month…Good times.
Books! One of the big reason I dropped off the face of the planet this summer is at the same time as moving, I was asked by the guys at Collins Big Cat to make them a reluctant readers comic. It’s called “In the Game”, and I’ll have more details for you once I have them.
Shooting Roots! It’s been an exciting one, the first year of SR’s core superteam of Cal, Maia and Steph running the show… and as far as I’ve seen it’s gone great. It was also the first year of running Craft on the scale we’ve done, and the first time running it at ALL at Sidmouth. I had a fantastic time running it, the kids made some amazing props and puppets and it was all round goodness. And there are even more super exciting folk arts shenanigans on the horizon…
Filmage! I’ve been working with an awesome photographer, Crash Taylor to script and storyboard some horror shorts. More info on that as the projects go further…
Other Stuff! I’ve been doing some fun design stuff in the Folk community again, including a logo and flyer for the Street Dance The Maypole project, and the cover for the Albion Band reboots’ EP “Fighting Room”. I’m hoping to start work on their site later in the year, and I’ve also been working on a site for the lovely Miss Kirsty Bromley.

So generally, it’s been a really exciting few months, and should keep being awesome.

More news coming soon! Have a good one.

State of the KT

KT — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 14:09:28 +0000

Hi guys. Things have been pretty busy; 2011 is a bit mental so far. But here’s some of the stuff I’ve been up to since you last heard from me.

Workshops: Lots of them. I taught another four sessions at Easingwold Secondary; It was really cool to work with the same set of student for so many weeks, and the work they came up with was fantastic. I had a great day teaching in Harrogate Library, and last week I got to cap of the City of London Academy’s book week, which was all kinds of fun.
Webbery: Lots of bits and bobs including some highspeed emergency web surgery on the Glory Strokes site. 24 hours from “help meeee!” and starting from scratch to it being done, which was fun. There’s quite a few other things in the pipeline I can hopefully tell you about soon.
Shooting Roots: I’ve been designing the ads for ShootingRoots in FRoots Mag, making nefarious plans with our coms mastermine Steph about how to make our web presence kick some righteous arse, and it looks like I’m on board to get my craft on this summer at Towersey and Sidmouth. Summer is going to be amazing.
Storyboarding: Graham Lester George, the guy who taught the screenwriting classes I’ve been attending, got me in to do the storyboards for a comedy short he’s been working on. It’s just about to go into editing so hopefully I can show you guys soon. I got to check out the shoot (and help Xan record some foley), which was a lot of fun. I’d love to do more stuff like this.
Album Art: I’ve been working on the album and single artwork for Doghan and the Deerhunters new album, which has been cool. The single should be available on their upcoming tour, and the Album not long after that. It’s good stuff.

I’ve also been getting back into the whistle and singing, geeking out far too much about Homestuck (expect an article about this soon), working on some script stuff and generally trying to get things in order to push on with making cool stuff for you guys. I’m also hoping to try and get some more reference and tutorial stuff going on here, so if anyone has anything they’d like me to do some posts about, hit me up in the comments.

I’m going to be a Scarborough Aftershock this Saturday, which should be mint. See you there!

Anyway, back to work. Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

KT — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 13:44:23 +0000

Seasons greetings, you lot. However you celebrate, have a good one. (And a Blik cause I haven’t drawn him in forever and I was in the mood.)

I don’t want to do a big new years retrospective this year, but I’m gonna say this: 2010 has been a weird one, but it’s been all about the people. For all the wheel spinning I think I’ve done, I’ve met wonderful people and had friendship and support from the utter stars I already knew. I don’t like being super super soppy but when I couldn’t sleep last night, the only thing on my mind was how grateful I am for the amazing people in my life.

I think you already know who you are. Thankyou, so, so much. And lets make 2011 the year we get out there, kick some ass and take some names, yeah?

Have a great day. You deserve it.

Cheers!

–

New site design

KT — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:37:49 +0000

Decided it was time to give the place a new lick of paint. I’ve been rethinking how to handle my online gubbins lately, and this is part of it. I’m not going to make any bit resolution promises right now because I don’t want to jinx things, but after going to ThoughtBubble 2010 I’ve been rather inspired.

Not to mention still reeling from the inspirational mess of awesome that was this summer. (My voice has maybe just about recovered. Though I think I may have applied a brand new shiny cold by waiting in the snow for a bus for an hour on Tuesday.)

Anyway, much to do, much to think about. But I’ll be back in touch soon, so watch this space.

Review: ‘The Servants’ by Michael Marshall Smith

KT — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 12:31:41 +0000

I’ve always had a bit of a love for Michael Marshall Smith’s work. His SF books are fantastic, and I hugely enjoyed The Straw Men, under his Crime Fiction persona of Michael Marshall. I adore his character work, though he seems to shine best when he has licence for things to get a little strange. So, I was really excited when I realised he’d donned another hat as ‘M. M. Smith’ and written a YA novel. Well, ‘Novella’ technically, but that really is just a technicality with this one.

The Strangers is a little misleading on the outside. Its short length and 11-year old protagonist could easily trick you into thinking it’s going to be superficial or simplistic, when it turns out it’s anything but. The one thing I’ve always said about MMS’s work is he writes about being drained, tired and emotionally shattered better than anyone else I can think of, and that skill is out in full force here. For all the touches of the fantastic, it’s a deeply personal and emotional book, made all the more poignant by the youth of its narrator.

The Servants tells the story of a boy named Mark, who has been forced to move from London to Brighton with his sickly mother and his new stepfather, David. Angry and frustrated, Mark finds a new perspective when he meets the old lady that lives in the flat under their house, who introduces him to the hidden world the servants had once occupied. A world that may be less confined to the past than it seems. The ghost story of the servants is intertwined with the complex relationship between Mark, David, his mother, and their own pasts, and beautifully captures the helplessness, confusion and frustration of a child who’s whole life has been upturned by things he doesn’t quite understand.

MMS captures Mark’s rage perfectly, putting the reader in an interesting position of sympathising with him while knowing things are not quite the way they might seem. As the book progresses, hints of the greater complications in his situation are carefully woven in in ways that we can pick up on even if Mark doesn’t. Childish stubbornness mixes with denial and his genuine incomprehension, and before the end I found myself feeling for Mark’s loathed stepfather as much as I did for Mark. There are points where it becomes simply heartbreaking. Like the later books of A Series of Unfortunate Events, it’s one of those rare children’s books with an overarching message of “There’s always more to what is happening than you understand.”

Alongside the real-world story, of tiny battles over diet coke and take away food, and musings over falling off skateboards, MMS also introduces us to the mysterious world of the servants. If I had one criticism on this book, it’s that I wish there’d been more time spent there. When I first finished the story I was a little dissatisfied with the glimpses of the ghostly world but on reflection, it’s used in an incredibly clever way, leading to an intensely personal and emotional little novel. What we do get is vivid and intriguing, snapshots of the inner working of a historical house and glimpses of the drama inside and above that grows into something more fantastic again.

Metaphors and clever narrative techniques aside, the prose is rich, vivid and engaging. While it’s told in 3rd person, it’s heavily influenced by Mark’s thoughts as it paints the faded glory of Brighton and the claustrophobic strangeness of the world under the stairs—evocatively tapping into the way a person’s inner thoughts can soak through all their experiences. MMS is on top form emotionally, and also keeps a spark of wit and humour going throughout that stops it ever getting too cloying. The whole thing adds up to a sad, strange but beautiful little novel that I’d recommend to anyone, not just YA readers.

You can read a sample chapter of The Servants on its Amazon page, here.

More Cave Story!

KT — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:36:52 +0000

I just got featured over at the NICALiS Cave Story blog. Go check it out, and the rest of the featured artists. There’s some killer work there and I’m honoured to be a part of it.

Interview Go!

A quick update, some sketches and some musing

KT — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:50:07 +0000

Things have been a little mental lately, but back to say hi again and give you some rambling updates.

MG&GL has been going pretty well so far, although the slow speed I’m able to work on it is being a little excruciating. Jack and I actually have quite a lot of story planned out for the thing that I can’t wait to get to. And in the mean time it’s been fun to draw, and an interesting challenge adapting his prose into single-page suitable scripts (when I’m much more used to working long-form.) Makes me want to break out and re-read the Nikolai Dante that much more… there’s something really special in the pacing of stuff like that series, where you have these great on going stories that also have to work in 5-page chunks so every single page has to be spot on. I don’t buy the progs, so when I read them I get the story all at once but because or the original form it’s pretty much super-condensed. You don’t see that much in mainstream comics outside of 2000ad and print versions of web comics. Unless I’m wrong, in which case give me links, people.

(Interestingly, I’m not sure FreakAngels does it. I love it, but then I also love decompressed storytelling too. Instead of cramming in a tonne into 5 pages, FA seems to just flow from one intense moment to the next, it always leaves you wanting more without that hyper distilled storytelling you get in something like Dante.)

Back to me (egolicious, mmm) and comics though, I’ve been having great fun with a series of workshops I’m doing with the lovely Andrew Barton for CYC. The deal is this: For Culture Shock festival this year, we’re making a comic. A massive comic strip, on big banners to go up in the camp-site. We’re taking the banner to schools and youth clubs and each group is adding on, continuing the story. This has been some of the most fun I’ve had in a workshop, and the banner is looking great so far. The next date is this Saturday 2-5pm at Harrogate Trax, followed by another in-school one on the 15th. The Trax one is open to anyone, so come along and join us.

In other news, the web design work I’ve been doing has been making me want to spruce this place up again… but I’m gonna give it a wait, lest we have yet another thing where I spend more time doing redesigns than actually updating the thing. Online content wise, I should hopefully be doing some more streaming in the next couple of weeks as well, for a couple of commissions and possibly for colouring a MG&GL page, if people are interested in seeing that.

Meanwhile, I’m going to leave you with some sketches and pieces I’ve been doing lately. Enjoy.

New Comic!

KT — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 23:10:50 +0000

As part 1 in my ‘GET STUFF DONE THIS YEAR’ plot, I’ve been working furiously with the lovely Calico Jacque to bring you our first go at a weekly web comic!

Minnie Gunn and the Gentlelady Thief

(You might recognise the seeds of this thing here…)

We’ve been having a lot of fun working on it, I hope you have as much fun reading it.

In other news, I have a whole bunch of Workshops in the pipeline, focused in North Yorkshire. Watch this space for more details.

Have a good one, shiny happy people!