Happy Halloween!!

Happy Halloween to all my American buddies, its one of those holidays that I've always wanted to experience but never had the chance. It's just not celebrated here, mainly because the kids here are wimps and parasites. With parents believing that children going to a strangers house asking for candy somewhat suspect and weird.
Oh but the confectionary creators do try sometimes you will find a box full of eatable Mint tasting fangs or a Pumkin full of candy which I found purely by accident however the lollypops that came in it smell and taste Horrible just like it should!!

The Waiting Game

Theres nothing worse than having to have gone through a lot hard work for prospective clients in the space of just a few days then it becomes a Waiting game to hear back from anyone.

In some cases they have taken six months or more to get back about the job if at all and you have to keep digging for information on whether you can put all other things aside and begin work on the Project or go elsewhere. One thing is certain don't wait just move on to another job because if you become dependant on the outcome of one job you will get Nowhere!!. If it is positive then weigh up your options and see which job will be the better for YOU!!

The Early Years

I thought it would be fun to look back at my work over the years specifically my much younger days of when I dreamed of making it in this big world of art.

I had recently been asked.... well no actually make that more like ORDERED to remove years upon years of Papers that have accumulated in a single room to the Garbage Heap and so I have had to sift through alot of stuff that I had mostly Forgotten or in some cases wish I had. Well let me start by sharing these memories.
My mum used to bring stacks of computer printer paper home from her office for me to draw on. It was an endless supply so that I could create my own comic books. I can't really say when these were done possible very, very early 90's.

These are so badly drawn I don't know where to start but taking a critical eye now, WTF was I thinking!! These aren't even understandable and I think they were heavily influenced by McFarlane and maybe Liefield at the time, before I knew any better!!
Okay enough of that embarassment, later on in the nineties I got a little better even landed some work doing character designs for an Outfit that was well to say the least a little dubious but still the money was good and it paid my way to the States that year for a nice holiday!!I wasn't sure where to go after that, There was no work for me as an illustrator in Tasmania and I really had no art Qualifications. So it was decided that I learn Graphic Design, at the time the only thing I could get was a years study of Desktop Publishing in '99. This I believe was part of my portfolio when they accepted me into art College.
So I learnt lots of things in college that year, mostly I was interested in Photoshop and Illustrator which took me ages to get used too.

So I finished up up my year, and was then accepted into a Two Year Graphic Design Diploma At this Point I had begun to spread my wings a little and began to study life drawing.I remember doing this of a not so flattering picture of our Teacher who was an absolute ass and so on himself. He stole one of my designs that I was so proud of and it was a big wake up call for me when it happened!!
So I got to let go of this stuff even the work I'm attached too, I recently read a wise artists statement where he said that if you hold onto your old work even if you like it you will never see much improvement on your new work and you won't grow.

Oh, one more thing heres the Very first sketch of a character I created years ago who would eventually be called Trixi the Atomic Girl. I think there was some Harley Quinn design rip-off from the image on the left.
And heres the finished illustrator work where I used it as a logo for a time, it will be hard to part with these in particular.If anyone wants to see more early work, let me know before its gone forever.

Drawing Caricatures

Caricatures are not my strongest suit in fact I try to avoid them whenever possible. Theres a more critical eye taken to them when they are supposed to be a Living Breathing Person. But sometimes you meet nice people and they like your work so you try to say thankyou the best way you can even if it means having to draw them. So heres a recent one I did of the wonderfully talented Casey ; http://www.caseybugcreations.blogspot.com/

And everyone has to have a go at Michael Jackson, heres one I did back in 2005!! A friend of mine went crazy for it when he saw it !! Hah!!

Anti-Girl Cartoon #5

I don't know if I crossed the line with this one or not, I'm sure you ladies will let me know!!

Matt vs The World

So your an artist trying to make it big in the world of Freelance, Unfortunately the world is a big place and you have every other artist with similar ideas.
Its a War out there.
When you are freelance for a company or Middle Man that takes orders from their BIG NAME clients It's very rare to find a company who wants just you, they want to cover all their bases with as many artists as they can get for the one man/woman project its not up to them its up to their Client on which person they want for it.
This means that your fighting against some of the best artists in the world and thats daunting enough. But mostly when having to do this kind of work anything you do has to be for FREE taking up alot of time and resources to try and score you the job and hopefully the Final Death Blow to your opponent that will ultimately win you the Prize Fight and the money Reward.
Where does my experience play into this ?? I've had numerous battles and I've had no success so far I can still be found in the Ring being pummelled to ittybitty pieces by more seasoned fighters if you think its easy you are sorely mistaken!!

Armageddon Expo Wrap-Up Retrospective!!

Didn't get time to revisit Pixar 'sniffle'There were so many West Indians around Federation Square I felt somewhat out of place until I realised it was a Bollywood Party!!
Sick of hearing about Armageddon Expo yet? I got home on Wednesday and had so much of a backlog of work to do I just didn't get time to finish up my AE experience. As far as the work is concerned yes its to do with Art and I will discuss more on a later date. But I thought I would finish up my Third and final trip to Melbourne this year with some photos that didn't quite make the cut in previous posts and a retrospective on the event as a whole.

So here we go,
The Expo was Poorly Organised and a Shambles quite frankly not as bad as the only other one I have ever been too OzCon back in 2006 which comprised of two comic guests and a bucket of poo. AE was Much better in this respect with some A-List guests minus the Poo!!
The reason I posted two of these see the fat guy with Heroes Tshirt trying to get a photo he swapped seats FOUR times before the movie started and then he left before the movie finished anyway..... what a dick!!But AE really missed some opportunities. For starters WTF was with the lines of people waiting to see one guest, having to wait in one big line for ALL of the celebrities to see just one person. Why not have seperate lines for each guest way that way you get to meet who you really want. There were actors who were doing absolutely nothing like John W Shipp while people all the way at the back of the line could have gone straight ahead to meet their favorite celebrity rather than stand there like statues!!
The Event schedules sucked, they really needed to have organised the Q&A a bit better. They had the voice actors do a talk for an hour and half and then they had them sit down for 2 hours again straight after to do the signings Billy West was Pissed by the time I came around he was asking the organisers when he could go. So I think I got a slightly more aggressive Billy than most would have gotten. Its not his fault its really just poor organising on AE side.

Besides giving out cheap comic books and other rubbish when you go into the venue, I think they should also include free samples of UnderArm deodorant for the thousands of smelly geeks who don't get out in the sun much as their too busy being in the basement playing World of Warcraft 24/7.
Whatta Sketch!!
I asked Bruce even though he would never look at my artwork if he could inscribe some advice in my Modern Masters book and this what he wrote..........Because of the whole Bruce Timm waiting two hours debacle ( but it was worth it check out Bruce's Joker Sketch) I missed out on meeting futher people I was interested in seeing. Like Nicola Scott, Amanda Connor and Alan Tudyk it was either you wait in this line for 2 hours and then probably not meet them because its break time. You couldn't really go and see both and although I have to admit I left early on the Sunday, after meeting Bruce only because the thought of waiting another 2 hours in line was truly too much to bare even I need a rest from time to time.

Anyway it makes one think what it would be like to have fans come up and tell how they love your work, but if I'm ever an asshole please kick me!!

MEETING BRUCE TIMM

There were some bad spelling errors in yesterdays post due to a lot of technical problems I couldn't correct them in time as my Battery was eaten up very quickly by that piece of crapverse Vista premium anyway I'll try and fix what I can as I am still in Melbourne until Wednesday. All the cartoons I post here will be re-edited and scanned properly when I get back home so please understand that they are temporary for now.Armageddon Expo Day One CONTINUED
With the dissapointment of not meeting Bruce on Saturday. SammyG and his girl invited me out to a few drinks in Melbourne and I had my very first Cocktail. Now I'm really good at handling my beer however this was the first time I had something with Vodka in it. And initially it did not faze me until later on when I had a couple of beers on top of it................ I'm going to leave this Blank now Because I can't really remember what happened after that.

Armageddon Expo DAY TWO

Sunday 14th October
DAY TWO CONVENTION REPORT
I woke up at home with a bit of a hangover I grabbed some coffee and ran to catch the train I was a little late into the convention but I headed up to the Auditorium because there was a special screening Of Doomsday/Superman with an intro by Bruce and Andrea. They even went and sat in my isle afterwards for half an hour. I geekedout!!
After the movie ended I headed down to the main area and had a drink with Huge Ackman from the drawing board where we discussed people from the board. I found out Huge was on a List for a Bruce Timm sketch since he was still in line the day prior before they said no more sketches!!
I headed off to the signing area where I was told to speak to the Armageddon Girl sitting next to Bruce. I asked about this list that exists and she said that No-One else can be added to the list and if I wanted to wait in line with the possibility of obtaining a sketch I was welcome to but those on the list get first preference and no guarantee.

Bruce was listening and I thought well okay while I'm here may as well introduce myself So I said "Hi Bruce I'm Tinman2040 from the drawing board" "who?" he replied 'Oh sorry I'm the guy who put the Bruce Timm coming down under thread' to which he said 'Oh right' I said yeah I'm just trying to negotiate a sketch 'oh Okay'. "So no chance I can get on the list then" I said to the Girl........ 'None' she said 'but like I said you are welcome to wait after everyone else on the list theres about 25 people'.

So I Headed off to have a Chat with Doug Holgate whom I have known on the drawingboard for many years and I was telling him about this damn list. Doug was Nice enough to draw a sketch on the first page in my sketchbook which I hope to be taking around ComicCon next year to get all the people from the Drawing Board to do some doodling in it!! I will post it when I get home because a photo just won't do it justice.

Doug Holgate Draws Me a Monkey in Space!!
Although I would have loved to have finally met artist Nicola Scott and serenity star Alan Tudyk The lines of people were impossible to negotiate and I had decided that the only reason I was there was to see Bruce. This was as close to Alan Tudyk as I could get the lines of rather lumpy female firefly fans were crazy as well as insane!!
This is of John Wesley Shipp AKA THE FLASH!!!
So with 2 hours before Bruce would appear again I went and waited first in line. And if anyone came along whos name was on the list I would give them preference first. About half an hour went by and I got really bored I was still standing on my own so I decided to have a little fun.

For those who don't know me I am a massive Bruce Timm for the last 15 years since Batman Animated Series debuted I have read and breathed every Bruce Timm related article his style is phenominal. So over the years I have accumilated a hefty collection of B.T. Memorabilia The Best of these is the Cel artworks that I have one of, which is 'Worlds Finest' a limited edition of 500 of Batman and Superman to commerate the first animated crossover. It is signed by Bruce too.

Anyway I got Bored and the people selling the cel artwork were kind of giving me the evil eye for waiting like I was some Vagabond. So I turned around and said "oh hey that Cel 'Worlds Finest' on the wall is that really $2600??". To which they stuck there nose up and said 'WHY Yes it is'. "Oh great" I replied "I really made a great investment when I bought mine when it first Came OUT!!!!!!!!" Suddenly the people went quiet..... "errrrrr you have that??" they asked. "Oh god yes" I answerd back 'for like 10 years And heaps more mostly signed by Bruce" I added.

Their attitude changed quickly they brought out this book with all these cels in them and wanted me to go through it "if you want one let us know we'll get bruce to sign and dedicate it for you". Well Hmmmmmm let me see.... so for the next half an hour I went through the book and they kept asking if any caught my eye....Not Yet...... It takes a while for me really soak them all in!! They were really pushy and there was no way in hell I was going to buy another thing that expensive but I really milked it. Anyway the line began to form behind me and another guy showed up who was not on the list. Eventually a guy came that was on the list and I let him know I wasn't on this list and he could go first. He was telling me how much of a Harley Quinn fan he was and then he asked where my Joker Keyring was and I said I had to take it off because some people have tried to swipe it by bumping into me while at the con. So it came to pass that it was 2:30pm Bruces last signing and most likely final time in Australia.

The Line had gotten long at this point but so far only two people from 'The List' Had showed up and made themselves known and true to my promise they went first!! so Bruce was doing their sketches and I was chatting to voice director extraordinaire the very nice Andrea Romano and we talked about Pinky and the Brain and also how badly the batman animated series and all its incarnations had been treated here in Australia on TV and DVD "yes we've heard that' she told us "Its quite Sad'. 'Yeah' I said 'I was hoping Bruce might have some say in it' 'I can't do anything' Bruce replied. So while I was waiting I got andrea to sign my Batman Animated Book as well as my Batman Beyond Banana Peeled Winged stuffed toy 'Is that even OFFICIAL??' Andrea asked To which Bruce looked at it and said 'Yeah it is' So anyway the armageddon girl returned to sit next to Bruce and I asked how many were on the list that had showed she said I don't know?? And then the guy who I was talking about the cels with much earlier said well he's a Big fan obviously and he's waited 2 hours he should get a sketch. And I said the guy behind me too has been here an hour as well. To which the Armageddon Girl said oh okay
you wanna Pay now?? So I got my $40 out and paid it with glee. The girl left again........

Bruce finished the last sketch a really cool Wonder Woman and then turned to me "Joker Please Bruce" I asked 'Hey are you on the list???' he looked at me angrily I answered "well no Those last people were on the list and no one else has showed up yet so the girl told me I could I get a sketch and paid her too. Bruce turned to find The girl had gone and just said 'Oh did she well I didn't see that, oh well okay a Joker??' 'Yes Please Bruce' I replied.

So over the course of the 10 minutes of talk we discussed the Jokers different designs and how he didn't like the Skull design and was glad he changed it. I asked about Batman Beyond and why it was called the lame name 'Batman of the Future here and he said it was because in some european countries 'Beyond' really doesn't have any meaning.

As well as it originally going to be called Batman Tomorrow and how it would have ended up with the announcement of 'TODAY ON BATMAN TOMORROW' and what it was like to be talked about on the internet and I was telling how much I have loved his work and how I had bought an original artwork from his official supplier of THE SPIDER and I was suprised that it had liquid paper on it 'well its an artists best friend where would we be without it' I said yeah but my first thought was WOW even Bruce Timm makes mistakes' to which he smiled and replied 'Of Course'.

He was almost finished with the joker sketch and began to rub out the pencils. Oh can you leave them I asked 'Oh Really' Bruce seemed repulsed by the Idea!! I told him how much I had learned from that one piece of The Spider artwork the way he drew the cape I said someone offered to buy it from me and I said No WAY!!!' But I told him well its your artwork and what you feel comfortable giving me as I backstepped!! So he rubbed out some more and said "There well theres a a little pencil you can see" "oh thats really awesome Bruce thankyou" I said.

At first things were awkward But 5 minutes into the coversation it became much easier to talk to him and I think he knew I was just geeking out and a real fan and really interested in the process and not in it for the money. When I pulled out my comics to have signed I got out my copy of 'Mad Love' first Bruce was suprised 'Wow thats the original cover' he said. 'Well thats what I wanted to ask you about because I heard it was supposed to be in Hardback' puzzled I then stated 'well cardboard cover'. "Ahh no it was supposed to be released in a Prestige format and that didn't happen this is the original cover". Cool I said. Well these won't end up on ebay I said this stuffs like my Bible please sign it wherever you like. Then I gave him a copy of Modern Masters and had him sign it 'To Matt goodluck with your artwork' B.T.. even though you've never seen it bruce I don't care gives me plenty of confidence. He smiled again. Whoah scary.

Finally I asked if I could have a photo with him and he said 'Oh Sure' and as you can see heres the result its a little blurry not too much but well its still cool I got to Meet Bruce Timm afterall!!
I also bought alot of cool stuff at the Expo, namely action figures Mostly these were Damaged Stock like wrecked boxes so the value had decereased massively check these out they Include
Han Solo from Sideshow $40 normally $110, Buffy/Sarah Michelle Gellar Doll $30 Normally $110, Sarah Connor from T2 $40 $110, Doctor Finklestein from Nightmare Before Christmas $10 normally $30 and my favorite the Beatles Cartoon Set for like $30 normally $120. The only one that was the most damaged was the Beatles as the stool that Ringo sits on had a broken leg nothing a bit of glue can't fix!! In the not damaged department I picked up Battle of the Planets Mark and Jason dolls, a baby chewbacca and a Gigantor. Very Cool overall a good Haul folks and I hope to attend next year!!
Closer look at the Beatles Cartoon set' Not a big Beatles fan but I loved the cartoon when I was a kid.
I'm heading home tomorrow so I will see you all when I get back!!

ARMAGEDDON EXPO DAY ONE or Looking for BRUCE TIMM!!

ARMAGEDDON EXPO MELBOURNE
Saturday 13th October
DAY ONE CONVENTION REPORT
Arrived at the Expo at 9:20am and it was somewhat quiet. I got straight in because I got my tickets early. I walked around getting my barings as to where everything was and then headed in line at the Bruce Timm area. YAY gonna meet Bruce I thought. After half an hour of waiting the organisers approached us in line and told us Bruce was only signing the $1000+ cels. In the afternoon he would be sketching and signing anything. It was 10:30am so after that dissappointment my next choice was to head upstairs to the auditorium where the Voice Actors Panel was going to be in less than 5 minutes. I got a fairly good seat and sat and waited patiently

Some of the voice actors were late because they were in their hotel room recording for episodes but they all eventually showed up for the panel they included ;
Rodger Bumpass - Squidward Tentacles in SpongeBob Squarepants
Billy West – Voice actor on Futurama, Ren and Stimpy
Neil Kaplan - Optimus Prime on Transformers robots in Disguise
Richard Horvitz – voice actor on Invader Zim and the Grim adventures of Billy and Mandy
Rino Romano - Batman on The Batman
Stephanie Sheh – voice actor on Naruto, GunXsword, Eureka Seven, Bleach

The Actors began to talk to about their Careers and then it was Q&A I kept putting my hand up to get a question in but they kept going elsewhere with the hand mike. About an hour into the talk the guy sitting next to me left and his seat was filled by another guy. While I was trying to listen to the talk the new guy sitting next to me kept asking me which one was Optimus Prime and I told him. Then he would ask me another question like is the one from the movie or the series from the 80's 90's which one. He would not stop asking questions and interupting my listening. Eventually the guy passing the mike came my way and I thought finally I can ask my question to the voice artists. But guess what Happened??? They gave the mike to the guy who was sitting next to me to hand it to me. But it never made it, He looked at it and decided to stand up and asking his Horrible, Awful, Boring, Unfunny questions This guy was a KOOKY FREAK!! I however was full of RAGE, The Mike was meant for me and he STOLE IT!! I yelled WHAT THE F*CK do you think you are DOING!! You just F*cking got here you......you..........JERK!!!

Instead of calling the actors by their real names he would say names like Bullwinkle Moose Guy and The Batman Guy and then he would try to be funny like saying 'I'm Batman'. Eventually the voice actors worked out this guy was not going to give up the mike and so when he started talking even more nonsense about Votron (NO ONE in the Panel was involved in it' Neil Kaplan spoke up and said 'OKAY Man now your just being too much freakin Geeky and all I'm hearing from you is when the adults Talk to the kids in a Charlie Brown Cartoon 'WAHWAHWAHWAH' People laughed so much at that Joke and he finally got the message to give up the Mike...... But not to me That was it No more Questions....... I was SOOOOOOO PISSED!!! The Guy realised he was a F'N Half Wit and kept saying Sorry, Man Sorry But I didn't care I would have freakin decked the FruitCake if I knew that witness' weren't there what a NUT!!

I left the panel really Mad.... Like Ropeable and decided to get in line for the Voice Actors Signing during the 2 hour waiting period I got to talk to a chick from Sydney who was there for her boyfriend and another couple who had the dvd boxset of Invader Zim we kinda kept eachother company and entertained during that time.

So at the 2 hour point this organiser approaches me asks me who I'm here for and I point to Rino Romano and she says " Right your the Last One" To which the people standing behind me threw a wobbly and she had to make the line longer. And so I finally got to meet Rino the voice of 'The Batman' But I had brought along another thing he had done a few years back called 'Star Trek Elite Force' I gotta say he was a really nice guy he signed the instruction Manual for me and told me how much work it was recording the 1000s of lines of dialogue for it. I told him he made the game as the main character of 'Alex Munro' and how it made the game that much better and he was very humble and said thankyou for the feedback. I snapped this photo.
Next up was Rodger Bumpass because no one was talking to him I startedc to chat and asked for his signature he was the dad out of invader zim too so it was cool he was sitting next to Richard Horvitz voice of invader zim and I was just chatting to the two of them about Zim and if it was ever likely to come back in any form to which they said it was NEVER going to happen. Anyway I got Richard to sign my Destroy all Humans Game cover and we talked about his zimmish character in that game 'Orthopox' and he said a third one was coming out soon. Then it was Billy West turn for the Matt Pott treatment I gotta say being in this line of voice artists it was Billy I was most nervous about I was shaking Why I can't tell you I had brought stuff over for him to sign and I promised they weren't Ebay Bound!! He was Very nice but you could tell the time had taken its toll and he wanted a Break from it. I asked him about my podcasts and if he could do a bumper for my show he said 'Not Really' and I said oh I understand I didn't want you to do a character voice just be Billy west to which said Uhhh OKAY!! So I got him to record in my phone and he said 'Hi this is Billy West I do Hundreds of funny Voices and I listen to Matt Pott' It was 5 minutes later I discovered that it was some how lost on my Phone.... Damn I just want one famous person to do a Bumber for my show!! Anyway Special Kudos for Billy for actually doing it he didn't have to his voice is his life so it was good to get a freebie even if it didn't record!!

Heres Richard And Billy
Okays So this is Day one I had hoped to update you on Day Two But unfortunately my Laptop or as I like to Vista Disabled was playing a real bastard today and Ate up all my Battery Power before I started even typing with all these updates. So I shall update you with everthing else and if I did get to meet Bruce Timm tomorrow See You Then Folks.

Anti-Girl Cartoon #4

Okay so I have to ask a question, I find women are OBSESSED with foundation and they smear it on their faces like its going out of fashion. In some instances they just do such a bad job of it that it looks like their heads have gone square!!

EGO

It's unfortunate but I've met some artists that have an ego problem. This can manifest itself as a swollen head or worse still an Asshole attitude.
Tasmania has hundreds of the latter and it also exists all over the world. I've always felt that I don't suffer from this affliction but this is not true either. All artists have an Ego of varying degrees but with one common thread, they like it to be rubbed every so often.

I'm no different I love it when people comment on my work with only accolades of how good something I have done is and hate it when someone likes to point out little inconsistincies or mistakes. But where those with the asshole attitude would just put it down to jealousy. The ego in me tries to take it on board for better work next time. And whether your a learner or a professional you should treat everyone with respect.

So You Want To Be An Artist!!

A few things before I get into todays artistic topic and firstly I am flying to Melbourne once again at the end of this week for 5 days and in that time have heaps of stuff planned.

On both the Saturday and Sunday I will be spending my time at Armageddon Expo where my all time favorite artist Bruce Timm will be appearing as a guest to talk about his involvement in the medium of animation and comics as well as a presentation of the Death of Superman movie. I will also get a chance to revisit the PIXAR exhibition before it closes its doors FOREVER that same weekend.

As like the last time I was in Melbourne I will be keeping a daily diary that will be posted on the blog over the entire time particulary with photos of the expo or 'convention' which term my american friends like to use.
If anyone is mean to me, I make a complete idiot of myself or something dreadful happens then I will no doubt let you know right here over those coming days.

I'm going to be updating this blog everyday this week (and yes that includes returning Wednesday with more Anti-Girl)

Since starting this blog I've been suprised by where it has ended up, I noticed recently I am now linked to a Blog for Tasmanians very cool which you can find the link here.

Now onto todays topic.......
Sometimes I recieve emails from desperate people wanting to know my secret to being an artist they want to know the skills I know and how I learned them. But I don't know myself for some reason I should know but I can honestly say.......I don't know. So when I do recieve these emails I don't know how to answer them and rarely do thinking surely theres someone more experienced than I to answer your question?

I can tell you what I have done up to this point, learning from some ancient master is not one of them however. I've read lots of art books, watched cartoons and making ofs, been influenced by some of the greatest cartoonists of our time and met alot of cool people with similar interests on the internet......

Now that last statement may sound a bit strange and indeed SAD but its so very true and I'm not ashamed of saying it. In Tasmania as the place of my birth and where I now reside it is very short on 'Talent and Arts' Most of the talent we do have here are from other parts of australia and stick with their own kind or just in it for the money.
Actually I may as well just come out and say it that the Arts here sucks and is spread very thin for anyone to really enjoy it....... so they soon tire of art and go off to become a Banker or something else more boring!!
No the people I have met understand the hardship of being an artist, trying to find inspiration in a dried up world where all ideas have been recycled over and over again. Oh and they are more talented than I could ever be and yet they make me feel apart of their art community and life.

Theres alot of ego needed too but thats a story left for tomorrow........