Nick Davis's Blog, page 36

Calvin and Hobbes Birtday Cake By The Sweetsfairy For My 42nd Birthday

Calvin and Hobbes Birthday Cake by the Sweetsfairy

A Calvin and Hobbes Birthday Cake for my 42nd year by my darling wife Jean aka as the Sweets fairy, thank you my Darling. You can view more of this awesome Birtday cake after the jump. To contact the Sweets fairy for your own Calvin and Hobbes Cake you can click here.

Saving The World Just Before Bedtime… #Hero

Hero – Saving The World Before Bedtime by Nick Davis

Hero… This Teddy Bear is going to save the world before bedtime and he is coming Fall 2015.

Hero by Nick Davis

Here is the full Hero illustration without the movie style graphics added, this super-heroic Teddy Bear is coming Fall 2015, keep watching for project updates, art and release date. Follow the hashtag #Hero.

Tristan the Teddy Bear and his Boy an Unconditional Hugs Watercolor Inspired by E.H.Shepard

‘Please don’t ever lose me.’ Tristan the Teddy Bear and his Boy by Nick Davis

Please don’t ever lose me… An Unconditional Hugs illustration, featuring Tristan the Teddy Bear and his Boy. I was inspired to create this piece by the original beautiful watercolor work for Winnie the Pooh by E.H.Shepard.

This illustration is a more realistic re-imagining of the my Unconditional Hugs comic strip characters, which of course are Tristan the Teddy Bear and his Boy. It was inked using Faber-Castell Pitt Pens and colored using blended Derwent Inktense Pencils which I feel give nice vibrant colors.

So that was the year that was 2014

Welcome to my 2014 year in review, sometimes these reviews are short, some are long, all of them look back in someway at the year I had. After all we have all survived one more trip around the sun on this Starship Earth, and what a ride it has been.

Start Of The Year

My Gods… Thinking back at the start of this year and how it started. Everything was so smooth, we had plans in place on how we wanted this year to run and it all went up in flames. Twenty-seven days into the new year I was dismissed from my job at Baltimore County, and the year went into bit of a nosedive.

Me, a Barmy Day on the Hill Outside the Library of Congress

 

Of course I set out almost immediately looking for work, I signed up for Temp Agencies and got sent out for all kind of weird and wonderful interviews and placements. Including seven weeks working on the Hill in DC for the Heritage Foundation, which was a trip down the Far-Right Rabbit Hole I thought I would never take. It was an eye opener to see how the Far-Right thought, and handled their media communications and I am sad to say it is all about molding perception, and stretching a lie over a truth whenever possible.

I Wrote A Comic Book

Spooky Abigail Limited Edition Cover

Yes I did, my first comic book that was not Teddy Bear Tales related, I was the lead writer for the Spooky Abigail books. I had a lot of fun building her world making it a little wonky and my own worst Witch story. The script writing was fun and I dearly hope I get to revisit her second book and be able to tell my Spooky story.

The Dry Patch

Nick and Tristan the Teddy Bear will dance for food

After the seven weeks at the Heritage Foundation I had a long dry patch of interviews, empty promises from Recruiters, and sparse Freelance work. In between the constant interview dance, and begging for work, I attend conventions with my Teddy Bear books to help boost our shrinking bank account and desperately tried not to freak out – we had until July for me to find work or we would lose our house. We were on life-support, with all money going to food or bills. If piece of our infrastructure broke we would be dead in the water.

The Cartoon

The first part of the year I gave myself distractions, I decided to teach myself how to drawn comic panels and my comic strip Unconditional Hugs, the adventures of a Teddy Bear and his Boy was born. It has now ended with 52 comic strips drawn and a fun exploration into the art of telling a story in four panels.

The Newspaper

July came along and I scored a temporary position with the Dundalk Eagle Newspaper in the Production Department, here I learned all about how a weekly newspaper is put together. From ads, to copy and how a local paper operated. It was an interesting education and fun at times. I was offered a transition into full-time, but along came an opportunity with Alban CAT, and I jumped at the chance to get my career back.

Along Came Alban CAT

This was a job that came out of the blue, totally unexpected and I went into it not knowing quite what to expect. Alban CAT is the Caterpillar Dealer for Maryland, DC, Delaware and part of West Virginia and Northern Virginia area. I honestly thought it was a job shoved at the back of a pokey dealership building, putting up pictures of Dozers and Tractors.

Boy was I wrong… Alban CAT is huge, multiple divisions and has a lot of money behind it and they needed someone maintain their website, which happened to be WordPress powered. It was the first job prospect that I found myself at that I was practically shouting pick me… pick me!!! And for my enthusiasm they did and I am now their Web Content Specialist. The job is amazing and the last four months of this year things have been an up swing for my family. It is good to be able to provide again.

The Art

My art improved throughout 2014, I finally found some confidence in my abilities and I think produced some really nice pieces, below are some of my favorites.

Winnie the Pooh and Piglet too by Nick Davis

Paddington Bear by Nick Davis

Baby GROOT by Nick Davis

This is just a few of my pieces, you can view all my art by clicking the art tap at the top of the website.

So Here We Are Now

The start of this year was very dark, we almost didn’t make it and the last three years have been very rough for us, far too many dips, and not that many climbs. 2014 year is ending with my son living under my roof, a good job, the Teddy Bear Tales being shopped around Hollywood, and a new Cuddly Defenders book in the works. All of which I hope will set up to be a productive 2015

The trip around the sun for 2014 is done and now we face new adventures… Onwards!

My 2014 Year in Blogging at Altworld and my Top Five Posts

It has been a long 2014 and an even bigger roller-coaster than previous years, but that is a blog for another time and with less than 36 hours left to run in this year lets take a look at my year in blogging. You can view my 2014 year here – My 2014 Year In Blogging – there are some surprises ahead especially my Top Five posts for 2014.

My 2014 Year in Blogging at Altworld & Top Five Posts

It has been a long 2014 and an even bigger roller-coaster than previous years, but that is a blog for another time and with less than 36 hours left to run in this year lets take a look at my year in blogging. You can view my 2014 year here – My 2014 Year In Blogging – there are some surprises ahead especially my Top Five posts for 2014.

The Little Red Games Workshop Book, Tom Kirby’s Management Opus

Look what I found, the Little Red Games Workshop Management Book, this opus to Empire building was written by GW CEO Tom Kirby, and was given to me way back in 2003 during my last few of months at Games Workshop USA. Actually it was more like issued, but I will get to that after the jump.

I uncovered this piece of Games Workshop epoch during our great house clean up (now on day three as I write this), I had forgotten I had it. The Little Red Book is Tom Kirby’s hints and tips on how to be a better manager at Games Workshop, each section has a handy note pages after it for amendments that Dear Leader should issue, and to be fair if my memory serves it does have some good practices… And also a lot of bad practices written in it including how to score an Employee as a threat to company culture (I kid you not.)

However I digress…

The day I was issued with this book I was given a piece of paper by a very fanatical Games Workshop Middle Manager, that stated I should sign and hand in the paper as receipt of my book, and also that I agree to memorize the words within, and repeat them rote if required, and if I could not repeat the words my job  would be jeopardy. I stared at the paper in disbelief, and refused to sign it. It was just a book, mainly for management, Games Workshop was a company, not a form of service, or a cult, and I bet even GW’s HR at the time if they saw the paper would have balked at issuing it.

Oh, those crazy days… If you are ever around my house I will let you look through it, it certainly makes for an eyebrow raising read.

Mashing Up IKEA Furniture To Build A Drawing Board (or Craft Table)

Snap… Crunch… Ouch… the three sounds that accompanied the collapse of my last Drawing Board (or table.) I only owned the Craft Store ‘Drawing station’  less than three months and already the hinges at the front had snapped out of the thin board, because they simply could not bear the weight of the board tilt. I had to find a better more durable solution, oddly enough IKEA had the answer. 

I am not a shill for IKEA, but I do like the store and their life-style solutions to storage and opening up practical space. I had also lived in Sweden for a year, so it caters to my developed Scandinavian palate.

You Will Need

IKEA does not sell a drawing board, so you have to mash-up a couple of pieces, and go to a hardware store, to build your board you will need;

2x Finnvard – adjustable height trestles
1x 4ft Medium Linnmon – white table top (other colors available but they cost $5 more)
1x Box of Velcro (local hardware store located next to the furniture gliders)
1x Aluminum Door Threshold (local hardware store)

Build It

Follow your IKEA instructions (don’t worry the trestles are easy) and build the Finnvard units, should take you about 20 minutes for both pieces. Now take the Velcro and cut lengths. and stick the hooks onto the Finnvard trestle tops. Match up these lengths onto your Linnmon Table top, stick the eyes to your board, then put them together.

Now cut a length of Velcro to put on the back of  your door threshold, stick the hooks to the back of the threshold, and the eyes to bottom of the board. This will act as your pen catch, stopping any pencil or drawing material roll offs.

You will notice the Velcro makes for an easy and secure join, and allows you to adjust your table-top to see match your comfort level. The Finnvard adjustable trestle tops allow you to angle your board to your drawing level. The entire Drawing board is more sturdy and load bearing, so unexpected snaps will be a thing of the past.

My Set Up

My set up is extended beyond just the drawing board, my IKEA mash-up also contains;

1x 3ft Linnmon small table top w/legs (for a return to put my laptop on)
1x Jules chair w/swivel base (the Alrik chair is a good cheaper alternative)
1x Helmer six drawer stack (wide enough to put 9×12 drawing pads in)
1x Tertial Work Lamp

My Cost

While I owned the Jules, Tertial and Small Linnmon table from my previous setup with the Craft store drawing board. The Helmer was a welcome new addition to the mix allowing me to store 90% of my art materials in one place.

The total cost of my set-up is $200, about $50 more than the average craft store table. It gives me a much more durable base to create on – which to me is worth the investment. Go out and create your own IKEA Furniture Mash-up and stop the crunch from happening to you.

Preview Pages from the Tristan and the Cuddly Defenders Quarterly Comic

Production work continues on the upcoming Tristan and the Cuddly Defenders Comic as we aim for our End of January release date. Dan Nokes, Teddy Bear Tales Artist has delivered his first pages for the Ballad of Fernando, which he is drawing and writing. Enjoy our three page preview…

A 52 Step Journey Into Cartoons And Comic Strips With Unconditional Hugs

The Final Unconditional Hugs Comic Strip

Unconditional Hugs, the comic strip about a Teddy Bear and his Boy comes to an end today, after 52 strips I am closing out what has been a year-long creative journey for me, as I attempted to teach myself how to draw comic strip stories.

What Is Unconditional Hugs?

Unconditional Hugs tells a story about Tristan the Teddy Bear, and the adventures he had with his Boy. I limited it to four panels, and tried to tell emotional drive stories. That way I didn’t have to tie myself to a punch line and could tell any type of story I wanted.

Why A Comic Strip?

I had never attempted to draw sequential (comic) panels before, I can do single figures, and limited full illustrated pieces, but always balked at the challenge of telling a visual flowing story from my own hand. Up to now I had written a few comic book strips, but never drawn a comic. I wanted to see if I could do it, and Unconditional Hugs was my testing ground.

The First Strip

The First Unconditional Hugs Comic Strip

The first comic strip was more by accident than design, I had an idea in my head and ran with it. This accidental first strip though set up what I wanted to do with Unconditional Hugs.

The story in essence is a fantasy, a relationship and how the Boy see’s his reality with a Teddy Bear who actually is alive, but can never let his Boy know. I decided we would never see the Boys face, and emotions would be played through the silent expressions of the Teddy Bear, who would be the heart of the story and could address the reader directly.

I also decided that the Teddy Bear would always be bigger than the Boy when they hug, because a Teddy Bear always is much larger when you hug it.

With these parameters set, I went about the business of writing the comic strip. It was rather a new experience for me trying to tell a story in four panels. You see a sample script below.

Story – Swing Break

Panel One

Boy swinging on tire – Wheeee!!!

Tristan watching amused

Panel Two

Boy Swinging – Tire swing snaps (SFX)

Boy in motion flailing – Yikes!!!

Panel Three

Tristan face alarmed

Panel Four

Boy landed on Tristan – Tristan looking a little flat – Khumphhh! (SFX)

Boy – Good catch Buddy

Tristan – ouch expression
 

Unconditional Hugs the comic strip about a Teddy Bear and his Boy – Swing Break by Nick Davis

 
Influences

With both hands up and a grin on my face I will say that my biggest influence when I was drawing Unconditional Hugs was the amazing Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson. You can draw comparisons in some of my stories to Mr Watterson’s it is hard not to, I have read pretty much everything put out by the master of comic strip story telling. Subconsciously I am sure some stories followed the same line. We all go far by standing on the shoulders of Giants, right?

One Cool Moment

The Melton Times Cartoon Panel by Nick Davis

I was invited by my local Melton Mowbray home paper in the UK called the Melton Times to submit Unconditional Hugs to be included in their weekly newspaper. I sent out a dozen sample strips (all my work at that time) and a small cartoon panel to see if I they would like it. While this was cool moment for me, Unconditional Hugs wasn’t really ready for this type of publication and I never did hear back from the papers editors.

First Panel Gallery

A cool way for you to see how the art style for Unconditional Hugs evolved throughout the year.

All Good Things

Unconditional Hugs, the comic strip about a Teddy Bear and his Boy by Nick Davis

Here we stand at the end of a 52 comic strip journey, the last comic strip is published on UnconditionalHugs.com and I can put this chapter to bed.

I have learned a lot about comic strip story telling, about trying to keep my art consistent and telling short, fun, emotional stories. I wish I could say Unconditional Hugs was a breakout success, but it wasn’t and I think the total viewing figures numbered in the hundred’s.

Thank you to everyone who viewed what was really an experiment and test bed for me. While this is the end of Tristan the Teddy Bear and his Boys adventures in Unconditional Hugs, it isn’t the end of Tristan’s story, 2015 is going to bring some big changes for our Teddy Bear and I hope you come along for the ride.

Thank you all for your eyes, and your support