SHUJAAZ: advert sketch

i was asked to do an A5 newspaper advert for SHUJAAZ chapta 4, which comes out this saturday (5th june). i wasnt given a tight brief, that means i can run wild with ideas and hope they will be accepted. this is a sketch i'm still working on. i intend to have the four SHUJAAZ heroes standing looking up at the viewer with boyie holding out a copy of the comic. it's taking me a lot of time to get the details right, i really hope the director buys the idea. i will post the final advert on facebook.

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ILLUSTRATION | "Pudd’ng spills the rice. That’s right, rice"

if you have never read the 'fatherhood 101' story in NATION newspaper's wednesday LIVING magazine then i need to tell you you're missing out on something awesome. written straight from a dad's heart. this illustration i'm working on is for next week's piece. i have done the line work already and i'm now washing in the shadows before i put colour. get next week's wednesday paper to see the finished thing.

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MARIA KIM | stop looking like someone's autie... get sexier

no offense to aunties, but that's what someone said about the initial maria kim art for SHUJAAZ chapter 5. now i'm spending this morning doing some major last minute changes, which have proved necessary after a field test of the comic last monday.

what do you think? leave any comments you may have below.

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to read past issues of SHUJAAZ comic visit www.shujaaz.fm. and you can follow BOYIE on facebook (DJBOYIE SHUJAAZ) and on twitter (SHUJAAZ).

SERPENT ON THE BOARD | not very uplifting

i'm quickly discovering that spending a good part of the morning working out serpentine details can be quite depressing... on the other hand, am beginning to think of visiting the snake park with my camera...

make sure you get your copy of SATURDAY magazine to find out what this is all about.

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'TROUBLESOME PANEL' | finally done!

honestly, i usually suck at drawing or painting artificial things... i'd rather draw a dog than try to draw a car. so i didnt expect this car to turn out this well - not the best, but better than i thought i could pull. the other red car sucks, why lie. hope i will get some time to soup it up a bit.

but anyway, this panel is finally done! see here and here if you are wondering why am so happy about it.

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THE TROUBLESOME PANEL | getting in some colours

i'm now working on colouring the troublesome panel i griped about here. well, colouring isnt as much an ache as inking was. if ur kenyan, and a keen one, u might figure out one: about what time this comic will be published and two: what this comic might be all about. i'm glad to be doing this!

back to work!

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THIS LOOKS UNFAIR | two hours is equal to 10 seconds!

i can't believe i have spent a whole two hours of my morning inking this single panel!! it got me thinking, how long will it take a reader to read this panel? 10 seconds at most, i think. so i spend over two hours (it's not yet painted and lettered, mark you) making something that will be read in 10 seconds! well it must be worth it, somehow. and anyway, i'm not complaining, i love this job!

prevent me from getting paid for nothing by reading this comic in SHUJAAZ. get ur copy in the saturday nation of every first saturday of the month. to read past issues of SHUJAAZ comic visit www.shujaaz.fm. and you can follow BOYIE on facebook (DJBOYIE SHUJAAZ) and on twitter (SHUJAAZ).

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DRAWING IN ILLUSTRATOR | cpu friendly, it is

before i acquired a good computer for graphics, i used a laptop with low specs and one thing i totally avoided was painting in photoshop, especially using soft brushes. that's when you make a bush stroke and wait a few seconds for the computer to process it before you can see it on screen... ANNOYING!! so i escaped into illustraor, and did most of my work there. now illustrator wont give you the benefits of gradients and 'grit' like photoshop, but it sure is easier on your machine. here is a comic i did entirely in illustrator. i have tried to lay it out step by step, but i think it's just too pathetic for me to call it a tutorial. enjoy!

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MARIA KIM | inking and colouring for SHUJAAZ issue 5

i just received pencils for the above mentioned comic, done by penciller eric muthoga (ericmuthoga@gmail.com). so most of this week will be spent inking and colouring this. the job was supposed to have been done by yesterday, so i better stop blogging and get back to work...adiós!

oh... to read past issues of SHUJAAZ comic visit www.shujaaz.fm. and you can follow BOYIE on facebook (DJBOYIE SHUJAAZ) and on twitter (SHUJAAZ).

back to work!!




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THE SHE-GEEK | maximising on illustrator and photoshop abilities

this is another of four illustrations i talked about here. this is the kind of illustration that would have been so tedious or even impossible (to me) to do in illustrator only or photoshop only. i used illustrator to draw the lines, and espesially to draft the geometric gadgetry. and photoshop came in handy for painting and making those little lights glow.

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SHORT SKIRT | she's dressed for the mission

sometimes an illustration done on the fly turns out to be the best. i took so many shortcuts on this one because i had to do two other pieces for the same publication the same day. so i decided if i have so much light washing into the car i wont have to paint that side of her face, and i can leave lots of other places white...

read the hilarious story here.

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ILLUSTRATION: a challenge to paint in photoshop

this is one of four illustrations i did a couple of weeks back for a ugandan client. he wanted the colours of the finished illustrations tweaked towards a reddish hue, so as to have some kinda retro effect. i usually do my illustrations in adobe illustrator, but decided to challenge myself and do this in photoshop because the posibilities of colour-tweaking are endless in photoshop. i still did the line work in illustrator, then dropped then into photoshop and started painting.

not so bad, i think i'm going to be doing more and more paintings in photoshop. keep visiting, i might post the other three illustrations too.

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BOOK COVER - ethnicity training manual

this morning on my drawing board, some two spot illustrations for Living Magazine. get your copy of wednesday's Nation newspaper to find out what these are about:





























apart from that, am starting on a new project today, a book. it's title: 'A Training Manual on Ethnicity'. i'm working on the cover which the client needs for approval by thursday. this is the client's brief on the cover:

Manual Cover Ideas

• A jigsaw puzzle of the map of Africa (or Kenya if this manual is intended for use only locally). This is placed on a sisal / papyrus reed piece of tapestry work (perhaps a mat?), preferably the usual plain beige colour so as to give good contrast to the colourful jigsaw puzzle-map.
• Preferably the face of the map is made up of faces of different Kenyan/ African peoples representing our ethnic diversity.
• Most of the jigs (pieces of the puzzle) are assembled together, but there are obvious gaping spaces where some pieces- displaced pieces out of their slots- are scattered about at the side or on top of others etc.
• In spite of the obvious “patchwork” of the jigsaw and the missing parts, the picture should not lose the elements of colour and visual appeal that symbolise the essential beauty of our ethnicity despite the brokenness of God’s image in every ethnic group and individual.

first stop, google :) i searched for some reference material and found some for africa map, jigsaw puzzle and a mat. with these i came up with the sketch below. i will post the finished cover when i'm done.
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LINDA COMIC - from pencils to inks to colours, the process

this is LINDA, a two-page comic about a girl with superpowers. i have posted here the three stages of creating each page, from pencil roughs, to inks, to finished colours. i do all this on computer, no paper involved here (save the trees!) except when am 'thinking', when i'm doing thumbnails sketches to decide what will go where. after that i grab my wacom drawing tablet and start sketching on computer.
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SHUJAAZ COMIC - issue 4 layout

i'm currently working on the layout for shujaaz issue 4. half the pages have gone to the printer already. the rest of the pages should go early next week. look out for this comic in Saturday Nation, for the first saturday next month. should be 5th.
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JANET - comic

this is a comic for BINGWA, a children's magazine distributed for free in schools.
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this is what i'm working on right now, for the same magazine. this is a comic called 'linda' about a teenage girl with superpowers.
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shujaaz comic - maria kim inking and colourin

this is the artwork i finished recently for shujaaz comic issue 4. the pencils for this comic were done by eric muthoga (ericmuthoga@gmail.com), and i did the inking and colouring.
this is page one pencils, done by eric. click for a closer view:

these are the six pages done. i have put the inks and finished art side by side. click for a closer view:

To read past issues of shujaaz comics, visit www.shujaaz.fm. also get your free copy of the comic in nation newspaper, every first saturday of the month.