Some Drawlings

Here are a few drawings from my sketchbook. I recently bought a new reservoir brush pen and these guys appeared during the test-drive.

I love the tonal quality of the colour wash, while still being a limited palette of black/white/green. Brushing in colour as a process is so enjoyable, too. I might try out a few comics pages like this and see what happens...

Beermat Quartet

The fine people at Inky Goodness invited me to take part in their 2013 Beermat Character exhibition, currently on show at The Coningsby Gallery, London.

I submitted this quartet of tiny gouache paintings. Which are available to purchase from the show, along with over 100 other beermats by a host of wonderful artists.

Show runs until Say 4th May, so head down if you're in the smoke!

 

Simpsons Drawing Club

Here's a little drawing of Edna Krabapple, one of my favourite characters from The Simpsons which is for the excellent tumblr: Simpsons Drawing Club. 

In other news - I finally got around to setting up a proper tumblr for my work! If you're in Tumble Town, stop by and say hi:

 ++ www.kbaczynski.tumblr.com ++

Packing The Power

I tapped a print vein when unpacking an old suitcase today. Loads of comics and stickers I'd totally forgotten about were exhumed and organised into a new set of Power Packs!

These have been a real favourite with people, so I'm pretty happy about finding some more miscellaneous and fun items to collect together into some new packs. Over 20 items this time, and I actually ripped one of the envelopes because it was stuffed with so much paper treasure.

++ Get them for £7 from my Big Cartel and Etsy shop ++

Halt - Press!

KBHQ has been bustling the past few weeks, lots of new comics work for publications on the way and a new zine/prints in the works. I've also been teaching a few days a week at Leeds Met, on my alma mater which has been dreamy.

Here's a few pieces of exciting press:

1) 'How To Create A Monster' - The Guardian / Blackberry Keep Moving are running a project that invites you to draw and design a unique monster to feature in a Robert Rodriguez directed short film. I was one of a troupe of creatives that was interviewed for a video to support the project.

++ You can watch it here ++

(and then draw your own monster)

2) Trends Report 2013: Illustration - Digital Arts and Lisa Hassel (InkyGoodness) have put together a great article which offers advice and good working practice for illustrators working and wanting to work in 2013. I was interviewed, and gave a few thoughts on freelancing and self-publishing. An honour!

++ You can read the article here ++

('Nine Lives' is available: here)

Will post more about fun projects soon. In the meantime, my Instagram feed is always full of works in progress, process shots and sneaky peeks.

Phresh Phreads

The totally tropical folks at Fresher Than Clothing got in touch with me a few months ago to team up on a new t-shirt and print venture.

Juicy colours and an exotic twist were the specifications, and I delivered this wild design; a 5 colour screenprint.

T-shirts coming soon the their store. Keep and eye on their website / Facebook page and follow them on twitter to keep up to date!

The Vulture Of Culture

The good people at Culture Vulture invited me to design their website banner for April, and it's just gone live!

The Culture Vulture website is a beacon for creativity and artistic happenings, so well worth a visit. Especially if you're positioned geographically northwards, it's full of goodness.

 Tom Woolley also interviewed me for the website - which you can read here.

Tiny Pencil - Interview

The Tiny Pencil is a soon-to-launch publication focussed on pencil and graphite art. Very honoured to be invited as a contributor, the line-up looks so incredible! I could drown among these drawing giants.

Head honchos Amber and Katriona interviewed me for the Tiny Pencil blog. Have a read, if you fancy it - click here.

Sketchy

My beau gave me a lovely large-format landscape sketchbook for Christmas, which has become my new bringer of entertainment. I'm filling each page with sketches and drawings on a certain theme (birds, heads, mammals, monsters, insects) to see how many different ways I can draw the same thing.

Last week I photographed a few pages for an interview, so I thought I'd share a few snaps.

Also thinking of turning this into a zine - would you dig that, internet pals?

Power Pack Reload!

During a Sunday morning studio spruce I came across an extra box of wholesale stock and some A5 envelopes. Bingo! The raw materials for a new wave of Power Packs.

A couple of hours of collecting, cutting, folding and assembling managed to yield a fleet of packs, and they're up in my Etsy store at £7 each. Loads of rare and out-of-print stickers, postcards, prints, badges, posters, comics and more.

These sold out in a day last year, so get 'em quick! They are SOLD OUT! Well done if you managed to grab one, and if not - don't worry - I'm a hoarder, so they may crop up again if I need to de-clutter.

Thank you! x

Game For A Laugh

Here's a recent private commission for a cool dude's upper arm...

And a little animation cycle of my process, because, well GIFs are hypnotic nuggets of fun:

Brooches of Beasts & Birds

New brooches made this week! Wild animals trapped under glass and they're all ready to don your lapel, scarf or beret.

++ Get them here for a sweet £6 ++

Trapped Under Glass

I've been wanting to make some new jewels for some time, and last week I picked up some new materials and learnt some new skills to make that happen. So, here's my new range of handmade pendant necklaces, with original illustrations of soaring birds and cosmic mammals trapped forever under glass and set in brass.

So pleased with how they have turned out, the glass domes act like a lens and lift the drawings in a 3D kind of way... Perhaps I've been staring at them excessively, but it's a magical and most pleasing effect regardless. Oh my.

The necklaces are available now in my Etsy for £8, and come in a folded origami box. 

Click here for the cosmic mammal.

Click here for the soaring bird.

Punch Drunk

A new poster for the Hyde Park Picture House's late night cult film season for P. T. Anderson's Punch-Drunk Love. Such an incredible, intense and peculiarly romantic film, it was a total honour to be asked to work on this.

The film is screening on Feb 16th at 11pm, as an Alternative Valentine's activity, and the poster is available as a heavyweight art print (with free badge) on the night.

If you can't make it to the screening but would like the print/badge, they are now available to buy from my Etsy store and Big Cartel shop for a mere £6!

Mythical Show - Bristol

Very happy to announce a Girls Who Draw group exhibition coming up in February at Here Gallery in Bristol! I designed the flyer and have 2 pieces in the show, plus some zines and merch too.

Opening night is Saturday 9th February, and the Facebook event page has all the details you could dream of. There's info on the Here Gallery website too.

Come and see some beasts!

p.s. You can pick up the Mythical Creatures postcard book here.

Talkin'

I'll be doing a talk about comics and my work at Laydeez Do Comics on Monday 28th January!
6.30-9.30pm 
Wharf Chambers, 23-25 Wharf Street, Leeds LS2 7EQ

Darryl Cunningham and Kate Ashwin are speaking too. 

Details here:
http://www.laydeezdocomics.com/

Maybe see you there!

Winter Winners

You can get 20% off everything in my Etsy store throughout January with the code: "WINTERWINNER"

++ Visit my shop ++

Always With The Birds

A new addition to my poster series commissioned by Leeds College of Music to promote their events season. Super-fast turnaround on this one, maybe shouldn't have gone for so much hand-lettering. Hand cramps were the punishment... but worth it to make a magical creature come to be.

Bird of Prey-sponsibility

I was delighted to be commissioned by The Fableists to design a screenprinted t-shirt design for their ethically aware children's clothing label. A mighty good message and lots of fun to do something rockin' and cool for the young 'uns.

Out soon, and maybe some more designs in the works too. Check in on their website and twitter to stay up to date with the label.

Hello New Year

Here's a little drawing from New Year's Day, penned after a magical woodland walk, bird-spotting and twig-cracking.

This time last year I was handing in my letter of notice at my full-time design job to become a freelance illustrator/designer/comic book artist, and worrying if the year ahead would hold creative joy or financial terror. The 365 days since then have been more joyful and rewarding than I could ever have hoped...

Speaking at Hay-On-Wye as an author was unbelievable, as was speaking at Latitude Festival. The anthology 'Nelson' won Best Book at the BCA's, as well as being nominated for an Eisner. I was nominated for a British Comic Award, attended ELCAF and Thought Bubble, began teaching and made more comics, posters and illustrations than ever before... Woah.

Thank you for all your support. The internet is a constant companion, and the connections it allows lead to marvellous things.

Oh, and I also got to design some 'Invisibiltong' packaging for Lunge Dolphin a few weeks ago... If you aren't familiar with his brand of euro-hero comedy, then you are now:

Things To Come

My latest comic for the December/New Year issue of the mighty Stool Pigeon. 
A strip concerning how very futuristic the new year sounds. A year that screen-writers of the 20th century thought would bring seashells on toilets, hoverboards, soylent produce, NY/LA prisons and killer computer networks. Pop culture reference fest and the end of the world as we know it.

Happy New Year!

Pop Showcase

Here's a new poster commission for Leeds College of Music's Steinway Hall season.

Very fond of the music man character, thinking of releasing a run of risograph prints with him included... add to the new year projects list. 

Due Returns

During last year's Thought Bubble festival, I had the honour of being Artist In Residence. I spent a week in Leeds Central Library (above the Art Gallery) working with Writer In Residence, Matthew Sheret. The product of our residencies was to exhibit, workshop, talk and collaborate. The collaboration turned out to be a 6-page comic called 'Due Returns', and is out now in the Thought Bubble 2012 Anthology, published by Image Comics.

The anthology is available from all good comic stores (e.g. Travelling Man) for £3, or you can get it digitally here. All profits go to the charity Barnados.  

Here are the first 2 pages for your peepers:

Our story had received some really amazing reviews, a few of them are here:

Bleeding Cool

SFX

Geek Syndicate

It's a story about being curious and open in day to day life, to allow for adventure and wonder. Eyes up, wits on. I hope that you enjoy it too. 

LACF5

Just a quick update to post about Leeds Alternative Comics Fair 5, being held tomorrow (Sat 8th Dec) 12 - 6pm at A Nation Of Shopkeepers, Leeds.

I have a table as well as lots of other comics creators, hauling all our printed paper treasures along. Perfect if you need a comics fix, or need to get fixed for Christmas... or need to fix up and look sharp.

The event made it onto the Leeds Inspired homepage today, and they used my Box Of Delight as the cover image! Joy.

More info on the Leeds Inspired guide, and of course the LACF website.

Festive Treasure!

I was lucky enough to find rolls and rolls of festive paper treasure while on a recent car booting adventure. Bundles of vintage christmas wrapping paper were stowed under our arms for the princely sum of 50p a roll. They are printed in 2/3 spot colours and some have a metallic ink on there as well. Swoon!

There is more than enough here to wrap all my own presents this festivus, so I've decided to give a sheet away free with every order from my Etsy store from now until Christmas! 

If there's a particular design you would like, just let me know in the 'notes to seller' when checking out. First come, first served! Thanks and have a magical christmas, folks.

Box Of Delight

The final addition to my greeting crew - the boxed character army! Brought together so that you never fail your pen pals, backing you up in printed glory.

All of my greetings cards designs collected into a custom design box, containing 10 cards and envelopes for the thrifty price of £12.

+ + Available in my Etsy and Big Cartel shops + +

Art House?

There is a pop-up online art emporium springing from the wilderness of the internet - 100 Houses!

100 artists created 100 original pieces for an exhibition in Bristol last month. All the exclusive work is now up for grabs on the newly opened online shop, with money being raised for the homeless charity Shelter. Goodness upon goodness! 

My piece is for sale here: житло (Ukrainian dwelling) / Acrylic on natural board / 10" x 10" / £60

Noble Birds

Here's a leafy addition to the range of greetings cards I've been printing recently. A noble bird, donning hat and bow tie, ready to deliver your birthday messages to pen pals and men pals alike.

Available in my Etsy store for £1.75.

My Christmas card design is now also available printed on recycled brown stock.

Head over the the Etsy listing to have a festive gander. 

(extra photos and card stock drop-down options added)

The whole range of cards can now be bought as multiples, too. So you can purchase 1 or 5 at a time; as many as you like.

Boxed collections coming next week! Pow!

Create Something Awesome

I work part-time for the best print and merch company in the UK - Awesome Merchandise. I've created artwork for them in the past (looky here) and it was a total pleasure to be commissioned again by it's owner - business genius Luke Hodson - to develop a branding signature and mini style-guide for his own website.

Pens, swords, typography and killer geometry:

White Noise

My second commissioned poster for Leeds College of Music's concert season continues on from The Planets, in that it's for another show that makes me feel more 'fan' than 'illustrator'. 

It's for White Noise! The electronic experimental noise group that came from members of The Radiophonic Workshop. Honoured, with a capital 'H'. Details about the show and tickets can be found here.

GOSH! Comics

A few months ago I had the honour of being commissioned by one of the best comics shops in the UK - GOSH! An utterly joyful project to work on, especially as part of the brief was to reference comics heritage, which I took as opportunity to delve into the world of Fletcher Hanks and Dr. Strange.

So here's the new GOSH! postcard design, which is also available as a beautiful heavyweight art print from their London HQ.

(Hopefully I'll get my hands on some of the postcards at Thought Bubble and be able to show the printed beauties)

Freebie Jeebies

Just a quick update about some free stuff for your eyes and ears!

Firstly, a podcast about comics and illustration - Make It Then Tell Everybody. Originally a panel discussion hosted by Dan Berry at Birmingham Zine Festival last month, the talks have been edited and turned into fully listenable podcasts. 

You can hear me talking about my process and pen choices here.

(I also designed the visuals for the talks/site)

Secondly, I made some desktop and iPhone wallpapers out of a few design elements I had floating around. They are on my website's Downloads page so feel free to help yourself.

Power Packs

After a recent survey, I have concluded that I have been in my current studio space for 3.5 years. During this time lots of work has come into and out of its doors. A lot of that work, however, is still sitting on shelves and in drawers.

This is why I've put a collection of these rare and out-of-print items into POWER PACKS!

These envelopes are stuffed to the brim with zines, prints, posters, badges, postcards, stickers and cards (I've done a count and each one contains 18 items). These are limited to 10 packs, and can be bought from my table at Thought Bubble next weekend for a steal at £6 sterling.

Here's a peek at the contents:

Biz Whizz

I picked up a mighty exciting and equally heavy set of boxes yesterday, and with jellied arms walked them back to the studio homestead.

Lots of new products, including these new business cards:

They'll be going out with all orders from my Etsy and Big Cartel shops, or you can come grab one from my Thought Bubble table (Sat/Sun, table 147, New Dock Hall) next weekend.

The Planets - Holst

A recent poster commission for Leeds College of Music to promote their Symphonic Wind Orchestra performing The Planets by Gustav Holst (Nov 26th - details here).

Already most fond of the orchestral suite, and perpetually enamoured with the cosmos, this was a real joy to draw and design.

Here's a total favourite from the suite - Jupiter:

All Hallow's Appeal

Here's my latest comic strip for The Stool Pigeon music paper, issue #40. I have so much fun drawing these.

This strip tackles the yearly dilemma of choosing a killer Hallowe'en costume, and how most people's choices would make a zombie turn in it's oh-so-shallow grave.

I'm thinking about making a 4-up postcard set of all my strips so far this year (Another Easter, No Wonder, Insult & Injury and this latest addition) to sell at Thought Bubble and online. Would you want/buy them?

Draw It, Print It, Write It, Send It

My cards came back from the printers yesterday. There really is no satisfaction like basking in the smell of freshly printed ink and gazing at a big pile of new designs. Sniffin' and swoonin'.

The range includes 4 designs, printed on matte white recycled or matte grey recycled board and covers Christmas, Birthday, Thank You and Everyday sends.

You can buy them HERE for £1.50 each.

Now to pair up with envelopes and cello bag all 200 of these beauties!