for the last few days, i’ve been working on a top secret project, which is now going to be an extra part of zappa blamma dot com. i really like it. hopefully you guys do too.

i set up a little program so that i can draw and sketch things, and when i’m finished it remembers all the pen strokes i’ve made and saves them. then it publishes it onto a special part of the site and rebuilds them exactly how i created it in the first place, so it looks like an invisible person is drawing it. it shows the most recently made sketch first and goes backwards, drawing the older ones below the newer ones, so it ends up being like a newsfeed but with pictures.

it’s hard to explain with words, so go have a look at it. i’ll be updating it regularly. at the moment it’s only got about 10 pictures.

the buttons on the right control how fast it’s going, regular speed is about 3 or 4 times faster than i actually drew it, and fast forwarding is about 20 times faster.

note: if you are using internet explorer, you won’t be able to see anything. internet explorer is a horrible browser that is very hard to make anything work in, so if you want to see it try using google chrome or firefox instead.

anyway, here’s one of the sketches it shows being drawn:

(because this is still a work in progress, there might be some issues going on with it. if anything odd is happening, like you can only see one picture or it crashes etc, if you commented saying what happened and what browser you’re using that would be really helpful)

(but it probably will work perfectly)

something i found in my sketchbook the other day from a while ago:

*edit* : there are now more prints, go buy one

i liked a picture i did a while ago so i got a bunch of prints of it made, and now if you want you can buy one. i think you should.

the posters are A2, which means they are 16.5 x 23.4 inches (42 x 60 cm) which is pretty big, and printed on nice thick paper. it would look pretty damn awesome on your wall. i’ll sign it too if you want me to.

i’m selling them for £11 (which is $17.76 for you americans) which is way affordable.

(p&p to the uk will be £1.50, to everywhere else it’ll be £2.50 ($4). they’re sent rolled up in a thick cardboard tube).

as these are the first zappa blamma related things ever sold (!), to make it especially awesome i’m making everyone who buys one an individual picture of a monster giving you a compliment, each one hand made and not going to go on the website so it’s just you and me who sees your one. if you buy this you will actually be complimented by a monster and if you don’t want that to happen then you are a crazy person.

click here to buy one

you should get one, it’ll make you happy and me able to afford food, and both of those things are good outcomes

my computer has keeled over and decided i can’t scan anything anymore, so while i’m giving it surgery to bring it back to life here are other things that aren’t very good:

the last of the january monsters will be up once my computer is.

also, february 1st (this tuesday) is international hourly comics day organised by john cambell from pfsc. i think you should do it, it is nice.

i also came across a blog by a lady called stephanie tillman and i can’t think of anything anyone could ever make that is more perfect than it.

my computer is being a complete phallus at the moment, so this is a big update in case it throws a hissy fit and dies. here are things:

(i tried out wheatpasting)

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i’m not doing much nice drawing at the moment (those things are relatively old) because i have a bunch of exams which i have to revise a lot for, and when i do have spare time i’ve been working on a long comic. at the moment i’m just storyboarding it, it’ll be a while till it’s done. this is my favourite panel so far:

and finally, the january monsters:

pretend this says 2011. (i am easily confused.) thank you andypants for pointing that out.

i made this after attempting to screen print. turns out screen printing is harder than i thought.

the screen printing is because a lot of people have asked for t-shirts, so i’ve given into their quite reasonable demands. the design i’m thinking of at the moment is this:

which is loosely based on one of the dinosaur stereotypes that i drew a while ago.

EDIT: someone just asked me “is spissing a word?”, which filled me with fear. the word’s meant to be ‘spiffing’, i just do my f’s a little oddly. what word does it look like? this is kinda very important to me, i don’t want to make t-shirts with people seeing the wrong word on it.

also: january is a busy month for me so i’m sorry if things slow down.

also also: i hope 2010 was friendly to you.

hey look, a comic about hipsters, definitely nobody’s done that before.

to equal it out, here’s a face i painted:

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also: I’ve been trying to get prints / posters sorted out, and actually creating them is easy, but shipping is a total butt pain. Anyone who wants one here over in the uk it should be pretty easy to sort out (high five, guys :D ), but anywhere abroad and then it gets really expensive and confusing. I’m thinking about possibly getting a few printed in america and directly sent from there to you americans out there, but I don’t like that idea because then I won’t actually see them and I won’t be able to check whether they’re awesome enough for you guys, but the alternative is to pay bajillions on postage. So I’ll have to think it through.

also also: a nice lady called andrea sent me a picture of a torosaurus she masterfully created in powerpoint and it made me smile, and if you click here you will see it too.

hey look, i made a maths joke:

(assumptions: your head is a 2 dimensional plane with the origin being directly in the centre; and that you want a centre parting, both of which are kinda unrealistic)

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for those of you who don’t like maths jokes, here’s a picture of a bird that i drew:

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in begging news, i’ve just added a ‘donate’ button on the side bar. this is only temporary, and i promise all of the money donated will go towards art supplies and setting up a shop, and only a very very small portion will be spent recklessly.

benoit mandelbrot, the man who invented the word ‘fractal’ and made maths temporarily cool for the public died two days ago at age 85. he was able to create some of the most beautiful images that actually meant something mathematically with his own fractal, the mandelbrot set. he was generally a smart and awesome guy.

here’s a simulation of his set that i made about a year ago:

(click to zoom in (being a fractal it’s infinitely scalable), it’s quite CPU heavy so be warned with the quality slider)