Stuff! Things! Etc!

Hello there!

Whew, what a month it’s been. Two huge contracts under our belts, close to the end of two medium ones, with another small one due soon. While we’re happy for the breather, we’re hoping another few things come in, so if you know anyone that might want illustration or graphic design work done, please point them in our direction.

So, couple of things:

First off, thank you so much to everyone who commented on our blog post, on Facebook and in person, regarding our decision regarding Reka. So far everyone has been pretty supportive and we really appreciate that. It was kind of nerve-wracking to go through with that post and words of support helped a lot.

Secondly, we’ve been featured in the prestigious South African quarterly art publication, ARTsouthAFRICA*, in the launch edition of their new comics supplement, ComicArtAfrica.

 

ComicArtAfrica

ComicArtAfrica

Look, it's us!

Look, it’s us!

This is pretty great because this is one of the most respected fine arts publications in the country and has a very wide readership. People who probably haven’t given a whole lot of thought to comics as an art form are now being exposed to it, thinking about it, and talking about it. It features interviews with artists and writers and other comics professionals. There are also some really nice pieces of art from various comic artists. They also quoted a sizeable and largely unedited portion of the interview piece I wrote for them, which is pretty amazing as usually these things get edited almost down to nothing.

The aim for the supplement is to reach out wider, to cover artists from all over the African continent. We think that’s pretty neat. We’re excited to be a part of the launch issue, and are hopeful that this will turn into a really good source of exposure and discourse for African artists. Besides printing hard copies, the magazine also has an app, on which you can download a digital version of the current issue.

We did inform the publication of our revision of Reka. The magazine had gone to print before our conversation with the Māori studies department, but they are aware of the situation. Not much we can do about it at this stage, except point people towards our blog post on the topic if there are any complaints.

Tying in with the launch issue of ComicArtAfrica is an exhibition called BLIKSEM!** at the Change Room project space in Salt River, Cape Town. Their Facebook page is here. The event details (copypasta’d from the Facebook event page) are as follows:

Saturday at 12:00–15:00

Unit 2 Pals Parkade, Cecil Rd, Salt River, 7925 Cape Town, Western Cape

CHANGE ROOM. Artists include Susan Opperman, TREKNET, Ben Winfield, Danelle Malan, Ben Geldenhuys, Daniel Hugo and Gerhard Human from the launch issue of ComicArtAfrica.

BLIKSEM! is a showcase of original art and limited edition prints by some of the best talent currently producing independent comics in the local arena. These comic artists are pushing the boundaries in terms of content, style and subject matter, creating a new language of sequential narratives that are fast positioning South Africa as a seedbed of emerging creativity in the field.

COME AND JOIN US
Prints and comic books on sale – just in time to find the perfect Christmas gift!

Ben and I will have six prints on show. They’re really nice quality prints, too – printed on Epson Double Weight Matt paper, and both ink and paper are 100% archival. So, a far better quality than we normally sell. They will also be signed and numbered as editions. Most of them will be  420mm x 594mm, around double the size of our normal prints. On sale will be one edition each of The Great Wave of Cape Town, Chat Noah, Reka With A Pearl Earring (revised), Play Room, Rockabilly Monster Mash, and Ben’s Metal 4 Africa Summerfest design. Here are some clickable thumbnails. Sorry that they are all underneath one another, we always struggle to get things to display right when putting images into our posts:

Reka With A Pearl Earring

Reka With A Pearl Earring

Rockabilly Monster Mash

Rockabilly Monster Mash

Metal 4 Africa: Summerfest

Metal 4 Africa: Summerfest

Play Room

Play Room

The Great Wave of Cape Town

The Great Wave of Cape Town

Le Chat Noah

Le Chat Noah

Play Room is a big print with insane detail. A thumbnail really doesn’t cut it, you’ll have to click it for the preview. Better yet, come to the exhibition opening and view it for yourself! 🙂

AND lastly… our costliest and probably second-to-last business investment/Christmas gift:

Cintiq Companion Hybrid!!

Cintiq Companion Hybrid!!

 

Holy crap there's a cintiq in our house!

Holy crap there’s a Cintiq in our house!

Holy wow, right?? I spent weeks conspiring with Ben’s family about this. It’s his Christmas gift, and 30th birthday gift for next year, plus a business investment because I’m paying half, all rolled into one. A whole bunch of us chipped in to make it happen and we are both pretty excited. Ben actually cried with joy when he opened the packaging, so it was totally worth all the secrecy. I mean, just look at this face:

happy-ben

Totally worth it.

We made this investment with the intent to speed up our workflow and boost our work quality. I for one can now write in Photoshop without it looking like something that a crustacean pooped out. It’ll help me a lot with detail work because I can now see where my pen is going, and the same goes for Ben. I have to wonder how much of one’s photoshopping career is spent hitting ctrl+Z or ctrl+alt+Z+Z+Z+Z+Z+Z….

Anyway. That’s pretty much it for now. We’ll report back after the exhibition opening with some photos and the like.

Thanks as always for your patience and support.

<3

Danelle & Ben

 


 

*ARTsouthAFRICA, Volume 13, Issue 02, December 2014: Controversy Issue. ISSN 16846133

**An Afrikaans word meaning (to) punch/beat up violently, it is considered a crass expression and is often used as an expletive of surprise or anger. (Think Captain Haddock.) The noun and verb are the same. Also sometimes used in exaggeration by Afrikaans parents when they threaten to give their kids a hiding. You know you really stuffed up when your parents yell “Ek gaan jou bliksem!” 😛

 


 

Cottonstar on Patreon

2 Comments

  1. Dat cintiq… Dat face! Totally worth it xD Gratz on all the happenings you two and hope your xmas is a blessed one!

What's on your mind?