Homeless G-Men Grid

Here's a quick view of some of the drawings that I'll be hanging tomorrow at the Press Club

850 Dundas West. Each is an original drawing (not a print) and comes framed for $25.00

so I hope to see you on Thursday April 3rd, from 7-9pm.

Today is a day of rest, I am resting in the sun and air

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

Hanging Sardi's Style at the Press Club

Alright I will be hanging the show on the first of April at around 6pm, it should go up pretty fast and I am really looking forward to the results. As much as love the drawings of the Homeless G-Men characters I am going to love the "Sardi's Style" look of the show and hope to get at least one cool photo of myself sitting in front of the work. 

 There will be a small reception from 7-9pm at the Press Club (850 Dundas West) followed by music by one of my favourite singer songwriters Ron Leary and his Sextet -that's right a Sextet!

All drawings are $25.00 each and the proceeds go towards printing the Homeless G-Men comic in May 0f 2015.

cheers all,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Current Obsession Sardi's Portraits

 

There is a lot going on in my mind right now, I am sketching Homeless G-Men characters all day and all night, some I'm inking and some I'm leaving to be inked digitally when the Wacom arrives (but not the program to use to ink the drawings, the program arrives in another week, ain't that just the way it is) . I've always loved the wall of portraits at Sardi's in New York it's one of those iconic Broadway/Old Hollywood things, it's a classic idea and I should have news soon if I'll be doing a show similar to the Sardi's wall to raise money for the cost of printing "The Homeless G-Men". I will frame each one and put them up for sale and ludicrously cheap prices with all the info. printed on the bad of the frame so people know what they're funding. I will also be doing a photo shoot like the picture above once the show is hung because that is one of the coolest photos I've ever seen.

I will also be expanding my reach into the printed T-Shirt market at places like Society6 and Designed by Humans but that is a few weeks off still.

Lots to do in the shop we are having a great time and I'd like to thank my wife for her patience and support of these nerdy projects.

 

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com 

Designing the Main Homeless G-Man

This is the first roughing for our main character (name TBA) he's in his early forties, in good shape and isn't an alcoholic or chain smoker like most folks in Gull City. The big problem with doing something in the pulp/noir genre is that everyone will either be in suits or undershirts and its important to find a way to make each unique and stand out. I didn't want to give him a facial deformity or anything extreme so I think the striped black tie and belt suspenders will help distinguish him from the rest. I will also be designing his trench coat which will be unique and his "Angry Monk" which is the signature gune of the Homeless G-Men.

Alright back to the drawing and the reading.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

 

SquirleyCorn and Homeless G-Men

Here's the other Squirleycorn (how do I spell that again?) drawings that I did a few weeks ago, the lettering is terrible, that's fine that's what Manga Studio is for my lettering has always been terrible and my carpal tunnel always gets in the way when I'm lettering because my hand gets tense.

Anyways, if you haven't seen the hero of our series here he is, I do predict that comics with animals as the lead characters are going to be all the rage this year, I picked up an issue of "Beasts Of Burden" by Evan Dworkin and Jill Thompson, it was a one off so I really didn't get a sense of the story but the collected TPB is supposed to be excellent, Mark Waid of Millar or one of those guys is also doing a series called, "Red Rover Charlie" or something which is all about talking dogs and I may pick up an issue or two to see how it is.

I'm currently reading "B.P.R.D Hell On Earth" which features the kick ass style of James Harren and also I'm a huge fan of the new series "Manifest Destiny" which is drawn by Matthew Roberts. I think my style for "Homeless G-Men " will fall somewhere between these two guys.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com



Assembling a New Studio

I've been spending most of the past week doing research on tablets and programs to get the digital side of the studio together, I've settled on buying the Manga Studio 5 program over photoshop to get started. The initial start up to buy photoshop is prohibitive right now and since I'll mostly be doing comic work Manga Studio is the best priced program for my needs.

Next I bought a lightbox, something I should have built at the Theatre Passe Muraille shop years ago but live and learn, it's a standard size and may take some getting used to but for reproducing sketches I have to have it.

The final piece was purchasing the Wacom Intuit Med. Size tablet for drawing, this is going to be a huge learning curve and I'll be posting a lot of my progress here, even though you may find it boring to read I'll be using the blog as my own cheering section.

When not reading and researching I've been drawing lots of mugs like the guy you see at the top of the page, he's one of the cast of characters who occupy "Gull City" which is where "Homeless G-Men" takes place, the second comic "Squirleycorn" also takes place is Gull City but is a story solely about animals.

I'll be using the models that I build over at "Any How Town" (see sidebar) for references as I draw "Gull City" they are an invaluable asset and I thought it was a strange way to approach drawing the comic until I got to David Petersen's blog, he's the artist who created "Mouse Guard" a fantastic comic about knights who are mice. He also builds models for things he needs, his blog is excellent and I want to take this time to thank him for keeping such a detailed record of his process.

I figure this weekend I'll head down to the studio and reconfigure it to hold all of this robot machinery, it's going to be a great learning experience, 2014 is all about doing new things, quitting smoking, running a 10km, playing the guitar and learning to use technology to advance my work.

Head over to the mad craft shoppe blog (see sidebar) to see some paintings, which is how I subsidize this new project.

cheers,

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com

Daily warm ups

I drew these a couple of weeks ago at a paint night at Seven Crowns Tattoo (check'em out if you want the best tattoo parlour in Toronto) and only just got around to inking them today. I've been plotting out "Squirlycorn" off and on and also working on a concept for another comic which was an idea I already was working on for a book concept.

I currently have three major projects on the go plus commissioned work so if my posts jump around all over my four blogs (4!) don't be surprised.

These drawings weren't based around any reference photos like the mugshots that I've been drawing but are meant to be from the same world.

A.Shay Hahn

madcraftshoppe@live.com