Drogba update - colour!

So, a while ago I did a couple of pictures of Chelsea and Ivory Coast player Didier Drogba. I finally finished them off after a few other projects came up, so here are the final version (s).

©2011 James Mathurin

Stanza sketches

Some sketches of and relating to Stanza. How are they related? Time will tell...

©2011 James Mathurin

More Dolly West

To go along with yesterday's portrait of my Nan, Dolly West Shaer, I also did a picture of her in her younger, more glamorous days.

 

©2011 James Mathurin

International Women's day

Well, I was holding onto these as a surprise, but seeing as she's seen them now, here are some pictures of my Nan, Dolly West Shaer, that I did recently. Today seems an appropriate time to share it, what with it being International Women's Day, and my nan has been a bit of a pioneer in her time - she has been involved in pushing forward Special Educational Needs and English as an Additional Language (check out my education training!) teaching in the UK, and been heavily involved in many political and civil rights struggles through the years.

As always, click on the images to see larger versions.

©2011 James Mathurin

More Stanza stuff

I've been working on some personal stuff, which I will be sharing on here in a little while, but now I'm getting back to some of the stuff I was working on before, including finishing of these Stanza drawings.

©2011 James Mathurin

Dwayne McDuffie is gone

This is so strange for me. The man who has been an inspiration to me since my early teens has died. If you are not into comics or cartoons, you may not know him, but this man was amazing. Dwayne McDuffie wrote so many things that touched me and many others. You can google him to find out his history, and go to Amazon to find books or DVDs of his work, and you'll be glad you did. If you watch or have children who watch the hugely popular Ben 10: Alien Force, or Ben 10: Ultimate Alien, which he was executive producer of, I can guarantee you've seen his work. I just want to talk about my personal experiences with him.

I never got to meet my hero in person. However, thanks to the Internet, I did get to converse with him. In 2001, he did an email interview for my degree dissertation. On his online message boards, I was one of the people who discussed comics, science, politics and religion with him. A couple of years ago, a friend asked him to sign something for me as a birthday present - Dwayne signed a copy of his graphic novel Icon: A Hero's Return, and a massive Justice League poster, a title he was working on at the time, where his Milestone characters were receiving a new lease of life in the DC Universe, with a personal message telling me how important fans like me had been to Milestone. And he sent it for free, even insisting on paying the postage.

People who know me, especially my fiancée, will tell you how much I can talk about Dwayne, his work, the personal and professional struggles he's been through. It's because he is my hero. Two of my proudest moments were when Dwayne asked if he could steal a phrase I coined to describe how 'gangsta rap' described urban life, as opposed to how artists like himself portrayed it ("the ghetto as a playground"), and when he said he liked a drawing I did of one of his characters (below). Those memories will now be that little bit more treasured.

Rest in peace, Dwayne, and condolences to your wife and family.

And thank you.

©2011 James Mathurin

Shlomo update

More work on the Shlomo sketches I was doing. Had a few ideas building on these, hope you like them.

©2011 James Mathurin