Mod Rocker

PM Palpatine

2009-05-30T16:09:00.003+10:00

In recent news, the government is planning on making it even harder than it already was for students to qualify for financially independent status so they can get Youth Allowance. What this means is that lots of regional students who would otherwise be able to get Youth Allowance and move to the city to go to uni might not be able to.

To commemorate this act of unprovoked malice towards the youth of Australia, I've created this portrait of our ~~fearless leader~~ thoughtless arsehole Kevin Rudd.

Uni isn't all vectors and phasors and flip-flops

2009-05-15T18:55:00.003+10:00

One of the lame things about the University of NSW is that you have to do some GenEd (general education) subjects - weird little mini-subjects about stuff unrelated to your degree. This semester I did one called Draw Your World, an online drawing subject through COFA. Here's a couple of things I did for that.

Tone drawing:

Pencil and watercolour drawing of what's across the road from my house:

Based on this photo:

Mech with socks

2009-04-05T12:53:00.002+10:00

At uni there's a competition to design a T-shirt for the mechanical engineering society, Mechsoc. I fail to see how anything other than a LEGO mech wearing socks could win this competition.

Click on photo for bigger version.

Mech photo from Flickr. Released under CC BY-NC-SA.

Eat my shorts

2009-01-27T18:14:00.004+11:00

Today sees the launch of a new category on Mod Rocker. Loosely categorised as "shorts", it can include Flash toons, YouTube stuff and stuff made with this thing a found out about a while back called xtranormal. Or anything else that moves, I guess. Without further ado, here is a thing:

Here's a link in case the embed doesn't work.

A thing

2008-11-03T23:44:00.002+11:00

I'm just testing how my Wacom works in the new Ubuntu. I kind of like this style, maybe I'll use it more. I like big dark eyes, like Reginald in Nedroid.

A birthday comic

2008-10-08T19:45:00.003+11:00

This is a comic I drew for a birthday card yesterday. It took a couple of hours, turned out fairly well I think.

I drew this with the new version of GIMP, which is awesome. They've made it much more like Photoshop, which I doubt anyone would disagree is a very good thing. Also it seems like the new version doesn't randomly crash like the old one did on my computer. There's nothing worse than losing an hour's work because I forgot to save and GIMP decides to suddenly crash.

Father's Day cartoon

2008-09-07T20:36:00.002+10:00

Here's a cartoon I drew for a father's day card. Joke stolen from here. I'm pretty happy with how the mother's hands turned out. Less so the feet.

One day at the park

2008-08-29T23:31:00.003+10:00

Here's a comic about one of those things that always happens when I have a picnic at the park or unload my car boot.

EDIT: I've decided to re-start my old webcomic The Hallucinogenic Cookbook, and I've made this comic, in slightly modified form, the latest installment. It is an exciting time to be alive.

What have I done

2008-08-29T21:57:00.003+10:00

I have nothing to say except... NYAARRRGH

A startling discovery

2008-06-21T16:31:00.002+10:00

This is a little idea I had last night, which I had to draw immediately.

UNSW needs chairlifts

2008-04-15T13:29:00.002+10:00

I drew this yesterday during time that perhaps could have been better spent studying for my upcoming complex analysis test. It's probably the most crudely-drawn thing I've put on here.

Vwinnng

2008-01-22T02:00:00.000+11:00

I've been experimenting with a more manga-ish style, which for some reason includes weapons from Star Wars.

The Trial

2007-12-24T07:27:00.000+11:00

Another character sketch

2007-11-30T00:51:00.000+11:00

Now with added attitood and baditood. And leaning backwards a bit too much, although some of that is because of my sloppy approach to correctly positioning my sketchbook in the scanner.

Obviously I'm making a pretty big departure from my usual style here. I'm experimenting with a less realistic style, partly inspired by the work of Kurt Halsey Fredericksen.

A new character

2007-11-29T00:42:00.000+11:00

This is a new character I'm working on. I'm hopefully going to incorporate him into a new comic which I now have time to start. Possibly expect more info in a few weeks, but I'm not promising anything.

I love the holidays...

Expansion of the core content paradigm

2007-11-09T00:36:00.000+11:00

I know I haven't updated this blog much recently. That's why, as of now, I'm expanding the scope of the blog to include other types of images. Specifically, Photoshopped stuff. (Or GIMPed stuff, as the case may be, since I don't use Photoshop any more.)

So without further ado, here is my latest abomination: David Gilmour rocking out on an IBM Model M keyboard.

I don't know why I did this.

60 is the new 30

2007-10-07T16:26:00.000+10:00

It's my dad's 60th birthday, so I made a card with this cartoon.

Bono shirt design

2007-07-03T19:25:00.000+10:00

When U2 came to Sydney last year, I went and saw them with my friend McLeff. I hadn't really been a big fan then but I was converted (it's funny how live music can do that). Anyway, at one point Bono was talking about his dad, and said something along the lines of "If my dad was here tonight, I think he'd say, 'son... take off your fucking glasses.'" We thought it was pretty funny, and a couple of weeks ago I had the idea to immortalise the phrase on a T-shirt. Here's the design:

Note that I didn't draw this from scratch, I traced over a photo. Still, I reckon it's a pretty decent job.

Slowing down? Never!

2007-06-18T21:29:00.000+10:00

I know I pretty much haven't posted anything here since I made the blog, but I'm in the middle of exams right now and have no time for drawing. I've got a comic on the back burner though, so I'll have some pages up during my (almost) four weeks of holidays.

In the meantime, delight yourself with this sneak preview of the OFFICIAL ModRocker t-shirt:

A dude with a sword

2007-05-24T21:50:00.000+10:00

One of my early exercises in using guides to draw characters. His right arm looks a bit dumb not doing anything but I didn't really know what else to do with it.

Kenso Tech No. 6

2007-05-24T21:23:00.000+10:00

The last in the world renowned Kenso Tech series.

As an aside - "Kenso Tech" is a somewhat disparaging old nickname for UNSW. When it was first established is was the butt of lots of jokes, being called "a jumped-up tech", so someone coined the term Kenso Tech (the campus being in Kensington). I love UNSW and I'm using the term here in an endearing way (sort of like how black people use the N word). After all, if you can't make fun of yourself, what right do you have to make fun of others?

Kenso Tech No. 5

2007-05-24T21:20:00.000+10:00

This strip sort of blurred the lines of fact and fiction, which is what I wanted to do with KT in general. I did find a better place to park, but it wasn't much of a discovery, plenty of students do park there, and I haven't heard of their cars getting broken into.

Talking Head

2007-05-24T21:17:00.000+10:00

Not sure where this idea came from came from.

I originally posted it as a Kenso Tech strip but since it has nothing to do with uni I am revoking its title.

Kenso Tech No. 4

2007-05-24T21:15:00.000+10:00

An exercise is re-using artwork with only minor changes.

Kenso Tech No. 3

2007-05-24T21:12:00.000+10:00

KT3

In case you were wondering the circuit diagram on the projector screen is Silicon Chip's theremin.