Comiccon Time again

The 2011 Comiccon dates are out and we have a table for the January 16th Comiccon.
Hope to see you there!

First Day of Winter Contest

It's the first day of winter!
We wanted to celebrate our favorite season with a fun contest.
Before we begin, let me taunt you with the prizes

First Prize
Daqueran issues 1-4 in print
a Gurukitty studios blank notebook
An assortment of Gurukitty Studios Buttons
A Tik cellphone charm
A random 8X10 print
A random Sketchcard
A feature in our Gurukitty Studios Blog
(If chosen as a winner, you will need to submit your mailing address to receive your prizes)

Second Prize (number of submissions permitting)
Daqueran 1-4 in print
A Tik cellphone charm
A random Sketchcard
A random 4X6 Print
A sub feature on the Gurukitty blog
(If chosen as a winner, you will need to submit your mailing address to receive your prizes)

The contest Theme is obviously WINTER!
What you need to do is create a winter themed image that includes any  Gurukitty Studios Characters from any of our Projects (See below for list).

Rules:
No copyrighted images, must be all your own artwork/writing
Can be any artistic medium, visual, poetry, prose, script...
You may submit up to 3 entries, but you can only win once
All entries must be posted By Jan 21st 2011
Artwork will be judged by the Gurukitty Studios crew

How to submit:
Add your image to this blog, using the "add your link" button on the application below

Characters/projects:
Some projects have more information available than others. For example, conflagration has a lot of character info, but no stories available yet, and Daqueran has a lot of story but not many character profiles. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them in a comment on this bog post.

Conflagration [Characters | Information]
Daqueran [Characters | Information]
Hello, Albertosaurus [Information | more info]
The Bachelors and the Python [Information]

Copic classes

In early 2011 I (Guru) will be starting Online Copic marker classes on the CDAC. I will strive to make them universally applicable to all purposes not just illustration or crafting. They will be entertaining, stimulating and informative, and I think they're a pretty unique angle for markers.

For the most part classes will be affordable, 1 month long, have at least 1 assignment, free digital images, and a give away at the end of the class. you will receive a completion badge for your blog or website as well.

If you think you'll be interested in the classes please feel free to fill out this short form to be informed when enrolment begins.

You will not be emailed for anything but Copic classes hosted by myself.

Please help me by spreading the word to your friends for me, I'd really appreciate it!

I'll be cross posting this to all my blogs, so I apologize if anyone watches more than one blog, you'll be bombarded. 

The Bachelors and the Python

I finished the comic course with Steve Rolston I was taking, where i created 4 teaser pages to a Graphic Novel project I've been planning for a little while.

Please note, these pages wont actually appear in the finished book, as the book will be in a shorter-wider format. Also this section of the actual comic will be paced out more appropriately with more fun surprises.

Also, I have a website in the works to go with this teaser where you can see progress on the novel, I'll link it when it's done.

Without further ado, here it is! I'd love to hear your comments!

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Daqueran Hiatus and things coming up

Because of school, Christmas and generally having way too much for one person to do at the moment, Daqueran is on a brief Hiatus until January.

In the meantime, I am working on the teaser to The Bachelors and the Python which will be a black and white graphic novel, possibly grey toned, but I haven't decided about that yet. I'll know more about that at the end of the day today. I'll have the pages online and I'll try and make it into a mini comic to give away at conventions ass well, or sell for dirt cheap just to cover paper and ink costs.
So the 4 page teaser comic should be posted...well after Monday, so maybe, Tuesday night, but I still need to finish the website, so we will see.
I'll post it on Drunk Duck, Deviantart, and some others and there will be a sub page on Gurukitty.com, which you can see the graphic is already there and waiting to be linked.


In January will be another Vancouver Comicon, and we will be there, as soon as tables open up and I can secure one. We will be releasing a printable coupon that you can bring to the Gurukitty Studios table and get something for free.  So keep your peepers peeled for that!

Less than a month until Christmas, I'm very excited for this year because our mother moved into a nice new apartment with a neat view, and It's going to be a nice quiet small Christmas.

Vancouver Comiccon Nov 2010

A quick note: There wont be a Daqueran page this week because of the convention.

Well, Vancouver Comiccon is over. We had severely reduced prices because we are trying to clear out some of our overstock from the FanFairFest debacle. Some people were quite surprised at how low I was selling for, but I just have so much, and with Chapter 5 complete, I think it's time to make Daqueran into it's first trade paperback, dont you?
I'll still release the little floppy #5 for those of you collecting, but trade paperbacks are just better for conventions.

So our new product for this convention was the adorable notebooks from the last post, we have several different cover designs and they did quite well actually. We sold a lot of buttons, some comics and several prints. All in all it was quite successful, actually better than Comix and Stories, but I think that mostly has to do with the fact that we got our table much earlier this year.

I'll post a poll on the side of the blog to see what the next con's (January) new product should be.

This photo was taken near the end of the convention, so most of the notebooks are gone, but we'll make more.  It was just me at the table so I couldn't take pictures really.

Our table at Vancouver Comiccon, Nov 2010

Notebooks/ blank sketchbooks

We are both notebook junkies, we love collecting and doodling and w

riting useless junk in cute little notebooks.

So with that in mind, we've been playing with some ideas for little blank notebooks and tiny sketchbooks to sell at the conventions and we've come up with a few cute covers and formats.

Obviously, the cover art on these little notebooks will feature Gurukitty Studios artwork, but so far the inside pages are blank.

later we will be making sketchbooks containing sketches and little seen art from projects and things, but thats not going to come until we've got a good solid format.

well, wanna see some previews?

Front View

Back view

Front View, with size comparison

These little notebooks will make their first appearance at the Nov 14th Vancouver Comic Con. We will have a table there.

Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver, BC 11-5 pm

Hope to see you there, pop by and say hi!

Oh also! Daqueran Chapter 5 is done, so I will be putting together the print version of the issue.

The pre-order is up in the Gurukitty Studios Shop.

Let us know what you think of our little notebooks!

New Packaging

We've been plugging away on the Custom buttons from our Give Away winners and I'm excited to say we've completed at least one full one so far! Phew!

I've also been working today, on new packaging for our merchandise. The custom button winners will be the first to see them in the flesh, but I thought i'd give a bit of a preview here as well. This is a ton of buttons for Cedarseed that i've used as a guinea pig for our packaging. 

What do you think? They will also debut on November 14th at Vancouver Comicon, if you wanna pop in and buy some!

Hey don't forget to check out our page on facebook, and Like us!

Custom Button Giveaway winners!

I've just left to go pick up our button machine!

We managed to get it a little sooner than expected, which is exciting!

So without further Ado, the winners

Post #6 - justlyjoking

Post #5 - Lucky's Luna

Post #7 - eminomise

Post #8 - Joumana

Post #2 - Hanako Fairhall

So winners, what must you do now?

Well, first you need to Contact us by email: hello@gurukitty.com (we wont be tracking you down, everyones on different sites and we aren't going to make accounts on different sites just to contact you, you want them, come get them)

and give us your mailing address where you would like us to mail your completed buttons to.

Next you will need to download the New and improved Gk Button template and add your artwork to it.

There are instructions on the template, but if you are having troubles, just let us know and we might be able to help you out in setting up your files.

Once you've added your artwork, delete the template layer, flatten

the image and email it to the above email address in the next 2 weeks. If you don't send us your files by Nov 6th, your prize will expire and I will draw a new winner in your place! So don't delay!

We will be creating and mailing away these buttons ASAP, as we are pretty excited to get using it.

If you are in love with your free buttons, we hope you will consider using our custom button service when it becomes available on the GK shop.

And for those sceptical nellies out there, here are the screencaps of the random number generator we used to pick the winners.

Free Custom Button Giveaway

Gurukitty Studios is going to be getting a 1" pinback button maker!

Mostly, it's because we make quite a few buttons for sales at cons and to giveaway, but since we are going to get one we might as well offer a custom button service in our shop.

Before we launch this new service though, we will want to get some practice in and get some samples made for the shop, so we're going to offer a select few people the chance to win some free custom buttons.

We are going to offer 5 people, 1 page (35 buttons) of free custom 1" pinback buttons.

To qualify, simply comment on this blog (saying something other than "comment" would be nice), we will use a random number generator to select 5 people to win the custom buttons.

If you are chosen you will need to send us your files *ASAP. We've created a template for you to use, that has all the information you need.

Update!

If you had downloaded the previous template, do not use it. It had a major flaw in it. Do not use it, it will not print properly.

I've remade the template, and this one is lovely!

Download new and improved template

We will be collecting comments until we actually get our button machine home ( approx 2-3 weeks) and we will draw the 5 winners when the button machine arrives.

If you are wondering about the custom button service in the shop, details will be coming soon. Yes, as always, NO SHIPPING COST.

*If you fail to send us your files within 2 weeks of the winning announcement, you will be withdrawn and another name drawn in your place.

Something else to add, Gurukitty Studios will only use the art to print and manufacture your buttons, we do not claim ownership of your artwork and will never ever redistribute or reproduce your files or artwork.

Convention Appearance: Vancouver Comicon

We will have a small table, selling our wares, including a limited selection of Hermi, the mini comic colouring book/sketchbook at:

Vancouver Comiccon

November 14th

Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street, Vancouver, BC

Only one of us will be at the table, who, we don't know yet, mwa hahaha.

Anyway, hope to see you there!

Hermi the Hermit Crab

We just completed one hand bound mini comic, Hermi the Hermit crab.

This book was created as a prize for a copic marker/card maker contest in a group Guruubii is part of. So, it's printed on Marker paper and includes several blank pages in the back of the book for testing colours, or just playing around.

This little comic will be available at conventions and in the shop soon (in limited quantities, hand binding is a laborious process).

Have a look =>

Give Away Winner

The winner of our first Gurukitty Give away was comment #2, Happy Days!

See?! Random!

Okay so Happy Days, Thank you for following our blog! Check your email!

Keep a watch out for future give aways! the more participation we get, the bigger the prizes will be ;)

Updates, and a give away!

Here's some updates for Gurukitty! We're pretty excited for all this! Mainly Comic updates!

 3 New comics

Hello Albertosaurus
By Guruubii
This is a graphic novel memoir of a trip Kitty and I took to Alberta with our Dad one spring. We had many adventures. It will be a perfect bound graphic novel.
You can see the progress and more information on my art blog Animated Guru.
This project will begin production in November-January.
For purchase only - conventions and Online shop.

The Bachelors and the Python

By Kitty

a Graphic novel based on an african legend. - stay tuned for more on that. A few teasers are coming your way soon!

For purchase only - conventions and Online shop.

Hermi The hermit crab
By Kitty
Kitty is doing a mini comic for sale at cons that will be printed on marker paper so you can colour it with markers.
For purchase only - conventions and Online shop.

Other Updates

In other news, Conflagration is being re-envisioned. Animation Is an incredibly expensive, long and technical process. A feature length film is a monstrous undertaking and We're trying to come up with ideas of making this project and multi media project to lessen the amount of animation involved to get the project moving faster, with more stuff to post to show everyone.

The Shop!

We've added a new category to the shop - Digi stamps
This is for the crafters! They're small illustrations you purchase as an alternative to rubber stamps. They're great because they're scalable, unique, and editable unlike rubber stamps! I've mostly got packs for sale, but as time goes on there will be more single stamps.

FREE Give away!

Give away!
Everyone who comments on this blog will be put in a draw to win one free Tik in a bottle necklace!
All you have to do is comment, and we will use a random number generator to draw the prize winner.
You have until Sept 30th to comment! Prize will be drawn October 1!

COMMENT!


Drawing winner SOON!

Comix and stories FINITO!

So It's over. We attended Comix and stories, and it was great. We talked with lots of other nice convention goers and sold some of our stuff. The best part was all the glowing praise we got! so many people said our work was great that it was really nice to hear! That was the best part - to hear that people are impressed by our work.

Well, with that wrapped up we do indeed have some left over merchandise we'll likely clear out in the shop or as free draws on the blog here.

Some of you will be delighted to know, we have some Tiks in bottles left over.

People who expressed an interest in them before the con will be contacted first, to see if you still want them, otherwise we'll be placing them for sale on the shop or Etsy. Keep your peepers open for that!

Lots of people recognized us from the internet too, which was fantastic! 

Without further ADO - heres the photos! Check out our cute price signs :p

View from our Table.

Tik cell charms

Bookmarks! really wonderful!

Big box o' buttons

Button packs

Tiks, and pendants!

Kitty at our table when we set it up.

Sketchcards

Table all freshly setup

Our prints

Guru Drawing up a storm after we changed the table arrangement. Hint: Laying comics flat works better! HAHA

The comics!

Tomorrow 11am - 5pm 3102 Main street!

Tomorrow from 11am to 5pm we will be selling our wares at Comix and stories!

It's at heritage hall in Vancouver.

 You can get there by getting off the skytrain at main street- science world station and then take the main street bus up to 15th avenue! It's a quick trip!

This is your only opportunity to get the coveted, and much anticipated Tik's in a Bottle.

Watch this blog for a Post convention give away!

See you at the Con!

Tik Production - behind the scenes

We've been ploughing away creating tons of unique Tiks for sale at the upcoming comics and stories convention!
We've got around 30 Tiks freshly varnished and each ones painted in a unique way. While there are a few that have similar colours (because they've been popular) or similar spots, each one is completely unique hand painted and completely adorable!

Here's some production shots!

Black Tik, and 2 metallic coloured Tiks.

Dark Blue and ABC tik! 

Tik Display! This will be at the comicon!

Fire Tik and Drip Tik! So cute!

Lilac Tik is hanging to dry!

A row of the previous Batch of Tiks

The drying rack I made out of balsa and dowels. It holds 90 tiks! I made it so that they would dry without touching so no flat spots!

Hope to see you at the Comic convention this weekend!

Daqueran and his wife

Here is a special bonus content for you bloggers. This is a quick sketch of a character design of Daquerans wife from when he (and she) was alive. I have her skin, eye and hair colours in mind but I haven't done any colour examples of her yet, though she has been the subject of many sketches.

I have some name choices for her on the image there, in order of which ones I like best. I wouldn't mind knowing which name you like best of the four listed.

She most likely doesn't appear in the comic much, if at all, she's there for my own character developing purposes. I'm visual and I needed a visual representation of Daquerans past.

So what do you think of her? Which name do you like the best?

Also a reminder, we will be doing some giveaways of comics, artwork, and products from the GK shop at random to commenter's and followers of this blog as soon as we've generated some readers. So if you want to get in on that, get commenting and following now because the first giveaway is going to be a rare item!

We will announce what the item is before we select winners, so you'll have a chance to get in on them.

Convention appearance: Comix and Stories

Welcome to the Gurukitty Studios New blog!

We've created this bog as a way for you to easily follow comic updates, events/appearances, Projects, new products and sales.

We will also be doing prize giveaways and events to random commentors and other fun things like that.

For our first announcement, we will be Exhibiting at the Comix and Stories convention in Vancouver.

Sunday, Aug 29th, 11-5pmHeritage Hall
3102 Main Street
Vancouver, BC

We will be have special limited edition Products like the long awaited Tik in a bottle. Only a very limited supply of those.

Also some special one of a kind hand painted TIK cellphone charms in all kinds of wacky patterns!

Hope to see you all there!