Tinrobo: Blog

Drawn to you

2012-01-07T14:27:00.000-08:00

Moth loves lightbulb! Buy the cards here! :)

Guess who got an iPad for christmas...

2011-12-30T08:17:00.000-08:00

That's right, me. I got a wacom stylus too. Thanks mum! XD

hey, everypony!

2011-10-25T06:23:00.000-07:00

We had a really awesome time at UK Ponycon! I'm just in the process of adding any unsold items to our Etsy shop so expect to see new things up there soon - you can also get 10% off any order using the code "PONYCON11"!

Also, if you'd like to be updated when we add new stuff then feel free to "Like" our Facebook page!

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2011-06-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

Hello blog! I post a lot of doodles on tumblr now - go check it out if you like My Little Pony and pictures of cats. If you don't like My Little Pony or pictures of cats, then... I don't think we can be friends. Finished original work (and maybe my better fanarts) will still be going here though.

Also, added new stuff to our store on Etsy. There's ponies there too. Ponies!

koalas on dagobah

2011-05-04T10:21:00.000-07:00

Happy May the 4th from Koala Luke and Yoda (and me). :)

Paintings and stuff

2011-03-21T15:14:00.000-07:00

David's been working on some big canvases recently, so I decided to have a shot at using paints too. The first couple of attempts weren't so great but I'm slowly getting the hang of it.

Sailor Mars

Lilligant (Pokemon B/W)

Rosalina (Super Mario Galaxy)

~~I might put these up for sale on the shop at some point in future, in the meantime if you're interested in buying anything then email me and I'll get back to you about it. :)~~ SOLD

Animal Western

2011-03-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

These are characters from a children's story (it's becoming more of a bunch of small stories) that I'm writing. I never really wanted to do this stuff before because I feel like kid's stories is the kind of cop out route that everyone wants to take whether they have ideas/talent or not because they think it's easy money... but now that I actually have ideas and stories that I'd like to tell, it feels less phony. And it's a lot of fun to work on, I do like my characters. :3

These two, Kimi and Koko Tatanka, are my current favourites. They are two twin girl bison (that sentence sounds weird). Kimi is a magical mystical quiet girl and Koko is a great warrior with horns made from tree branches because she hasn't grown her own. Also she has a cute hat. And a cute bird.

More of them up on DA if anyone cares.

On a related (to westerns) note, we went to see True Grit today and I actually liked it. How about that.

Snow Miku

2011-02-12T10:34:00.000-08:00

I've been following the Snow Miku for Sapporo 2011 stuff on Facebook. It's awesome and makes all the art exhibitions and events I've ever been to look totally lame.

Here's our favourite virtual diva (well...most people's favourite anyway, I sorta prefer Luka's voice but if I wrote second favourite it wouldn't sound the same) trapped inside a crappily drawn snow globe:

year of the rabbit

2011-02-03T05:00:00.000-08:00

You're surprised I didn't draw a Sylvanian bunny, aren't you? So am I.

To-Do

2011-01-28T04:57:00.000-08:00

Next 12 months:
~~• Sell unused belongings on eBay.~~
~~• Get head straightened out/stop pining over epic timewaste illustration degree.~~
~~• Save enough money to buy a colour laser printer (HP or Canon?).~~
• Possibly have t-shirts printed by other people.
~~• Obtain father~~ ~~and baby Solitaire cat sylvanians to complete family.~~
• Design more cards for birthdays, christmas.
~~• Make small items of own design (keyrings, badges, magnets?).~~
~~• Set up and maintain a small online shop.~~
~~• Get by. :|~~

Long Term:
• Get money: job/small business loan/grant?
• Obtain studio space.
• Use said space for screen printing set-up.
• Make things that are nice and not ugly.
• Set up a real-life shop.
• ????
• PROFIT!

Clockwork Heart Valentine's Day Greetings Cards now on sale!

2011-01-14T04:12:00.000-08:00

"Clockwork Heart" - original artwork by Siobhan Brewer and David Legg.

A steampunk-esque design that would be ideal for giving to someone that doesn't like the usual frilly pinkness, fluffy bunnies and flowers of Valentine's day! ;) These are blank inside for your own message and could also be used for birthdays, anniversaries, notecards, etc.

Cards are A6 (105x148mm) portrait, include a blank envelope and postage to the UK is FREE.

SOLD OUT

Thank you to everyone that bought one! We appreciate your business and hope you like the cards! :3

A rant. And then some pictures.

2011-01-06T13:14:00.000-08:00

So, the end of last year I actually started drawing again and for once I've decided just to do what I like and not care what other people think. Expect this blog to become a bit more personal and less boring shitty trying-to-be-professional-and-not-have-feelings-illustrator crap as a result. If you want, un-follow it now.

Anyway, what I like at the moment is cute stuff (I just can't bring myself to say "kawaii"). I've always liked cute stuff but when I was at college I tried to keep away from it because I think too many people use a simple style as an excuse for not being able to fucking draw and unlike them, I wanted to at least TRY to improve rather than stagnate doing the same old samey shit all the time. ¬¬

But as you can see, trying got me nowhere and the more I learned about the illustration industry and the ~~superficial trendy morons~~ people who work in it, the more I hated it. So screw drawing for a job. I don't want to draw what other people want to see and I don't care what other people think. And you know what? It's OKAY. I can't believe how long it's taken me to realize that not wanting to read the Guardian or any of the other newspapers is FINE, not having an interest in movies is FINE, thinking Family Guy is the unfunniest piece of shit I have ever seen? FINE. And preferring Unter Null to Kings of Leon? Guess what? IT'S ALL FINE AND IN NO WAY DETRIMENTAL TO MY QUALITY OF LIFE OR MY ABILITY TO FORM AN OPINION OF MY OWN.

Considering that art colleges and the like are supposed to be a centre of counterculture; full of quirky individuals who don't fit in with the social norm... I think it's actually the place where I've most felt the pressure to conform to popular opinion.

Eh, I'm rambling. I just wanted to get that out of my system. Like I said, I don't care what other people want to see. I don't care about making money. I don't care about fame or the approval of my "peers". I just want to do what I love, and what I love is:

The original My Little Ponies.

Pokemon (homg I am so excited for Black & White! Jelly bunny! Chandelier ghost! Fluffy electric spider! ♥).

And Sylvanian Families.

This series makes me feel good. I love watching it in Japanese because as a Tachikoma aficionado, I know that Japanese is the language of cuteness. Sylvanians are awesome; I ordered the DVD and a few families to go with the poor naked ones I still have from when I was little. This is the collection I'm working towards, you should buy me something from it because you can never have too many toys. XD

fuck it

2010-09-27T03:55:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed I haven't updated since July. This is because I haven't drawn anything since July.

Until further notice,
Siobhan

Irrelevant Title

2010-07-06T09:49:00.000-07:00

A nothing-in-particular kind of drawing I made for experimentation with textures and colours (which blogger has completely drained, ughhhhh ¬¬).

Pokemon, Part II

2010-02-19T11:19:00.000-08:00

Croagunk wins!

Different version of Marowak and Cubone (yes, I realize that this has been just sitting around since last november).

Drifloooooooon.

Pokemon, part I

2009-11-20T09:57:00.000-08:00

So this is like my dream job, drawing Pokémon for the trading cards or something like that.

Marowak cut paper/collage type thing.

Cubone what I drawed and David painted.

Sketchbook

2009-10-04T13:10:00.000-07:00

A bit of an experiment.

Wings

2009-08-28T11:28:00.000-07:00

Another one from the little book of texts. The quote was originally from an article about headless praying mantis sex... nice! I'm actually quite pleased with this one, not 100% sure about colour... I might change that later.

PS: Thank you to the very nice man in the stormfront store who fixed my graphics tablet for me today. Lifesaver!

Tom Waits

2009-08-20T03:25:00.000-07:00

Been listening to him a lot lately. Yeah, I have weird taste in music. He is very cool though.

Birds

2009-08-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

An illustration to go with "birds singing / in the dark / in the rainy dawn", from Mel's little book of texts. My research suggests that was written by Jack Kerouac..? I like to think it was included just for me. Me and my fat juicy little birds. :p
You'd think so, wouldn't you? But I'm really not.

E-mail

2009-08-08T06:50:00.000-07:00

My email address has inexplicably stopped working - if you've tried to contact me in the past couple of weeks and received no reply, please resend it to xenorobo@gmail.com! At least until I get my proper address sorted again. ;p

EDIT: As of 12/08/09, I've gotten it all working again. Sorry for the inconvenience!

Plymouth College of Art Summer Shows

2009-06-25T14:06:00.000-07:00

My illustration course's show is up and open to the public from now until the 3rd of July - if you're in the area, please come and have a look at our lovely work - my book looks much nicer in the flesh (or should that be in the paper? I don't know)! You can even buy cool stuff like badges and colouring books! :)

http://www.plymouthart.ac.uk/

Shita-Kiri Suzume (Finished!)

2009-06-18T14:39:00.000-07:00

Well, I finished the sparrow book a while ago but I've been pretty busy so it's taken me a while to get around to putting it online... but here it is at last!

http://www.tinrobo.co.uk/suzume.html

It has a flashy thing so you can scroll along and stuff. :p

Getting there...

2009-05-20T08:04:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak preview of my sparrow book. I imagine the final version will have more cool patterns and stuff.

Too much paper

2009-05-12T13:54:00.000-07:00

This is what I ordered:

And this is the amount of packaging used to send it to me:

?!

Shambler

2009-04-07T14:16:00.000-07:00

I did this for one of my friends, it's the Shambler from Quake.

I haven't really used paints since I finished ND Graphics... they weren't actually as bad as I remember. I think it turned out pretty good.

Handmade Books

2009-04-07T02:01:00.001-07:00

I felt pretty inspired after going to the BABE event with my illustration pals and spent all day yesterday making these - they're experiments for how I could bind my story for the major study.

Japanese binding looks like the winner at the moment because it's a Japanese story but after talking about it with Mel, I'm also going to make a concertina book for people to look through at the summer show so that my original one doesn't get ruined.

Sparrow

2009-03-02T12:56:00.000-08:00

Practice for my Major Study.

Psycho Mantis

2009-01-22T14:32:00.000-08:00

He doesn't like girls.

Mesothelioma Petition

2009-01-09T04:59:00.000-08:00

In November 2006, my mum was diagnosed with mesothelioma - a cancer of the lining of the lungs which is usually caused by exposure to asbestos. In December of that year she was given 6-9 months to live.

Today, her tumour has shrunk by over 50% and is in partial remission.

The treatment responsible for this is called chemoembolization - it's used in the UK to treat liver cancer, but not for mesothelioma so she has to travel to Germany to have the procedure. On top of the treatment itself, she also has to pay for travel and accommodation and with the economy the way it is, this is only going to get more expensive.

We're lucky, because my mum's compensation claim meant she was able to afford this but there are many more mesothelioma patients who simply don't have the money. They also deserve the hope - and the extra time - that we were given by the chemoembolization.

So, we want to get the ball rolling and get this trialled in the UK.

All I'm asking of you is to sign this petition on the Number 10 website. It will only take a minute of your time but if we could get our voices heard, it could really make a difference to somebody's life.

http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/Mesothelioma-/

If you'd like to know more about Mesothelioma, you are welcome to visit my mum's website at www.mesothelioma-and-me.com.

Thank you.

Finished the Music Video!

2008-12-22T15:06:00.000-08:00

Yes! At last! :P

Website Redesign

2008-12-03T06:07:00.000-08:00

I've just finished redesigning tinrobo.co.uk - not only is there a shiny new layout but there's also a few new illustrations, sketchbook pages, my animation project from last year and even hi-res textures you can use in your own work. Go have a look around, and if you have a spare couple of minutes it would be great to have your feedback! :)

Animation Update

2008-11-22T09:30:00.000-08:00

My animation/music video is coming together nicely.

I don't think I've bitten off more than I can chew, but it's definitely the most challenging project I've undertaken.

180 seconds to go!

From the Sketchbook

2008-11-16T05:51:00.000-08:00

I spent all day inside Photoshop yesterday, so in the evening I decided to relax and just draw without worrying what the final image actually looked like.

I did quite a few doodles of my boyfriend and my brother, but this is the only one I'm showing you for now. When my new website is launched, there will be a sketchbook section and you'll be able to see the rest, along with other stuff that would usually stay hidden away forever. Exciting, huh?

Silent Hill

2008-11-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

You know, whenever I type Silent Hill I always want to break into the joke ending song from Silent Hill 3... it's brilliant.

Anyway, I was just testing out a new pen yesterday and I ended up drawing Colin the scary janitor from the Silent Hill movie. Then I used a texture from CG Textures to get the scratchy Silent Hill effect. I usually like to make my own textures and brushes, but I haven't found one this good yet!

Assassin's Creed

2008-10-30T06:12:00.000-07:00

God I love this game.

Two Dolls

2008-10-28T09:53:00.000-07:00

A new illustration - two cute little dolls, with clothing loosely based on Japanese Gothic & Lolita fashion. It's not my usual style, but I'm pleased with how it turned out.

Robot-Mannequin-Thing

2008-10-25T06:29:00.000-07:00

Here's a sneak preview of something I'm working on at the moment.

It's taken me four hours to do six seconds of animation.

So that's just another 232 seconds to go. *le sigh*

Kogepan

2008-10-19T03:56:00.000-07:00

No drawings today, because I'm working hard on my website and animation projects! But on the topic of animation, this is one of my favourites: it's the story of Kogepan, a high quality red bean bun who was burnt in the oven and became depressed.

Episodes (YouTube): [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10]

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex

2008-09-26T12:12:00.000-07:00

Recently, I've been overdosing on Ghost in the Shell (which from here on in will be referred to as GitS because the name is too long and the abbreviation amuses me). I don't really watch a lot of anime, but I think this series is brilliant. It's interesting, exciting, funny, sad and has the world's most adorable robot-tanks.

I'm not going to try and review it here because words aren't my strong point, but this blog says everything I would like to say about the series and more (I loved CEO Jameson too!). What I can do, however, is draw. So here is Pazu, Section 9's resident gangsta pimp! ;D

Links:
Official Site

Google translate says the darnedest things!

2008-09-26T06:41:00.001-07:00

The Faint - Bristol Thekla

2008-08-29T07:23:00.000-07:00

I saw The Faint play on board the good ship Thekla on the 27th of this month. I've been a fan of them for a while now, but this is the first time that I was able to go to one of their shows and I wasn't disappointed. They started late, but they put on a really good show and everyone seemed to have a great time. Plus, the singer's labcoat and goggles were totally cool!

I took a few videos, but this is the one that came out the best. It's of dubious quality, but you get the idea! ;D

NANA

2008-08-11T12:34:00.000-07:00

This is my favourite manga of the moment - in fact it's probably my favourite manga ever. NANA is the story of an unlikely friendship between two young women, Nana Komatsu and Nana Osaki, who meet coincidentally on their way to Tokyo and end up living together. Osaki is the singer in a punk band and is determined to find fame and fortune, while Komatsu has followed her boyfriend and simply wants to live happily ever after. It sounds simple but it's really a great story, full of dramatic twists and turns as well as Ai Yazawa's beautiful artwork. I couldn't recommend it highly enough.

The guy in this drawing is Nobu - the guitarist in Nana's band, Black Stones.

Links:
Amazon.co.uk
Shojo Beat

First post

2008-07-23T02:08:00.000-07:00

Hey there. This is the tinrobo blog, where I'll put random sketches and pretty things. Maybe.