Hey guys!
I'm back home from my 2 month trip to the United States of America.
Most of you know I was visiting my girlfriend who lives in New Orleans, and most of you know we've been having a bad hurricane season.

We had to evacuate the city from Hurricane Gustav and I cant even begin to tell you how stressful it was. When we evacuated we both had not slept for 3 days (which is another story for another time) and then we drove for at least 14 hours to Dallas, Texas. From there I had to leave my girlfriend and go home to Australia.
It was the hardest thing I have ever had to do. Not only leave a loved one, but leave her to return to the path of more hurricanes, more possible evacuations and more chance their home would be destroyed.

I have started a chip in account to get her to stay with me in Australia for at least 3 months so she can be happy and not deal with the stress that is so abundant right now.

I'm not expecting anything from anyone, its just the only thing I can do to try and help her. If I had the money myself I would buy her a ticket without hesitation. And I will be chipping in as soon as my jobs are back up and running.

So what am I asking from you guys? Nothing, but if you feel like you would like to contribute I thought I would try and make it worth your while.

- Everyone who chips in $100 or more gets a free pencil sketch of their choice.

- Everyone who chips in $50 or more will recieve a signed print of their choice.

I will handle shipping costs, and the sizes of the prints and sketches will be A4
(210 × 297 mm)
For some reason I cant embed the Flash chipin widget here. so here is the URL for the chip in page:

http://helphannah.chipin.com

Even if you can only spare $10, I would be extremely grateful.
This is not me trying to get money, its me doing the only thing I can do from the other side of the world to keep my Girlfriend safe.

Thanks for reading everyone, and I promise the next blog will be more positive and artwork related! I will have a new store in the works with lots of cool products.

Talk soon,

Martin

Well, this is my last day here!

Today I am heading into town to get a few last things. I am pretty damn nervous but knowing the girl of my dreams will be waiting for me on the other side of this long long flight will get me through it, with a smile on my face.

Dont forget you can keep up to date with what I am doing at the link below.
Which I will update as soon as I get over my imminent jetlag!

I love you all! <3

Bye bye!


http://sixtythreedays.blogspot.com

http://sixtythreedays.blogspot.com/
[UPDATED]


I'll paste it here, but be warned once I am in the states im not going to relay the blog here too, as it will be too much work with all the photos etc etc.

So to keep up to date once I leave be sure to check the new blog.

__________________________________________________________

All the things a bag should do.
[6 Days until Departure]


Hello again, time for another update!
Today I finally ventured out and purchased a few things I needed for my trip:

Travel bag!
I needed a carry on bag for the plane and also a bag that would be handy to take when Hannah and I go out into town. Its quite small but has plenty of little pockets so I can carry around my camera, sketchbook and stationary quite easily.

I really hate carrying bags around when I am out, so I am glad I found a relatively small one which should do all the things a bag should do.

In other news I bought new undies and socks and a belt.

I promise these blogs will get more interesting. Really.

OH, I forgot to mention I bought myself a new camera a few days ago.
God I hate spending money.. But I needed too.

I already had a fairly decent camera but the battery charger got fried.
See I was painting on canvas one day, and I get so frustrated with painting sometimes I lash out.
I threw the canvas across the room, not with a great amount of force, but it happened to smash the window. Anyway I never got it fixed as it wasn't such a big deal at the time.

I eventually moved my PC and desk against the big sliding door window and had my charger plugged in under the desk. Winter came along and it started to rain.

I went to charge my camera battery and got slightly electrocuted. I'm tough so it didn't phase me, but upon closer inspection I poured about half a glass of rain water out of the charger.

So anyway, a new charger (generic brand mind you) would cost $50 and to order one in from Sony would cost over $100.

With newer better cameras available for 200 - 300 dollars I just bit the bullet and got a much nicer camera.

Its a Nikon Coolpix 8.1 Mega Pixel with a 3.0" LCD display. I also got a couple of 2 Gig SD cards.

I'm pretty happy I have a good camera to take lots and lots of photos of my journey.

Only 6 days left to get everything organized, Its getting a bit scary.
Thankfully I managed to get 3 of 7 jobs finished over the past few days, but this means I WILL have to work during my travels. It should be ok as Hannah has a Wacom tablet and a good PC, I just wish I didn't have to worry about work. But I will need the money so, gotta do what ya gotta do.

The jobs specifically were a personal commission of Aayla Secura from Star Wars and was really fun to draw. The second and third job was some illustrations for Coffin Case. I cant say too much about them but they're pretty hot.

So not only do I have to get as much work done as I can before I leave, I also have to pick up my parents form the airport at 4am Friday morning.
They have been in the UK for a month visiting family (I am jealous) so I will get to catch up with them for 3 days before I shoot off myself.

I also have to organize my travel card this weekend too. Which is basically like a credit card that is guaranteed to work in specified countries. Its not connected to your main bank account so if it is stolen they cannot get into your usual funds.

So yeah there is that to do.. I also need to get a new sim card for my phone, but I think I will sort that out after I arrive.

Hmm well I think that about wraps me up today its 5.22 PM and I haven't done any work yet. GAH.

I better get too it!

I am leaving soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not SG, leaving for my holiday to americaaaa)

To document my travels I will be keeping a blog, with photos, writings and sketches.

If you are keen to keep up with my adventures book mark this:

http://sixtythreedays.blogspot.com/


Thanks everyone for the support <3

Hey guys n gals!

I know I am not one to post many blogs but I thought Id actually share with you guys whats going on in my life.
Well, its like 2 and a half months until I go to America and stay with my girlfriend Sin. I cant wait.

But it is stressful, I am trying to save money so we can actually do things while I am over there and it seems as soon as I start getting somewhere with savings, something pops up like my car registration. Ack.

I mean its fine really even if I go there with a little bit of money I'll be with her, and thats what really matters.
But I guess Im stressed out and a little dissapointed in my progress with my art. This very well could be my last year of freelancing. And I wanted to go out with a bang.

I am still working on my artbook but its taking so long. I am a perfectionist and I just cant draw stuff quickly for it.
So my plan of it being published by San Diego Comicon looks pretty dismal.. But I am not giving up on it.. It will be a 'book' at some stage.

I am also most likely not having an Artist Alley Table at San Diego Comicon either as it costs a fortune and like I said I am trying to save up for my trip as it is. But I do have my convention tickets and hotel booked so even if I am not there as an artist it is still going to be amazingly awesome being there as a guest and meeting alot of my friends from SG and my favorite artists etc etc.

Another plan that might dissapear is the Supanova convention in sydney in July. I wanted to get a table there too. But it costs $220 for a table and about $240 for my flights to sydney..
I just dont know if I can do that. *le sigh*!

I just wish I could go back in time to last October and say to past me "Hey you fucking idiot, what are you playing wow for at 2pm do some work earn some money, or you're awesome plans are going to fall to peices" But alas Melly Never made her time machine (as far as I know).

I have been doing personal commissions now though, through my website, Sin has been helping me with all the managment work for it and I thank her greatly because I suck at those things

Heres a couple of recent ones I have done:







Some stuff for Metal HAMMER Magazine:




SO I am working my little butt off.. I just hope I can earn enough money to do some of the things we want to do.

I was browsing my myspace friends list this morning and I came across this blog journal:

"suicide girls

are all fucking mingers.
none of them are the least bit attractive.
get over it."

I dont actually know this person but a girl I hung out with for a while replied:

"ahahahah i reckon......

*nods*"



I am so fucking sick of people bagging out SG. ESPECIALLY people who have never been members before!
It shits me how things work, something becomes popular, and then too many people like it so it becomes uncool. So then it becomes cool to not like it. And it is fucking lame.

Yeah some SG's I dont find attractive but god how many are there now? Thousands?
I was going to write this on this little cunts myspace journal. I'm glad I decided not to because this little cunt lives in my town. Although I dont know who he is. But if I did display my disgust to them they would probably do one of a few things:

a) Find my SG girlfriends pics somehow and try and piss me off by publicly displaying them..
b) Get a group and try and fuck me up.

So thats why I didn't. And I am posting this here because I needed to let it all out.

It just makes me SO fucking angry when people give SG shit when they haven't even used it.
FUCK HATERS.

Hey guys!
Happy Valentines day!

Since Sin and I didnt get to spend valentines togethor making everyone around us vomit hearts, I thought Id show you what we did do for valentines day.. WoW Date!!!!



ROFL.. *cough* But seriously it was a lovely picnic romantic outing, until some retard pally came into our love nest and did consecrate and called me a wanker..

But that is WOW after all.

Heres a new image ive done:
I didnt get to finish because of a huge mother fuckin deadline today thats left be about as energetic as a sloth with the flu. But Its ok.. I will finish it soon..

Hey peoples!

Well I thought I would update you with a new image.. Actually its a few months old or something. You can see the progress in a previous blog, but anyway Ive been working ALOT lately on new girls. So I thought I would finish up some old ones too:



I also have a couple of sketches I am thinking of getting rid of, if anyone would be interested in buying an original sketch I'll upload what I have, let me know

Thanks guys n gals
xox

Hey guys, I hope you all had a good Christmas!
Below is a video I made for my girlfriend, Sin.

Click here for the video!


She means the world to me, and since I couldnt be with her in person this Christmas I did what I do best. Straight from the heart and soul.

Those of you interested in seeing the process of my artwork should seriously check it out. Its got a lot of video footage or the actual drawing process, and I'd love any feedback/or questions on it.

But most of all, Sin this is for you. <3

Some of you may already know, that my oldest cat; Dusty, passed away the other night.
I grew up with this kitty. He was my best friend as a child, and I loved him like a family memeber. We all did.

He was almost 19.
We were meant to have him. Fate brought him to us..
We found him in my mums car engine, hiding (even while she was driving around)
He was an abandoned kitty and has a broken twisted foot. WHich he walked on fine but had a limp his whole life.

He was the most vocal cat I have ever seen, he would talk to you if you walked by, if you patted him.. Even if you called his name.

There was also a time when he was younger he would play games with me.

Like 'Fetch' the game you play with dogs. I would throw a little bouncy ball in the kitchen and he would chase it.. pick it up in his mouth and bring it back to me and drop it for me to throw it again for him to chase.

He was incredibly smart, and he will be incredibly missed.

RIP Dusty. I love you!



Its not finished ^^ But I will keep updating my progress.