'Queen Khalifa'...

I drew this as a gift for one of my supporters on Tumblr who I've only just recently had the pleasure of connecting with, but has been such an encouragement & genuine supporter of my work.

Just a little something to say, "thanks"... Titled it, 'Queen Khalifa'.

-M-

Influences of Royalty...

Continuing on from my previous costume design for this character, here's the latest... Gave this one the name, 'Joseph'.

For this costume, I took influence from Ancient Egyptian (Kemetic) plus a few traditional West Afrikan fashion influences of royalty... A very common misconception people have of Afrikan history is that other than Egypt (for the few who are aware Egypt is in Afrika), nothing else of equal or greater significance occurred... This couldn't be further from the truth.

Afrika has always had a rich & ancient history of powerful civilizations with great Kings & Queens. One such figure was the West Afrikan Emperor, Mansa Musa, who was ruler of the Mali empire during the 13th century, & is historically recorded as to have been the wealthiest man to have lived at that time; & some say to this day... It is said that during his well known pilgrimage to Mecca, when passing through Egypt, he gave out so much gold that it literally threw off the Egyptian economy.

 Here's a documentary on the West Afrikan Empire of Mali.

-M-

Representation Matters...

Here's the finished illustration of a character I designed a few weeks ago for an early & developing theme of 'The Great & True Afrikan Histories'... This theme, which I'm extremely passionate about, primarily is to create content which represents, celebrates & honors the Black Afrikan culture & it's true/ rich histories. I set myself this goal as something that will be an ongoing theme because, firstly, I truly believe that 'representation matters'; generally & especially when we talk of mainstream media... Something I was always aware of as a young boy (though never really understood) was that the reality I lived in being black was in no way near represented enough in media (particularly TV) to reflect not just my reality, but general, 'social' reality in itself. Secondly, as far as Black/ Afrikan history went, this was (is) a history that was not being told, or told accurately (in media & in schools).

So with all that being said (which brings us to now), I feel a strong conviction & responsibility to play what part I can in addressing these issues & telling these histories with my talents... So with each illustration I post, I'll be including links to video lectures, documentaries & articles which highlight information on various great & ancient Afrikan civilizations, plus major events in TRUE World history, which unfortunately most of us have never heard... [Disclaimer] Some of it may seem controversial & much of it probably tough to process, but my ultimate intention is to educate & celebrate... I hope you'll join me on this journey of discovery, learning & the celebration of wonder & mystery in 'The Great & True Afrikan Histories'  ;)

This character's outfit I designed as a ceremonial-type attire, as I imagined him to be a young man/ Prince about to earn his 'Rite of Passage'. The white marks on his skirt (wrapper) represent 'cowrie shells', which are quite common in the traditional fashion of many African cultures.

His skin I wanted to be jet black for many reasons; the main being to unapologetically celebrate it as the badge of strength & beauty that it is...

For some reason, though he'd be a young man in his very early 20's, the visual of him having a crown of white hair was appealing to me... Strong, fearless & noble; I decided to give him the name 'Samson' (after my Father, in his youth).

I have two more pieces (for now) I'll be finishing off soon, but hope you dig this one for the time being. More of my work here.


-M-

Sketch Dailies' 'Aquaman'...

Hello all! Apologies for my lack of presence here; I'll give you a great excuse on the next post (which has been in 'draft' mode for the past couple months) ;) Anyway, here's an 'Aquaman' piece I did as a fun first time contribution to the Sketch Dailies community. [line-art version below]

I've been off sick the past couple days, so got a chance to put a little more time & effort into the rendering... Working on 'Mr Bean: the animated series' is certainly keeping me busy (more news there in the next post, so stay tuned)... I think this is actually the first painted piece I've done this year, so felt good! Hope you like & feel free to share. [More to come]

-M-

Commercial Stuff (Pt:01)

Hi guys! It's just dawned on my how much I've yet to post up on here. Mostly due to either being too busy + a little forgetful. So over the next week or two, I'll be making a huge attempt to play catch up with it all... I promise! In fact, here's something to kick things off...

SPIRIVA 'HANDIHALER' VIDEO 03 "Diaphragmatic Breathing" from Max on Vimeo.


Back in the middle of 2011, I directed (at my then representative studio, th1ng) a series of 8 instructional videos designed for those suffering from COPD (a respiratory disease), which explained how to use a new medicinal product called the handihaler... In short, the brief was to design a character which would be the mascot/ narrator of the videos... a sort of coach/ drill sergeant.

The next three images are initial designs I knocked up as a first round... I wanted to capture a lot of

Fig 01: My fave here was the guy up top pointing & blowing a whistle...

charm & personality in the character... I'm a huge appreciator of Zagreb Film & UPA's works (who isn't?), so any opportunity I get to experiment with that style, look & technique of animation, I jump right on it! Since this spot was for an instructional video, it was a perfect opportunity... Here's one of my favourites from Zagreb, & another from UPA.

Fig: 02

This particular version here, the clients asked for a look similar to a previous commercial I had co-directed... (Thankfully they didn't go with them)

Fig: 03

At this stage, the clients had now suggested if somehow I could create a character out of the actual product itself... I hated the idea, as I felt it'd be too cheesy & could easily see what should have been a "charming" character, turn into one of those stereotypically, over-excited product mascots you just wanna punch repeatedly in the face!


Again, thankfully they didn't go with it, but I did like the one on the right... The visual of his entire head rapidly opening & closing (hinged on one side) as he'd speak had me cracking up inside.

Fig 04: Colour variations

Fig: 05

Here's the one they went with in the end, which thankfully was the one I was rooting for... He was now named, "Coach Chester" :)










They liked this version with the grey top & blue track-pants, so did a very quick page of poses to give the clients an idea of funny actions he could do.

Fig: 06

Clients now asked for him to lose a bit of weight, as they felt he was a little too on the plumpy-side to be a coach... (should've see the gym teacher I had back in school)... They selected #1.

Fig: 07

Based on their brand colours, I then generated a few variations for Chester's outfit.

Fig: 08

... And finally, here's the character turn-around I knocked up from the client's chosen colours... Most animated TV show characters in the 1950's had a thick-stoke outline; this gave more weight to the characters, & really helped 'pop' them from the backgrounds.



-M-