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14/03/2020
Okay,
Server updates!
I spent a few hours as of late
researching and trying to sort out the
SSL malarky on the Genma Visage website
when the self-signing stick doesn't work.
Google and popular browsers seem to treat
non-SSL sites like a certain plague so
it's commonly recommended for artists to
be on top of the matter when designing.
Like many, I've opted for a temporary
certificates from Let's Encrypt that I
have to renew every 90 days, which.
Despite this, however, at the moment
despite it being greenlit in my Cpanel,
the website is still giving me that
security gyp in the lock sign by the
address bar. Either my web host is flat
out rejecting it, or it could be part of
the coding and how the website is made
(i.e. notepad, Frontpage express and
whichever trick with PHP and trick coding
I can get my hands on). If it's the
former it may seem that I'll have to
register an SSL certificate, yet frankly
not until I'm 200% sure it is necessary.
By the way, my brain is as fried as most
people on the subject.
Anyway, just to generally reclarify: the
Genma Visage page is a portfolio site and
will not ask for sensitive data \
information. Sales and business
transactions will be done on-site on 3rd
party sites such as PayPal, Patreon and
so forth.
And that's about it. I'll tell you more
when I know, and you all keep safe in
this paracetamol-gobbling age. -Tommy
13/03/2020
I've
decided upon length that I will not be
doing London MCM this May due to current
business plans and also pleasant family
matters taking shape within that time. I
do still have my eyes set on Scotland MCM
and London MCM October of which, all
being well, you shall see me there.
Admittedly the Corona Virus is another
factor, specifically how it'll affect the
Health and Safety protocol of the event.
A little birdy tells me that it's making
huge events across nations loopy and
haywire as we speak. With all the
preparations I could make for an event
that gets cancelled and whether I'll get
my dosh back, it's a headache I can do
without for now. Unless one of my
favourite models is attending, then never
mind the Corona Virus. I'll carry that
big suitcase on bleeding stumps in the
snow. :P
That all being said, maybe nothing will
happen at all, the show will go on, and I
myself will commend the first person to
create a Corona Virus cosplay. I'm
serious, there'll be at least one. ;P
But yeah. London MCM has been one of, if
not the favourite of mine, but this year
I'd like to take a breath of fresh air
and seek other ventures to make up for my
absence there. To those attending, do
have a great time, keep safe, and I'll
see you again in the future. x -Tommy.
20/02/2020
Ayup chaps! First post of
2020!
I've had a recent buff to the website as
of late to organise the gallery section.
Because each section of the gallery is
growing into its own exhibition,
separating them I felt was the best way
to avoid potential clutter in the future.
As such my side project Lust of the Marid
has taken up (temporary) residence on the
Genma Visage site with an updated summary
of its premise. In due time I may
register a new domain and new website
design for it, but for the moment, I've
barely touched my disk space for Genma
Visage so I may as well make the most of
things.
I've also updated my About page and
personal bio section, of which I would
like to thank
Wayne
Riley for providing the photo
of me a while back (hope that's alright
and I've added you to the credits).
Taking lead from certain peers I've also
been extra flash and added my credentials
beneath my bio for good measure because
you only live once.
So yeah, there's been general changes to
the site, and Pteradon's head has popped
into the side menu which I intend to try
out something in the near future.
Otherwise, truth be told, I've been
putting off the Kindle \ Comixology thing
mainly due to last-minute touches and
advertising \ networking ventures to try
and truly enrich the promotion, not to
mention the Patreon that I'm looking
into. This weekend and the next, I hope
to let the axe fall and severe the last
threads of perfectionism once and for
all. Then truly it's on to pastures new.
There may or may not be something of a
lengthy announcement in the coming weeks,
depending on if I feel it's relevant but
I'll let you know in pleasant kind. -TomT
25/11/2019:
As
of late, although Linkedin can be seen as
indifferent to what I do hence why other
sites like Deviantart, Artstation and
Instagram fill the bill, I've been giving mine a good shunt so that it
appears a lot more up to date and vocal.
Unfortunately, the turbulent period for
me is still present, and it has tempted
me to start this post on a much more
negative note. But I'm no Quitter!
Still, this will make some chaps snigger
in the back row. I am contemplating
something that proves that hell has not
only frozen over, but it has also got a
pack of Coca Colas in reserve.
I'm contemplating Patreon!
09/11/2019:
Many
thanks and cheers to everyone who made
London MCM a really swell convention this
year. I made similar announcements on the
FB but I just wanted to say that I now
have a Twine
page as well for the certain
flair of commissioners to contact me
through. My reach is getting stronger by
the day, folks!
I've had a wee snag with firefox with
this website, though Chrome and basic
Internet Explorer seem to be running
alright. Basically, there was a security
certificate issue that my service
provider alerted me, while I seem to have
updated that for another 6 months,
Firefox that I tried the site seems to
give the alarm bell on website security,
which blocks you (temporarily) from my
site. It could be a setting on that
particular computer at the time. Still,
if anyone's having errors, give me a
shout to let me know.
In any case, payment transactions won't
be done through the website directly for
the time being (there'll be PayPal and
offsite stores for that), so there
shouldn't be any risks here. Tom over and
out.
24/10/2019:
https://www.mcmcomiccon.com/london
Come meet me
in the Comic Village at table CV 27!
Comics:
Genma Visage Book 1: £ 7.50
Genma Visage Book 2: £ 6.50
Genma Visage Book 3: £ 7.50
Genma Visage: Profane Divinations: £
15.00
Genma Visage: The Progeny of Shemsu-Hor
(First Edition): £15.00
Prints
£5 a print. Including the
"Springfield Warriors" and
"Tyrannical Cryomancy" pieces.
Stock Prints
A4: £2.50 A3: £3.50
Commissions
Simple / Cartoony
Sketch: £7
Inks: £12 (Per Additional Character:
£7.50)
Colours: £18 (Per Additional Character:
£13)
Detailed / Realistic
Sketch: £12
Inks: £20 (Per Additional Character:
£15)
Colours: £30 (Per Additional Character:
£24)
22/09/2019
I've extended my reach to Artstation and Instagram lately.
So I've uploaded the key artworks I've
done over the past 5 years onto this
site, and I have to say I find this place
pretty top notch. I'll be keeping my
Deviantart up for time I think, but so
far artstation blows it out the water and
will probably become my dominant separate
art page besides the home page.
What I like about this (as you can check
out) is that you upload stuff as
projects, meaning you can showcase the
sketches, inks, concepts and general
works of progress besides the main image.
You CAN do this on facebook and
deviantart of course, but only as
separate images, so you feel like you
risk cluttering your gallery or peeing in
the wind \ playing second fiddle with
lots of tiny updates. Keeping everything
localised just feels so much more tidy.
On top of that from what I can see,
there's lots of pro quality art on this
site, so it feels great to place yourself
in an environment where you can keep
pushing and breaking the limits of your
capabilities for a good cause.
I've added the buttons on my homepage's
menu. Otherwise you can see my stuff in
the links and catch some of the process
of the artworks.
Instagram updates sre next, though won't
be as detailed as I've done on
Artstation.
03/08/2019
Hello, chaps. There was a
fair share of updates on the facebook
blog that made mention of the stage by
stage process on the ebook shtick, the
cancellation of Scotland MCM 2019 due to
family and work-related issues, and the
booking of London MCM October 2019,
probably the last con this year. In
short, I'm cutting to the chase with the
most recent lengthy update.
So there you have it. That's the offload
of stuff I've been working on for some
time. Could be better, could be worse.
I'm at the point where Sean Connery says
to Harrison Ford "Indiana...let it
go..."
The website and gallery have been
tailored accordingly and may receive some
minor tweaks or additional content as the
ball keeps rolling. Otherwise, here's
hoping that you've enjoyed the ride so
far, and somewhere between the heavy
crunch I've enjoyed it too, hah! Here's
hoping that the recent revelation about
Book 0's token pretty boy Seker prompts a
few sales and inquiries of interest for
the series. After all, there's Book 0
PART 3 to look forward to!
On that subject, there's the further
issue of the store. Basically, the EBOOK
and print versions are ready, but I wish
to have some further meditation on the
outlets before I press the button, as
leaving it in someone else's hands is
certainly no decision to rush.
Incidentally, I will not be doing
LULU.com as a book printing outlet.
Honestly, it was a ballpark name I've
been throwing out there to tempt someone
if not a distant descendant across time
and space to burst into my room and shout
"DO NOT DO IT!" But certain
reviews nevertheless steered me away from
Lulu as they basically bend you over and
give you one from what I hear.
At the moment I have a good deal with my
choice of printers. For the time being,
Tuke Works Productions will be printing
and posting all sales first hand, along
with the bonus sketches I normally
provide with each sale. I'll have to play
it by ear when a proper publisher comes
along, or it reaches a point where I'm
fully engaged in posting thousands out
per week, of course, if that day comes,
that alone would provide a cosy full-time
job. :P
There'll be more news to come here and
there, but to anyone reading this (and
thanks for your time) if you wish to
shoot a few suggestions based on your
experience, I will certainly be all ears.
In conclusion, I'll leave you with one
last teaser: The names of potential
projects in the future.
Genma Visage Book 4
Genma Visage Book 5?
Genma Visage Book 0 Part 3
Genma Visage Expanded Lore collection 1
Genma Visage Expanded Lore collection 2
(!)
Lust of the Marid 1
Possible Future titles of Lust of the
Marid
Potential Art Book of a pending name
(possibly something Poncy like
"Uncharted Mind chasms of Akai
Kiba" )
28/07/2019
Ello chaps! Tommy Tuke has
made it back to Blighty, though perhaps
I'm overdue for the announcement. In
truth, no sooner had I got back to the
U.K that I did get loaded with a few
commissions and a couple of other itches
to scratch.
So yeah, my trip across the pond to
Canada was indeed delightful. In short,
between the R.O.M, rich countryside, the
C.N. tower, aquarium, the Zoo, bears,
in-laws, lots of travelling, cider,
coffee, maple syrup, sunshine, Lovecraft
audiobooks and my wonderful niece
Cordelia, you can tell I had a great
time. Apart from the subpar apartment
that I was staying at and the scheming
owner trying to rob us, I can't find
fault in the trip at all. I was
thoroughly refreshed and content,
charging my mental batteries for the day
I arrive back and get cracking back to my
Art.
Onto the first and bad news: Sadly I will
not be doing Scotland MCM this year due
to Work and family-related reasons.
Nothing severe but still demanding, and
as other colleagues had other duties,
there wasn't much point without a real
party. So I'm pooling all my energy into
London MCM instead, or perhaps any other
major convention post-Halloween. To all
my regular customers who make the journey
on that convention, I'm still available
for commissions if you need something
fixed up. On that note yes, Commissions
are available to anyone else. ;)
In any case, based on where I left it on
my last blog and deviation, the future of
Genma is looking bright. 3 to 5 books are
in mind for the pipeline which Still a
lot of work of course. The expanded Lore
collection was my next one out hopefully
this fall, with plans to write another
collection of Lore stories, 2 of which
will concern the Arch Demon Grail with
other tales involving Zulie Zerpent and
Shiki Logan from Tytronitek city. I've
had further concepts for stories for Maud
Lesgov which will serve as Bonus stories
for the other comics. The next actual
comic of Genma will be Book 4, knocking
the saga in Los Rokuma on the head
followed by Book 0 part 3.
All that said though, as I mentioned in
my last journal, the priority besides the
Lore collection for this year was, of
course, Lust of the Marid. During my
Canada adventures, I had plenty of time
to ponder on what to write, and so far
progress on the first story is coming
along. Since I uploaded the concepts a
while back, the core setting remains
intact but significant changes have been
made to a number of characters as well as
the general theme. I don't know If I
mentioned it before, but you can
certainly forget this tale being a
deliberate parody or comedy. For sure
it'll embrace a Cartoony look with the
spur of the moment shots of black,
attention-to-detail humour, but it'll be
plot-driven plot as opposed to the common
trend where thin stories support cheap
jokes. The plot itself will be a bit
darker as well. Not too dark as I want
room for optimism, but dark enough to
tell a more interesting story, as
frankly, it's been 8 years of throwing
poo against the wall and seeing what
sticks. :P Simply put, I love doing
detailed art and you'll see what I mean
in the coming time.
So yes, new arts have been made and are
on their way, including spreading of the
Lore art and a certain Kindle upload. Be
sure to tell me what you think. x - TomT
17/06/2019
Ello chaps, and It's about
bloody time too.
After an immense single-handed workload,
the website art and additional Lore
stories are now up. Plus the comics are
ready to go Gold and take their new path
in the outlets of Amazon Kindle and other
online outlets including (possibly) lulu
and comixology. Naturally, it was always
possible to order personal copies from my
convention stock and that will still be
viable if you want me to sign copies or
have Ink doodles to go with it, but the
online outlets will now take some weight
off my hands. The final cuts of Book 0
parts 1 and 2 will now have their
official release.
The 3 new Lore stories are available to
read in the Lore section and after some
pondering the vastly expanded, 4 times
longer versions that I
"accidentally" wrote will be
available for purchase this fall in a
collected volume which will including
additional artwork to boot. As we speak
I'm also sizing up the offchance that
there will be 3 more beyond that in a
further volume that covers further
adventures for our Mutant Demigod hero.
Suffice to say I am very relieved to end
one great project and excited to begin
another as this year rolls on. I did plan
that the Lust of the Marid side project
would be the next main priority as I
wanted a break from Genma. Otherwise,
besides the focus on the promotion, Book
4 of the series along with the final part
of the Book 0 Chaos series will be next
on the cards.
I'd like to say many thanks to the recent
and pursued interest from new and old
fans alike. The new artwork that I've
routinely promised (and so sorry for the
pushbacks!) will make its rounds known
this July in the buildup. Otherwise, you
can see a good chunk of them in advance
on the website itself.
I'll be doing some travelling for the
next couple of weeks of which my
sketchbook and fine and dandy paper will
never be far away. Hoping to bring back
some traditional art seeing how I'm
practically full digital now. I shall see
you chaps in July!
x x x -Tom
23/05/2019
To
anyone who's just looked me up after the
last MCM Expo, I just wanted to say thank
you for your time and your help in making
this May's MCM the best in a while. It
was great meeting you all, and it is my
ambition to make my upload rate more
fruitful over the next coming months. As
I may have stated, I'm one of those
"do it bulk" kind of guys as
opposed to "teeny little notices
about the weather" chaps.
This picture was originally done as
insurance for a recent commission to
assure the client that she was still in
the loop amidst a busy schedule, which
brings me onto the sad news I said I was
going to mention as hinted in this
picture. I wasn't going to make a massive
Song and Dance Macabre about it persay
but I felt it was necessary to get a few
things off my chest.
While I haven't been left a broken man, I
could want for better over the past 6
months, for I've had to say farewell to a
few people I know. As some of you are
maybe aware, our good buddy Andy Lee made
the decision to take his own life last
November. More details have arisen since
then, and as you can expect with these
tragedies, there seems to be quite a
complex story to pick up on. While we're
not blaming directly the doctor who
treated Andy, Curt and I have expressed
our anger on the therapy system as a
whole who may have had its hand in his
downfall, particularly if it started
pumping him full of the kind of pills
that make you go whacko if you take too
much or too little. Curt can give you a
better story than I can, but suffice to
say it's added another wrinkle onto the
face of my less than sunny opinion of
modern psychiatric therapy. As I said in
a previous Image, Andy, for a chap I
never met face to face, was a most
friendly fellow, and a very promising
Artist who was making quite the progress
in his career, so it's far from the kind
of story I would have like to have seen
cut short.
It didn't end there, unfortunately. About
4 weeks before Christmas, a close friend
of my family, particularly my Mum and Dad
who knew Steve since they were teens, was
taken from this world due to
complications in heart surgery. The guy
may have had diabetes and a heart
condition, but even still he was
hardworking, kept himself active and did
a lot of travelling. He didn't strike me
like a worst case scenario for his
physical condition, yet fate had other
plans. We gave him a bright send off the
week following Christmas into the new
year. As I had known him and the family
since I was a wee lad, another chapter in
the book came to end as Steve made that
journey to the other side, hopefully to
the tune of much reggae, funk, jazz and
soul that himself, Dad and friends enjoy
for all time.
Then, my Gran expired last March. She had
reached the age of 97 and a half, and in
summary, she had simply been "fading
away" in the last month of her life.
She had been dealing with Dementia for
the last 8 years, which again makes this
a rather complicated and touchy story to
discuss. All the same, Gran had led a
long eventful life and was certainly
quite the character that made her mark on
our lives, and because she had been with
us for so long, naturally it was hard to
let go. Her funeral was on a bright sunny
day and was as good as you can expect. It
was overwhelming in the emotion category
for sure, but we were in the company of
our close friends to make us feel rather
loved and merrier in the celebration of
Gran's life.
There's light at the end of the tunnel,
mind you. As of the past month, I've been
made an Uncle. My Big Bro who is doing
well overseas with his lovely Wife has
brought my Niece into the world and what
a bouncy ball of chubby-cheeked cuddles
she's turned out to be! I'll be seeing
them all in the next couple of weeks for
a long deserved break, so I'm sure
looking forward to that.
So that's about it, really. I'm not going
to force feed you some complex circle of
life analogy or how I feel. But I guess
the "close to death" factor,
the new generation to be a role model for
and the fact that I've recently
single-handedly accomplished a good few
personal workloads means I can certainly,
to honour their above memories, push
forward and live life to the fullest.
I just wanted to say thanks again to all
those who stood shoulder to shoulder with
us during these hard times. It's
infinitely much appreciated. Thanks again
as well those sticking with me during my
personal projects. May all your paths be
ones of peace. x x
More updates coming, hopefully next week.
Sandown park Toyfair and Scotland MCM
should hopefully be the next conventions
that I'll be attending.
23/05/2019
Be
there or be Square!
Comics:
Genma Visage Book 1: £7.50
Genma Visage Book 2: £6.50
Genma Visage Book 3: £7.50
Genma Visage: Profane Divinations: £15.00
Genma Visage: The Progeny of Shemsu-Hor
(First Edition): £15.00
Prints:
£5 a print. Including
the "Springfield Warriors" and
"Tyrannical Cryomancy" pieces.
Stock Prints
A4: £2.50 A3:
£3.50
Commissions
Simple / Cartoony
Sketch: £7
Inks: £12 (Per
Additional Character: £7.50)
Colours: £18 (Per
Additional Character: £13)
Detailed / Realistic
Sketch: £12
Inks: £20 (Per
Additional Character: £15)
Colours: £30 (Per
Additional Character: £24)
I'm going to have more info
in a blog next week detailing my recent
happenings. Keep well, guys! x -TomT
18/02/2019:
I've had a bumpy few months
as announced here and there on my
Facebook and D.A. Christmas was otherwise
lovely as always and MCM was Okay. I'm
just dropping this quick message to let
folks know I'm alive and well as evident
in the renewal of my domain. Asides from
the odd snippet I can't really reveal
much of what I'm working on just yet, but
suffice to say when the big update comes,
the hard work will show. Will keep in
touch! x x x -TomT
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