Well, thanks to my great friend, Ian Gould of Ace Comics & Games in Brisbane, I’ll be attending with my writing partner on The Last Realm, Pat McNamara, next month’s Supanova, http://www.supanova.com.au, in Brisbane. We’ll be doing signings of the The Last Realm – Dragonscarpe, and I’ll be bringing up extra copies of Girls From Line To Color and Lost in Space: VTTBOTS.

So look for us on the Ace Comics & Games stand. We’ll be there both days. It’s also a bit of a family trip, because I will be accompanied by my niece Aislinn, a uni student and a very talented aspiring writer, and we will be staying with my sister.

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Here in my little corner of Terra Firma, we have just emerged from the longest Autumn heatwave on record – and I am, as usual, monstrously busy on Book 2 of the big Fantasy project, The Last Realm – Dragonscarpe, that has taken up most of the last few years of my life.

I am also very happy to announce, that Book 1 is finally going on sale, and the publisher Angel Phoenix (www.angelphoenix.com) is gearing up their marketing machine. Websites have been updated – promo trailers have been put together – and review copies are being sent to all corners of the globe. I have been deluged with talk of viral marketing, youtube, facebook, myspace, vuze and I’m sure there was more – it’s all very new compared to the way other projects I have worked on in the past have been launched.

Here are some links to the new Video Trailer for the book.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6JRRz94TXc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCaH9lzLQTw

http://www.vuze.com/details/RNXTECSK4XKX37YXIPYPDUEXJQH6JQAH.html

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All the Best, and may this year be one of exciting adventures and dreams fulfilled!

It is titled: GIRLS FROM LINE TO COLOR, and it is subtitled THE INKS AND THE PENCILS BEHIND THE FANTASY PAINTINGS OF MICHAL DUTKIEWICZ. 48 pages of beautiful, eye-popping, Full-Colour pieces, interspersed with some works in their early-stage tonal or line art form, showing how I developed the digital colour stages. This project will have far more broad-based appeal than a How-To, with elements of an autobiography, some tutorial-style Information and some curious tips and insights into the thought processes and emotions that went into the pieces. But the project is going to look pretty unique. The production values will be very good – and excitingly, I have been given the great privilege of designing the book myself. I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Bob Keegan and Sal Quartuccio with the cover design.

The book started as a dream – to present pin-up material in a way that wasn’t as cut-and-dried. Something that would have interest and relevance to a broader audience, be fun and somewhat insightful with reference to how, what and why I do what I do and to basically be a damned good coffee table browse. I plan for each book in the series to have a slightly different focus, and I will be releasing one a year if all goes well. The first volume should be out before the end of February in comic book stores and so forth, or you can order it online from SQP, or other good online book stores.
So why did I think this book was important? Over the years that I have been an artist/illustrator, I’ve dabbled in many areas, mediums and styles. I’ve used pencils, oil paints, gouache, collage, frottage, scraperboard, airbrush, cut-outs, computers, ink, brushes, pens, and so on. I’ve painted houses, stage scenery, built model sets for miniature photography, painted abstract and surrealist and optical art. I’ve been asked to do the widest range of commercial imagery – erotica, hardware catalogues, political and editorial cartoons, menu covers, business cards, labels and letterheads, calendars, displays of biological, historical and palaeontological visualizations for museums, health brochures and CD Roms, music and movie posters and film and TV concept work, childrens’ books, comic books and more recently – Pin-Up Girls. But by far the biggest revelations in my life, in terms of art techniques and materials, paradoxically, are light years apart in terms of techniques required for their mastery, their technologies and their applications. They are: Pencils and Computers!

From my first attempts, some seven years ago, to scan in and digitally color my images, I found I was perplexed and fascinated about how to exploit the rich and tantalizing possibilities of both media. I wanted not only to give both free rein, but also to try to blend the two, aesthetically if not seamlessly. Although this book is more personal than technical in emphasis, I sincerely hope that you will find it useful and enjoyable.
The book started as a dream – to present pin-up material in a way that wasn’t as cut-and-dried. Something that would have interest and relevance to a broader audience, be fun and somewhat insightful with reference to how, what and why I do what I do and to basically be a damned good coffee table browse. I plan for each book in the series to have a slightly different focus, and I will be releasing one a year if all goes well. The first volume should be out before the end of February in comic book stores and so forth, or you can order it online from www.sqpinc.com or other good online book stores.