It was official last week, Stan! of The Games Mechanics has thrust upon me another 1.5 pages of illustrations to be done for the d20 Future Player’s Companion. I’m very excited about this, and like the previous batch of work I’ll do my best to give them their money’s worth. To clarify: TGM will be publishing short three e-books in a series in the middle of this year. Later this year, Green Ronin will be publishing a hard copy book consisting of the three e-books. Imagine that. My science fiction artwork on actual printed pages that people will have to buy to see. I can’t wait to add these illustrations to my gallery. Hopefully I’ll get consistent work from other publishers as well. Another thing I have to look out for is an efficient way to transfer funds from the publisher to me, that wouldn’t be difficult to manage for […]
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Sila Blogging?
Hisham has officially invited me to be a co-blogger on this site! Thanks Yope!!! Please forgive my non-professional looking beginnings. I will endeavour to get up to speed and will be blogging like a pro before too long (i hope!). Again, thanks yope for the opportunity to share this space.
Continue readingDaniel Falconer Fan Blog
When I first joined the Holonet Forums and SWAG, I met one Daniel Falconer online. Eventually I learnt that this well-mannered, down-to-earth, and extremely talented man worked at quite a respectable place, to put it mildly. His SWAG gallery is nothing short of impressive! Now it seems that he has discovered that there exists a fan blog on the internet dedicated to himself! Check out Daniel Falconer Forever. If anyone deserves a fan blog, it’s Daniel.
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My First Freelance Job With An RPG Company
Ever since I got this computer right here four years ago, the one I’m using to type in this entry, I have been developing a portfolio and sending them to companies for freelance work. An industry I have always wanted to work on is the role-playing game industry. There is a list of companies that I send my portfolio to every year, in a cycle. Most ignore my e-mails. Some like Chaosium wrote back with polite rejection letters. Very rarely, I get an e-mail asking for a quotation like the one from Final Sword Productions. But so far, I’ve not getting any hits from any of the gaming companies. Last week, it all changed. Thanks to my good friend Gary Astleford, Stan! from The Game Mechanics contacted me with work. As of today, I am officially working on 6 quarter-page black and white illustrations for Future Player’s Companion, written by […]
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A New Location for the Blog!
So, here we are at the new server. To be precise, at https://www.hishgraphics.com/. Okay, now why did you just hit the link? You know you’ll end up right back on the blog’s index page. Now I have this webspace all to myself, what (you might ask) am I going to do with it? Watch this space for the news in the near future.
Continue readingKLIA June 2005
Their time in Malaysia had come and gone. Vin and Sila left the country, back to their own lives in the United States last night. It had been a fantastic month, and we were all saddened by their having to leave. Irfan, on the other hand, took it well. Even after the evening claiming his Ayah Cik’s luggage as his own, Irfan waved his goodbye to my sister and brother-in-law without any fuss. Even this morning, when I asked him, “Ayak Cik mana? (Where’s Ayah Cik?)” Irfan cheerily replied, “Ayah Cik naik kapal terbang. (Ayah Cik got onto an aircraft.)” Here are pictures from last night sad event. [[image:depart1.jpg:How do I sneak this baggage away from them?:inline:0]] [[image:depart2.jpg:Quickly! Before anyone notices me:inline:0]] [[image:depart3.jpg:Abah & Mak trying to figure out Irfan’s plan:inline:0]] [[image:depart4.jpg:Vin & Sila at the check-in counter:inline:0]] [[image:depart5.jpg:Group Photo of the Ladies:inline:0]] [[image:depart6.jpg:Group Photo of the Ladies,… and Vin:inline:0]] […]
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A Stay At The Hilton: Another Photojournal
For the last year or so, after sending Irfan to day care, we drive to work together. After the construction of Hilton KL Sentral, we drive past it every morning. Sometimes we wonder if we would ever get a chance to spend a night at the newest and state-of-the-art hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Then suddenly last week, newly-weds Sila and Vin booked us on what would be a 2 night stay there. After their honeymoon in Redang we were to rendezvous with them at KL Sentral. Soon after, we were enjoying the air-conditioned, luxurious rooms of the hotel. Here are pictures from our awesome stay at the Hilton. Here we are settling down into the hotel room. Irfan warmed up to the bathtub immediately. He had to have his Ayah Cik Vin around for him to fill up the tub with tepid water, before he takes a dip in it […]
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Revenge Of The Sith Review… Sort Of…
After having been released for exactly a week, I finally saw Star Wars Episode III – Revenge of the Sith today. Well, not me alone, I was accompanied by my cohort, Irfan! Yes, true believers. There was a 2 years 8 month old child today in the theatre watching a movie that was rated PG-13 by the MPAA, but “U” by some sleepy guy in a drab office in charge of rating English movies in Malaysia. Bite me, you over-sensitive, politically correct whiners! So, I guess it’s time of me to review this movie. Before you let out another collective “not- another- internet- review- of- ROTS” sigh, I am very much aware that almost every guy with a blog and their one-legged puppy has reviewed ROTS this past week when I was in Sitiawan, so I’m not going to review ROTS. Instead, I will review the experience of watching Irfan […]
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Batman: Laughing at the Joker’s Boner
Taking a break from Sila’s wedding, let us now read on the subject of comics. Specifically, DC’s Batman’s comics. It’s nothing to do with the Warner Animation’s excellent animated series, nor will we be talking about Christian Bale in the upcoming Batman Begins… Instead, let’s take a look back at the time when Batman and most probably the entire Gotham City laughed at Joker’s boner. Yes, you heard me. The Joker’s boner! (By way of the Accordion Guy.)
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Sila’s Wedding: A Photojournal
Herein lies a selection of pictures of Sila & Vin’s wedding.
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Prelude To A Wedding, Part 2
So on Tuesday Vin had to be at PERKIM for a crash course at 10 am. At the same time, Sila’s Marriage Course cert has to be retrieved. With Ain at work, we sent Irfan to day care at his Opah Cik Timah’s. The remaining members of the squad split up. I drove Vin & Sila to PERKIM while Emma went to get the certificate. At PERKIM, we met Arab-born, Indian educated Brother Sayid, whom Sila & I thought would have made a better Islamic studies teacher than most of the ustaz we had in secondary school, and especially boarding school. Return to Sitiawan: First Sortie Ain & I were considering the idea of me driving Vin & Sila back to Sitiawan Tuesday afternoon to help with the transporting of their bags, which would be inconvenient for them to bring back on a bus. So, we decided that I should […]
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Prelude To A Wedding, Part 1
The last seven days have been a great experience. Sila and Vin were in Kuala Lumpur manoeuvring through some red tape and purchasing wedding items. Both were of course ably aided by Irfan, his Aunt Emma, Ain and I. We were like a squad of soldiers moving through military manoeuvres timing each other, splitting up at some points to cover more ground. Thus we were kept busy and on our toes at all times. Irfan helped too? Well, he’s mostly in the entertainment department, cracking us up with his antics, including Vin. We tried to teach him to call him Ayah Cik to no avail for quite a few days. But he did like to lie down beside him with his balloon, and spend some time in the pool with him. Meeting Darth Vader Saturday afternoon the whole bunch of us, excluding Sila went to MPH Mid Valley Megamall. We […]
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Hishgraphics: The Name
Why Hishgraphics? It’s a given that my name is Hisham and I do some (if not an unholy amount of) art in the last few years. Why not “Hisham Graphics”? Or “HishArt”? Or as was labeled on my old extinct e-mail marketing flyer, “Khairul Hisham Illustrations”? (Or my perennial favourite Exploding Toilets Sdn Bhd… don’t ask.) I chose “Hish” specifically because I’ve grown fond of what the guys over at the Holonet and SWAG usually call me, over instant messaging. (I have no idea how it will sound if someone verbally calls me that; no one has ever done so.) Graphics, because… because…. honestly I have no clue why I chose “graphics”. I’ve used “Hishgraphics” on two occasions in the past: the GeoCities site where my general artwork is on display, and this free hosting site at orgfree where you’re reading this article, and I’ve grown used to it that […]
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Platinum Grit
Kris Vanderwater, a great web programmer and 3D modeller, introduced me to Platinum Grit, a awesome Australian webcomic by Trudy Cooper and Danny Murphy. There’s no fantasy some elements of fantasy, no science-fiction a weird alien abduction issue which just defies description, no breaking-the-fourth-wall humour, and no references to video games at all 😉 … just stories about normal (but quirky) relationship between three main characters, Kate, Nils and Jeremy and some hints a fair bit of neuroses (especially masochism on Jeremy’s part). The issue which chronicles Nils and Jeremy’s first meeting features a good deal of turtles exploding, laying waste to a zoo, and breaking the sanity of a zoo-keeper which will return to haunt Jeremy in a later issue. Supporting characters include Jeremy’s wrinkly Aunt Lottie (a far bit of perseverance needed to decipher her thick Scottish brogue), a Jamaican-accented cupboard, Arthur the pig and Zeigfried. I’m still […]
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KLIA May 2005
11.15 pm was Sila and Vin’s arrival time at KLIA from Cincinnati, by way of LA and Incheon. We went with two cars, because Sila’s message was quite explicit: “Need empty car boots, we got lots of bags”… or something to that effect. Here are the pictures of the KLIA excursion, which was a fun excursion. Heading back home, all the cars experienced various technical problems… at about 1.00 am. My car tyre’s sidewall bulged threatening us with a flat in the middle of nowhere, Abah’s car’s radiator red-lined and driver’s door window got stuck in the down position…. Those weren’t fun.
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Irfan As A Star Wars Planet
Irfan has a planet officially named after him in the Star Wars universe. Specifically, a gas giant in the Vaxal system. Third planet of the system, with seven moons orbiting it. How did it come about, you ask? Thanks to a friend of mine named Gary Astleford, a freelance game writer. He landed a gig writing a Star Wars RPG article for Paizo Publishing’s Dungeon / Polyhedron Magazine (Issue 106, cover date January 2004) and he asked me if he could use Irfan’s name in the article. So, now Irfan is an official planet in the Star Wars universe, since Paizo Publishing at that time is a Lucasfilm licensee for Star Wars RPG along with Wizards of the Coast for the d20 incarnation of the game. Yay. Here’s the scan from the part of the magazine with his name on it. Thanks Uncle Gary.
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