Dredd (all roughs)

Well, these are all really tatty but it's the whole story roughed out. I've got most of the pencils done for four of these pages as well.

pg.1 pg.2
pg.3 pg.4
pg.5 pg.6

This has bumped the last post from top spot - so just to re-iterate, if you are a 2000AD fan and would like to go to a discussion panel in London next Tuesday (with big names like Dave Gibbons attending) - I have a spare front row seat...

2000AD Panel Discussion

I'm going to a discussion about 2000AD next Tuesday (5th Aug 6:10pm) at the bfi's southbank location. There's a link to the event here for reference.

Past and present creators of the galaxy's greatest will be there to discuss the history and future of the comic. Pat Mills, Dave Gibbons and Robbie Morrison are amongst the luminaries reported at 2000AD online...

For uninteresting reasons, I have a spare ticket for a front row seat... If any reader of this blog wants it, you are welcome to it. Just bung me an e-mail and we'll sort something out.

On a slightly related note, I found this picture from the recent San Diego Comic Con on David Bishop's blog earlier in the week.


Simon is sporting a retro-style 2000AD T-shirt. Which is nice, appropriate timing given my Dawn Of The Dredd script and sample pages!

If you're interested in the ticket, e-mail me at:

Thanks.

Dredd (colour rough)

I really did get over excited...



I boosted the levels on the pencil rough in photoshop and then boshed down some very rough colour. I wanted to check that the colour scheme I had in mind would work... I'm tempted to go more silhouette with the zombies , but I quite like the contrast created with the pink foam.

Dredd (cover)

I was floundering a bit on my page layouts and needed to get some focus. My good pal Matt suggested I try a pin-up/cover for the story. Usually, for a sample, they say not to do splashy pin-ups, as editors want to see that you can progress a story sequentially. In my opinion the best 'how to' book for this is Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner but How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way is also pretty good...


I really got into drawing the Zombies on this, had fun with the anatomy - trailing feet and claw-like hands... it helped me put the fun, cartoony element back into my stuff. I'm going to revisit the pencils on page one and two after I have mapped out the next couple of pages. I've knocked this up into a cover with all the logos and title treatment because I got a bit over-excited I'm afraid!

Dredd (page two)

I spent too much time on the layout stage for both pages one and two...


... although, I'm pretty happy with how dynamic this page is after all the establishing stuff in page one.

Dredd (page one)

The more I work on this the more I think I'd really like to try to get some work drawing comics - I think my style is probably suited to that industry... As I mentioned previously I've been working on a Judge Dredd script to draw up.

This was tougher than I expected... probably because I wanted something cool that I felt would represent me and hopefully go part of the way to getting me some work.

Zombies are still pretty vogue (now there's another idea for an illustration!) and having recently watched Shaun of the Dead, I thought I could do a nice cross-over thingy, I believe Simon Pegg is a bit of a 2000ad fan, well you've only got to watch Spaced to figure that out!


Above is the script for page one (click to read), I've made some changes to it in the sketches. I only did what I had to do to get a workable script and I think it's important for me to improve the flow and pace of the story at this stage - I think another draft of the script could do that also, but I'm not trying to get a job writing scripts!


I hate to admit that I'm not sure what my preferred approach is going to be... I sketched the above piece digitally at 133% printed size (the largest that would comfortably fit on A3). Working digitally means that I can move things around easily...
I printed this out and used it as an underlay on my light-box.


This is a composite of the digital work and my pencilled page (scanned back in). I've got the pencils on a nice sheet of Bristol board ready for inking.
I'm intending to get the whole story pencilled before I go to ink because there might be somethings I want to change when I get to the end... hopefully that wouldn't be the case with a professional script!

A Giant's Tale

Just after Christmas I did five illustrations for a book about the fictional life of giants... I was in a bookshop yesterday and found that the book was out on shelf!! From those five illustrations, only two have made it into the final book but if you want to see my first commissioned work in print: The Secret History of Giants is published by Templar Publishing and I am credited here, which is really cool!
...and for those of the curious persuasion, here, in all their glory, are the five illustrations I did!

Giants Playing Quoits

The Giant's Daughter's Wedding and A Giant With A Dragon's Tail

Jack The Giant Killer and The Childe of Hale

It's nice to be in print and especially to be involved in a nice project with a well respected company...

...buuuut, this is the only real work I've had this year...

"Enough" of these Creatures?

These are the rough paintings I did to get the PODZ project going, well before there was any alien element, there were these unlikely animal hybrids... you might have seen the Poison Tree Panda before.

©Marketing and Promotional Services Ltd.

I'm short of new work as I've just completed some stuff I'm not allowed to show. In any spare moments I have had, I've been working on a Judge Dredd sample script that I'll be drawing up over the coming week or so.

I hate to leave the blog stagnant for too long without there being some change at the top and I hope these are enough to keep it moving!

The Watchmaker Cometh

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy - OH BOY!


No your eyes are not deceiving you, that's Dr. Manhattan! I found this link for the first WATCHMEN trailer over on David Bishop's blog

CHECK IT OUT <<<<< clicky for trailer

Seriously excited! I know I'm not alone in being a huge fan of this book. I still have a residue of trepidation about comic to movie transitions - but really how wrong can they get it? From Alan Moore's highly descriptive script to Dave Gibbon's awesomely cinematic art... there can be no excuses, and from this trailer it looks like they'll not need them.

Billy Crudup looks great as Dr. Manhattan and the intrinsic field separator scene is just jaw dropping.

I'm not going to say all the usual nerdy stuff about how long I've been waiting and how many times I've read it - All I will say is that if you haven't read it, then that is like disregarding Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson because you don't really read adventure stories - Buy it and read it before the movie comes out - you need to.

The official Watchmen website has been updated (you can see the trailer in a variety of resolutions there) and there's also a pretty interesting interview with Dave Gibbons in the Production Diary section too!

Comic Relief...

The brilliant comic artist Chris Weston has just put a post about little old me on his blog (Hello if you have travelled to me from there). I feel truly humbled by his kind words! If you haven't come from there, you need to check out his stuff. He's recently completed a very nice Judge Death Pin-up and that together with his posting about me has a nice kind of synergy to it as I have been thinking about trying to get some comics work.

I used to be an avid fan of 2000ad and Judge Dredd. I collected it almost religiously from prog 425 and even bought vast numbers of back issues.

I kind of lost track around 2001 but I've seen some amazing work being produced for it currently. So much so that I'm inspired to try to get involved. In order to get some work doing comics, I first need to show that I can do sequential art, I was looking for a script to simply draw up, but couldn't find anything on the web. I have finally surrendered to the inevitable and started to write a script of my own...



... but in the meantime, I've been sketching old Judge Joe Dredd. I haven't drawn the jaw in such a long time and I wasn't sure how I wanted my interpretation of Mega-City One's top lawman to look. Do I want a more cartoony Mike McMahon look? I know I couldn't do a Brian Bolland and I'm not as out-there as Simon Bisley. Glenn Fabry, Steve Dillon and Ian Gibson were all heros of mine also... but in the end I think I need to go my own way, taking all the things I like (and think I'm capable of) into account!

The sketch above took about 45mins and then about another 10 or 15 for the typography (all digital). Yes clearly it's a pastiche of the much imitated Lord Kitchener poster and probably needs quite a lot of work to make it work as a stand alone image.

Illustration Friday - "Foggy"

Rainy, foggy, ah, sue me... the background is quite foggy though!

This piece was done to accompany a story in a magazine. Not my usual style I know, but if that's what people want to pay me to produce - who am I to argue?

Han & Chewie

I took the Han Solo I did previously, gave him a body and added his old pal Chewbacca... This is another reasonably rough digital sketch for fun.

The poses were taken from some old Episode IV publicity shots I found floating around on the web. I love Chewie's vaguely knock-kneed apathy compared to Harrison's cock-sure hero stance.

I'd really like to see the adventures of Han and Chewie (before they got involved with that Skywalker boy) as opposed to the stuff that Lucasfilm seems to be producing currently. I don't know whether I'll go and see The Clone Wars and I'm not holding my breath for the Star Wars TV series coming sometime around 2011!

The Adventures of Han Solo and Chewbacca...

Come on George, dig around in your beard for some old space-pirate tales, you know it makes sense!

And The Award Goes To...

Thanks to Matt Dawson for nominating me for a weblog award... check out the seven lucky bloggers who he's nominated for this fuzzy-feeling accolade over on his blog... and spare a few moments also to pop onto his newly revamped website - I think you'll be glad you did.

I don't normally indulge in circular/chain type things, but this seems like something to not simply ignore.

I'm not going to continue this any further than to simply direct you some of many of the blogs I find myself going to more often... and please do also check out my links (if you haven't already done so) as all of them deserve awards too.

• Alina Chau
• Bad Librarian
• Chris Weston
• David Bishop
• Digital Scott
• Friday Frog
• Joshua Middleton
• Ken Anderson
• Rufus Dayglo
• Sean Phillips

Illustration Friday - "Sour"

Quick digital sketch for the topic on Illustration Friday this week.


Who's a sour puss?

Taormina Time...

Just about managed to get this out this week... by the skin of my teeth!!


I'm reasonably happy with how this episode turned out. Especially the stone head in the second illustration, see the sneak peek above! Then head on over to my Taormina blog for the full episode!

I noticed really early on that the format of the blog really doesn't work with how you'd naturally read the story (if you're reading it for the first time) but until I do a dedicated website for it, it'll have to do!