DrawerGeeks - Dragon

The new topic on DrawerGeeks is Dragon.

I'm supposed to be packing the house up for our upcoming move...


...but I found 25 minutes to take part. I'd normally have loved to get all involved doing a lovely fantasy dragon. I nearly drew Bruce Lee, but in the end humour won out, and you have the submission above.

I'm in 2000AD!

A letter I wrote a letter to Tharg and it was printed in this week's 2000AD!



Wahoo! I'm in the prog! Another step in the right direction.

Cornering Tharg

Yesterday was the bumper 2000AD signing at Forbidden Planet in London to support the release of David Bishop's Thrill-Power Overload in paperback. I dutifully got a copy signed by the the gang of charming creators (affectionately known as 'droids') who were in attendance.

My thanks for pleasant chatettes go to: Dan Abnett, David Bishop, Simon Davis, Rufus Dayglo, Al Ewing, Henry Flint, Frazer Irving, Tony Lee, Brendan McCarthy, Matt Smith and Si Spurrier. Particular thanks to Simon in fact for looking at my work, claiming to know me from somewhere but mainly for being ego boosting about my artwork - charming fellow!

Once again I showed my work to Tharg - poor man hemmed in by my portfolio, a table and a rack of books (not to mention the other fans of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic) - I left him no where to go...
...He was once again very kind about my story telling and complimentary about certain other aspects of my work, although he didn't think I was exactly suited to Dredd, he told me to e-mail him my samples. No promise of work but a major step forward!

On friday I had managed to bash out this extra page of finished pencils.


I don't think it helped much other than I felt I had enough in my porfolio to show what I could do with a script. Look out for a subtle Police Academy reference on this page.

I'm not sure how close I am to having my work printed in 2000AD but a letter I sent in is printed in this week's prog... more on that when I pick up my copy in the week!

Judge Dredd - Informant 4.1

I've not had time to do any comic art for such a long time. This weekend there is a 2000AD signing at Forbidden Planet in London... another chance, perhaps, to shove my work under the nose of the Mighty Tharg. Today I had a brief window in my schedule, so I thought I'd redraw the panels that irked me on page 4 of the Judge Dredd script I was working on so long ago.


I am much happier with this page now. Panels 2, 4 and 7 were a little weak previously... I'd never expect that anyone would remember the originals so here are both versions side by side for reference:


Whatever I manage to do tomorrow to prepare will be a bonus - in amongst other commitments and the house move I'll be surprised if I finish much more than pencils for the remaining pages in the script.

Wish me luck, friends, as I once again prepare myself to wrestle with that Betelgeusian Editor and try to persuade him to give me a chance to work on the Galaxy's Greatest Comic!

Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD

The Old Tree

Another illustration from Tales of Terror for Cambridge University Press. Well, the background to one anyway.


Quite pleased with this - most of the illustrations I've done recently for Cambridge University Press have turned out quite well. There has been a lot of things I have struggled to get right, but somehow that increases the satisfaction when you've finished and you're happy with the results.

This is all painted digitally in photoshop, over quite a loose sketch. I've got a couple of custom brushes that behave slightly unpredictably and they've given this a mixed natural media feel - well I think so.

10 minute Dredd

The 2000ad web forum has a topic going at the moment - a quick challenge to sketch Judge Dredd's head in under 15minutes... the idea being to see which classic Dredd artist you think you're trying to emulate.



I don't know who I'd say I was trying to emulate with my Dredd but my favourite Dredd artists as a kid were always Brian Bolland, Steve Dillon, Mike McMahon, Carlos Ezquerra and Ian Gibson.

Cambridge Smorgasbord?

I thought I'd share three other illustrations that I've done for Cambridge University Press in Madrid. All done for books in their Discovery Readers range, the first two are from Tasty Tales.

This first one is a kind of Harry Potter styled kid with whiskers...


sketches:


tighter pencils:


This next one is a nice, tasty, Full English Breakfast... in its natural environment - a seaside B&B!


sketches:


tighter pencils:


... and this one comes from Tales of Terror and is from an adaption of the Edgar Allen Poe story The Tell Tale Heart.


sketches:


tighter pencils:


Hope you enjoyed seeing these - I've got a few more to do which should be good and I'll share a couple of those when they're complete too.