Sláine and Ukko

Been sketching Vikings all day today (for a strip I'm doing) and I strayed a little too far into Barbarian territory... Sláine - 2000AD's answer to Conan seemed to emerge on the page before me.


I was really chuffed with this quick 10 minute sketch, because there is something of the relationship between Sláine and his dwarf Ukko. I probably won't do anything with this but I think it's pretty much how I see Sláine.

Batman 181 - Recovered

Been working on another cover recreation... but for a couple of reasons I don't want to show it just yet...
Here is the refresh for the Batman logo to go with it though.


...and here is my copy of the original from June 1966 with art by Infantino and Anderson. Just so you have some idea of what you're in for when the time comes!

Spider-man 04 - Final!

Re-worked, re-coloured and re-presented! I give you Recurrent, my Spider-man story!



I'm pretty happy with these now... Nice that I've done all of it myself too, there's a sense of achievement in that!

Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

I've been asking myself questions about these samples; Am I getting closer to the standard necessary for a comic book artist? Are these worth submitting to Panini, the UK publisher for Marvel characters or should I keep hold of them and try to show them at the upcoming Birmingham convention? Can I indeed submit them to Tharg, even though they are not his characters?
My gut feel answers to those questions are; probably, it might prove most useful to get feedback face to face and no, not really.

Next up is a Batman piece I've been casually sketching things for - then it's some strip work for the Zarjaz guys... busy, busy, busy!

Zarjaz T-shirts

Want to look Zarjaz at BICS? I'm hoping to produce some T-shirts featuring the new logo I designed for the 2000AD fanzine.


There is a choice of colours and for £11.50 + P&P you can grab yourself a bargain T-shirt!
Please e-mail me, or leave a comment if you are interested... deadline for pre-orders is Friday 28th August.


S (35/37")   M (38/40")   L (41/43")   
XL (44/46")   XXL (47/49")   3XL (50/52")
Nice quality Fruit of the Loom 205gsm T-shirts with a two-colour screen print.

Spider-man 03 - Re-worked

Due to some comments and advice I received via the shiny new sub-section of the 2000AD forum, I have reworked two panels from the Spider-man pages...



Page one, panel one, a more insect-y (and dynamic) Spider-man pose, I think it will require a bit more work before inking though...
Page two, panel one, MJ's arm was a bit stunted previously, this was a simple fix in photoshop.

Spider-man 02 - Final?

As already indicated, DrawerGeeks topic is Spider-man.



I think it's fair to say that I jumped in the deep end... I had to rush the colours a bit to get it finished... They're ok for my submission deadline, but if I want to show these pages at the Birmingham convention they'll need a bit of work to bring them up to standard at actual size!

Spider-man 02 - Inks

I'm pretty happy with these pages. Gonna colour them now, hopefully have them done fairly swiftly...



There's just one thing that's bugging me, now I see it on screen - MJ on page two, panel three, looks like she doesn't have enough neck - which is really irritating... I hope I can correct this in photoshop by moving her head.

Here are the tightened pencils also...

   

Spider-man 01

The next topic for DrawerGeeks is Spider-man. I've not only gone overboard on this, I've taken a whole life raft with me (and we've both got carried away!). Yes, I've scripted, sketched and provisionally lettered this two-page strip. These are the pencil roughs ready to tighten-up. I've got a lot to do before Friday as I want this fully coloured for submission also!


If you'd rather wait for the final lettered strip to appreciate the thing in full, please look away now!



I think it's pretty clear what's going on - just a little gag suggested by Matt.

I wanted some strip work other than Dredd and 2000Ad related stuff in my (comics) portfolio - hopefully I'll get to show this at the Birmingham International Comics Show this year. My heart is definitely still in 2000AD, but I need to consider other avenues and Spidey has always been one of my other favourites.

Warm-up Sketches

Not much to say really. I've been working on pose, attitude and dynamism in my sketchbook.


I like the immediacy of the happen-stance composition of this trio. If I could get the essence of this into my strip work, I'd be well happy!

Camelyena

I've been off for a few days and I'm back a little more refreshed than when I left and definitely ready to get stuck into the pile of things I now have to catch up on.
The 'Twisted Creatures' or the examples of 'Darwin's Worst Evolutionary Nightmare' continue unabated with the current animal being the Hyena. Matt and Phil have both completed their wonderful versions already.


Matt has nominated the Camel for the next animal for our respective treatments. I hope Matt and Phil won't mind that this little cheat will modify the two creatures into one submission. It also fits Illustration Friday's current topic of modify.

Mixing the body of the Camel with the head of the Hyena has come up with something truly bizarre - but there is something I like about it. With a bit more work I think this could easily work as one of the 'genetically modified' Podz creatures I worked on before I was a freelancer.

I guess it falls to me to nominate the next animal - unless I've been disqualified!
Next creature: Salamander