Judge Dredd Movie Still

So the first image of Karl Urban as Judge Dredd has been released and we're less than a week into filming...


There's been mainly a positive reaction, but I'm all kinds of excited about this, just great news for the comic.

This is a really quick and possibly wrong extrapolation of what I think we are looking at in the still.


I also think the respirator will pull down to create a fully enclosed helmet as per the inset... don't know about the mechanics of it, but it'll look pretty cool, certainly quite menacing if Dredd was striding out of some gas-filled underpass.

Thought I'd just share (again) my speculative concept from Feb 09... I think what we've got is a lot better than that... although there are lots of similarities.

The Dredagle Tattoo

What do you see first?


Judge Dredd or an Eagle?

Last year, Mike from the 2000ad forum asked for someone to design him a Judge Dredd Eagle tattoo... I had a go at designing something for him and this was one he chose from several options I showed him:


He tweaked it a little from the originals:


All was well until recently. Before taking the plunge and permanently marking himself, he asked for some last minute opinions... a wise decision as it turns out!
As soon as the word Nazi was mention, I did a quick google image search for "Nazi Eagle" and was thoroughly shocked to discover that I had inadvertently designed something that was pretty close to one of their emblems... I immediately offered to design something else for Mike.


I began by sketching ideas out and very quickly hit on the Eagle-head & wings forming the visor section of Dredd's helmet (bottom right above). It was serendipity I reckon, to have created Dredd's visage and an Eagle in one emblem, I was pretty chuffed.
Before showing anything to Mike, I worked in photoshop and created the top left one below.

Mike asked for some alternatives, possibly with Dredd's badge or with the Eagle's legs (top middle and top right) but I didn't like that it made Dredd look like Chad and a bit beard-y respectively).



After this, Mike decided that he like to see some alternatives based upon my original again, but trying to work more of the Eagle's chest into the design. I showed Mike a few more variations than I've shown in the middle row above. There was a bit more discussion before I presented the final two in the bottom row. He selected the one at the top of the posting and we're gathering opinions now before Mike does actually go ahead and get himself branded!

The Red Dragon

Page 33 of Fractal Friction is up.


It features a massive Red Dragon... you know what to do!

Judge Dredd Movie Poster

A long time between posts... and I really can't remember what has kept me away so long! This post is my 300th, by the way!


This month's art competition on the 2000ad forum is to design a poster for the upcoming Dredd movie. I'm supposed to be working on a multitude of other things, and so this concept that I had been noodling with probably won't get finished more than this.

Sketchup Lawmaster

I've known about Google sketchup for a while and I've done nothing about learning how to use it, despite having heard pretty good things... that changed last week when I saw an amazing job that Richard Smith did using it to model a spaceship called the Terrapin (see Richard's website for more of his illustration work). The Terrapin is for a strip he is working on for a forthcoming issue of FutureQuake and looks awesome and I was inspired to learn more!


After asking Richard whether he thought it was worth learning how to use Sketchup, (a resounding yes), I decided I would spend a bit of time trying to get to grips with it. There are some limitations but I managed to build Judge Dredd's Lawmaster (his bike) and I'm not unhappy with the results... I will build a few other things and hopefully it will help greatly with that Dredd strip I'm doing for Zarjaz with Lee Robson.


I have to say, I'm thoroughly impressed with sketchup and for a FREE and EASY 3D package I can see no downside, especially when you can export animations that you can use to show others around the models you have built. So, can I recommend it? On Monday I had no idea how to create things in 3D that I could then use to plan scenes and things... and now I have a new and powerful tool in my skill set! So, I can strongly recommend it, well worth the time spent I think!

The General

Here is a character design for something that's coming up soon. I don't want to say more than that as it'll spoil the surprise! In fact, so much so, that I've edited the art as the old general here was holding something that might have given the game away - please forgive the shoddily drawn insertion of Grandpa's old service revolver as a replacement.


Stuff I can't really talk about has rendered this blog a bit inactive of late, but I'm hopefully going to get back to laying out the rough pencils for Corvus in the next couple of days and I think there'll be some bits I can show from that.

Kerayzee G-Raff

Matt and Phil have done their versions of the Giraffe in our not-so-regular warping of various creatures.
Here's my effort - a quick sketch with an almost alien vibe, but it feels too similar to our existing Earth species to really qualify as 'twisted'... Giraffe, or JarJar, you decide...


In other news, a thread was started about me on the 2000ad forum... I'm touched and humbled by some very kind comments that I shall endeavour to deserve!

Two Year Review

Two years ago, yesterday, I left the job I had as a promotional toy designer. The aim had been to build a new career as a freelance illustrator and move to Cambridge. To be honest, I wasn't quite sure if I could make it work, or whether I'd be happy.
The world economy collapsed almost simultaneously, I couldn't have picked a worse time to try to make a go of a new business...
Later in the year, I realised that I wanted to draw comics, a forgotten dream-job of mine from about the age of 12. Given the state of that industry though, I wasn't making it any easier for myself.


Just over a year ago, I produced the above piece as a warm-up for the Red Dragon strip the fantastic guys at FutureQuake had asked me to do for the 2000AD fanzine Zarjaz. Since then I have done a few more strips for their fanzines and that has led to some VERY interesting opportunities, without which, well, you know the rest!

It's been a very eventful time. I've done quite a few freelance commissions. I have moved to Cambridge. I'm poised to begin my career as a professional Comic book artist too. Although it's been hard work and whilst it would be easier if I had more regular paid work coming in... you know what? I think I am happy!

Evil Genius

The new DrawerGeeks topic is 'Evil Genius'. This was loads and loads of fun with stacks of possibilities. I thought about the classic Donald Pleasance Bond villian and Mike Myers' Dr.Evil that was spawned by him. I thought about Ming the merciless and other such Sci-Fi villains... I thought about Dick Dastardly, The Hooded Claw, Baron Greenback and Dr. Frankenstein... I was tempted to revisit some old ground too.



What have I come up with then? Only a rough sketch, but one that I'm pleased seems to capture the essence of a lot of those characters mentioned above, but it also owes something to Braniac from Superman and Dr. Emit Brown from Back to the Future for the hat thing.

I'd have loved to have a bit more time to work this up, design a proper lair and possibly a henchman or two in the background too, alas time she was a cruel mistress and for now this is where I must leave it.

Oh, and one last thing:
Mwhah-ha-ha-ha-ha-haaaaaaa!

Hubba Hubba Hubba!

Quick sketch for a project I'm thinking of submitting something to. It depends whether I can make this concept work as to whether I bother or not. What you've got here is a B-movie sci-fi spoof, a silly alien monster, and a sexy astronaut lady.


What more could you want? That's a rhetorical question by the way!

I'm thinking of having it as a B-Movie poster like this one from all the way back when I started this blog (my second ever post).

As The Crow Flies

Time to reveal some pretty hot news that I've been semi-sitting on since BICS. I'm going to be working on a Graphic Novel for Insomnia Publications with Rich Clements and you can read the official announcement on their blog.


Shown here are a couple of character design sketches... there will undoubtedly be more in the coming months. You won't need to make a note of the name: Corvus, because you'll be hearing it a LOT!


As of this moment on, I can legitimately call myself a Comic Artist - Yay! Suffice to say, I'm a bit excited about this.

Salamander

Another one of those creatures I've been doing semi-occasionally with Matt and Phil...
My Salamander is not really twisted at all... I wanted to treat this one very graphically to see what would happen... possibly with a view to developing some T-Shirt designs.


Phil's already done his push-me-pull-you styled take on it, but Matt is very busy on some other projects right now - no pressure buddy, it'll keep!

A Little Joker

If you've been paying attention, you might remember the Harley Quinn I did a while ago as a guest post on Scotch Corner.
I'm working on a (sort of) companion piece and this is an element that I've produced based on an old ink sketch I did circa July 2002.


No prizes for guessing the subject of the new piece... it wasn't something I was planning on, but a sketch I did yesterday afternoon grabbed my attention and seemed a really good way to properly kick-start the back-to-work discipline I need.

Judge Dredd and Tweak

One of my all time favourite Dredd world characters appeared during Judge Dredd's first epic adventure The Cursed Earth which ran way back in progs 61-85 over thirty years ago. The character was Tweak, an alien who ate rocks and read minds...


There is a scene where Tweak looks like he is about to crush Dredd's head like a melon in a vice - but he is simply reading Dredd, to see if he can be trusted.

Zarjaz 08

Way back in February, I did this warm-up piece for a strip I was going to be doing for Zarjaz. I can now reveal that the strip is called Red Dragon. Red Dragon is a Welsh superhero from the Zenith universe created by Grant Morrison.

I was particularly excited that this was going to be my first published strip, as I have been a fan of Zenith since it first appeared in 2000AD over 20 years ago.

Issues of Zarjaz containing my strip will be available soon... see here and don't forget I've got something coming up in Dogbreath too, you can pre-order both of these awesome fanzines soon via the same link! Please do help to support these fanzines as they are non-profit ventures and without them it would be far more difficult to begin a career in comics.

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.

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

Sun Wukong (Monkey)

Well, more Monkey. I really shouldn't have found this brilliant topic as torturous as it has been.
I think it's a fairly common phenomenon. Given a job/topic that you'd love to do and do well - there is a tendency for the creativity to freeze up on you. A psychological road-block that gets in the way of you and the destination you'd hoped to arrive at. I think you need to keep going though - being a professional dictates that you can't just give up entirely. By taking a couple of detours, you might not end up where you thought you'd like to go, but the journey will have been interesting and you might end up somewhere just as good.



And with that word "journey" in mind. Sun Wukong is the traditional name for the character "Monkey" from 'Journey to the West', an old Chinese legend. Popularized in the 70s by the classic TV show "Monkey Magic" and then again in recent years by Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett's stage adaptation.

I'm fairly happy with the treatment and approach to this, albeit a reasonably straight copy of the TV show's. My inked sketch, quickly coloured in photoshop would serve as a character design for a more dynamic martial art style action pose, but time has run out on me, so this will be my submission for DrawerGeeks this time round.

Joker - ambigram

Been mucking about with the Harley Quinn card background and obviously, she'll be on a 'joker' background. The thing with playing cards is the topsy-turvy thing. I've played about with ambigrams before but it struck me that there was a pretty good reason to have one here.


Now look at it upside-down, careful you don't crick your neck though!

Twisted Toucan

Well, I'm jumping the gun with this as we still haven't had Phil's Praying Mantis (no pressure)... But after yesterday's posting I was sketching and drew this evil little creature. The next animal to distort was a Toucan, as selected by Matt and I thought that this fit the bill, or rather, the beak!



Burnt, evil, or another demon like the helliphant - you decide... All I know is that it's my choice of creature for the next round - and damn it, I'm choosing a Donkey... no horses or zebras or other equine relatives, the wonderfully expressive Donkey has only that grumpy purple thing representing it's species in popular culture - time to redress the balance!