Work in progress again, back on the Tyranny Rex commission. Rob wanted me to vary a few things from the interim layout but I wasn't quite happy with Tyranny anyway, so I tried a couple of extra poses out...
I got a bit carried away and then couldn't decide which one worked best... if in doubt, let the client decide!
Rob chose 'E'... and suggested I wrap her tail around a dancer's pole! Things are coming together nicely now, and I'll post up the rough pencils here in the next couple of days.
Amongst other bits and pieces and preparation for this weekend's Kapow, I've been doing a commission for John Burdis, I'd done something for The Cellar of Dredd before, a quick single illustration of Hondo-Cit's Inspector Inaba. I'd done that under my own steam following the fab time I had at the Hi-Ex Comicon, but this time, John had something in mind.
The following is all about the "process" for those of you who like to see the work in progress stuff.
I did an initial sketch based upon John's original brief:
"Dredd stood in the middle of a street with dead superheroes strewn all around him and Joe saying something along the lines of "Costumed vigilantes, leave the real crime fighting to me!" The characters who would be dead would include Superman (head missing definitely), Batman, Wonderwoman, Captain America and all those other US bods."
One thought kept floating around my brain, a pile of dead super-heroes and something in Brian Bolland's classic cover to Prog 2000 kept nagging at me as well.
John liked the inital sketch but had a couple of requests for additions if I could manage them:
First up was a simple addition to the roster of the dispatched: "Green Arrow's arm with a broken bow"
Next was just a weapons' upgrade to the "Colt Widowmaker " instead of the Anti-Hero gun I'd been musing over as the reason why Dredd was now able to dispatch these super-heroes.
Finally, a nice way to really make the commission a personal one: " a large pristine BURDIS BLOCK and a couple of derelict smaller blocks with the names MARVEL and DC".
In Dredd's world, towering apartment Blocks are often named after famous people, sometimes for satirical reasons, sometimes equally as a tribute to that person. I felt that DC and MARVEL blocks could nicely be rolled into the one (albeit well beaten-up) DEE CEE MARVILLE block.
I wanted the blocks to say something about John and the two comic companies respectively... aside from the beaten-up aspect of DEE CEE MARVILLE, I wanted the block to hint at those companies' stock-in-trade - Super-heroes!
John's online forum name is COMMANDO FORCES, for reason's which are obvious to anyone who knows him. Hopefully my intentions for his 'block' shouldn't need much more explaining. For the DEE CEE MARVILLE block, I wanted it to look as much a possible like a cape flowing over the shoulders of a hero, almost immediately that dictated a very Art Deco style, evocative of old movie theatres.
By this point I've switched into Google Sketch-up to muck about with the architecture, mainly because if we decide to change the POV, I haven't got to reconstruct the difficult curvature on that art Deco styled block... but it wasn't there that my main problem would be!
I had inadvertently created, by virtue of the military style helmet, a very phallic looking building... "could you put some sort of roof sports complex/airport style thing somewhere around/on that part?". Thankfully we caught it and had a chance to make a suitable alteration.
The only other thing John wanted was "More gore on those bodies." I guess the super-hero fan in me was just subconsciously trying to limit the damage to all those "good guys", but, you've got to give the client what they want!
I'd been concerned over Dredd's footing and so I added in Reed Richards, utlising his 'rubbery' consistency to nicely fill in the space between Superman and WonderWoman.
After showing the last version to John, I couldn't help but think we'd lost the 'Military' in the styling of 'Burdis Block' in favour of Miners or worse still, Doozers!
The easiest way to show him some alternatives was a little fly-around movie taken out of Sketch-up. I can't advocate strongly enough the time saving aspects of this program for me, where previously (hours of projecting the perspective correctly) would have ended up making me want to stab myself in the head.
Throughout the process, there had been dissatisfaction on both our parts over the wording of Dredd's proclamation, neither of ours had been punchy enough. John had started a forum topic to ask for help and there had been some great and some very witty suggestions, but it wasn't until my good pal and Fractal Friction co-contributer Chris Askham suggested a short and sweet "When are you CREEPS gonna learn?", that either John or myself found a 'fit' for the illustration.
We we're all happy until John posted my initial sketch in the same forum topic...
PJ Holden (who has always been insightful and helpful to me from my very earliest foray into the comics business) suggested the even shorter and IMO 'sweeter' "WHO'S NEXT?". Sorry Chris, but you know when something's right.
With the final version okayed by John, I turned the 'pencils' into a 'blueline' ready to print out. Using another tip I'd picked up from PJ, I left the 'speech' to print out in Black for crispness in the final artwork.
I inked the dead super-heroes first because I knew there would be a lot of work in that part, in fact it took most of a morning to do, but after getting Dredd inked in, it was all fairly plain sailing and came together quite quickly!
I sent a scan of the final thing to John yesterday and I'm pleased to say he's very happy with it and looking forward to seeing it in the flesh at Kapow!
I guess that's it really, other than to ask: "WHO'S NEXT?"
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.
I am lucky enough to once again have a piece of my work thrust into the spotlight over on the fantastic Scotch Corner. Appearing tomorrow will be my version of the Joker. Here is the work in progress for it.
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Initially I drew the head and face for the Joker in my sketch book. I scanned this at 300dpi, mucked about in photoshop and added the hand with the playing card (1). Then I started to add some colour to the piece, trying out different things but ultimately knowing that I wanted a classic colour scheme for the final piece (2).
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I changed my mind about how the piece should be cropped and added the top of the Joker's head... at this point I also added the little Joker as previously posted and the ambigram of the word Joker from the Harley Quinn piece I did in July (3). The next step was to drop out all the colour and create an image that would only print from the cyan tank of my printer (4).
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I inked the "blue-scale" image after printing it out onto a nice sheet of bristol board (5). Obviously I don't want all that blue, I just want the nice clean ink lines (6). In photoshop there are plenty of ways to remove the blue - I use the channel mixer to remove most of the blue but some people prefer to convert to CMYK and then throw away the cyan channel. Both methods require some fiddling with levels to remove any grey areas and leave a nice Black and white image.
The final stage for me was to composite my two files (3) and (6), clean up any glaringly obvious problems, add some sort of background and a bit of texture to add some more depth to it all. To see how the final thing turned out, pop over to Scotch Corner on Saturday!
As an aside, I think this is pretty appropriate as a Halloween post!
's 'nother one of those fifteen minute jobs. Surprising how short that time is when you're trying to do two full figures - this sketch really is just the bare bones of a layout.
There's lots wrong with it too... that's ok though, 'cos it's only a quick sketch for fun!
The current topic for DrawerGeeks is Frankenstein's Monster.
Having done a version of the monster once or twice before, I was reluctant to tread the same ground. Unfortunately as my idea arrived a bit late in the day yesterday, I've only partially finished it. I think it illustrates the concept though and I'm fairly happy with it - hopefully I'll get the chance to finish it up properly, but it's joining a long 'to do' list!
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.
Been sick as a dog ever since I went to Birmingham, and haven't really been up to much since. My good lady has the anti-viral medication for the flu - and both of us have been rattling around drugged up on a smorgasbord of other cold remedies for the past week. Today, I feel almost back to normal - and to ease me in gently back to work I've done a quick Dredd Head as a submission for a drawing thread over on the 2000AD forum.
15 minutes to draw Dredd's head... This was 15 minutes, sketched in photoshop with my wacom. I'm not really that happy with how this has turned out - oh well... back to the drawing board!
Edit: Johnny Alpha, Stontium Dog... 15 minutes digital sketch:
"Stimpy, you eediot!"
Did you spot the 'deliberate' mistakes in these two?
No? It's '09 - not '08, obviously, I'm still a bit foggy in the head!
After fiddling with the 'paint' job on this for a bit too long - I have decided that I don't really like the effect that I am getting here. What worked quickly and effectively for the Pulpy Punisher seems mired in labourious detail when applied to strip work.
As I had altered some stuff from the pencils, I used the existing file to create a 'non-reproducing blue' guide for inking... That took some doing, but I'm part way done on inking the page now and despite the desire to show the other style at BICS, I'm much happier with the results I've already produced with my inks. Hopefully it will just be a case of 'dropping' them over the already worked-up colour file.
It doesn't hurt to experiment, and I'm glad I gave this a crack but in order to be ready for next weekend, it will be safer to produce the rest of these samples in my tried and tested style - I just hope I'm not doing myself a disservice with this decision.
Oh and just one final thing. The comics with my first published work are now available via the good folk at FutureQuake Press - and you can order them here.
OR HERE:
Zarjaz issue 08 - £3 + p&p
Dogbreath issue 21 - £3 + p&p
Please do help to support the endeavour, as without Small Press publishers like FutureQuake, it would be much harder for people like me to get work in print. They have other new comics out as well, all produced for the love of the medium.
Here is a sneak peak at that page again... very rough (and incomplete) colours this time, not wholly sure that the 'painted' approach is working for me. The script asks for early evening and I've wondered about rendering the whole page as an orangey or sepia tonal thing.
Rendering without the benefit of a nice ink line to follow makes the task of colouring up a lot more intense... Inked lines hide a multitude of sins and the thicker they are the better they are at hiding where I've gone over the lines!
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
I'm doing some illustrations for Cambridge University Press in Madrid. The illustration below is one a of a group going into a book called Tasty Tales which is part of the discovery readers range aimed at teenagers who are learning English.
I thought it would be interesting if I showed something of my process for an illustration like this. It all started with a nice, fairly specific artwork brief and a proof of the text layout for each of the illustrations. I went back with a couple of rough pencil sketches to show different approaches for the illustration.
The design team and the author decided which option they would like to progress with and I produced a tighter pencil at 150% of the final dimensions.
After comments on the tightened pencil - I blocked in the rough colours I intended on using and started getting the forms defined... I tried to iron out anything that seemed obviously wrong at this point - and I also made the minor adjustments that had been asked for.
When I was happy I'd got the basics roughed in - I turned the whole document into blue-scale and printed it out.
I then did a quick bit of pencilling over the top of the blue - lightly picked out the things I did't want to miss or that I thought still needed a bit of defining - then I inked the sucker in.
I scanned my inks back in and used the channel mixer to remove ALL the blue - this left me with some inked lines that I could then re-composite with the original coloured version... I tidied up any stray bits and mucked around with some effects until I was happy!
Then I just cropped it down to the correct dimensions.
I hope that was interesting for the lovely people who follow my blog - and not just me wittering on about my bonkers approach to making pictures.
The current DrawerGeeks topic is Jack and The Beanstalk:
Didn't have much time for this again... I was going for a "not much more than a hill of beans" and a "credit crunch" - bad deal thing... In the end I went for this cheap Deal or No Deal gag. You win some, you lose some... I think I lost this one!
Since the end of last year there has been a lot of discussion on the 2000AD forums about the new Judge Dredd film that's in the works. Danny Boyle's DNA films are producing it, but he's got nothing to do with the actual filming.
I thought the 1995 film was poor and I am hoping for so much more this time around.
I've curbed my enthusiasm until now and have just done a quick little doodle of the sort of direction I hope they take Dredd's uniform in the film.
Nothing too drastic or original, a twist on the established look.
Just a bit more 'riot' style padding in the body suit - a gunslinger holster ala Han Solo, then, all black; kevlar, leather, carbonfibre & thick rubber on the pads & accessories etc.
With the uber-cool looking Watchmen on it's way, and the bar being set I think by Batman begins, the Dark Knight and the first outings of X-men and Spider-man - Dredd has some big boots to fill!
I did an initial sketch based upon John's original brief:
In Dredd's world, towering apartment Blocks are often named after famous people, sometimes for satirical reasons, sometimes equally as a tribute to that person. I felt that DC and MARVEL blocks could nicely be rolled into the one (albeit well beaten-up) DEE CEE MARVILLE block.
By this point I've switched into Google Sketch-up to muck about with the architecture, mainly because if we decide to change the POV, I haven't got to reconstruct the difficult curvature on that art Deco styled block... but it wasn't there that my main problem would be!
Throughout the process, there had been dissatisfaction on both our parts over the wording of Dredd's proclamation, neither of ours had been punchy enough. John had started a forum topic to ask for help and there had been some great and some very witty suggestions, but it wasn't until my good pal and Fractal Friction co-contributer Chris Askham suggested a short and sweet "When are you CREEPS gonna learn?", that either John or myself found a 'fit' for the illustration.
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