If you're going to HiEx you can try to win this in their raffle. If you wanted to that is.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Tuesday, 23 February 2010
Done to Death
Yikers! a week between posts - that ain't good!
I've been busy - an imminent house move, various other drawing-y bits and the Teen Wulf strip for Dogbreath have kept me from having stuff to blog about.
I was out waiting for a plumber and whilst I waited, I managed to sketch this up!
Judge Death, I still think he's one of the best ever Dredd-world villains despite having been slightly too comedic in certain stories.
I've been busy - an imminent house move, various other drawing-y bits and the Teen Wulf strip for Dogbreath have kept me from having stuff to blog about.
I was out waiting for a plumber and whilst I waited, I managed to sketch this up!
Judge Death, I still think he's one of the best ever Dredd-world villains despite having been slightly too comedic in certain stories.
Monday, 15 February 2010
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!
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!
Wednesday, 10 February 2010
Lit from Below
15 minute Dredd time again! This came in well under, but I liked it and didn't want to over-work the sketch!
The clichéd drama lighting works better than I expected actually.
The clichéd drama lighting works better than I expected actually.
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Teen Wulf
Ahh, some news has been reported on thequaequamblog about my involvement on a fun little project that has been brewing since last year's Bristol Comic Expo.
Teen Wulf, a two part story about Wulf Sternhammer's youthful exploits. The first part will be available in the next (imminent) issue of Dogbreath!
I did this sketch as a warm-up whilst Rich Clements, (who should need no introduction to regular readers of my blog) was writing the script.
I've blogged about this in one, two or three teaser postings before...
I'm working on the second part now, and then it's onwards with Corvus, also written by Rich!
Credit to Nic Wilkinson at Insomnia for the great punning on the title.
Teen Wulf, a two part story about Wulf Sternhammer's youthful exploits. The first part will be available in the next (imminent) issue of Dogbreath!
I did this sketch as a warm-up whilst Rich Clements, (who should need no introduction to regular readers of my blog) was writing the script.
I've blogged about this in one, two or three teaser postings before...
I'm working on the second part now, and then it's onwards with Corvus, also written by Rich!
Credit to Nic Wilkinson at Insomnia for the great punning on the title.
Monday, 1 February 2010
Sci-Fi Art Now
Late last year I produced a piece for John Freeman's Sci-Fi Art Now book, the final version of that is still under raps for now.
Well, over the last week, I have been working on another piece for the book. Originally intended as a Steampunk Warfare piece. I played around with an aerial 'dogfight' from WWII as a start point. Spitfires take on a Heinkel He111 bomber with a sort of Art Nouveau influence added to their styling. "THAT'S NOT STEAMPUNK!" I hear you cry, and you're right, it ain't and that was the problem... also that the Spitfires, even with Davinci style wings just asserted their character too heavily.
In my efforts to "Steampunk" this, I found a sort of definition of what it is... "The path not travelled." How would a future or a modern day look if something that had fallen by the wayside in our own world had become a dominant influence/force? It still wasn't really inspiring me, it has to be said...
I thought the problem was that I was lacking any human content, so I tried to add the perspective of one of the Spitfire pilots, albeit skewed with a weird hat design. This naturally led to an inset panel, which in turn led to me developing a whole 'comic strip' treatment for it. One that was based in part upon Roy Lichtenstein's 1963 piece: 'WHAAM!" its self inspired by a DC comic from 1962.
It's just not a single illustration for an art book though, is it? and also there's still that problem with the Spitfire hanging around... I was pretty happy with the Heinkel redesign but still felt the piece lacked something. If the main panel was to succeed, I'd need to feature some kind of narrative. I decided in the end to focus on the 'Future War' aspect of the submission. I thought about a War of the Worlds style flying tripod maybe mixed with a Matrix Sentinel thing... I designed straight out alien ships too, but it was still failing to give me a backstory in my head that I cared about. An unrelated factoid drifted into my brain regarding swarms of small creatures attacking large animals...
Making the seemingly more vulnerable side the winning one was much more interesting to me, almost instantly, in my head, I saw a bonkers looking soldier with rocket boots... air borne infantry! I doubt it is an original idea, but it was that concept that made it work for me. Suddenly, it all seemed to work, in my mind I had a backstory that interested me, there was human content in the illustration and I realised that the ship was vaguely Flash Gordon in influence too!
I'm happy with this and my other submission. I hope that both of them will feature in the book, but there are only 200 spaces and with submissions from some pretty big names in Sci-Fi illustration and comics already in, I'll count myself lucky if I'm included at all!
Well, over the last week, I have been working on another piece for the book. Originally intended as a Steampunk Warfare piece. I played around with an aerial 'dogfight' from WWII as a start point. Spitfires take on a Heinkel He111 bomber with a sort of Art Nouveau influence added to their styling. "THAT'S NOT STEAMPUNK!" I hear you cry, and you're right, it ain't and that was the problem... also that the Spitfires, even with Davinci style wings just asserted their character too heavily.
In my efforts to "Steampunk" this, I found a sort of definition of what it is... "The path not travelled." How would a future or a modern day look if something that had fallen by the wayside in our own world had become a dominant influence/force? It still wasn't really inspiring me, it has to be said...
I thought the problem was that I was lacking any human content, so I tried to add the perspective of one of the Spitfire pilots, albeit skewed with a weird hat design. This naturally led to an inset panel, which in turn led to me developing a whole 'comic strip' treatment for it. One that was based in part upon Roy Lichtenstein's 1963 piece: 'WHAAM!" its self inspired by a DC comic from 1962.
It's just not a single illustration for an art book though, is it? and also there's still that problem with the Spitfire hanging around... I was pretty happy with the Heinkel redesign but still felt the piece lacked something. If the main panel was to succeed, I'd need to feature some kind of narrative. I decided in the end to focus on the 'Future War' aspect of the submission. I thought about a War of the Worlds style flying tripod maybe mixed with a Matrix Sentinel thing... I designed straight out alien ships too, but it was still failing to give me a backstory in my head that I cared about. An unrelated factoid drifted into my brain regarding swarms of small creatures attacking large animals...
Making the seemingly more vulnerable side the winning one was much more interesting to me, almost instantly, in my head, I saw a bonkers looking soldier with rocket boots... air borne infantry! I doubt it is an original idea, but it was that concept that made it work for me. Suddenly, it all seemed to work, in my mind I had a backstory that interested me, there was human content in the illustration and I realised that the ship was vaguely Flash Gordon in influence too!
I'm happy with this and my other submission. I hope that both of them will feature in the book, but there are only 200 spaces and with submissions from some pretty big names in Sci-Fi illustration and comics already in, I'll count myself lucky if I'm included at all!
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Fractal Friction Page 8
Here are my inks for Fractal Friction page 8 - available to read in glorious full colour over at the Fractal Friction main blogsite.
What do you mean, you're still not reading it!
What do you mean, you're still not reading it!
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
It's another Dredd! So What?
More sketching, a warm up piece from Monday.
Soon, I'll post some finished stuff.
Soon, I'll post some finished stuff.
Friday, 22 January 2010
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!
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!
Thursday, 21 January 2010
She's Leaving Home
She's off again, but this time in colour.
The page is being lettered by Jim Campbell now! Gentlemen, start your engines, this where the fun begins!
See the full page here
To start reading Fractal Friction from the beginning, look here!
The page is being lettered by Jim Campbell now! Gentlemen, start your engines, this where the fun begins!See the full page here
To start reading Fractal Friction from the beginning, look here!
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
A Lady Knows When To Leave
A rough sketch for an 'exit' panel from my next page for Fractal Friction
Follow the exploits of Jamie and Mrs. Wordsworth, tell your friends, join the gang!
Follow the exploits of Jamie and Mrs. Wordsworth, tell your friends, join the gang!
Saturday, 16 January 2010
Thursday, 14 January 2010
First Dredd of 2010
Not much else to say really.
A reasonably quick sketch - I'm still defining how I want my Dredd to look I think.
A reasonably quick sketch - I'm still defining how I want my Dredd to look I think.
Friday, 8 January 2010
Camel Spider
A tardy ticket for me on this. The twisted creatures that I've been doing with Phil and Matt have really taken a backseat recently - sorry fellas... Here's mine, a really quick biro doodle that I've fiddled with for about 5 minutes in photoshop.
Phil did his ages ago...
Matt has done his too.
Next up is the Giraffe... beautiful animals. They have prehensile tongues you know. It's anybody's guess when I'll have a chance to draw something though.
Phil did his ages ago...
Matt has done his too.
Next up is the Giraffe... beautiful animals. They have prehensile tongues you know. It's anybody's guess when I'll have a chance to draw something though.
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