Jonday - The Beasts of old London Town

So I was hoping to get clearance to show something hot of the presses, but it hasn't come down the pipe. Instead let's take a trip back, waaaaay back more than 12 years ago to when I had high hopes of working in comics. I was regularly producing my own stuff, and selling it through various branches of Travelling Man, where I later worked.

Here is one complete mini comic from an anthology title I put together called Kingdom of The Beasts. Still want to use that title for something else at some point, so don't nick it if you like it. No letters on this, not sure where they went! I think you can probably guess much of the story of the adventures of Mr Thorndyke and Mr Codd.





Enjoy!

Surfing the archives again

I think this was my first fully digital attempt at a comic illustration from a few years ago - not a pen or pencil or even layout doodle in site. The Silver Surfer figure was created in Poser (ver 4 or 5 i think) and dropped into photoshop to be painted up along with a spacey background. Would probably change most of this now, at the time i was busy just concentrating on experimenting with different digital techniques rather than the composition and overall image, but it served it's purpose at the time and i learnt what i needed to from it.

Oola, a sexy Twi' lek - Sketch.

A proper sketch this week. This was a spare piece from my trip to Lille Comic Festival. As much as I would hope to be constantly busy from ten till seven at these events, there is always a little down time between fans and I keep myself amused by continuing to sketch. Usually Dare, Batman or Terminator portraits but occasionally I try my hand to some cheesecake. Always a bit partial with my sweet tooth and the practice is good.

This character piece is of a sexy Oola (the dancing Twi' lek from Return of the Jedi) A few years ago I had the pleasure of meeting the actress Femi Taylor who played the part of Oola at a Sci-Fi convention in Loughborough University. Myself, Colin MacNeil and Wil Simpson were asked to sketch Femi over the course of an afternoon. Too say I was star struck would be an understatement. She was positively delightful (mischieviously a little flirty too) My sketch then really didn't do her justice and I spent the rest of the convention working a better piece before she left. The Fallen Angel post (previously shown here) helps give you an idea of the pose I eventually used for her in her character Oola.

Anyways. About time I actually included a proper sketch here for the blog. Next week... Death.

October Competition - Winner reminder!

With only five days left in November we still haven't heard from the October Competition winner, Heyoka James. If no contact is made by the end of this month a new winner will be selected.

And obviously everyone else has only five days left to enter this months competition!

Recent!

Some recent work today, the cover to Cubicle Seven's RPG book, 100 Horror Adventure Seeds. I enjoyed doing this one, and a bunch of the composition was done with a simple 3d program in an attempt to nail my perspectives. Initially the roughs were in more of a psychological horror mode, but the company was looking for something a bit more mainstream (I'm loathe to say 'teen horror' but, well, I think that nails it), which turned out to be a lot of fun for me.

Happy Who Day! (yesterday)

Yup, even more Doctor Who from me this week. Finishing up a big job this week so it's a dip into my archive and a one page Doctor Who strip done in 2001. 'Very Short Trips' was done with the idea that I'd do a page strip of all the previous Doctors but that never ended up happening. Those who follow Doctor Who closely will know that there was a book called 'Short Trips' (a collection of short stories about the Doctor) released around the time that I'd done this by Big Finish, so with the strip being a page long it made sense to call it 'Very Short Trips', well it did to me.

Also, yesterday, was the birthday of the TV show, having first aired back on the 23rd of November 1963. Happy Birthday Doctor Who.

Jonday - The Quest for Adventure

So hey, here's one fresh off the...er... monitor. I was asked by a zine if there was any possibility of reworking a piece from last year to closer fit a particular game world. It's a long story to explain fully, but I just finished the rework:





And for the far too interested, here's the original prior to rework:

Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!

Well, we said he'd be welcome back any time and he took us on our word, Alex is back and with another cracking painting!

"Yo! Adrian! Adrian!"

Jon asked in the comments last time Alex dropped by if he had a website where he showed off his work, it appears that Alex is neglecting his duties of sharing his wonderful work with the world wide web so please leave comments insisting that he fixes that problem or at the very least continues to supply Scotch Corner with these great examples of his work!

Alex used to be a regular on Dredd in the 90's but just now he's painting magazine covers and promotional art for Ruffian games in Dundee as well as concept art for indy film studios Black Camel pictures and Mothcatcher films.

Sole survivor

Well at one point in continuity - think he's lost that status in the comics these days and is one of thousands of kryptonians. Haven't read a Superman comic in ages as everytime i picked one up his continuity and origin, parents (alive or dead?) status etc had changed dependant on the creative team and i gave up. Just picked up Secret Origin by Geoff Johns and Gary Frank though and it's shaping up well so i might try the main titles again at some point.

This was illustrated in flash pre my recent Hulk and Wonder Woman posts done in a similar fashion. Unfortunately it's a sign i wont be posting new stuff for a while as my daughter is spending more and more time in hospital so my free time is at a minimum. So, apologies in advance for anybody who has already seen the work i'll be digging out of the archives for the forseeable future.

Silencers.

Here is a piece from the vaults.

City of Silence was originally created for Epic Comics back in 1992. Written by Warren Ellis the cyberpunk story was a near showcase for me (thank you, Warren) and still remains my personal favourite work. Unfortunately Marvel decided not to release the book and the rights reverted back to Warren and myself. The series eventually saw print at Image in 1998 and I decided to re-ink and re-size the artwork for the new edition. D'Israeli coloured the series.

This week I have decided to showcase the cover. My first 3D created image. This was done on computer as it was the only way I could 'paint' in colour at the time. I still use 3D models in my work but more for reference now and perspectives for cityscapes than for finished work. It can be a great time-saving option choosing a digital path.

Perspective. Before all the computer nerds start ripping the pages apart please bear in mind that the artwork was created on a P200 processor (work that out yourself!) with 128MB RAM and a 2GB hard drive nearly ten years ago. You can barely send an email with that limited spec nowadays. I was self taught on 3D Studio Max for a few weeks and all facial details were painted in by hand in Photoshop (as I hadn't learnt texture mapping at that point) With that caveat I think this cover has some value. There are a couple of places where my lack of knowledge and ability let me down but Gitane's face (with the scar) still pleases me. The intense expression on her face is a favourite.

HELMET

Been running around like a mentalist today, getting alternate directions to diferent departments and... Hey, you don't want to hear about my day, you want artwork. And so, satisfying what is surely an odd helmet fetish I give you... helmets.

Is there a Doctor in the house?

Myself and fellow Scotch Cornerist, Gary Erskine, will be guests this Saturday at the one day comic convention 'Thought Bubble' in Leeds. This is the third year the show has been running but it'll be my first time at the event and I'm looking forward to catching up with some old friends, buying some comics and chatting to the public (they like to chat).

In preparation for the show I spent some time producing quick inked sketches and as I'm a huge Doctor Who fan I mostly drew Doctor Who :) Here for your viewing is all of the TV incarnations of the good Doctor. These where all about twenty minutes or half an hours work using my favourite brush pen for looseness and ease.

If you are in Leeds or indeed plan to go the Thought Bubble please track down myself and Gary and say hello.

Jonday - Buy our iguanas!

Here's one of my personal faves from my book on how to create fantasy art for beginners, which is out in the shops now.




You can read more about the book in my blog

Sunday Guest Post - Matt Soffe!

Hi, my name is Matt Soffe, and I'd be honoured if you'd consider this effort for your Sunday guest post. I'm currently trying to hone my skills with contributions to a few small press publications, as well as regular entries in the 2000AD forum art competitions. This year I have been fortunate enough to have work published in Dogbreath and The End is Nigh, plus I contributed art & letters to a strip that appears in 'Back From The Depths' #1 - a tribute to the short-lived but essential 80's horror comic 'Scream'.

This image started out as a simple doodle in my sketchbook - I literally began drawing without any planning or forethought. I soon found this rather Stalinesque character staring anxiously out at me, then the robot guards appeared and ideas for a possible story began to form. Sketched in pencil, then inked and scanned with colours added in photoshop.

Upcoming projects include further Strontium Dog adventures, a strip for the next issue of Zarjaz (which I'm very excited about), plus I'm about to embark on a collaborative project with a number of up and coming comic artists called 'Fractal Friction'.

As for my Scottish heritage - well, my mum's maiden name was Ferguson, plus I inherited her prominent grey streak at the age of 18 (probably more of an Irish attribute, but is that close enough?!)

Best wishes

Matt
http://mygrimmbrother.blogspot.com/

Excuse me, coming thru

Quite a bit of detail on this one so click on the image above to view a larger version. This is from a sample pencil image (attached below) which i created earlier in the year. I find it quite useful to revisit 'older' work to ink or colour up after a period of time to see what problems i may inadvertently give to an inker or colourist. It seemed a good idea at the time to colour up in photoshop straight over the pencils but it took forever just to lay down the flat colours as the grainy pencils didn't give me any blocked out areas to quickly fill. Anybody have any good solution to colouring this way directly over pencils?

Post Apocalyptic Comfort.

When I have free time from the paying work in comics and storyboarding, I push forward with some ideas for covers or stories just to keep fresh. Last week I ran up some post-apocalyptic sketches in an AKIRA mode (issue 17 onwards) AKIRA was and still is a major influence on my work today and I tried to capture that sense of distressed buildings and city that Otomo does so well. There is also a distinct nod to the Southern Comfort movie poster (filmed by Walter Hill) from the eighties. A very creative time for film makers and a rewarding one for the fans. So many iconic images came out of that time. It kinda puts a lot of the newer promotional material to shame (where they focus too much on the star and not the movie or story itself) I like the suggestion in this particular sketch of the axe as an acquired weapon as much as the m16. Hopefully this sketch (when finished) will help sell the story to a publisher?



Plan to work the rest of the images up in colour as storyboards for a future project. At the moment they are very generic future war ideas but looking forward to showcasing more soon.

Nature makes me smile

Its not even the quickest sketch on a fag packet...

Most mornings I try to get out and have a walk for half an hour or so, get them limbs working, get the heck out of my flat and see the outside world. And every morning, without fail, I see something I want to record and fail to have remembered to bring the darn camera with me. But on the one morning I did remember, nature didn't disappoint and I rattled off a few dozen shots of skies, skylines, and clouds. I love clouds!

This is not about my great photography, it's about nature being more brilliant than any of us put together. :)

Remembrance Tuesday



I don't post on Remembrance Day (tomorrow) but I thought I'd post up an image that was the final illustration in The Dangerous Book of Heroes which I completed earlier in the year. The last chapter of the book was about the Unknown Warrior and after a few discussions with the editor myself and one of the authors convinced the publishers that this final image summed it all up. I wish we had had time to add a little colour to this illustration, even adding colour to the poppy would have been enough.

Also posted is the pencils to an alternative which shows a British tommy looking out over the wastelands of no mans land. It was rejected on the basis of the fact that the Unknown Warrior acts a reminder of all the men and women from many different nations and services who have lost the lives in combat and so singling out an infantryman while obviously deserving of credit doesn't encompass everyone. The image of the poppy over the trenches though I feel works perfectly.

Whatever you are doing tomorrow at 11am please stop and give thanks to all those who have given so much.

Jontag! Photomz.

Eey up all.

So it's been a busy old time lately. Wait, is it ever not? One day I'll make something new for SC, for now normal service will be continued and I shall post something from the archives:

I often head out with the camera to find inspiration. Here's a selection of photos from a sekrit location near my house - an abandoned manor house. Very sadly I seem to have lost all the originals of these images, so all that is left is what Imageshack has preserved. Much like the manor house those too are falling into decay as Imageshack slowly devours old images.

Sunday Guest Post - Frozen!

Hello,

My name is Mathew, and I met Gary at BICS, where I told him about my website www.thevalentinechronicles.com. I created the site to generate donations for the Myasthenia Gravis Association, a charity dedicated to research into the auto-immune condition Myathenia Gravis, which effectively ended my career as a full time professional artist. I also write the blog Paul L Mathews: Struggling On, which aims to provide new writers like myself an array of tips and useful links, as well as interviews with successful writers.

When we spoke you very kindly offered to post some of my artwork (drawn under my non-de-guerre "Frozen") from the Valentine Chronicles on one of your Open Sunday slots on Scotch Corner as a means on generating more interest in the Valentine Chronicles. I am very, very grateful for this offer, and duly attach a selection of my best artwork from the site.

Very best wishes,

Mathew Spaull AKA Paul L Mathews/Frozen, creator of www.thevalentinechronicles.com

The other Marvel family

Digging into the archive again as my wee girl has been in hospital again all week (getting my moneys worth from NHS contributions since she was born) so not had any free time to do something new. Only have a dull photocopy of this as it was done for a charity auction at the last minute (not because of the organisers - just because that was when i got around to it) Don't know who owns it as it was an anonymous bidding auction, but i would probably make quite a few tweaks if it was still in my possession - that's what happens when you leave it to the last minute i guess. At some point i decided to colour up the copy i had just for fun and to experiment a wee bit - so that version is shown below. Click on the pics for larger versions (ain't had time to scale down to scotchcorner size)

Trip-Tick.

A few years ago my friend and colleague, Liam Sharp was putting together a new anthology called Event Horizon and asked me to contribute. There were three pages in all (including another single image and a character sheet) My favourite piece is included here.

I was only able to supply the lineart for the release and Liam was kind enough to colour the image for me. The original colours were more influenced by Moebius (with yellows and greens) and had a very alien feel to the scene. Recently I decided coloured it myself and chose a more different palette. A simple enough composition.

You can see more of Liam Sharp's work at his Mamtor Publishing site and there shold still be copies of Event Horizon available. A terrific compilation, this Eagle nominated edition showcases the talents of long time established pros, such as Ash Wood, Steve Niles, Chris Weston and Brian Holguin - and also new talent, like Emma Simcock-Tooth, Kev Crossley, Dave Kendall and Lee Carter. It was a treat to be included in this book.

Skellingtons!

This was a private commission done a while back for a very generous friend of mine who wanted a pair of fantasy images for his new house. Skeletons, Fighters, Clerics, ruins. Right up my alley :)

Reasons to be cheerful...

They think I'm off my crust as I creep about the gaff.
But I'm really getting ready to surprise them all,
Because I'm busy sorting out the problems of the world.
And when I reveal all I may get a crinkly mouth.
I've given my all to the task at hand unstintingly.
When it's all over I'll rest on my laurels.

From 2000, digital painting of a poetic genius, Mr Ian Dury.

October Competition - The Result!

The result is in and the winning comments is:

Dear Sir:

I have been requested by the Nigerian National Art Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The NNAC has recently concluded a large number of contracts for ink exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced monies equaling 40,000,000 nairas (roughly 10 cents U.S.). However, because of certain regulations of the government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.

Your assistance is requested as a non-Nigerian citizen to assist us in moving these funds out of Nigeria. If the funds can be transferred to your name, in your bank account, then you can forward the funds. In exchange for two art prints, the NNAC would agree to allow you to retain the cost of postage.

Yours truly,
James Stubbs

Posted by Heyoka James the winner will receive these signed prints just as soon as we are contacted at scotchcorner@me.com and your mailing details supplied.

As a reminder to everybody who enters our competitions please ensure that if your Blogger profile does not have an email address that you'll need to either leave a contact email on your comment or keep a close eye on the announced winners to be able to claim your prize. All winners who do not leave an email have until the end of the following month to claim their prize and if not a new winner will be selected!

Jonday - Monsters

Afternoon all! Hope you're all behaving yourselves.

The Bestiary for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder RPG is out, so I am at liberty to share some of the monster art I made for it.

(C)2009 Paizo Publishing



Enjoy!

November Competition - Signed and sketched 'Lords of Misrule' Hardcover Book!

November's competition gives one lucky person the chance to get their hands on a one of a kind prize. As Gary posted on Thursday the chaps at Radical Comics have released a new edition of 'The Lords of Misrule' which features the art of Gary and Peter Snejbjerg. You can get a copy of this hardback book signed by Gary and he'll also add a sketch of Jack Goodfellow inside the book.

It couldn't be easier to enter, all you need to do is leave a comment about the prize and you'll be entered into the running. Any kind of comment counts but you have to make sure you think about it as you can only enter once, so make it funny, make it complimentary, make it a song, make it weird, make it anything you want but make your comment count. Please make sure that if you do not have a Blogger profile email address that you leave a contact email after your comment.

Terms of entry: 1. Only one entry per person. 2. Comments must be left by the end of 30th November 2009 to be entered into the competition. 3. The contributors to Scotch Corner will judge the comments left and decide a winner with the contributor supplying the prize having the casting vote. 4. The winner will be announced on the website as soon as a decision has been reached. 5. If the winner does not have a contact email address available on their comment profile then it is the winners responsibility to contact Scotch Corner at scotchcorner@me.com and supply mailing address details. 6. If the winner does not contact us after one full month a new winner will be chosen. 7. All decisions are final. 8. If you are unhappy with any of these conditions please do not enter.

Sunday Guest Post - Alex Ronald!

Holy Smokes! Alex Ronald kicked his way into 2000AD and produced some amazing work and then vanished! Well, from the pages of 2000AD anyway, he's still around and still producing some pretty amazing work. We think he's great and as a bona fide Scotsman he's welcome here any time!

Alex used to be a regular on Dredd in the 90's but just now he's painting magazine covers and promotional art for Ruffian games in Dundee as well as concept art for indy film studios Black Camel pictures and Mothcatcher films.

This David Tennant caricature was a small break from the norm and possibly the first Doctor Who he's drawn since he was six.