Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Vampire!


I posted some vampire work a few months back, for the Eternal Struggle CCG, but this time it is vampire work of a different kind - for t-shirts! Spiral Direct are a gothic/horror t-shirt design company who I've done a little bit of work for in the recent past - here we have the back print of the first set of images I did for them (front and back) and the front will follow next week. (C) Spiral Direct 2010

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

What a balls up!

Graeme Neil Reid,Illustration
The second 'colemanballs' strip, see last week for an explanation :) Six years later this is definitely the weaker of the two examples and I can see why I abandoned the experiment, still you got to try these things. World Cup is still on and I'm not sure I have any more football related illustrations to show, will have to dig around in my old memory banks...

Monday, June 28, 2010

Jonday - late to kick off

Hey hey it's the deep ones. I haven't shown this here before have I? Book cover for Cubicle 7's forthcoming Avalon supplement for Cthulu Britannia.

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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!



Episode 5 Of the Crackdown motion comic contained two of the largest images I've ever worked on. To allow for long panning shots combined with a degree of GNet's trademark camera shake, The images had to be massive. This reduced example shows how a full HD TV screen would fit within the images.

This episode finalised the state of play (excuse the pun) in Pacific city so gamers will be up to speed with events when they pick up the game in July."

Cheers to Scotch Corner for letting me show this stuff over the last 4 weeks or so.



Remember you can drop by Alex's own blog to get your weekly hit of Ronald goodness.

The Guest Post on Sunday is open to all who wish to take part, so click here and join in!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Lost Projects: Axelle ( week 1)

Some 7 years ago I was living in France ( drawing 'Family' for the Megazine ) and trying to set up some work in the French market. I met lots of writers, lots of publishers and eventually settled on a project called 'Axelle' by a writer called Eric Stoffel who was a friend of a friend. It was a Sci-Fi Space-Opera, with a comely heroine and the story centered around human cloning, flying through space in a decommissioned battleship and aliens ( lots of aliens! ). Visually it would be very much along the lines of Nikolai Dante , which I hadn't drawn for some time at this point. I reasoned that if I was going to break into a new market , I'd best play it safe at the beginning.

So I settled in to do some character sketches. The lead character went through a LOT of permutations.



Seriously there must be at least twice this number again of sketches, colour sketches , drawings of various different actresses etc etc. I may have lost half of them , or they're buried among all my other backup CDRs. Frankly I don't have the time or energy right now to look. Sufficed to say that we arrived at roughly this costume...



....with Nicole Kidman's head. Though even this was not quite the definitive version of the character.

Friday, June 25, 2010

May the Force be with you


Cleaning through my manual portfolios recently and found this watercolour painting from a good few years ago. I discovered by accident (by spilling some old inking ink onto paper) that if ink is old enough the black is no longer black and seperates into various colours giving a nice outer space colour bleed effect. So not wanting to waste the sheet i used that as the base for this image and painted up the characters with watercolour.

Click on the image for a larger view.

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Thursday, June 24, 2010

The apostle to the apostles

So its half way through the Japan versus Denmark game and I get a text from Gary saying he's in Inverness with no Wi-fi connection to sort his post, so I get to pick a bit of classic Erskine for you to gawp at.

This is an illustration of actress Barbara Hershey playing Mary Magdalene in the 1988 film the Last Temptation of Christ. I know nothing else about it other than it is classic Erskine and its very good :) Maybe Gary will add a little update when he can get access and tell us a bit more about it.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

L5R again


Its that time of the year, clearly, when a load of NDA'd work crawls out from underneath the paperwork. More Legend of The Five Rings work.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Balls Up!

Graeme Neil Reid,Illustration

My football theme posts continue this week with another dive back into my archive, this time from 2004 and a bit of an experiment for me. I'd been given a book of Colemanballs which for those outside of the UK or just not in the know was a term created by the magazine Private Eye to describe verbal mistakes made by, usually, sports commentators and named after the famous BBC broadcaster David Coleman who was quite notable for some hilarious verbal gaffes.

Having chuckled my way through the book I figured that many of the quotes could easily be used in a small 'newspaper style' strip and decided to create a couple to see its potential. The strip was illustrated purely in Adobe Illustrator to try and force a change of style. I did two strips and in an attempt to stretch any football based illustration work I've done until the end of the World Cup you can wait until next week to see the second strip :) Enjoy your football!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Jonday - Multicoloured swap shop

Late to the party. Just to show I don't just do brown ones.

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(C)2010 AEG

EMBIGGENATOR:

Sunday, June 20, 2010

Al Williamson 1931-2010


Wikipedia
Remembering Al Williamson
Marvel Remembers Al Williamson

Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!

Even more work from Alex this week on Crackdown 2. He's a man of few words is Alex, so few in fact that he just sent us this image :)

Remember you can drop by Alex's own blog to get your weekly hit of Ronald goodness.

The Guest Post on Sunday is open to all who wish to take part, so click here and join in!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Ye Gods!

The thing about being a freelance artist is that you never ( NEVER! ) have any downtime. Seriously , you need to be doing something about the job you have next or the job you have after that or ( as in this case ) the job I'm likely to be doing around the end of next year.

So this book is set during the golden age of Athens ( the 5th Century BC ) and it's written by Martin Millar. I lose count of the number of things that Martin and I have discussed working on together over the last 20 years or so. This one is the charm though. I'll keep you posted.

On a technical note, this sketch was inked with a 'Somerville Spear' pen nib, possibly the finest pen nib I have ever used. This thing is just the most lovely thing I have ever used to draw with , it's sublime. It is also hasn't been made in 60 years, is very very rare and lasts about a day. I have one left....

Friday, June 18, 2010

Chill



This was done in my last year of art school, i had been uploading various bits of work onto portfolio sites touting for some work and had been contacted by various companies and done bits and bobs here and there and everything had gone smoothly until this job.

I went back and forward with the 'art director' of a 'new start up' record label and all seemed to be going fine, scamps approved etc until the completion of the job. Art files were approved and delivered to the client... and then he disappeared off the planet, email address went dead and after research on the company i found out it didn't officially exist. Can't imagine what use the files were to him withoiut going to 'print' so (to give him the benefit of the doubt) it may just have been a case of his company falling through etc. but a courtesy call would have at least been nice. Anyway, lessons learnt.

So when working with new clients:

1) If you haven't heard of them, do some research before agreeing to do anything

2) Get a percentage paid upfront

3) Get a contract even for the smallest of jobs.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Forest. Miscellaneous sketch. 2009.



Miscellaneous sketch. Working on a pen and ink style over photo reference for magazine proposal. Using a Paint Daubs filter over photo to bring a more painterly feel to the scene.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

more Legend of The five rings

Nature's Embrace crad art, from AEG's Legend of the Five rings. The Plague War set has just been released by the company so I've got the A-OK to show my work from the series. Tried something a little different with the background and the nebula of hair, which I think was a success. As I recall the description didn't tell me how nature embraced, or why, or any of that stuff, so I was quite free to move within what I knew of the product and have a bit of fun.

(C) Alderac Entertainment 2010

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

Hulk smush referee!

Graeme Neil Reid,IllustrationContinuing the football theme for last week here is the Hulk facing the red card from referee Pierluigi Collina. This was done back at the start of 2006 for a charity book called Just One Page, it had a comic football theme to tie in with that years World Cup.

This was the first time I'd used a Brush pen to ink an illustration and I wasn't immediately happy with the results, although a great deal of the problem was down to the paper I had used as the ink bled slightly after having been laid down. I now use the Brush Pen a lot having come to grips with it and finding the right kind of paper to keep me happy with the line it produces.

Overall though and looking back I'm not entirely happy with the piece as although I like the work on Collina I think I made the Hulk's legs too long. He needed to be more squat especially as people are used to seeing him in ragged baggy purple troos and not in his tight fitted football strip.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Jonday - Bandit Village

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(C)2010 Paizo Publishing LLC

One from the latest instalment of the Kingmaker adventure path which snuck out without my notice last week.

Edit: now with embigginator, added at the request of the whiners I mean fans. ;)

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!

We continue this Sunday with more of Alex's work on Crackdown 2.

Episode 3 is an interlude to the death and mayhem of the story and informs unwary citizens of the warning signs of infection.

To break up the visual appearance of the series, this episode was made in the style of an old public information service broadcast.


Remember you can drop by Alex's own blog to get your weekly hit of Ronald goodness.

The Guest Post on Sunday is open to all who wish to take part, so click here and join in!



Saturday, June 12, 2010

Wot I drew today

This is part of a sequence in the new Nikolai Dante story 'CITY OF THE DAMNED', it features somebody whipping another person to death. That isn't really much of a spoiler. The guy with the whip is based on Russian Heavyweight boxer Nikolai Valuev, quite the most terrifying looking human being I have ever seen. So naturally we needed him to play a heavy in our story as pretty much anything Russian is fair game for Robbie's pen.

What's that you ask? No naked Lulu? Oh yes I did promise that last week didn't I.
....hmm....let me get back to you.

Friday, June 11, 2010

Wolverine Sketch



Just a quick Wolverine sketch this week coloured up in photoshop. Not really much to say about this one (cause the footie's on - gotta go).

Back from Japan!


Made it back from my hols yesterday after a lot of traveling time and faar too long spent drumming my fingers on a plane. Sure, I can sit for hours in front of my monitor and draw, but give me a cramped seat, a library of movies and nothing to do and suddenly I can't sit still. Osaka Castle keep shots from my quick trip to Osaka-jo koen. Only 2 days late.


Thursday, June 10, 2010

Native American Indian. Sketch 2009.



This is an image I did last year as a proposed magazine illustration. The sepia version works better in a timeless sort of fashion. The coloured version unfortunately brings the character uptodate and contemporises the image. Thankfully I did not have to make the final decision.

Stacy. Convention booklet image. 1989.



Here is my first ever convention booklet sketch for UKCAC 1989. I bought it back from the charity auction too. Always a favourite. Love the fish in the background (kinda Altered States reference) and the composition is nicely balanced. The character Stacy appeared in my first published work in the Marvel UK anthology Strip magazine in a story written by John Carnell.

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Sontar Ha!

Graeme Neil Reid,Illustration

Oops no its not a Sontaran from Doctor Who its Manchester United and England football player Wayne Rooney. The Fifa World Cup begins this Friday and I love the World Cup, a lot. I did this quick photoshop doodle of Rooney during the last World Cup along with a few others.

Being Scottish it is annoying that my national team has once more failed to make it to the competition but I guess if anyone had a group like Scotland did to qualify and weren't already one of the top eight teams in the World then they'd struggle to be there too. Lots of friends ask who I'll be supporting during the World Cup and expect to hear 'Anybody playing England' that is so typical of Scottish supporters but my usual response is that I'll be supporting Scotland and a great show of football. Enjoy the World Cup!

Sunday, June 6, 2010

Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!

We welcome back Alex for another look behind the work produced on Crackdown 2 Motion Comic.

The latest episode of Crackdown 2 motion comic highlights public enemy number 1, Catalina Thorne.

The rogue scientist starts the chain of events which lead to the city's downfall.

Hope you like the video and seeing some of the stills.




Remember you can drop by Alex's own blog to get your weekly hit of Ronald goodness.

The Guest Post on Sunday is open to all who wish to take part, so click here and join in!

Saturday, June 5, 2010

Something old, something...older

So did I mention that I was unemployed in 1993?
I think I might have done...anyway, I went to stay in London with friends for a few months, where I finished off 'LUX & ALBY", my first book. The pickings were thin, but Stewart Green was running a newly revived and hipped up version of ROY OF THE ROVERS ( a very well known Soccer comic in the UK ). My problem was that I didn't really give a rats ass about Soccer and I was incapable of faking it. So I didn't, I actually learned to like watching men run around chasing an inflated pigs bladder. I read a lot on the subject, I watched it on TV and I even went to matches. After a few months I felt I actually had a handle on the subject, I could hold a conversation on Arsenal's prospects for the season, how Hibs were looking against Hearts in the Scottish Cup Final. Then when I eventually did start drawing ROY samples....they looked fairly convincing.
...convincing enough to get me the job anyway. So that was a few months of paid work, culminating in me drawing an episode of the lead ROY strip , while the backup strip was drawn by the legendary Mick McMahon ( one of my very favourit comic artists EVER )
...so in short, a career defining moment for me and because ROY was published by Egmont-Fleetway, the same publisher of 2000AD/The JD Megazine, that gave me an inroad to finally getting published there.

Oh and just because I know that you're utterly fascinated by all aspects of my illustrious career ( har!) here's the earliest drawing that I know for certain that I did. Aged 5.
I dunno why I put the Discount Coupon on it, but I do remember that I couldn't read what it said at the time.



Next week I'll do something new....maybe some naked Lulu.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Don't touch the hair



This week's sketch is Doc. Samson vs the Hulk (click on the image for a larger version). As gaudy as it is in four colour i've always liked the design of this character for some reason. So i've drawn him in pretty much his original costume with the addition of the Byrne fingerless gloves.

I also wanted to show him being pretty ineffectual in the scrap as his 'strength' was always that he could outsmart Hulkie - brain vs. brawn. Hopefully Marvel will get over his villian status soon.

Green Arrow. Sketch. London MCM.



The Green Arrow. A sketch from last weekend's London MCM. First time I have drawn the character. This particular sketch was done for Graeme Beadle of The Grinning Demon comic shop in Maidstone. He was kind enough to send me a copy of the pin-up to me as I forgot to bring my own camera. Follow his own blog here.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

todaiji temple


Visited this impressive structure a few days ago. Supposedly the largest, or tallest wooden structure in the world. Tis big!

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Obergefreiter Joseph Porta

Graeme Neil Reid,Illustration,Porta,Sven Hassel

More dipping into my back catalogue this week, here you'll find Obergefreiter Joseph Porta "Corporal by the grace of God in the Nazi army". I'm uncertain but I think this was done around 2002, maybe? Anyway, I like reading the Sven Hassel range of war novels from time to time and this character plays a very large part in those stories. I see Porta as a kind of young German version of Albert Steptoe, he's a rascal with a huge amount of charm and a complete disrespect for officials and authority.

This ended up being used in a website header banner for a Sven Hassel fan site, go have a look here if you want to know more about the books and the characters.