Thursday, September 30, 2010
Production artwork.
Can't say too much about this project as it is still in developement. Kinda old school 80s horror flick. I was brought on board to provide some illustrations to set mood and tone of the production. Thoroughly enjoyed the experience. More news as soon as we get the all clear.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
A little bit of photography
I don't know if it is good. I don't think it is well taken, even though I wanted camera shake to get a similar effect. The orange indoor lighting has really 'oranged' it out, but again, unintentionally, I think that works in its favour.
Its a shot of a corner of a poster which came with Robot Volume 1, by Murata Range, a Japanese artist whose work I very much admire (Last Exile - I think - , Blue Submarine 6 and others). And I have no idea what any of the script might say. Prolly "On sale now! Get your copy while stocks last!" or somesuch.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
I must not clown...
Nebulous is a science fiction comedy show written by (and also starring) Graham (Ideal) Duff, which follows the adventures of Professor Nebulous (played by Mark Gatiss) and the team at K.E.N.T. It's very amusing and extremely well written, here's a Wikipedia link to learn more.
This illustration was for the Radio Times for the start of the third series in 2008. You can catch the show from the beginning on BBC Radio 7 on Tuesday nights or if you are a UK resident you can go to the BBC iPlayer online and do a search for Nebulous for the listen again option. Its very good, you'll enjoy it.
This illustration was for the Radio Times for the start of the third series in 2008. You can catch the show from the beginning on BBC Radio 7 on Tuesday nights or if you are a UK resident you can go to the BBC iPlayer online and do a search for Nebulous for the listen again option. Its very good, you'll enjoy it.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Jonday: Azuran
Hey, I'm not here right now, but the robot has this artwork for you from the forthing coming awesometastic Facebook game Trials of Azuran.
(c)2010 Project Quest.
See you in person another day. Wait what? I never see you in person. Anyway. Whatever. Be good.
(c)2010 Project Quest.
See you in person another day. Wait what? I never see you in person. Anyway. Whatever. Be good.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Repeat Offender Post - Alex Ronald!
It's been a little while since we had a Guest Post and its one hell of an image we have from repeat Guest poster Alex Ronald.
The Guest Post on Sunday is open to all who wish to take part, so click here and join in!
Vampire Vixens is a new strip that's coming to Wasted in the new year. Co-written by comics guru The Emperor and myself, it's Inspired by many of the great war comics from the 70's like Warlord and Battle picture weekly and strips like Hellman of Hammer Force but with it's tongue lodged firmly in it's cheek.
Vixens is our bash at WW2 comics but with a modern and upbeat approach. Hope you like it.
What's not to like? As always you can see more of Alex's awesome work over on his own blog.
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Lilly Scribbles
As I've unexpectedly found myself with some spare time recently I've been beavering away on the sequel to Lilly Mackenzie & the Mines of Charybdis, entitled Lilly Mackenzie & the Treasure of Paros. To go with that I've been playing around with some 'cover' images or just miscellaneous promotional images. This is one of those.
I might work it up into a full colour piece. I'll see how things go as my work load piles high in the next week or so.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Gone a bit girley
Not really much to say about these - just some stylistic experiments from my sketchbook. A different subject matter and approach to colouring from my usual methods and always good to use'real' art materials every now and again. Basically just some flowery doodles using some watercolour with ink outlines.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Species. Samples. 1998.
Another retro post.
This was a proposed Species vs Predator mash-up that I did but never submitted. Trying out the gorgeous see-thru design of Sil by Giger. Loved the look. The Predator too is a classic looking design and would certainly love to be part of a massive full-on series. Armies of Predators in a kinda Lord of the Rings scale battle with Aliens or whatever feels up to the task.
You can see the rest of the pages here.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
This was a rejected image for one of the t-shirts i did about 6 months ago, before we settled on something with more visual action and impact. Nothing wrong with this, particularly, although I agree with the direction we too to find something punchier and more in keeping with the company's catalogue.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Dial M
Here's a Doctor Who illustration I did back in 2008 for the charity book Shelf Life produced in tribute to author Craig Hinton who passed away in 2006. It was to accompany the story 'Dial M for Metaphysics' written by Simon Bucher-Jones. A good mix of well known Who villains and new characters in the illustration and a very enjoyable piece to do.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Jonday: stay on target
It's coming. It's just passing through the magnetic field.
...aaaaaaaand it's here. I'm on the leader.
Artrage sketch/wip: Click for to embiggonate:
...aaaaaaaand it's here. I'm on the leader.
Artrage sketch/wip: Click for to embiggonate:
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Wonder Woman
Ok, I'm being cheeky this week. I've already posted this drawing to my other sketchblog. The thing is that this drawing is for charity and will be auctioned off, so I'd like it to get as much coverage as possible. I promise not to do this a lot.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Behind the scenes, strange but true
One of the more bizarre commisions i have ever done (in execution at least). I was asked to do an abstract painting as a gift for someone with the only real direction being the thickness of the canvas board and the colour scheme as it was to hang in a specific room. Unfortunately, I needed to do this just after moving house and hadn't even begun to unpack. So i dug through the mountain of boxes dumped in the garage to find some oil paints but couldn't even get near the art boxes with the brushes etc. As i knew roughly what i was going to do in my head and a Tesco delivery had just arrived i decided to experiment with a new 'tool' - and painted the underlay with Tesco carrier bags - incredibly messy, but good fun. Just as i was clearing up the client arrived and came into the garage to exclaim 'Great, your finished already -that's exactly what i had in mind, can i just take it away now?' Taken aback i asked several times if they were sure, they were and came back to collect after the oils had tried. Easiest 10 minute job ever and 6 Tesco bags recycled in an innovative way :) I'd be so rich if i could get a steady run of jobs like that.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Zena!
Hey, it's Graeme here. Gary is off on his travels again, this time to the fun of Aviles Comic Con in Spain so I get to post up another favourite of mine. This Zena sketch (Gary's words not mine) is from 1998. He draws a damn fine warrior princess as he also showed back here.
If you're missing Gary too much while he's away go listen to this episode of Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK where Alex Fitch talks to John Freeman, Simon Furman, Dan Abnett and Gary about their work for Marvel UK in the 1980's.
If you're missing Gary too much while he's away go listen to this episode of Panel Borders: Making Marvels in the UK where Alex Fitch talks to John Freeman, Simon Furman, Dan Abnett and Gary about their work for Marvel UK in the 1980's.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Rogues
Finished last week for an up-and coming publisher's primary product. We have a bunch of archetypal rogues here to illustrate some of the main characters. I liked doing this, but have to admit I took advantage of an extended deadline and a generous publisher to produce the illo over the course of months, rather than days. It did give me plenty of time though to concentrate on the lighting, and really get my teeth stuck into it.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Doyle
Another sketch commission, this time of one of Edinburgh's favourite sons 'Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle'. There is an awful lot you could write about this man but he'll be instantly remembered as the writer of Sherlock Holmes, go check the Wikipedia listing for a concise listing or if you have the time go check out this BBC documentary 'Arthur Conan Doyle, Murder Detective' which you can see in six parts uploaded on YouTube, its not an overview of the man but rather highlights two real cases he helped solve.
Monday, September 13, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Theodota from Peace - 2 versions
2 versions of the same character from Martin Millar's PEACE, which I've been working on.
The first 'fat' version was utterly rejected by Martin, which was not entirely unexpected. Martin likes 'em svelt so I was rather winding him up with this sketch.
This version goes more eastern and sultry, which works for the character.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Nothing to do with Green Lantern
An old book cover design from a good few years back. The girl was digitally drawn in Freehand and then mixed in with the other elements in photoshop. I think that was possibly the first time i mixed vector and bitmaps together in that way- i tend to stick to one or the other on any given project for some reason.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Hollywood 2 Havering event, Romford, Essex.
Outside my comic and film work, I also do teaching.
Last weekend I was in Romford, Essex for the Hollywood 2 Havering event. Myself and talented Disney artist Alan Batson hosted some workshops for the local school kids (and parents) with the congenial Huw J Davies keeping our house in order. We ran four classes a day with Alan and I alternating our roles (host and helper) We chatted to the crowd, did a Q&A and also showed the audience how to draw Captain America and various Disney characters. Good response from everyone who turned up and a very high level of entries at the end of each class for the artwork and prize giveaways. Photos can be seen here.
The event was set up by Russell Singler (owner of Art You Grew Up With) and was an extension of the classes he already runs through the store with Huw J. Terry Jervis (Jervis Media) who helped organise the whole Havering 2 Havering event and ensured a good day out for everyone. There were a great selection of classic movie cars, Film and television panels, live bands, BBQ and many other treats. My own personal highlight of the weekend was a small drive in Steve MacQueen's Ford Mustang from Bullitt (in the passanger seat) Alan got to drive the car himself, lucky man!
A wonderful event. Many thanks to Alan Batson, Huw J, Russell Singler and Terry Jervis who helped make the weekend a very memorable one.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Doomlord
Doomlord first appeared as a photo strip in the 'New' Eagle comic from 1982. "Doomlord – servant of Nox, master of life, bringer of death!" arrived on Earth to judge mankind's right to existence and unashamedly went around killing people and adopting their appearances to remain undetected. The strip changed to an illustrated version when Doomlord (or Zyn to use his real name) was killed (or was he!) and a second Servitor called Vek was despatched to judge us. This Doomlord still enjoyed killing people but was a much more approachable alien who took a liking to mankind and decided to save us while staying at a boarding house run by a Mrs Souster.
Superbly written by Alan Grant and John Wagner and later with art by Compton, Heinzl and Bradbury the strip was extremely popular and ran for eleven years. Go check out this link to find out more. This was a ink sketch commission completed last week and as I drew it I couldn't help but day dream about being allowed to draw Doomlord every day, sigh, a lovely dream!
Superbly written by Alan Grant and John Wagner and later with art by Compton, Heinzl and Bradbury the strip was extremely popular and ran for eleven years. Go check out this link to find out more. This was a ink sketch commission completed last week and as I drew it I couldn't help but day dream about being allowed to draw Doomlord every day, sigh, a lovely dream!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Jonday - where's Wally?
(C)2010 Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd
This one was a challenge. An image that will be used as a whole, and in three horizontal sections. That had some major ramifications for the composition and sizing of figures, but I think it just about scraped into working.
NB: There's no "I" in jinday. No wait! There is! It's melon farming booze time!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
I don't draw Superheroes
I never have, at least not seriously. So when I say that I may/may not have been talking to a publisher about doing that you will understand that I was a bit apprehensive about it.
An apprehension that turned out to be well founded as they didn't like my sample drawing ( see below ) ..oh well.
( I didn't design this costume by the way )
Friday, September 3, 2010
Marilyn sketch
Mental day today (well all week actually) so a last minute rescue post from my experiment /sketch pile. This sketch was done with standard chalky pastels onto a rough surfaced dark coloured card. The classic Marilyn Monroe pose may be a bit off as it was just done from my head - but it's a pretty iconic pose so i thought i could get away with it being close enough as the main point was just to play with the materials. It turned out better than i thought it would so i might use that combination of material again on something.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Glasgow Science Centre banners.
Occasionally I get asked to provide work outside comics. This year I was approached by Glasgow University to create four educational display banners to help promote the fine work done by the Wellcome Trust Centre for Molecular Parasitology. The finished banners are to appear at the Glasgow Science Centre this weekend and will hopefully travel around the country to further educate and inspire other school kids to learn and follow in the footsteps of the students and doctors at the University.
Professor Michael Barrett asked my fiancee Doctor Mhairi Stewart if I would be interested in contributing to the event by producing four banners. The original layout sketches were done by two students, Eduard Kerkhoven and Isobel May Vincent and all the relevant information was included with referenced pictures from the internet. The brief was simple. Make this poster more interesting and focused for school kids. We very quickly decided to create comic page layouts with a couple of characters to 'lead' us around the subjects. Ed and Izzy (as our characters became known) were designed to reflect the target audience. I kept a simple cartoon style of the figures. Nothing too flashy or distracting.
Izzy was our 'older sister' for the project and the mature member of the team. Ed was the 'little brother', looking up to Izzy and eager to learn and follow in her footsteps. Michael's suggestion of making Eddie younger helped tremendously.
The tone of the banners is light and playful (especially desired since the subject matter is quite serious in parts!) The colouring too had to be clean and unfussy. The compositions uncluttered. The type legible at a distance. And yes, I chose Comic Sans as a typeface. Normally avoided as a design cliche, it worked perfectly in this case. No regrets! Educational posters have to be approached differently to most other poster designs (films, games, comics) The primary purpose is to inform. Not sell.
Delighted with the end results. Thanks to the staff at Glasgow University for giving me the opportunity to work on these posters and a special thank you to Dominic Regan for helping me with the colour on a very tight schedule.
Professor Michael Barrett asked my fiancee Doctor Mhairi Stewart if I would be interested in contributing to the event by producing four banners. The original layout sketches were done by two students, Eduard Kerkhoven and Isobel May Vincent and all the relevant information was included with referenced pictures from the internet. The brief was simple. Make this poster more interesting and focused for school kids. We very quickly decided to create comic page layouts with a couple of characters to 'lead' us around the subjects. Ed and Izzy (as our characters became known) were designed to reflect the target audience. I kept a simple cartoon style of the figures. Nothing too flashy or distracting.
Izzy was our 'older sister' for the project and the mature member of the team. Ed was the 'little brother', looking up to Izzy and eager to learn and follow in her footsteps. Michael's suggestion of making Eddie younger helped tremendously.
The tone of the banners is light and playful (especially desired since the subject matter is quite serious in parts!) The colouring too had to be clean and unfussy. The compositions uncluttered. The type legible at a distance. And yes, I chose Comic Sans as a typeface. Normally avoided as a design cliche, it worked perfectly in this case. No regrets! Educational posters have to be approached differently to most other poster designs (films, games, comics) The primary purpose is to inform. Not sell.
Delighted with the end results. Thanks to the staff at Glasgow University for giving me the opportunity to work on these posters and a special thank you to Dominic Regan for helping me with the colour on a very tight schedule.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
More 40s Portraiture
The first woman in my current theme of 40s faces. Despite working quite heavily from ref for this one (I wish I could remember where the ref came from - it deserves a credit in this case, I think) I really struggled getting the eyes to look right. I think. Sometimes you get it into your head that something is wrong. Sometimes no matter what you do it never seems to get right. So this sat aside for weeks while I went to do proper work then I came back to it and bashed out the perceived problems without any trouble at all. A luxury you don't have against a deadline.
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