Jonday Ghost

Hey! Found the time to make a few sketchy pieces specifically for Scotch Corner, so you won't see these fine pieces of nonsense anywhere else.  About time, eh?

Some sort of ghost dude in Artrage:

Dept of Monsterology - as reported to Si.

I had a long journey recently so I did a lot of sketchbook doodling.

I'm posting late and Alex is posting early. So yayy for me!

 A Pollocluth , seen around Maine and the North East up until the advent of the Industrial Revolution whereupon the population went into steep decline.

An ancient document recovered from the Abby of  Wambach after it was demolished by the Nazis in 1942

This is the interpretation of a heavily decomposed biological sample found in a jar of yellowing formaldehyde in the ruins of the St. Xaviers Hospital in Wights Bay , Maine.

Halloween Vixens

Nudging my Sunday post in a wee bit early due to the fact i'm not going to be around tomorrow.
A promo image for Vampire Vixens in a very Grindhouse styling. Hope you like it and Happy Halloween.

Dept. of Monsterology - Rikitikik

Reports are now back on the four new species discovered below the Guatemala sinkholes. The team managed to successfully access previous unknown regions beneath the city by entering the sinkhole and digging through the side walls where they found a warren of interconnected caves deep under the surface. The Rikitiktik seems to be the most intelligent and the ruling species - the Joes act as servants to them, the Fidos as pets and the Slutherneerg as modes of transport (it has been suggested that it is the movement of the Slutherneerg, rather than environmental reasons, that may actually be the cause of the sinkholes in this region)

The Rikitiktik (as illustrated below) stands about 9 feet tall when on two legs, but spends most of it's time in a crawling position as it skitters up and down walls. They have razor sharp teeth and barbed quills on their forearms and elbows, incredibly powerful legs and are extremely agile (the team have witnessed leaps over crevices at least 150 metres wide). They are incredibly ferocious and battle violently amongst themselves, killing members of their own species at a moments notice. They also seem to enjoy organised bloodsports pitting Joes and Fidos against each other in bloody, brutal death matches.

Reports on the Joes, Fidos and Slutherneerg will follow shortly.

Black Bag Jobs

Continuing the monster theme, something tentacled and Cthonic? Cthulic? rampages. Unstoppable. Insatiable. Improbable.

© Cubicle 7 2011

Dept. of Monsterology - Sawney's Pet

Fearful inhabitants of Ballantrae insist they've spotted the return of the cannibal Alexander "Sawney" Bean in the nearby coastal caves. People are going missing and it's not the first time these rocks have heard the crack of human bones…

This was a great excuse to buy and test out ArtRage the illustrating application beloved of Jon. It was a steep and quick learning curve but I very much enjoyed using it and hopefully I'll continue to find time and projects for it. Recommended, easy to use, fun and extremely cheap for its abilities.

Don't forget to check out the Dept Of Monsterology Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/DeptOfMonsterology

Guest Post - PJ Holden - Dept. of Monsterology!

1) What was your first published work?
I've a bunch of works I consider 'firsts', but, my first work by a publisher people will have heard of was Holy Cross #3, written by Malachy Coney and published by Fantagraphics in, iirc, 1994. Set in Holy Cross in Northern Ireland and was a sad little tale of two kids who grew up around the troubles.

2) Who or what inspires you?

There's a lot of artists that, when I'm feeling creatively 'tapped out' I'll look at, just to feel like I can find a way back to the drawing board - though I don't think I can really get anywhere near these guys in terms of quality. At the moment it's people like Sean Murphy, Eric Canete & Duncan Fegredo and many, many more.

3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?

Oh, always be careful of the 'dream job'. Sometimes they can be nightmares. I do like a change, so if I've been drawing something serious my dream job will be something stupid and vice versa. For right now, Dept Of Monsterology is a dream gig. It has things in it Gordon and I have been trying to get into comics for 10 years. 

4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?

It's a double page spread and part of the 'pitch' document that Gordon and I did to try and find a publisher for Dept Of Monsterology. I think it worked.

5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?

I think Strip Magazine should be out now (gypsey curses not with standing) and you should see me there. Robocop/Terminator final issue should be out and, I'm pretty sure that'll be collected in the New Year and Fearless, the book I did for Image comics with Mark Sable and Dave Roth is due out in November. That should keep me on shelves until Monsterology hits.

6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?

Oh pretty easy: I'd be working in computers. That's what I was doing as my day job up until 3 years ago.

7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?

My blog http://www.pauljholden.com/blog and twitter http://www.twitter.com/pauljholden

Don't forget to check out the Dept Of Monsterology Facebook page too! http://www.facebook.com/DeptOfMonsterology

We don't need their scum!

Old pencil sketch

Dante commission

So I was at the New York Comic Con a few days ago. I did this commission for a charming Hungarian gentleman from Budapest, who was  a big fan of Dante. This makes me very happy, Budapest is the most swashbuckling city that I know of. The brief was "Lulu kicking Nikolai Dante's ass"
The quality is not great as I took the pic with my phone.

Hallo(ween), buddy

A sequel of sorts to the random Marvel characters i posted up about a year ago here. As Halloween is just around the corner i thought i would do some horror characters in the style of the wee yellow emoticon buddy this time around, i did a few of these at the same time as the Marvel ones but thought it was about time i finished the set. Feel free to use as avatars on messenger, social media sites and anywhere else that need a profile head-shot i guess.

Darth Vader - Star Wars commission.

The third (and fourth) Star Wars commission from Paris Manga is the Dark Lord of the Sith himself: Darth Vader. The light sabre image was a particular favourite with the fans and I loved putting the reflection of Obi Wan Kenobi in the glass eyes of his mask. Probably did about four of these over a weekend. This is the only copy to hand but the reflection is present.

The hand gesture Vader is a classic pose and I was very pleased with the finished result!

Gates to hell!

Damn, I wish I could remember the name of the place in the hills of Kyoto where this was (Nishikori? maybe?) but the mesmerising effect of gate upon gate upon gate was quite unsettling to me in a hellish kind of way. Probably that was the point of the set-up. I'm sure my guides (Taka, Noriko and Aa-chan) told me why, but I was too busy taking the hundred photos so I could find one which was half decent.

EDIT: it was Fushimi-Inari. Not even close, huh? ;)

EDIT 2: Nishikori is a park close to my old apartment

Win a Dr Who sketch!

Over on my own blog I'm running a competition to win one of these three sketches, very easy to enter not even a question to answer or anything.

Jonday - Spiders of Mirkwood

More for The One Ring:

Small Press 90's style

Raiding the archives again since there isn't too much of this year's work I can show as yet. This was the cover for my first small press comic. There's a bit more about it here.
http://alexronald68.blogspot.com/2010/01/small-press-rules-ok.html
http://alexronald68.blogspot.com/2010/01/red-sands-is-back.html
http://alexronald68.blogspot.com/2010/05/red-sands-2-is-out.html



2000ad boarders Matthew Mclauglin and Bruce McLaren took the strip forward to a second issue with their own bloody take on it. Both issues are available on my ebook if anyone wants a peek.

Gent

Drawn from a photograph on the subway platform. Drawing it killed the time.

Cartoon Capers week 5: Batfink and Karate

Batfink and Karate this week. As ever click the image to view a larger version. I decided to loosely base this one on Jack Burnley's classic cover to Batman no. 9 as it seemed to suit the characters and obviously Batfink was ripped from Batman - although Karate is more along the lines of Kato from Green Hornet rather than Robin. I'm just going to use artistic license to ignore the fact that Karate would probably be getting splatted by the hail of bullets.

Boba Fett - Star Wars commission.

Another Star Wars commission from Paris Manga. This one was for BobaDave of the 59th Legion Star Wars re-enactment group. A great bunch of guys (and the girl who plays Leia) I was joined by current Star Wars inker Julien Hugonnard-Bert. We were both suitably kilted for the event! See more of the group here.
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Bloody Nightfall

Yet more Nightfall artwork again this week - you must all be sick of vampires and zombies and man-monsters from me. This card was never used in it's complete form - I think the characters were cropped out for individual use. © Alderac Entertainment 2011

Cartoon Capers: Zoltar

I couldn't resist drawing another cartoon theme baddie from my youth, Zoltar and his boss the Luminous One from (well in the UK anyway) Battle of the Planets.

Jonday what

I don't know what this is.  But I did it this morning.

Kreepy Kat

Kreepy Kat was a long running strip by brilliant Illustrator Alan Kerr
http://www.kreepykat.com/
Sadly Kreepy Kat has come to an end but cycle back through the previous strips and corrupt your mind forever.
This is my visual take on the feline spawn of Satan for a guest spot.

Roberto

Cartoon Capers week 4: Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt

Not sure if these guys ever had their own cartoon show or not - only really remember them from the laff-A-Lympics show which pitted all of the Hanna Barbera characters against each other in weird sporting events. I think they were in the Scoobie Doobies team alongside, Hong Kong Phooey, Captain Caveman etc. From memory Blue Falcon was pretty much a Batman ripoff and Dyno-Mutt is probably best described as some strange hybrid of Scooby Doo and Inspector Gadget.

Han Solo and Chewbacca - Star Wars commission.

What it says on the tin.

Pipe Bomb!

More nightfall work, as some feral children prepare an explosive trap for the evil denizens of the niiiigggghhhhttt. A bit of 3d in this one again. It is one of the preview cards on the Nightfall page.

©AEG 2011

Cartoon Capers: Skeletor

I was going to suggest Skeletor to Tom for his Cartoon Capers theme but before I could post a message saying so I couldn't resist the thought of drawing him myself.

Jonday - Mirkwood Marsh

Ruins in Mirkwood Marshes for The One Ring:



Today is an auspicious occasion in my little world, as of the 1st of October I ceased to be full time freelance, and am now under contract to Cubicle 7 Entertainment Ltd (a subsidiary of Rebellion for those keeping count) to do art direction for their game lines, and art for The One Ring.  Here endeth 12 years full time freelance.

Cavestone Cops

Tom's Captain Caveman pic reminded me of an old project that's been gathering dust for over a decade. In 2000 I was working for an animation studio which was pitching for a lot of TV show work. These sketches were for an idea that was a cross between Captain Caveman and the Keystone cops.

The gent in the top hat was the evil banker, determined to sell the neigbourhood homes to make way for a shopping mall. Granny was the constant innocent victim of the local no good muggers but could more than handle herself and the rat was the cop informer, The Huggy Bear of the story with knowledge of everything that's going down on the street. Last but not least the pterodactyl was a memeber of the Cavestone cops flying squad.

Lady Head