Dave Stokes Sketch Blog

Emma Frost

2012-01-14T13:39:00.000Z

Recent Emma Frost watercolour commission for Pat Loika over at the Loikamania podcast.

Really, really pleased with how this one turned out.

Bunch of Warm-ups

2012-01-13T13:32:00.000Z

Here's a few warm-ups I've been doing since the start of the New Year. Many of which are getting featured on Planet Pulp's "Comic Sketch Jam" month, alongside some other amazing talent, so be sure to check that out.

Redundant Commissions

2011-11-27T15:36:00.001Z

I'm currently looking at being laid off from work in the New Year so I thought I'd better open up the commissions list again, to take some of the pressure off till I can find more gainful employ. So if you've been holding off getting a commission from me, now would be a great time to do so!

Here's my current commission rates, along with details on picking up a copy of my convention sketchbook

STOKED! sketchbook (A5, 24 pages, 4 colour & 20 b/w) with head sketch
£12.50 GBP(postage and packing included)
$25 USD(postage and packing included, shipping to US/Canada)

A4 single character, black and white
£25 GBP (additional characters, up to 2 total characters, please add £5 per additional character. Postage and packing included)
$40 USD (additional characters, up to 2 total characters, please add $10 per additional character. Postage and packing included shipping to US/Canada)

9"x12" single character, watercolour sketch
£35 GBP (single characters only, postage and packing included)
$55 USD (single characters only, postage and packing included, shipping to US/Canada)

A3/11"x17" (your choice of size) single character, black and white
£50 GBP (additional characters, up to 3 please add £10 per additional character, postage and packing included)
$90 USD (additional characters, up to 3 please add $10 per additional character, postage and packing included, shipping to US/Canada)

£10 ($15 USD) to cover postage & packing if you're in the UK, USA or Canada is included in the above pricings. Please enquire to the shipping costs if you are outside of these areas.

For an additional £5 GBP ($10 USD)you can get an extra copy of my STOKED! convention sketchbook with any commission order (while stocks last)

Please send your enquiries to STOKESBOOK [at] GMAIL [dot] COM. At this time I'm only able to accept payment via PayPal at the same address. Please don't send ANY money until I've confirmed your order via email.

I also have the following pieces of original art for sale, all priced between £50-£60 ($80-$90 USD) each, postage included to UK, US or Canada. Each piece is 11"x17" on Strathmore 300 series illustration board. If you're interested in owning the original art for any of these pieces please send an email to the above address

Some Things Posted Are Lost

2011-11-24T14:42:00.001Z

Zatanna sketch for Happysorceress, watercolour and markers.

Happysorceress was the first to order one of my con sketchbooks, but it looks like hers went astray in the post, as it’s been nearly a month with no sign of it.

I felt really bad that she’d waited so long, she’s been very supportive of my work, especially helping get it under more people’s noses via tumblr and twitter, so I put together this sketch by way of apology that I’ll be sending out tomorrow with a replacement sketchbook.

It was a good excuse to really push the boat out and try something different as I hadn’t done much hand coloured stuff in nearly a year, but overall I’m really happy with how it came out.

Thought Bubble 2011

2011-11-23T13:51:00.001Z

Just a quick little round-up report of my time at the Thought Bubble convention in Leeds this passed weekend. I didn't manage to get much time away from the table over the weekend to explore Saviles Hall, where my table was situated, and didn't get across the dock to the Royal Armouries Hall at all.

I was sharing the table with two absolutely fantastic artists, Marc Laming and Dan McDaid, which was a little intimidating to say the least. I'd met Marc before briefly at DemonCon earlier this month, but as it was my first time meeting Dan I was a bit nervous. Dan's a very funny guy, and within a few minutes of the con floor being open to the public his banter, and stunning portfolio pages on the table, brought a nice crowd to the table throughout the weekend.

Above are a selection of some of the many sketches I managed to crank out over the weekend. Like an idiot I forgot to take pictures of more than half of them, and none of the ones in the back of my sketchbooks that I had for sale. I'll get the hang of this one day.

One of my highlights of the show was this Jam commission for Dredd super-fan John Burdis. John asked all three of us at the table to do a Judge each, and over the course of the Sunday this is what we came up with. It's probably my favourite piece from the show. I really like how the three different styles worked together so well.

Another highlight of the weekend was Dan giving away the first page of his portfolio, a stunning colour image of the 11th Doctor grappling with Doctor Doom, to a kid for free BEFORE his portfolio review with Marvel editor Stephen Wacker. What a softie!

The only sketch I got for myself this weekend was another Nightcrawler for my sketchbook by Dan McDaid, which I think you'll agree is awesome!

Sunday was a little quieter than the Saturday, so I got more time to walk around the hall and catch up with some people.

I grabbed issue 2 of Jack Lawrence's awesome creator owned sci-fi series Tinpot Hobo. I loved the first issue I picked up at the first DemonCon event and this issue is even better than the first.

Stephen Downey gave me a copy of his new series Jennifer Wilde, which is brilliant. I really love Stephen's art when I saw some of his sample pages at Kapow this year, but this issue was leaps and bounds above his earlier stuff I'd seen.

Dean Beattie was in fine form at the con, not only selling copies of his brand new, utterly stunning X-Men print. But also plotting and scheming various pranks to pull on unsuspecting con attendees!

Another con high point for me was getting to meet Declan Shalvey and Jordie Bellaire through Dan and Marc who've both worked with them in the passed. I'm a massive fan of Declan's work since his stuff on Boom's 28 Days Later series, and Jordie's work as a colourist is beautiful, and sure to see her as one of the best colourists in the business before long. Both were incredibly nice and very complimentary of my work. I'd given Declan a couple of copies of my sketchbook for him and Jordie when he stopped by the table on the Saturday, and just before the end of the convention on Sunday, Declan gave me a copy of his Art Deco artbook. It's a beautiful book, and easily my favourite piece of swag I managed to get at the convention.

Overall it was a really great weekend, just before the end of the convention Dan, Marc and I discussed other potential conventions next year to get the band back together, so if that manages to materialise that will be a lot of fun.

DemonCon 2 Round-Up

2011-11-09T10:25:00.003Z

Last Sunday I was at the second DemonCon event in Maidstone, and once again local comic shop owner Graham has pulled together a rip-roaring success of a show.

With a much expanded guest list from the first show the venue, a local sandwich bar Eden, was brimming with talent. I got stuck in with the sketches straight away, opening up with a Black Canary for Graham's son Cameron's Gotham themed sketchbook. It was really nice to see so many kids at the venue this time out. Cameron put me firmly to task over my lack of Dr. Who knowledge when he came back for a 10th Doctor sketch. You can see some of the sketches I did below

I wasn't as rammed solid for sketches this time out, having a couple of dry periods in the second half of the day, but with the sheer volume of creators in the room I guess that was to be expected. This, however, did give me more time to wander around myself and have a chat with a few people.

I finally got to meet up with recent Twitter mate Marc Laming, who's been a big supporter of my work over the last year, so as it was our first face-to-face meeting we had plenty to chat about.

David Wynne, and Ian Sharman of Orang Utan Comics were also in attendence and it was great catching up with them for a chat after the unpleasantness of the recent MCM Expo. Be sure to check out their Hypergirl comic, especially if you're looking for a fun, all-ages story.

Dean Beattie was on fine form, and I got a chance to look at the artwork for his upcoming GIANT SIZE X-Men print which should be ready in time for Thoughtbubble. I can't wait to get my hands on one of these as it's already looking amazing.

I wish I'd spent a bit more time circulating, there's been a couple of different reports of the event since the 6th including Judge Dredd superfan, John Burdis' and Cancertown creator Cy Dethan's, I barely even register. So while from a business standpoint it was a good, successful day. I don't think I made much of an impression from a "marketing" standpoint, that's never been my strong suit so probably something I should be working on.

My table was next to Tony Lee and Daniel Boultwood's, and I was constantly catching glimpses of Daniel's awesome sketches throughout the day. I'm going to have to grab one of their books next time I see them at a convention.

Jack Lawrence's table looked pretty manic the entire day, at one point he had almost a 2 hours wait on his sketch list, so I didn't get a chance to go up and have a chat something else I'll have to remedy at a future con.

All in all DemonCon 2 was a great success, here's to another soon hopefully.

Sketchbooks for Sale

2011-10-26T15:54:00.000+01:00

The sketchbooks that'll be selling at this years DemonCon 2 and Thought Bubble. I'm so pleased with how they came out I can't begin to say. The books are 24 page, A5 (8.25x5.75 inches)

I've had a few people who won't be able to attend either convention express an interest in getting a copy, so I'm going to set aside a few to sell online here through the blog.

I'll be charging £10 (+postage and packing) for each sketchbook which will come with a head sketch of your choice in the back of the book. If you're interested in getting a copy then please send me an email stokesbook AT gmail DOT com, making sure you include who you'd like for your sketch.

To cover postage the TOTAL cost for a sketchbook will be £12.50 within the UK, and $25USD to ship to the US/Canada. I'll need to confirm the shipping costs to other areas shortly.

I can only accept payment via PayPal at this time, but please don't send ANY money until I've confirmed your order via email as quantities are limited.

Anatomy of a Batman Sketch

2011-10-26T12:57:00.000+01:00

I've been working on a Batman piece for the last few days, now that it's all finished up I thought I'd share a few steps of my process and how I work. A couple of people have asked me about my approach, or what materials I use while I was posting a few WIP steps on my Twitter or Tumblr.

Generally I start with something really loose. I tend to do a lot of gesture/anatomy style doodles in my sketchbook, they're usually half-finished and only occasionally have a few details to hint at the character I'm thinking about.

When I start a new picture I'll often go back through the sketchbooks and see if I have a pose that typifies the character I want to draw before I start. I also find it keeps me "honest" with my figure construction. I have a tendency to get a bit sloppy and skip ahead during the construction steps of my figures which tends to make them look a little wonky in later stages of a piece. At this point I generally scan the sketch and blueline it on to a sheet of copier paper to tighten up

Sometimes at that stage I'll make a few corrections to anatomy using the computer before I print it out. Like in the above sketch Batman's head looks slightly to far to the right, so I nudge it over to the left in Photoshop. However I don't notice how much bigger Batman's right arm is than the other or that it's sitting a tad too high in the socket, and I don't end up correcting it till much later.

Most of the time I don't do tight pencils before I start inking and work from a more finished version of the rough sketch, like the one below. But in this case I had a lot of background elements to work in, with the Gotham skyline, and stuff like that REALLY isn't my strongest suit.

I got a bit of feedback after posting this step to Tumblr and it was clear that the blocked in background wasn't looking right. So after scanning and bluelining to some more scrap paper, I went to tighten up the pencils. I hadn't intended to get very tight with the rendering of the figure and focus more on the background, but in the end I got a bit carried away and tightern up the pencils across the whole piece.

After this it goes back on the scanner and bluelined onto the full size artboard. I have a few templates already saved for different paper sizes with the adjustment layers for the blueline already on the file so I just drag the image into a new layer, resize it and hit print.

It's at this point someone on Tumblr points out Batman's "fat arm" and I fix the proportions in the computer before I print it on to the artboard.

At this point I'm already using more bits of paper than are probably necessary to do a finished piece of artwork, but I print out another version onto some more scrap paper and use a marker block out the shadows and spot blacks before I start inking. It's the first time I've done a step like this but I was having a few problems resolving how to light the figure in my head. You can already see in the pencils that Batman's torso and arms are almost uniformly lit, but his legs are heavily shadowed as though lit from below.

Despite playing around with the marker to try and get the lighting working shadows correctly across the whole figure, I couldn't get it to work, and decided to dial back the shadows on the legs instead. If I take a stab at colouring it I'll probably try and resolve the lighting at that stage instead.

I try to do the majority of inking with a brush, using a size 2 or 3. Sable brushes are generally expensive but I do find I really prefer them to the synthetic brushes that are a lot cheaper. However there's a great place online you can get some Kolinsky sable brushes that are very cheap, Rosemary and Co. They're reasonably priced compared to brands like the Windsor & Newton brushes, and I really recommend them for linework. They don't have as much of a "belly" as the W&N brushes so don't hold quite as much ink, but they're very comparable to the W&N's for quality.

Here's a quick shot I took part way through inking, all done with size 3 at this point, but I tend to drop down to the 2 for some of the finer interior detail lines. Most of the background elements were done with a size 1 brush and a ruler. PJ Holden put up a blog post with some great pointers on ruling with a brush. It's worth spending some time to practice it as the lines generally look much better than using fineliners/markers in my opinion.

Shortly after this I spilled a crapload of ink almost completely across the page, and had to start all over again. Which was annoying because I think a few of the details on the figure looked better on the first attempt compared to the finished, but oh well.

Well that post went on a bit longer than I intended, hope it wasn't too boring. Thanks for reading

STOKED! 2011 Sketchbook

2011-10-18T13:43:00.001+01:00

Ok so I've bitten the bullet and just placed the order on a small run of sketchbooks to be printed up in time for DemonCon2 and Thoughtbubble this year.

I got a lot of help from Marc Laming to setup the book and Simon Gough gave me some great pointers on some comic colouring for my covers.

It's only going to be a small print run for the table, but if anyone who can't attend the cons is interested in picking up a copy you can leave me a comment here or hit me up on Twitter and I can see about sorting out some copies for people. I'm not 100% settled on the price yet but expect it to be between £5-10.

Sketchbook Sneak Peak

2011-10-17T10:28:00.002+01:00

Been a bit light on the posting the last couple of weeks as I've been really busy. I've got 2 conventions where I'll have a table coming up in November, DemonCon2 in Maidstone, and Thoughtbubble in Leeds.

So to have something nice to sell at the table besides some art originals and sketches, I've been working on putting together a sketchbook of some of my favourite pieces of work from the last year.

Here's a sneak peak at some of the stuff I've been working on this week that might be seen in the book.

Aquaman

2011-10-07T17:05:00.002+01:00

I've said it a few times on the blog before, I'm an Aquaman fan. I have been since I was a kid, and he was a big reason for me badgering my parents for swimming lessons. So today's post is a bit of fanart dedicated to one of my favourite characters.

Last month saw the relaunch of the DC Universe with a host of new number one issues, one of which was Aquaman. I really loved the issue, the stunning art by Ivan Reis who's been a big favourite of mine since seeing his work on DC's Blackest Night series, was a big draw for me anyway.

The issues received a bit of criticism for it's attempt to bring the real world stigma of Aquaman being "lame" into the comic book universe and having characters in issue the address it, often to Aquaman's face. But I quite liked the take and felt that perhaps it needed to be addressed, especially to brand new comic readers. Even my non-comic reading friends know Aquaman's a bit of a joke thanks to the efforts of The Big Bang Theory and SNL, so I think that bringing it up in the issue would give new readers something to relate to.

I do agree that they could have had a few more scenes of Aquaman "being awesome" to really cement the idea that he can be a great character, but writer Geoff Johns seems to be taking a much more decompressed approach to storytelling in his new 52 issues, so provided we now move forward with much more AWESOME Aquaman stuff and now that the "Aquaman is lame" stuff is out of the way then I'll certainly be back for more issues.

Modesty Blaise

2011-10-04T03:28:00.003+01:00

Quite a lot of the sketches and pieces I've been working on lately have been very "guy-centric". So much so that I sat down to draw some female characters a couple of days ago and all the faces looked off or wonky.

So I've spent the last couple of days just drawing various female character, and female faces, and expressions. Trying to power through the block and get back on track. I always sit there dithering about which character to draw if I'm left to my own devices, so I asked for a few suggestions from Twitter and within a few minutes had a very healthy list to pick from.

It's a great excuse to draw some characters I've never tackled before, so one of the suggestions, from my good buddy Marc Laming, was Modesty Blaise. I've never read anything of the character before so had to Google some reference pictures.

Some of the results had some pictures by comic blogger and costumer extraordinaire Elizabeth Amber of her Modesty Blaise costume. One of the pictures had a great pose and balance and had a great hand configuration on the pistol to practice with. I've heard Elizabeth Amber's review spots on the CGS podcast and have been following her for a little while on Twitter, so I shot her a tweet asking if she'd mind if I used her photo as a reference shot for the piece. She very graciously agreed so today's post is the inked up finished sketch of Elizabeth Amber as Modesty Blaise.

Original pencil sketch for the piece is found below

Quicksilver

2011-10-02T16:40:00.000+01:00

Here's a warm-up sketch of Quicksilver from a couple of days ago that I forgot to scan and post

Deadman

2011-10-01T16:26:00.002+01:00

I picked up some markers recently and have been trying to get to grips with them. I hadn’t used any design markers since college so it’s a bit of a learning curve.

So here’s a quick Deadman sketch I used to practice with, then I threw some colours over it quickly in Photoshop

Swamp Thing

2011-09-19T03:17:00.000+01:00

I'm probably going to have to hand in my comic geek credentials for saying so but I haven't read ANY Swamp Thing whatsoever.

But I really liked the new issue 1 that kicked off the first week of the DC relaunch, and hopefully (cash permitting) I'll continue with the series for a while.

Suitably inspired by all the cool things going on in comics this week, Swamp Thing being only a small part of that, I decided to do a bit of Swamp Thing fan art. It's taken the better part of the whole day, with a few sizeable breaks but I'm pretty happy with the result. I think it's a little too dark/muddy in a few spots and Swamp Thing gets lost in the background a bit, but all in all I think it's a good strong piece.

Magneto Sketch

2011-09-17T14:48:00.000+01:00

Magneto sketch to warm up today. He's my all-time favourite Marvel villain, though he's a bit less villainous these days than he used to be.

The Marquis

2011-09-09T17:31:00.001+01:00

I'm a big fan of Guy Davis' art, especially the beautiful work in the BPRD Plague of Frogs series.

But the first time I saw any of Guy Davis stuff was in the incredibly dark, creator owned work The Marquis: Inferno

So here's a little fan art piece for the series.

Planet Pulp: Fawlty Towers

2011-09-05T16:20:00.000+01:00

This month’s gallery show over at Planet Pulp is “Sitcom” themed. So I thought I’d go for something quintessentially British.

Comic-style colouring’s never really been a strong suit of mine but I picked up Phil Noto’s DVD tutorial from Gnomon and have been working from that to get some pointers.

After a few practice runs I used the gallery show piece as an excuse to practice the stuff from the DVD. The DVD’s are a bit pricey and I’ve bought a few before, but I genuinely feel I learned a lot from this one, so hopefully it’s worth the cash. Thanks very much to Phil Noto and Gnomon for putting together such a great DVD.

Thanks again to Planet Pulp for inviting me to their gallery show, I hope you guys find a few minutes to check out all the ot

Chamber

2011-08-23T12:57:00.003+01:00

Finally a post that isn't about the Legion?!?

It is however another of my favourite characters, Chamber from Marvel's Generation X. I've drawn him a few times before, and this one is a rework of a previous sketch.

I tried to finish the inking as quickly as possible to keep some energy in the piece, which I think I often strangle out of a picture with my inking. Tried to use one brush which is generally larger than I use too so it's not go too many finicky details.

Last Legionnaires

2011-08-22T16:30:00.005+01:00

Well I think I'm finally done with this set of Legionnaires! There are a couple of characters left from the later reboots, but we're almost at 40 sketches so far so I think it's time to call it a day. All the characters pretty much cover the time I was reading Legion, so I'm really happy with how they came out.

So the last batch are Quislet, Night Girl, Chemical King, Chameleon Girl, Invisible Kid 1 and Invsible Kid 2.

Now to see if I can turn them all in to some sort of poster. You can find a link to the full set here

Legionnaires: Tyroc

2011-08-19T19:48:00.001+01:00

Tyroc from the Legion of Superheroes as he appears in the current volume of the book.

His current outfit is certainly a little less "disco" than his previous one.

Legionnaires: White Witch

2011-08-13T16:23:00.003+01:00

By my count I have about 5 or 6 of the core Legionnaires to finish up and then I've got a whole set. I'm trying not to look at the list of the various reboot member additions and the subs, it's too upsetting, haha.

Today's is The White Witch, Mysa Nal. She's Dream Girl's magic using sister and the DC equivalent of Sorcerer Supreme in the 31st Century

Legionnaires: Earthman

2011-08-07T21:35:00.002+01:00

I know some don't really consider him a Legionnaire, but he got a flight ring, so he get's a sketch.

I'm not a big fan of the character personally but I'm really intrigued by the way Geoff Johns took a throwaway Legion reject from a story in 1976, Absorbancy Boy and weaved a really great story around him, in the Superman and the Legion arc from Action Comics.

Legionnaire Home Stretch

2011-08-05T09:02:00.003+01:00

Almost finished with the Legion of Superheroes set. Sun Boy, Lightning Lass, Shrinking Violet, Gates, Ferro Lad, Dream Girl, Blok and Lightning Lad.

Only a handful to go

Gaggle of Legionnaires

2011-07-30T13:50:00.004+01:00

Here's another batch of Legionnaires to go with the set I'm working on. Only another 267 to go, give or take, gah!

Dawnstar, Phantom Girl, Colossal Boy, Sensor Girl, Polar Boy, and Mon-El in his new September reboot outfit, that I really like the design of!

Balder the Brave

2011-07-14T03:45:00.005+01:00

Been re-reading the J. Michael Straczynski Thor run, so felt inspired to do a few characters from the series.

So first up, Balder the Brave.

Planet Pulp: Baroness

2011-07-12T01:12:00.001+01:00

My submission to this month’s Planet Pulp gallery show: [link]

G.I. Joe wasn’t very big over here in the UK (I think it was called Action Force over here) but I do remember the cartoon getting some air time and I loved it as a kid.

I even remember joining the Action Force club, saved up my pocket money and sent away from my secret agent pack or whatever it was called, and getting my own Action Force codename IRON EAGLE!

I was thrilled.

A few months later at a family get-together, I found out one of my cousins was also a member of the Action Force team! His codename was IRON EAGLE too :( I was heartbroken.

We Are the Corp

2011-06-27T09:07:00.003+01:00

Love Green Lantern, wish I had liked the movie more. Thinking of making this up as a print to sell at some upcoming conventions.

Commissions and Thought Bubble

2011-06-20T15:01:00.007+01:00

I've been open for commissions for a while but haven't gone out of my way to advertise the fact before.

However I've decided to bite the bullet and get a table at the Thought Bubble convention in Leeds this November. I'll be sketching, selling some prints, and trying to shift some of my original artwork. So I'm making a big push to pick up some commissions to cover the costs of attending the convention.

Most of the original artwork for the sketches that appear on the blog over the last few months will be for sale, and I'll put up a post closer to the time of the event with the prints I'll have for sale.

If you're interested in a commission, please drop me an email at stokesbook AT gmail DOT com . At this point I can only accept payment by PayPal at the same address. Some examples of commissions are below

A4 (8.3" x 11.7") Single character (as above) - £20

A4 Two characters (as above) - £30

If you'd like a larger commission, A3 (11.7" x16.5") or more than 2 characters, please just drop me a note to the above email address and we can discuss the details/cost.

At this point I can only cover the shipping costs within the UK, shipping to address outside of the UK will cost an additional £10

More Legionnaires

2011-06-20T14:54:00.002+01:00

Few more Legion sketches from the last few weeks.

It's All in the Reflexes

2011-06-14T02:16:00.004+01:00

I'm very flattered to have been asked to contribute to the fantastic Planet Pulp gallery show blog

This month's theme is 80's action Summer blockbusters, so I picked one of my all-time favourite 80's movies, Big Trouble in Little China.

Please go check out the blog, they do a great job of bringing together many different styles of illustration and design to pull off a gorgeous pop culture themed gallery show every month.

Karate Kid vs Longshot

2011-06-13T01:12:00.002+01:00

I was contacted recently by Karate Kid superfan Travis Ellisor about commissioning a piece for his beautiful Karate Kid vs gallery he lovingly maintains over at Comic Art fans.

He has some absolutely stunning pieces by some very big name artists so I was very flattered to be asked to contribute something. So after a little back and forth as to who Karate Kid would be fighting I finished up his commission.

Travis has very graciously allowed me to post it up here to share, so hope you all like it.

Thanks again Travis

Legionnaires: Chuck & Luornu

2011-06-09T11:39:00.002+01:00

Another Legion sketch from the last few days while I'm in between various projects. My favourite Legion couple Bouncing Boy and Duo Damsel!

I'm quite pleased with how this one came out. Bouncing Boy's not exactly you're typical "superhero" build and I think he looks convincing without being too much of a caricature of a heavy set guy. Also I think I didn't make such a bad stab at the body language, they look like a young couple in love right?

Bah if anything I think the hands are much more expressive in this one, I've been working on those alot lately. Starting to pay off me thinks

More Legionnaires

2011-06-07T14:20:00.002+01:00

Here's a few more Legion sketches from the last couple of days.

I'm really enjoying this series and I'm really starting to settle into inking these up and for a change, I really like my inking on a whole.

Plenty more Legionnaires still to do, so expect more in the future

Legionnaires: Matter Eater Lad

2011-06-03T04:01:00.003+01:00

I've been posting these Legion sketches up at the Legion of Substitute Podcasters Facebook page over the last few days.

It's one of my absolute favourite podcasts, obviously being a Legion podcast. It's hosted brilliant, by a great bunch of guys who have great chemistry and it's often hysterical.

Monday night's is usually one of my most boring and tedious nights at the day job, and the LoSP guys really make it fly-by. So as a thank-you I've been posting up these Legion sketches to their Facebook group.

Tonight's was suggested by one of the LoSP hosts, Scott Coles who has a bit of an aversion to Blackest Night it seems, so asked that Tenzil be "eating black power rings out of a bowl like popcorn"

Legionnaires: Karate Kid

2011-05-28T05:32:00.003+01:00

No not this one! Before there was Mr. Miyagi and Daniel-san, there was Val Armorr of the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Finished work at 3am this morning and had to be up at 7 to go to London's MCMExpo, so stayed awake drawing. Starting to regret that decision now

Legionnaires: Chameleon Boy

2011-05-27T14:30:00.003+01:00

Slightly wonky Chameleon Boy from DC's Legion of Super-Heroes. He's head is a smidge too small among other things. But he's a shapeshifter right?

Legionnaires: Lightning Lad

2011-05-23T12:24:00.004+01:00

Another Legionnaire warm up, I think I might try and do a whole set. Garth Ranzz, or Lightning Lad one of the Legions original co-founders.

I went with the Levitz/Giffen era costume as I'm not especially keen on the look he has in the current run. He looks a little too much like a surfer dude for my liking.

Last time I drew Lightning Lad was a couple of years ago. Looking back on that is painful as it's so bad! Definitely showing some improvement since I started the blog

SHAZAM!

2011-05-21T16:02:00.002+01:00

Warm up sketch for today, DC's Captain Marvel. I really love the look of the character, especially Alex Ross' beautiful paintings of the character like in Kingdom Come, but I've never been able to get it to look quite right.

Quite happy with how this turned out today though.

Legionnaires: Element Lad

2011-05-19T15:52:00.003+01:00

Quick warmup sketch for today, my favourite Legion character, Element Lad.

I'm a little disappointed that he's not shown up more in the current Legion run. I've always liked how he has such a powerful ability but tempers it with a vast amount of restraint.

Abnett & Lanning Legion Lost storyline is one of my favourite Element Lad stories as it shows off the full extent of Element Lad's powers. Spoilers (highlight to reveal!): Even if they did have to make him the villain to do it.

Bristol Expo 2011 Roundup

2011-05-17T02:16:00.005+01:00

So things have been a little quiet on the art front lately. I've had a couple of commissions on the burner and I don't feel comfortable posting anything from those until the client's seen the finished version and is happy for me to post it.

Plus I've been behind on Blackfriars for a bit, so I've taken a few weeks out to polish the script a little more and try to get a few more pages in the can so I have a buffer and I'm not rushing to finish up a page on Monday night to post on Tuesday.

I did however spend this past Saturday in Bristol for The Bristol Comic Expo 2011.

It was a great day. I got to chat with lots of creators and publishers, showed off my portfolio a little and spent a bit too much money. But here's a brief rundown of some of the days highlights.

Strip Magazine: I had a great chat with John Freeman of downthetubes.net about his new magazine due out this October, Strip. I got such a massive boost in view on the blog when John featured my Kapow write up on downthetubes, that I wanted to thank him in person. He was very critical of my portfolio and offered some great advice, overall I think he liked what he saw and suggested I pitch something for his newly announced STRIP SPOTLIGHT.

Nightcrawler by PJ Holden

PJ Holden: I grabbed an awesome Nightcrawler sketch from PJ to go in my sketchbook and he very kindly had another look at my portfolio. I like PJ, he speaks his mind and doesn't sugarcoat his criticism, but it's always constructive, he gives plenty of examples on how to improve your weakest areas.

It was really refreshing to people like Paul Cornell, Sean Phillips and Dave Gibbons wandering through the retailer aisles and diving through back issue bins. I half expected Paul Cornell to be fighting off the fans with a giant combat spoon but he was very quietly looking through back issue bins undisturbed. I very nearly literally bumped into Dave Gibbons as he was walking through the car park of the Ramada hotel. I didn't want to bother them though, I think it's fine if they're at a table or a signing but "pouncing" on someone in the middle of their shopping might be considered rude to some so I wasn't going to risk it.

Nightcrawlers by Manon and Kev Crossley

Manon and Kev Crossley: Grabbed another couple of Nightcrawlers for my sketchbook from these guys. Manon wasn't initially familiar with Kurt but when I said just imagine Errol Flynn as a blue elf she knew exactly what to do and really nailed it. It was refreshing to see her etheral style translated to a comicbook character. Kev's great fun to chat to and always has a great story or two while he's sketching away. He very kindly gave me a free sketch as he'd nabbed an Abe Sapien from me at Kapow.

Nightcrawler by David Wynne

David Wynne: I'd not seen any of David Wynne's artwork before but he was sitting at the Orang-Utan Comics tables with PJ Holden and had a great looking Punisher sketch in front of him. So after a quick wander round a few more tables to work out where I was going to spend my budget for the day I circled back round and grabbed a Nightcrawler. I'm going to make time and plough through David's webcomic Particle Fiction when I've got more time off work

Kev Levell: Bumped into Kev a few times over the course of the day and towards the end of the day we finally had a good chat about all things comic related and some commissions he's been working on. Sheryl Crow's nosejob even came up at one point, in conversation not the actual nose, and we parted ways to both grab some more portfolio feedback.

Nightcrawler by Dean Beattie

Dean Beattie: I was 2 tables down from Dean at DemonCon and because I was so busy and in such a rush to get back home in time for work I didn't even get a chance ot say hello, let alone chat. I really love Dean's stuff and grabbed the above Nightcrawler for my sketchbook. We had a good chat and he gave me a very good-natured verbal kicking on how I was undervaluing my work and that he'd liked my stuff at DemonCon. So in exchange for this awesome Nightcrawler I'm going to be doing Dean a Ghost Rider.

Nightcrawler by Charlie Adlard

Nightcrawling Dead: Ok so I did feel like a bit of a dick for asking Charlie Adlard of Walking Dead fame for a Nightcrawler instead of a zombified portrait or a TWD character like other people were getting, but I think it looks fantastic! Charlie was doing sketches for just £10!! Which seems absolutely crazy. He had an unassuming handwritten sign and a note saying that the sketch cash was going to charity. Why his line wasn't snaking round the exhibit hall was beyond me. I walked passed his table a couple of times and his line was never more than 3 people deep. Insane.

I had some great feedback from the guys over at Futurequake Press with my portfolio who gave me a card and told me to make sure I got in contact.

Overall it was a really long day and I had a great time, this brief rundown has gone on too long. To anyone I forgot to mention I'm sorry. Hope to catch up with everyone again at another con.

DemonCon Roundup

2011-05-03T02:38:00.005+01:00

Ok first of all, I suck. I had the presence of mind to take all of TWO pictures of the sketches I did at the OUTSTANDING! DemonCon in Maidstone last Sunday. TWO!

What. An. Idiot.

And both of those came out largely terrible. As you can see from the hastily snapped pic above of a Dejah Thoris.

The day itself was absolutely amazing! I had such a great time, and the incredibly positive feedback I was getting from people who stopped at my table was brilliant. Such a massive confidence boost.

I couldn't actually get the whole day off work for the con and had to get back in time for the night shift at 6. If I had to risk the trains I probably wouldn't have gone. But thankfully a very good mate of mine, Al, drove all the way up from Portsmouth just to take me to the show and get me back in time for work. Complete comic novice, Al was indispenable. I really don't think I could have managed as well as I did on the day without the assistance.

Al kept track of my sketch list, keeping a mental note of how long it was taking me to do each sketch, giving people spot-on accurate estimates of when they could come back and grab their sketch. He bundled sketches into plastic sleeves with my business cards, and handled all the cash. Even kept my prints and artwork display folders open to the "eye-catching" pieces to encourage people to stop at the table. I really don't think I'd have been anywhere near as successful without the help, so a massive thank you to Al for everything he did on the day.

I had a steady stream of sketch requests all day and before long the list was piling up. I barely had time to lift me head, and I had to make a conscious effort to try and look up and say Hi to people and try and chat about what characters they wanted for sketches, what costumes they liked etc.

I was really intimidated a little when we were setting up as most of the other artists were obviously experience con attendees and had some awesome banners and posters, piles of books and framed prints, but I like to think I held my own after a few hours and I started to relax a bit.

One guy even asked me to do a Thor sketch on the blank cover of his Fear Itself #1, which to be honest absolutely terrified me. I was convinced I'd completely botch the sketch up. I've noticed a few artists on Twitter mention that the blank sketch cover comics don't always take ink very well, and I did have a few probs with bleed using a PITT brush pen. So switched to my trusty Pentel Pocket Brush which was better but still a bit uneven. That sketch was probably my favourite from the whole day and I didn't get a picture. I've emailed the con organiser, Graham, owner of the Grinning Demon Comicshop in Maidstone to see if he can get a sneaky photo for me, fingers crossed.

I even had one guy ask me, yes ME! for advice on how to get work in comics. So once I set him straight that I'm probably a million miles removed from an expert, let alone "in comics" I passed on advice that I'd either a) heard first hand from the likes of PJ Holden, Marc Laming, Kev Levell, Kyle Latino or b) heard on podcasts, or from the psuedo-stalkery spying of other comic creators twitter feeds

You have to be fearless or thick-skinned, preferably both and just keep putting your work under the noses of people who are willing to look. (Ask them first of course, as politely as possible).
Don't ask someone for their opinion or a critique and then spend all the time you have to chat with them defending your work against what they may point out doesn't work or are weak areas. If you don't agree, fine, keep it to yourself and take in as much of what they have to say as possible. You'll get much more out of the conversation if you're not overly defensive or confrontational. Chances are if the same things are being pointed out from alot of different people they're right.
Ask about their influences, their process, maybe they know of a good book or two to help you improve on where they think you're weakest (Thanks for the Perspective Book tip PJ!)

I'm really bummed that I had to leave early for work. I only got a brief minute or two to speak to the artist at the table next to me, the awesome Jack Lawrence, who very kindly gave me a free copy of his new creator owned sci-fi comic Tinpot Hobo. Which is a really good read! I didn't even get a chance to talk to Dan Abnett and/or Andy Lanning, writers of one of my favourite Legion stories of all time, Legion Lost.

Graham's hinted that a repeat event may be on the cards in the near future and if the gracious host will have me back I'll be there the whole day come hell or high water!

If anyone I spoke to at the con finds this and had a sketch done by me I'd love to see a photo, so leave a link in the comments section.

Demoncon Maidstone

2011-04-21T15:55:00.006+01:00

Edit: Ok above are some samples of the prints I'll have available at the show. All prints are A4 on heavy-matte presentation paper and will be priced to move at £5.

I'll be sketching all day so you'll be able to grab a quick sketch of your favourite character for £5-£10.

I'll also have some of my original artwork available to sell starting at £10

Just when I thought it wouldn't all go to plan.

I have been very generously invited to have my very FIRST table at a small comic convention in nearby Maidstone, DEMONCON!
The convention's being held at EDEN, Bank Street, Maidstone on Sunday May 1st.

I'll be there between 10am and 4pm, traffic permitting, so if you're interested in getting a sketch please drop by and say Hi. I'll update this post with a price list in a few but I expect everything will be priced to move, cheap as chips and all that.

I'll have a few small printouts of my Blackfriars webcomic for people to check out and I'm going to try and get a few prints done in time to sell at the con. Is there any pieces in particular people think would make a good print? Leave a comment with your suggestions.

Big Trouble in Little China: Lightning

2011-04-20T02:57:00.004+01:00

Had a bit of a veg day today after finishing the latest Blackfriars page, which was pretty late all things considered as I usually get it finished Monday night.

So I sat down with Big Trouble in Little China and pigged out. Doodled a quick sketch of one of the Three Storms, Lightning, while I was watching. Then decided to take it to finish it up properly.

Heavily inspired by Chris Samnee and Yilidray Cinar's respective Black Adam sketches they've posted online. I really like how those artists pull off the lightning effects with the negative space and wanted to have a go at something similar. Not easy.

Psylocke Watercolours

2011-04-18T12:12:00.002+01:00

Psylocke watercolour sketch from the last few days.

Busy busy, working on a Blackfriars page right now for Tuesday's strip. Potentially awesome announcement to come on Thursday also, so stay tuned for that.

Sinestro Corp War

2011-04-17T11:55:00.004+01:00

Finally picked up a copy of Green Lantern: Sinestro Corp War as it leads into one of my favourite events of the last few years Blackest Night.

It's a great story, though I do feel it requires a little prior knowledge, especially the beginning of the first volume which seems to reference a yellow power ring trying to recruit Batman to the Sinestro Corp. So I guess I'm going to need to track down what trade that happens in, because that sounds awesome.

So suitably inspired I sat down and knocked out a quick sketch of Hal Jordan dodging a Sinestro ambush. Took a little over an hour all together.

Herald and the World Eater

2011-04-16T19:33:00.004+01:00

Quick sketch from a few days ago suggested by a good twitter buddy Marc Laming who is doing some awesome work for an upcoming Shepperton Waltz story.

So here's a sketch of Galactus, trying to get my Kirby on. Which I clearly failed at but meh. I quite like how it came out

Kapow ComicCon 2011 Roundup!

2011-04-10T02:35:00.007+01:00

So after falling in from the first annual Kapow Comic Con I promptly blacked out. Only to wake just now! So I guess this is as good a time as any to do a bit of a write up.

I'll get the negative out of the way first. I'm not proclaiming to be some sort of convention expert, this was only my second big comic convention, but I felt the information available prior to the con was a little lackluster. The last con I attended had their panel schedule, floor plans (with a list of who every table was allocated too), and signing schedule all emailed to me ahead of leaving for the con.

I knew what books I could take to get signed, knew which artists were going to be in artists alley so I could go look up their sketch prices to help me plan my budget, etc.

I'm not the most organised person but I don't think going to a con without some vague gameplan is a great idea. All the books I took to get signed today, every single one, the creators aren't signing till tomorrow. I took a couple of movie posters for the new Thor movie to see if I could get those signed only to find when I got there that the Thor movie guests weren't on any signing schedule.

So I spent the day carrying a quite a bit of dead weight.

That's probably my only major gripe with the convention

Now the postive. The turnout was great, at the busiest time of the day the show floor was rammed. There were some queuing snafus with the incredibly popular signing guests (John Romita Jr, Mark Millar etc) at times. Fortunately most of the more popular panels were during "peak" times so the queues for those (on a balcony above the show floor) really helped the congestion a bit.

The cosplayers looked awesome! Although every single time I walked passed a cosplayer who was stopping to get a photo taken, I could hear some fucker just out of my eyeline make some snide comment about them. I'm not exaggerating either, literally everytime. The queue to get in first thing in the morning was the worst, pretty much 2-3 people deep either side of me in the queue were tearing into every cosplayer in the line that "dared" show off their costume on the streets.

RANT INCOMING! What the fuck is people's problem? You don't want to dress up? Fine, no one is asking you to. That Harley Quinn doesn't have that quite leggy, big boobed comic book figure so you want to spout some quite hurtful comments (not loud enough for her to hear though thankfully, you gutless prick) when you look like a passable Clayface even without makeup you fat cunt.

It's not like there were any Hawkmen with 8ft wingspans choking up already narrow aisles. If you're at a comic convention, you're a geek. There's no cool geeks, jock geeks whatever, that person you think you're entitled to rip the piss out of is just the same as you, so if you don't have anything nice to say, keep it to your fucking self. How are you people 30+ years old and still have yet to learn this very basic life lesson?

I think the cosplayers all looked awesome! Some of the costumes were top notch and really detailed. The Penguin especially was a real standout for me personally. he looked like he literally stepped out of the Batman Animated Series. I certainly don't have the balls to do it so who am I to criticise. I don't think this guy dressed as Bane took much shit though, can't think why

Picture source: London Loves Comics

I only actually made it into one panel, the DC Creator's panel with Paul Cornell, Pete Milligan, and Frank Quietly which was a lot of fun, but didn't really break any news that hasn't been seen elsewhere. Paul Cornell was a standout as he's such an enthusiastic and genuniely funny guy that he had the audience rolling in the aisles.

I do regret not getting into a couple more panels, especially the Green Lantern one, as I'm really looking forward to Emerald Knights and obviously the movie. But even getting to the queue 45 minutes before the panel starts and being faced with a HUGE line was a bit offputting. The Thor movie panel were even asking people to surrender their phones and cameras before being seated, which is fair I guess, but I wasn't prepared to part with my phone (anyone who knows me that my luck would have worked against me and I'd never see the phone again) so I skipped that panel also.

Early on the day I had a great chat with fantasy artist Manon who had the most gorgeous, incredible work on display in her portfolio. Her high end prints look amazing, and I was sorely tempted to grab one, but that would have decimated my weekend budget in one fell swoop. I was gutted, I'm going to start saving my pennies again and grab a print through her website eventaully.

Despite being under the weather with what seemed like the start of a failing voice she was really open and informative about her process and her transition over to painting digitally in the last few years. Her work's very diverse with great humour pieces side by side with thoughtful portraits and stunning fantasy heroines. Really inspiring stuff, if you get a chance to see her at an event and you can afford it, please hurl large amounts of cash at her.

I eventually met up with good twitter buddy and fellow wannabe comicker Kev Levell, and we had a great chat about the trials and tribulations of being a full-time illustrator (which I'm not, but still), and how difficult it is to get into the comics biz, and the pro's and cons of twitter in general.

Unlike me, Kev was organised enough to get his portfolio submitted in time for the Marvel review at the convention, but still didn't get selected for a review slot. For shame Marvel, for shame, your loss.

So we made a pact I had to go stick my portfolio under someone's nose before the end of the day and so did he. I like to think I'm a man of my word so no excuses, no time for shyness, just do it.

I have this absolute hang-up about approaching someones table with the goal of getting them to look at my work, and not buying anything, especially another artist. So I spent way more than I'd planned to because of this, but ultimately got some really cool swag.

I got some great feedback from Terry Martin of Murky Depths and the cover artist of their latest issue Neil Roberts. Really positive, I grabbed a Murky Depths card and Terry Martin took my email address (because of course I had forgotten to bring my fucking business cards!) so fingers crossed something might come of that. Maybe once I've got a solid story arc finished of Blackfriars that might be an avenue to see it actually in print?

And after that the weight of self-doubt was lifted, and I was showing stuff to anyone who would look.

Stephen Downey really took a lot of time looking through my stuff and gave me some great feedback to improve my sequential work and seemed genuinely impressed with my portfolio, so much so he put it under the nose of one of his friends who walked passed his table. I'd already got an awesome Nightcrawler sketch in my sketchbook earlier (which were stupidly cheap for how awesome they are. Seriously go get a sketch from this guy!)

The stand out, hands down highlight for me though was Kev Crossley. Just after 5pm I think so funds had dwindled to my last £20, I'd hoped to get a sketch but his sketch list was heaving so I settled for some awesome fantasy themed greetings cards, and asked if he would be willing to look at my portfolio.

He was really busy but agreed, and the feedback was insane! He seemed genuinely surprised and was so taken with a couple of pieces he asked if he could snap a picture or two, particularly of my Abe Sapien sketch from a few months back, as he wanted to have a stab at his own interpretation.

I was so flattered I just about burst on the spot and insisted he take the sketch. Kev said I should look him up on facebook so I can see his version when he gets around to it, which I'm looking forward too immensely. He jotted down my webcomic address on the back of the sketch too so lets hope he likes it!

So all in all it was a great day. I do have a ticket for Sunday but I'm not sure I'm going to go. I'm already over my budget for the weekend (by a lot), and I WILL end up spending more money if I go. That and the absolutely obnxious, horrific closures/delays/diversion on the London Underground made travelling to and from the venue an arduous affair.

There's a few kinks to work out with the convention if it returns next year, but I don't feel like it was a wasted trip. I only took a few snaps at the con. I'm neither a great or prolific photographer and once I'd discarded the ones with my finger intruding into frame there wasn't very many left, but if you're interested you can go see them here.

Inking Dodson Take 2

2011-04-06T00:59:00.003+01:00

Inking over X-Men artist Terry Dodson again to get some practice in.

I personally feel that my own inking is very "scratchy" so I was trying something completely opposite to that with this piece by trying to capture the long, flowing, elegant lines that Dodson's style is known for.

It's not a bad attempt. Still not quite right, and I don't know how to scan this stuff for the life of me. All the really fine detail lines just get lost or come out grey, and when I try and use PS Curves or Levels to drag them into the black, everything else gets really chunky.

You can click here to see the original pencils as posted over at Terry Dodson's DeviantART page

Cosmic Boy

2011-03-29T13:17:00.003+01:00

Long Live the Legion! I'm a big Legion fan so last night after finishing up the latest Blackfriars page I decided to do a quick sketch of a Legionnaire to chill out before going to bed.

I went a bit crazy with spattering ink and white paint over the page, and got very messy in the process but I had a lot of fun working on it and really like how it turned out (a rarity). So here's the Legion's magnetic co-founder Cosmic Boy!

Pencils for the sketch are below.

Jean Grey: Dark Phoenix

2011-03-22T23:00:00.004Z

I took the day off from projects today to relax and just draw for fun. So today I chilled out with some friends and watched some TV while knocking out this Dark Phoenix Jean Grey piece.

Back to the grindstone tomorrow.

Lady Deathstrike

2011-03-18T14:48:00.003Z

My good twitter buddy Mike Rooth has been posting this ridiculously awesome sketch covers to his Facebook account the last few days. So I thought I'd have a crack at some of Wolverine's rogues gallery.

One of the most vivid early comic memories I have is, I think, a splash page, probably from Uncanny X-Men of Lady Deathstrike holding a woman by the chin, and the woman is in the process of being turned into a cyborg. I don't have the issue anymore but I'm pretty sure it was a Marc Silvestri or Jim Lee issue, and I must have copied that image a dozen times.

So today's little Lady Deathstrike is my homage to that image.

Inking in Manga Studio

2011-03-16T15:15:00.002Z

I've been trying to get to grips with Manga Studio lately to try and speed up the output on my webcomic pages. So here's some more inking practice using the program. This time it's an old Green Arrow Sketch I did a while ago.

Man Without Fear

2011-03-15T02:08:00.001Z

Quick Daredevil sketch that I did today while watching some TV.

Think it looks a bit squiffy but I haven't had time to do any personal stuff for the blog in ages so it's getting posted.

The Sixth Gun: Trouble in Death Valley

2011-03-07T04:03:00.005Z

I recently picked up the first trade of Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt's The Sixth Gun, and it is absolutely outstanding!. It really is a great read and I can't recommend it enough, especially if you're a fan of the supernatural horror genre or period westerns. Both of which combine brilliantly in this story.

I've been really busy trying to keep ahead of myself with the webcomic and a couple of new freelance gigs I've been commissioned with recently to post anything here, but I took some "me" time tonight and put together a little piece of Sixth Gun fan art.

Below is the little thumbnail rough from my sketchbook that I scanned and blew up to blueline the finished piece.

Magneto Sketch

2011-03-01T03:15:00.003Z

Couldn't sleep tonight, so put together a quick Magneto sketch for the blog which I've been neglecting a bit lately to work on other projects.

The first installment of my webcomic, Blackfriars, has been posted so if you like supernatural themed comic stories please check it out and let me know what you think.

Manga Studio: Nightwing

2011-02-24T16:11:00.002Z

So after I finished inking another Blackfriars page I decided to sit down and experiment with Manga Studio a bit.

I've played around with it a little before but really couldn't get to grips with it. Today however I decided to persevere. So after a few failed attempts I set about trying to do a sketch of Nightwing only using the program. It took a few hours but eventually I started getting the hang of it.

I threw the background in really quick trying to get the hang of the rulers to knock together some perspective and working out how to use the tones. It's not great but I do quite like how the inking works now. It looks really scratchy on the screen which really kept putting me off while I was working but decided to just keep going and see what it looks like exported and shrunk down. I don't think it looks that bad.

If any seasoned Manga Studio users have some tips I'd love to hear them

Hellboy Sketch

2011-02-21T13:52:00.005Z

Woke up late this morning, so jumped straight into working on some pages, but things weren't going well and everything felt a bit clunky.

Completely changed tack and grabbed some watercolours, and an old marker sketch of Hellboy to work from and recreated it except as a little watercolour sketch. Feel much more relaxed now and the now that I'm back into the pages it feels a little more comfortable. Though I'm still incredibly nervous as to how they'll be recevied.

So Hellboy sketch, 45mins, watercolours and ink. Here's the previous sketch that I used as a reference

BOOM?

2011-02-20T23:41:00.005Z

Took a break from the Blackfriars stuff to doodle something else.

Miracleman and Big Barda, you've really got to love those Kirby costume designs. Might have a stab at inking this one digitally

Blackfriars: Panel Preview!

2011-02-20T16:29:00.003Z

I think it's a testament to my dumbassery that for my first comic story I set it in and around a 400 year old Cathedral, when by my own admission I hate (read: I suck at) drawing buildings/architechture.

At last years BICS, during a chat with 2000AD artist PJ Holden, he told me that my perspective stuff needed at lot of work. So I guess that's why I've set myself all these challenges with the new strip. I'm under no illusions that there is probably going to be quite a bit wrong with some of the pages but if I don't actually start making pages and mistakes I'm not going to correct it.

So here's a sneak peak at a panel from an upcoming Blackfriars page, an interior shot of St. Paul's Cathedral. I still need to tweak a few of the angles before I start inking but I am really pleased with my progress so far.

Water Damage

2011-02-20T14:15:00.003Z

I haven't had a great deal of time to post stuff lately, as I've been working hard on getting pages ready for my upcoming webcomic, Blackfriars. As well as setting up the website, and learning how to letter pages for the first time. It's been fun, but a lot of work.

Anyway yesterday, someone on the 10th floor of my block of flats left all their water running and moved out. So about 5pm yesterday I had water pouring in through the ceiling in three rooms. Not pleasant.

So I've been on the phone, (read on HOLD) most of the morning trying to get the council to come out and inspect the damage etc. With little success.

Anyway, here's a quick Wolverine sketch as I've been sat here on HOLD, that I managed to scan, scale down, and post, while still on HOLD.

Grrr this is going to be a long day!

Blackfriars Webcomic

2011-02-16T15:35:00.003Z

It's finally here! The website for my upcoming webcomic is now live. You can check out Blackfriars, here.

It's a contemporary fantasy story set in present day London about three unlikely heroes, an ancient threat from Britains mythic past, Magick as a secret resource of the British Government, all converging on a long-lost gateway to the Fey realm situated in the tunnels of the London Underground beneath St. Paul's Cathedral

As if rush hour wasn't bad enough.

The teaser image for season one is at the top of the page, and the story starts over at blackfriarscomic.com on March 1st, 2011

Dark Knight Sketch

2011-02-10T18:43:00.003Z

Sat down and re-re-re-re-read one of my favourite Batman stories recently, Frank Miller's The Dark Knight Returns.

As coincidence would have it someone over at the Comic Geek Speak forums asked for a Dark Knight Batman as a birthday sketch so I thought I'd have a stab at the character, armoured up for his epic punch up at the climax of the series.

Last Arrow of Oliver Queen

2011-02-08T10:52:00.002Z

Another birthday sketch for the CGS forums. Wanted to do something a bit different with this one.

I'm really warming to the Green Arrow character but haven't read any stories with him specifically as the trades are so difficult to get hold of on Amazon. I think the only one I've read recently where he has a substantial role is Identity Crisis, which isn't really a Green Arrow story.

If anyone can recommend any good Green Arrow stories please feel free to leave a comment.

St Pauls Sketching

2011-02-05T16:35:00.005Z

Spent the afternoon down at St. Paul's Cathedral doing some sketching for some upcoming projects.

Need to do more sketching of buildings. Not especially happy with them overall. Need to get that straight relatively soon

Aquaman Inked

2011-02-03T15:09:00.003Z

The Irredeemable's artist Peter Krause posted a link on Twitter for some nice sable brushes from Rosemary & Co. I'm always on the look out for different brushes, especially the decent sable ones which are usually very expensive but these really are awesome brushes at a great price.

My order arrived yesterday so I grabbed an old pencil sketch of Aquaman and had a bit of a play around and really like how they feel. If I have one minor quibble it's that the brush handle is much lighter than I'm used to.

So thank you Peter Krause!

Webcomic: Michael

2011-02-03T15:01:00.003Z

Here's the last character design for the third of my main characters in my upcoming webcomic series, Michael.

I'm just getting the script finalised, waiting for a bit of feedback from some friends as I don't really consider writing my strongest suit. So hopefully we might see the first installment very soon.

Last of the Birthday Sketches

2011-01-29T21:05:00.003Z

Here's the last two birthday sketches for January. A varied pair, Robert Kirkman's Invincible, and DC's Plastic Man.

Now back to writing, which I'm finding very difficult right now, but it's an interesting process and I'm actually enjoying the research side of things.

Expect an announcement on the comic in the next couple of weeks. I'm looking to get a decent website set up first and get the design stuff and back matter nicely tucked away in it's only little section of the internet.

Webcomic: Connor

2011-01-28T18:00:00.004Z

Starting to pin down the design for the male lead for my webcomic, Connor. I'm a bit more happy with this one than the Chloe, which I still want to go back and tweak a little. The main pose is very catalogue model, thats because I was looking in catalogues for suits.

If anyone wants to take a stab at what the apparatus is on his right arm please feel free, I don't want to go into details at this point but would be interested to see people think of the look and if the material reads well.

Added some quick sketches to try and capture some expressions while keeping the character look consistent, almost there I think

Birthday Sketches: Huntress and Robin

2011-01-28T16:54:00.003Z

Couple more birthday sketches for the Comic Geek Speak board members. Both Bat-family characters. A Huntress and the original Robin, Dick Grayson.

Only about an hour or so each, inked with PITT pens and a brush to fill in.

Tom Strong Sketch

2011-01-28T04:22:00.004Z

One of my twitter friends Kyle Latino asked why I had taken so long to draw a Tom Strong sketch. So who was I to turn down a challenge.

I'd picked up the first Tom Strong trade at the last Con I went to (at Kyle's recommendation) and it is indeed great stuff. I've been a big fan of Chris Sprouse since his work on Legionnaires, on top of the great art it's got a great Silver Age vibe to the story with super intelligent gorilla sidekicks and and pneumatic butler robots!

So after a long night of work I sat down to comply with Kyle's request and have an attempt at a Tom Strong sketch while watching his latest installment of The Joy of Drawing Comics (which is both informative and hysterical).

I'm not 100% happy with the inking, I prefer the pencils and even the rough (found below) but not terrible for an hour or so after a long shift. I might revisit the subject at a later date, but for now...TOM STRONG!

A girl named Chloe

2011-01-23T21:30:00.004Z

Took a break from writing today to work on some character designs. Most of which started as little doodles on Post-Its and loose bits of printer paper. Spent more time tonight looking at fashion websites than I think I ever have. It's set in contemporary times (with a fantasy twist) so swatting up on current trends seemed prudent.

Anyway, here's some preliminary stuff for Chloe, one of a trio of characters I'm hoping to work up into a webcomic over the next couple of months. I think she might look a little too "hipster-douchebag" for what I want but, at least it's a start.

Doodles and thumbnails are below

Matter Eater Lad

2011-01-21T14:34:00.002Z

Sketch of the Legion's, Matter Eater Lad character during one of the many reboots of the franchise. Requested by someone over on the CGS birthday sketch thread.

Abe Sapien B.P.R.D

2011-01-20T00:23:00.002Z

Another birthday sketch for the CGS forums. Had a lot of fun doing these so far, lots of new characters to try and I've been using it as an excuse to try some different inking methods.

Today's is B.P.R.D member Abe Sapien from Mike Mignola's Hellboy series. I think I got a bit too busy with the small details and it looks a bit too dense and cluttered in places but I like it.

Who?

2011-01-18T13:40:00.005Z

Someone requested a Dr. Who sketch over on the CGS forums for the birthday sketch thread. I remember being quite skeptical of Matt Smith when I saw the first pictures of him prior to his taking up the screwdriver.

I think it's fair to say that he's done a fine job carving his own niche in the Whoniverse. I do think I made him look more like a young Peter O'Toole rather than Matt Smith

Steel Sketch

2011-01-17T12:57:00.003Z

Another quick sketch for the CGS birthday's thread. Superman supporting character Steel, who I believe first cropped up in the Return of Superman story.

Little under an hour in all. Pretty happy with it. I forgot to scan the pencils before I inked it so no process pics for this one.

Doom Patrol

2011-01-17T01:25:00.002Z

Ok so it's not ALL of Doom Patrol. Just Robotman and Negative Man! I wanted to get back to practicing some inking so I decided to try and get a few more Birthday sketches done over at the Comic Geek Speak podcast forums.

It gives me a chance to draw some characters that I probably wouldn't think of drawing on my own, so it's a fun exercise. Pencils for the sketch are below.

Aquaman!

2011-01-14T21:42:00.003Z

Thought I had already posted this, but I guess I hadn't

Pencil's for an Aquaman sketch I'm working on. Might transfer it to some decent watercolour paper and have a more serious stab at painting something

Wonder Woman Quickie

2011-01-14T21:26:00.004Z

Quick, 40-50 minute Wonder Woman watercolour sketch, inspired by my running round DCUO on and off this past few days.

Was trying for a Linda Carter likeness but obviously failed miserably.

Hope to be posting more stuff next week. I'm working on starting up my own webcomic which is taking up a lot of my free time. I'm not much of a writer so that portion of it is taking up the bulk of my time. More info next week hopefully

The Boy Wonder

2011-01-08T00:06:00.000Z

Quick Robin watercolour sketch, just shy of an hour in all. Relatively happy with it. The colours in the background and the searchlight beam are really washed out by the scan which is a shame.

Not the way to start the New Year

2011-01-07T15:54:00.003Z

I've been pretty ill over the Christmas and New Year period so I haven't had much time to do any drawing. Which has made getting back into my normal stuff all the harder.

Quick Pixie sketch from the X-Men to fill a gap while I work on some more solid stuff.

Hope everyone's having a good New Year so far

Rorschach Sketch

2010-12-23T04:51:00.005Z

Here's a sketch for today of Rorschach from DC's Watchmen series. Took a littler over an hour overall to do the actual painting. I'm not really that happy with how it turned out, I had this picture of how I wanted it to look in my head but I couldn't get the paint to do what I wanted. So I think it's a bit of a muddy mess.

Below is a couple of my rough thumbnails and the rough pencils before I started the painting. I really prefer the pencil sketch right now :P

Warmup: Blue Beetle

2010-12-19T13:48:00.003Z

Another quick watercolour sketch this morning, Ted Kord Blue Beetle. Definitely my favourite of the various iterations of the character. Though some of the most notably stories with him that stick in my head revolve around him being beaten into a coma or killed outright. Poor Ted Kord

Warm-Up: Nightcrawler

2010-12-18T22:48:00.003Z

Continuing to practice with the quick watercolour sketches, this time today's is my all-time favourite comic character Nightcrawler!

Quite happy with this one, been tweaking the scan settings to try and stop the scan bleaching out the colours too much, though I think I might have gone a tad too far and made it slightly too dark with this one.

The smoke "BAMF" effect is just on the verge of being too muddy I think. That's my primary problem with the medium I think. I have a tendency to overwork parts of my artwork at the best of times, and doing that with watercolour can make it look really muddy and dirty really fast.

Heart of Ice

2010-12-13T14:48:00.002Z

More work with the watercolours this weekend, this time Batman rogue Mr. Freeze. The animated series episode with Freeze, Heart of Ice is one of the very best episodes of that series (if not THE best) and one of my absolute favourites.

So I knocked out this sketch while watching it this morning, and really tried to capture Freeze's emotion towards his frozen wife. I don't think I was anywhere near as successful at conveying that as they do in the show, but I'm quite happy with how the sketch came out.

The scan is very washed out compared to the original which I tried to keep very light and subtle to reflect the water in the cryotube. I think I may have over extended myself with trying to paint so much water and glass layered on top of one another, but I'm still relatively happy with it.

The Mighty Thor!

2010-12-12T00:08:00.005Z

I hate drawing Thor, and I try to avoid it where at all possible. I always seem to struggle with making the helm look like it's sitting on his head right, and to get the wings looking like they're not sticking out too much or blah blah blah 100 other things that make my rendition of him look terrible.

All this is compounded by the fact that I'm really starting to warm to Thor as a character. As a kid collecting comics he'd never been one of my favourite characters, and I probably even actively avoided reading stuff he was in. But after reading some new Thor stories like the J. Michael Straczynski run, and the now cancelled Thor: The Mighty Avenger.

Marvel released the first official teaser trailer for the upcoming Thor movie, so suitably inspired I decided to sit down and try and persevere with making a decent Thor sketch. After about 3 hours of a working on roughs and thumbnails I settled on this final pose and worked up another little watercolour sketch in about an hour as I'd had some nice feedback on the Firestorm piece.

Really happy with how it turned out, the actual sketch itself took a little over 45 minutes including some drying time for the layers of colour. I think the foreshortening of his right arm is probably very wonky, but I still really like how it looks overall and I don't think it notices enough to the point where it's distractingly wrong. Definitely want to work on some more of these, lets see if I can fill the whole sketchbook without ruining a page with a naff attempt.

Firestorm!

2010-12-10T16:21:00.004Z

Spent the day experimenting with some watercolours, I picked myself up a small watercolour sketchbook to practice with. It looks a lot better in the flesh than the scan, might have to spend some time tweaking the settings to see if I can get a better result.

Settled on Firestorm as a character to draw, spent about an hour in total including some drying time, blocking in most of the colours first over some very light pencils then inked in the figure and bumped up the colours as I went 13cm x 21cm.

Tried a few things to work some white areas back into the piece using acrylic and a correction pen, still not looking quite right. I want to get my hands on some white acrylic ink to see what that looks like.

Immortal Iron Fist

2010-12-08T22:24:00.003Z

Work's kept me pretty busy/tired this last week so I haven't had much time to do any drawing what so ever. Which is probably why it took my the bulk of the day to settle on something to draw and to bring it up to a nice, tight pencil drawing.

It always happens everytime I don't draw for a few days straight, my anatomy goes all wonky and I spend ages draw utterly awful stuff before I get my mojo back.

So here's the product of a day's wrestling with my mojo, a sketch of Marvel's Iron Fist character. Not a character I'm very familiar with, though it's on my reading list of things I'd like to get into. I've always liked the idea/look of the character but can't recall reading anything with him that's stuck.

I'm not going to risk inking it, not today at least as I still don't feel I'm quite settled on how I want my inked work to look. I really love the look and feel of work that's been brush inked and would love to persevere with it, but I feel like the stuff I'm drawing now gravitates more to a nib/marker finish

Jubilee

2010-12-02T21:24:00.004Z

Warm-up for today is 90's X-Men love-her-hate-her mutant Jubilee. Warm-up being especially ironic as there's no heat in the flat for the last couple of days so I'm sat here looking like an eskimo and still freezing.

I went with her Generation X look, as that's one of my favourite series from the 90's that she featured heavily in.

I tried something a little different with the brush inking, and I think it fits the piece well enough, I was trying to be a bit less concerned with inking the exact lines and just trying to be a bit more loose and expressive with the brush strokes.

Misfits: Alisha

2010-11-30T16:44:00.003Z

Quick 40 minute digi-paint of actress Antonia Thomas, in her role as Alisha from the Misfits TV show.

It's fast becoming my favourite show on TV, with some great and often comical twists on typical comicbook/superhero tropes.

I think I made her look a little too old, but I'm pretty happy with the likeness overall. I might come back to this post and edit in some more thoughts on the show later

Young Avengers: Wiccan

2010-11-25T22:11:00.004Z

Practice piece for today, experimenting with some different inking methods. Young Avenger, Wiccan. I've really been enjoying the Young Avengers: Children's Crusade alot, it's a beautifully drawn book and seems to be tying up the loose ends from House of M.

Quite happy with how it turned out, even if it is a bit "generic superhero pose number 34"

Joker Inked

2010-11-22T14:10:00.003Z

All finished! Tried out a new brand of ink with this one, Liquitex Acrylic, not entirely sure I like it.

Actually don't think the ink's turned out so bad. I really can't get my feathering looking uniform, so that will probably have to go all together.

Killing Joke!

2010-11-22T02:12:00.005Z

Really happy with this piece tonight, though that might change by the morning. I'm almost surely going to make a pig's ear of it when I go to ink it. So I'll post it here now, while I'm still happy with it. There's also the rough sketch I fleshed out with a brush to use as a blue-line for the pencils.

I've never managed to settle on a look that I like for the Joker when I try and draw him myself, he's such a massive character and has gone through so many incarnations and interpretations since his creation in 1940.

One of my favourite little tweaks to the characters look, I first saw in the work of Comic Twartist Mike Hawthorne, who puts a big gap in the Joker's front teeth, which I think is such a clever and distinct touch, that I had to crib it for tonight's picture.

I'm going to try some new ink out with this tomorrow and hopefully I'll finally be able to ink something and do the pencil's justice.

Catwoman

2010-11-19T18:07:00.002Z

Spent this afternoon practicing some inking. Settled on this Catwoman portrait sketch from my sketchbook. Printed it out blue-line and inked over the top.

I think i'm going to take the same sketch an try and ink it digitally to compare the finished result at some point over the weekend. I really want to get to grips with Manga Studio, but all my previous attempts have been very poor.

Loki, God of Mischief

2010-11-18T14:44:00.004Z

Warmup for today, Loki, Norse God of Michief, from Marvel's Thor line.

On a related, yet sad note, Marvel has announced that their Thor: The Mighty Avenger series is being cancelled with issue 8. It's one of my favourite Marvel books currently, beautifully illustrated by Chris Samnee. The thing that surprised me the most about the cancellation though is that it was a very publicised book, lots of podcasts, blogs, creators were all singing the praises of this book, constantly.

Books get cancelled all the time, but if a book that created this amount of "buzz" in it's short run get's cancelled what hope is there for any mid-list title?

Arise the Demon, Etrigan!

2010-11-16T15:28:00.003Z

Warm-up sketch for today, The Demon, Etrigan. Messing around with inking and trying to get a clean scan/linework on the final image. Epic. Fail.

Overall I like the image though, I just don't think the ink/linework comes across very well.

Warrior's Three

2010-11-16T12:55:00.004Z

Finally got round to finishing the inks on the Warrior's Three piece. Not really happy with how Fandral turned out.

I'm still trying to work out a good method for scanning my inked stuff to get a really clean finish that doesn't involve me going in to clean up every line.

Psylocke in 60 Minutes

2010-11-10T21:05:00.005Z

Spent last couple of days working on some comic pages, almost finished. Took an hour out tonight to spend on some colour work.

Portrait of one of my favourite X-characters, British psychic by way of Asian ninja assassin, Psylocke.

There's definitely some drift in her features, every now and then I look down at my tablet and it's crooked which I think is what's adding to the problems. Really need to get a bigger desk with more space. Spent too long noodling the face as well trying to get the lightning right and especially getting the racial features, and while I don't think either are completely accurate I think it's a passable attempt for the time I allowed myself

Process pics below

Warriors Three: WIP

2010-11-01T16:12:00.004Z

Wanted to get the pencils finished for this today but I ran out of time. Here's the digital rough and the ALMOST finished pencils for a sketch of Thor supporting cast members, The Warrior's Three!

I think Fandral is a little squished in at the bottom and I struggled placing his right arm, though I still don't think it looks quite right and will probably change before I ink it.

Tron: Olivia Wilde Speedpaint

2010-10-29T01:41:00.004+01:00

Had a really rough night at work, decided to unwind with a quick digital sketch, instead of fragging zombies in Left 4 Dead 2.

It's not the first time I've drawn this actress, Olivia Wilde, probably best known for her role in House. I've drawn her here as her character in the new Tron movie due out this December.

Only spent about 40-45 minutes on it, and I'm probably going to hate it when I look at it in the morning. Something isn't quite right with the eyes, and I think I botched the haircut to the point where she looks more like Milla Jovovich

There's a video to go with it but I'm not going to start editting it together now, I have to be back at work in 7 hours.