Monkey Business
















Gah! Was slowed down yesterday cuz i had to draw some monkeys in the new Freak Show story. Which is fine, but i had never drawn a monkey before. Tried to fluff it on the page, but twas pretty obvious i didn't know what i was doing, so i looked for some reference and practiced drawing monkeys for a while. Here's the rough sketches. Once i felt more comfortable, i got back to the page and had much better results.


Dec

MORE LIFE DRAWING



































































Had another life drawing class yesterday. Again, really enjoyed it. Instead of concentrating on doing two, proper finished drawings, i instead concentrated on getting as much poses and angles as i could. Did a couple of pencil sketches, but then pulled out the auld pen and brush and went to town. I wasn't bothered about getting all the proportions right, i was more concerned with figuring out all the muscles and shadows.
That was the last class, so it sucks i won't be able to do this again for a while, but pretty happy i got to do this for a couple of days.


Dec.

STAR WARS COMMISSION


I did this piece on Friday. Didn't get a decent scan of it, so this photo will have to do. It's a wedding present a friend asked me to illustrate of the bide and groom as a Jedi and Han Solo-type characters, with two friends as a Wookie and a bounty hunter. All the greywashes took me a while, but quite happy wuth the result. I may try this technique again with an upcomming Freak Show cover.




Dec.

YOUR ROUND: TEQUILA

Don't know how i missed this.

Your Round got a mention on silverbulletcomicbooks.com on the All The Rage column.

And a first review here.

Yay!

Dec.

SUB-CON POSTER

Rob asked me to illustrate a poster for his Sub-Con event in September. He said i could use a character of my choice, so i went with good old reliable Batman. I wanted to do something moody and eye-catching, rather than a big, complicated image. I had Batman: Year One, and the logo from Batman: The Animated Series in mind here. Maybe i should have used the opportunity to do some off the wall character that i haven't drawn before, but c'mon ....it's Batman.


Dec.

FREAK SHOW / ATOMIC ROCKET GROUP 66


Phew! This fella took me 2 whole days to figure out and draw. It's a vertical double page spread of Robert Curley's Freak Show and Atomic Rocket Group 66 characters, the latter group designed by Will Sliney. This was a lot of fun to draw, i must say, but still tough. It's nice to do a big f**k-off pin up every now and then, to break up the grind of doing sequential pages. Saying that, i love sequential pages, but they're so labour-intensive. Not like pin-ups, which are more show-y anyway.



Dec.

LIFE DRAWING

Hey kids. Did something i've been dying to do for ages on Sunday and went to a life drawing class. It was great, i haven't attended a proper drawing class since art college, four years ago. Just to look at a real life model again and to try learn from it was a great experience, considering all the referance i get these days is from photos or 3D programs. They're great of course, but nothing beats the real thing. The teacher was giving pointers to others, which reminded me of all the techniques i've learned but am so used to now, i take for granted. When i concentrated on those techniques, i ended up doing bad drawings cuz i was forcing my drawing needlessly. It was cool to do a finished pencilled drawing too, with shading and everything. When i pencil a page, it's only basic information i put down, leaving the rendering for the inks, but it was refreshing to do a proper pencil drawing for once. I did some sketches and stuff, but i'm too lazy to scan today, so here's photos of the two 'finished' pieces i got done on the day.



An ink drawing. I was also testing out some new Pentel Colour brushes i got in London with some nice results.

















And the pencil drawing. Even though it's shaded i can see how i still block different areas of shade, much like i do with my black and white work.











Dec.

IM BACK AND I'M BLACK

Well, i'm not black, but i do wear a lot of black, so that kinda counts ....right? But one thing's for sure, i'm definately back. Had a great time in London meeting up with some old friends, and some new ones too. Will probably stick up some photos when i can be bothered.

DRUNKEN HILARITY

In the meantime, he's some drunken endevours i produced while on holiday with the help of my good pal Will Sliney. In the pub, i had some pens on me, got some paper and we got scribbling.
Ignoring the bar which was more and more becomming full of attractive girls, Will and i resisted our carnal urges and instead geeked out on old cartoons and came up with a couple of themes for us to draw from. The first theme we came up with was characters from the old X-men cartoon. Y'know, the one where Rogue had a really sexy voice, and Wolverine sounded bad-ass. I came up with what character Will had to draw, and vice versa.




















We came up with another theme for the second one: Villains from the old Batman animated series. Man, i loved that show.



















Once we finished a sheet, we each did a portrait of each other. Pretty much flawless in every way, they were. Will definately summed me up pretty well.

More crap soon.


Dec.

***HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLOG***

Hello all, no art or nothin' today, i just wanted to mention that this blog is a whole year old as of today.

Seems wierd that i'm so used to posting now. I originally started it just so i could leave abuse over on Bob Byrne's website. He told me i should start posting but i dismissed the idea since the internet scared and confused me. Also, it required effort, and i wasn't so hot about that either. However, i was soon heading to San Diego (unlike this year) and reckoned giving my art some net presence couldn't hurt in case there was any interest in me at Comic-con. As it happens, i still don't have a website (in the process of startin one up tho) and i'm pretty sure no editor stateside has been stalking me since.

However, i've been getting into a good habit of getting work done, just so i have something to show for myself every couple of days. Also, i suppose it's worth mentioning since i started this blog, i have:

Gotten a proper job drawing comics,
Moved to a different country,
Gotten my own studio,
Done a handful of signings,
Did a couple of covers for other folks,
Created my own self-published comic,
Won an Eagle Award,
Gotten fatter,
And made a few friends on the way....

A lot has changed in a year.

So, Happy Birthday blog, 'tis been a year since i first posted on thee.....

Since it's been a year, and as far as i know, 4 people actually read this blog, so if you do check this blog the odd time, do me a favor and post a comment, to wish my blog a happy birthday, or just to curse my name and tell me how much you hate me. At least i'll know how many people read this. And hate me...

Dec.

BLOOD PSI























Hey kiddies, not many posts in the last couple of days and there's about to be a hell of a lot less! Been real busy the last couple of days, and i'm taking a week or so off. Visting mates back home and in London for the next week so don't expect much bloggin till i'm back..


Big news is that Andy Winter's new book came out this week. Blood Psi, is a new comic coming out under Andy's One-shot Club line, which also included Hero Killers. It's illustrated by the very talented Keith Burns and features a cover by myself. I'm quite happy with how the cover image came out and that's it's hitting the stands and being seen. I actually did a post on this blog where i showed how i put it together step-by-step. That post is now a feature in the back of the book, which i'm also chuffed about.


The book has gotten great reviews all round. Go to http://www.moonfacepress.com/ for links to all the reviews, and http://www.bloodpsi.com/ for more info on the book.

Then go BUY IT!

Dec.

JACK

A quick pen and drybrush test of Jack from Freak Show on watercolour paper.
















Dec.

TEEN-AGE RIOT

The title of one of my favourite Sonic Youth tracks, and also, an appropriate way of describing this panel.






















Also, my main man Will Sliney found a small article on Blood Psi, Eagle award winning writer Andy Winter's new book, out this month i believe. Gets a nice little mention and even complements the cover i did for it. Nice one! Click here and scroll down for the article.


Dec.

BIRMINGHAN INTERNATIONAL COMICS SHOW 2007











Just found out my name has been added to the guest list for the
Birmingham International Comics Show. Although i was technically a guest at last years con and the Bristol con just gone, this is the first time i've actually been officially listed on the website, along with all the other professionals. I am of course, thrilled to be listed with such high caliber talent, some of which are HUGE influences of mine.

My name is just four names away from Mike Mignola, three from Kevin Nowlan, two from Sean Phillips and twenty-four away from Alan Davis! Well, twenty-four away from Alan Davis isn't a huge deal, but still...


Dec.

PREACHER






















A pencilled piece of Jesse from Preacher. Man, i loved that book. I started reading it at just the right time. I guess i must have been fourteen or fifteen, kinda growing out of superhero comics, when i started reading this. Not that i don't like the superhero stuff (i'm still a sucker for that stuff), but by that age, i was lookin' for somethin' different. Man, did i find it. Plus, it had irish characters, with one story featuring the 1916 Rising! It was like the book was written just for me.

Was a lotta fun to draw Jesse....

Dec.

FREAK SHOW PENCILS










Dec.