I'LL SEE YOU ON THE DANCE-FLOOR

After a day of listening to 80's classics at Steve's place, it finally affected my work. Notice Victor's expressive 80's dancing. Dancing on a table and everything. If that's nor 80's i dunno what is. I reckon he's dancing to Duran Duran's 'The Reflex.'

God knows that's how I dance to it....





















Gonna be quiet for the next few days. Once i finish work today i'm meeting up with a mate and showin' him around Dublin for a couple of days, then it's the Birmingham convention in ....uh ....well ...Birmingham. I've been looking forward to this con for ages. Your Round will finally will get a big public launch, i'll get to meet up with old buds, make some new ones hopefully, and the usual antics. Get yourself there if you know what's good for you!!!

I'll be back blogging next week, if i survive the next few days that is.......

Dec.

FINISHES

Here's a panel from the final story in Your Round: Stout, by Beth Millar. She actually started working on it when i was putting the first book, Tequila, together. After a lot of discussion and re-workings she handed me some lovely pages from a story she had written herself. When my co-editor viewed them, he expressed some concerns, basically he felt the artwork didn't look quite right. ie, it sat uncomfortably in-between an 'indie' and 'mainstream' style. Viewing the artwork, i could see his point. He asked me if i could work in top of her work to strengthen it. I was relieved that Beth was kind enough to allow me to work on her art. She had done a lot of work on these pages and i didn't want to hand them back to her yet again to work on them more.

So i used some drybrush to add texture, made the lighting more dramatic, etc. Thought it'd be interesting to show a 'before and after' kind of affair. I actually enjoyed working over her work. The only other time i worked on someone elses work was when i inked a page Will Sliney pencils, which again, was fun.

He didn't like it tho.

So, here's a panel from one of Beth's pages, with my finishes below it.



















Dec.

CUTTING ROOM FLOOR


When putting together Your Round: Stout, i thought of putting in a 2 page story at the end. It's something that happened in my teens with a good old friend of mine, when he tried chatting up a friend of my then-girlfriend. It remains one of the funniest things that i can remember and thought it'd make a great little 2 page gag. However, it's gotten lackluster feedback and the decision to drop it from the issue has been made. So, i thought i'd post it since it won't see print. Let me know what ye think of it. I'm biased, so i can't tell if it's good or not.














































Dec.

MORE STOUT















Man, I somehow managed to get 5 pencilled pages of Frankenstein done, 6 pages of Stout, pencilled and inked, and finishes on another 6 pager done this week. I am a machine. A machine that went without sleep for a night, but a machine all the same.

Dec

A MAN CALLED STOUT









This is a panel from the next Your Round Story, A Man Called Stout, written by David Baillie. I used a rougher style again, but not as rough as the last one. David's good mate. The story of how we know each other is a long and strange one. He's got a new web comic up on his website called The Belly Button Bubble Chronicles. Check it out.

Also, Andy Winter, my partner on the award-winning Hero Killers, has a new column on www.indiereview.co.uk. Check that out while you're at it. I also quite enjoy reading his blog, so if you'd like to check something else, on top of all that, give it a go.


Dec.

TONY!


















Another panel from Your Round, this story guest-staring my good bud Tony Milan.

Dec.

YOUR ROUND REVIEW

Greetings.

Another Your Round review today, this time on the Silver Bullet Comic Books website.

Make with the clickmaking here.

The reviewer makes note of how i've improved since Hero Killers, which was sound of him. It got 3 and a half bullets, so it did better than Amazing Spider-man, worse than X-Factor and as well as Immortal Iron Fist.

I can live with that.

It's described as "A series of entertaining and evocative stories that are well worth a read," which is pretty class. My baby's made me so proud.... sniff....

Dec.

PORTFOLIO SITE

Greetings.

Guh. I'm tired. Good week's work tho. Couple of commissions, 10 pages of Frankenstein layouts, 5 pencilled Frankenstein pages, 4 pencilled and inked Your Round pages and ...well ... that's it. If i keep this up, maybe i can die soon. The above workload explains the lack of posting the last couple of days.

Here's another panel from Your Round, with the scruffy, loose style i'm getting quite fond of....







Also, Declan's got a Portfolio website! He's so pleased he's speaking about himself in the third person, apparently. The site was all made possible by an old college buddy, Nina Lyons. Thanks Nina!

I've been meaning to sort a site out for myself for ages. Nothing mad, but if somebody wants to check out my work, their only option is to search through a years worth of material on this blog. And let's face it; they won't. The regular posts are great and all, but they're generally snippets of pages, rather than finished pieces. So now, i have a site where people can see my best stuff, such as it is. The webspace is part of a group of artists/illustrators/designers, etc. It's nice to be included with such a high caliber of talent. Check out the group site for some really nice work.

RiseCreatives

Also, click here for stuff you've all probably seen before on this blog.

Dec

YOUR ROUND REVIEW

The ever-handsome MoonDog pointed me onto this today, another review for Your Round: Tequila. Make with the clicking here

It's a really positive review i'm happy to say.

"The black and white art by Declan Shalvey is reminiscent of Cully Hammer and Tony Harris, with heavy darks highlighting simplistic details and facial expressions."

Particularly happy with that comment, seeing as i love both those artist's works. Big time.

Dec.

YOUR ROUND: STOUT




















Got a start on a short story for the next Your Round book, this one titled Stout. Since this is my book and i can do pretty much what i want, i decided to step up the loose, drybrush-heavy approach another bit. So much so, in this panel, the only time i used a pen was the facial hair and panel borders. The borders are even done freehand, rather than with a ruler. The great thing about having your own book is you can try techniques that you can't with work-for-hire stuff. Trying to not be too precious, and embrace any unexpected results. Drybrush can really backfire on you if you're not careful. Enjoying it so far, hopefully i won't mess it up.

Too much.

Dec.

EDINBURGH REPORT

Well, i've had an interesting couple of days. Was supposed to meet a couple of friends from home in Edinburgh, but unfortunately, they missed their flight, so i was left to my own devices.

Spent a lot of it just wandering the city, NOT going to any shows, cuz i was on my own and would have felt ridiculously awkward going to shows on my own. Everyone there seemed to know what they were doing, and i was walking around like the awkward, difficult eejit i am. I did see one show, mind, but i knew the fella performing it, so it was okay. It was Kev F Sutherland's show, The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre, and it was very funny. If you're at the fringe, definitely go see it. Popped out with Kev afterwards also, so big shout out to him for lettin me tag along, and a huge shout out to illustrator Andy Hepworth, who was kind enough to give me a place to stay when i was really stuck. Thanks again Andy!

I also got to go for some drinks with some good folk i'd met at comic conventions and proceeded to talk comics all night, which was just fine by me! I'd done some sketches for them at cons before, so this time, they returned the favour! Check them out...











































Also, just found this today. Established writing duo Leah Moore and John Reppion, writers of Albion and Raise the Dead mentioned Your Round on their blog, just click here and scroll down a bit. They say "Drunken pub stories in comic book form is really a genius concept." Well, who am i to argue with them......? Thanks guys!

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.

YOUR ROUND AVAILABLE TO BUY ONLINE




















Your Round: Tequila is now available to buy online, like i just said in the title.
For those who don't know, Your Round, is a new anthology series (created by myself, thankyouvewymuch) of pub stories, and sure who doesn't like pub stories?. The first issue; Tequila, is filled with highly entertaining pub stories written and illustrated by shameless Bob Byrne and very lovely James Hodgkins and of course, myself. It is now available to buy via the Asylum Books and Games website, just click here

Sound.

Dec.

TEQUILA!

Greetings All. No posts for the last week cuz Declan has been rather busy. Last saturday was the launch for my own self-published book; YOUR ROUND: TEQUILA. It arrived in Aberdeen on the Thursday, two days before the signing. YOUR ROUND is an anthology book based on drinking stories. It features stories by myself, Bob Byrne, James Hodgkins and Mike McLean. Jaysus, i must have gone on about this a rake of times already, you should all know bout this by now.





Bob Byrne, my on-off boyfriend came over to share the signing duties, bless him. We signed and sketched from 10 AM till 6PM. We were fairly knackered at this stage, and we were more than happy to stop. Unfortunately, we couldn't. We had a launch party to go to an hour later which included even more signing and sketching. Sigh. We finished up around 11PM!!! Christ, we were knackered. Still, i had a blast with the Bobster.

Oh yes, here's a 'Zombie Gambit' sketch i did for a girl at the signing.






My favourite bit was when i was sketching something for a fan and someone asked Bob if he was doing requets for sketches. He flatly responded 'No. Here, have this one.' And gave the guy a drawing he'd done 5 minutes beforehand. i reckon he was scared of someone askin for a Spider-man. In fact, i'm sure someone asked him for a superhero sketch, but sent 'em straight onto me. No bull, i must have done over 50 sketches that day. Another fun bit was a sketch request Bob made. To draw a Teenage Mutant Hero Turtle. I'd say i hadn't drawn one in 10 years, and knocked one one out, lookin the same as i drew them back when i was a kid. But, the absolute highlight was a competition between me and Bob as to who could draw the best 'Zombie Care bear.' I lost, obviously, but it was a close race. Bob took a photo, i'll post it once he sends it to me.






Bob doing sketches at the launch.















Me and Bob, signing our lives away.......

















Me, sketching with come issues of a great comic in front of him.

















This weekend, tomorrow in fact, i've another signing. Robert Curley is coming over here to Aberdeen to do a Freak Show signing. So it'll be another weekend of sketching. etc for me.

Some people have weekends off........


Dec.

YOUR ROUND LAUNCH

You want details? Read the poster.




















Dec

YOUR ROUND all set for Bristol!

Howdy folks, just got confirmation that the TEQUILA issue will be in print in time for Bristol. Which is good news. Very good news.

There's also a launch party scheduled for the 19th of May, a week after Bristol in the BASSMENT in Aberdeen. Some of my story is set in the bar, so it's cool that the launch will take place there. Bob Byrne is making an appearance too, signing and sketchin in the bar with myself, after a day of the same in Asylum Books and Games.

In other news, i'm back on Freak Show after a little hiatus so i could get Your Round in gear.

Here's some pencils from page 1...

















Dec

YOUR ROUND



Yes, YOUR ROUND: TEQUILA is finally finished and off to the printers. Hopefully the book will be in print in time for Bristol, we'll just have to see. Posted here is the absolutely brilliant cover by my good friend James Hodgkins, who also did some design work on the book, the back cover, and a short story too. The book features a short story by my other good mate Bob Byrne, who bailed on me to be with his girlfriend after me flyin back to Dublin to see him and everythin'. Gay.
And me you ask? Well i drew the main story, a 12 pager called Hustle, and also did a 2 page strip, which you can see here as a little taster.

Enjoy!

More updates soon.





Dec.

YOUR ROUND ALMOST FINISHED

Yep, Your Round issue one; TEQUILA is nearly wrapped up. Some technical shennanigans must be involved now, but art-wise, the book is done. If all goes well, the book will see print in time for the Bristol convention in May.

I'll post the finished cover soon, it's a cracker.

Did a back-up story for it, on top of the 12 issue 'masterpiece' i finished recently. Here's a few panels...












Dec

HUSTLE

My aforementioned book, Your Round will be out for the Bristol Comic Expo in May. Due to deadline problems Mike Collins will no longer be in the first book. Instead, my good friend James Hodgkins, who's inkwork has graced the pages of Lucifer, Batman, Jenny Sparks (and many more) is filling Mike's shoes.

The main story, 'Hustle' is illustrated my myself.

Here's the first page, to wet your appetite.






















Dec.

DRINK ANYONE?

A panel from my contribution to Your Round.



















Dec