2D FESTIVAL REPORT 2009

Well, here it is; my 2D report.

As opposed to the previous event i attended in 2008, this year i was asked to participate in some workshops on the days leading up to the actual Saturday. Safe to say i met some very talented kids (along with some teeny girls who had an unusual fascination with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine). We were all treated like royalty (which is a dramatic change from how i'm usually treated like a boxcar hobo)

Some of the 2D guests who were also participating in workshops; myself (w/deep-fried ice cream), Rufus Dayglo, D'Israeli, Bryan Talbot, Bridgeen Gillespie, Garry Leach and 2D organiser David Campbell. Photo by Bridgeen Gillespie.

On Friday morning Mike Collins and myself had a talk about our work for Classical Comics. Mike's A Christmas Carol has been gathering praise from all corners and it was very flattering to contribute to a talk with him. We covered many aspects of trying to adapt classical literature into a graphic novel format and we showed examples of pages and the process by which they come together (i ended up using a lot of the 'process' images from this very blog)

Mike showing his pencilled pages from 'A Christmas Carol'.

Mike discussing his work for Classical Comics


Myself, talking about my 'Frankenstein' graphic novel and the 'Sweeney Todd' project i'm currently in the middle of.

Mike and myself having a laugh. God only knows what about. Probably laughing at something i drew. Thanks to D'Israeli for the above photos

After more workshops, the event moved to Sandino's where a couple of panels were set up. Not really sure why, but i was asked to host both of them. Probably because of my talent for rambling nonsense. The first panel; The State of Comic Art' was something i was interested in discussing and hearing the other artist's opinion on how mainstream art has changed over the years, the impact of technology on art, etc, was all really interesting. To me, at least.

'The State of Comic Art' panel with myself, D'Israeli, Rufus Dayglo, Mike Collins and Andie Tong. Photo by Bridgeen Gillespie.


After that was an 'Eclectic Micks present Homegrown Heroes' panel. A ramshackle panel to match the ramshackle podcast we did a while back. Seriously though, it was a good laugh; myself and fellow Micks Mooney, Roche and Sliney got a say along with Phil Barrett, Bridgeen Gillespie and Deirdre de Barra. We covered all things Irish-comics related. As best as i can remember i was a bit pessimistic regarding an Irish comics 'industy' but there were plenty of folk there to argue with me, and do a good job too. It was nice to have a whole panel to discuss the comic scene in Ireland, so fair play to Dave for organizing it.

The full Eclectic Micks panel; Myself, Stephen Mooney, Will Sliney, Nick Roche, Deirdre de Barra, Bridgeen Gillespie and Phil Barrett.


More talking. And laughing, it seems.


Nick flexes his patented charm


Mooney and Moojoo (Mooney Jr) share a chuckle





















Mooney and myself debate serious life issues. And comics. All above photos by D'Isreali.



Of course, 2D isn't 2D without all the Open-Day shenanigans. Here are some photos robbed from Facebook. Most likely from Ciaran Flanagan or Bridgeen Gillespie.








I took some photos of sketches i did over the day; i'll post them during the week.

EDIT: How could i forget! A HUGE thanks to organiser David Campbell and all his crew who really took care of all of us who attended the festival. Thanks guys!
Dec.

BACK AT WORK
























Hi All. Sorry i haven't posted in a while; i was in Derry the bones of a week and had to wrap up issue 1 of 28 Days Later once i got back. Can't be missin' those deadlines you know. Plus, i'm trying to do a write-up on the Derry weekend but need to gather more photos, so in the meantime, here's a Batman sketch i did in Derry that someone was kind enough to send a photo of to me.

I'm off for the weekend, but normal services should resume on Monday.

Dec.

2D FESTIVAL THIS WEEKEND

















This weekend is the 2D Festival, but i've no images regarding it, so here's a detail from this weeks's Tuesdec drawing for the Eclectic Micks blog. Go look.

Yeah, there won't be any post for a few days as i'm off to this year's 2D Festival tomorrow to do some workshops ahead of the main day itself.

For those not in the know, 2D is a completely free event offering free admission to workshops and panels about comics and an open day with a host of comic book creator talent. I can't recommend it enough; and it's free dammit; FREE! Guests this year include seasoned pros like Bryan Talbot, David Lloyd, Liam Sharp, Glen Fabry and Will Simpson, along with some of the UKs best talent like Andie Tong, D'isreali, PJ Holden and Rufus Dayglo. Of course, The South will be well represented by Nick Roche, myself, Stephen Mooney and Will Sliney, who appears hot off the heels of his new Farscape series. Us Micks will actually have a panel of our own on Friday night; Homegrown Heroes at 8pm in Sandinos bar. Do come, and see how anything i have to say will be drowned out by all the other dicks. I mean.... Micks.

For lots more info, be sure to visit the 2D website here.

Hope to see ye all there.

Dec.

Here's the last of the story for this year's Tripwire annual page. Hopefully all the greywash will print okay. Guess i'll find out later this year.

Dec.

BALL PARK: PAGE TWO
























Here's the second page of my story for Tripwire. By now, it's obviously a silent strip. I have to say, it was a real challenge to try tell a complete story in 3 pages when there's no dialogue. Even moreso than last year.

Dec.

BALL PARK; PAGE ONE
























Long-term readers of this blog might remember i did a 3 page story for last year's Tripwire annual. Well the editor, Joel Meadows, was kind enough to ask me to contribute to this years annual also. This is the first of the three pages.

After the encouraging response to the greywash work i've been trying out on the Eclectic Micks blog, i thought i'd use this story as a chance to try out using the newer techniques on some sequential pages. Here are the results.

Dec.

LIFE DRAWING
























Well, i've been on 28 Days Later for over 2 weeks and i finally missed a day to post (Saturday), which, i suppose isn't too bad. I'm not doing much other than 28DL interior pages and pieces for the Eclectic Micks blog, so i don't have much to post here. Still, i'm not completely out; here's more life drawing.

I quite like this drawing. As i was close to the model, her legs were really foreshortened to my eye. Of course, in the drawing, they look huuuuge, but that's what they actually looked like from where i was sitting. I did no roughs/pencils for this, i just got a dip pen and drew straight onto the page. It probably show in how quick and loose the lines are. Wish i had the confidence to draw like this more often.

Dec.

POE #1 LAYOUT
























Above is the layout i did for the Poe cover. The figures under the spotlight were drawn a bit bigger, but i made them a little smaller in photoshop, as i wanted the composition to be a little bolder. I placed the title in the usual 'top-and-centre' place, as that's where i expected it to go, but Boom ended up placing the title more to the right, which works much better i think. Works pretty well with this composition in fact. While i'm at it, be sure to see the preview of the first few pages along with the alternate cover of Poe #1 on Newsarama (click here)

EDIT: Just heard today is the last day you can nominate for the Eagle Awards. Get to it

Dec.

POE #1 COLOURS
























Don't think i actually posted this cover. I don't know who coloured it to be honest, so i can't really credit him/her, but here's the finished image nontheless. Be sure to order it in this months Previews (Order code; MAY090723).

Actually, Michael, who comments on this blog every now and then coloured up a version of his own that turned out quite nice. You can see it here.

Also, be sure to check out the sketch i did this week for the Eclectic Micks blog that went up today.

Dec.

LIFE DRAWING
























Here's more life drawing. With this pose i first did a rough drawing to get the gesture of the body, then a loose, but more confident drawing, adding some tone in greywash/ Not sure why i drew the shadow on the wall with black instead of grey, but i think it somehow works.

Dec.

CHARACTER SKETCH
























Something else i've been working on. Was pretty happy with this sketch so i thought i'd put it on the Micks blog, but i've since changed my mind. I'd prefer put up sketches on the Micks blog that are drawn specifically for it, instead of farming out random ones.

Dec.

SELENA SKETCHES
























Thought i might stick up something 28 Days Later related. It's been said the story concentrates on Selena so here's some warm-up sketches i did of her before i got started.

Dec.

LIFE DRAWING


















Some more life drawrin' for y'all.

Dec.

SWEENEY TODD PAGE 80
























Here's a recent page from the Sweeney Todd graphic novel i'm drawing. I posted the pencils of a panel from this page a couple of weeks ago. Have a peek. In the pencilled panel i had blackened out his right eye, but when i inked it, it looked like he had a hole in his head so i went in and highlighted his eyelid with some white ink.

Dec.

POE #1 COVER ART
























Hi; fancy seeing you here.

Along with the 28 Days Later book, i've also done a couple of covers for Boom Studio's new POE mini-series. Here's the black and white artwork for Issue One. The coloured cover and more on the book can be seen here. I saw some pages when asked to do the cover, and i have to say, i really liked the interior artist's work. Dean Kotz is his name, you can see some of his work here.

I really tried to make this cover stand out, so i went very design-y with the composition. Tried to add a lot of texture to compensate for the bold black and white areas too. Really like how it came out.

Dec.

PICARD SKETCH

It's Tuesdec over on the Eclectic Micks blog today. This week i did a Captain Picard drawing as i'm really looking forward to the new STAR TREK film this weekend. I was originally intending on doing a really rough and stylized drawing but it ended up being quite clean as i concentrated more on the design-y-ness of the image. I really liked this rough sketch though, so i thought i'd put it up here. See the Micks blog for the finished version. I had to swap a few things around composition-wise, and it's not what i was originally going for, but i like how it came out.

Dec.

ATTICUS FINCH
























This is a drawing of Atticus Finch from the fantastic novel 'To Kill A Mockingbird.' I was asked to contribute a drawing to the 'Hey Oscar Wilde! It's Clobberin' Time!' blog. I urge you all to check it out; it's brilliant. The blog has hundreds of fantastic pieces from nearly every great comic artist under the sun. Artists juch as Alex Toth, Bill Sienkiewicz, Joe Kubert, Jordi Bernet, etc. All the artists in question are asked to draw a literary character of their choice.

When asked, i had an auld think for myself and remembered how much i loved studying 'To Kill a Mockingbird' in school. Not only that, but we got to see the movie too, which i also loved. I drew this from my head pretty much. I looked up a photo of Gregory Peck as Atticus to remind myself of what he looked like, but then i went off and did the drawing. I wanted to draw it with Peck in mind, but without making it look just like him. In the end, it turned out just like him anyway!

This was a no-brainer for me, as i got to draw a character i really admired, and got to contribute to a collection with such esteemed talent. Thanks to Steven Gettis for asking me.

Dec.

28 DAYS LATER

Anyone see these cool covers for Boom Studio's 28 Days Later comic.....?



















Cover B by Sean Phillips (above).
Cover A by Tim Bradstreet (below)
























Yeah, well i'm drawing the actual comic. More here.

This means i'll be taking a break from Sweeney Todd and most likely not posting every second day anymore; 1) because i'll be busier and 2) because i doubt i can show snippets from this book like i've been able to do with Todd. I'll try to post as much as i can though.

Dec.

MORE LIFE DRAWING





















Had another life drawing class yesterday, but here's more from last week's one. When you're time is limited sometimes you have decide between a line drawing or a tonal one. I was pretty happy i had enough time with this pose as i managed to do both.

Dec.

TODD CLOSE UP [PENCILS]















Whoops! Nearly forgot to post today... i get confused which day i need to post as when i'm posting every second day, the actual day changes each week.

Here's a close up of a new panel from Sweeney Todd. The script asked for him to look really sinister and i reckon i managed to achieve that. Really looking forward to inking this panel, actually.

Dec.

SWEENEY TODD PAGE 67 INKS
























Gah! Blog got spammed yesterday; every single post on this blog was spammified, if that's a word .....which it's not. All 370-something of them were spammed. Twice. Spent hours deleting all of it, but there's still 400 or so comments to delete. Blurg.

Anyway, i showed a hi-res scan of a panel form this page a week or so ago. Here's the whole finished page.

Dec.

LIFE DRAWING
























Went to another life drawing class this week that went really well. The last few times i was happy with about 30% of the drawings, yet was happy i'd learned a few more things. This time i still learned quite a bit, but i was actually happy with 80% of what i drew. Here's one of the drawings i think turned out pretty well. I'm sure i'll post more down the line.

Dec.

GAMBIT
























Anyone reading this blog probably knows by now that every Tuesday i post a new sketch up on the Eclectic Micks blog. Well, half of them have been moaning about how finished some of the drawings have been (not that there's complaints about any being too rough mind...).

Anyhoo, my sketches on the Micks blog have been described as finished pieces, which i suppose is true to a degree, but i've been trying out new things with the Micks sketches, and if i was do do a sketch at a convention, they would be of that quality, so to me they are sketches.

Still though, no harm in mixing it up a bit (or Micks-ing it up a bit ...eh ....eh?) so this week i decided i'd do a really loose drawing of Gambit, as i've been itching to draw an X-Man for a while. As i was working on it however, it felt like it needed more work, so while my aim was to do a really loose sketch, it ended up more laboured. It's still pretty rough, but it took more effort than i meant it to. So, having loosened up a bit, i tried a Batman and got the results i was looking for. Reckoned i might as well post the Gambit sketch here and the looser Batman sketch on the Micks blog.

Enjoy 'em both.

Dec.

GRUDGE!
























Hey all. I did this image for Andy Winter to have as a T-shirt for the Bristol con next month to promote Tim Skinner. Andy originally thought it might be a bit too cheeky to directly riff off the classic Judge Dredd line (who Magistrate Grudge is obviously a parody of). However when i sent him this image he reckoned we'd DEFINITELY get sued by Rebellion. So the t-shirt idea was abandoned. Ah well, it was a laugh to draw; hopefully ye'll get a laugh out of it.

Also, on the topic of Tim Skinner, the book got another glowing review and another honourable mention.

Surely you must all own this book by now!

No posts 'til next week, as i'll be off-line for a few days. Hell, i've been updating this blog every 2 days for over a month now, so you can hardly complain!

Later,

Dec.

PENCIL FIST
























Greetings. Today is Tuesdec on the Eclectic Micks blog, which means there's a brand new sketch from me up there. Go look. Before finishing it, i took a quick scan of the rough pencil construction lines. Here's a section of it. Finished piece on the Micks blog now.

Dec.

FARSCAPE
























My good buddy Will Sliney's first issue of Farscape: Strange Detractors is out this week. Do yourself a favour and pick it up. Will is doing the best work of his career and only a mug would miss out. There's a preview just up on Comic Book Resources. Check it out.

To celebrate, above are a few sketches of one of the characters from Farscape, John Crichton. Will does a much better likeness.

Dec.

UNCLE SPUNK NUGGET

























For those who don't know Bob Byrne (you lucky few) he's a one-man comics machine. Creator of the fantastic Mr. Amperduke, and Bob Byrne's Twisted Tales for 2000AD, he also was the man responsible for The Shiznit, a free pocket-sized comic that was distributed all around Dublin and other parts of Ireland (i remember handing it into some shops in Limerick once upon a time).

There were many short strips in The Shiznit, one of my favourites being his Rants, as Bob is funniest when he's angriest. But when it comes to characters, nothing he's created has made me bust a gut laughing like his Uncle Spunk Nugget strip. There were only two, but man, i loved them. I'm sure i begged him to do more at some point. Good news then; a brand new Uncle Spunk Nugget strip has started on Bob's new webcomic; SPAZZMOID. I urge you all to read it. You can see it here along with the two old strips from The Shiznit.

Dec.

TIM SKINNER REVIEWED












A really in-depth review of Tim Skinner went up on the Forbidden Planet Blog this morning; i'd urge you all to read it. Probably the best review any book i've worked on has ever gotten. I'd especially urge you to read the review if you haven't read the book; none of the jokes are ruined and it 'sells' the book better than i ever could.

For those who don't know, Tim Skinner is a full-colour one-shot comic i drew and coloured written by Andy Winter. It was a follow-up of sorts to Hero Killers, our last collaboration which won an Eagle Award. We thought it would be great to work together again, considering how much we've both improved since Hero Killers. I'm delighted with how it came out and it was an absolute blast to draw. Unfortunately, because of Diamond Distributor's new benchmark policy, Tim won't be distrubuted through them, which means the only way to read it is through Andy's Moonface Press shop. It's really disappointing, as it's definitely the most commercial project i've done. Anyway, read the review to get a better idea of what it's like, along with preview of the interior pages.


Dec.

PANEL SCAN
























I have this great 'Art of Hellboy' book which obviously, has lots of Mignola goodness in it. One of my favourite parts of the book however, isn't the (lovely) Hellboy water-colours he has, but the scans of his black and white pages. What's great about them, is that they're not cleaned up or anything; you can see the different levels of ink he used, the heaviness of the ink lines, etc. it's the next best thing to looking at the actual page. So, here's a reasonably big scan of a section of a recent Sweeney Todd page that i haven't altered. If you look, you can pick out parts that were done with dip-pen nib, brush pen, inky fingerprints, actual indian ink and various splatter effects.

I'll post the whole cleaned-up page in a few days.

Dec.

SWEENEY TODD PAGE 65; LAYOUTS TO INKS

Well, it seems no one objects to seeing layouts so i thought i'd show a page from Sweeney Todd, but show it from original layout to finished inks. Below you can see the layout for page 65. I sent it to my editor at Classical Comics for approval. Sometimes the layout needs to be tweaked, like if i haven't left enough room for speech bubbles, etc. It happens from time to time; but not often.
























There were no real problems with the layout page, aside from how the character in panel 5 had her finger to her lips. The script instructed her to do so in a certain way, with the palm placed flat facing her face, rather than placed on its side. However, my editor asked me to ove her finger to the centre more, rather than at the side of her mouth. Other than that, i could go straight to pencils.
























Long-term readers are probably aware of my work-process, but just in case, i blow up my layout page and lightbox it onto the full-size artboard. That way i can try to keep some essence of the spontaneity that the original sketch had. By keeping the composition as close as possible to the layout, i think the end page ends up a bit more engaging. I sent the pencils to my editor, but there was an issue with the last couple of panels. My editor was concerned that the character in panel 5 was silent (mouth closed, finger to lips) yet was speaking, so asked me to make the final panel bigger so the speech bubble could be placed there instead.
























While inking, i wasn't 100% happy with the arm of the character on the left of panel 4, so changed it slightly. I was also wary of the page looking dull as it is essentially a talking scene. I had used a non-standard layout to make the page more visually engaging, but i also tried to do that in the inks too by breaking up some 'dead' white areas with black ink-splatter and using white splatter to indicate sunshine coming through the window in panel 2.

Well, that's it. A whole Sweeney Todd page form start to finish. Hope this was moderately interesting.

Dec.

BATMAN COMMISSION 2.0

Hi chums. Regular readers would remember this commission from late last year i did of Batman and his Rogues gallery.
























Well, i'm finally getting around to giving it to my gracious benefactor but when i looked at it , it was looking a bit old and stale to me, especially considering the messier approach that's been creeping into my work of late. So, i decided to go in and add some greytone and splatter. I've been doing a lot of sketches with those tecniques over on the Eclectic Micks blog of late, and they've been getting a good reaction so they were worth trying out here.
























Well, here's the finished piece; hope you like it Dave!

Dec.

TUESDEC











I'm sure by now you all know about the Eclectic Micks blog that's been running for a whole month as of today. Just in case you haven't been looking, may i encourage you to do so today. I've been hinting of working on 'a project' for the last while and today on the Micks blog i give the first proper indication of what the hell i've been teasing at. Go look. NOW.

Dec.

COVER SKETCH
























I dunno about you guys, but i love seeing layouts and thumbnails on artists' blogs. If ye don't want to see them, let me know and i'll stop posting them.

Anyhoo, this is a thumbnail to a cover i was asked to draw recently. I was given some elements to be included in the image and came up with the above. In the end, some changes had to be made so i had to come up with a whole new layout, but i quite liked this sketch as it is, so up on the blog it goes. What blog you ask...? This blog ......the one you're reading right now.

I'll post the finished piece once i get the okay.

Dec.

GIRL TALK
























Man, if you told me years ago i'd be spending my days drawing elegant ladies talking in pretty dresses.... well..... i wouldn't have believed you.

Dec.