DevCon News

This Saturday I'll be up in Plymouth for DevCon, with a Doctor Who theme going on. Which also features Colin Baker (the sixth Doctor) along with Sophie Aldred (Ace) from the old Doctor Who that I grew up watching.

Of course there will be other stuff going on to besides Dr. Who too. I will be releasing issue one of "A Shadow of Steel!", my self published comic title that I started last year with issue zero. It is a bit dark where I am now so can't take any photo's of my comic right now, but I can show you this awesome limited edition print that is exclusive to DevCon...

It'll be A3 in size and at about £5 per print, and you can get your hands on one at DevCon in Plymouth this Saturday.

If you want to find out more about this convention  click here to go to their facebook page.

I will post up some photo's of my comic tomorrow when there is light.

Experimental Batman part 2

Decided to push what I did yesterday a bit further, with interesting results. There are a couple of failures, and they were due to using markers over pencils which is hard to control that led to them being ruined and unfinished. The rest however were done in a similar fashion as before though some are done a little differently. One example is that I used the markers as a base colour only, and then gone over it in polychromos pencils to add tone.

The third image on the top row shows a bit more what I am striving to achieve. Essentially I plan on doing a complete greyscale noir image of Batman without having to ink my line work. It has been refreshing and overly different to how I normally work, and I can see this being used again for future works so I will continue to push it further.

Return of the Silver Phantom!

Well I have been gone awhile, but here is a juicy glimpse of what I have been preoccupied with.

I am currently working away on issue one of my comic 'A Shadow of Steel!' featuring the Silver Phantom. The comic is due to be released on May 4th free comic book day and DevCon in Plymouth. I know that I said I would be more proactive on the blog this year, and I do intend be but right now between this and other projects and life its all time consuming. Rest assured though I will keep you updated with this comics progress. Until next time.

DevCon 1

Me and the lovely Diana Mazuru at our first convention table.

Carrying over from the last post, me and Diana decided that we would do our first convention at DevCon1 and so we got fairly busy preparing our table for the convention and we felt we had very little to put out there. Turned out we had a bit too much. Regardless we managed to have fun and we sold way more items than we thought we would. For instance I completely sold out my first print run of issue 0 of "A Shadow of Steel!" which caught me by surprise, but it was such a shot in the arm for my confidence and I am now more dedicated to actually doing more comics featuring 'The Silver Phantom'. 

It was also a really great social experience for us too, as we met some great and interesting people. 

In the words of Conrad Verner "It's surprising how many people out there are just waiting for someone to talk to them". 

Also I picked up a comic drawn by two good friends of mine called 'Arthur Shilling' and I have to say its one of the best indie comics I have read so far. If you're interested here's the link to their Facebook page. Drawn by artists Rob Cross and Steve May. 

Additionally I got to chat to other artists Lee O'Connor and Jock about comics and for them to critique my work that I valued. 

Finally if you missed out going to DevCon1 and are interested in buying my comic, I will be at 22 Panels at The Poly in Falmouth with soon to receive additional copies of my comic.

A Shadow of Steel! Printed

Hey folks it's been a hectic month since my last post, but it was a good hectic month. Since the last post I was working away at the pages of my comic and last minute additions to the script and then having to get off to the printers in time.

And here is the result of that hard work. I have to give credit to the printers for an excellent job with the print outs, the colours came out perfectly and the paper quality is a little thicker than normal comics, but that doesn't bother me. If you have a comic project going and you need to find a printer to go to, then I recommend UK Comics who did my comic, they are really friendly and give good service. Here's the link to their site.

Here is page preview of the interiors.

I am pleased that I completed a personal challenge to make and print my own comic, and now the real work begins with keeping the series going in tri-monthly issues. At least that's how long it took for this to be done, whilst doing other work too. 

Pencil Sketch

So for the first comic that I will be doing featuring this character of mine, I have been trying to figure out a way to create a moody atmosphere with the images with the intent that the comic would be printed in B/W, since printing in colour is too expensive. Originally I was just going to do it all in my usual single tone colour which would come out grey from the printing. But I wanted to do something that takes advantage of that print process and not let it hinder me. So I figured pencil is an obvious choice to make a dark, gritty, moody atmosphere that evokes Noir. 

And that brings us to this sketch, done in HB pencil and black watercolour pencil (a cheap one) and ink for the solid blacks. Upon reflection I feel its still a medium I am not used to in terms of rendering my images in this fashion and it will require me to keep on practicing until I think its good enough for the printed comic. 

So next time I will use different paper and a better black pencil too.

As for the story its still being refined. The first issue is being overhauled as there were too many comic book cliches. Also creating a voice for the character to come through the dialogue is harder than I thought. So basically it feels as though I am starting from scratch again.

I hope to get the comic finished by the end of August so it gives me time to get it ready and printed just in time for DevCon1. I should have some progress shots of the comic coming up soon, so keep watching this site.

Sioux Warrior 3

OK a lot has happened in May, and I am still busy with multiple projects on the go. But now I have a little break to update you guys on whats been happening in my little world.
First off I was given the opportunity to contribute to the third issue of the amazing series 'Sioux Warrior' created by cape fear comics. They are a small comic press that are creating new ways for readers to engage with printed comics in a similar fashion with digital comics.
If you are curious about them I suggest you go check them out and buy their comics. They are one of the few people out there that are doing something new with the medium so I highly recommend it.

So with the advertising out of the way lets get to the good part; the art. Here are a few pages from issue 3.

Page 3

Page 4

Page 7

To view all the pages go to my tumblr blog to have a look.

Happy Valentines Day!

What can I say, this image speaks for itself so Happy Valentines Day y'all!

Chinstrap.

Hello fellow bloggers, Dave here with a selection of concepts for a comic book character that I am co-designing with a Sam from the comic shop. Essentially I am trying to create a 'cowl' like mask for this hero that incorporates the fedora hat. We also want to try and make him distinguished from other comic characters that have a similar design such as The Spirit, Green Hornet, The Shadow etc. At one point I even applied an old fashioned motor cycle cap to be used as part of his disguise. 

So far it has been an engaging exercise to push the boundaries a little on concept and design and I hope I get to see this project through to the end, and maybe illustrate his first outing maybe. Who knows.

We'll always have Paris...

A small comic strip that was also created for me and my girlfriend's anniversary with it being a little nostalgic reminder of our trip to Paris last year. 

Thunder Xmas.

Hey people, been experimenting with my art of late particularly with colour. When it comes to colour I normally go for the one colour approach, something I picked up from with reading old comic strips. In the past I would have done a full coloured image but I was never that good or at least I didn't think it was, but now I have been having a stab at it by practicing and here above is the finished article.  

I am pleased with the result but I am well aware that there is still room for improvement, something that will come with continued practice. I also decided to do the same image but finished in the usual one colour tone. I do still like one colour tones and I will still keep using because I feel it is integral to the style of my work but I am hoping that having a better understanding of colouring that it may better inform my work when I do use one tone colouring. Hope you all enjoy the pieces.