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.

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.

Naughty...

I thought that I try a provocative vignette of 'Thunder' playing on the sexual overtones that is quite rich in a film noir story. I guess I wanted to showcase here in this image that the hero isn't a goody two shoes, that he is flawed, is loose with women, and might be with other things. I also like that as a viewer it seems wrong to see a moment like this adding to the intrusion, it's something that I quite liked when I created this image. Hope you all enjoyed this.

Strikes his foes like a cobra...

Hey folks! I have returned from my trip to Romania and the country and food and sights were wonderful and I really enjoyed my time there. But I also kept myself busy with illustration work too and here is another vignette of 'Thunder' though this time I tried a limited colour palette with him and it seems to work well for him, so I think I will stick to it for the time being (I got obsessed with this orange colour whilst away).

The story for him is now nearly finished I am pleased to say and may have already a small comic book press that could become his home so exciting times for now and shall keep you guys posted on this development.

One more thing!

Open publication - Free publishing - More adaptation  Remembered that I made some digital comic versions of my previous projects, so thought I post them up just before I head off to Romania. The top one is the 'Jack and Jill' comic which for those who don't know it, is a film noir adaptation to the classic nursery rhyme. Below is a story that was part of a collaborative effort in making three different stories that cross over at specific points. This one is my story of tragic love in the backdrop of 30's Chicago.

Open publication - Free publishing - More 1930s

Another Poster

Hey all, I managed to squeeze this image in my dissertation schedule. Taking what I learnt from the Titanic poster, I added some textures to my visuals to give a finished look to them and also to make it look a bit like a poster with a Film Noir flair to it. 

Exeter Comic Expo 2012

Hey people, realised it has been awhile since I last posted something up, but I have been busy with a few projects on the go.

Anyways last Sunday, I went up to Exeter with a couple of friends to go visit the Exeter Comic Expo. Now I have never been to an event like comic con before, so I was not sure what I would expect and what there was to do and so forth. However I found the experience to be enjoyable and was nice to see something that I hope one day I will be a part of, though the highlight for me was to meet the artist Jock aka Mark Simpson, who I had a wonderful chat with about the comic world and the rigours of getting a place in the industry.

He was also kind enough to critique my 'Jack and Jill' comic too, and then finished it all off with a nice Joker sketch.

Made my day.

The Fireflash

After now completed an interesting little project about contexts, I am now getting back to drawing again, and has been a long time since I have posted any work up to the blog.
So here is something I did yesterday in my spare time; a visual motivation for my next project where I aim to tackle 3 or 4 genres of comics, and I aim to start doing more images like these to really immerse myself in these different stories I aim to tell.
So anyway, first up is this image for an idea to do, a sci-fi comic in the backdrop of a 50's style sci-fi world, with flying saucers, rockets, and robots.