Prepare for the Terror!

Its been a busy time for me and now I can show you what I'm working towards. I am currently creating my first comic featuring 'Thunder' who is now dubbed as 'The Silver Phantom' as a friend pointed out to me many existing comic characters that are called Thunder or have it in the title. So to avoid any copyright infringements I decided to give him a name that wouldn't sound too out of place from the golden era of comics. 

So here is the cover for issue 0 of 'A Shadow of Steel'. Its been a long time coming making this comic and its felt rewarding to finally have the confidence to utilize what I've learnt and create something that really interests me. 

Right now I'm at the stage where the pages are being finalized and getting the printing sorted out. So fingers crossed that this will be finished in time to be launched at the Plymouth comic convention 21st September.

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.

A Shadow of Steel

It's been awhile since I last posted up stuff, so here is a little something on a project I'm working on. I am collaborating with the 'Final Frontier' comic shop in Plymouth (again) to make a possible series of self published comic books. So far it's been an interesting project and challenge. It has been too long since I wrote my own stories so it's been hard getting back into the swing of things, but I think we have an interesting story to start things off. If there is any feedback you want to give me in relation to the compositions then please feel free to leave a comment.
I should also point out that as it doesn't have any text yet on the pages it would be hard to understand what is going on. Though once the script has been tweaked the second dummy book will have text incorporated with the images. Hope you enjoy.

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.

Doodles and oodles

A sketch I found that I did in Romania of Thunder. I had recently at that point read Darwyn Cooke's adaptation of Richard Stark's novel 'The Score' and liked the use of negative space when the main character confronted a stalker which I tried out using my character. Looking at it anew the attacker looks smaller than he ought to in the foreground and should be much bigger and the lightning could have been better to make it more coherent. Little lessons to learn for next time.

These pages are sketches that me and Diana did whilst at an evening service. The cat wizard is a character I have in mind for a graphic novel and appeared briefly in the 24 hour comic. Diana sketched Harold who plays the keyboard for the songs at the service.

Finally a sample of my poor attempt at life drawing. Though it was challenging to draw them in my illustrative style rather than the usual academic way I would normally go about drawing from life. I hope that if I continue to try and do this it may inform my visual style to be coherent and anatomically correct.

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.

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. 

Break the Glass

Here is another splash page image featuring LT Thunder giving another crook a hard time, though I have yet to create an interesting story round this character, but I am having more fun with doing this little poster images of him, though I still have that short comic of him that needs to be more finalized.

In case you are wondering what I am now up to I am going about adapting the Raymond Chandler novel 'The Big Sleep' into a graphic novel. Might have some character images to show as I progress. Enjoy.

Thunder's First Outing!

At last I have done a comic story of Thunder, though tis a short one and by no means is this the finished product. Going through it there are clear mistakes, errors and some sloppy panelling techniques such example would be the 3 panels with the gun firing, which slows down the pacing of the story though it had reached its natural conclusion, at least to me it did.
Also it was supposed to indicate him firing it three times, but as that wasn't clear I have failed to show it. In addition continuity errors too, such as the fire exit door changing ends and the height of the ledges too.
Finally the last page is quite a cheesy typical splash look at me type of page, which I don't really want looking at it now, though at the time it seemed great.
Depressing this post so far but, I take it as a positive one. I am still learning and making mental notes in what not to do and how to improve, so at least I am being constructively aware, but I want to be like that whilst I am working and not after it.
Anyways hope to get an improved one up soon laters.

Birth of a hero...

This is the final image to showcase the three agreed genres that I will be tackling for most of the year.
This piece I am particularly pleased with in it's outcome, and also a good few of you may recognize the hero character is indeed Lt Thunder, whom I made in first year but never got round to making a story for him, but now I have, and I hope it to be an engaging story.