A New Year

It's a new beginning to a new year and here is the cover piece for the 24 hour comic that I did last October. Still working on a title font but here is the image in its full splendor. With the beginning of a new year it is also a time of reflection. 2013 has not been as productive as I had initially hoped and that was due to other commitments and generally hitting a few creative road blocks. It has now been over a year since I graduated and I feel that as a creative I still have a ways to go to find myself, so to speak. But hopefully with 2014 I can continue in my journey and try to be more proactive in keeping this blog up to date.

So I've decided to do some short comics as a means to develop my storytelling through sequential imagery. In addition I will also be working on issue 1 of 'A Shadow of Steel!' and make some visual notes for an idea I have for a graphic novel. 

Stay tuned and watch this space as things progress.

Cards

A birthday card drawing for someone's birthday, that features Smaug the stupendous but in a cute baby form. Colouring treasure isn't all that bad, but I think this year has taught me clearly that there is only so much you can do just colouring via a mouse track pad. So next year I'll invest in a drawing tablet. At last.

And here is a Christmas card drawing, again for someone I know featuring the Space Hamster. I hope everyone had a joyous Christmas and plenty of turkey and puddings. 

24 hour comic

Quite awhile ago I was invited by my University to partake in an event at Plymouth's City Museum, to do a 24 hour comic. Except we did it a little differently which was doing it over two days with each day only having 12 hours to do 12 pages. It was an exciting format and I decided to leave the twelfth page on a cliffhanger, and have a narration going along with it that harks back to the classic film serials of the 1920's-30's.
Unfortunately I didn't make it to 24 pages and only managed 16, but there were things from that experience that I will take on in future works.
On a final note, Plymouth University's Illustration course is setting up its own print press and will be aiming to print all the comics from the event as spot coloured, risograph printed comics next year.

You can view the comic below.

22 Panels

It's time to dust the cobwebs from this site and give you people some updates. Back in October me and Diana attended a comic art exhibition in Falmouth, dubbed 22 Panels named after Wally Wood's 22 Panels.

We were neighbours to a wonderful quirky artist Edie who does dark, whimsical children's book illustrations. It was a great environment to be in, with so many creatives in one room and no traders in sight...well maybe one or two. I wish there were more events that really celebrate the art of comics and for artists to come together and talk, sometimes ideas or collaborations come about at these types of gatherings. 

Anyway here are a few sketches I did whilst at 22 panels.

One last thing to say is that I now have additional printed copies of issue 0 of "A Shadow of Steel". If you'd like a copy please feel free to contact me so we can arrange purchase and delivery.

Blue Hamster

I haven't been very good with keeping this site up to date and whilst I am busy doing my own projects and work I decided to do a quick sketch just to keep things fresh. Lately I got into gouache paint for the first time and decided to give it a trial with this Space Hamster sketch. I was pleased with the results as the paint is similar to inks but gave a painterly quality to the my image. The paint wasn't 'washy' like ink either so when it came to tweaking on Photoshop it was easier for me to select and adjust the colour. 

I think that this new medium might become a replacement to the ink washes I am accustomed with when doing tonal images.

Character doodles

Idea's for a character for a sci-fi comic that me and Benj are planning. going for a strong yet fragile woman that has a forgotten past.

Other character sketches too.

Lost World

It's the return of me and Space Hamster. A little rusty and need to get back into the swing of things with my illustrations. Sorry I have been gone awhile but I am hoping to be posting on here more often. Though some good news to share is I am now working on two comic projects and could be doing an internship at a local art studio. So things are looking a little better then they were a few months ago. 

A story about freedom.

Below here are some pages from my sketchbook that have inspired a tale of sorts about surviving against the odds, freedom and finding a friend featuring the space hamster. More to come soon so stay tuned.

Birthday

Birthday card design featuring the space hamster character. 

Leviathan 24

Last week I took part in a 24 hour comic event at the Peninsula Arts gallery at the Plymouth University. The event tied in with a publishers event that surrounded 'The Big Read' event with Moby Dick. This interactive comic is my contribution to the event and there is a link here if you want to take a look at the other artists 24 comics such as Dave Smith and Jack Teagle.