festive fun

 

Happy Christmas

 

 

 

Karate Santa

Ragtag

I can't believe how quickly the years have gone by. I drew this motley crew, must be around 2007/2008 in black line with the notion of adding colours digitally not too far in the distant future.... oops, that didn't work out

Then I had to redo one of the caricatures as it was originally drawn standing not sitting and that kind of put me off finishing it as I hate redoing work.... Bah!    (though I find it less of a chore now compared to a few years ago).

Then eventually everything else got in the way..... Gah!

But now... with a bit of down time....It's done!  :)

Hope you guys at Ragtag Developments Ltd like it.

A quick Friday afternoon sketch of nostalgia

The Writer and Me

Having drawn caricatures of a lot of politicians I think it's only fair I subject myself and the writer to this process of shrinking bodies and enlarging heads. Though it's more fun from our perspectives.

 

 

 

 

 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

 

 

Some competition work

With "The Fat boy with the bomb" book drawing to a close and with it being the half term, now is a good time for a short break and maybe get myself a bit more organised.

Just prior to the "Fat boy" book I had this plan to concentrate on re-vamping some work, but due to time, that that fell by the way side. The other thing to do was to enter a couple of competitions.

I did manage to do the competitions... well one of them as it was finished and sent not long after I met Brian OConnell (writer of Fat Boy with the Bomb).

The competition was set by Titan Comics Teams Up with LICAF for Undiscovered Talent Search.
http://www.comicartfestival.com/2014/05/titan-comics-teams-licaf-undiscovered-talent-search/

My submission piece was about a monkey sent into space (attached is pages 2and 3).

 

Even though I didn't win I've been informed that my work has been selected  and will be published in the anthology. This in itself is quite a big thing for me and I look forward to seeing it published.

The second competition http://www.theguardian.com/books/series/observer-graphic-short-story-prize
I'm not sure if I managed to get the submission in on time but the Fat boy book was the priority. The work was heavily constrained due to time so I can only hope. Attached is one of the pages.

 

Regardless I hope these two submissions will lead me on to some new work prospects.

 

Now my current focus is to get a bit organised and contend with some existing projects one of which is Deadmoth.

 

Deadmoth is kind of an anthology though some of the stories are completed and some, like mine are not. My strip for it was illustrated earlier this year but due to some hiccups the publishing of Deadmoth stalled for a bit.

 

This is a page from the first part of my story and I have 2 more instalments roughed out to finish it. Next to it is the cover art for Deadmoth (Still to be coloured). I drew this with the purpose of  featuring a main character from each strip. As they are all stylistically different and would look out of place with each other I had them gather round a common focal point.

 

With any luck Deadmoth this will be out by early 2015

 



"The fat boy with the bomb and 299 more of the worlds craziest politicians"

It's been 3 months since my last entry and things have been crazily busy. I had planned to ink in past re-vamped work, start on some new submissions for 2000Ad and enter some competitions, but I only managed the  latter part of that due to some expected work. which I'll blog about next time

The unexpected work resulted from partnering up with a writer and illustrating a book that listed some crazy, eccentric, strange and often disturbing Politicians that are currently in power or working, some are well know, but many are not but are equally interesting.

The book is call "The fat boy with the bomb and 299 more of the worlds craziest politicians"

It turned out to be a really fun but taxing project. 300 caricatures plus some extras over the course of 2 and a half months.

It was pretty insightful too as I read about the politicians. Disgust, confusion, infuriating and uplifting are some of the words I would use to describe the politicians. There are more but I'll have to wash my mouth out with soap

The book should be coming out in November and there will be a book launch in Oxford, but the date hasn't been finalised yet.

Attach is few samples: Nigel Farage, Rob Ford and Janusz Palikot and yes, he really did hold up a dildo and handgun when addressing the press.

 

Time's flown by quicker than I expected since my last post, I've been very busy trying to drum up some work and started a few new projects.

Since my last post I submitted a new sample of work to 2000AD.

Again the works not quite there. I got a response quite quickly and they had some positives regarding the pencilling and story telling but was let down a bit by my figure drawing and composition of some of the panels.

It's a five page story which I really liked, but not really one you can work out with the pictures alone.

 

 

 

 

 I think I understand what's wrong, now I've had some time to analyse the work . More consideration towards composition and variation is something I definitely need to work on.

Back to the drawing board :)

Sample pages Re-done Pt 1

As I had mentioned  in a previous post, one of the things to do this year is to go over the art work of my first submission to 2000AD and address the criticism I got and learn from it. Due to other work, it's a bit of a juggling act but for now I've gone through the pencils with out changing too much as I was told I followed the script well.

This time round  I've paid more consideration to the shadows so hopefully it'll address the problem of the background and foreground merging when I've inked it.

Other noticeable changes is the Balung figure in the 2nd and 3rd panels of Page 2 and Napoleen's expression and her entourage has increased in page 3 and in page 5 I changed her figure, hopefully this will address the stiffness regarding the characters.

I plan on inking it with a brush this time to improve the quality of the line. I hope to complete this for winter time as part two to this post, though their will be other post between now and then.

Also I didn't make it to Bristol Comic con as planned (sad face), something threw a spanner in the works.

 

Dragon and princesses

While getting on with some submission pieces I decided to relax a little and practice a bit more with watercolour. I gave myself a goal so it had to be a finished piece (to a certain degree). And to make sure I didn't spend too long on them I gave myself a specific deadline which were based on recent birthdays.

The first one is a Dragon for an old friend.

 I experimented with a off white paper that isn't manufactured as an art paper. It makes the black ink bleed creating an effect that I like but it's not noticeable at this size. Maybe for smaller drawings it might make more of an impact.

Now the Princesses for my daughter

 

I used the same paper but combined the watercolour with liquid acrylic. I found it very hard to manipulate but on the plus side opacity was good and mistakes could be fixed as I was colouring.

I don't think it was as successful as the dragon but it was a good learning experience (and my daughter really likes it, but I suspect it's because of the subject matter).

 

Korky Paul course part 5

Well the course is finished now and I just failed to get the final DPS finished. Something came up and I wasn't able to put in the hours until a couple of days before the final lesson with Korky.

I came close I'd finished the final inks as shown below and also a preliminary wash with watercolours(not shown).



And below the finished one in colour completed the morning after the last session

 

 

The main difference between this and the rough from my last post is that I took out the sloth in panel two, it was a bit crowded, and the frog in panel four is holding it's leg as if something is wrong.

 

On the whole  I'm pleased with the results and using watercolour has also been a lot of fun and I will pursue this medium further. Coming from a background in oil painting I do find a lot of differences I need to get used to, namely the drying time and the way the each medium flows.  I may revisit the mole in the corner of panel three. He seems to stand out too much and could use a darker wash to knock him back a little. He's a character, to be introduced later on, that witnessed the frog's encounter with the witch.

 

Concerning the course it's been a very good learning experience and I feel it's given me a great deal to think about and a lot of confidence to move forward. In fact I already have plans for my next children's book project, but I wont be starting that until mid May. I'm trying to prepare some work in the meantime for the Bristol Comics festival on May 10th.

 

Korky Paul course part 4

Korky Paul course part 4

Running into the last couple of sessions on this course and things are going very well, I have two completed spreads and part way through the third He gave me some very good advice to improve my watercolour technique and how to manipulate the medium.

 

Korky seems happy with them and okayed me to start on the next one, so I'm trying to develop and finish this third and final one for the end of the course. Of course it doesn't really matter if I don't but I'd like to if I can.

 

The third one is going well Korky approved the final rough as shown below, though the frog going "plop"(3rd panel) needs a slight tweak as well as the one looking puzzled (4th Panel).



 

 

 

The first page of this spread is very different from what I posted before ( http://waivisuals.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/korky-paul-course-part-3-back-to-roughs.html ) and it's really down to the text. I initially intended a big fall from the frog but it seem to illustrate a "crash" rather than the subtlety of  "a bump and a plop" which is what's written. So I changed it.

It's also nice that Korky agreed with the change as he had a similar idea of the frog having a big fall as well.

 

One of the most positives I received was for the image of the witch. The inspiration for it is from a distant memory of the witch (Calypso) in Todd Macfarlane's spiderman story - Torment (early 90s?). I don't have the comic anymore and I googled the image but couldn't find the one in my head.

This one came up:

http://villains.wikia.com/wiki/Calypso_(Marvel)

but the one I remembered was really dark almost a silhouette.

 

I guess this is an example of drawing from memories of past images that I've seen. 

 

Anyway time's ticking to get this last one done



 

 

 



 

Korky Paul Course part 3

 

Back to the roughs, taking on board the previous criticisms, I went back to developing the opening image with the narrator/ sloth facing the reader and inking the images properly

 Korky was happy with it and so I worked this and the second DPS up in inks ready for colouring, He said he'd never seen this story broken down into a comic book format before and seemed really happy with the way it was coming together. I just hope the colouring works out better than my last attempt.

 

Overall I'm really happy with the way things are going, the words and pictures seem to flow well together and the art work, up to the inking stage, is consistent with my recent comic strips, http://waivisuals.carbonmade.com/projects/5043911#5.

To finish for now, here is my rough draft for the 3rd DPS. I think it's almost there with a few little tweaks.

 

I intended the witch to start out as shown above, kind of obscure, before being revealed in the next pages. But interestingly Korky really liked the way the she is depicted here and said she should be presented like this throughout the story.

 

Continued from the Korky Paul Illustration course.

I've finished my first Double page spread

 

 

I had some doubts regarding it so held off painting the second one.

 

Though I'm fairly happy with it. The general consensus on the course is that the technique or method doesn't suit it as it's a bit old fashioned. To compare it with the rough below.

 



 

The coloured one looks a bit muted whereas the rough has potentially a starker contrast.

I think I have this mentality of trying to hide the ink lines when I paint in colour or at least trying to blend them into the painting. For this project It doesn't work.

The other criticism is that the narrator (sloth) is not engaging with the reader and when I think about. It is how I intended it to be but it doesn't work. It's presence is very subtle and doesn't stand out enough.

I've recently enrolled on Korky Paul's children's book illustration course.

He's really good and breaks things down very well. It's been really good and informative and if I follow everything to the letter I should at least have some work presentable to publishers (fingers cross). I feel he's given me good advice towards playing to my strengths.
Although every thing's still a work in progress here's my final roughs for the first 2 DPS, to be finished sometime soon.

The text is from a rhyming story by John Bush who also wrote "The fish who could wish"
Subject wise it's very different from what I'm used to, but it's good fun.

Akuto - Lawless
I'm currently getting some pages together of my own comic strip. This will be an extract from a comic book I did a good while back called Akuto. I had produced 4 issues though they were very rushed and very rough looking.  I've picked 6 pages which I thought stood alone quite well and will get these finished at some point soon

 

A Weekend away. A comparison of old and new

 

To wrap this up is the final three pages. Pages 4 to 6

 

Page 4

 

This page is pretty much unchanged. Extra care was taken to prevent the background and foreground getting mixed up.

 

 

Page 5



Some small but I feel significant changes here. Panel 1, I took out the heroine that way we, the reader is placed in her shoes and the boy is talking to us. This way the reader isn't trying to look past her shoulder and head to see the action.

 

Panel 2&3 are the same except for the heroine is now looking where she's running.

Panels 4,5 & 6 I altered the panel sizes, this way things don't feel as cramped.

Also I purposely left no room for dialogue as there is none for these 3 panels.

I wanted the final panels, 7&8 to be more connected with the characters talking before a small action that requires neither character to move from the spot.

 

Page6

 



Final one, again some small changes I felt it would be better to include the two heroes in panel 2.

Though I usually don't like seeing the back of character's heads I thought it was appropriate in this case. The boy stands rooted looking in awe at the fire works and I thought this would be best left to the reader's imagination. This contrasts with the heroine who's already past caring and has turned away to smugly blow the smoke from a flare gun.

 

The villain is given more room for his monologue and also is seen departing but there is a sense that he's close enough to the explosion that it illuminates him.

 

The final panel is again very similar but shows the heroes returning to the Trusted Lion rather than  waiting and chatting.

 

 

 

 

 



 

A Weekend Away page 3

Continuing to improve on a previous comic strip

Old on the left, New on the right

On the New page:
Panel 1 the villain looks less intimidating and the angle creates a sense of movement like he's swanning over to the heroine. There's also more space for his dialogue.

Panel 2 is much the same as before but zooming in creates I think more intimacy and again the space allows for more dialogue

With Panel 3 I started to make more considered changes. I felt it was important to see the faces of both characters as they converse and I swapped them around as she speaks first in the script. The background I ditched  but added some odd outlines of other diners, this I felt de-clutters the scene but still keeps a sense of where they are.

Another major change is Panel 4, which was originally 2 panels. Merging them into a single panel brings more emphasis to the drama. As a single separate panel the action seems displaced but in the merged version, action is taking place behind the unsuspecting villain, creating a sense of conflict as each vies for the heroine's attention.

The 5th panel is similar to before but the heroine faces into the page instead of out. Having her look in connects her to the previous panel. Also keeping the face closely framed emphasises the dilemma she is presented with.

The last Panel is much the same though again less cluttered.

A Weekend Away page 2

Continuing to improve on a previous comic strip.

 

As with before the new version is on the right.

Panel 1 I moved the figures close in and kept them out of the shadows, I always thought they looked a bit sinister casting a long shadow in the first version.

Panel 2 is very similar to previous but with the main light source coming from the doorway, just to make it seem more like evening time

The main scene is less cluttered with the improved perspective and everything just seems cleaner.

Panel 4 I zoomed in on the people, usually  I would leave room for dialogue but as there wasn't any for this panel I decided that this would be a better composition. I liked the idea of the lady being centred, makes her seem... important.

Panel 5 I zoomed out so the character doesn't become too squashed in. I kept the expression neutral. A face slurping soup probably isn't very flattering.

Overall It's still very similar just more consideration here and there.

I've recently started looking at old work and thought I'd re-draw them again with a focus on some of the weaknesses of the previous illustrations, as well as also trying to keep the brushwork consistent with my more recent work.

The comic strip I chose for this was originally drawn in around 2002/03 ish ..( I can't remember exactly when) for Underfire comics based in Brighton.

It's a six page story called "A Weekend Away" scripted by Amsel Von Spreckelsen

I thought I'd show each page with old next to new to look at the comparison and note some of the changes.

The old one's on the left, drawn with fine liners and the new one's on the right inked with brush.

 

 

There's probably not much to say on these two apart from more consideration to the details of the environment and use of perspective. As a scene setter and following Amsel's script, there's not much I would change regarding composition.

My next entry will look at page 2

2000 Ad submission

A while back, prior to the work for Tom Muzzell I submitted a sample to 2000 AD from their Tales of Teleguuth script.
I got some feed back which I think was positive with only two points of criticism:
1. some panels were a bit too busy and, as a result, the foreground blended into the background  a bit.
 2. Some of the figures seemed a bit stiff.

It's motivated me to try another submission which I've started and am currently inking but had to put on hold due to being a bit swamped with work.
To get round the figures appearing stiff I've since changed to using a brush instead of a fine liner. In fact this is the last work I inked exclusively with a fine liner pen. The werewolf and Copier strips were inked by brush.
Attached is pages 1 to 4 from my submission.