illustration: The Fiery Crown Part 1 by Charles Cutting

illustration: The Fiery Crown Part 1 by Charles Cutting:  It's been a while since I've used this blog.  I've given up having an art blog and am on instagram detailing my development in ...

The Fiery Crown Part 1 by Charles Cutting

 It's been a while since I've used this blog.  I've given up having an art blog and am on instagram detailing my development in illustration.... 

.....But the author /artist of The Fiery Crown has asked readers of his book  to contribute a review. And while I'm recovering from man-flu I thought yes, I can do that and I should anyway for independent authors so I might use this site to review things when asked :)

First off, The Fiery Crown Act 1 is a beautifully crafted book.  I'm guessing,  set in the early 20th century.  It centres on Dawn who unwittingly gets embroiled in the schemes of the Faery Folk that lead to a tragic event. (I don't think I can say more without spoiling it).

Fiery Crown has lavish artwork with rich colours without being garish. I find a lot of current comics visually a bit too dark and I throw that criticism on my own work too, but definitely not this. I found it very refreshing.

The story is vivid and flows smoothly. There are a variety of lively, fun interacting characters and moments when no words are needed as the artwork guides you along  and you can pause to take in the drama...  These are some of my favourite elements.

 

Overall it's really enjoyable, and has a feeling of a classic tale and I look forward to the next part.

 

The book is 60 pages long and priced at £8.99 

The production quality is high in my opinion and most independently produced coloured comics cost around £4 to £6 for a single 24 page issue.

 

 

 

The Fiery Crown can be purchased at http://charlescutting.com/The-Fiery-Crown 

 

 

 

 

Norm

 

Happy New Year

 

 

Wishing everyone a prosperous new year

life drawing

Sometime last year I decided to back to life drawing. I've decided to do this now on a, kind of regular basis, going once or twice a month.

I see it as a very distraction free and simple exercise to continue developing and maintaining my skills. You go and you draw who's in front of you. What can be less simple.

Below are some 20 or 30 min drawings

 

Gilbert's Universe - Developing Gilbert



 

 

 "Gilbert loves to build things. Especially rocket ships - he loves building rocket ships."

 

"Gilbert lives in this house, which is next door to Mr Grenola's scrap yard.

Mr Grenola lets Gilbert help himself to all sorts of bits and pieces for his toy projects.

Gilbert helps Mr Grenola fix some cars and occasionally a washing machine or two."

 

Gilbert was never clearly defined other than what was written  above, in the first two pages of the story and that the publisher wanted him to be a young boy.

 

Previous concept images sent to me depicted a boy in t-shirt with either shorts or trousers but nothing that would suggests Gilbert likes to build things, especially with scrap metal.

 

So I imagined, to a degree, what I would tell my daughter to wear if she had to traipse around a scrapyard and moving sheets of metal - Gloves, overalls, and goggles for the occasional welding (I thought about hard hats and boots too but didn't want to obscure him too much, though I probably should have given him boots).

 

Anyway I took that mental image at the time and produced a few sketches with a additional pencil behind the ear (to make him workman like) and imagined him keeping the goggles and pencil throughout the book. One of sketches I thought fitted well for the first page so it became the focal point of page one

 

To take what I did further I decided he looked too clean in the sketches so in the final image at the top I added dirt marks and paint marks, on his face and overalls.

Gilbert's Universe Update

It's been a many months since I updated this but the book was finished in mid July and sent to the Publisher. It was quite hard to juggle the work with other commitments and other things but I finished it in the sixth month from when I received the signed contract. I would have preferred more time but I got it done and then took a break as it timed nicely with the school holidays.

 

My previous post outlined my method in starting this project and it's how I, to a certain degree, start all my projects. My next post  after this would be the next step where I rough out the drawings with a bit more attention to detail. I wont go through all the pages but will pick out a few.

Until then...

Thought bubble- Gilbert's Universe

 

 

My trip to the Leeds comic book convention had been very positive and has now led to some real work. I was first considered for some comic book work but for whatever reason it never came to fruition. Never the less I'd been offered the chance to produce a children's book instead.

The book is called (for now) Gilbert's Universe and is written by Andy Briggs. This will be aimed at 3 to 6 year olds. There's been a few delays sorting out the contracts which was annoying as I started the work before Christmas and produced most of the initial concept drawings.

Concept drawings
Initially I try not to be too controlled with concept work. After gathering some reference material I work quickly and loosely while trying to get an idea of the look and the colours.

 

 

Next I start to refine a little.

For characters I tried different proportions but decided on the more cartoony ones with the bigger heads. From this I tried to rough out the expressions of the characters that can be found through the story. 

 

For the creature I draw out the animal that the author had based it on just so I get an idea of the creatures structure. In this case it's a lizard. It might not end up looking like a real lizard but I have to be comfortable and familiar with the creature I draw. Something else that helps is to make a maquette (model) so I can look at it from different angles.

 

 

Developing the space ship was a little tricky. The author had wanted it to be based on a small car and built out of junk with a washing machine in the back some where.

 

In the initial stages I felt the vehicle was too recognisable as a car. To get round this I started using the back of the car as the front. This way elements of a car is still clearly recognisable, also the kids flying the ship should be more visible.

 

 

 

Thumbnails

 

I started the thumbnails after the concept work and I spend quite a bit of time on this, constantly drawing over and over it before finally going over each one in pen to pick out the details. In fact I spent more time on this than the above concept work. For me it's really important to layout the book before finalising the page.  Also I never feel comfortable drawing a page from scratch I continually revise and amend the layout. There will be some in the thumbnails that I'm not entirely happy with, but having something down allows me to look it over and keep thinking about it before I start the finished roughs.

 Concepts and thumbnails were sent to the publisher after the contract was finalized and I've since  been  given the green light to carry on.

 

Time twisters

Back in November, After finding out that I came second in the Thought bubble competition with Monkfish , I thought I'll  try and not waste the opportunity while down there and enter another competition that goes on at the event. This is the 2000 AD competition.

As I hadn't planned to go to Thought Bubble I rushed to get the sample ready.

 Unfortunately  when I got there I missed the entry for the competiton. The good thing was that the feed back was positive with some areas of improvement needed (some of the figures are looking a bit rubbery) and consideration to the flow and rhythm of the panelling. One thing I needed to consider more is how the emphasis on the characters switch through the story. As one of the main characters is killed off midway through the story I didn't make enough emphasis on the remaining character.

Time permitting I would really like to revisit this sample as I can clearly see where the changes I would make are.

Monkfish

It's been a while since my last post, I've been very busy with various work.

 I recently entered my work, Monkfish, at  Thought bubble , the Leeds comic book festival and, unexpectedly, I came second. I wasn't planning to go but they informed me that I could have a weekend pass and there were prizes :)

Due to it being an unexpected trip I rushed to get a sample ready for another competition but alas missed the entry time for that one. It was a good experience though and I met a few people and, fingers cross, some work will come from it.

Regardless of that I got some good feedback regarding my portfolio. There's still things to improve on but I'm definitely headed in the right direction.

 Monkfish is watercolour over ink and my portfolio consisted of this, The frog who lost her hop and Innocence abroad  and a black and white piece I'll put up next time.  The watercolour pieces were very well received and all comments were positive.... so fingers cross. I think I'm definitely sticking with water colouring as opposed to digital colouring.



Elizabeth part 2





 



 Following on from the previous post this is the finished portrait.

I didn't want to spend too long on this painting so kept the composition very simple.

Without having to consider other elements such as limbs, torso, background, foreground, what she's doing and so on, really frees up getting stuck into the process of painting.  To the point it felt like a leisurely painting exercise.

In the end it took about 5 short sessions, spread over two weeks, to finish. This way I could fit it in between doing other things.

 

 

 

Elizabeth

"Uncle Norman...?"

"... Yes, Elizabeth?"

"Could you paint a picture of me... for my birthday...?"

"...uh  yeah, sure  :)"

Not quite finished yet, but... hopefully over the weekend.

Cycle of Violence Submission part 2

This is the final inked artwork for cycle of violence with a very few tweaks here and there from the original pencils. Most notably I added a ceiling and sky lights in page 2 panel 2 to give the impression that the character is inside an indoor training complex and also widened that panel for dialogue. Also, on the last panel of the last page I trimmed the image so it doesn't bleed off the page

 

Looking back at it now after a couple of weeks away from it, I can take some pros and cons regarding the work.

 I'm happy with the layouts of the images and the flow of the sequences... maybe could do with more over head shots such as page 5 panel 1. 

I felt I really got into the story, but in doing so I didn't keep strictly to the descriptions for the script ( I don't know if that's a good thing or bad. I think I'll put up the pages with the text on my next entry. That'll give me another point of view regarding the strength of this piece).

 

I think my pencils from before could probably be a bit cleaner and defined and like wise my inks as shown above are a bit on the rough side, more solid blacks should be used and cleaner lines in certain areas.

Looking at the work on screen and shrunken down, the cleanness and contrast of page 4, panel 3 and possibly page2, panel 1 stick out to me as a positive, the other panels look very cluttered and less defined, a bit overworked by lines.   

Anyway I'll have to wait for the feed back. The samples have been sent.... so fingers crossed. 

Cycle of violence submission part 1.

This is the pencils for my next 2000AD submission, based on their sample script "Cycle of Violence"

The work was done in my spare time, spread over about 3 weeks since I got back from Thought Bubble.
 With this sample I took some liberties with this script and didn't follow the descriptions too strictly but the original narrative should still fit with what I've done. 

I had previously roughed out the pages following the descriptions and panels closely but felt the images were disjointed and didn't really connect from one panel to another which is something Tom Foster said about my competition entry at Thought bubble. Whereas in thought bubble it was my own choice of images, this time I felt it might be the descriptions of the images.

So with that in mind my approach was to first, break this story down and for me it fell into 3 parts.
Chapter 1 starts in the middle of a crime and finishes with the main character( the boy) surviving the event.
Chapter 2, the boy enrols, graduates and establishes himself as a Judge.
Chapter 3, he encounters the crime that breaks him and ultimately leads to his death at the hands of his former saviour.

Second I read through each chapter and tried my best to edit the written descriptive sequence to fit what I thought would make a better visual sequence.

Notable changes is that I fit the whole of chapter one into the first page and condensed the first 3 and a half panels into the starting image (below), allowing for dialogue and title.

In chapter 2, first page (below left), panel 2, I wanted show what was in the narrative that the boy physically excels though he's a loner.  Panel 4, he's not contemplating his revenge in bed but straight after getting his head flushed in the loo in panel 3.  Panel 5, instead of already having laid out one of the bullies I thought his approaching them would contrast nicely with panel 6. Second page (below right), panel 1 he's walking away from a disciplinary with a sneer and the beaten bullies can be seen in the background.

Chapter 3 I did a lot of changes here. The written descriptive goes as follows: 1.found dead body, 2.mug shot, 3. interrogation (though the narrative is about the suspect going free), 4.the young Judge isn't happy, 5. suspect is followed, 6. picture of the city looking vast.

My visual sequence(above) is 1, found dead body.  2. young Judge arrests suspect. 3. suspect goes free and young Judge looks on not happy.  4. he follows suspect.  5. young Judge's attention is diverted to another victim of crime and can only watch the suspect walk away.

And on the middle panels of the last page he turns away and sees his reflection. I couldn't figure how to do that with one panel so split that into 2.

 

The original script can be down loaded from the 2000AD site.

 

Since finishing this entry I've now finished the inks and that will be part 2 of this when I get the time to blog it.



Paintings of cafes

 
While working on new comic book samples I was approached to contribute some paintings for a book by likenesspress.

The work consisted of interior and exterior paintings of 2 local oxford cafes. I wanted it to resemble the style of a previous painting but needed to economise the process. I think it's worked out pretty well.

 

I spent about 3 hours at each location sketching from observation up and taking photos for reference.

 

After priming and preparing the boards for painting I spent about a day of work on each painting spread over 2 days for drying time at certain stages. This allowed me to switch my attention from one painting to another while leaving the  one I just worked on to dry.

 

All in all that's not too bad, including the preliminary work that's just over 5 days of work.

 

 

 

Joe Perks & Co in St Clements, Oxford
Exterior (above left) and Interior (left)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sofi de France in the Covered Market, Oxford

Exterior (left) and Interior (below)

Thought bubble: Leeds Comic Con

It's been ages since I last posted but I've been very busy sorting out some short stories as well as entering competitions. I recently went to Thought Bubble the comic convention in Leeds. It was a very busy event and got to take a portfolio with me to submit to the 2000ad competition. I got it critiqued by Peter Docherty (who incidentally also looked at my portfolio in 2002 Bristol comic con), Conor Boyle and Tom Foster. It was all very constructive. I also met with a host of small press publisher and hopefully some work will come about through it.

I travelled up with a Charles Cutting , artist /writer of Kadath and artist for Steamhamer who was selling his work at Sloth Comics

Above is my submission for the competition. Although it didn't make the final the main points I need to develop more, as critiqued by Tom Foster, were the way the panels link to each other, specifically in page one 2nd to 3rd panel. The real world elements need to be better drawn and more space was needed for dialogue specifically in page 4.
Pete Docherty commented further on the finish and structure of my line work and where I need to improve. being more purposeful with one brush stroke instead of using many to convey a form and committing to the line work and making things less scribbly.

One of the main positives was that it was kept visually interesting with good varying panels.

Conor looked at different work The Teleguuth story and commented that I need more distance variation especially in the first 2 pages.

Further more I got to watch the artists mentioned and others at work which is always interesting and educational. At one point I watched Kev Walker work and before I knew it an hour and a half had passed.

Also by chance I met Neil R Williams, someone I went to Chesterfield college with, who's created his own comic Carcass and Slime.