Star Wars.

Star Wars prints for a portfolio. Colours by the talented Yel Zamor (the Rainbow Wrangler) Further images will be added. Classic Star Wars to follow including Luke and Leia.

Goodbye, Emmanuelle.

Goodbye, Emmanuelle.

My small tribute to Sylvia Kristel who passed today at the age of 60 after a long battle with cancer. A truly alluring woman, her death cannot be understated. She defined a new sensuality for a whole generation over 40 years ago with this one image.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-19990457

The Irons: Hybrids. Madefire. Process.

The Irons: Hybrids portal chase sequence. This will be our French Connection moment. Leto chases a perp (Multon) through the planet sized city using portals to jump to other areas and time-zones. Writer and co-creator Haden Blackman and I envisioned a multi-zone chase highlighting the texture and richness of  The Irons world.

Creating one new world environment is hard enough but we really wanted to push for a variety of different areas: some more frightening and unusual than the main Blade Runner influenced world shown here. The chase allowed us so many possibilities and the Grand Central Station opener will be the money shot!

Crank zoom panels. We cut from the larger panel to these inserts and zoom to close-ups of Leto and Multon (shown in red) Should help to convey the frenetic pace of the chase? Possibility of a faux-handheld camera shake effect with the Madefire tool to add that personal 'in scene' experience.

So many possibilities are available creatively with the added sound and motion options. It really is an exciting and new approach to story-telling.

The inks shown are pencils only. Still to apply an ink draft and colour by Yel Zamor.

Roller Grrrls pencils.

Behind the scenes sketches for proposed Roller Grrrls covers and characters this week. Tried some forced angles and a couple of Klimt parodies (Judith I and II). Just a small selection of ideas drawn on the train while passing the time. There's a proposed zombie chase cover and a locker room phonecall.

For more derby images please visit the Facebook page to order the Roller Grrrls sketchbook SK01 or email orders_rollergrrrls@hotmail.com for details.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently. A radial fracture break of the elbow kinds spoils the mood when trying to draw. Working through the worst of it.

Roller derby MCs.

A roller derby sketch of local Glasgow MC Gerry Helliverance Fog and GRDs Haberbashery who helps out in Edinburgh. Fairly pleased with this sketch. This image along with many others will soon appear in print when Roller Grrrls release their first sketchbook magazine in a couple of weeks!

Pop by theRoller Grrrls Facebook page and keep up to date with the launch and other exciting RGs news!

Scroobius Hip t-shirt design.

Roller Grrrls were asked to design four t-shirt designs for online derby store Roller Bootique

Here is a version of the Scroobius Hip character playing the Joker card (literally). Really pleased with this lineart. I have also included the pencils for the dancing version. The girls at Roller Bootique went for the kneeling pose and it works better for the design.

 Check out the Roller Bootique Facebook page here!

Zombie poster for the The Inhuman League!

Today's post is my zombie poster for the The Inhuman League! The TIL are a male roller derby team from Sheffield. They loved the recent work done on Roller Grrrls and wanted a zombie inspired derby poster and t-shirt design. On the left is the final approved version which was aged to resemble a late 70s movie poster. This was definitely a good call!

Below are images covering the overall process from the initial sketch and layout ideas sent to the TIL, lineart and then original colour (without the aging effect/texture) Working with Andrew Morley from the TIL proved creatively rewarding and was a dream project. We both love horror movies and had the same influences for this poster. Delighted with the end results.

Check out their Facebook page and/or the TIL site tomorrow for more news regarding The Skating Dead launch!

Life Drawing. Offshore Gallery.

For the last three weeks I have been attending life drawing classes. Never had any experience of drawing from a life model before but enjoying the experience. The classes at the Offshore Gallery in Kelvinbridge are relaxed and intimate, with the model sitting quite close and the lighting is near perfect. If you wish to improve as an artist I would highly recommend the oportunity to learn. Some samples below.

The Irons: Hybrids. Cover process.

Layout sketches. This first stage is the most important part of the process. All the ideas are put down quickly and instinctively and a composition is decided upon. Three versions generally provide choice for the client/editor to work with and Liam Sharp decided that having Leto front and centre worked best. We then moved on with background characters designs.

A more finished sketch this time to capture the vibe of the environment. Some more playful ideas were added in the background but they felt out of synch with the overall tone intended for the cover.

Another pass refines the background character details.

Leto and two or three additional principal characters are next. Layout sketches are always done in biro. Trying to keep an energy and spontaneity in the figures by keeping the size to A4.

Pencils. Still working in ink with a brushpen at A4 for keeping the proportions and composition right. An alien krishna and Bono help fill the background. A lot of extra details are added to the figures and background at this stage and to be honest it serves well enough.

Colour work follows by Yel Zamor. These characters are for the background only and Yel cleverly coloured them with minimum shading to allow them to remain in the background and not pop or distract from foreground characters. Since they will also be reduced in size, any over-rendered textures would be lost anyways.

An alternate version below where I played with colour coded regionalised lighting on the background crowds. The seperate layers in the Madefire tools enhance the effect by providing a parallax effect.

Madefire. Hybrids: The Irons by Haden Blackman.

Madefire released their app yesterday and I am delighted to be a part of the project. Dave Gibbons, Bill Seinkiewicz, Dougie Braithwaite, Liam Sharp, Robbie Morrison, Mike Carey and many more creators are involved and I am proud to be working with Haden Blackman (Batwoman) on our collaboration, Hybrids: The Irons. Here is a teaser of what to expect with our new world environment.

The Irons teaser formatted as a page. Viewing experience will be 1.85 landscape panels with 3:4 IMAX inspired fullscreen. The Madefire tools allow for parallax views (up to seven layers for city vistas) and pans/zooms/depth of field effects. The technical approach to starting a page is very different too. It's a new language of story-telling.

Colour as always by the talented Yel Zamor.

Life Drawing. Offshore Coffee Gallery. Sandra.

DAve McAleavy invited me along to Thursday's two hour class at the Offshore Coffee Gallery in Gibson Street, Glasgow. Our model Sandra was a delight and we talked briefly about Dali and Figueres during her break. My first life drawing class was a modest success, although I need to be less harsh with the line next time.

Initial five minute poses by Sandra. Finding the line here was the trickiest part. Biro. A4 xerox paper.

Some really intersting poses from Sandra and Dave and I lucked out with our seating position (to the right) and lighting. Another 30 minute sketch. Wasn't pleased with the face and redrew it. Still not got the likeness right. Her expression was rather interesting and I loved working the face and eyes especially. Quite an intimate sitting, only feet from her. Tired several times to get her eyes just right.

  

Last sketch of the day. About 30 minutes or so. Over-worked it and with too many lines around the face. Sandra deserved a cleaner approach. She was much prettier than my harsh line shows.

Batman. Sketch. Bristol. May 2012.

One of my favourite sketches from Bristol Comic expo last month was this Batman. I normally sketch a profile of the Caped Crusader but was asked for a full figure instead and really concentrated on the cape this time. Worked up the texture hoping for a leather effect and fairly pleased with the end result. Added a quick background for some depth to the piece. Another satisfied fan.

Judge Death!

Judge Death. Kapow! 2012.

First sketch of the day and a wonderful colouring job by Jean-Paul Bove (who worked at his table) This photo of the print he delivered to the fan does not do the colour job justice but very peased with his work.

Judge Fire to Follow next week plus JP's colour print!

Roller Grrrls. Teal Leone. Character sketch.

Here is another Roller Grrrls character sketch. I have included the pencils (drawn in biro) and the finished  inks. No layouts for this episode as the idea was very clear in my head and I could see instantly how the end result would look. There was a subtle change to Teal's right arm in the first panel but very little else is different. So very pleased with this small vignette.

Roller Grrrls birthday image for LRG!

LRG Birthday Card. Gray version.

Wishing the London Roller Girls a very happy sixth birthday! Derby Love to everyone on the team, NSOs and fans from Roller Grrrls. 

Lineart.




















 Colour version.

Hybrids. Layouts for a chase sequence.

 Hybrids. Written by Haden Blackman for the Madefire digital comic.

These layouts for our portal chase sequence are the first run through of the script and generally problem solve the pacing and composition before pencils. 90% of what you see here makes the final cut. Primarily working on individual panels to a 1.85 or 16:9 ratio for widescreen viewing on the iPad and similar media. Panels or frames 'taller' than the preferred ratio are to allow for pans or zooms. They are grouped together as pages for clarity and script checking. Choices also have to be made regarding creating seperate layers within the panels and indicating motion (not shown here) to provide parallax for the motion comic element.


This digital technique proves to be a very challenging experience and rewards you with new creatives options for telling a story. More reviews next week.