Fractal Friction page one art

Finished art (with letters by the delectable Jim Campbell) for page one of FF. This is a new collaboration I'm really glad to be part of, and also features the talents of Emperor (on script duties), Kev Levell, James Corcoran, Conor Boyle & Chris Askham (sharing the scribbles). Read the full, ongoing strip at thie address: http://fractalfriction.blogspot.com (tried making this a link but blogger ain't having it).

Pages 2 & 3 are up now, with 4 & 5 imminent - then it's back to me for the start of another round before we open it up to a few very interesting guest artists from page 11 onwards.

Check out the ongoing strip at http://fractalfriction.blogspot.com/

Fractal Friction sketches

A couple of preliminary character designs for new collaboration 'Fractal Friction'.

Christmas Dredd

My effort for the wonderful Advent Calendar thread over at the 2000AD forum. The perenially popular theme of Dredd busting Santa - never gets old (I hope!).

Skull Sword

This is a detail from my latest competition entry, in progress.

Durham Red - Long Time Coming (now with words!)

This was originally published in Dogbreath 21, but I submitted it without and captions or dialogue. I was quite pleased with the result, confident that it told a clear narrative without words.

This week I had an idea - why not put it up on the 2000AD forum and see if any of the aspiring script doirds fancied having a stab at adding words to it, just for the fun/practice? Thought it might be interesting for whoever took up the challenge to have to work backwards. Lo and behold Matthew McLaughlin answered the call, and bashed this out in a few days. A mighty fine effort too. Matthew has various projects in the pipeline for the small press - keep an eye out.

So here we are - Durham Red in 'Long Time Coming', the extended director's cut!

Cthulhu blowing off

Produced this a few weeks back as a last minute illo to accompany a piece by the Emperor on climate change that was published in 'The End is Nigh' issue 4. Basically, the idea is that the waste methane produced by a still slumbering Cthulhu would cause just as much damage to the world as if he awoke and started getting medieval on Tokyo, New York et al. The kind of brief I dream of really.

Christmas Dredd - final inks

Quite pleased with how this has turned out. Got an idea of how I'm going to colour it too.

Scotch Corner guest post

I like this character. Maybe he'll turn up again in something else.

Final Dredd pin-up

Finally happy with this now.

Mock up cover idea

This is NOT official! It's just an idea Working on a coloured version too - but couldn't resist this ultraviolent sin-city-esque version.

PS borrowed the official logo - hope you don't mind Kev, Dave & Rich!

Drop the mince pie, creep!

The lovely folk over on the 2000Ad forum have had another great idea - a twoth advent calendar. Boarders nominate themselves for a day over the festive period and contribute something on that day (a picture, poem, link etc). This is the first draft of my idea, (photographed with my digital camera). It's not entirely original, but there's something irresistable about the thought of Dredd busting Santa for B&E. I'll work this up properly for my contribution which is 12th December.

Back From The Depths - #1 Hallowscream! Out Now

The first issue of the Scream tribute comic, put together by the good folks at Back From The Depths, is now available to download as a free pdf. Over 70 pages of blood-curdling tales of terror - including 'The Bucket of Blood' written by Andrew Milne & Carol Kewley.

Here's page one - read the full story, plus many more, at
http://www.clickwheel.net/features/308

Howler - final

Think this is finished. Not sure about the speech balloons though...

Howler - alternate version (unfinished)

Howler

Joe faces off with an alien noise fiend. Second entry for this month's forum art competition. To be inked and coloured, with possibly the addition of a couple of comedy speech balloons.

Durham Red illo for Dogbreath 21

Posted a coloured detail of this some weeks back - now that the mag is out there, here's the finished b&w image as it was printed.

2 minute portrait

I'm not going to make a habit of posting the images from my portrait diary - but I'm rather pleased with this one. This is a mature student I support, a 1-2 minute pencil sketch which was then inked in about the same when I got home.

Krool Heart - final version

Well, the blue thing kinda worked. Inked over them with a brush (the windsor & newton series 7 no less!) and a few different pens. Used the channel mixer to drop out the blue, but it was still faintly visible in places. I'll get the hang of it I suppose.

Colours added in photoshop.

The Krool Heart

Going to attempt the non-repro blue approach for the first time - so here is a pencil rough that I've turned blue in photoshop, then printed out ready to have a go at inking over. Not sure if I've used the right shade - but we'll see how it turns out. I'll post the inks later hopefully.

Zombie wife - final panel

Spoiler-ific panel from 'The Bucket of Blood'. Just couldn't resist posting it. Features my first attempts at colouring with a wacom too.

PS - thanks to Kevin Levell for the suggestion of the floating eyeball - too good to ignore!

Bucket of Blood preview 2

A selection of panels from page 4 of my strip for 'Back From The Depths'.

The original thumbnails provided by one of the writers stipulated 12 panels for this page, which I thought was going to be a bit of a stretch. In the end I went and added a few - which brings the final total to 16!

I've only got myself to blame...

End of the line, creep!

This is based on an excellent photo of one of the judges who policed this year's British International Comics Show. It was posted on the facebook page for the Minty fanfilm (which looks to be absolutely stunning, and will hopefully feature my new mate Banners as 'The Perp'). I asked them if I could use it as the basis for an illustration, and they obliged!

Hope to do more with it - this is a colour rough.

Slaine doodle

Very very quick sketch, done in red biro at work today, then photographed with my camera (hence it's a bit blurry).

My Bloated Zombie Wife

Nuff said.

Olly

First entry in the portrait diary - simple pencil sketch of my best friend and host this weekend.

Back from BICS!

I just attended my first. ever. comic convention. It was awesome, really really superb. Had a fantastic time, and, thanks to Kev Levell (for assuming that I would be taking it), had some interesting constructive criticism on my portfolio from - not least - Tharg himself. Old green bonce recommended the following: attend a life drawing class, tighten up the inks a little, try inking with a brush, and just basically keep drawing.

Oh, and thanks too to John Cahill, another small presser with loftier ambitions, for recommending the windsor & newton series 7 brush - I'll be tracking that down directly.

Had a great chat with PJ Holden too, who again offered invaluable advice.

So an idea occurred to me, and I'll start it tonight - I'm going to keep a portrait diary, take someone's photo every day and then pencil or paint or ink their portrait that evening. If I stick to it, I shoud build up a decent body of work whilst simultaneously improving my skills.

Onwards!

Business card

My first real attempt at one of these, gonna take a handful to BICS - you never know!

Vampire sketches

Amidst other projects (upcoming strips for Back From The Depths, Dogbreath & Zarjaz), I'm working on a strip I'd like to submit to another Future Quake Press publication, 'Something Wicked'. It's an annual horror anthology, and the most recent issue has just come out, so this won't see the light of day for some time - but that's fine, I've got enough on just now!

I'm adapting a short story I wrote last year, and it's a gothic Victorian setting. Don't want to give too much away at this stage, except for the fact that it will feature a (hopefully) disguting vampire-type creature!

These sketches were done last night, and I was trying to explore ways of redesigning a vampire, coming up with a new look for a classic monster. I want to make it genuinely scary, even though in the finished strip it'll probably only be half-glimpsed. Started off with pretty traditional vamps, then got to thinking 'what else has fangs in nature, and is utterly repulsive?' Well, spiders of course! Don't want to veer to far off course, but there may be some mileage in this...

Bucket of Blood

A couple of sneak previews from my contribution to 'Back From The Depths' - out in time for Hallowe'en!

Durham

Detail, coloured, of a last minute illustration I provided to accompany a text story in the forthcoming issue of Dogbreath. The full illustration features also Harvey, and will, of course, be printed in black & white.

Yaaaarrrrrrgggghhhhh!

A motley crew and no mistake.

A few pirates from my upcoming strip for horror comic 'Back From The Depths'.

Necronauts - final version

Happier with this - simpler, murkier and hopefully creepier.

Godless Depths

And the finished piece with text

Necronauts 2!

Completed this tonight and used it as the basis for a last-minute, impromptu entry in the latest 2000AD art comp.

Apparition

God knows where this came from. I started with the image of a giant eyeball forcing its way out of a man's mouth - the rest just snowballed from there.

Tongue

And another

Rictus

'Nother horror sketch.

The Visit

More creepy stuff.

Intruder

Warming up for a 7 pager I'm doing for 'Back From the Depths', a tribute to the short-lived but classic Scream! comic. Spent last night sketching and inking a series of horror-themed images, as they came to me, literally just poured it out onto the page without thinking. A psychiatrist would probably have a field day analysing these! Anyway, here's the first. I'll try and upload another 3 or 4 later.

It's nearly 4am, so this seems appropriate.

Judge Waugh!

Second entry for the latest 2000AD comp. Recently re-read 'Swimming in Blood' and, for the first time, 'Red Tide', and simply had to draw the man! This is based on a 'what if' premise of Devlin becoming a Mega City Judge - or maybe he's taking part in some sort of exchange programme, hey now there's an idea - how about Dredd in the trappings of a Vatican exorcist! Hmmm.

A sort of tribute to Frank Quitely

Entry for the latest 2000AD art comp. I bloomin' love these comps! They're great for getting me thinking, and for inspiring me to actually bring some ideas to completion, rather than rest half-done in my sketchbook.

This was a bit of an experiment - I sketched these two figures in pencil on A3, then inked with a VERY fat pen just for the hell of it. Then, on a whim, I photographed them with my digital camera at a slight angle (with the pad tilted), as if we're looking up at them. This exaggerated the already OTT perspective thing I had going on with the massive feet!

I then added a filter in photoshop to the photograph to smooth it out, faded it, printed it, then inked that with a very fine pen, adding all the detail. Finally coloured in photoshop.

Thigns I like about it: the colours on Dredd, Dredd's shoulder pads and left hand, Mean's grin, the overly large boots. It's not perfect by a long shot of course, but it was a lot of fun.

Tonight's very quick sketches - quite obviously enhanced by a judicious application of a photoshop filter, but don't it look pretty?