25/04/2011

Toshiro Mifune

Last one tonight. Not a fantastic likeness, but lots of fun nonetheless. As far as I can recall, I've never drawn a Samurai before, so this at least remedies that.

24/04/2011

Wild Bill Hickok

Just finished watching 'Deadwood', having missed it entirely when it was originally on TV. What a show, and what a cast. Not least among them is Keith Carradine as Wild Bill.

Dredd - up close and personal

Quite pleased with this one.

Dredd rough

Another one from the pub on Friday night.

Constantine

A very quick, slightly drunken sketch of John Constantine, drawn in the pub on friday night.

20/04/2011

Wolfmen print

Andy Bloor - art editor at Accent UK, comic artist and all round nice guy - asked if I'd have a go at colouring his frighteningly good Wolfmen 2 cover so he could have a few prints made in time for the Bristol con. Here's what I came up with.

19/04/2011

Charming to the last

I'm always trying to get away from tight drawing. Sometimes I try so hard that the finished product ends up tighter than if I'd just not tried. Anyway, in that spirit, here's a (fairly) quick and quite exaggerated portrait of the mighty Peter Cushing as Governor Tarkin.

An attempt at inking, although he now appears to resemble Prince Phillip more than Peter Cushing, so I may have another go (maybe in a different style).

The above version coloured.

Re-inked in a much tighter style, and coloured.

15/04/2011

14/04/2011

Painted Dredd

Well this turned out a bit naff, and I spent far too long on it too. But never mind.

10/04/2011

SIX cover - from roughs to finished artwork

Working on the cover for 'SIX' at the moment. So far, I only have one cover under my belt (issue 7 of Paragon), so it still fells like a big deal for me to tackle one. I had a pretty clear brief for this - the author had a very specific image in mind and even provided a rough sketch to work from, although I have changed bits and given it my own stamp (I hope). This was put together to make sure the composition works and to try laying down some quick colour, although so far it's missing the vital ingredient: the shambling hordes!

Phase 2 - tighter pencils, repositioning the figures, adding a few zombies.

Phase 3 - inks, plus some quick colour and dirty textures to evoke that post-apocalyptic feel. Need to balance the overall tones, add more flat colour then shading and highlights.

Phase 4 - building more colour. Thought the faded logo on the factory was a nice touch, although it won't appear on the final artwork as the factory is a specific location and processes something else entirely.

Phase 5 - flats are finally finished (bar camo pattern on the middle guy's pants), and a final texture added to get an idea of how the finished might look. Of course, I've yet to really get stuck in with the shadows and highlights, so the final one may look totally different.

Phase 6 - shading and a few highlights, and even more texture! Think it may be complete now... we'll see.

03/04/2011

Barbie Guitars! (inking practice)

Deviantart is wonderful for several reasons. Not least is the wealth of fantastic photo ref available. 'Barbie Guitars' (real name unknown) is a model, artist & photographer, and to me she looks like an Ian Gibson character made flesh. These sketches are based on her, and were done to practice inking. More importantly, they were done to practice inking small. If left to my own devices I'll draw everything on A3 or bigger, but that don't fly in comics, so each of these is 10x12cm.

Blonde girl - pencil sketch

Quick pencil study.

Abe Sapien

Another one for The Weekly Themed Art Blog - Hellboy's pal Abraham Sapien. I'm ashamed to say I don't actually own any of the comics or trades, so my reference for these two were the movies.

The Big Red One

Some of you may have already seen this over here. But things have been quiet here at Grimm Tidings for a while, and I quite like this one, so here it is again.