The Walking Dead - Michonne

The Walking Dead's Michonne, played with a fantastic one-note scowl by Danai Gurira on the AMC show. She's getting a bit of stick from some online quarters, moaning about the lack of a backstory, emotional range or even dialogue, but personally I think that's the point of the character - whoever she was before is irrelevant and she's truly found her calling in life now, as a completely relentless badass with a samurai sword. She's a Man-With-No-Name-type, a mythic character almost. Seriously, what's not to like?

Horror pics - inked & toned at last!

Had an exhausting few weeks and been fighting off the lurgy continually, but here at long last are the 3 Hammer/Universal horror drawings from last month inked up and toned. Inspired by Dark Horse Comics Patric Reynolds' masterful ink & wash work, I decided to try my hand at something similar with the Mummy pic. This was inked with a Winsor & Newton series 7, a larger Pro arte 5/8" brush and a toothbrush for the splatters. Quite pleased with the results actually, but then I got the fear and went back to the Pentel brush pen for the next 2. Will practice though.

3 Motown legends & a writer chap

This is the last huzzah of the 10 minute portrait project. I was commissioned by Neil Roche to draw 3 of these for his boss' 50th birthday, and because it would be the last batch I'd be doing for the forseeable future I wanted to go out with a bit of a bang and decided to throw in a fourth one free, and to tone them digitally (rather than just present the inks alone).

So they started life as quick pencil sketches, 12cm x 9cm like all my other 10 minute portraits. You can see at this point that one or two things aren't quite right (Marvin's left eye in particular), but rather than keep working at the pencil stage I scale them up in Photoshop, print them out in faint blueline and ink by hand with my Pentel brush pen, refining things like this as I go. These are then scanned back into PS and the tones and texture added digitally. I try to achieve a hand-painted look, almost like watercolour, which I think works quite well.

Anyway, they are from the top: Marvin Gaye, Tammi Terrell, Wilbur Smith & Bobby Womack.

War in Hell

A work-in-progress, but pretty much there now. Getting my horror fix before I embark on that new pro colouring gig. Inspired in part by the Great War flashbacks in Ian Edginton's Ampney Crucis Investigates in 2000AD and by more general Lovecraftian themes (Lovecraft of course being a direct influence on Edginton).

Faith

A quick study of Eliza Dushku as Faith, the bad girl slayer from Buffy. Have to admit, I had a massive crush on her back in the late 90's - she was the perfect foil to wholesome Sarah Michelle Gellar.

Taking a break from the brush pen, this is just digital tones and texture added to a pencil sketch. Got a new one-off comic strip coming up and I'm experimenting with slightly different techniques, see if it sparks any ideas.

Princess Ankhesenamón

As played by the beautiful actress Zita Johann in the 1932 Universal Studios version of The Mummy (today's warm-up inks & tones).

Beat Takeshi

Working fast... pencilled in 5 mins (see that here if you're interested), inked in less than 10, tones and splash of colour added in PS in around 5 again. Really like the looseness.

Bob Dylan commission

The third of my latest batch of commissions - to go with Jimi and Marilyn. Really pleased with how these turned out.

Jimi Jimi

Another commission - part of a set of 3 (Marilyn, Jimi and Bob Dylan).

Marilyn commission

The hair's not quite finished yet...