Mermaids are Freaky

I did a doodle of a weird scaly haired mermaid a while back and was itching to draw a short comic so I pulled that doodle out and made this little tale.

I always thought mermaid mythology was weird enough but this is my take on it.

This is my favourite use of pattern that I have done in a while.

Also check out the new header I put together.

Long Time No Post

It's been a while between updates but you know how life gets in the way. But it is time to start showing off what I am working on. I am making a short 8 page comic about the Elf character that I made up last year. I've been wanting to do a mini comic for a while now and I've wanted to do a story about the hopeless elf for even longer so I am killing 2 birds with one stone. I hope you like this first page I hope to post snippets of my progress more regularly. I have still been working hard and I may post some of it soon but time got away from me.

I've been trying out all the new stuff I figured out on the previous project I completed. I love learning new techniques and I always do when I start a new project.

Hope you enjoy.

Draw-A-Day February Day 28

Kid Briton from Avengers Arena, The Flaming Douche with the Flaming Sword.

Draw-A-Day February Day 17

A fully coloured short comic about a scared elf with a dream.

Draw-A-Day February Day 16

The little comic to practice fully composed images. I'm gonna ink and colour this sucker up tomorrow. Hope you like.

Draw-A-Day February Day 4

A little experiment with minor animation in a comic and one page narratives. Hope to try some more when I have the ideas for them. It was inspired by Zac Gorman and his MGT comics so check them out they are awesome. Hope you like it.

Draw-A-Day February Day 3

The first panel of a single page comic I have started today hope to finish it over the next few days and try something new on it.

Fan Art Thor

A piece of Thor fan art that I did for Project Rooftops Fan Art Friday for February

The Sketchbook Project

Before the new year started I finally received my sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. I have signed up for the tour which is going to be a collection of graphic novels. I have completely thumbnailed one idea which was... baaaaaaaaaaaaaad. It was derivative and trying way to had to feign that it was interesting, it really wasn't. I have wiped the slate clean and started again trying to do something more interesting and I think I have it.

A quick character design for my Sketchbook Project Graphic Novel

CATMAN

Just a quick drawing of Catman to get my creative juices flowing.

Scribbles

Spider-Man

A wolf I did in practice for the image I posted last

Just thought I'd try to post more often and put up some doodles from the sketch book.

Hey I'm Still Alive

Hey, it's been a while hasn't it... well I have a really good excuse well first things I got a job and did that for 2 days and on the second day while cycling there I fell over the handle bars of my bike and broke both my wrists and my right elbow. See that's a really valid excuse isn't it... well onto more positive things while all casted up and unable to do much with my arms I got really into watching cartoons again. Mostly 'Adventure Time' and 'Thundercats' both awesome for their own reasons (I also got really into 'Mythbusters' but that doesn't really tie in). Well while watching these I started thinking about how much I wish my stories could feel more personal, more like me and all the drama that I usually think about more when I can't do it, and started formulating how I could use this experience to create my next work. I started imagining it and the visuals were really vivid in my mind and it killed me that I couldn't draw any of it down. Soooooo it's been almost 6 weeks since the accident and I am almost fully healed (or atleast it feels like it) and I've picked up the pencil and paper again and finally put down some of that imagery that I came up with. None of it has a name yet and it is still early and it was quite quick but it looks so close to how I imagined the visuals and I hope I can continue making it even better. Hope you like and I hope there will be more of this soon.

The Goon

Hey guys long time no post... This is a piece I did for Dark Horses draw the goon contest (I think I can post this I saw someone else post theirs sooooooo...) I decided to kind of do a cover kind of image. I went with an action shot and felt like drawing a giant monster so I did a T-Rex sheriff. Hope you like. 

(This art is property of Dark Horse Comics and Eric Powell)

SPAAAAAAAACE!!!!!!!!

A short comic based on the Theme of Space for illustration friday.

I tried some other stuff on this with a few more lines for texture and tone (kinda).

Drawing can be fun again...

I have finally drawn something that doesn't make me sad... Yay! It is a development of one of the sketches from my previous post. I have had the main idea for this guy for a while but never did anything about it. I want to do some mini comics/short stories to build up a world and this may be the first.

What's been going on...?

Hey dwellers of the internet,

I'm terrible at this internet presence thing... sorry... I guess. I don't want to say I will be better from now on because I know realistically I could fail at that so I am just gonna say I want to be better. 

I recently had my final assessment of my Illustration degree (yay!) it was fairly disheartening (booo!) but I am recovering I think. The assessors had a few thing to say about things I made mistakes on, namely the printing of the comic, and one thing I have been trying to get a solution to for at least 3 years, my artwork which I am finally proud of. Getting negative feedback was hard to accept because I put my full time and effort into creating something that I feel is a huge improvement for me, I knew it wasn't perfect and I can still improve but I had come leaps and bounds from the first day of this project let alone the year or the course. I won't let this beat me though, I know I have a long road ahead, I know this is the first round of harsh criticism that I have to face at a time when I think I am succeeding. So I will do better next time and I will keep doing it my way just like I did this last uni project.

Due to the shock of this, I make it sound awful but it really was just me thinking I was doing so well and being told I was still nowhere near, I have been a bit shaky creatively for the past week. I avoided picking up a pencil for a good couple of days and when I did finally I felt like crap. Here's what I did:

That was meant to be the lizard from Spider-Man. It isn't horrible but I just felt crappy while doing it. After that I had a mental war with a piece of paper writing down what I wanted to do next. I always have new ideas popping up and I never use them so I tried to cement some of them down. It felt like I was trying too hard and I don't ever feel comfortable trying to create. The way I like to create is by doing it and letting the idea and the picture come together not forcing anything out. 

My next war was with a blank page and a pencil trying to draw and it was helping me feel more comfortable but I still had no confidence in what I was drawing. I did a doodle or two of the characters I had just finished drawing in my project and I realised that although I still loved those characters I had no intention on running back to them, I don't know why maybe I am burned out or maybe I just need a break but I want to do something else. I talked all this through with my girlfriend, who puts up with my f***ed up head all the time, and then I slept on it.

I woke up today and started fresh I got a clean sheet of paper and just drew some stuff, Ideas for stories, characters, places and whatever else came out. I wanted to get back to what I love about comics, the storytelling. Here's a few of the things I did:

 Some of this has stories some doesn't but everything has a place in my head which is how I like it to be. I hope I can show you some development of these things sooner rather than later so watch this space.  Thanks for reading hope you like the doodles.

I proudly present BitchSlap and The Masters of Dance-Fu

I just thought I'd update with what I am working on at the moment.

This has been a long time in the making and I am really happy to get started I am 2 pages in now this being page 2.

I hope you like this image and I hope to post some other snippets of the pages as the weeks progress.

This was done on A3 bristol board with a 0.1 rotring Rapidograph

Getting to know the inhabitants...

Today has been a rather fruitful day in regards to creating new inhabitants to the world I have created but not so much in regards to getting any closer to the end product. Today I explored both the animal and more civilised creatures that inhabit the world of Hive. The kandu, grallop and ferogast will all make appearances eventually but what I have to show you today is the Underdwellers. They will be included on an info card in the Tales From The Hive folder bundle that I am creating for this project. The further I get into this world the more comfortable I feel. I feel like everything is there and I see it in a blurry haze I just need to put what I can down on paper to get a clear picture and I hope anyone who happens on this blog will join me in exploring it.

So here is a picture of an Underdweller

Fleshing out the Universe

Today's been a productive one I've really got a good jump on all the screen print elements of my mini comics package. I finished the packaging design and designed my screen print. All the little bits I'm doing are really helping shape this universe I've created. Tomorrow I'm going to design an info card about another race from the world of HIVE which should be fun I'm enjoying building this world up bit by bit and want to continue that way. Be that through random images or mini-comics.

Here's the flat vector of my screen print not sure on the colours yet but it's going to be 2 colours on a coloured paper.

Packaging Challenge... Or Challenging Package

Recently I've been working on an interesting way to package my most recent project. I've been designing some graphics for it based on the location where all the content inside will be set. The colours aren't final and I'm not sure where it will be placed on the product but I'm happy with the design.