Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Rentaghost

This is an experiment in a new drawing technique for me. I've removed line work digitally before, but now I'm not draw those lines in the first place. Doing most of it in the hand-drawn stages is slightly more awkward than doing it digitally, but I like pencils, brushes, pens and paper.
Apart from mastering the technique, it also seems to have an effect on what colour choices work. One thing I'm noticing is that a very simple palette might work best, almost like as spot colouring. That's not quite what I have here as it's an early step. So early, I may not stick with this style!

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Brown 'Tashe

Drunken conversation leads to fabricated 70's aftershave, and way of life, Brown 'Tash. Yes, I know it should be 'Tache. But I liked the 'S'.
Very quick sketch where I've started experimenting with blocking in areas with colour rather than outlines. Need to practice this more I think, but plan to keep plugging away with this style - although without the grubby 70s style colours.

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Not Quite Hawkwind

I fancied having a go with a Hawkwind theme, but didn't feel like doing any more likenesses after the last few. I'd also started to notice a creeping realism coming into some of my drawing which was a bit worrying, so I thought I'd nip that in the bud.
After going through a stack of Hawkwind song titles I pulled a few out and started sketching ideas, this one is from 'The Psychedelic Warlords'. I might do some more, there's certainly plenty of evocative titles to pick from.

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Quatermass

I'm a big Hammer fan, and a Nigel Kneale fan, so a Quatermass pic was inevitable. As I couldn't decide which film to do, I did them all. I opted for Andrew Keir (even if the likeness doesn't hold up!) instead of Brian Donlevy. I actually like Donlevy's Quatermass, gruff miserable dick that he is, but I prefer Keir's intense, decent kindly version more.

Monday, February 13, 2012

Kermit - The Rainbow Connection

Here's a watercolour I painted for my wife for Valentine's day. She's a (as am I) huge fan of the Muppets, and was so happy to hear Kermit singing one of his signature songs in the new Muppet film I knew I had the perfect subject matter to let her know how much I love her.

Ena Sharples

There's not enough Coronation Street fan pics on this blog.

Saturday, February 11, 2012

American Horror Story

Deleted the B&W version of this from the blog, as I hadn't realised how faded some part of it were. The colours have come out a touch more saturated than the original, but not too bad. Still unhappy with the one likeness, but still pretty pleased with the pic as a whole.
As flawed as the show was I found it a lot of fun and loved how it embraced as many horror tropes as possible as if it had invented them. This pic was done for the very talented Chris Doherty, if you've not been reading Video Nasties, go there now.

Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Curse of the Werewolf

I love Oliver Reed in Curse of the Werewolf, one of Hammer's (many) best films. Not sure I got his likeness, but this was a quick sketch, so I forgive myself.

Saturday, February 04, 2012


Halo Jones pic in honour of 2000ad's 35th birthday. I tried to post earlier but the colours came out a bit 'off'. I'm a huge fan of Halo Jones, going as far to considering life changing for me. I read it an an impressionable age and Moore and Gibson did such a good job of making the the characters live and breathe.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Werewolf-Samurai

Product of a silly twitter chat.

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Halloween

Here's a young Michael Myers. After sketching the rough I then started turning it something with correct perspective and light sources. Then I stopped because it wasn't working as well as the original sketch. I could have pushed the angles and light further to make it clear that rules are being bent, but thought that ran counter to the blank deadness you're supposed to get from Michael. Sometime you just have to go with what feels right, rather than what is right.