Dredd Head

This is probably way to rough to post as it's nothing more than a quick doodle, but what the hell, might as well shown some drawings. Despite it's dodginess, this Dredd pic makes me wonder if I should do a sample. My only contact with Tharg made me suspect that I'm not right for (his) 2000ad and probably never will be. But, I have that nagging feeling a lot of readers my age probably have of wanting to have had a proper go at being in 2000ad. I've never drawn the Dredd I see in my head, but this is getting closer.

Medium Flake

These were scripted by David Hailwood for an open sub thing Mad Magazine had a couple of years ago. It's early on in my days of photoshop, and I was shocked to see some weird laborious techniques. One page had to be relettered because of a mistake. David also sent them to Wasted, Alan Grant thought they were funny, but not 'adult' enough, he did say he liked the artwork though. Which is nice.

This was painful.
I roughed it out fairly quickly and blundered into the final pencils. Then realised I'd done a terrible job.
So I started again, got as far as colouring and as the page was nearly done when my laptop went dark. The battery doesn't work and I'd accidentally pulled the power supply out. In my haste to make up for lost time I hadn't saved any of the colour work. Deciding that the day was a dud I figured I should go to bed, emailed the other Huzzah guys.... then decided to block in some colour, and that blocking in led to finishing it up. Thankfully.

New Year post

This is the 3rd go at writing, the previous two were too negative. 2009 was a pain in the arse for many reasons, but I have done stuff. I spent time with my family, I drew, and I honestly think I got better.
So, 2009 was a sod, but I won, I beat you '09, screw you!
Here's what I'll be doing in 2010.
1. Getting off my fattening arse. I've just moved into 36inch waist jeans and am none too happy about it. The day's of 32inch are gone, and I can't be arse with them, but 34 sounds about right.
2. Super secret project with Jason Cobley. I think the plan is to keep it under wraps and see if any publishers bite. If they don't we'll release it ourselves. It's awesome!
3. Astro Dog. This poor fella has sat around since the untimely demise of The DFC, I had some lovely feedback when I posted about him earlier, but nothing much seems to have come of that. The plan now is to turn it into a fresher pitch and send it out again.
4. My webcomic. This one probably won't start until April. It's too early to say much about it, but I will be looking at a weekly updated self contained story, that'll run to book length. I'll post more about this as it gets closer.
5. Odds n sods. I'll still be contributing to the two Huzzah strips. I've sat on a few bits of samples I intend to send off soon, and there's a couple of other commitments.
6. Keep up that family time.
7. Less internet. I've slowed down posting, and I've cut down tweeting, but I still spend a lot of time looking at nonsense online. Best to knock a lot of that on the head. I'll still be about, but in a more worthwhile less time sapping way.
And that's it, hope you all have a fantastic New Year!

New noir art

Just posted this page on the huzzahnoir blog. First huzzah I've done in a while, and if you were checking my blog it looks like the first art in while. Not true, I'm working on a secret project with Jason Cobley, and I'm really enjoying it, wish I could show something, but we've decided to keep it under wraps for now. Sorry!

Hugo the Zombie

Here's my entry into the Observer/Jonathan Cape Comica competition. It's a rework of an old strip written by fine writer, and friend, Jason Cobley.

Brrrrrmmmmmm!

Incase you don't visit the Groovy Age of Horror blog (and you should), or follow me on twitter (and, well, you can, but should? Not essential), here's sketch I did for it. Psychomania is a strange film I've mentioned on this blog before, Beryl Reid as a devil worshipping mam and Nicky Henson as her Hell's Angel immortal son.... what's not to like?

Beryl the Peril

After Shane Oakley's excellent post about sketching I thought I'd post my Beryl the Peril scribbles. Should be finishing my DCThompson samples soon. Been painfully slow in coming, the day job's been wearing me out the last few months and hit my productivity, but after going to BICS last weekend I really want to get back into the swing of things.

I could post about why I've not posted any artwork, I could moan about my job, or I could post a picture of my little girl in a Cat in the Hat outfit I made*. Easy choice.

*ok, just the bow tie, hat and make up, my wife bought the cat outfit when she couldn't find black leggings and top.

Pictures!

Hi Folks. After another absense here's a cropped and edited couple of sneak peaks of what I've been working on. These are samples I've been cooking up with the fine writer, Dave Hailwood.

Dennis the Menace

Seeing as you all, well, Shane, asked for more, here's a sketch I stuck up on twitter a couple of days ago. It's a very quick scribble I did of Dennis the Menace, totally off model (although inspired by Davy Law's original version), that I found myself liking. Sometimes the scribbles are just more fun and capture something a 'proper' bit of drawing can't.

Not much drawing going on

Please accept these old scribbles as the shameless filler that they are.
This was for a pin up for The Shootist I never got round to doing, and probably never will, I'm posting it because although it's barely legible, I think it looks like John Wayne.Here's a scribble of the Hulk. It was sitting in a corner of my sketchbook, I don't remember drawing it, but I quite like it for some reason. It's scribbles like this that made me start experimenting with just pencilling and not inking it, although I'm wondering if it's time to go back to the brush.

Fairy

Never managed to get to Caption, the small press comic convention, but I've always wanted to. This year's theme is 'away with the fairies' and in lieu of going to the con I've contributed a pic. Only just sent it, right at the very end of the deadline, so I've no idea if it's gone down well, bnut I'm quite pleased with it.

Some noir

Finally done some drawing! It was definitely a struggle to start with, but Huzzah has a deadline and that helps focus your mind, and I did learn a few things - mainly that I should block in shapes and compose before I start drawing.

This is for the Huzzahnoir blog, which I hope everyone is following. It's taken a move into slightly different territory recently with a time and location change to WWII Paris, looking at the story so far it seems inevitable and planned, and expands things nicely. I also got a chance to dig through some holiday snaps for reference.

Rough times over

No idea if anyone's interested, but I've felt bad about not posting anything lately.
About a month ago my wife had a routine scan as part of her post cancer check ups, and 'something' was spotted. Due to a few bits of nonsense we've had to wait from then until now to find out that it's benign.
Suffice to say, it's been hard to concentrate on anything, and I just couldn't focus on drawing.
But it's all better now, so there'll be a new pic up in at least a week, and I'll feel much better for it. In the meantime my wife and I are going to eat some cake.

Happy Birthday Garen!

Why not join in the celebrations of Garen's 40th birthday by checking out Rainbow Orchid? It's bloomin' brilliant! Go here for a preview.

That S-L-A-Y-E-D to you!!

I've been on a Robo-Hunter kick lately, plowing through Verdus, Day of The Droids, all the way up to Football Crazy and felt inspired to do a doodle. I've tried to be true to Ian Gibson but do my own version of Sam Slade, Hoagy is unapologetically Gibson - I mean, come on, Hoagy's a design classic.

My latest Huzzah

I did these last week, really enjoyed doing them, and I think it shows.

Bristol

Bristol came and went, and was pretty good thank you, I got to meet loads of really nice people, including most of the Huzzah boys, and a fine bunch they were too.
Anyway, I managed to show a few very talented people my work and got some good feedback. Sadly Tharg was unreceptive, proving that I should've finished those Dredd pages. Here's the Dredd I didn't finish, I've not bothered fixing mistakes here, Dredds gun boot's missing, there's a few other things, but really, I didn't finish it cos I wasn't 'feeling it'. Back to the drawing board. Literally.

Off to Bristol

Like the title says I'm going to the Bristol Comic Con, it's been years since I've been and I'm a little nervous. Showing an artist, or editor, work and asking for feedback face to face isn't fun when you're lacking in confidence.
Originally I'd intended to queue in the 2000ad line with some Dredd samples but I still need to get to grips with the rest of his world. So, instead of killing myself to finish the pages, I've decided to do the Dredd strip after the convention, and just take my recent work.