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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Werewolf-Samurai

Product of a silly twitter chat.

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.

Star Wars

Luke Skywalker finds 'Dirty' Ben Kenobi's secret stash of p0rn. This would be an Alan Partridge reference. Also, considering I did in about 45minutes on cheap/nasty watercolour paper I'm pretty happy with this one.

Coal

Not posting about New Years resolutions. Last year was highs and lows, and I just want to get on with 2012. I've made a list of various projects, and am considering doing a comic about coal mining in the North East in the 50s. Publishers will be lining up for that one!

Christmas

Hope you all had a great Christmas. Here's the card I did for my wife. It was a bit of a rush, but has been too well received by its audience for me to criticise it!

Hellboy..... and a dog.

I'm going to assume Mike Mignola won't be dropping by to be less than amused by my messing with his much loved (especially by me) character's often used catch-phrase. The dog attempting a poo is my own dog, Boo.

Octonauts, with added Olivia

Here's what I've drawn for my daughter for Christmas. She, no, WE, are all huge Octonauts fans in our house, the books and the cartoons, so hopefully this will go down well.

Superman process

For anyone interested. I've added an extra stage to my drawing process. Here's how it all goes -
Various sketches. Final pencils, and then inks.....Here's where I've changed my process. I used to ink (on watercolour paper) then scan and add colour and tones on the computer. I convert the linework layer to multiply and colour underneath, adding tones on a separate layer. As I try to maintain a fairly organic look I decided to do more of the tonal work by hand with coloured ink. I think it worked out quite well, even though I still did additional toning on the computer. Hopefully as I practice I'll get better at the hand toning and maybe try more washes to eliminate as much computer toning as possible, making for a more streamlined process for me, something which I've been working towards. The other handy thing about hand tones is I plan to do some masking (solid colour shapes without outlines) and that should make it easier.
And here's that final piece again, if you compare the two, you might notice I wasn't happy with the head, and shrank it down slightly - I try not to do too much altering on the computer, but sometimes you just have to! I might do a few more superhero pics, as I've had an idea for another.

Superman

Maybe it's because of Superman The Movie, maybe it's because I love straight up heroes, but there'll always be a place in my heart for Superman. Here's a pic I did, heavy on the Golden Age.

Hilda

There's a new Hilda book out by Luke Pearson from Nobrow. The first Hilda story was wonderful, and Pearson gets better all the time, so the latest will be amazing - I'll confirm this if my Christmas wish list becomes a reality! In the meantime, a few folk on twitter drew their version of Hilda, so I joined in the fun.

Asterix

....and Obelix, and Dogmatix. And some Roman. Here's another pic where I try and get a character out of my system.

The Wonderful thing about Tiggers....

....is there's only one. And it's A.A. Milne's & E. H. Shepard's.
Here's my humble attempt to draw Tigger, who is not my favourite character (although they're all great!) from the books, so that means there should really be another picture. As soon as I get round to drawing it.
Eagle eyed regulars to this blog may see a resemblance to another piece I posted, purely intentional, as I liked the green and blue palette and wanted to try it again, and as several drawings on this blog show, I really like drawing characters in the sky!

The Leopard of Lime Street

My updating of the UK classic, 'The Leopard of Lime Street'. One of things I loved about the strip was the working class grittiness, so I've pushed that a little further with use of council flats. From that it was easy to imagine a whole new 'Leopard' strip making used of parkour. I'd love to see that happen.
With me drawing it, of course:)

Copies of Nelson have arrived at Blank Slate, so you can buy them!
You probably know the drill by now, it's an anthology with each chapter produced by some of the best and brightest creators in the UK, and all the chapters tell a story from a year in the life of the main character. My gushing about this wonderful project knows no bounds, and you can support the homeless charity Shelter by buying it!
Here's another sneak peak of my chapter. It's a fairly low res scan, so.... why not just buy the book!
More info on Nelson, and buying power, here.
There's some events lined up too. I'll be at Thought Bubble, so say hello.
While I've got your attention I'm seriously considering doing commissions, but have no idea what level of interest there is out their, so let me know. Prints are a possibility too. See you at Thought Bubble!