Drawing talk

No artwork this time, but I have been working, inbetween sleeping, not sleeping, taking Olivia out (had an utterly awesome day out in the park early in the week, bright clear day, Olivia's first go on a swing, lot's of smiles and giggling. A memory to treasure.) and reading.
I'm struggling at the moment with a layout problem. Back when I first tried drawing comics I used to mess around with layouts quite a bit, diagonal panel borders, splash pages, inset panels, over lapping panels and all that fun stuff. As time's gone on I've dropped a lot of that flashiness, it's fun to see other people do it, but I generally prefer simple to fancy nowadays. The trouble at the moment is due to the format I have to work in and the shape of the last panel on a particular page I'm stuck with what could either be awkward storytelling (a big no no) or something slighty flashier than what's preceeded. What to do.....
Sorry if this musing on blog is dull BTW!
Far more interesting comic musing can be found here. I've been a huge fan of Brian Ralph since seeing his work in one of the SPX anthologies, 'Cave-In' was beautiful and I loving 'Daybreak'. Ralph's 'how to' is invaluable, and sadly it took me a long time before I came round to a similar way of thinking. A long looong time.
You live and learn.

More silly pictures

I'll not say much about these in an effort to retain some sense of mystery. The two scans are both for different ideas and although the drawings aren't properly rendered I'm pretty happy with the look of the various characters (apart from the unfinished one of the girl, she's the wrong age and I really need to check out what sort of clothes are fashionable, in a nonjudgemental old sod sort of way) Although it's pretty obvious the drawings here are more the style I prefer to work in than the previous post they are slightly different to my usual methods and I intend to go further with that.
As always, feedback is welcome, and appreciated.

Some silly pictures

Been meaning to post something for a while now, but I haven't done anything worth posting. However, after a much deserved prompting here's some scribbles.These are for vol. 3 of Best New Manga. First up is some thumbnails, the blank bits are where I have no idea what to draw, on page 2 it's because I've not designed a big tanky robot, and that's much the same for page 4. I'm trying to be 'proper' here doing everything in stages, I do usually draw thumbs, but they're never as complete, organised or as legible as these.... assuming you can see what the hell is going on!
Second is the rough pages 1 & 2. Spending a bit more time on the thumbnails is paying off, as at this stage I've usually redrawn each panel a dozen times and the results look like a mass of scribble (really, I often manage to tear though the paper) These pages where penciled in very rough shapes and a tiny amount of detail then I went over them with a grey marker. Next I'll go over the grey line with black pen adding a little more detail (lets face it, I'm not really into lots of detail) and making things clearer. After that I'll enlarge the pages (these are drawn same size as printed), tape them to the window in my front room slap a sheet of bristol board on top and copy the final pencils onto it altering and tightening as I go. My pencils are so scribbly and messy even to my eye that I never pencil directly onto nice paper.
Lastly is the design for the main character, and you just might notice a retro look about him. I don't really know much about this sort of stuff, but I knew I liked the look of the older stuff better than the high tech fancy stuff.

Ideas n stuff

Thanks for the comments of the 'Cryptic' post. I've tried hard to come up with some workable ideas and come to an interesting conclusion. Ideas = work. Even though I spend my spare time doing creative things I obviously still see it as a magical act, producing something when the mood's right and the stars are in alignment. I clearly think that the initial idea that starts the whole thing rolling is a bolt from the sky (I'm mixing metaphors like mad here!) Because I've really had to come up with something, and in a short space of time, I've not had the luxury of waiting for the idea to make it's way to me, and as a consequence I've found that I can come with ideas and they can be pretty good, if I say so myself. Maybe I was lucky, but as I came up with a couple of stinkers, maybe not.
At the moment I've got four (count em!) ideas which I like enough to develop, one of which is a slightly expanded version of 'Astrodog', a couple of you will be pleased to hear, the other three are new. In fact, whatever happens I think I'll try to turn all of these into finished comics, along with something else I wanted to work on.
I'll post a bit more about this Fantastic Four, as I go, be quite good that as I haven't posted any artwork for a while.

Cryptic

I want to do a comic, but I don't know what to do. Seems like an ongoing problem for me, I'm just not a flowing river of ideas like some people. At the moment I've got a couple of things I'd like to do this year, but I need to start doing something pretty sharpish and it none of my other ideas are right.
Anyone else have this slow flow of ideas problem or is it just me?
Hmmm....
Anyway, apologies for this random and odd post, I'm just sort of thinking out loud.
Less cryptic than that is the pretty spiffy news that 'MY robot!' has found another home, better yet I've been asked to expand it, and as I had an idea that sort of fitted alongside it (not after, sorry, he's really not coming back) I decided to go with that.
Better get thinking.

Pirates of the Carribean, again

Yes.

One week in

One week into 2008 and the 'new me' gig is proving hard work. Unsurprisingly.
The diet side has been tough, it always is. But at least it's going in the right direction. I've started excercising too, which isn't as much fun as remember, but then I'm not in as good shape just yet.
I've started writing again too. Because it's been a while since I wrote prose I'm over deliberating a bit at the moment, once I get into the swing of it I'll loosen up. It's good to try and write good prose, but I think it's best for me to just get something written and redraft. Anyone interested in reading what I'm working on will have to sit on their hands rocking backwards and forwards impatiently waiting, I'd like to get a big chunk written and have a stronger idea of the whole thing. The last novel I tried to write faltered because I didn't have a big enough picture and I don't want to make that mistake again.
There's not been much drawing so far, but I'm gearing up to that with a bunch or roughs and scribbles that I need to sift through. I did have a go on a friends 'Comic Life' art package and have decided I don't like it. I'm sure it's good for some people but it's not for me. Seeing printouts with computer lettering made me feel slightly ill. I'm just not a fan of computer lettering and it looked so dead and lifeless. Still, it's been a help in laying this comic out as there's some pages that have a lot of text so I now have a better idea how much space I have to add artwork (not enough in some places to be perfectly hones), but the sooner I hand letter the final art work the better.
Mainly the week seems to have been spent on mundane, but important, things like moving furniture, cleaning and the like. Basically so far feels like preperation, the fun stuff's next.

So that was 2007

Well, let’s be honest, it was utterly awful, absolutely lousy and I hope to never have another year like it. I’ve been depressed, fallen back into bad habits such as over eating and not exercising, I’ve not done half as much drawing as I hoped and I’ve barely written a thing.
It’s never going to be a good year when it starts with your wife being diagnosed with cancer and you worrying if you’ll end up being a single parent.
Luckily the good has outweighed the bad. My wife seems to be as healthy and wonderful as she was before her treatment. My daughter’s wonderful, I adore her more than I can describe and I’ll be forever grateful to her for helping us get through the year with some degree of happiness.
2008 has to be better, and I’m looking forward to it with the kind of positivity I had for 2007 before it came crashing down. For myself, I’m going to be better, which is what all my New Year’s resolutions boil down to. I’ll break all my bad habits for a start, but most importantly I’ll be committing myself to writing and drawing in a way I just haven’t done before now. I intend to not just be productive, but to actually do something with my work, no more finishing something and putting it in a drawer marked ‘I am crap, stop wasting everyone’s time.’ From now on I’ll think like a creator with a future rather than a sub-par amateur.
I feel very hopeful, it’ll be a hard year, if it runs to plan I’ll always be doing something, but I’ve realised that as much as the old Paul wallowed in his bad habits and bad attitude, the present Paul just doesn’t like them.
Tonight will be an incredibly low key New Year’s Eve for me, Rebecca’s at work so I’m at home baby sitting on my own. I’ll watch telly, maybe even something from the Hammer Horror box set of films I got for Christmas, and have a glass of single malt. Not the best NYE, but not a bad one. Hope you all have a good time, and I wish you all the best for whatever you want to do next year.

Christmas

Wishing all the best to everyone who's dropped by, hope you have a fantastic Christmas!

Die 4.0

Dire Hard.

The Golden Compass

Me and Rebecca went to see 'The Golden Compass' last night thanks to a friend offering to babysit. As we went into the cinema we saw the poster for 'Enchantment' and a said something about how we might be better off seeing that, Rebecca agreed, but we both stuck with our original choice. So we're just as much to blame for the average evening.
I'm a big fan of Philip Pullman's incredible 'His Dark Materials' trilogy' and have been nervous of the adaptation, but two words kept entering my brain as we watched 'The Golden Compass'. Pedestrian. Ordinary. I really hope we've seen the last of these big budget fantasy films that have quickly become interchangeable. Stripping the story of it's religious content (leaving some unsatisfactory vagueness about what's going on) and picking key bits from the book and belting through the story at breakneck pace may be the worst crimes here. The actors may be great but we don't see much more than whats on the surface of them. Miss Coulter is particularly disappointing, yes, Nicole Kidman is inspired casting, yes, she is excellent, but only at being aluring and creepy. But Miss Coulter had much more depth to her than just that. It's left to a couple of unsatifactory scenes to give her more depth. It doesn't work.
In the end I didn't hate 'The Golden Compass', I just didn't care, I didn't get involved and I didn't once get the same sense of wonder and awe I got from the book.
About the only really good thing I can say about the film is Sam Elliott is as cool as only Sam Elliott can be. So, insead of youtubing 'The Golden Compass' trailer, here's a brief bit of Sam being cool in what has accurately been described as the best worst movie ever. I give you 'Road House'.

Inbetween days

It's really annoying that I struggle to move quickly from one project to another. Instead of buzzing from the last bit of work I feel like I have to start from scratch and relearn how to draw. I guess it's because I update my style each time I do something - I say update because it's always recognisably 'me' and there's nothing radically altered.
In between 'MY robot!' I've written a review for the latest 'Captain Underpants' collection and am working on another review for the Downthetubes site. I've been doing the odd bit of sketching still, but it's time to kick start the next comic I think. In the meantime go here for some frankly breathtaking artwork on the Project Rooftop site. I wasn't that fussed about entering into the redesign WonderWoman competition, mainly because all I would do is tweak the original costume. I'm regreting not thinging harder after seeing the amazing redesigns.
Also, I invite you to be cruel and laugh at the woman below. Who knew that Han Solo's sister was called Trumpet Solo. Bless her for trying.

Moving Target artwork

Not much artwork posted lately, but I have been busy. These are the front and back covers for Jason Cobley's 'Moving Target'. Jason asked for something quirky figuring I'm good at that. Well, I wasn't! After reading the book (very good indeed!) I couldn't come up with an image I felt summed it up. In the end I went for a bit of an obvious choice, but when Jason saw it he was so please he opted for leaving off the title and his name! I'm especially pleased about this as I felt it could've been stronger (the original rough had less space between faces and I mistakenly believed this was one of the things to correct in the final version), so the vote of confidence went down well.
When I saw the back cover using my original design featuring 'Hugo' from Jason's adaptation of the comic-strip we worked on I thought it could be improved and more could be made of the title and author text to make up for it not going on the cover. A quick fiddle with the layout and colours and you can now see the end result. If you'd like to read a sample of the book (and then buy it, you know you want to!) here's the link. Due to circumstances beyond his control Jason's had to take down his blog, so comment here to convince him that his idea for a 'Zombie of the Great Unwashed' sequel must be written!
Sadly my busy couple of weeks has meant I've skipped the last two Illustration Fridays. This is doubly annoying as I had an idea for 'Scale' that I'd wanted to use for the last four months. I tried to knock it out quickly but just wasn't happy with the results at all. I'll still draw it, but in my own time I think.
I've got a couple of scribbles on the drawing board that I plan to turn into pictures soon, in the meantime I've got a script to draw. It's a tight deadline, but that's my own fault, and I reckon and can still make it anyway. Gulp!

Best. Appearence. Of. Comic. Creators. Ever!

'MY robot!', my own hard work, the story I slaved over, sweat blood over? Totally relegated to old post by this piece of utter genius. It could even drown out my wailing and gnashing of teeth over the whole 'Black Dossier' nonsense.

'MY robot!', all 6 pages

Finished at last!
I've posted the whole thing because I thought it would end better read all the way through. Hope you enjoy it.

And now it can be told....

I had a job interview. There, the secret's out. Unfortunately I didn't get the job which is a shame as it involved working at a University complete with childcare facilities.
The interview itself went pretty well, but just not quite well enough. On the up side I was really surprised to even get as far as the interview and was told it was a difficult decision to make, that along with the fact that there were 45 applicants and I was going for a career change has given me a bit of a boost. And, as I've been saying, and have had said to me a fair bit, it's all good practice.
Back at the drawing board (which is, frankly, the only job I really want!), I should be finishing up 'MY robot!' tonight, so you can read the finished story either tonight or tomorrow. It's been hard work, but I've enjoyed it. No resting though, as I've got an Illustration Friday scribble that needs turning into something, another pic to accompany the previous zombie one and a 7 page script that needs illustrating - with a pretty tight deadline. And no doubt there'll be some other bits and bobs as well. The increase in work is me preparing to really get stuck into things in the new year, getting another day time job is important, but nowhere near as important as working harder writing and drawing.

Jitters

I'm feeling ever so slightly like a fool. Big day tomorrow, I'll spill the beans later.

Zombie of the Great Unwashed revisted

Here's the nearly finished version of a pic on the drawing board. I say nearly because I intend to add a few important details, but essentially it's a finished piece. The watercolour paper got an airing again so I could have some textured lines, but I think I've kept it fairly controlled.

Illustration Friday - Hats

Another quicky for Illustration Friday. The theme this time is 'hats' and this was the first thing that popped into my mind. This seems to be the way to go, not too much thinking, get something down quick and post it up. I claimed this was digital on the IF site, which is pretty accurate, but I did scan in a fairly basic marker sketch before I did the digital painting. Again, I tried out a new technique, nothing swish, but I think it works and I get to add a new string to my bow.

'MY robot!' page 4

Nearly finished 'MY robot!', I'm trying to hammer page 5 into submission, which is proving a little difficult - I hope the next page doesn't let it all down, 'MY robot!' feels like one of the most consistant things I've done so far, there's some panels I think could be better, and there's some panels I'm really pleased with, but the important thing is that I think they all hang together pretty well.