Ghostbusters

No Astrodog this time, I came across a Ghostbusters doodle I did and decided to turn it into a finished piece. No real effort to get the likenesses right, and I didn't bother getting any refs for Stay Puft either. There's a couple of mistakes on this one, but that's the problem when you try and keep the best bits of a doodle in a more finished style. Still, I can live with that.

Astrodog Meets Dune

Love Dune. Love it. Love the book, love the Lynch adaptation. Never seen the TV version. So why did I stick a dog on deckchair into it? Love.

Astrodog in Unusual Suspects

Astrodog meets.... well, quite a few folk. We've got Yoda, E.T, Wall-e, Vincent, Huey, Louie and Dewey (from the wonderful Silent Running). It's a bit of a Usual Suspects type line-up, but that's not an intentional reference.

Astrodog meeting these guys doesn't mean there won't be a more self contained pic later, I've got an idea for a Silent Running one, and I can't draw Vincent without wanting to draw Maximilian (who was, frankly, much cooler). Anyway, these will keep coming until I run out of ideas - or busy with other things.

The Dog Barks Back.

Episode 3 of Astrodog meets. This time it's Empire Strikes Back.

2001 A Space Odd-yssey

Number 2 in the 'Astrodog appears in sci-fi movies' series. Apologies for the terrible pun of a title for this post.

Smarter than the Average Bear.

Slightly off model because, well, Yogi and Boo would never do this.
I had this idea ages ago, but figured someone must've already drawn it. If they have, I never found it, and felt like drawing it anyway.
Bit of a minor break though streamlining the colouring process quite a bit. Also reduced the filter colour fx, it was a little overpowering what with all the textures and whatnot, so I'm trying to calm it down.

Astrodog

Here's the first in a series of 'Astrodog meets....' posts. Not only will there be more of these, but I'm probably going to do some prints of them.

Eisner nominated Nelson

Blank Slate's Nelson has nominated for best anthology in the Eisners. As a contributor I hope you don't mind if I consider myself 'The Eisner Nominated Paul Harrison-Davies' now!
It's wonderful to see Nelson nominated, whether I was in it or not, I think it's an important book purely for showcasing 54 fantastic artists with a broad range of styles, all coming together to tell a coherent story. Honestly, that's a pretty impressive trick, and one Rob Davis and Woodrow Phoenix pulled off remarkably.
Kenny Penman sums up why Nelson should win here.
My own contribution is below, in full. Typical for me, there's no text. I love 'silent' comics, but the truth is, I think it's important that visuals tell the story, so I work with that in mind, then when I intend to add dialogue, it feels redundant. I love reading good dialogue, and think it can really develop a character, yet I often find myself not using it which tends to mean I don't really write 'stories', just little flights of fancy. I don't mind this, in fact, I quite like it, but I suspect that whereas most people would consider silent comics a challenge, I'm using them as a crutch to avoid writing the kind of dialogue I enjoy reading. As it happens the next two comics I'm working on were 'silent', but I've decided to add dialogue to certain parts where I think it works.

The Number Painter

Or, The Mad Painter.

More Astrodog redux

Still working out what colouring style works best. I think the last one works best. Anyone got an opinion?

Original colour version

Simplified colour test

Much simpler.

Not quite so simple, and probably the version I like most

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Astrodog Redux

SO, if you've been visiting for a while and have a long enough memory, you may remember the trials of a comic I came up with called Astrodog. If not, don't worry, I plan on bring him back. Astrodog was lined up to appear in The DFC, which sadly folded. By the time The Phoenix was launched there was apparently no place for Astrodog, and I must admit I felt like his time had passed. But I've always had a soft spot for him.
After digging out the work I'd done I decided to expand the (slight) storyline (still slight!) and have about 30 pages of pencils. The plan is to pootle away for a few more months on it and knuckle down in my Summer holidays. It'll be in a landscape format for computers and tablets and maybe about 40-odd pages long.
Here's the redesign roughs

 And pencil sketches

 And some colour tests.

I'm still of the mind that this colour style is the way to go, but that it might be a bit too fiddly. Hopefully I'll get it right when it comes to the final art.
In the meantime I also plan to resurrect a few old ideas. There may be more posts like this.

Arzach

Moebius died recently, and it's no exaggeration to say the world of comics lost a giant. This pic might seem a little less than referential, but I like to think that Moebius had a sense of humour, and comics like 'Is Man Good?' seem to prove that.
So, this is meant to be how Arzach met his flying bird. Dodging it's poo.
I've been asked a few times about how I draw, so here's a bonus process bit for anyone interested.
This is the pencils, all straightforward.

Except these have been flipped, as I actually draw them mirror image on the other side of the paper. This was in preparation for the next stage.

Next I ink (brush and black ink) the lines I think I'll need with the paper right way round on a lightbox, and colour areas with an eye to picking the areas I think need to be clearly delineated. Colour choice isn't really important here, but primary ones make the photoshop stage easier, and there's aspects I like that I think get lost in the final stage, so I need to work on that.
Finally, I scan and work on it in photoshop. To colour I make separate layer for each colour and one for the black linework - which is set to multiply. Because I want the texture of the watercolour paper to show through the colour isn't flat, so I do an 'undercoat' of flats where I make the colour choices, then I select areas in the other layers and alter to (almost) those colours. After that I filter another colour over it - I don't do this on the art that still has line work, but it seems to work here. For now. I might drop it, or at least tone it down.
Then it's my usual method of creating another layer (set for multiply) to add tones. This is done with a colour rather than black as don't like the greys it creates, and a colour choice on multiply creates more interesting tones.
And unless I decide to put a layer of one colour with reduced transparency over the top to unify colours (I didn't here) that's it. And it's actually not as long winded as it sounds!

Battle of The Planets

People of a certain age will be familiar with Battle of the Planets, with it's soaring theme tune, cool outfits, a ship that turns into flames and massive robots, it was pretty awesome.
This is another colour experiment, but I spent a bit more time on the drawing, breaking out my black ink and brush for the line work rather than using a marker. Flat colours were done with brush pen before scanning but I'll probably be using brush and ink/watercolour for 'proper' work. The p/shop colouring is still a little fussy at the moment, but it's getting there. I'm going to continue practicing this style with more pics based on whatever takes my fancy, but it's probably time I used it on the next comic I have lined up.

Flash Gordon

I do love the Flash Gordon film. Here's Ming, Aura and Vultan. I've posted the original drawing and the (more) colour version.
This one came a lot easier from just using black, primary colours and leaving more white space, and I actually like the paper version - which is good, as I like it too look finished in it's own right. In fact, I'm not sure which version I think works best!

Cowabunga

Didn't spend a lot of time on the basic drawing here, it's all about trying out the colour technique.

So far what I'm realising is that I need to either make all the colour choices on the paper stage so I don't have to alter them when scanned. Or I use only primary colours on paper, making it easier to separate the various elements and alter them all.
I also think I've dropped too much line work - although a lot of that was from using rubbish markers on crappy paper so I couldn't do my usual style of line work.

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!

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.

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.

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.