12.31.2010

Brown Paper Bag Drawing No.2

I received the new Jim Lee book for christmas this year and his epic take on superman stuck the character in my head. Didn't go for the epic look, more of a woozy look? Must try epic.

12.30.2010

Sketch Thursday

Concept sketches for Pirouette of Formation 7. A very enjoyable character to draw, her acrobatic skills lend themselves easily to drama and action scenes. She was the subject of my one and only convention sketch so far at Bristol last year.

12.29.2010

Roisin Dubh Cover

This is the next piece I drew for the fold-out cover. The character is Roisin Dubh, a 19th century irish vampire killer. Same process as the Formation 7 cover, learnt more about the shading aspect, photoshop process and choosing colour. Would have made the blade bigger if I was doing it now, at the time I was under the impression that she had a magical dagger but subsequently found out it's supposed to be a sword, I may go back in and redo it. Yes, that's an idea. Also seperate her from the background more. Roisin Dubh copyright Atomic Diner.

12.23.2010

Formation 7 Cover ink

I was very pleased with the inking of the pencils. At the time, would have been about 8 months ago, I had been very struck by a Mike Allred piece and his strong contour lines. I wanted to strenghten my ink line in this piece as I had been quite, what's the word, tentative before in my inking. I chose not to feather or crosshatch with the ink because I wanted to go for a painterly look with the finished colours, using an ink wash scanned into photoshop to add shading to the colours. Characters copyright of Atomic Diner.

12.20.2010

Formation 7 Cover Pencil

This is the pencil drawing for the cover of the Formation 7 preview. I took photos of myself for the Lockdown character in front and Toyboy, my girlfriend kindly posed for Pirouette, reference from the interweb for Jumbo Girl and the delectable Baby Jane. The cover began in my mind as a suspect line-up shot with the characters against a height chart, then the chart changed to a bank of tv's and the straight on shot of the suspect line-up was angled to line up with a larger fold-out cover idea which added some more movement to the cover. I'll be posting the rest of the images for the fold-out cover over the next couple of days. Characters copyright of Atomic Diner.

12.18.2010

Brown Paper Bag Drawing


I work in a book store where we use brown paper bags. Not only do they make fashionable wrap for your merchandise but also I've found there's nothing quite like disposable paper for overcoming one's perfectionism. The overwhelming glacial gleam from a pristine sheet of white paper can sometimes speak directly to my inner critic, begging me not to befoul it. And even though I have done a lot of work getting over myself in that way, it's sometimes easier to just grab any old scrap of paper and doodle, as evidenced by a moody Batman.

9.09.2010

Childrens Picture Book

What I have posted today is an illustration for a picture book that I have just finished writing. I think it's the 5th draft. I'm starting in to the illustrations. This is one I did with the 2nd draft and I don't think it's going to make it into the final book but I'm very pleased with it nonetheless.

9.06.2010

Notebook covers

Greetings, I recently made notebooks to sell on my girlfriends craft stall. I drew various quick sketches for them and then bound them with red wool. Very enjoyable work, satisfying handiwork.

9.05.2010

Scarboy

Hello, there's been quite a gap since my last post. I've been distracted by research, writing and bbq season. Being an artist I keep thinking I need to have finished images to post, a filthy habit I need to break. So I've posted a half finished page today. It's for a private commission, a story written by a father for his son, it's called 'SCARBOY'. This is the first page, his origin.

5.29.2010

An action packed page from Formation 7. Pirouette and Jumbo Girl taking care of business.

4.29.2010

That was quick

Yes it was. The original purpose of my last post was to announce the printing of my comic book debut, Formation 7. It's being released as part of Free Comic Day, May 15, here in Ireland. It's written by Mr. Robert Curley of Freakshow fame and published by Atomic Diner. It's a ten page preview with all the art by your humble narrator. More soon.

Formation 7

Hello, I have been awfully neglectful in updating, but don't worry I've punished myself severely. With muffins. So I declare a commitment; to update at least once a week.

1.10.2010

It's my first day

Hello, it's my first day. I will be using my blog to pimp myself to the masses. Only kidding, but I will be sticking up some of my comic book art and other random artistic endeavours. Now I just have to figure out what I'm actually doing here. Shouldn't the keyboard go A, B, C, D, E, F.......