Scarboy the Beginning

The End

The toughest part of this page was Lockdown. He affects every part of the page in panel design and balance, his decision now is the focus of the story. It was a challenge to fit him in the middle of the page and allow room for the rest of the story, so it took a few re-draws of his pose to be content. I am very happy with the top panels also, I like the flow of the action. Would have liked more impact in the last panel.

Who to shoot?

The team springs into action but what will Lockdown do? Follow orders or follow his ideals? His finger is on the trigger.

Formation Disperse

I think this was my most pressurised page. A lot to communicate. I had to redraw and ink some elements and wasn't happy with the rendering of the last panel. Really like Baby Jane on this page though.

Beginning of the End

The beginning of the two page finale. You've met the team, you've seen where they live, now see them in action as each member takes up their positions. Lockdown on the some from page one, Baby Jane in control and the others on street level. What will happen?

Team-building

I did this page over a year ago now, and looking at it inked, it's one of those pages I'd like to ink again knowing what I know now. I think I lost a sense of clarity and strength that the pencils contained. Having said that, you do what you know until you know differently and every piece is a step towards who you are as an artist.

Forming Formation 7

The first and only page in the comic where the full team are together. I went for a triangular composition to emphasise unity and strength. The challenge with this page was to nail the proportions, making sure each character related realistically. Also the tiny Baby Jane could have easily been lost to the vertical superiority of her teammates, especially Jumbo Girl. In employing the desk I hoped to give a platform for her to express her large character. The desk helped to frame the team as-well, being the only straight edge on the page.

Sketch Thursday

A communiqué from Monkeylord- oo, oo, ah ah ooh ah eeh oh a eh eeh, eh eh. Oh a ee aeh.-How eloquent.

Toyboy-talkie

Work hard, talk hard, relax hard. With pizza.

One-sided Conversation

Oh what fabulous hair, what divine, ambrosia fed hair. Seriously though, chuffed with the hair, chuffed with the expressions. Don't you just want to be part of that conversation?

My Favourite's the Musketeer

The keys to pencilling and then inking such a large array of repetitive figures. For me. Patience, almost goes without saying, and background music of the kind you'll find yourself humming, singing or generally da-da-da-ing along to at random points.

Toyboy's Dungeon

A case of quantity having a quality all of its own. I must count how many toy soldiers are in the picture...........................................73. I need help.

Inked Victory

And so to inking. I love to work with brushes, so for this project I resolved to ink everything organic with a brush and machined objects with a pen and ruler or french curves. Because of my love of brushes I carried the perception that anything inked in brush was inherently better. This is not true. While some things do look better the most important thing is getting the image from your mind onto the page using whatever tools necessary. I learned the tools always service the image, not the other way around.

Victory is Ours

This was a very enjoyable page to draw, moving from close up action shots to widescreen victory stance back to middle distance talking heads. I love the sense of contempt I captured in Pirouette's body language, it showed me the power of the body as the first communicator of emotion and attitude.

Sketch Thursday

An artifact dating from the medieval age that hints at a deeper story behind it.

Pirouette-wheel and Jumbo-squash

Ouchie!

Jumbo Girl Crush

Apologies for the sporadic nature of my recent postings, I have been rushed off my feets by the analogue world getting a book proposal together and other sundry items. So we return to a semblance of normal service with another Formation 7 pencil.

Sketch Thursday

This is the pencil of my submission to the Kapow convention brochure cover competition. It features the millarworld character Superior hovering majestically before stunned onlookers heralding the arrival of the superheroes of the convention.

Netherworld contest Nether-entry

This is a piece for a contest to design a retailer incentive cover for a new Top Cow comic called Netherworld. Unfortunately I had difficulties registering on their forum to post the entry so I missed the deadline. Very glum-making. It's heavily referenced from a photo with some buildings and the figure added in and some details taken away. Quite pleased with it, not least because I managed to do most of it on my daily commute. Check out the entries at topcow.com's barn.

Dark and Dangerous

Questions of scale and atmosphere. You'll notice a difference on the bottom tier between the ink and the pencil version of this page, the script called for Baby Jane to dress herself and I tried hard for an elegant solution.

Spy Doll

Introduction of Baby Jane, a doll possessed by an 18th century ghost. Actually the first Formation 7 page I tackled, it seemed the hardest of the pages I was first given, containing a lot of information to communicate.

Ink-arceration

Pencil Prison

So character introduced, but who is he, where has he come from? Why, military prison of course and he's quite miffed about it.

Introducing Lockdown

Page one of Formation 7, my first published comic book, a ten page comic for Free Comic Day 2010 written by Robert Curley and published by his company Atomic Diner. This page introduces Lockdown, the main character. Ever since I'd decided to draw comics I'd wanted to draw a page like this, one with a full page background beneath the main panels, using every bit of the page to tell the story while trying not overdo it. So when I read the script I thought to myself, here's my chance, I could give it a go here, and I jumped at the challenge.

Brown Paper Bag Drawing No.7

Best yet? Blackest Night Firestorm.

Sketch Thursday

It's my pomegranate.

Six Cover Spread Coloured

It was very satisfying when I got the colouring and lighting right on some of the pieces. And frustrating when it didn't look like it did in my head. So the piece as a whole was made of successes and failures. I reach a point where I feel I'm finished with a piece and I have to stop no matter what, if I think I've achieved what I set out to or not, I have to stop because I know at that point I've done all I can what with time pressures, my skill levels and knowledge. That's not to say I always listen to that feeling though. All characters copyright Atomic Diner.

Six Cover Spread Inked

If I were to do them all again I would change the size relationships. I feel I may have focused too much on each individual cover in the hope that the connecting perspective line would be strong enough to override the scale differences. Don't get me wrong, I'm still chuffed with them, it was pure fun. I mean I'd only begun drawing comics and here I was attempting a 6 page fold-out! All characters copyright Atomic Diner.

Six Cover Spread in Pencil

The full spread of the Atomic Diner covers. It was a fabulous learning experience and challenge to draw the six covers and try to achieve cohesion between them. All characters copyright Atomic Diner.

Brown Paper Bag Drawing No.'s 5 and 6

Holy dastardly double, Batman.

Sketch Thursday

A change of pace this time. A concept piece for a picture book series I'm working on, they're about a little boy called Oliver and the adventures that teach him about life. Currently working on a proposal for Bologna and LBF.

Sketch Thursday

Wheat-me the Great (Flourbag). An undeniable warrior, flour made flesh. Wheat-me was made concious by the desire of his wheat brothers to escape the oppression of the mill-wheel. Unfortunately his anger was co-opted by the Black Forest Gateau of Doom, convincing him his comrades would best be served helping the Black Doom. He now uses his inherent knowledge of the group mind to marshall the Gateau's forces.

Brown Paper Bag Drawing No.4

Sketch Thursday

The Dire Wolf, Canis dirus, was thought to be an extinct carnivorous mammal of the genus Canis , from the Irvingtonian stage to the Rancholabrean stage of the Pleistocene epoch living 1.80 Ma – 10,000 years ago. Although it was closely related to the Gray Wolf and other sister species, Canis dirus was not the direct ancestor of any species known today. Unlike the Gray Wolf, which is of Eurasian origin, the Dire Wolf evolved on the North American continent. The Dire Wolf was one of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna—a wide variety of very large mammals that lived during the Pleistocene. Approximately 10,000 years ago the Dire Wolf nearly became extinct along with most other North American megafauna. Incredibly rare, they have never been seen by modern humans.

Sketch Thursday

Sketches of Toyboy of Formation 7. He is modelled on John Taylor of Duran Duran fame (I wonder where the name comes from, must discover). Fun character to draw not least because of his collection of toy soldiers that act as personal bodyguards, not shown here, but I will post the page from the comic displaying his full collection.

Freakshow Cover

Last but not least of the six covers for the fold-out was the Freakshow family. A group of detectives tending towards things supernatural, odd and, well, freakish. Robert wanted a scooby doo thing going on hence the choice of costume and I had the idea of a wall of framed press clippings detailing their many adventures. Again set in the 1950's, Freakshow are Robert Curley's longest running and most successful book and their adventures appear in collected editions available on the Atomic Diner website. Characters copyright Atomic Diner.

Glimmerman Cover

This is the Glimmerman portion of the cover. The most successful I believe. The shading came off well and I feel I made the best colour choices for the piece. Also the dramatic lighting really added depth, I love employing intense or unusual lighting but am wary of overusing it. Looking back on the other pieces I can see now where I could have pushed the lighting in all of them but at the time it felt like I would be resorting to a gimmick. Ah, the benefit of h-ray specs. Characters copyright Atomic Diner.

Brown Paper Bag Drawing No.3

KKURRRACKABOOOM!! Electrifying.

Atomic Rocket Group 66 cover

Next up is Atomic Rocket Group 66, a disparate group of mystery men from the atomic age of the 1950's. They had already appeared in an excellent comic by Will Sliney who draws the Farscape comic for Boom. So I had the luxury of following well designed characters and I had fun with this one. I can't remember all their names and I can't go check the comic because I'm writing this on a bus on the way to work, terrible memory for names. But I recommend a purchase of their comic published by Atomic Diner, written by Robert Curley, and to start a lobby for the follow up. Characters copyright Atomic Diner.