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.