Staying inside the lines.

I've not really used colour much in my work so far. To be honest I've avoided it. Poor use of colour can make a perfectly good line drawing look like it was botched together by a child, but I decided that my work could only improve by facing up to my fear :)

 It's also a way to introduce more depth. I guess that's what you do, endlessly tinker with your approach.

Adding things, taking things away, finding the things that help you express yourself in a meaningful and, hopefully, satisfying way.

All images were scanned from my sketchbook and touched up in Illustrator and Photoshop.

This Low Life.

I wanted to try my hand at cover design and page layout. It's great to work with both imagery and text. I've used fairly common fonts, but at least it's not Comic Sans.
It seems to me that with a cover you want to try and sum up the story you're promoting.
Since this is a totally fictional story and a character who exists only in the sense that I've drawn him a couple of times(see Kapow!) I could have had him splitting the moon in two or romancing Batman but I decided he was going to slug some guy in what might be a completely unjustified attack.

Although this is a simple action to present and can easily be done in two frames (this is without the need for context or setting) I found the challenge more in finding an interesting way to layout my page.

I wanted to do away with panels as I found them restrictive and as it's a very simple narrative I didn't feel the need to restrict the reader.

Images were scanned from my sketch book text was added in Illustrator and the page was arranged and finalised in Photoshop.

Alien

After the disappointment that was Prometheus I got back in touch with the '79 movie and was reminded just how brilliant the original alien design was.

As always was scanned from my sketchbook and touched up in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Family Portraits

Ruby

I should point out that Ruby wasn't crying. Along with her cousin they'd discovered the joys of screaming. Which made for a fun afternoon :)

Noah

This hasn't come out as well as I'd hoped. Noah is actually a very cute little boy.

Esmee Grace.

Esmee doesn't actually look like this, she has a nose and everything, but I just thought it would be fun not to do another straight portrait..

We Came A Long Way.

One incredibly warm day my brother and I headed for the coast.

It Goes Off.

More Esmee action, but once again I failed to give her a proper face. In this case I just liked the effect. Sorry Esmee.

Happy Birthday.

Image was drawn free hand in Illustrator and finished in Photoshop.

Let's push things forward.

In a shameful piece of self censorship I removed one of my posts (slim pickin's)  which was largely concerned with a period of creative frustration. You see some times I get trapped playing it safe. Sticking to what I know rather than trying to improve the things I'm unsure of.

This leads to me getting bored and frustrated with my own output and then looking to alter my approach in some way. Most of the time this leads to better things, but it can be a long road. I sort of wish I'd kept the post because I think it made some fair points, but the work that I posted was flat and I can't see it holding any interest for anyone.

Anyway it didn't last as long as I'd feared and I hope you'll agree that we're moving in the right direction.

All images were scanned from my sketch book and touched up in Illustrator and Photoshop.

Kapow!

After Attending this years Kapow Comics Festival in London I got a bit inspired. The standard of some of the work on show was unbelievable. Say what you like about comics and the people who make um, but  these guys are fantastically talented. 

 There's something fun about drawing characters this way. You can be fairly free with your pencil and as long as you have a basic grasp anatomy you can play it pretty fast and loose.

Plus you can be so broad with your characterisations. I'm not saying that there aren't very subtle comic artists out there, but it really is a lot of fun just to let yourself go over the top from time to time.

All images were scanned from my sketch pad and touched up in Illustrator and Photoshop.