Archive for the ‘ drawings ’ Category

The Lost Boy for The Phoenix

Woop! Woop! Woop! The Phoenix Comic has announced “The Lost Boy” – the strip I’m making! I’m so happy I finally get to speak about this. I’ve been sitting on it since like spring, and have had seriously itchy fingers wanting to blog/tweet about it, haha! Here’s a poster image:

It’s… actually still a bit difficult to speak about it much due to the nature of the story. I can’t tell you what the characters are called yet, for instance ^_~ Hopefully all will become clear in January when TLB starts its run from Issue One of The Phoenix! Are you excited…? BECAUSE I AM OH GOD I AM SO MUCH.

…in terms of work-load, I’ve been working on the script, thumbmails, design and rough pages alongside this poster. I’ve just put my pen down after roughing the fourth episode. I’m having sooooo much fun with this story…!

P.S. Do you recognise the fluffy lilac things in the back of that poster…? ;D

FSY

You forgot this…

Akio, in all his lilac-mulletted colour-clashing glory. Utena has been one of my favourite things since I was 15? 16? I’m not sure. At any rate, I’m pleased to see Rightstuf has re-mastered and re-released the boxsets.

I’m in a real drawing/creative slump, actually. I’ve picked up pens and put them down again and made sketches and hated them and become more angry over drawing. So, uh, I’ve not been terribly cheerful over the past couple of weeks :( Part of it has been to do with floating/waiting around in-between projects, I think… I never deal very well with this. I find I’m most creative when I’m having to be creative. If you see what I mean. The riots across England have also taken a bit of a toll, as well. Oxford was not really affected, but still… the whole situation was ghastly… and it was ghastly to hear some of the things people said about them, too.

It was great to see all the clear-up efforts from the communities affected, however. Go Riot Wombles \^_^/

In defense of the Punch

Want to start off by saying that I really, really liked Sucker Punch. Everyone seems to hate it, which is a real shame. I thought it was creative, and smart, and easily my favourite film of 2011, though it be only part-way through the year. I’m looking forward to getting it on BD so I can have a few more watch-throughs… I feel like it’s one of those films you’ll get even more out of on repeated watchings! You know… I didn’t even realise the actor playing Blue was Oscar Isaac. Such a chameleon. I’ve seen him in a few things now and I think he’s absolutely the shit. Totally love him!! <3 So, Paul and I had our exhibition opening last weekend! It was really nice, thanks so much to MCM's Comic Village, Matt Sheret and Orbital Comics for setting it all up, and huge thanks to Faye Yong, Fehed Said, Emma Vieceli and Andrew Ruddick for helping us arrange and hang the show. I updated my website with some new illustrations, a couple of which were printed in *HUGE* to hang at Orbital. It was kinda cool...! Private commission of an OC, Monday. Monday is actually a ghost-girl! This was super fun to draw:

Denica & Max playing some card game in some alley-way somewhere:

Twins. Who aren’t actually twins, I imagined them as the same girl, but illustrated twice as if she had taken different paths in life… that’s sort of hard to explain… er, so mainly I refer to her as twins… ^^;

Well, that’s all! In terms of projects, I’m settling Fish + Chocolate down into its new stable with SelfMadeHero, and working on a couple of other things as well… also, I’ve decided on what I hope to be my next “big” project. I hope I can pull this one off.

Lookin’ forward to Bristol and MCM in the month of May! ^o^/~

Finished + Chocolate

Well… that’s it! It’s done! (More or less!) I need to settle on a blurb for the back cover, and edit a couple of pages, but really they’re very minor tweaks. I finished on Friday 11th February, at 2am in the morning after an epic final battle that lasted 18 hours, in which time I ate maybe three bowls of cereal and did not go to the toilet. Paul, bless him deeply, stayed up with me until the end. By the time the last page rolled around, we played Chariots of Fire on Spotify, repeatedly, until I saved my files in PS for the last time. Then I had a vimto and gin (Ginto? Anyway, we had no tonic) and a further bowl of cereal, I cried a bit, and then went to sleep. And didn’t really move for the next 24 hours XD

Because I pulled many ridiculous days over the past few weeks, and like, I’ve not even been getting dressed, and just sitting still for hours upon hours on end, I’ve actually given myself chilblains XD Protip: wear socks and make sure you move around when completing your comics, folks.

So anyway, here’s the final cover (minus blurb):

And I thought I’d share the title plates as well for each story:

So how do I feel about it? “Fucking relieved” comes to mind. The Cherry Tree is something I’ve been working on and off with since university, which was a good few years back now… like, 2004 or so? The Piper Man is the most recent, as I’m sure I’ve mentioned somewhere before, but even that’s been sitting around, a half-finished script, some character desgns, etc., for about three or four years. Completing Matryoshka feels like I’ve exorcised something. That story has been through the wringer.

The entire book means a lot to me. I mean, really. Finishing it was extremely emotional, and if you’ve been in contact with me in the last few months or so, I’m likely to have been a bit moody… sorry about that ^^; With finishing those final pages, I feel like I have achieved one of my life’s goals, and I feel very, very lucky to have been able to do so in my twenties.

I also feel like I’ve stuck it to a few people, you know. People who have said I could never make comics for a living, that I should really think about getting a “real” job; people who have laughed in my face when I’ve told them what my passions are and what I do… and, most especially, when I was sick for several years and the doctors told me and my family I should “just give up” the idea of being an artist, as it would never likely happen because I could never lead a normal life and it would be best for me to forget about it all. So fuck you, doc! Not only did I get better, I’m doing what I always told you I would do, and what I told everyone I would do. I didn’t give in. So there!

So now! I need to do those final checks, and get this baby off to the printers. I’m as yet unsure how long it will be before I get my product, but I’m guessing it’ll be around 2 – 5 weeks from now. Fuck knows where I’m going to put 300 of these things. In the office, I guess! You guys gotta help me out by buying them all!! XD

Fish + Chocolate aside, things have actually been going quite well recently. I hope to be able to chime into this blog again soon with some nice news ^_^b And of course, details and purchasing info for the book~!

Lastly – huge, huge, HUGE, HUUUUUGE thanks to everyone who has shown me kindness and support (and given me confidence to continue instead of just collapsing into a self-loathing ball) thoughout this project. If I could try and explain how much it meant to me… but I think I’m too inadequate a writer to attempt an explanation… just thank you, thank you…

Deelan.

I got out of the habit of making sketches since I guess I was so wrapped up in finishing F&C. I did one today though! I was totally fired up after reading loads of Dylan Dog comics Emma lent me! They’re in ENGLISH!! We had lots of Martin Mystere/Dylan Dog/Nathan Never etc. comics to look at in uni, but they weren’t in english, so honestly I didn’t really know what was going on. It’s great to be able to read the Dylan ones, finally. He’s so sweet, I really like him. The comics are enormous fun to read. I don’t really understand why they aren’t widely available and more popular over here…! We are missing out! I do hope that the advent of the DD film might drag out some new translations… but who knows? I suppose most people who go and see the film won’t even realise its legacy… through no fault of their own…

He looks a bit morose. And perhaps a tad mature. Hmm.

The tentacle, by the way, is a result of a Twitter exchange between Howard Hardiman and myself. I must draw more tentacles. They’re very cute!

*noises*

Still wading through the mire of F&C… I’m getting there, though. Every now and then I see the faint light at the end of the tunnel, haha! I might start posting snippet-style previews… but then when I think about doing this I can never pick which bits O_O; Anyhow, you must believe me that I’ll be flapping all over the place once the book is done. (I’m looking forward to HOLDING it!)

F&C previews

Welp, I’ve dragged the prints around in my portfolio for some time now, and had them up in various places on the net… in fact, everywhere but my own place on the net it seems, ha ha ha. I guess most people have seen these by now, but oh well! Here they are once more… these are the first 9 pages from ‘The Cherry Tree’, Fish & Chocolate’s second story. It is trĂ©s pink! I hope you like the look of them… I’m really going to try and get the book done and dusted for the end of January!

I’ll put these up on my site at some point.

Apologies for not mushing the double-page-spread together. I… have no excuse. Anyway. I picked this section as it’s one of the (possibly the only) readable sequences that doesn’t give anything away or is too long to be considered a preview. The book is about 128 pages, but as it’s three individual stories of roughly 40 pages each… you know, they snap on at a fast pace.

Gotta get this baby DONE. NOWWWWW!

In other news, Mr Awesome + Awesome = Neill Cameron and I are off to the Dragon School tomorrow to do some… stuff! We are not quite sure what it is yet. It’ll involve comics, of course :D Yesterday we hit up Banbury school for some comicking goodness. It’s like Kate & Neill week. Wooo! (I’m so knackered).

Dying, dying…

Oh god, I’m… dead under all this. I just have a little bit more to go on Fish & Chocolate… but I think I’m out of my first, second and third winds already. I’m desperately trying to find a fourth.

10 min sketch ’cause I’ve not had time to draw anything for weeks and I don’t feel right when I don’t draw SOMETHING.

I’m really looking forward to going to a secluded cabin for Christmas (this is actually happening) and spend a bit of time in front of a fake fire with Paul & my lovely friends… but I know I need to really chill the fuck out for a couple of days before I go, or I’ll just be a juddering lump, which won’t be fun for anyone.

My sleeves are too long.

Quick warm-up sketch, re-working of an old character:

Now work!!