Scarecrow V Comic

Just before Christmas I finished working on an unusual project for me. I was approached to work on a few comic pages for a Kickstarter campaign that was aiming to secure funds for a much larger project.

Scarecrow V is essentially a horror story, but a lot of the horror comes not from the usual slasher or murdery type of stuff, but instead comes from the more day to day horrors of the meat industry.

The pages were finished in time for the New Year which is when a lot of people choose to go vegan after overindulging over the holiday period. The Kickstarter campaign is coming soon so we’ll see if it gets funded.

Breaking into the sewers.

I was always a Turtles kid. I was OBSESSED with the cartoon when it played in the UK. For us they were the Teenage Mutant HERO turtles as “Ninjas” were just too goshed darn violent for the vulnerable minds of British kids. In our version they even had to edit the show so that you never saw Michelangelo’s Nunkaku as they were illegal at the time. Swords? No problem! Two sticks connected by a string? How dare you? Lock them up!!!

When the film from 1990 appeared in cinemas my Dad grudgingly took me along. I had already watched the behind the scene’s documentary and managed to record it off the TV onto VHS and watched it hundreds of times. So it was fair to say I was excited.

We came out of the cinema and I was blown away and declared it a cinematic masterpiece. Dad never let me forget that! The best film ever! I stand by that. Sure, Vanilla Ice would come along later and rap “Go ninja go ninja go!” and spoil everything, the turtles would travel in time, sure… but that first one was clean. And yes, I know you can see the actors eyes peeking out through the mouths of the turtle suits. I didn’t notice or care.

Now that I’m an adult and a full time artist, (and if I had access to the turtles’ time travel device) I would no doubt blow my younger self’s mind by telling him that one day he would actually work on the Ninja Turtles himself and find a small place in their story.

This year I nervously attended “Comics Salopia” in Shrewsbury and queued up for portfolio reviews. I’ve had some bad experiences at Comic conventions in the past. My style isn’t typical and that’s sometimes met with a resistance. But when I met Chris Ryall from IDW and he said the words “Is there any property we have that you’d be interested in working on?” there was only one word that squeaked out. “Turtles?”

It didn’t happen immediately. I had to pester them a little. At first I got the “We don’t have anything for you right now.” emails and despaired. But I kept at it. I even started to mock up my own Turtles comic to show them. Just a three page, self contained story about Raphael dreaming of an endless battle while being in a coma. I was determined to wow them! They would have no choice dammit!

My birthday came around and on the way to get my car to drive to my birthday dinner, I found my car had been smashed to pieces when an elderly driver got confused and hit the wrong pedal. No one was hurt, but it made my birthday pretty miserable.

Then….the day after, an email arrived. The best email ever. There was a cover spot open. IDW had a Ninja Turtles cover they needed doing, and I was going to do it! My birthday has now been officially moved!

I worked very hard on it. It had to be perfect, and I am pretty proud of it. Dad would be amused, and would likely roll his eye a little too, but I’m pretty sure he’d be proud too.

 

The Worthy Thor

I’m really happy with how this piece inspired by Norse Mythology turned out. I’ve recently read Neil Gaiman’s Norse Mythology (well kind of…I listened to the audiobook. That counts right?), watched American Gods and then picked up Jason Aaron’s God Butcher series. So I’ve had gods on the brain for a while now. The god of Thunder has been a favourite of mine for a long time so I’m really glad I finally found time to bring him to life.

I might carry on in this style and do versions of other gods. Maybe a Ganesh, a Thoth, or perhaps even a Baphomet if I’m feeling Metal!

Dangerous Children Comic Cover

I’ve been very busy moving house, going into a new studio and generally turning my life upside down, but I’ve managed to keep up to date with my biggest project to date. It’s amazing being able to work in a studio with other artists rather than going stir crazy in my little flat all the time!

Dangerous Children is an absolute joy to work on. When I first took on the job I was worried that I’d get bored of working on just one big project all the time, but the wide variety of characters and environments is really keeping me on my toes. I recently hit page 83 of 150 so I’ve made a pretty big dent in it. My favourite things to work on so far have been the cover and the robotic circus. When I first created this Vuldorian Leviathan carcass it was only the size of a building and I thought I’d nailed it, but Mark the author said “No no no… I mean it’s BIG!” so we scaled it up to this colossal size! Way better!  The decaying robo-circus has possibly been my favourite scene, and the rusting ringmaster is such fun to draw. I’m so grateful I’ve got the chance to keep working on this project and can’t wait to hold the finish product in my hands. 

Preacher Poster competition

Over the last few weeks I’ve been working on my entry for the Posterspy competition to design an alternative poster for AMC’s hit show “Preacher”.  There’s some really good entries by some incredible artists so we’ll see what happens.

This was done using a blend of techniques from both the 3D and 2D world. My intention was to have the realism and and vivid lighting and shadows that come with 3D design, while also paying homage to the show’s comic book origins with some traditional inking and crosshatching.

It’s my first attempt at a film poster so I’m pretty happy with the results.

In other news, on Friday night Claire and I attended James Newton Howard’s first ever live tour performance at the Royal Albert Hall. It was my first time visiting the hall and it was incredible to say the least. We heard many of his classic scores including music from The Dark Knight, The Village, The Hunger Games and many more. Howard himself seemed an incredibly likeable and humble man who gave a lot of credit to the people he’s worked with, and he even let slip that his colleague and friend Hans Zimmer was somewhere in the audience. That sent an excited murmur through the crowd to know we were sharing the space with two musical legends!

Back to work

It’s been a hard few weeks and I’ve been very quiet as I gradually ease back into work.

Losing Dad was a massive blow and we’re still all trying to deal with it and get used to him being gone. I’ve had some amazing support from the rest of the family as well as some very understanding clients who totally understood why my output suddenly ground to a halt. One new client who I’ve never even met who has been through the same situation recently even offered advice and support which I had no reason to expect from him. So I’m massively grateful to everyone for being so amazing.

One of the things I used to do with Dad was call him up to tell him about my work, complain about the occasional awkward client, and discuss future plans. So it’s a hard thing to get used to.

I’m back at work now and getting back into my old routine. I’m still thoroughly enjoying working on the Dangerous Children graphic novel and one of the good things about it is the massive variety of designs it calls for.

An upcoming scene involves a dramatic chase scene with some futuristic/retro motorcycles. Hard surface modelling is always a bit of a challenge so it was really great to work on a few futuristic cycles. I’ve never ridden a bike in my life but creating these has kind of made me want to join a biker gang.

 

Joker and Harley

I love Harley Quinn. Not the one in the mediocre Suicide Squad film. She looked cool, but that’s not my Harley at all. My Harley is the cheeky under appreciated prankster in jingly bells!

I loved working on her hair in this picture, even though that meant I couldn’t give her the iconic jester hat. And there was something else missing in the composition when I first worked on it. Then I realised what it was.  Harley is this innocent, hilarious, whacky, loving character that might kiss you, but might also wallop you on the head with her mallet! So the mallet had to go in there.

We’ve all known that amazing woman who falls for the wrong man and dotes on him, despite the fact that he’s clearly a crazy lunatic! Lovely Harley escapes the Joker’s clutches eventually and goes off on her own adventures, but I’m sure he still misses her.

Cat Guardian

My last post told you about my little cat guardian Josh. For a few months he was a regular visitor and would chase off any other kitty who dared to cross the threshold. But he started to act a little strangely recently. He started to run from me and I wondered what I could have done to upset him. Then I encountered my neighbour who was trying to coax Josh out from under a parked car. Poor Josh was trembling and ran away.

She explained that the poor guy recently got beaten up by another larger cat and ever since he’s been a nervous wreck and running from everyone. I found him yesterday under my car hiding from the rain, so I went to say hello. He wouldn’t come to me, so I slid a saucer of milk and a piece of chicken under there. He wouldn’t touch it while I was there, but I found the empty saucer later. So hopefully he’ll learn to trust people again.

In the spirit of cat guardians, here’s another kind of Kitty. Hopefully she’ll watch out for Josh while leaping across the rooftops.

Josh the Cat.

I’ve never been much of a cat person. We’ve always had big slobbery dogs growing up and my parents actively chased away the local cats who menace the birds in the garden. So I was surprised at myself when I recently found myself enjoying the visits of a local cat.

I’d leave my patio doors open each day and this black and white fuzzball would turn up to say hello. He’d curl up for hours on my bed, walk across my keyboard wreaking havoc on my computer and even sit in my lap while I draw. I really appreciated the company as it was quite a difficult time with Dad in the hospital and lots of dashing about. After one particularly stressful day, I came home from the hospital and flopped face down on the bed. I had one thought pop into my head….”I wish the cat was here.” and then as if by magic I heard a little “Meow”.  My little friend had walked in and found me feeling a bit sorry for myself. He jumped up on the bed, settled on my back and even started rubbing my neck with his paws! Magic.

I found out from my neighbours that his name is Josh. Strangely, after Dad made it through his operation and came home, Josh stopped coming by. I guess he’s off helping someone else now. Or pursuing his own kitty agenda.

So I’ve just done this illustration in his honour. Hope you’re doing ok Josh!

Dangerous Children

Having a great year so far on the illustration front. I’ve been working on an amazing project with author Mark Morrow. Mark is putting together an amazing graphic novel adaptation of his novel “Dangerous Children”, a tale of interdimensional travel, cyborg teenagers, robotic rhinos, and wall climbing jet cycles. So plenty of scope for an illustrator like me!  It’s a really collaborative experience as I’ve been working with Dennis Fallon and his team of story board artists, and Shari Wickstrom who provided concept art. My job is to provide the final artwork for the whole novel.

The project also has some ties with LucasFilm and Star Wars veteran Gary Rydstrom who’s been offering guidance and feedback on the project. It’s all going really well so far!