More Quick Updates

Just back from holiday and managed to get caught up on alot of reading as well as some drawing, so in various stages of development, take a gander at what I've managed over the last week...

The Avengers is a composite of various pieces I inked but I still think that the central original Avengers could do with being a bit larger...

Kathy is a design for Rol's new comic, the next two pieces were drawn at A5: the first was lifted from a pic from a newspaper as I fancied doodling something after completing my larger pieces and the pirate was done in another clean line experiment (as I had just read another Euro comic using that style).

The bottom piece is Flash Gordon, with a tweaked face for Dale Arden...not perfect but I'm fairly happy with this one. It took ages to ink but I had the Williamson Flash Gordon collection out while pencilling this as I wanted to capture his sense of Mongo without directly swiping. Hopefully this feels like Mongo as seen drawn by him and Raymond...

As I plan to colour this using a few effects, I had to be careful with the inking, being mindful of how it will affect later colouring stages. Let's hope it comes together well...

You Be The Judge

As mentioned earlier, doing the recent Judge Anderson piece made me want to do a larger drawing, so I planned on doing a completely new execution of my original idea. Then I thought "What's the point?" and repositioned the main figure and when it came to drawing a new backdrop, I felt there was nothing wrong with the original so a little jiggerypokery and ta-dah, similar but new Judge Anderson pic!

I don't mind the pic but it feels a bit "American" and doesn't FEEL like Anderson to me. Still, happy enough if not overjoyed by it...but I can't settle on which backdrop works best. Any favourites, folks?

Who The Hell?

Dr Who's back and while I still love the cast and enjoy the little ongoing mysteries regarding River, Amy and that regenerating girl (the Rani?), none of the episodes have been as classic as last season's yet. Still, it's nice to see the cheesy kid-friendly spin of the RTD still gone and even subtle things like changes in the music cues helps the show still.

Anyway, Who was announced as the theme this week on the Weekly Themed Art Blog so I went online to crib some refs and knocked up a piece yesterday. however, today I tinkered with it a bit in Photoshop to come up with a slightly more polished version: coincidentally, I was going to ink a Judge Anderson sometime while away on Holiday, but I inked it today and will probably do a variation on the last Anderson pic I posted...seems pointless but I wanted to practice drawing "full scale rather" than just at A4...

How Enchanting....

Been a bit pushed for time so can't spend as much time colouring as I would have liked, but here's the properly coloured version of the Enchantress...was gonna use a purple/lilac backdrop but gave up as I can't seem to get a decent composition :(

Colour Me Experimental

Been practising some colouring recently, thought I'd post the results here. Nothing particularly exciting, I'm just getting ready to try and stretch a bit, try something new. Some minor effects take an amazingly long time and I'm not sure of the results. take the Enchantress, been experimenting with "line holds" and I'm not entirely convinced. Maybe it's my choices rather than the technique but I prefer the less worked version (although I intend to colour this version in my usual manor over the next week or so...)

The Jonah Hex was drawn fairly quickly and loosely, inked very quick too in an effort to achieve a grittier look than I normally go for (don't really think it worked though). My main aim for that was to experiment with line holds again, which woks better here than the Enchantress, though I'm quite happy with the render-free Amora artwork...

Middle two pieces are me just colouring pics by Adam Hughes and Steve Rude just because the urge took me :)

Nother Update

Just a quick random roundup:

Only just realised launchpad is around the corner so have dug out the portfolio to spruce it up as I never got to show it at BICS last year. Doubt I'll have time to do any sequential stuff before then as I have alot going on but have pencilled a few pieces I hope to ink on holiday, preview above...

Also did my first Silver John head pic...not quite right as it looks a bit Indiana Jones but this is essentially my version...

Been watching Being Human Season Two, which is again pretty damn good but disappointed by the fact that Nathan won't be in Misfits series 3: he was the crux of the show and its funniest character. I loved the Middleman graphic novels so took a chance and picked up the DVD box set of the first and only season of the TV version. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I can't put my finger on exactly which quality is missing from the show: dramatic tension, any kind of budget or decent actors probably. It's a shame as the scripts are fun and witty and the Middleman himself is perfectly cast and is actually pretty good...but it's a chore sitting through these so might take me a while to finish this...

Finally started reading the first Rip Kirby collection, which is surprisingly easy to read but difficult to hold due to its colossal size (which bodes poorly for Secret Agent Corrigan volumes I have yet to start!). I found even though I have a nostalgic attachment to Alex Raymond's earlier creation Flash Gordon (see above illo), I found Kirby easier to read.

While babysitting today, I managed to read the entire first volume of Mary Perkins On Stage. I bought this as I loved the art: the seemingly effortless technical ability, character acting and level of clear details is mind blowing and it's a shame we no longer see this kind of solid drawing as style currently wins out. What surprised me was that the story also dragged me right in: a soap opera about a struggling actress should never have been so engaging but no wonder it ran for 20 years. May buy more when I clear my backlog of comic collection reading...