Sketch Show

Although the posts have been thin on the ground these last few months, I have been keeping up with the sketchbook. I've been trying to nail down some character concepts for a comic strip featuring my all-time favourite girl group, The Shangri La's. Progress has been slow as I usually can only find time to draw on my daily commute and the results have been variable. Presented below are some of the more successful sketches that show the look I'm trying to capture for the strip.

Merry Christmas

Just time to wish you all a very merry Christmas and best wishes for the new year. Have a good one, folks!

Nothing to see here

Several projects have fallen by the wayside in the past few weeks, hence no regular posts. Still keeping up the sketchbook but nothing concrete to show at the moment. Here's a sneek sketch of what I'm currently trying to work out. More soon hopefully.

Me and My Arrow

Oblio and Arrow in the Pointless Forest.

Inspired by the characters featured on the Nilsson album - The Point.

George and Glynn

Here's what I've been up to in the sketchbook for the last couple of weeks. These are character designs for a 30-something couple by the name of George and Glynn (terrible pun I know, but it seems to have stuck). Glynn pretty much came fully formed on the page but Georgina's design involved quite a bit of working out. I wasn't happy with the early ‘cute sketches’ as I really wanted to imbue her with a personality. So she eventually became a bit of an ugly duckling. Not sure what I'll be doing with these two yet, maybe some one or three panel gags but they will be popping up here from time to time.

Bat-Finn-Crazy

Doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle, doodle - BATMAN! ...and Finn.

Man in Jumpsuit

Salvaged a ropey pencil sketch with the brushpen. Not exactly sure what he's doing though.

Georgina

Coconut

Drawn on this morning’s commute, a little tribute to Nilsson's “Coconut” as featured in his marvelous 1971 BBC television special.

The Bird is the Word

Vector illustration for in-house magazine article about footballers Twitter gaffs.

Last Summer

Inspired by Eleanor Friedberger's Album Last Summer, which is currently on repeat.

Crimson Bolt Kicks Kick-Ass Ass

I got to see James Gunn's Super a few days ago which I enjoyed immensely. It has a similar premise as Kick-Ass - What would really happen if a normal person began dressing up as a superhero and fighting crime? - but whereas Kick-Ass quickly succumb to the fetishism of the genre, Super is grounded in the utter desperation of Rainn Wilson's character Frank AKA The Crimson Bolt.

Frank's misguided conscience and brutal methodology certainly asks more of it's audience than Kick-Ass' never-ending weaponry catalogue. It's a great little film and very funny with it. There are fabulous performances from Wilson and Juno's Ellen Page as the comic shop assistant cum sidekick, Boltie. If you are more Fantagraphics than you are Marvel you may well like it too.

Luther Arkwright

Just re-read The Adventures Of... and now halfway into my first reading of Heart of Empire.

Spider-Man

Commute sketchbook challenge - Draw a comic cover from memory. I was quite pleased with the results but to my bemusement when I tried to track down the original there was none. It seems my addled memory had combined two different sources, Gil Kane's splash page from Amazing Spider-Man #101 and John Romita's cover to issue#87.

Me Elsewhere

A couple of things of mine that have recently turned up on other blogs.

First up is my rendition of a Jack Kirby panel for Anthony Vukojevich's Repaneled blog. The original (below - just in case there's any confusion) is from an old Thor story in Journey into Mystery #93.

Next up is have a straight copy of Scott Pilgrim vol.4 drawn with a Sharpie in 4.38 mins for Tim (& Grace) Miner's 5 Minute Marvels blog. The blog encourages parents and siblings to take five minutes out of the day and sit and draw together.

Here's my Daughter Eden’s version, she took a little longer than 5 minutes because she wanted to add Ramona’s roller boots (ever the fashionista). What I love about Edie's version is by swapping the characters we now focus on Ramona’s exasperation, which is the same look Edie gives me when I'm being a silly Daddy.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Tommy and Caroline on their Wedding today.

Vicar in a Tutu

For days now I've had The Smiths song rattling round my head for some reason. I tried to exorcise it in the sketchbook this morning on the train, to no avail.

First Four on the Shuffle 2.9.11

Back to photoshop for this one. First four artists to appear on the morning commute. Artists featured: Sylvie Vartan, Jason Lytle, Eilen Jewel and Francoise Hardy.

Happy Birthday, Jack Kirby!

Today marks the 94th birthday of ‘The King of Comics’ Jack Kirby. Here's my portrait of the great man for Kirby-Vision's annual birthday gallery.

First Four on the Shuffle

Finally - Sketchbook

Here's a few sketchbook pages showing the evolution of my self-caricature for the Finally strip.

Finally - unused panels

Many thanks to everyone who sent their best wishes regarding the blog's new direction. Your support is very heartening and I'm pleased that the Finally strip was well received. Surprised also to find that the strip had been reblogged over at SPX. As it's the first strip I've done and released to the outside world I thought it might be interesting to follow up with a few extras.

I completed the strip in just one day. I already had the thumbnails worked out but the drawing, inking, re-writing and lettering were all done in about 12 hours last Saturday. The next morning I looked at the strip again and decided to replace two of the panels with photographs. It seemed like a cop-out to do this but the panels where now succinct with the text. So, here are the original illustrations for panels 4 & 5.

Finally