Unlucky.

Again it not April yet but this feels like one of those bad April fools gags. You know you’re unlucky when your own acne picks on you. Click here. I’d recommend a fringe.

War Tongue. Part 3 of 3.

I’ve come to the conclusion that art is a bit like keeping in shape. And that different parts of your skills as an artist are like they’re own little muscles that make up your anatomy as an artist. Right now my pencilling and inking skills are hopefully in pretty good shape (or at least getting there) because I’ve put a lot of time into them. And I try to keep an eye on all those little things that go into being a comic artist like figure work, perspective, layout of a page and so on. But to be honest I’ve had so little time to do any colour work recently that, that particular muscle feels flabby and very out of shape. I think that if you don’t regularly work on or ignore certain skills in your artwork, it not like riding a bike were you can just jump back on. You’re probably going to be a bit rusty. It would be more like jumping back on your bike after months of sitting on your arse watching TV and getting slack only to have to enter the Tour De France the next day and wondering why you can’t keep up with everybody else and lets be honest if your trying to be a professional you don’t want that.

So I’m well aware that my colouring muscle has become flabby and unused when it came time to colour this image. First thing I did was reread a short book I had on colouring that I had picked up in college. I just flicked through it and tried to remember how to do different effects. Second thing I did before starting was I just watched some colouring tutorials on Youtube. Some were good some were awful. I think it does help a lot just to watch other people colouring. I knew my first try would probably be awful so after a while I just deleted it and started again. Hopefully working out most of the mistakes on the first try, the second one went a lot better. I was trying out new things in colouring this image that I’d never tried before in previous artwork. I can’t say I was always happy with my coloured artwork in the past. This time I just tried to keep it simple and bright. With my artwork over the last few years I would put texture in with the computer where as now I try to suggest texture more with the brush in the inking stage. It just feels more right trying to do it on the page rather then on the computer. The problem with photoshop is once you first get a copy you want to try out all the effects and filters. My approach above was a lot more casual. More about the colours themselves then flairs and bright effects. Once I feel like I know what I’m doing more with just the basic colours then maybe I can move on to those things. I hope to do some more colour work soon so watch this space. I’ll end by posting everybody’s favourite. The colour artwork without the line work over the top. It doesn’t look as unusual as it used to as so much artwork is done on computer now and so many artist now just colour they’re line work without inking it.

P.S. If anybody knows or could suggest any good books or tutorials online on colouring comics. I’d love to hear them.

War Tongue. Part 2 of 3.

I can’t really post the pencilling stage as I pencil so lightly it usually wouldn’t even show up when I scan it, so onto the finished inked image. One of the strange things about drawing this is that the first part is an extreme close up of someone’s face. It felt a little weird having to draw a face on a big bit of A3 board. Your whole head isn’t as big as an A3 sheet let alone your face. Then the second part of this image is the battle taking place on the tongue. So from drawing something bigger that in real life is actually smaller it’s then a case of drawing something that would be massive in scale on a very small surface. I confess that at one point while drawing the Battle scene I did have a quick look at a couple of Where’s Wally books. That tongue battle isn’t anywhere close to being as big as one of those where’s Wally pictures and it still took me ages. Makes you think how long those books take to draw. A long bloody time would be my guess. It hard to remember which took longer to draw. The face or the battle. I got a nasty feeling it was actually the battle scene even though it only takes up about 20% of the page. Doing tiny little detailed scenes like that does tend to get on your nerves after a while. All those little tiny gunshots and landmines under the skin of the tongue. It also a case of trying to keep everything in scale. Making sure one soldier isn’t twice the size of the others.

Also managed to get my dirty hands on a pad of Bristol board recently from an art shop. Never used the stuff before because I could never found it. I was in an Art shop at Xmas picking up a present for a friend and found a pad. Been wanting to try Bristol board out for years and this image was the first time I got a chance to draw and ink on it. To be honest there’s not a whole lot of different between it and the usual card I use considering how much more it costs. Bristol board handles ink a little different and it seems to dry quicker. I’ve only used a couple of sheets so far so the jury still out. I haven’t tried to do a Sequential page on it yet either.

Be Afraid.

See how far you can scroll down the page before it all becomes a bit too uncomfortable. Link HERE.

War Tongue. Part 1 of 3.

Thought I’d break these posts up into three stages over the next week or two, so I can show the different stages in more detail. I’ll start with the thumbnails. To be honest I could have done with maybe doing a couple more of these during the planning stage. It worked out fine in the end but once I’d had the idea, I was so keen to get onto the final image I maybe jumped the gun a tiny bit to quickly. I always try and keep my thumbnails quick and simple but I don’t like to move on to the final image until I’m sure what I’m doing with it. I knew what the basic image was going to look like (nothing to complicated, just a close up of a face with a tongue sticking out.) but the battle scene that was happening on the tongue was maybe left a little under developed in the thumbnail stage. Actually I say a close up of some ones face isn’t very complicated but in fact it can be one of the hardest things to draw and now I think about it, battle scenes aren’t really that easy going either.

You can judge for yourselves how well I draw close ups of faces and tiny battle scenes soon when I post the next step.

I Have A Plan.

I have a nasty feeling I may have used that heading before but I’m to busy\lazy to go back through previous posts and check. It only a small shot this frame but for some reason I think it one of my favourites from my last story.
I got £7.99 or 3cd’s worth of ‘Trance Euphoria’ dance music through the post this morning. It all part of my plan to get more artwork done. It’s not uncommon for me to work late into the night as it a lot more quite and less things to distract me. I tend to be more of a nighttime person then a morning person anyway. Thanks to my wireless headphones I got a couple of weeks ago I can now also chill out and put some music on in the late hours. I can also walk down stairs to make a sandwich or have a pee while listening to music. They’re good for up to a hundred metres or so they say. Up till now the only thing I’ve had to listen to in the background at night is the TV so it’s nice to have music to listen to late at night without having headphone wire to get caught up in. I’ve had a big urge to listen to some more chilled out stuff when I’m working for a while now. Don’t get me wrong, having some good rock music going when I draw during the day or into the night is good, but for those early hours you don’t want someone screaming in your ears (unless your trying to stay awake.) I remember years ago when I was still a teenager and trying to get my head round the idea of inking my artwork, putting on OK Computer and chilling out and really for the first time enjoying inking. Probably why I also got a copy of Amnesiac through the post this morning in case the Euphoria stuff is a dud. I can’t really say I know that much about dance music so I had to go on other peoples reviews and comments. I can’t wait for the next time I get to stay up put on some Euphoria and really try and get some work done. Sadly not tonight though. I have to be up early in the morning for work.

I always like to hear what other people listen to when they draw or ink. Should try and put together the ultimate compilation CD to draw to at some point. Everybody gets to throw in a track.

Got your Watchmen graphic novel yet?

ZOOOOOOOOOM!!!

Coming to the last bit of this short story now, which means it harder to find shots to show that don’t give away too much. I’ll finish up by posting a couple of Spaceship shots this week I think. There’s something a bit Garry Anderson about the above shot. It does make me want to hum the theme tune to Sting Ray.