Sky Drifters- Jailbird

I made a post about my last Sky Drifters series which was supposed to be scheduled to go up in early June just before it came out, but it looks like it didn't post!!

Anyway, here's some peeks at it.
It was called Jailbird and it was a wild west/jailbreak tale with lots of twists and turns in the story and some really cool characters!

If you want to check it out, Jailbird ran through issues 179-184 of The Phoenix, available to buy online here: http://www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk/product-tag/sky-drifters/

Sky Drifters appears exclusively in the wonderful...

Hay Festival- Hay Fever 2015!

This year I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to illustrate this year's Hay Fever children's programme for the Hay Festival!
It was a really exciting project to be a part of and, as the festival begins this Thursday, I thought it was about time I shared some of the art I created for it.

We settled on the idea of a group of children who travel through worlds of the imagination (via book portals, of course!) before eventually arriving at their destination- Hay!

The character designs came together pretty quickly as I wanted to stick to the types of fantasy roles children might be familiar with, so we have a ranger, a warrior and a sorceress:

I thought it would be cool to have the young explorers discovering the first book-portal on the cover, as I love the idea of forgotten sacred tomes that hold lost secrets. First I did a very quick scribble in my sketchbook to get the basic idea down and once approved I did a loose colour version.

From here I worked up the finished cover, trying to keep the enchanted feel and air of mystery!

The interior spreads came together quite quickly, the team at Hay had some suggestions for worlds the kids could travel through and I came up with the rest.

You can look at the finished programme HERE

The Hay Festival runs from the 21st to the 31st of May this year, click the links at the bottom of this post to find out more and book tickets! I'll be drawing at The Phoenix's stall on Tues 26th!

I must give thanks to Lisa Murphy and Andy Silver, who helped me out with the flat colours for these pages and both did a wonderful job!

Thanks also to Liz Payton, Tom Fickling and the team at the Phoenix and Jesse Ingham, Mary Byrne and the team at the Hay Festival for working with me on this and providing me the chance to illustrate the programme, It was a real joy!

Thanks also to my girlfriend Nikki Dyson, without whom I would have gone with an entirely different, much less fun concept- I owe you one!

Sky Drifters is back again!

Sky Drifters is back again in this weeks Phoenix Comic- here's a sneaky peek for you!
The Phoenix is available to buy from Waitrose, online and via their brilliant iPad app!
More info at www.thephoenixcomic.co.uk

Sky Drifters is back!

Click HERE for more info on The Phoenix!

100 Issues of The Phoenix!

Summit of The Goddess

Here's my cover for the latest issue of The Phoenix, issue 89! My drawing schedule for Simon Swift has been rather hectic and I've not had much of a chance to update here lately but I will be starting the final episode of the current series tomorrow so hopefully I'll have more of a chance to post here soon!

In other news, Monstrosity issue 1 is now available from some fantastic stores over here in the UK. I really recommend them all and I'm delighted to be stocked by them!

Gosh! (London)

Orbital (London)

Travelling Man (Leeds)

Close Encounters (Bedford)

The Incredible Comic Shop (Swindon)

Simon Swift cover- Stage by stage

Hello!
Tomorrow's issue of The Phoenix has Simon Swift's latest nemesis 'The Fetch' taking centre stage on the cover- here are all the stages on the way to the finished piece. This isn't a particularly in-depth analysis about my process, just an overview of my approach.

Thumbnails

The idea that Tom, Will and I had talked about was having The Fetch on the cover frosting up the jungle, with that in mind I sketched out 3 very loose thumbnails in Photoshop. They liked the third of these the most, but Will suggested that it would look stronger if The Fetch was facing the reader more.

Rough Cover

I then took the basic idea from the third thumbnail and roughed it out very loosely in Photoshop.

 Pencils

Once the rough was approved I made the rough very light by reducing the opacity of the line layer in Photoshop. I then printed the very light rough out onto a sheet of A3 Bristol Board and used it as my loose guide upon which to draw tighter pencils. I kept a lot of the foliage relatively loose at this stage as it needed to be drawn over in ink anyway. I pencil using a blue col-erase pencil. Blue is best as it's easier to remove the pencil art digitally if it isn't black, that way it's a lot less hassle to end up with crisp ink lines on the finished piece.

  

Inks

Once I was happy with the pencils I started inking. I currently use 'Fountain Pentel' pens as I like the line they produce. I use a fine sharpie for the thicker lines and solid blacks.

Colours

 I then use Photoshop to remove the blue lines that show through the inks and separate the lineart onto its own layer, so it 'floats' above the white layer. I build up the colour in layers, beginning with flat base colours and adding layers for shading, lighting, steam effects and the eye glows as I go until I'm happy with the result.

Final

When I was working on the colours, my girlfriend Nikki suggested that it would be nice if the Phoenix logo was frosted up by The Fetch too, I passed that idea onto Will who loved it! The Phoenix's amazing designer (and comic artist extraordinaire) Paul Duffield executed it absolutely beautifully and added in The Fetch's speech balloon, elevating it to a whole new level! Here's the finished article (nicked from The Phoenix's Twitter feed)! I'm really pleased with the finished result and can't wait to see it on the shelves this Friday!

Simon Swift Series II- Episode 6!

The latest issue of The Phoenix came out yesterday and in it was the latest episode of Simon Swift! I think this week's is my favourite episode so far- it was a nice change of pace and there was lots of space to have fun illustrating the environment!
Here's a peek-

Simon Swift Episode 4!

Here's a little peek from the latest episode of Simon Swift, out now in The Phoenix issue 77!

Simon Swift Series 2 continues!

Series 2 of Simon Swift is back in full swing, here's a peek from part 3, which can be seen in this weeks issue of The Phoenix!

Simon Swift series 2 launches!

...In fact the second part is out today! Here's a teaser panel for part one from last week's issue of The Phoenix:

And if you'd like to catch up on Simon's adventures, you can read the whole of series one online right now! Just click HERE!

Also, a quick announcement: Monstrosity issue 1 is now in stock at The Incredible Comic Shop in Swindon!

The Oxford Children's Comic Festival roundup!

Saturday's 'Oxford Children's Comic Festival' was a huge success and a really exciting event to be a part of! Above is a news clip from Meridian tonight- I think perhaps I was mistaken for a child whilst being sat at the drawing table (I'm in the blue t-shirt!)

I was really impressed by all of the young attendees' enthusiasm for comics- there was a real buzz for the medium running through the whole event. This was especially noticeable near the entrance where two very talented 12-year-old creators were selling their wares- Jordan Vigay with his comic 'The Red Crow' and Zoom Rockwell with his comic 'The Zoom'! I really admired the passion for comics that they both possessed and the fact that they were confident enough in their work to sell it to the public was great to see. They have every right to be confident too as both comics were full of genuinely funny strips- I expect to see great things from these two in the future and I hope that more young creators follow their lead!

Neill Cameron was the ringleader in a day-long event at the festival- The Mega-Comic (as I have just decided to call it).

Here's me drawing the second panel (image courtesy of Neill's blog)

Here are a few shots of the completed comic, I think it came out looking pretty darn awesome! There's also a great step by step guide to it's creation over on Neill's blog !HERE!

 

And here's a proper look at the comic (stolen from Sarah McIntyre's blog!) Sarah's also done a great round-up of the event on her blog, which you can check out !HERE!

There was lots more, including workshops, Ice Creams, Pizza from a van and the brilliant comic Loaf, but I can only type for so long before I need to get back to the drawing desk!

I've got to give a massive thanks on behalf of everyone who enjoyed the day to the organisers over at at The Phoenix and The Story Museum for putting on a fantastic event- I can't wait for next year's festival!

And last but definitely not least, here's a fantastic drawing that aspiring comic artist Finn Browne gave me towards the end of the day- I was really impressed by his drawings- I think he's got a bright future in comics ahead of him!