The War of Words has begun

Behold! The war has begun, the first shots have been fired.. feast your eyes on week one's response to the word 'BEGINNING'.

Dave has produced the Illustration of 'Maria' the first robot of Metropolis.. and in Dave's own the words "The Beginning of all screen droids".. He's thrown In R2 for good measure too!

Myself, I reproduced a bit of Pixel Art.. meet the face of KONG.. for in the beginning of Computer/arcade history there was Donkey Kong... I also felt that If I'd have gone for PONG then Dave would have shouted at me for being lazy and producing a piece of work that consisted of 2 straight lines and a circle!!!

Week 2's word has been chosen.. and the challenge has been set. Look out for 'COMPENSATION' next Friday!

Huzza!

The Goon

Here's a coloured up version of Eric Powell's "The Goon"... Really nice and simple to do, very pleased with it as it's come together so quickly.

Sometimes I amaze even myself!

Happy Birthday!!

Eric Powell's "The Goon" is 10 years old... and a great comic to boot!

Here's a doodle of the eponymous lead.. Happy Birthday Goon!

another 'Marvel'ous villain!

Rhino SMASH!!!

A War of Words

My good fiend and fellow art terrorist recently set me a challenge.. here is an extract from his email to explain it best:

"Been reading your blog and I like the idea of a sketch a day. So much that it gave me an idea, not a particularly cunning one, but one that might warm the embers a little bit. A Challenge Mr S, a challenge.

Sketch Tennis, tometoyoutomtoyou etc.

We both have to produce 1 drawing a week (can be rough sketch or finished article) based on a random word chosen out of the blue. The result to be published on both blogs, and we take it in turns to choose the word. Interested?"

Now this is a great idea, and one that forces you to think and act creatively in a short space of time... the kind of kick up the hoop we both need at times to do some drawing.

Needless to say I accepted Dave's "War of Words" and you can expect the result of the first word (which happens to be "BEGINNING") by Friday of this week.

Just so you know.. my effort was completed this morning!... with almost 4 days to spare!! HA!

Blast from the past

This is a personal project I did a few years back... and also one of the finest films  ever made. Without a doubt it's in my top five (it's at this point Pam will start laughing at me for even having a 'top 5').

The artwork was an experiment using the brush tool in Illustrator. It was drawn freehand over a photo scan of the demon and coloured up as I saw fit (seeing as the film is Black and White). I think it's a really good piece and one that I'm very proud of.

I like the idea of creating some 'homage' style posters for some of the old movies I enjoy... hmm... I feel a project coming on! On that note.. message to Dave Higgins- How do you fancy taking a crack at producing a set of posters for films, maybe we could get enough together to put a collaborative book out?.. If you know anyone else who'd be interested in doing it, let me know! Maybe some of your college buddies can help out? All they have to do is produce the artwork (illustrative/typographic/photographic) and I can design the book.

Even the devil has bad days!

This is just me mucking about again.. I did a cute little sketch of Daredevil a while back and found it today. On a whim I decided to scan it in and vector it up! I really liked it and then started playing about with the composition of it in a frame, then I thought of it in terms of a comic book or graphic novel.. And the cover was born for this fictional tale of Daredevil "The early years". The tale of an 8 year old boy with an incredible gift for 'Skipping Ropes' and a crazy drunken father who would make him go to school in a lycra wrestling outfit!

I'm sure it's a tale that's just waiting to be told!!

Rachel's Monsters

Here's a couple of Monsters, as drawn by my Step Daughter type offspring Rachel.. The top one is Farting (because that's his special power) and the bottom one is a Vampire Cat (and Rachel's idea for my company logo). She's done a few of these for me and they're really good (the farting one is my favourite though). It's nice to know that what I do can inspire others to create.

I don't think Rachel does enough drawing... but that's probably my fault for not encouraging her more. I don't think I do enough drawing either!!

Well done Rachel.. these are AWESOME!!! I want more Robots and Monsters please!

Doodle of the Day

Here's my doodle of the day 14 01 09.

I had hoped this year to produce a sketch a day for the entire year, with a view to publishing them all in a book next year... Like most ideas... It went belly up almost as soon as I thought about it.. I've been doing the doodles and I guess I can salvage the idea if I get hold of a blank journal to put them all in... but that's another idea that'll probably go missing...

Anyways.. meet the 'Space Skull'.. Over Christmas I got to watch a lot of 1950's B movies on the Paranormal and Sumo channels on Sky... 'The Killer Shrews' 'Flash Gordon' and 'The Crawling Hand' to name a few.. I think they influenced this doodle a bit, so I tried to put it into context a little... something I didn't intend on doing, but pah... It looks kinda neat!.. and It's my blog... so ppppfffffffttttttt!! If you don't like it!

Who is that masked minx?

Back to business as usual. Here's a look at some of the stages my artwork goes through from concept to completion. I basically reproduced the initial sketch as an Illustrator file, then decided to break it down to it's basic elements on the far right.... which I really like!

Feel free to make your own mind up though!

All she needs now is a theme tune... any takers on writing the lyrics?

something different

Here's something new for you.. This is something more akin to my day job... a bit of Graphic Design. I liked the image as it kinda reflects the sounds of the band (Dark Wave/Electro Pop) and thought I'd throw some shapes with a bit of typography on top.

Hoo-flippin-ray

Fucking computers!

brain meltdown imminent!

http://www.newsugar.co.uk/images/issue-3-click.png

New Sugar Issue 3

Nice Start to 09

Happy New Year already... Go here and marvel at my inclusion in issue 3 of New Sugar... the spiffing on-line magazine for the discerning gentle person about town.

This year I have made it my resolution to get a hat-trick and appear in the magazine for a 3rd time!