Back from a Brief Hiatus

Hey folks

sorry about the lack of posts but I was at NYCC and then last week was me dealing with the fall out of taking off to the comic con at short notice, I did post some figure studies I did on FB and my twitter tho. Just in case you missed em I'll throw em up here as well. I'll start with them and lead into the finished piece I did for this week.

this guy was sitting around the airport in Dublin

Two more guys in Dub airport

This guy was sitting in a pub in NY, drew him while I was waiting for some mates

This guy was in Central Park

My fav of the trip, this guy was on the plane home

Some doodles in the pad, mucking about with some pens.


Aaaaaaand the piece this week. Well a bunch of my friends got married this week, that's right a bunch!!!

One of those couples are my mates Ted and Kells. I went through secondary school with Ted, we quickly became friends over comics and all things film and nerdy. As we left school and did the usual drifting apart nonesense, he meets the great Kells, they get married and live happily ever after!
Sooooooo a nerdy friend gets married, what do I do? Seize the opportunity to draw these two something nice. 

I remember him being a big Joe Mad fan ( who wasn't right? ) and while being on the stag I remember Ted saying he actually knew Kells when he was a kid. So it kind of made sense to use Joe Mad's characters Red Monika and Garrison from Battle Chasers, since these two kind of had a Mulder Scully will they wont the thing later on in their life and knew each other as kids.

The problem here, well Red Monika dresses a tad... well...slutty. Pretty sure herself and Ivy from Soul Caliber buy their outfits in the same shop.  And Kells is a classy girl and Ted well Ted isn't a classy girl.  So I didn't want to have that overly busty almost nude Red Monika in their wedding present, it works perfectly in the comics but not so much as a wedding present.

Then I started thinking about the pose, well I've wanted to do some kind of homage to Rodin's "The Kiss" for a while now. It's prob one of my all time fav's of any art ever.

I remember studying this in school, reading about how uncomfortable the pose is for these two  and that the kiss itself could only last for a second before the pose would become so uncomfortable. Nonetheless the couple seem to twist into "unison" so we literally see the couple becoming one. Every beat of intimacy hit in this great sculpture and yeah they're nude but it's pretty classy, bet these two never twerked a day in their lives and manage to kiss and keep their tongues in their mouths.

So tried to capture the essence of Rodin's 'Kiss' and Joe Mad's generation inspiring Battle Chasers, this is what I got.

Left out the characters weapons for the most part as Red Monika is a kick ass mercenary who usually is up to the gills in knives etc, but left in Garrison's sword, put it behind them, almost a fading silhouette so it's almost suggesting that it's the end of one part of their life, but the blossom on top of the tree behind them is blooming, so it's suggesting new beginnings. 

Ted and Kells, Congrats you two. I wish you both all the happiness in the world.

In with The New, Out With The Old

Hello,

Things have been a mixture of busy and messy these past two weeks, so only getting to blog now.

First off, here's the final version of the Fred's Got Slacks cover. Differences between this and the last WIP are the paints on her back, some hue changes and obviously font and background changes.

If you feel like adding some new tunes to your playlist check em out they're pretty class band! Here's a Link to their stuff, all the songs that are on this EP are here and there's a few more as well!  Give em a listen you'll be happy you did.

Before I go any further is should say a BIG congrats to my friend Miki who has just finished his book The Jolly Roger and it looks AMAZING! Be expecting some fan art here of his book The Jolly Roger soon, check out his work here . And another BIG congrats to Darrin & Shawn for getting Earthruler sorted over on Kickstarter anything you pledge from this point goes towards an extra special stretch award! Check that out!

And here's the next thing. This is something I've been toying around with for a while now and since well, what seems like ALL my friends are doing comics of their own now, I'm going to bite the bullet and get a comic of my own on the go.

 That's right John you'll no longer have to ask me when I'm going to bring out my own comic, it's happening.  I haven't chosen a name for the series yet but it's 8 issues of short stories about Carrie (the character above who you might remember from an earlier post ), and Rufus, the fox below.

It's early days yet, still writing the majority of it and still working on the designs. Rufus's design is essentially finished but I'm still playing with and trying different things with Carrie's design. But here it is, I've said here now and I will finish it.

Because I love post apocalyptic EVERYTHING! That's the kind of story this is going to be, where these two survivors happen upon each other by chance and grow to be a formidable duo against the dangers of the post apocalyptic world they now live in.  Yes, there will be zombies. I like zombies.

I'll post up my progress with it as I go along. I'm also working on two other comic related gig's at the moment. With two awesome writers and all around really sound blokes! Aaaand if I get their permission I'll hopefully have some character designs posted here next Friday. I'll also have some samples from a Northlanders sample script I'm working on at the mo.

So there it is, many irons in the fire, at least one's gotta come out with some kind of notice right? ... right? RIGHT?

so Sin é as we say here in Ireland. More to come really soon. Laters!

ICN Noodler Post

Hi Folks!

I got asked to do an ICN Noodler post by my friend and amazing artist Gary Reynolds

Please visit ICN if you don't know of it it's an awesome website.

So here it is, did a fantasy type piece. It features a Dire (Thanks for that idea Mark, loads better than the werewolf one) Wolf, Dire Warrior and a Dire Princess.

I decided to put up my various stages of development here too.  Here's the roughs

So here's my digital pencils. At this stage I'm thinking about, design, composition and canvas shape.At this stage I don't focus on line quality too much  as I'm still trying to figure out the drawing. This stage is pretty organic as the drawing tends to figure itself out I'm just sorta along for the ride.

Here's my digital inks, and what I submitted to ICN. I had every intention to paint it up for ICN but unfortunately I just couldn't find the time.

At this stage I think a lot about line quality and my use of black. At the moment I'm really enjoying using deep pools of black and leaving just enough of the shape in there so the viewer can make out where things start and end.

I enjoy this stage a lot, there's something almost meditative about inking.

And here's the final piece, managed to find the time yesterday to get stuck into painting it. Just got stuck in really, threw caution to the wind, I have more fun with it that way. It took me a little longer than usual to paint this, I had to make a new palette and being partially colour blind this tends to be a long trial and error process. Fun all the same tho.

Tried to give the sense of this being a Dire Princess, with her loyal pet Dire Wolf and her trusty royal guard. I don't usually approach 'fantasy' art but I was looking at a lot of Frazetta lately and well that guy just cant help but inspire.

Hope you all like!

Sketchbook Doodles

So it's been a while since I posted anything. Believe me I have good reasons but lets get started with some new posts. Since I haven't had the time to do any finished or digital work outside of the studios/jobs I'm working in at the mo, I'm going to post up drawings from my sketchpad to keep the blog more active. These drawing range from good to fail, some are just ideas, me exploring a shape anything really. So here goes a few doodles and I'll talk about em as I go. If you follow me on twitter, you'll have seen most of these before but there are some new ones that I've only done in the last day or so that I haven't tweeted or anything with other than post here. Hope you like.

These three heads are three figure studies I did while waiting for a friend. Goes to show it's always handy to keep a sketchbook with you at all times. these range from about 3 to 5 mins

 Just wouldn't be a sketchbook of mine without some Spidey doodles

Another figure study. Saw this guy on the bus, pretty happy with the shapes I used in this. And considering it was drawn on the bus, pretty happy with the line quality too.

Random eye in my Pad... my 'eyePad' a hur hur hur

Seen this guy reading the paper on the bus. I was really pushed for time on this one as I almost had to get off at my stop, pretty happy with it tho even if it is rushed

I was watching 'How to Train Your Dragon' thought I'd have a go at drawing sum vikings. I don't really like this sketch myself but its been received really well on twitter. I'll be drawing more Vikings so! This is Pro-markers, tippex pen and a sharpie

Two more people who I actually see pretty regularly on my bu. Always keep that sketchbook handy

Some swallow studies. African or European, that's up to yo. Some prelim studies for a tattoo design I'm working on.

More figure studies, people I drew while waiting around in town. That woman actually had a freaky long neck

Some doodles I did in front of the telly

Another tattoo design I'm working on

Some more telly doodles. When I finished drawing this guy on the left I realised he looked really pervy, so I gave him something to perv on.

Been watching Supernatural,  I  dig this show so here's Bobby and a Leviathan... and a strange dark figure cloaked in shadow

Another telly doodle, quite happy with this one, I reckon I'll ink it up soon

This is a submission for the collective thinking blog. the theme was 'The 7 Deadly Sins"  I went with a pretty Wrathful Hulk. He's choking the security guard for letting Rick Jones into the testing grounds, Banner is watching in the background.

Been having some crazy dreams lately about the Witch from Left for Dead chasing me down Patrick street in Dun Laoghaire. Its good for me that zombies don't know any Ju Jitsu, but she packs a crazy amount of cardio, she never stops running.

Tried something new here, not ecstatic about this one yet, but I want to bring this into PS and paint it up.

and here's the last one. This is Jack the Ripper. Poor composition here, really missed my marquee tool and paste option, but i do like the idea. I'll draw up some more of these soon and get em all right.

Here we go, more posts soon! Maybe even tomorro!