Comics stuff

Alright folks

Digging the well here for something to post, posting a lot of WIP stuff as I've been writing more this week than drawing... I dont hink I've ever said that before. so here goes

Another panel from the Carrie and Rufus book I'm working on,

Just a little something to keep the blog ticking over as it's one of the few finished pieces I've knocked out this week.

Here's some other stuff I've been working on some inks and A LOT of pencils. But since it's all soooooooo rough i'm gonna post up bits of the lot so you can see the process of it.

So here it goes, here's some stuff I've been working on in a Northlanders test script. I've re- started this so many times now my plans are a little more abstract or loose than usual as I know what I'm looking for now. I should note that I've started and restarted this sooooo many times now cause I keep going back to it a month or two at a time die to work, this time I'm just gonna get it done.

Alright so this how I start planning out everything, the VERY first thing I do is make a mess.  Plans for how I think I'll tell the story sporadically placed among plans I have for character designs. This time it just happened to be on an A3 sheet cause that's what was in arms reach of my animation disc. Other times its an A5 book or A4 paper i use for my printer, just something to get the ball rolling and get some kind of idea down. At this point I'm just trying to get a feel for what I'm drawing.

As they say in Pixar, "fail early and fail often". Start trying things at this point, test how far you can push a design, do it all here not later. I spend a lot of time working on this. There's a rake of other drawings done as well but since this stuff is soooooo sketchy and almost abstract I thought it would be more interesting to show, we all got to start to somewhere.

All the little images are panels featuring what I think needs to be shown according to the writers script. After I do this I figure out how I want to break down the page. I always break my pages down by using focal points... this part is pretty abstract, panel shape & bleeds are all figured out here in just their basic shape. Squares, rectangles, empty space, if a shot is going to have a dutch angle or a camera tilt, whatever it is that im going to employ to lead the eye around the page correctly. That's what happens here.  

After that, it's pencils

loose, very loose, any elements that need fixing are done so on the fly while inking, and then it's inked

 

well sin é! More vikings next week!

Storyboard Workshop & A New Pin Up Girl

Hey folks,

a day late with the post but better late than never. I've just been busy this week.

Before I say anything else I want to say THANK YOU so much for showing such an interest in my storyboard workshop. Amazed with how quickly it sold out, i promise i'll make it as good and worth while as I possibly can. Thanks again!

Big thanks to Pegbar, Animation Skillsnet and The Science Gallery too for making all this possible.

Aaaaaaand below is something I drew up yesterday. Clearly I haven't had enough fun drawing pin up girls so here's another.

It's actually a character for a poster I put together for a friend of mine who's running a striptease aerobics workshop in Wexford. If any of yee are interested in the deets, give me a shout on facebook/twitter and I'll send em your way.

Kinda dig the character so here she is in all her glory.  As usual I prefer the black and white.

I'll do my very best to get next weeks post on time as it's been two late posts in a row now.

Anyways, chat then folks!

Storyboarding Workshop and COMICS

Hey folks,

Pardon the lack of posts last Friday but I wanted to get all this stuff together.

First things first, Pegbar in association with Animation Skillnet will be back this month, there will be a storyboard workshop in The Science Gallery Thursday the 29th of August. I'll be giving the workshop. All the details are on the Pegbar website here and you can buy your tickets via the Science Gallery website here.  you can also call inot the science gallery and get your tickets if you have any tech issues just ask em at the reception desk when you go in.

 The workshop will cover basic board techniques, I'll share some tips I have picked up in my time as storyboarder and provide a storyboard production package for anyone looking to build a portfolio.  I'll even review your folio and help get you ready for the industry.

And here's somethings I've been working on the past few days/weeks you might dig.

The first is a page from a short story I worked on for Coimicí Gael's Rírá with writer Dave Hendricks and letterer Aidan Courtney. It'll be out soon so keep an eye out for it, it'll be a great book and it's aimed for readers of about age 8is + I'd say. Had a lot of fun working on it!

and here's a WIP panel of my Carrie and Rufus book,

It's slowly taking form I'll keep you all updated as I go along with it. Having an incredible amount of fun working on it.

That's it for another while anyways, I'll be back blogging again on Fridays.

Laters1

Fun Stuff!

Hey folks so here's this weeks blog post.  2 black and whites this week!

This is a birthday card I did for a mate of mine, she's been asking for a picture of Shakira's ass for a while, I felt it was my moral duty to oblige. Here's Shakira doing that 'bum lift' thing from the she wolf video

Aaaaand this is a project I've been ticking away at for a while now, just getting pieces done in  small pockets of free time. It's for my mate Paddy Lennon, he's a writer and he's currently sorting out his superhero novel 'Flare' and he was sound enough to ask me to do the cover. I've been one of a lucky few to read this book, It's Class! Recently Paddy has put excerpts of his book up on his blog so give it a read here so you can get a taste of the book and then spend all of your monies on it when it's out!

The characters your looking at here in the cover are (going from left to right are) Aimee DeWitt and in her superhero uniform she's kicks ass as Revenant, Ryan Curtis also known as Flare and Hiroshi who rocks it in a pretty awesome Mech suit, or as Paddy put it so elequently ' basically War Machine on steroids'!

Hope you dig em. See you all next week, same Ben time(ish), same Ben channel.