Sleep Deprivation

I never got to post an update yesterday because I was busy not getting any sleep last night due to my pressing need to get some business cards made up for the New York Comic Con. So, I stayed up all through the night before finally hitting the pillow at 8am and getting an hour and a half of a power nap.

Granted, I already have a whole rake of business cards that I got printed for Fan Expo in Toronto last year but, to be honest, there were a lot of glaring errors on said cards (namely, I got the email address wrong and neglected to add my blog address. Much egg on face) and they simply didn't get across the professional sheen I want my cards to have. So, I overhauled my old design from this...


...to this (I haven't received the cards just yet so the original file will have to suffice):


As you can see, I went incredibly minimal with the design -- I just wanted to get the message across without any clutter and I think I succeeded pretty admirably. Also, a shout out to Ty for his helpful advice. Speaking of Ty, watch this space...he's currently colouring one of my sketches and it is amazing, it really is.

Also, since I'm getting these cards printed by MOO, they allow you to get multiple images printed on your cards as well, so I thought (thanks to an idea given to me by Dave) what better imagery to go with than some choice selections from my art for Rodney Tentakle?

I'm just hoping that these things arrive in time for the NYCC, I really can't wait to see how these look 'in the flesh,' so to speak, having different images on these makes them almost feel like trading cards.

In other news, I updated the design for one of the Rodney Tentakle baddies after getting some good pointers from Dave. I'm really happy with how this turned out as it has a far more distinctive look than its previous iteration. Here's the original design...


...and here's the rejigged version...

I even decided to crank out the markers and do a bit of colouring by hand, which was fun and refreshing.

Finally, I promised I'd do some form of hand sketches every day, so here's my attempts from yesterday (pretty lacklustre, to be honest, got to try harder!):


Oh, and I got sick of my hair, so I decided to give it its marching orders:

A-Ok, number 1!

O' Tec

The ol' creative juices weren't flowing so well today so I think I'll spend tomorrow doing some basics: contour drawing, quick sketches of the human body...that sort of thing. My drawing still feels way too stiff in places and I need to rectify that. I'm also hoping to get started on some Rodney Tentakle-related pinups, get them done in time for my trip to the New York Comic Con next month.

As you can see, I started a pic of Judge Dredd but left it unfinished as, to be honest, it wasn't really going anywhere interesting (well, aside from the slight redesign I gave his costume). I also did up a quick sketch of Manotec.

Spoon

Drew this up for a Spawn fan. Original sketch first, rejigged version second:

Kid Gloves

I'm currently staying at my uncle's place after having a few tipples last night. One of his girlfriend's kids is a HUGE superhero fan -- Superman, Batman, IronMan...you name it, he's into them.

So, I decided to knock out two sketches for the kid when I got home last night, I only managed to get two done in my bleary state but I'm hoping he gets a kick of out 'em! Oh, pardon the crappy webcam pics, I only have access to a small webbook with no scanner so this is the best I can do.

Mob

I'm rather taken with the cult indy PC/Mac title by the name of 'Minecraft,' a game that drops you into a close to infinite sized world and let's you rebuild it as you see fit, all while fighting off the dreaded 'Mobs,' various horrible creatures that want to make you more familiar with a concept known as death. It's basically every Lego play session you had as a kid only on an even grander scale, I fully encourage you try it out!

Anyways, on that subject, I decided to put together my own interpretation of some of the Mob creatures as seen in the game -- from left to right, we have the Slime, the dreaded (and pretty much one of the game's most iconic creations) Creeper and finally, the bog-standard skeleton.

Looking at the piece, I notice that my drawing of the Creeper is...er...how do I put this...kind of phallic looking? Entirely unintentional, I assure you!

Moto

This guy (Shigeru Miyamoto) is probably one of the most famous game designers in the world but god DAMN is he a scary looking mother...

Click here to view the image I used for reference.

Tentakle Redux

Long time no see, eh?
Apologies for my long, lonnnnng absence...long story short: I had major art block. It's gone now.

In preparation for my trip to the New York comic con next month, I decided to go back over my character designs for Rodney Tentakle and give them a spit and polish, bring them up to date with where my style is at right now. Of course, the first characters I laid my hands on were Rodney and his dad, Doctor Tentakle. I didn't do anything too drastic, I just tried to simplify and streamline their designs -- some of my previous choices were overly busy, so I toned those elements back.

I'll be working on the various other characters over the next few days, so keep your eyes peeled for updates!

Right, on to the pics:

s u p e r P r e v i e w T i m e

I've just finished the pencils for page 8 of Rodney Tentakle, meaning that everyrthing is finally down on paper. All that needs to be done now is three pages of inking and then a heckuva lot of colouring. Still, I always find the penciling to be the most difficult part -- after that it's mostly plain sailing.

Until I have more to show you, here's a preview of some elements from pages 5, 6 and 8. Enjoy!

s c r a t c h y M e s s y S k e t c h e s

I thought I'd put more sketchy stuff up here for a change, as much as I love super-clean inks and shiny CGs, there's something I love about scratchy, messy, sketches.

These are designs for Rodney Tentakle, most of them are redesigns of characters I already had down on paper but wasn't entirely happy with (in hindsight). Enjoy!

p u g i l i s m

A few test sketches for a possible upcoming job I could be working on.

A man of few words. That's me.

When all else fails...DRAW!

Try as I might, the past day or two the comic is just not working (the current page that is). Then again, I feel bloody lethargic as of late so I'm hoping to get an early night tonight and see if a good ol' sleep will help me out.

That doesn't mean I haven't been drawing though, oh no. Even if the comic wasn't working, I was not going to let that stop me from drawing, no sir (and lady)!

I find my art to be a tad stagnant of late so I've decided to back to basics (as I do every now and then) to try and hone my skills. Expect to see a bit more of the likes of below over the next while.

I am a clever blog entry title. Laugh. Laugh, damn you.

So, page 4 is all penciled up, awaiting my inks. I can't show you the full page just yet but I'll post up a few close-ups of stuff on the page -- just enough not to give anything away!


Also, here's a quick reference sketch I knocked up to help me out with a panel. Why is Old Snake there? Dunno:

Aaaaand finally, some warmup stuff I did before getting started on the page:

Tentakle

Finished up the pencils for page 3 about an hour ago. Not showing the full page for now, so here's a look at one of the panels.


Make of that what you will.

Update:

Over on Twitter, the eagle-eyed Adam Murray noticed that Rodney's face and head were slightly 'off' in the above panel. He pointed out (rightly) that the right-hand side of Rodney's jaw wasn't as strong as the left side. Upon further inspection, I also noticed that Rodney's left eye looked like it had been placed haphazardly on his face, making it look like it didn't belong.

So, I decided to give dear old Rodney a minor face-lift and it's amazing what a few lines will make:


Thanks again, Adam!

Sneaky peeky

Right then, I've got page one fully inked and have got all of page 2 penciled, barring the final panel. Because I like you lot (not you, though, go away) I'm sticking up what I've done so far for the second page. Sorry about the fuzzy quality by the way, it'd take too long (and would be a waste of time, seeing as it's not complete) for me to scan this in. So, fuzzy digital camera grab for now, I'm afraid.

Obviously, I'm going to keep things fairly vague, as this story's got lots of interesting things going on that I don't want to give away just yet (for fear of the wrath of Dave!), so no page one for now.

Guess who's back...

G'wan, give a good guess.

Yes, hello you. I've been back in Ireland since December and, I'm going to be honest, it's only in the past week or two that I'm beginning to settle in again. I have to admit that I was like a zombie for a good month or so after I came back. Going from the vibrancy of Toronto to the general hum-drum-drudgery of small-town life in Ireland was quite the shock to my system. As time has gone by though, I've begun to get myself into a daily routine of lots of exercise and drawing so that's helped me out quite a bit.

I've got loads of drawings done in the past few weeks but, most importantly, I'm currently getting myself ready to get going on an 8 page comic strip by the name of 'Rodney Tentakle' (as written by the mega-talented David Hendrick). I spent a few hours today getting all the pages laid out so now it's just a matter of putting pencil to paper and getting this baby done. To tide you lot over, here are a few character sketches and a sneak peek at the roughs for one of the pages. Enjoy!

Another Blackstar Page

So, got most of the pencils done for another page of Blackstar today. I must admit that this page was quite difficult to figure out but once I got some niggles sorted out in thumb sketches it was plain sailing. Also, you'll notice that I've posted an updated version of page 4, I made an absolute disaster in trying to ink the original panel 1 (which wasn't that well drawn to begin with). I decided that redoing the panel was better than causing myself more frustration -- I'm sure you'll agree that it melds much better than the original version did.

Also, I finally got my business cards today. Unfortunately, I forgot to add a link to this very blog on the bloody thing so I now have to hand-write those details on the back of every card. All 250 of them.

Oh well. We make mistakes so we can learn.

Blackstar Pages





I'll try and update more often.

Promise.
Promise.

Pencils (in various stages of completion) for two pages of a comic I'm working on called 'Blackstar.' Deadline's approaching fast so it's time for me to kick it into high gear!

Oh, apologies for the crappy picture quality. Blame my camera. My crappy, shitty, shitey camera.