Jumping ship

Just a quick note to say, I'm now posting new (and old) drawings on my Tumblr blog.

Page 1 and a couple of additional panels from my contribution to Nowbrow 9. The theme this time around was "It’s Oh So Quiet" so not a word passed the lips of the characters in the strip, which was based upon an auld ballad.

The Shadow

A high octane commission for Alan Henderson (@Shadow1972 on Twitter) - Clap your peepers on his extraordinary collection of Shadow art at http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetail.asp?gcat=8618.

Crook Frightfulness

An illustration for an article written by Daniel Wilson in the September edition of Fortean Times, alongside a couple of sketches for an alternative idea I was playing with.

A sketch of a ne’er do well. Originally a monochrome ink-wash image, Dan Berry was kind enough to walk me through the wizardry he uses to colour digitally.

Join Eddie Ross and I at the Edinburgh Book Fest

It's two weeks until Eddie Ross and I cover a rich tapestry of comics topics as part of the Stripped programme of events at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. Last night, over a number of beers, Eddie and I discussed a few nuggets that will likely make it into the talk, from the motivations behind our work, to the many ways you can get involved in the comics scene. As you might expect I can heartily recommend joining us:

Friday 23 August
3:30pm - 4:30pm
Baillie Gifford Corner Theatre

I'll even be scrawling drawings of fishermen into any books I can lay my hands upon.

You can buy tickets here, and whet your appetite for Eddie's upcoming book Filmish 4 here.

Wedding bells

My brother is soon to be thoroughly wed to a very good friend of mine, which is a wonderful in and of itself and is also one less address on my hypothetical Christmas card list. They asked if I would do something for their invite and inspired by Sarah Mcintyre's sublime prints of a Greenwich Park tree I set about my first lino cut since I was a school boy.

Well as you can see from the below mine turned out to be a fair bit cruder than Sarah's. One of my errors may have been to buy the traditional lino rather than the easy cut stuff. I did so under the false assumption this would grant me instant artisan status. Instead I sat for hours in my freezing Edinburgh studio, hunched like Bob Cratchit, attempting to soften up that lino with a hair dryer. Novices be warned!

Guns...Lots of guns

I was lucky enough to get to illustrate a story in the hallowed pages of 2000AD earlier this year. A high octane blend of heavy metal and horror, it was written by the excellent David Baillie and was just the excuse I needed to dust off my Maiden, Megadeth and Metallica records.

Below is a short sequence from the story, which appeared in Prog 1836 and can still be procured here.

To get the opportunity I took part in the 2000AD Portfolio competition, which takes place annually at the excellent Thought Bubble festival. Under the scrutiny of 2000 AD greats Rob Williams, Simon Fraser, Peter Doherty and Frazer Irving I was fortunate enough to get the thumbs up. Anyhow here's a few panels from that submission.

A salty night was had by all!

Just thought to post a couple of images from the launch of The Silver Darlings at the excellent Gosh! Comics last Friday evening.

Here is the original design for the painting destined for Gosh!'s windows and below is the window emblazoned.

This was considerably easier than the Nelson window painting I worked on, always at the mercy of the Posca pens. Gosh!'s rich supply of colours even allowed me to top the character's dome with a crown of ginger.

All that remains to be said is a huge thank you to Gosh!, The City Shanty Band, Tunnock's (for their exquisite Caramel Logs), Blank Slate Books and of course to all the hardy souls that come along on the night.

Thank you!

Launching the Silver Darling - Gosh! Comics, 15th Feb, 7-9pm

I'm starting to run thin on sea-faring puns to tie in with references to my book The Silver Darlings, which launches at London's incomparable Gosh! Comics on Friday 15 February. This post's title refers to the fishing boat at the heart of the book, the Silver Darling, and deserves little more explanation than that.

The folk at Gosh! and especially Tom Oldham of Beserker Magazine and Breakdown Press have been really supportive of the book, for which I'm very grateful. This all kicked off with an exclusive bookplate edition of 200 (pictured below), which is still available free with every copy of the book bought at Gosh!

Next up is the launch itself. Details are on the flyer below.

I'm currently working on a design for the shop's window and on the night there will be an exhibition of original art whilst I merrily sign and sketch in copies of The Silver Darlings. 

Of course no launch would be complete without a a wee drink for all those that come along and what's more Caramel Logs (as rare as hen's teeth south of the border) are being generously laid on by Tunnock's. If you want to discover the secret behind Tunnock's Caramel Logs listen to the ad at this link (NB: No dragons are harmed in the making of Tunnock's Caramel Logs).

Finally, the salt-crust that will lend the evening a truly nautical flavour is a performance from Hackney's own City Shanty Band. I'll leave you with one of their numbers and hope to see you on the night!

Standing on the shoulders of giants

I've recently treated myself to the opportunity to draw a character by Warwick Johnson Cadwell...

Hunch Parsons - Shrouded in mystery it seems Hunch may take a little while to surface. Thankfully we can console ourselves with Warwick's upcoming run on Tank Girl and Dangeritis his web-comic based game of tag with the equally excellent Robert Ball.

Open Studios at Coburg House - 11:00 - 17:00, 1st & 2nd December

I'm taking part in my first open weekend at Coburg House Art Studios in Leith. If you're knocking about Edinburgh today or tomorrow between 11am and 5pm, why not drop in and take a look at the great work on show...there may even be a free glass of wine in it for you.

"When you are a Bear of Very Little Brain..."

I recently decided that I could make use of a better showcase for my work and set about creating a portfolio website, which went live today. The quote from A.A. Milne sprung to mind because I approached the task with spectacularly little technical expertise and in spite of that have managed to create something, which is near enough to what I aspired to.

Naturally most of the credit for this achievement lies elsewhere, with the excellent foundations Wordpress provide and the community of developers creating tools such as Nextgen Gallery and Ultimate TinyMCE. I marvel at these folks, who seem to dedicate their free time to helping those of us with analogue brains.

Thanks awarded, this blog will still be the destination for updates. Such as the illustration below:

Inspired by Jeff Smith's incredibly elegant linework in his Bone series, this marks my first effort using a brush in place of a fine-liner or nib-pen.

Stripped to the bone

A boat I'd seen beached on a shingle bay in a small village in the Scottish Highlands provided the inspiration for this image. It's innards were all brazenly on show, including the porcelain throne that perhaps once was the only sanctuary from the cramped conditions on board.

Colour is something I'm continuing to practise. In a recent interview the excellent Glyn Dillon mentioned a blog by comic colourist Jordie Bellaire who extracts lovely, harmonious colour pallettes from movies and the like. Well worth exploring.

Jack's Amazing Journey

I recently had the good fortune to be involved in a project to encourage oral story-telling throughout Europe. These drawings are from the tale Jack's Amazing Journey, which continues the scrapes he of the beanstalk fame frequently finds himself in. One of the project's highlights were some beautiful Icelandic folk-songs of which I'd like to hear more.

The Hairlet

Many moons ago a posted a quick sketch of a young lad cowering beneath his bed-sheets with an ominous presence at the window. That idea has since percolated through my grey matter, to become a very short story set to appear in David O'Connell's sure to be excellent Ink and Paper volume II. He released a preview of the cover just the other day and I'm sure there will be plenty more tasty morsels to follow.

A character sketch

A character developed for a four page story in David O'Connell's Ink+Paper 2, due out in June. He's got the oversized school blazer, I just need to work out how to include the obligatory nose-trails on the sleeves.

"Nelson, Nelson every where..."

"...but plenty a drop to drink."

This perversion of Coleridges's Rime of the Ancient Mariner refers of course to the stellar launches of British comics anthology Nelson at the Cartoon Museum and Gosh comics (covered here) last week.

For the latter event I had a great time scrawling all over Gosh's windows with Sarah Macintyre, Jake and Woodrow Phoenix, the results of which are pictured below:

The source illustration for my window adornment was the character sketch I sent to the editors of Nelson (Rob Davis and Woodrow) prior to drawing my five page chapter for the year 1999.

Yoho ahoy

After several single panels posted, I thought it only right and proper to post a couple of panels in sequence. It may not be apparent from the various images I've posted, but I've seen my style develop quite a lot over the course of the book - I think mainly for the better. However I am prone to torturously examining my drawing, so it's just as likely that no-one will notice any difference when the book is available to read in February 

Stormy, stormy skies

It's certainly high time I posted something, so here's an establishing shot, which kicks off a (hopefully) dramatic section of the book.
I have to thank Warwick Johnson Cadwell for the doom laden clouds as I used a photo he'd taken and posted to Twitter as visual reference. On the off chance you've not visited his blog, I'd hot-foot it over there for a bevy of extraordinarily dynamic drawing.