"So, hows the project going?"

So its been a few months since my last post (AGAIN). But to be fair its been a busy few months.
Last update was about my possible project over at Port Lympne; which fell through. The image below is the possible cover art for my project on the T.A.( thats Territorial Army to you and me).

This project started out as a simple one:

1. Get clearance for T.A. and draw the inside/out.

2. Spend ages waiting and badgering admin at the centre to reply.

3. Have a second attempt at getting clearance with a different member of staff.

4. Have clearance denied to enter the premises....

5. Draw from the outside out of sheer desperation for my project not to collapse (months after initial contact).

6. Nearly being arrested by said T.A. for drawing from the outside! 

Long Time No Post!

 

 

 It has been a very long time since Ive last posted. I fell out of love with drawing after Uni finished (i.e. bad mark lol), and have had only sporadic inspiration over the last few months.

Now I face going back to Uni, I'm dusting off my drawing desk and re-remembering skills. The monkey is about a possible future project with Port Lympne and the drawings of kids were for a client's psychology paper. Never realised how difficult it is to draw children!

Hopefully over the next few months, my page will be filled with designs and drawings.

Watch this space!

Political Cartoons

I thought I'd share the drawing I've done of Martin Rowson, while he was giving a talk on political caricatures. Although I, as much as anyone, have been aware of political art I have been ignorant to the significance of the history of it. You could trace our history back through the past 200 years through political cartoons alone. This is for an essay I have to write, shaping up to be enjoyable for once!

Posting Resumed!

Well it's been a while since I've last posted; due to laziness and the absence of internet. A company that I'm not going to name royally messed up and I've gone without net for 2 weeks.
Instead I've been channel flicking and occasionally doing work.

However!

Last weekend was Demoncon3, if you don't already know its a comic convention in Maidstone set up by the local comic shop. In addition to the convention they created a comic book about Maidstone for charity.
To cut a long story short I contributed along side many other great illustrators (proffesional or not) and the book was published at Demoncon!

So here it is:

I should mention that the Linework is my own, but the colouring I think is done by Dean Beattie; the artist who has done page 4.

Anywhoo, hope you enjoyed the post. Feel free to comment and I'll get back to you.

Stone Comic Finished!

I've finally finished my comic page for the grinning demon in maidstone. This page will be a part of many that will be coloured and published in a charitable comic book. Unfortunately I'm not going to spoil the surprise by posting it here now, but you might be able to see it in a few weeks after Demoncon3 (look out for page 5). I thought I'd take the time to indulge you my inspirations for this project; comics from when I was a kid, back when I drew out all of my super heroe's in coloured pencil and pen.

(There were more than 3 examples but I can only withstand 'Blogger's' poor uploading for so long!)

(Above) Ultimate Fantastic Four Issue #1: As I was skim reading the images to get inspiration at the beginining of this project, the dramatic use of dark and light really caught my eye. The artists and writers included: Millar, Lee and Cheung. While I dislike the overplayed digital characters, I really enjoyed the broad use of colour in each page.

(Above 2) Batman Legends of the Dark Knight: I've always loved this comic, unlike any others that I own, its the one that was re-read so many times that general wear and tear has got the best of it. I even remember sketching out this exact fight sequence. I now draw inspiration from the head spinning camera angles that Batman swings in from.

(Above 3) X-Men Dead[-ly?] Genesis part 5 of 6: This was more specific inspiration as I went looking for the best way to represent power shooting from someones hand; of which in this there are many fantastic examples. As you can see the frame layouts arn't extravagent but serve the basic purpose very well. I perticularly like the 1st and 3rd frame: in the 1st frame theres threat, 2nd frame shows provoke and the 4th frame shows consequence. The actual gripping expulsion of power happens in the spectators mind and is only briefly shown in the 3rd frame.

Anywhoo, I think I've rambled enough. Don't forget to leave a comment below and share your blog!

Stone: In progress.

I heard about this project through a friend at uni. This is a comic book about Maidstone, to raise money for charity created by the local comic book store; The Grinning Demon.

I was lucky to jump on this project at the last minute as some of the other people involved dropped out. I've got 1 week to do a whole page, so fitting it around uni work has been tough so far. Here is my progress:

Initial Sketch:

Worked up Sketches:

Keep posted for the finished linework!

A little Insight

As I was listening to my usual podcast (from Thomas James) on the train to and from university; the guest on the show, Martin French shared his insight into illustration in terms of creative thinking: 'its more important to be a human being expressing oneself through art than an artist struggling to express oneself.'

This is the what I took from his views on how to create, I've already found it very usefull. If you're not already, go pick up the podcasts from http://escapefromillustrationisland.com/

Here is an example of his inspiring work.

http://www.martinfrench.com/

Between Projects

Here's some linework of a potential comic strip about a cyclops trying to escape his fate. After not having enough time to illustrate an entire comic strip for my last project, I'd like to develop the idea (or at least an idea) to fruition: I guess its the need for closure.

Rendition

This is the final rendition of my work. I've gone through countless edits and this is not exactly what I imagined, but I've learnt things so I guess it was worth it.

Uni Work; Earth Giant

This is an illustration for a collaborative news paper and also possibly a comic strip! :)

Spent the majority of today getting this piece from an A5 sketch into the computer and testing out its; colours, tree designs, composition and so forth.
Something still isn't quite right but I'll deal with that tomorrow.

Please leave a comment and I'll try and get back to you :)

Genesis!

Hello, My names Michael/Mikey/Magic Mike/Hey YOU! and this is the very beginning of what is essentially the genesis of my online presence. After hearing time and time again that every illustrator must have a blog or a website I've finally decided to do it (evidently). Until now I've only used facebook to flatter my ego as my friends offer very kind gratitudes towards my work: hopefully this blog will encourage you to comment and give an honest opinion on my work, (given that its valid).

- Also, I'd just like to explain the name behind my blog; basically I work across a few different styles and wanted to give each one a fair chance to be seen.

- (Below) In addition this piece of work is a composite of a small, bad scanner that is shit and needs replacing.. hence forth apologies for the quality. Other than that, enjoy!