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.