Sketchbook Doodle: Bluebirds

So Many Superheros!

I think it's safe to say I've had a very productive bank holiday weekend! It was much needed as September is going to be a bit of an insane month work-wise. In the meantime, please enjoy these Jessified Superheroes!

Step-by-step Painting! Part the Second!

I just realised there are actually very few steps left to go, so apologies if this one is a bit short! When last we left Frank, he had just been flatted...

I like cel-shaded style colouring as it fits in with the kind of work I do and acrylics are great for layering. I love how they get a kind of plastic texture when they dry. I've given Frank some shadow and a nice popping vein on his forehead!

And the last step; outlining! For these pics I've gone for black but I do also outline in colour if I want to soften something up. However, as these are very cartoony I think the black suits. And there we have it! A cute little Punisher! As I mentioned before, I usually work on about three at any time, so here are the paintings I've done over the last two days:

From left to right: Dr Manhatten, Nite Owl, Hulk, Hellblazer, The Punisher and Reed Richards. I've currently got four more wirh backgrounds drying as we speak so hopefully over the next couple of days I can post pics of Green Lantern, Clark Kent, Blue Beetle and Hellboy!

Step-by-step painting! Part the First.

I thought I'd do a step-by-step of how I go about creating my canvas paintings, as Katie of Green Bean Studio kindly posted one after I nagged her about how she goes about working in gouache! I love seeing the processes other artists use and am always intrigued by it, so hopefully someone will find this at least a tad interesting!

I used to be a very watercolour-obsessed artist and would shy away from heavy, thick acrylics as I thought they were very hard to control. However, during a not particularly great time in my life when I needed a change, I decided to just go for it and paint a huge canvas with acrylics. I still have the offending article on my wall at home just to show me how far I've come with the medium, but it looks bloody awful! XD

After much trial and error, I've finally found paints and brushes that work for me. I use a mixture of expensive and cheap acrylics as the two compliment each other very well when mixed (and saves on using up the expensive ones which come in smaller tubes). Liquitex are fantastic, almost gum-like paints that come in both transparent and opaque varieties, of which I mainly use opaque to achieve the bold, flat look I'm rather fond of. I like the student System 3 acrylics to go with these as they are cheap and plentiful. Not particularly good on their own but great when mixed with Liquitex. I love Loxley Deep-Edge canvases as the chunkiness of them makes them really nice tangible objects when finished and they are easy to hang or display.

Anyway, on with the steps! I usually paint three paintings at any given time if I'm working on a series of images. That way I don't waste time waiting for paint to dry! I'm currently working on my superhero pics for the con and am painting Reed Richards/Mr Fantastic, John Constantine/Hellblazer and Frank Castle/The Punisher. I'll focus on The Punisher for this post.

All pics start as a blue-line sketch. I just like the quality of blue pencil lead for sketching and it doesn't make a mess like graphite does when I transfer it to canvas.

Next, I trace the image to layout paper. If it needs flipping for any reason, I draw on the other side so the lead can carry to the canvas.

The images is transferred (very lightly) to the canvas, just by re-drawing over the image to press the lead into the canvas grain. I rarely, if ever, draw directly onto canvas.

Next, I mask off any areas I don't want smothered with background paint, which in this case is the whole image. I use drafting tape as opposed to masking tape which I find a bit too sticky, especially on paper which will rip when it is taken off.



Using my trusty craft knife/scalpel, I gently cut the shape of the image out. Now for paint!

I usually have ideas for colour schemes as I'm sketching the drawing in my sketchbook but more often than not, I make it up as I go, relying on instinct. We were always taught in University to make dozens of colour thumbnails beforehand but that bores me to tears! As The Punisher has a black and white outfit, I thought a grey tone would work well for the background. Depending on how thick the paint mixed is, two layers usually get the achieved flatness of the paint.


If I remember, a little shadow gets painted under the character before my favourite part....


...tearing off the drafting tape! So satisfying! Frank is ready to be flatted!

All the flat colours are painted with various thicknesses of brush (for those hard to reach areas), usually with two layers. Frank is now ready for the part that makes the picture really start to look good; the shading! But we'll leave that for part two as I've babbled on enough!

Hope this was of interest!

Creepy Potraits!

Because I don't draw people enough, I thought the next set of images I would draw would be people-based, just to give my brain a break from weird creatures and what-not! I've been looking at a lot of old Victorian photos and old family picture portraits and thought it would be great to produce a set of not-quite-right old style family photos. More on that when I get around to it, but in the meantime, here are a couple I tried out in my sketchbook with a bit of colour splashed on!

Octopop!

New Sugar Issue 7 FINALLY out!

I have a small feature in Issue 7 of New Sugar which is out as we speak. It's a web based magazine and features lot of cool artists and interviews so please take a look! http://www.newsugar.co.uk/
I submitted my work back in May and am now cringing at what answers I gave for my interview...!

Dyb and Dob!

I just finished a really fun commission for a Cub Scout Leader to make cartoon charcters of their mascots for their website. Dyb and Dob are the little owl mascots who will be popping up on this website: http://www.wsmscouts.org.uk/

The Cubs and Beavers will also have black and white versions to colour themselves and there will be a prize for the best one! Can't wait to see what they come up with; I'll be posting my favourite ones!

Comic Character Original Paintings!

The Birmingham Comic Con is just around the corner (October the 3rd and 4th) so I'm making a start on my goods to sell! The usual will be up for grabs such as badges, keyrings bags, paintings and postcards, but I'll also be doing a bunch of comic character paintings to cater for the hardcore comikers! The above will be included to buy as well as how many others I can produce between then and now. Expect to see The Flash, Green Lantern, Spider-Man, Blue Beetle, Clark Kent and Hulk just to name a few! Any suggestions are more than welcome!

The Horrible Swamp Creature!

Ghosts!

Some ghost ideas for t-shirts. I love drawing ghosts!

UPDATE: Haunted Videogame is going to be my next Genki Gear t-shirt! Woo!

Work in Progress Paintings!

Here are some pics of paintings I'm doing at the mo for the Six Artists Twelve Words Exhibition. My words were Experiment/Repair. I'll let you decide how I chose to interpret them!

Cthulhu!

More Lovecraft goodness!

Moving picture delights!

I've been trawling the wonder that is YouTube lately and feel I need to share some videos I've been enjoying! (The videos are slightly squished but click on them to go to YouTube)

First off we have Tetra Vaal; a fantasic short video by Neill Blomkamp, director of upcoming sci-fi film (which looks amazing), District 9. I saw this years ago and have been trying to find it ever since. Everything about this is just so well done and I love the robot!



On the subject of District 9, here's Neill Blomkamp's original short film, Alive in Jo'burg that was the springboard for District 9. Love the bio-suits!



Some hilariously surreal animation by Don Hertzfeldt. Wait for the Intermission in the 3rd Dimension...!



One of my all-time favourite gags from The Simpsons, Worker and Parasite! Absolute genius!



And finally, Stick Figure Theatre presents: Night of the Living Dead!

What Were You Before The Experiment?

Zine page for the exhibition!

Attack of the 50ft Guppy!

Another zine page for the exhibition. Infusing my love for bug-eyed fish monsters and cheesy sci-fi art! Out of the radioactive brine he rose to wreak havoc on the scientists that unwittingly created him!