Friday 30 December 2011

BAYOU ARCANA HITS THE PRESS!!!


There was big news concerning Bayou Arcana yesterday...
We had a story in The Guardian newspaper!!! :D :D

Back in October a Guardian journalist got in contact with the legendary Nic Wilkinson (Slaughterman's Creed, Cancer Town and illustrator for Bayou Arcana story: Swamp Pussy) requesting information on Bayou Arcana to include it in an article about the UK comics world and female creators!

As some may know already Bayou Arcana appears to have a completely unique creator pairing to any other comic/graphic novel across the small press, indie or mainstream board!

ALL the illustrators are female and ALL writers are male!

The article was to be about the diversity of storytelling that is happening in independent comics and, in particular, how the stereotype of comics being a male dominated industry by both creators and readers does not apply to the exciting stuff being done in the indie world!


So here (for anyone that missed it) are scans of the article for you to read at your own pleasure!!!

Oh, and note art by yours truly featured at the bottom of page 2! :P




This isn't the only bit of breaking news regarding Bayou Arcana either!

I can now reveal that we have been working on a BA Facebook group, where everyone can view development artwork from all the creators involved, take a sneeky peek at some completed pages and stay in tuned with news and updates!!

You can request to join right here: http://www.facebook.com/groups/bayouarcanaofficial/

Hope to see you there soon!

Monday 19 December 2011

Hairy Hero Smooth Jason - More character studies!!

Hey there Hairies!

Here're more studies for Jason. I've started to draw up a more concise study of the character from all angles with colour, so Laura and I can use it as reference when animating!

I've got the Front and Back views for you now






I firstly drew Jason unclothed to get an idea of how his body shape, markings and how his anatomy could work, and then I set about dressing him.
The colour swatches along the bottom will allow Laura and I to pick and use those exact colours when we animate.


Now I bet you are all wondering why on earth Jason is blue... there's no such thing as a blue spider!!?? Guess again!

Jason is a Peacock Parachute Spider and the colours I used were taken directly from this photograph of the real thing!



Who knew spiders could be so pretty, right!??

Monday 12 December 2011

Hairy Hero Smooth Jason - Character studies

Hey there Hairies!

Today I shall introduce you to a smooth little customer. He's stylish, got an eye for the ladies, he's just a little bit lazy and can't pass up an opportunity to look himself in the mirror!!

He's Smooth Jason!






Jason here will be the first character that sees animation, his story will be the first that Laura, Clive and I adapt for your viewing pleasure!
Clive is working on the story backbone (which you can read here) Laura will be working on adapting the prose to script for storyboarding. And yours truly will be having fun playing with the characters!

So watch out for the next Hairy Heroes installment, with some 360 colour studies of Jason!!

Thursday 8 December 2011

Hairy Hero Pete Panther - Character studies.

A little while ago a good friend of mine and fellow animator; Laura Bartle, got in contact with me about working with her on a possible animation commission!
It would be a series of potentially 13 animations based on stories written by Clive Pearce, titled Hairy Heroes!

Well after sorting out a few things with work I'm able to commit to the Hairy Heroes project!

So, without further a-do let me introduce you into this Hairy little world that Clive has created with the first character I've had a go at designing. The little light fingered arachnid; Pete Panther!




I shall be designing the characters (which as you must all have figured out, is what I love doing most!) and Laura will be working up storyboards (which is what she prefers too!!) So it's a perfect match!

I shall keep you posted on the progress we make! However if you want to learn more about Pete then click here to read his story!

You can also read a lot more of Clive's stuff on his full website: www.tinhuttales.co.uk

Also you can take a gander at Laura's fantastic animations on her Vimeo and YouTube channels!

Doctor Who Comic - 10th Doctor Character Studies

Hey there fellow Whovians!

Heres is another batch of Doctor doodles for you!
This time everyone's favourite, and for me probably the easiest likeness to capture, the 10th Doctor!





As some of you may remember I gave a few hints, with some 8th Doctor sketches, as to what this Doctor Who comic could be about!
Well for those of you who have been trying to figure out it out I guess you can safely add the fact that this story is a multi-Doctor story into the equation!!

More Who stuff coming soon! :)

Saturday 3 December 2011

Dragonmeet Gaming Convention 2011


Hey there Gamers!

On Saturday 26th November the Dragonmeet Gaming Convention was held at Kensington Town Hall, London. Dragonmeet is traditionally a major UK one-day convention with trade stands, demo games, Live action RPG and special guest panels!

If you dared to plunge it's dark and musty depths this year then you may have come across Dark Harvest's stand at the Cubicle 7 table, and a free limited teaser booklet for the next Dark Harvest book containing Resistance, the RPG intro comic I illustrated back along!

But for those that couldn't make it (admittedly myself included!) heres a little peek at what we all missed!




Above is a quick snap taken by Iain Lowson (writer of the comic and main contributor to the RPG) of the Resistance booklets and the current Dark Harvest book displayed on the Cubicle 7 main stand.

And below is a shot of the guys test driving the new Dark Harvest card game! Anyone who went along was able to put this prototype game through it's paces, give feedback and have a fun at the same time!


100 copies of the Resistance booklet were printed and brought along to Dragonmeet, and only 30 remained at the end of the day!
Those 70 lucky people who nabbed a copy for themselves now hold a full introduction into the deep, dark and dangerous world that is Promethea!!

But I wouldn't leave the rest of you out, here is a little taste!




Acknowledgments go to Iain who printed these booklets out at home, and stapled them by hand, to the guys at Cubicle 7 that went along, and mostly to everyone who tried out the DH card game and picked up a copy!
Thanks!!!


To be kept up to date with futher news and events check out the Dark Harvest Facebook page (and don't forget to click "like"!)
Also everything you could ever want to know about DH is available on the official website: www.darkharvest-legacyoffrankenstein.com

Friday 25 November 2011

Doctor Who Comic - 9th Doctor Character Studies

Hello Who-fans!
I've another batch of character studies for you!

This time I have been practicing my Eccie face! Though I reckon the most successful studies here are the ones of him doing his daft smile. Oh well!
Practice make perfect 'n all that! :)




Wednesday 23 November 2011

Doctor Who Comic - 8th Doctor Character Studies

Greetings Whovians!!

You may, or may not know that Doctor Who celebrated it's 48th birthday today!! :D

And so to mark this momentous occasion I thought I would post up the first of many Character studies for the Doctor Who comic project (that I've finally started) being written by Alex.

You may remember a couple of posts previously that featured a Doctor doodle or two, but here I have been refining the style and method for drawing the 8th Doctor that I can carry through an entire comic.
I kinda think I was getting the hang of drawing McGann in the end!
What d'you think? :)






The comic will be a total of 5 issues long, 22 pages per issue, and will be one of the longest projects I have ever taken on!!
I don't want to give too much of the story away now, but I'll give you a couple tidbits to keep you guessing! ;)
For the most part, the story takes place in the year 1912. It revolves around an epic moment in world history. And involves something in the 'Who' timeline that previously has only been speculated over!!

Stay tuned for more character studies coming soon!! :D

Saturday 19 November 2011

Bayou Arcana - Lettering Preview!!

Howdy all Swamp Folk!!

As you well know Bayou Arcana, "Promises" has reached completion and I owe you lot something pretty!

So I thought, as you've seen the first page develop from pencils through to being coloured, that I would let you all see that process through to the end and post up Page One in all it's lettered glory!!

Without further a-do, I give you "Promises", Page One!




But thats not all I've got for you!

As I've done before, with showing you how I draw and put a page together (click here to be reminded) and how I colour (click here), I'll now show you how I lettered "Promises"!


Step 1: First things first I set guides on the page (the light blue lines) to mark out the safe zones to place text, so nothing will be chopped off when printed.
I then type the text for each speech bubble and position it where I reckon it flows best. Using the oval Shape Layer tool I draw white circles behind the text, then with the Direct Selection tool I tweak the shape of the circles to fit the text using the bezier handles, as can be seen on the top speech bubble of this picture.


Step 2: With one shape layer selected at a time, and making sure the "Add to Shape Layer" option in the toolbar at the top is highlighted, I draw in three new Anchor Points using the Pen tool for the tail of the speech bubble. The Anchor Points I then tweak using the bezier handles with the Direct Selection tool, as seen on the last speech bubble on this picture.


Step 3: As I wanted to integrate the speech bubbles into the page and make them feel like part of the art work, I needed to somehow introduce a texture to the Shape Layers I'd created. Problems is with Shape Layers, although their vectorized and useful for making a perfectly clean and smooth bubble shapes, they cannot be selected or filled with anything other than a block colour!
So what I did was to right click on each bubble Shape Layer in the Layers palette to bring up the set of options in this picture. I selected "Rasterize Layer" which turned the Shape Layer into an ordinary customisable Layer like any other, but kept the clean vectorized qualities of the Shape Layer!

(For the B+W comics I've lettered - Dark Harvest: Resistance and Red Riding Hood, I wouldn't use Steps 3 or 4, but leave the bubbles as block white Shape Layers and proceed to Step 6!)


Step 4: I then chose a suitable texture with which to replace the currently white bubble, in this case an old paper texture, and positioned it on a layer behind.
With the white bubble now as a regular Layer, I can use the Magic Wand selection tool to select the outside of the bubble. With this selection still active I then choose the old paper texture layer in the Layers Palette on the side and then press the Delete key.


Step 5: What this has done is deleted all the extra space the texture had around the white bubble (as you saw in the previous step, it was just a square of texture behind it) making it now an old paper bubble, exactly the same size and shape!
I then get rid of the white bubble layer.

Step 6: The final touches!!
I add an outline by double clicking the bubble layer in the Layers Palette to bring up the properties window. Then tick the bottom box on the left marked "Stroke", choose a line width of 3px and click Ok. The "Stroke" effect appears as a little drop-down menu on the actual layer itself, as seen on the right in the Layers Palette of this picture!
Lastly to add a little bit of transparency to the bubbles and integrate them into the page a little more, I change the layer opacity to 80%.

Repeat that process for all 6 pages and there you have it! One lettered comic! :D

I'll update you all on any news regarding Bayou Arcana's progress to print as of when I receive it! So watch this space!! :D

Friday 18 November 2011

Sugar Glider Stories 2 - Launching at Thought Bubble!

Hey Hey People!!

If you should so happen to find yourselves in Leeds for Thought Bubble's comic convention this weekend (19th - 20th Nov) then you might just want to pootle over to table 126 and pick up a copy of Sugar Glider Stories 2 from the lovely Daniel Clifford!!

And "why would I want to do that?" I hear you ask!?
Well, aside from the obvious fact that Sugar Glider is AWESOME, if you buy a copy then you shall own my very first published comic story!

Oh yes people! I can (finally) reveal that I had a role on the creative team for Sugar Glider Stories 2!! :D

^ Sugar Glider Stories 2 preview poster. Individual floating panels by artists involved (including me). Design, composition and centre illustration by Jack Couvela.

Back in July, during the completion of the last few pages of the Dark Harvest intro comic "Resistance", I was also busy beavering away on SGS2!

I was asked ages ago by Daniel "Stan Lee of Small Press" Clifford if I would be interested in illustrating for his second collection of short stories centered around his and Gary Bainbridge's Sugar Glider series.
I instantly leaped at the opportunity!
And even when Daniel emailed me while I was feverishly working on Dark Harvest (with about a week till the 21st July, Strip Magazine deadline) and he gave me the option to illustrate one of the scripts for Sugar Glider Stories 2, with only a couple of weeks to complete it in... If I wasn't too busy...
I said "Hell Yeah!! I can make time!!" :D

And so "Moving Day" became mine to illustrate!

^ My panel from the preview poster shown above.

Building up to the launch of SGS2 Daniel arranged for several creator interviews to be conducted by Gavin Jones, the co-host of The Sidekick Cast.

You'll find them all right here on the Sugar Glider website!!

But to celebrate the launch of SGS2 (and did I mention, my very first published comic!?!) right here on my blog, here're some art goodies from "Moving Day" for your enjoyment! :)








So why is Babylon in a grump about hefting some boxes around? And why is Red Kite shouting his Super-pants off at Barn Owl?
Your going to have to grab a copy of Sugar Glider Stories 2 to find out!! ;)

Oh! Don't worry all of you who are unable to make it to Thought Bubble, the comic will be made available to buy online (along with the rest of the Sugar Glider series) here via Daniel's shop!

Monday 14 November 2011

Into the Woods: A fairy tale Anthology - Red Riding Hood

Hello again Folks!

In my previous post, when I said I'd be able to show you some art from Red Riding Hood very very soon, I didn't realise how soon that would be! Haha! :D

With a thumbs up from Stace, I'm pleased to say that you get a double whammy of art reveals today! You lucky people! :)

So without further a-do, here're a couple panels from Red Riding Hood...
(These're actually my personal favourites too!)







Into the Woods will be launching at Cardiff Expo, 25th & 26th February 2012!!

Dark Harvest: Illustrations of the Legacy of Frankenstein.

G'morning Prometheans!!

Sorry for the lack of activity on here of late, but if you had read my last post then you'll all know that I've been working frantically to reach the finish line on Bayou Arcana, Red Riding Hood and the Dark Harvest Illustration commission!

Well from here on in folks, I'm happy to say that I can start cashing in some of those promises I made in the last post!!!

Red Riding hood is, as you'll know, FINIIISHED!! And I'm pleased to say that some art from that will be revealed very very soon! So stay tuned! :D

Bayou Arcana "Promises" is also FIIIINIIIISHED!!!! It's lettered and the complete files as preferred by Markosia have been handed over to Jimmy Pearson to be collected with the other stories. The deadline for all BA stories is January next year, so you'll have a while to wait till you can see the real thing, however I've requested that I blog a lettered page to keep your appetites wetted! ;)

And finally, the last bit of Dark Harvest (for the moment) is also... yup, you guessed it.. FIIIIIIIIINIIIIIISHED!!!!!

And here are some long awaited sneaky peeks!!










These images are cropped sections of larger illustrations that will be appearing alongside short stories from the Dark Harvest mythos, in the second published book!

Saturday 15 October 2011

Jelly Baby!? (& Update!!)

Hellooo my lovelies!!
Boy, have I been busy!!

In my last post I told of how I'd just finished all the art for "Promises" and was well on the way to finishing Red Riding Hood!

Well, since then I've not only completed all art for Red Riding Hood, but I've completely completed it! Yup, all 5 pages are drawn, toned and lettered ready to print! Thats another comic under my belt, Oh Yeah!!
I'll post updates of the whole Into The Woods anthology as of when I hear more news, and hopefully'll be able to show you some RRH art if, I'm allowed!!!
So stay tuned!!!

Progress on Bayou Arcana "Promises" at the moment is pretty much where I left it with you last time.. I'm currently waiting for the word on wether or not licenses for fonts need to be bought, or if we can use the free Blambot.com fonts... I'm not at all good with the legal stuff so I'm making sure we've covered all out bases before going ahead.
But I'm ready and raring to make a start on the lettering as soon as I get a green light! And maybe, just maybe a lettered page might be revealed! :)


At the moment though I've been catching up with a commission thats been put on the back-burner for quite some time now...
Before Dark Harvest's Iain Lowson involved me in his idea for the RPG intro comic: "Resistance", he approached me about four 1/4 B+W Illustrations for the next Dark Harvest book! I took on the commission and completed the roughs (which you can see here!) and then had to put it on hold while I completed "Resistance" in time for the deadline!
Currently I've just finished the 2nd illustration and will tackle the 3rd next weekend.
I'm also in talks with Iain about possibly giving you all a sneaky peek at said illustrations once all four are complete! So defiantly watch out for that!! :D


Lastly I have been collecting images and researching like a crazy person!
All in readiness to start a couple of very exciting projects that are waiting patiently in the wings. Once I've finished all current Bayou Arcana and and Dark Harvest commitments I shall be totally set to scribble away to my hearts content!
One project is a collaboration with my Bayou Arcana writer, Matt Gibbs. and the other I briefly mentioned before (click here to be reminded) was a team up with my boyfriend, Alex Beedie on a fab Doctor Who Story!!


So with the promise of LOADS of artwork to come, I think it's only fair that I doodle something for you now!!




This quick sketch was inspired by a morning spent listening to Alex watching a youtube video featuring clips of Tom Baker saying "Would you like a Jelly Baby?" in various episodes, and then an evening spent taking screen shots of Paul McGann in the Movie. Which resulted in a MASSIVE craving for Jelly Babies!!
So much so that I had to rush out and by a bag to be able to concentrate on drawing!!!

Monday 3 October 2011

Bayou Arcana - THE FINAL PAGE!!!!

This is it! All 6 pages of "Promises" are drawn and coloured!!!!

The deadline for all the Bayou Arcana stories to be collected is January, so that leaves me plenty of time to letter at my leisure! :)

As far as my two week holiday goal goes, I'm very nearly there.. only one more page of Red Riding Hood to draw and tone before that comic is ready for lettering too!!
Once both those comics are all completely completed I'll have 4 short stories under my belt! Whoop Whoop!!

Right now though I'll leave you lot to wonder over why poor Alice is so sad! :P
Here's your sneaky peek at page 6!
Enjoy! :D