The Humber

Hot off the desktop I have finished the newest member of the 'Landmark' collection. For all of you who love the humber bridge whether you're local or not, I will be getting these printed and added to the shop. If you're interested in one drop me a message and I'll put you on the list.

So without further ado I present 'The Humber'.

Star Wars LIA

Have just finished a new Star Wars LIA commission. This time it's Luke Skywalkers helmet. I'm thinking of doing all of red squadron and some really big pieces too if anyone is interested. More on that soon.

Latest Landmark

It's been a while since I posted a new addition to the 'Landmark' collection so thought I'd share this one with you. 

Stormont Castle in Belfast was done as a commission a while back and will now be available to everybody. So if Belfast holds a particular place in your heart then let me know and I can get some printed up.

The existing landmark prints are available at www.wearemadeby.com 

Top 5 Books for a Newbie Comic Artist

When I first started out drawing semi professionally I scoured the internet looking for tips on what reference books and materials etc would be best. In this post I will show my top 5(ish) books for anyone starting out drawing and in particular drawing comics. This list is purely the books I find to be useful and there are a myriad of others out there to choose from. However these will hopefully prove helpful.

Everbody knows the 'For Dummies' books and this does exactly what it says on the tin. It teaches the basics of anatomy and more.  

One of the toughest things for anyone starting out is perspective. It doesn't matter how good your character drawing is, if your perspective is out it will ruin it. This book has saved me on many an occasion and covers all aspects of perspective drawing. Highly recommend this book.

Scott McCloud is an absolute legend. His insight into the way comics work is incredible. This book covers every aspect of the process, not so much how to draw things but what to draw in what place and why. It's a fascinating read that makes you think about how comics work.

The Marvel how to draw comics book is a classic which has some great tips for proper traditional style comic drawing. Perhaps not the most in depth book compared to others but great for getting you going and a must for getting that proper Marvel style.

Ok I kind of cheated with this final choice. The DC comics guide series is so good I had to include them all as one. Pencilling, Inking, Colouring and Lettering are all very different beasts and these books show you tips and techniques for all without lumping them all in together and missing things. Every time I sit and go through these I learn something new. 

So there we go a little look at my top five ish reference books. I have plenty more on the shelves that I dip in and out of but these are the go to's for many occasions.

Hope it helps some of you out too.

New Cornelius Logo

I've been a busy boy of late working on 'Project Cornelius'. Since I created the original prologue comic I've developed quite considerably as an artist so decided to create pretty much everything afresh. And what better place to start than the logo itself. So without further a do here is the new logo for 'The Intrepid Endeavours of Cornelius Blow'. Lots more updates to come so watch this space.   

Tools of the trade

I thought I'd try something a little different today. I'm going to give you a little insight into some of the equipment I use on a daily basis. This is by no means exhaustive as I have all manner of different pens and other bits that I use for specific jobs.

First up is possibly the most important, 'Paper'. I tend to rough out my ideas in moleskin notebooks or other pads. If they're something that will be scanned in and inked over digitally then chances are I'll just draw them on normal printer paper as it's easier. However if I'm doing something more elaborate like a comic page or a commission that requires hand inking then I will always draw it on bristol board. I tend to use either Daler Rowney or Windsor & Newton personally but there are a lot of other great companies out there. 'Pencils' A lot of people in the comics industry use non repro blue pencils such as col-erase as they don't show up when the page is later scanned into a computer. I on the otherhand have never found one that works right for me, so I stick to my good old Rotring mechanical pencil with a 0.5 lead. I do sometimes use ordinary pencils particularly when drawing on old book pages as they don't tend to be so scratchy against the paper, but mostly its the Rotring. 'Pens' Now then Mickey love let me tell you about Paulines pens! Sorry had to stick a League of Gentlemen reference in there. For most of my illustration work I use uni pin fine liners which are brilliant for cross hatching and drawing in details. I use 0.05, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.5, 0.8 nibs not sure if they do others but they're my go to. I also use a Pentel brush pen which is amazing for loose sketching and filling in larger areas. Other artists use them for everything with great effect but I haven't mastered it to that level yet. My new boy though is the Pentel Touch, which is somewhere between a brushpen and felt tip. It's a fantastic pen for getting varied line thickness and you can get some really fine lines with it too. I use it a lot for the 'Apple Tree Pirates' as I find it a great cartooning pen.  'Bits and Bobs' I'm sure there are a myriad of different tools out there to help artists including a few I'd really like myself but these are the ones I currently use the most.  A good solid pair of compasses. Mine are Rotring and have been used for years. They are pretty much essential to me because you can do a lot more than just draw circles with them. A 360 degree protractor. These can be really useful for making logos with circles involved as sometimes marking things by eye just isn't accurate enough. A set square is another essential as I use it as a ruler as well as for right angles. Rubbers are another essential item for various stages of drawing. a normal rubber like everybody has and also a putty eraser which is a new discovery to me, no idea why I've never had one before because they're super useful.  So there we go. That's a little glimpse into the tools of the trade for me at least. If you want to know anything more about them please drop a comment or find me on one of the social media below.

Cornelius Update

It's been a while since I did any updates so thought I'd share some of the progress I've been making on Project Cornelius. I'm busy scripting the comic at the moment which is up to about 30 pages and still growing. I have also been working on a new Zombot model to take to the shows and basically terrify everyone into reading the comic when it comes out.

It's early days yet but the base is an old picture frame which I'm building up with air drying clay. Once the clay pavement is finished I can start building the feet and adding detail.

This is the underside of the body which will slot onto the waist when finished. There will be extra armour plates and electrical bits detailing under here when done.

This model was kind of started because I found part of a piece of christmas packaging for the dome that happened to fit perfectly into an old SMA tin. Thus a monster was born.

Just as an indication to the size I've placed a 12" ruler next to him. The legs and body now support their own weight which is a major step. A little more strengthening is required because it's pretty top heavy but you can see where it's heading. Arm and shoulder are the next big additions.