DRAW SERGE!

Here's my contribution to Jonathan Edwards' wonderful new blog - 'Draw Serge'.

We've had a bank holiday here in the UK over which time I've been decorating my new studio so I've actually had a couple of days off from drawing! A rare event. Painted Holmes in emulsion paints on one of the freshly plastered walls only to paint over it.

HOW I LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND LOVE PAINTER X

I have some possible comic book work on the horizon and have been experimenting with painter cross platforming with photoshop and it's been fun. The way I'm working is starting projects in photoshop (which I'm familiar with), blocking out colors, and then opening psd files in Painter and hopping between the two. What I love about Painter isn't so much the brushes, although the brushes in Painter are many and fantastic, rather it's the extended possibilities of manipulation and the palette for mixing up paints (taking me back to mixing up paints on a tile at art college).

I used a little bit of Painter in Grimmwood, but only for the canopy. I hope to use more.

MOON

This weeks Illustration Friday Topic is "Moon".

CAMOUFLAGE

This weeks Illustration Friday Topic is "Camouflage".

MAD ABOUT THE BUOY!

(click on the image for a larger version)

A background design for nothing-in-particular. Complete with flocks of birds and red buoy. I think I was trying out water effects in photo-shop at the time. This was going to be a follow up to Zombie Kong with Zombie-Zilla rising out of the sea headed for the city but I really liked the buoy and the water's surface and got kind of distracted. So, technically speaking, this is a Zombie-Zilla picture only Zombie-Zilla's running a little late.

REJECTION

This weeks Illustration Friday Topic is "Rejection".

HOT WIRED

One of my illustrations for Illustration Friday, entitled "Wired" is going to be used for the cover of Prism, a bimonthly newsletter for the British Fantasy Society. The editor, Jay Eales, contacted me a little while ago asking if he could use it after seeing it on this blog, which is nice.

POLAR

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Polar".

FORTUNE

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Fortune".

The word Fortune conjures up just one strong image in my head and that's those slot machines that tell your fortune or make you Big and head designer for a toy company. I wanted my Fortune teller to have deep hypnotic eyes, which again instantly conjured up another strong image in my head, Rasputin (or more specifically Christopher Lee's Rasputin in the 1966 Hammer Movie). I also figured I'd use the casing for the Fortune Teller slot machine as a way of framing the image.

MONARCHS ON PULP SECRET

Fist-A-Cuffs got a mention at PULP SECRET... and the Monarchs got a spot. Saddly, Monarchs didn't get through to the next round.

Damn their eyes!!!!

HELLBOY

(click to enlarge)

Here's my version of HELLBOY.

Duncan Fegredo is the artist on the next Hellboy miniseries from Dark Horse Comics (which I'm really looking forward to ... follow the link and you'll find a preview at the Dark Horse site) and is going to be doing a signing at the Nottingham Travelling Man store on the 28th of april from 1.00pm (he'll also be signing at the Bristol Travelling Man store 11th of may from 4.30 pm).

GREEN

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Green".

Don't forget to vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery over at Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs while there's still time. They need your love!

THE MALICIOUSLY MERCILESS MONARCHS OF MISERY NEED YOUR HELP!

The first round of Sam Hiti's Fist-A-Cuffs tag team challenge is up!

Vote for The Maliciously Merciless Monarchs of Misery. (L-R) The Butcher Wieners (drawn by Woodrow Phoenix) and The Angry Ball (drawn by me) are the greatest. They only want to be loved. You know it makes sense.

SNAP

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Snap".

I SPY.... WITH MY LITTLE EYE

Another illustration based on this week's Illustration Friday topic "I Spy". The artwork here's a lot like my original pitch to Dark Horse Comics for Wild Talents, back in 2003 (which reminds me, I must dig up my original pitch (it was a Victorian zombie yarn). This particular image sprang to mind after watching "The Thirty-Nine Steps" last night (the Robert Powell version), which is a cracking spy adventure story based on the novel by John Buchan (who hailed from roughly the same neck of the woods as the Culbard Clan). There may be a Wild Talents Redux appearing at Strange Planet sometime soon.

Whilst drawing this I learned about the reasonably interesting origins of the term "I Spy". According to Phrases.org:

The game I Spy originated in the early 20th century. It remains a common pastime played by children - albeit often initiated by adults to occupy bored children on car journeys and the like. One person secretly choose an object that they can 'spy with their little eye' and the others take turns to guess the name of the object.

The game isn't especially old and the first record of it that I can find is in The Winnipeg Free Press, December 1937:

"Other games ... are: What is My Thought Like, I Spy With My Little Eye (children love this) and Bird, Beast, Flower or Fish."

The game spawned a highly successful series of I-SPY spotter's guide books made for British children. These were very popular in the 1950s and 1960s.

The guessing game was preceded by another children's game called I Spy (or Hy Spy). This was a variant of what is now called Hide and Seek and was known in the UK from the 18th century. John Brand refers to it in his
History and antiquities of the town and county of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 1789:

"'I spye', is the usual exclamation at a childish game called 'Hie, spy, hie'."

I SPY...

This weeks illustration Friday topic is "I Spy..."

I've just finished a two hour email ping-pong session with Woodrow Phoenix. We've been drawing our Fist-a-cuffs tag team, so hopefully I'll have links to that in the next few days. Be sure to vote.

UPDATE: I have produced a second illustration with regard to this topic.

TWO-FISTED TALES!

Well, it's Thursday now and I've had three monstrously long days already. Had another trip down to London yesterday for the actual production meeting for the commercials I'm working on. Didn't get back till 10pm last night.

Slightly quieter today. Looking forward to the weekend.

The above two images are a color exercise I did a while ago, exploring antique palettes. I'm a big fan of the pulps, which is the only reason for the subject matter.

TOTAL

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Total".

CAPTAIN AMERICA

Captain America is dead. Long live Captain America. Currently there's a MEME going around and this is my contribution to it.

WIRED

This weeks Illustration Friday topic is "Wired".

On a related note: "In the future there will be robots," as they say in GTA. Right now an ethical code which prevents humans from abusing robots and vice versa is being drawn up in South Korea and is due to be released later this year. It's being drawn up by a team which includes a handful of futurists and a science fiction writer. Already it's been forecast that by 2020 every household in South Korea will have a robot and by 2018 robots will routinely carrying out surgery!