Neg 2. Sleepless Phoenix Comic Strip Colouring

Working further on the Comic strip for The Sleepless Phoenix's Ages Anthology. I have been colouring the inked pages, using photoshop.

I began by making sure the document was in greyscale, as the anthology is black and white. Then I selected a texture for the background and edited the textures to fit the areas which needed the specific texture. For example I used a texture called Mountain Rock for the walls and floor as it made the area look dark as if in a bunker or basement, which was the feel I hoped for. I made sure that the textures were on the multiply layer setting so as the ink work could be seen through it, I also multiplied the inked layer as I needed to work tone onto it on different layers

After getting the textures looking right I cropped each panel so that the pages layout would be symmetrical, identical (other than were intended) and neater.

To add tone, I used a graphics tablet and selected the area I wanted to shade, then using a large blurred brush i added dark tones , then using a flat rubber tool on 50% opacity I erased away parts of the darker areas to give the tone more definition.

When adding the lighter tones I used a normal layer over the other layers. Then in a similar fashion to the darker tones i added white, and then altered the opacity of the layer to get the desired shade.

Also as the comic was meant to be from the perspective of a hand held camera, I experimented with lens flare, to do this I made circles by editing a solid circle made with a brush tool, to edit out the centre I used modify tool to contract the selection and the delete the area. I made several circles and 2 lines through so as to give it the effect I wanted.

This is a page which I used the lens flare effect I developed in.

Neg 2. Sleepless Phoenix Comic Strip

As I have been working a lot with the Sleepless Phoenix on the blog and my Pin up being featured in last years anthology, I decided to submit a comic strip for this years anthology.

The theme was time and ages, and from this I devised a unique comic strip that goes from the perspective of a hand held camera used by a group of survivors trapped in a bunker after some kind of apocalypse. the camera has a time stamp which will be seen at the bottom of each panel to link the comic to the theme.

Obviously as I am hoping to be published in the anthology, I can't post the entire comic or even a fully finished page. However I can show some of the work I did in development (see older posts) and almost finished pages.

This is a page from the comic. I began by sketching the work in pencil as a rough. I then moved to A3 paper and ruled out the layout of the page that I had come to as well as drawing in detail the comic page, so as not to have rough marks on my inked pages I light-boxed the the pencils lightly on to Bristol Board. After which I worked over the pencil work using dipping pen adding tone and shadow to the original drawing.

Neg 1. Final Poster Design

Having worked on Cold War and other communist propaganda work before, for example El Lissitzsy's Beat the White With a Red Wedge etc. I chose to use similar styles and ideas when colouring my Fox Hunting Poster.

With this in mind I have worked the images to make them look worn and used a very red and orange dominated colour pallet.

After getting to an image I was happy with i experimented with Russian and Soviet text styles until I found one I was happy with.

Quarantined Reveiw

Lately as I am writing and illustrating a comic strip for the next Sleepless Phoenix anthology, i have been looking at further work that Sleepless Phoenix creators have gone on to do, namely the new Markosia graphic novel, Quarentined.

Quarantined is the most recently published graphic novel by Micheal Moreci. However would not be possible without the artwork from Monty Borror, colours from Lauren Anne Sharp, letter work by Jim Campbell, and cover art from Keith Burns.

The story follows a father and son who attempt to survive the Zombie apocalypse in their small town home. The story begins in the stereotypical zombie genre way with the protagonists arguing the best survival method, barricade themselves in the house or find and help others, and also stereotypically they chose the latter. However in keeping to the classic zombie story is in no way a bad thing, in fact horror fans will probably appreciate the old-school feel to the story. It also explores the ideas of not just protection against zombies but protection against other survivors as paranoia builds and issues such as food and water shortages become another focus in survival. In summary Quarantined is a classic zombie story with plenty of nods to the genre, violence is expected but it is not at a level of being gore porn which often ends up happening in this genre.

Read the start of the book at http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=69366

Neg 2. Sleepless Phoenix Character Development

Working further on the Comic strip I shall be submitting to the Sleepless Phoenix Ages Anthology, I have finalised the style that I have worked onto previously posted work. this style I am happy with as I believe it fits the mood of the story as well as the setting, seeing as both are quite dark. I have also worked further on my characters appearances by making full body designs, also in the style which I have worked on. with this in mind I am one step closer to begin work on the pages that I shall submit.

NarratorSuzie (Daughter)MikeBillMora

Neg 1. Anti-Fox Hunting Line Work

This week I have focused solely on getting this work for the Anti Fox Hunting posters finished by Easter. I have put all 4 images together and added suggested tone as well as direction to how the image is viewed by using vertical and horizontal lines, taking Will Eisner and Peter Kuper as inspiration. As well as blocking out the text banner. The next job to be done is to add subtle colour to bring out the foreground, which i shall be doing next week.

Neg 1. Anti-Fox Hunting Ink Work

I have been working further on my Anti-fox hunting images. I have inked the four pencil drawings. However I am yet to edit the images, so there are a few visible mistakes and pencil lines visible, which will be edited in due process.

Top Left.

Bottom Left.

Bottom Right.

Top Right.

Neg 1. Anti-Fox Hunting Pencil Work

I've been working towards finishing my anti-fox hunting posters, and therefore have began pencil sketches towards the final pieces, which shall be pen and colour through the use of Adobe Photoshop. The images are to be viewed as a collection of 4 posters slightly smaller than A3 arranged 2x2 on A1. The story line follows the ribbon flowing through all three images, which will have text in it.

Top Left Corner

Bottom Left Corner

Top Right Corner

Bottom Right Corner

Sleepless Phoenix Blog Work

As well as working on the posters for the student guild, I have been taken on as The Sleepless Phoenix's official blogger, I receive info every month on 2 posts that are to be posted bi-monthly. Posts can be found regularly at, http://thesleeplessphoenix.blogspot.com/

The latest post I've been working on required me to design a poster asking for more artists to submit work for the next anthology.

Also I posted this on the blog along with the poster:

"Here at The Sleepless Phoenix we have come to a peculiar problem - no one seems to be a comic book artist! The Ages Anthology has been inundated with writers, which is awesome, but we need artists to illustrate these fantastic story entries! Therefore, Comic-book artists, Graphic-novelists, Illustrators and Art Students, we are calling you out!

Artists please send any previous sequential artwork you have done as a submission to … along with anything you think we might be interested in seeing, Blogs etc.

Also to you writers who have or want to submit strips, if you have an artist in mind or know an artist who could illustrate your work, or even if you are a writer and an artist and want to illustrate your own story, let us know or get the artists in contact with us.

This is a promotional poster asking for artists. Anyone who knows our team; bought the Survival stories anthology or is just interested in helping us publish our next anthology; please spread the word and if possible put the posters up where artists might see it. I will be putting one in the art building at my Uni; we hope you to do similar :)

Thank you everyone for the support you give us.

Check back with us soon for a look at the first strips to become part of the Ages Anthology!"

Prefessional Practice Cancer Research Poster

Over the Christmas holidays I was asked by a friend of a friend to do some work for a charity event at the Glyndwr Student Guild in Wrexham on the 4th June 2011. We devised a Dead line of the 18th of March, fortunately I finished before hand.

I worked on the idea that 1 in 3 people are effected directly or indirectly by cancer, whether they are male or female, initially I began with drawing silhouettes of figures who could be anyone however I was inspired by my doodles of stick figures which looked reminiscent of gender symbols and so worked on a more graphical image of using the male symbol the female symbol and a X to represent cancer.

I was very inspired by screen print images I had seen in posters for bands such as Bon Iver, Death Cab For Cutie, Beirut, The Decemberists and Mumford and Sons as well as the book All Messed Up. With this in mind I worked on finding a distressed look to my work, however trying to recreate "accidental graphics" is far more difficult than I had anticipated and so went for a more controlled recreation using photoshop which took longer than I thought but came out looking better than the other work I had tried.

After a solid weekend of working on the final pieces I was able to send the images to Emma who approved them and will be displayed in the Guild shortly.

Poster 1

Poster 2

Poster 3

Ticket

Neg 2. Sleepless Phoenix - Characters

Recently I have been working on several projects. I am working on art work for a anti-fox hunting campaign, promotional material for a charity event and working on The Sleepless Phoenix Blog and working on a comic strip to submit to them for their comic anthology on time and the ages.

Currently I have started drawing my characters for the story that I shall be submitting along with developing the story itself.

The characters are:

The Man

The Conspiracy Theorist

The School Teacher

The Man's Son

Neg 1. Horses - Anti Fox Hunt

Working more on my book for the MacMillan Prize. I have a story drafted, and ready with development drawings. My biggest issue with this project is that Fox Hunters rid horses, and I am not confident in drawing horses. So today I spent a lot of time studying images of horses and drawing out horses legs in particular.

From this I have become more confident in drawing horses and think I am about ready to start working on roughs for my pages.

Neg 1. Man Fox - Anti Fox Hunt

Recently I have been working towards developing a children's story book to submit to the 2011 MacMillan Prize. Working from a doodle I made during another project I created a character, and am currently working on an appropriate story to accompany the character.

Whilst developing my initial drawings i did a variety of sketches to find an interesting way of keeping human and fox aspects of the character, deciding that hands, feet and face would be human. having to work out how they would work with the res of the body I made these sketches.

Blog Updates

My New years resolution is to attempt to post on my blog at least once evry two weeks (not including this post).
currently I have been working solely on my dissertation, however will post some of my new work shortly.
Check back here for more information and images.