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