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Tuesday, January 03, 2012
Well first off: Happy new Year! I trust 2012 has treated you with the respect you deserve. So far, at least. I thought I'd start the year by writing a process blog post on the very last illustration I produced in 2011. (A year we've already forgotten.) I've tried to keep it kind of brief - I occasionally lecture on this sort of stuff and so I started to slip into that mode a bit and had to reign myself in. Next time I do one of these I'll try and snatch more informative mid-process screengrabs (most of those below were taken at the end). The Movie Dredd Xmas Drawing Pete Wells, who runs the fabulous 2000AD Uncovered blog, emailed and asked me if I fancied contributing to the 'pros' section of the 2000AD Advent Calendar. I told him I'd love to - in fact it'd be an honour - and then put some thought into what I would draw. I'm ashamed to admit I had a bit of artist's block... Then Pete told me who else was going to be in the 'pro' section of the calendar. Other than me, it was more or less every genius artist currently working on the comic. So now that the pressure was off - I couldn't hope to compete with whatever they came up with! - my stupid block cleared and I decided I'd take a stab at drawing Judge Dredd as he's due to appear in the new movie Dredd. If you do a Google images search for "new movie dredd" you'll see the six or seven photos I had to work from. I put them all up on screen and tried to piece together the movie uniform. This was actually loads of fun and reminded me of doing exactly the same thing with old comics and superhero costumes when I was about five.  I settled on the first pose I came up with, because it felt a bit like something either Mike McMahon or Jamie Hewlett would draw - the relaxed arm and nonchalant kick.  You'll see that I shifted his left leg a bit to bring his centre of balance back. I thought I was making the figure more dynamic but in retrospect I think it was a mistake - it was more interesting and anarchic as it was. Alas. I inked the drawing using a combination of fineline and brush pens, leaving the spot black areas to be filled later on the computer. I usually do this as it's faster but it also means I can change my mind later on and maybe hatch or something instead.  Then I scanned and plopped it in Photoshop. After a few minutes of clean up (nothing too drastic) I laid down flat colours on a new layer beneath the inks. These colours can be anything you like and don't need to be anywhere near where you finally want to end up. Manga Studio has an automated - randomised colour - flatting process, but I haven't had a chance to explore that yet.  At this point I usually duplicate the flats layer, hide it (keeping it as a sort of 'save point') and start applying some shadows and gradients. I decided, because the figure doesn't actually take up a lot of the composition, that might make it too fussy - so I skipped that and went straight to some cell shading.  (Here I just created a new 'multiply' layer and, using the brush tool, painted some contour and drop shadows in a muted green-grey colour. I deliberately avoided being too neat with this.)  The side shadows on the 2, 0, 1 and 1 didn't work for me and I didn't want to go any darker, so I added benday dots. (If you don't know how to do this play with the options under Filter->Pixelate->Colourhalftone) I liked the dots so much I used them in the background too.  Then I changed my mind and used a Photoshop-generated cloud pattern and some transparency sweeps to make a new one that balanced the drawing better.  I also ditched my hand lettering, as it was slightly too sloppy. It would have been okay for dialogue but I should have been more careful with it at this scale. The font I used instead was courtesy of the excellent comicraft - picked up in their annual New Year's Day sale a few years ago. In a few months' time I'm probably going to discover that this is nothing like what the movie uniform actually looks like. But, just like 2011, everyone will have forgotten by then. Hmmm... I already think I should have made the body armour bulkier. Anyway... I hope that was either interesting or useful. Happy 2012! Friday, November 11, 2011
Even though we're slowly slipping into winter's grasp, the sun still shines...  Last week saw my debut in Mega City One... That's right, Tharg let me loose on the Judge Dredd universe!  (Megazine 317 - cover by legend Mark Harrison) The Unfortunate Case of High Altitude Albert features art by the fiendishly talented Joel Carpenter and lettering by master craftsman Simon Bowland. It's part of a brilliant lineup in this month's Judge Dredd Megazine (that's right - available all month from good newsagents and comic shoppes the world o'er) including part 2 of a cracking Judge Dredd tale by Michael Carroll and John Higgins, Pat Mills and Clint Langley's creator-owned American Reaper and the next sizzling chapter of the adventures of Cursed Earth Coburn by fellow-Scot Gordon Rennie and Dredd-creator Carlos Ezquerra. There's also a brilliant piece on Henry Flint's new artbook Broadcast: The TV Doodles of Henry Flint by my mate Matt Badham and a revealing Interrogation of Jim McCarthy by PR Droid Mike Molcher! Speaking of Judge Dredd - gad-about-town Ade Brown asked me to contribute to the Halloween art auction for his Just 1 Page charity and I came up with this:  That's an A4 rendering of an Undead Dredd, in sepia and red ink. Ade will be at Thought Bubble this weekend, looking for dosh - so if you fancy having this hanging on your wall please feel free to approach him with hard cash. (All money raised goes to Macmillan Cancer Support.) This brings back fond memories... Valeria Ferrari (the co-ordinator and guru on The Casita Variations project we worked on in Paris with Danny Goodbrey) has plopped a video of the installation up on YouTube: This week I'm mostly reading One on One by Craig Brown and Player Piano by Kurt Vonnegut - both highly recommended. But I'll leave you with some quotes from my favourite itinerant mathematician, Paul Erdos - they're all great. (His biography, The Man Who Loved Only Numbers, is a must-read!) Tuesday, July 05, 2011
Last week was a sad one as the London comics community said goodbye to Dangerous Dan Lester who's off to South Korea for a while. ('Laying low until the heat dies down' apparently... Whatever that means.) The page below represents the only tangible evidence of our last beer-sodden co-writing session. (The good bits are censored but I quite like the Judge Viking guy I drew.)  Anyway we all got together and made him a farewell card which was presented to him at Self Made Hero's fabulous launch party for David B's new book, Black Paths.     He's drawing a diary comic of his experiences, which will no doubt appear on a blog, webpage or lamp post near you soon. It was a busy week for comic parties, launches, lunches and farewells and I have just about recovered in time to prepare to leave The Cave and be social again - this time it's the BBC Writers' Festival in Leeds. There's a great line up (including Jimmy McGovern, Hugo Blick, Toby Whitehouse and Alice Nutter) and I'm really looking forward to it. I have to get up at The Crack of Doom tomorrow for the trek north and running out of business cards means I had to schedule a mad dash from train station to printers to hotel before it all kicks off... So check back in a few days for embarrassing tales of how I made an arse of myself due to sleep deprivation and exhaustion. Some links for you: John at downthetubes conducts a great interview with Jesus Redondo. (Speaking of which - I hear from Sally Anne at Mega City Comics that the 2000AD our story was in sold out in record time!) Cartoon Style Fighting Kids (I think the title says it all.) I reckon this would be a great way to make a low budget action movie. Lift - A Portrait of Life in an East London High Rise - an amazing short film made round the corner from me by Marc Isaacs. Thursday, June 09, 2011
Speaking of 2000AD... I was reminded a couple of weeks ago that 2000AD fans are a breed apart and probably the friendliest, coolest and most handsome people in the world. It was barely a minutes past 10am and I'd just shown up at the recent London Comic-Con KAPOW! to set up my table and display my wares. This is something I hadn't done for a few years and for a few moments I honestly couldn't remember why I ever did. Creating comics is very different to selling them and while I'm not usually shy, neither am I a natural salesman. Anyway - I texted my co-exhibitor Dan Lester and asked him to bring wine as this was going to be a long day. He replied and said he was still bed. It was now four minutes past ten and already things were looking bad. And then something wonderful happened. A troupe of 2000AD fans showed up, said hello, asked for sketches and bought my stuff. Suddenly the world seemed like a brighter place and I was lifted out of my, frankly inexcusable, pit of self-pity. Then Dan showed up with Chinese lychee wine and it got even better. KAPOW! itself was brilliant. It was constantly busy, but the organisers kept the crazy queues for signatures and screenings well away from the main floor. The crowd consisted of fans young and old, male and female and there was a heartening number of families wandering around taking it all in. A select few (about 60) of us even made it into the Guinness Book of World Records - twice! (Quick aside - if anyone has a scan of any of the thousands of sketches I did on the day, drop me a line at webhello at davidbaillie dot net and I'll put them on the blog. I remember being quite proud of the Mean Machine and Strontium Dog ones...)  Photo of me and The Lester taken at KAPOW! by and (c) Ms. Isla Rae Shortland. (Also hello to Kev if you're reading this!) KAPOW! came in for a bit of stick on the Internet, mainly because the pre-publicity and guestlist were quite superhero-centric (and so mostly male) but that wasn't at all reflected in the attendance on the day. I think some of this was simply down to the figurehead for the convention, Mark Millar (if you don't know his name you'll definitely have heard of the films based on his comics - Kick-Ass and Wanted) raising some hackles with his enthusiastic self-promotion. This brand of hucksterism has a long tradition in comics, stretching back to the legendary Stan Lee himself - but does upset other creators who believe humility to be a virtue. I don't know Mark but I did once spend an evening with him. (This isn't is kiss-and-tell, I promise!) It was at a meeting of the now-infamous SCCAM club in Glasgow in, I think, 1996. I was still at university and Mark was writing various strips for 2000AD and Aztek for DC with his then-writing partner Grant Morrison. I wasn't yet twenty and a wee bit starstruck at suddenly being surrounded by names I knew from my own comic collection. (This despite a sternly painted notice above the stairs descending to the SCCAM basement bar announcing 'No fanboys!') Knowing no one, I stumbled up to the bar and counted out the change in my pocket to see if I could afford a pint. Mark, who happened to be standing next to me at the time, saw this and offered to buy me a drink. I declined, but spotting that I was both skint and a newbie, he got me one anyway. Then he took me under his wing, introduced me to other creators and sat with me for a few hours sharing anecdotes and advice about breaking into comics. Now before I tell you what happened next I have to show you something. This is a scan from the inside cover of 2000AD Prog 849.  Now, if you look at that bit I've highlighted, you can see that Mark suggests that Peter Milligan is merely a pseudonym he uses. I didn't know at the time that he was joking. And Peter Milligan (who is a real person and not in any way a penname for Mark Millar) just happened to have written my favourite comic of all time - Hewligan's Haircut. As I sat down to drink the beer he'd bought me, I started gushing about Hewligan's Haircut and how I couldn't believe that I'd met the writer. (No fanboys, remember.) Not once did he flinch or correct me, knowing how embarrassed I'd be. Whenever he talked about things he was working on (he was writing the Superman story Red Son at the time) I would say 'But is it going to be as good as Hewligan's Haircut?' When he asked what sort of comics I wanted to one day create I said, 'Something that makes people feel the way I do when I read Hewligan's Haircut.' And when the evening was over, he wished me luck. And I thanked him again for writing Hewligan's Haircut. The moral of the story? Even if you don't like people who take every opportunity to talk themselves up... I reckon Mark Millar is definitely a nice guy. I was reminded of this story when I saw the photo below, which was taken on that very night. It was scanned from the SCCAM newsletter scanned by artist supreme - and one of those names I knew from my comics collection - Alex Ronald. He talks about his own memories of the club on his blog.  (You can maybe see why I told the story about how humble and generous he was with his time before I showed the photo.) Wednesday, June 08, 2011
A couple of weeks ago I attended The Eagle Awards - the UK comic industry's answer to the Oscars. There was free beer and the ceremony was presented by the guy who does Bender's voice in Futurama but that's not what I will remember about that night. For me the highlight was undoubtedly when Tharg (the alien editor of The Galaxy's Greatest Comic - 2000AD) leaned across the Twigglet-strewn V.I.P. table and said, in a booming voice of course, 'David - did I tell you that Jesus Redondo is drawing your Terror Tale?'  For those not in the know a Terror Tale is a four-page black and white horror story in 2000AD. And Jesus Redondo is one of the most legendary comics artists of the last three-and-a-bit decades of British comics. He drew the most lauded of Alan Moore's Future Shocks / Time Twisters as well as many other pivotal strips from the dawn of 2000AD - MACH 1, Nemesis the Warlock and The Mind of Wolfie Smith. (He also illustrated the incredible Mind Wars for Star Lord - well before my time!) To have him draw one of my stories - and in 2000AD no less - is a genuine honour. 2000AD prog 1737 also features a great Dredd strip by Gordon Rennie and Lee Carter, the next chapters in the Harry Absolom, Red Seas and Young Judge Anderson stories and sports a cracking cover by Sean Phillips. It's on sale now in all good newsagents, comic shops and available digitally from 2000AD's own website.  THARGFACT: Prog 1737 - 4/5 written by Scotsmen! I answer some questions about Future Shocks, Turtles and other stuff over at Marvelous Matt Badham's Writing blog. Come back tomorrow for another blog post (two in one week - what's going on?) about KAPOW!, SCCAM and possibly some topics that don't consist entirely of capital letters. Friday, April 08, 2011
Spring! I love the sun. Every now and then I think 'should I be doing something more honest and worthwhile with my life?' This usually happens after I meet someone who reminds me of the kind of stuff I used to do. For example, last year I met an old lecturer from my University at a party in The House of Lords (no less). We got chatting about all sorts of stuff, not related to work, and guzzled the bubbly. Then he asked what kind of engineering I had finally decided to specialise in. And as I puzzled over how to break it to him, I wondered - is writing and drawing really any kind of job for a thirty three year-old man? Should I instead be elbow deep in grease, solder and resistors? And then the sun comes out and I remember that I can do this job in the park. This week I've been writing stuff for The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles magazine, which contains short prose stories and two-page strips featuring the billion-selling heroes. Two pages isn't a lot of space to develop a story and, since it has to be translated, I have to keep the scripts free of gags and wordplay that might only work in English. It also has to be snappy and interesting enough to captivate the younger readership. The restrictions are usually what makes a gig interesting and this one has been loads of fun. Anyway here is one of the comics, drawn by the fabulous Abby Ryder:   I'm a bit hop-a-long this week as I injured myself running the Newham 10k last week. It hasn't slowed down my work at all (which is just as well as I have deadlines up the wazoo) but I'm feeling a bit blubberous after two weeks of little activity. Is that how you spell wazoo? Next item: Tripwire magazine goes all-digital with its next issue, which is out now and free to download at the official site. It has loads of great stuff in it, including a five-page spotlight article on the British comic 2000AD which Karl Stock and myself collaborated on. Speaking of 2000AD - FunFact: I once appeared on a cover alongside Judge Dredd. Or at least a character based on me did. Or at least based on what I look like. Or at least what I looked like when I spent an evening drinking with artist PJ Holden in a dodgy downstairs bar in New York a couple of years ago.  PJ sent me the art for the first episode of the story as he was drawing it and I couldn't help but notice that he added quite a beer belly to my shirtless doppelgänger before it saw print. I took up running shortly afterwards. PJ talks about the process of creating the cover at the Uncovered Blog. (And yes... Judge Dredd did shoot 'me' in the head in the final episode.)  And finally - if anyone is attending this weekend's KAPOW! Comicon, please swing past table 88 (two along from the Burlesque girls and Bleeding Cool and not too far from the Tardis apparently) where myself and my partner in crime Dan Lester will be selling our wares. I'll have the last few hardback copies of Tongue of the Dead, BASTARDS 1 and 2 and maybe some original artwork.  I haven't done this for a couple of years so be gentle with me. And don't mention the weight gain or the limp. Tuesday, February 15, 2011 I was up at 6 this morning to run up a few hills and round a pond and now it's all I can manage just to keep my eyes open. I'd forgotten that I have to go out again later to drop books at the library and pop into the gym, or else I might have killed the alarm, rolled over and gone back to sleep. Coffee #3 at the ready... And cold pizza. 'Cos I'm sure that'll help. I'm trying to split my work days this week between organising myself (just general workspace stuff - so that deadlines don't surprise me and I can find my brush pens when I need them) and giving the final shove to bits of work that have been languishing in my desk drawer. I need to do this every few months or risk ending up with an infinite number of spec projects sitting here not paying my rent. The other day I was watching a documentary about Spike Milligan that I was really enjoying, but I knew that Rebel Without a Cause was about to start on another channel. I couldn't decide between them so instead I recorded the remainder of both and went outside to fiddle with our satellite dish and add another cable. This broke the television signal long enough to kill both recordings stone dead. I have a Masters degree in this stuff, you know. Some links: The Back to the Future photo project (not what you're thinking) The Today's Inspiration Blog (Dave Gibbons is always linking to this on Twitter and it is really good.) An old article at the Indie about Tom McCarthy. Come back later in the week to see some lovely Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles art (I'm allowed to say it was lovely as I didn't draw it) and hear me complain about Spam and how it's ruining my morning routine. ---------------- Now playing: L7 – Baggage via FoxyTunes Thursday, February 10, 2011 some dude with an ipod - ballpoint pen, 2011 Happy 2011! Wait... What happened to January?!? I drew the sketch above while on the funky, shiny new bit of the London Overground which I really like for two reasons:
I went to see the King's Speech a couple of nights ago. You've probably already heard that it's good, so no need for me to say so here. I don't usually like films about royalty (unless they're based on something written by Shakespeare) in much the same way that I don't think I'd like films about people with too much chocolate, who did nothing to deserve all that chocolate and don't seem to appreciate all the chocolate they have. I liked The King's Speech though. I've decided to blog again in 2011, after pretty much taking 2010 off. That was partly an experiment to see whether the work would dry up any if my internet presence ran silent for a while and partly just because I was getting sick of the 'sound' my own 'voice'. You can draw your own conclusions from my decision to return to the blogstone. Some links for you, while I'm here: - A lovely old Alex Toth comic. - 20 Reasons it's Kicking off Everywhere @ the BBC - My new design website. Friday, November 12, 2010
Terrible weather, huh? Being freelance is fabulous in the summer. It's more difficult to keep the enthusiasm pumping when it's grey outside and you're rationed to just five hours of proper sunlight every day. On days like these there's nothing like (unsolicited) kind words to spur you on. Earlier this week a friend emailed to congratulate me on some comics of mine that he'd just read. Left musing that at some point you're going to create one of the great British graphic novels; something contemporary probably, about life, death, family, friends, love and all that shit...Which is maybe the nicest thing anyone's ever said about my work... Two other guys who are far kinder than they need to be about my stuff are Joe and Richard at The Forbidden Planet Blog. I love the blog - it's a one stop shop for comics news and criticism, especially if your tastes lie a little outside of the mainstream. Last month they asked for artists to contribute something to celebrate National Poetry Day and I couldn't resist. (Warning - partial nudity coming up... Actually - not that partial now I come to think of it...)  Ae Fond Kiss is one of my favourite poems. Good old Rab. I'm going on bit of a trip next week. Tuesday is the grand opening of the Frankophilia! exhibition at Salford University, which promises to be great fun. It even made it to the BBC News website. (Mine is the second picture in the slideshow... My name even pops up if you hover your mouse over it...) Then Saturday is the Thought Bubble comic convention in Leeds, which is always worth that long trip north. It seemed a bit daft to come back to London between the two, so I'll be staying up there partying, hopefully saying hello to friends and family and working on the move. Speaking of which - the first wave of BASTARDS nudey commisions (see below if this doesn't make any sense) are all done, dusted, packed and posted now, but if you're going to be at Thought Bubble next weekend I can bring along any purchases and hand-deliver them - as long as the order comes in before Monday evening. PAYPAL buttons: BASTARDS 2 £10 - sgned and accompanied by a nude drawingof the celebrity of your choice. (Just fill in the name of your desired celebrity in the details box below.) BASTARDS 1&2 bumper pack Same as above but with last years BASTARDS collection added in - all for just £14! (And speaking of The FP Blog here is their review of BASTARDS 2) Tuesday, October 26, 2010 Here is Richard's great review of BASTARDS 2 over at the FP Blog. And here comes the capitalism... BASTARDS 2 - for sale here! Yes indeed! It's £10 in the shops and it's £10 here. But if you buy it here you get: a) It signed. By me. Which will be worth a fortune. If I become famous and then die. b) The nude celeb drawing. (Yes - this is a serious offer) Just fill in the name of your desired celebrity in the details box below. BASTARDS 1&2 bumper pack - for sale here! It's true. You can buy the first and second BASTARDS collections - for a full pound less than in the shops (which comes in at £14) + free p&P and the now legendary naked famous person portrait. I'll be mailing stuff out as soon as the orders come (flooding) in or I can deliver by hand at either this weekend's MCM Expo or Leeds Thought Bubble. Monday, June 21, 2010 Frank Sidebottom RIP Great Jon Ronson piece about him here. And from robertflorence's Twitter: "Please take this from Chris passing - that silly thing you want to do that people think won't work? It might make you immortal." ---------------- Now playing: 4 Non Blondes – What's Up? via FoxyTunes Friday, April 16, 2010
I've just finished the first week of my residency at the absolutely fantastic firstsite and apart from being exhausted I'm also delighted with how it's going. For one thing, because it's the second week of the schools' Easter hols, kids & parents have been flooding in and helping me out. Having been commissioned to produce a comic work about Colchester and its people, I was really keen to get everyone who walked in the doors of the studio involved. The first phase of this plan required interested participants (and there has been no shortage of them) to produce short autobiographical comics.  How I've been coaxing people into drawing comics... I'm in awe of how creative and hard-working all of the artists involved have been. This morning a mum and her son stayed for over three hours toiling away on their pieces, and it was absolutely worth the effort as both were incredible:  This was the artist's first time painting since school! This is what the studio looks like in a rare quiet moment. I'd have taken photos when it was manic but I was too busy talking about comics and being covered in paint. Such is the life of an artist...  And this is my window. Drawing in the glass comics panel attracts quite a crowd. And I've already been told off once for leaving a bracket unclosed (many thanks to the young lady who sorted that for me).  Other amazing things that have happened to me this week include meeting Pat Mills (lovely bloke), being privileged to hear some absolutely great talks - all part of the WHAAM season here in Colchester - and hilarious, delicious, outrageous meals with Jes and Cath of firstsite, Martin of ACE Comics and Simon Grennan of Grennan and Sperandio. That's it for this post. I'm back at my B&B and gearing up for a Friday night in Colchester. I'm back in the studio tomorrow, so if you're in the area please pop in and say hi! (Oh and if you're going to the Fleece Station party tomorrow, I'll hopefully see you there!) Saturday, April 10, 2010 Anyone walking down Short Wyre Street in Colchester might well have noticed my name in large dayglo pink letters in the window of firstsite's fantastic headquarters. This is because I'm the artist-in -residence there for the next few of weeks. I'm not in the studio every day, but if you do want to catch me at t5he moment I'm scheduled to be in on the 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27 and 28 April. I'm also running a masterclass on comics storytelling on the 24th - places are limited so book now! Saturday, February 13, 2010 I got back from the Phonogram wake in town last night to find this in my inbox. Isn't it brilliant? Kind of makes me wish that I'd asked Oliver Lambden to draw the whole of Tongue of the Dead. I reckon it would have looked amazing! Oliver is the art brains behind Tales from the Flat, Curtis Terrorist, BLOC and the Dan Lester Mysteries. He's also a gangster of the highest order and a top bloke. This is his blog and this is his web site. Next time you see him beg for the chance to buy some of his comics. He's that good! Friday, February 12, 2010 Sometimes I do a morning sketch to loosen up before a day at the drawing table. Today I decided to make it a tribute to Walter Frederick Morrison who died on Tuesday. I hadn't heard of him before reading this, but he sounds like a great guy, invented the frisbee and took a mean photo. No really - click on the link and see the photo, it's great! Today I'll be mostly working on two pitches. Not for TV or comics though, weirdly. Oh and designing a logo for a well-known indie band who are making a comeback - although that's not a done deal so if I never mention it again I didn't get the gig. Have a good weekend!  |
