Character design of Simon

Here are two more character design drawings i did for 'Simon and the Sundial' both being of Simon and his girlfriend Sundial! The image with the partners linked has Sundial in the classic Superman pose with the twist that she has her hand playfully linked into Simons arm making him the masculine figure and her the more submissive. Im quite happy with both drawings and its nice to see the characters starting to come to life

Simon and the Sundial

Well we now have a working title 'Simon and the Sundial' for the project im doing with Daniel. Today i submitted two character designs for our superhero family but i must stress that this is not a superhero comic. The main female role of Sundial was fun to design. The concept was always to draw people who just looked like they happened to have costumes on, so she is typically attractive, but i've stayed away from the big bossomed harlet and broken up that perfect smile with making her a little too toothy. Sundials brother Mapman is as simple a design as it looks, the outline of a body drawn over a series of maps. He's like a geographic rawshak!

I had my first comics interview

As i have mentioned i've been lucky enough to have contributed to the 'Sugar Glider stories' comic featuring other comic artirts like Martin Eden (Spandex) and Graham Pearce (Sgt Mike Battle). My role was a poster page and with the poster finished and submitted i was asked a series of questions on the project my Gavin Jones co-host of 'The Sidekick Cast'. The full interview along with the interviews of other artrists on the comic can be viewed on Daniel Cliffords blog (writer of Sugar Glider) at http://danieljamesclifford.tumblr.com/

I started playing around with some styles to bring to this comic that im drawing with Daniel. I liked the idea of putting characters drawn on white paper on a black background to give the images more pop. In pitching my idea i drew a couple of scenes that showcase this style. The arm doing the punching i made bolder to give the image more action. In the bar scenes i tried two different looks the first with only the two main characters in white, so that the 'extras' of the scene would blend in with the background. In the second scence i drew all the characters on white paper. I personally prefer the second image having all people on white. I made this image by drawing the whole thing one white paper and photocopying the image, that way i could cut out with a craft knife the parts i wanted to use.

Dinner and a idea!

Yesterday i met up with 'Sugar Glider' writer Daniel Clifford for something to eat and to discuss ideas for doing a project together. Having recently finished the SG poster for their anthology i was keen to work with Daniel. This will be the first time i have had someone write for me and the work will be fully fictional. Although the ideas are still in the early stages i believe we have a solid story and we plan on a finish date of May. This will be a stand alone comic and i will keep the blog updated with its progress.

TRACK 2 is out on the shelf

Today i got to release 'Track 2' into the shops. Tracks is my first solo comics project. The idea is that ten short stories released as singles will eventually make up an 'Album'. Each comic will take its influence from different areas ie. film (Track 1), peotry (Track 2), music, TV and art. Each comic contains a B-side on the back.
 The comic went on sale in Traveling man in Newcastle but im looking to expand on were i can get it sold, so watch this space.

Sugar Glider Poster

The start of the new year has seen the release of 'Track 2' and the other project i've been working on is a pop poster for the 'Sugar Glider' comic. I really wanted to take on a graphic design approach to this poster and apply the elements i found stand out the most from the SG story. What i love about Daniel and Gary's comic is the Newcastle landmarks playing such a key role in this superhero story.
 My first step was to practise drawing the character, having not drawn a costumed character before. The sketches (one of which can be seen here) were placed on the fan art section of the SG facebook page. My approach for the poster was to marry to two key elements of character and city. I tried doing a sketch of the centre of life with Susie running across the roof but the character element was lost in the scenery and it became a picture of the building rather then Sugar Glider.
 What came next was the idea of climbing, so as research i got myself a copy of a very good magazine called 'Climb' and went searching for buildings to use. Daniel took me down a alley! and showed me a great building with a beautiful art decor arch with a vampire rabbit above it. This will be the focal point of the picture hopefully blending both Susie and the rabbit!