Bluntwood

... and here's some I made earlier.

2011-09-10T08:29:00.000-07:00

... The Professor, The Queen and The Bookshop

2011-01-17T12:08:00.000-08:00

Three of my favourite pages of colour work I did for Rob Davis' excellent inks in the Christmas 'Doctor Who Magazine'. For a magical tale called - The Professor, The Queen and The Bookshop, written by Jonny Morris.

... the lab four

2011-01-17T11:45:00.000-08:00

OpenLab wanted a Logo with character designs that could be used as separate icons to front the four aspects of the parent company.

... Julia's Story

2011-01-17T11:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a little job I did last year for the FA.

Page one of a two page strip promoting youth football.

Serge as ... Scarface.

2010-10-20T09:29:00.000-07:00

Here is my 4th submission to the 'Draw Serge' site and my 3rd in the 'Serge as' series.

As I was working on this series I realised I had made a rod for my own back. As the restriction of using iconic images from very similar looking actors to Serge has meant I have had to stay as tight to his likeness as I could, as any blurring of the this leads the image/character to be read as a slightly dodgy version of the original actor in his familiar pose. Hopefully I have got the balance right so far though.

find chaffy ...

2010-08-24T05:19:00.001-07:00

This is a quickie I did for the 'Find Chaffy' blog running their submission friendly tell Chaffy's story panel by panel project. There are some funny entries and is worth a looksee.

I must add my appreciation to Tim Harries excellent panel which made me drop what I was doing and turn out what I hoped would be a follow up panel to his. With many thanks to Jamie Smart for accepting it and placing it where I hoped.

Superman - the comic cover.

2010-08-19T12:26:00.000-07:00

Here is the comic cover version of the Superman vs Kent image posted a short while back.

This was constructed from scratch and proved to be most satisfying to create, especially when it came to the aging processes and the seeing the effect they had on the image.

Serge as ... The Graduate.

2010-08-17T14:51:00.000-07:00

This is the second in the 'Serge as ...' series.

I was intending this to be a less graphic and more cartoony image than it turned out to be but I still like it for it's clean, movie poster feel and still hope to do a more fun version, after I've got my teeth into the next two installments of the series that is.

You will hopefully find this, and many other Serge submissions at Jonathan Edward's popular 'Draw Serge' blog.

I have links to the other Serge on this blog below:

Serge as ... Schroeder

Draw Serge

Happy Bastille Day!

2010-07-13T08:55:00.000-07:00

A little tribute to the great Jean Giraud's 'Major Grubert' and neck crunching nod to Darwyn Cooke's 'Parker'.

This was done for this year's Bastille Day Celebration blog run by Forbidden Planet - International.

Serge as ... Schroeder from Peanuts.

2010-06-04T13:39:00.000-07:00

Here is my second submission for the most excellent 'Draw Serge' Blog curated by Jonathan Edwards.

It is great to be doing more Serge pics as it was the 'Draw Serge' blog that initiated this 'Bluntwood' blog just over a year ago now. With this cartoon being the first in a line of 'Serge as ...' images I plan to submit over the summer.

... the internal dilemma!

2010-06-04T12:23:00.000-07:00

Some split personality issues for Clark Kent and the eternal clash with his Superman alter ego.

... the dark side of HUZZAH!!

2010-02-21T15:36:00.000-08:00

This little page made me nervous also, as I attempted in this, my debut page, to do justice to the fabulous 'Huzzah Noir' team and the 'film noir' genre I adore.

On the whole I am fairly satisfied with this page though. Not least of all, because the black and white comic inks so lend themselves to the echoing the film noir world.

Big thanks go out to Faz for his inspiring opening to the new chapter and especially to Rob for his invaluable scripting input in the final stretch.

...the 'follow that' syndrome

2010-02-04T00:22:00.000-08:00

It was always gonna be a tough act to follow, as not only was I having to build on a well received first page, but since then, several wonderful pages of comic art had been posted by artists I admire immensely.

So it was with no small regret that I feel I did not achieve the level of quality I needed to meet, in order to glean any real satisfaction from this page. But I am hoping I learnt a lot in 'not' getting there!

Which is, for me, the beauty of 'HUZZAH!!'. It forces your hand and makes you play the game as professionally as you possibly can, but without any client breathing down your neck, just you ... and the Huzzah team and everyone that follows the blogs and ... and ... chuckle!

What scary fun it is!

...hurrah for Huzzah!

2010-01-11T13:30:00.000-08:00

I was over the moon (of Voldar) when Ian Culbard invited me to join the contributors of the weird and wonderful online comic known as Huzzah!! - Vengeance of Voldar.

The genius of the set up is the amorphous story telling that can shift from one artist to another in the slice of a page. Allowing an organic growth and inevitable excitement for everyone involved. A complete antidote to the confines of working for clients with their closed view of what works in a strip - a genuine breath of fresh air for the artist!

So please visit the Huzzah Worlds of free-range comic art and enjoy the bizarre tales therein.

Huzzah!!, Huzzah!! - Vengeance of Voldar and the mean and moody Huzzah!! Noir.

the Long Ride ...

2009-12-03T11:43:00.001-08:00

Now this was one to get my teeth into - and kept me off the streets for awhile!

My fourth 'Infinity' story and one I can happily call my own. As rewarding as it has been to work with the excellent team of Rob Davis and Faz Choudhury, I was lucky enough to be handed the opportunity to work this adventure story (scripted by Rob) up myself. It had many lovely visual elements to it with a wonderful mix of the cowboy, Indiana Jones and a light sprinkling Phileas Phog about it. I found it immense fun to do and am pleased to be able to present it (in part) here on my blog.

PS. ... and for anyone finding there way here via Rob Davis' blog and his young son's painting - then the result can be seen in the faint 'noise' used to texture the sand and mountains in the pic above. Thank you Oby, you were a great help!

2009-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

2009-12-03T11:40:00.000-08:00

2009-12-03T11:39:00.000-08:00

2009-12-03T11:38:00.000-08:00

2009-12-03T11:16:00.000-08:00

...from here to 'Infinity'

2009-08-17T05:45:00.001-07:00

I know, I know ... a long overdue blog update ... !

Here is page 3 of a 6 page episode commissioned by 'Infinity' Publishers based 'down-under'.

This first episode was written (and partially realised for the pitch to them) by Rob Davis. I was commissioned for line and colour and have subsequently found this be one of the most useful learning curves I've gleaned from a job in a long while. From uncovering flaws in my figure drawing to the sheer weight of the high output required. Good training indeed.

We had two episodes in all (Death of Caesar and Chantico's Gold) to work on with myself and Faz Choudhury working on pencil/inks and colour. With Rob Davis as overseer, reworking inks and adding colour solutions and effects where required.

I have posted this (from the 'Death of Caesar') page here as it one I can claim the bulk of the work on and felt it might be good to see how this page compares to the 'bluntwood incident' pages below.

a blog called Bluntwood.

2009-05-29T06:33:00.000-07:00

The idea for calling this blog 'Bluntwood' came from my very first comic strip I created after I first moved to Salisbury (1991) and joined in with the fabulous and bizarre independent comic 'Slang' (issue 3), alongside Rob Davis and Sean Longcroft.

The name comes from the second instalment 'The Bluntwood Incident' which was my favourite and pays tribute to Moebius' creations 'Major Grubert' and 'Blueberry'. As, in fact, does the whole story which stemmed from the respect I had for his 'Arzach' and other text free tales.

I hope this little triptych is worth airing again after all these years. I tend to look at them through rose coloured spectacles as they are so sentimental to me and remind me of halcyon days, but hopefully you may enjoy them too.

Suckers

2009-05-28T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Doctor wrong footed by one of those foul smelling, slimy Sea Devils, but don't worry, he's got a screwdriver!!

I enjoyed being able to rely on the fact the Doctor's silhouette is so recognisable - with the help of his red Converse of course.

... it's dark outside!

2009-05-28T12:06:00.000-07:00

A fun little image of the Doctor and the Tardis.

I used Manga Studio and the excellent Google SketchUp application to construct this one.

SketchUp allowed me to find an already constructed 3D Tardis with sufficient detail that I could manipulate for the required viewpoint and then ink over to create the desired effect - which I then gradually obliterated as the image became darker and darker. Excellent time saver though! A bit more forward planning and I could have saved even more time - dagnammit!

Doctor Doctor ...

2009-05-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

My first proper image of the Doctor.

I've ended up being quite pleased with this rendition of him. David Tennant has a facial structure and set of expressions that make his face a right bugger to draw in a clean comic style ... but, much thanks to Tennant, it's a massively fun character to draw - when it goes right that is!

The Doctor's daughter.

2009-05-28T09:34:00.001-07:00

Here are some older pics I created in an early pitch for the Doctor Who monthly. I was not wholly satisfied with my likeness of Georgia Moffet (Jenny) - ho hum. I adjusted the inking/colouring style later as can be seen in the versions of the Doctor above. I shall return to Jenny at a later date as the image below remains the most visited and 'faved' image on my deviantArt page !?!

shooting from the hip

2009-05-28T08:06:00.000-07:00

The shootist.

I had a break through with this character as it was a shift to a more fluid and less restrained style and the restrictions that came with using Photoshop as my primary inking tool.

I had in mind creating, as best I could, some of the beautiful old school inking styles of artists like Victor de la Fuente (a comic book deity) without actually leaving the digital format.

It seemed an obvious step but it was Painter X's brush emulating system that allowed this to be as much fun as it was, and considerably easier and quicker than I had expected. A joy to have that sort of fluidity to the line without the worry of making an error. However, I later found an application that was even more 'inker' friendly in the guise of Manga Studio (see 'Draw Serge' below).

Draw Serge

2009-05-27T14:01:00.000-07:00

Creating this image of Serge Gainsbourg was really the catalyst for me to start the 'Bluntwood' blog up.

It was both fun to do this image and get on board with the blogging thang at the same time - just the nudge I needed!

Do go visit the 'Draw Serge' blog to see some fabulous renditions of this most charismatic and extraordinarily featured french legend.

I drew this exclusively in Manga Studio, my new, much loved and now most used application.