Pro Bono RPG illustration - Finished

It's done :

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out in the end.

Pro Bono RPG illustration - Colour refinement

I didn't really like the star trails - even though I was very pleased with the idea - so I tried something else :

I like this better. The stars were too busy. I think I might need some more of the tuning lines towards the bottom of the image.

Pro Bono RPG illustration - First colour pass

Been playing with colour today :

Not much time left to get this done on schedule !

Pro Bono RPG illustration - Radio building mostly done

Haven't had a lot of time to be working on this drawing ( or any drawing, to be honest ), but I have made some progress :

Pro Bono RPG illustration - Start of central figure

Spent some time over the last couple of days getting Steve's illustration started :

Not bad so far.

Pro Bono RPG illustration - VERY rough sketch

Last week my good friend Steve asked if I would be interested in doing a piece of illustration for an RPG article he's writing. I'm always interested in things like that ! 

What I'll be doing is a piece to support an idea of a radio station transmitting the voice of a dead god. 

I've been playing around with some ways of doing that - and I think I hit on the general direction I'm going to go with it yesterday. 

It's VERY rough at this stage - but here's the final base sketch : 

I'm excited to see how this turns out in the end ! 

Tuesday - page 3 - Colour 2

More colour :

Tuesday - page 3 - first colour

Had some time to apply the first layers of base colour today :

Tuesday - page 3 - re-drawn 1st panel

I realized that the way I'd done the uplink leg in the first panel didn't actually work with how I'd already drawn it. I had to re-do it :

It didn't take me that long - but it was still annoying to have to fix it up. It does look better though, I have to admit.

Tuesday - page 3 - various line additions

A few more lines before I turn in for the night :

It continues to slowly come together !

Silly Distraction - MBMBAM - Finished !

Done now - I'm happy with how it turned out. Now to post it in the FaceBook Group !

Silly Distraction - MBMBAM - Colour added

Had some time last night to add a first colour pass to the fan art :

Largely going for sepia-toned colours.

Next ( and last ) step - shading and paper-texture overlay.

Silly Distraction - MBMBAM - General Store poster

Had time to start developing the fan-art poster this evening :

Next step - colour.

Silly Distraction - MBMBAM

I listen to a podcast called 'My Brother, My Brother and Me' - a comedy advice show hosted by three brothers. It's very funny.
The last episode I was listening to was a live show that has this hilarious sequence where one of the brothers compared going food shopping with another like being with an old prospector. It was seriously funny. I decided I wanted to do a little fan art based on that segment that I could post in the fan group on Facebook. This is the first stage - a caricature of the middle brother, Travis, as a prospector.

It's not quite finished - but it's coming along nicely so far.

Tuesday - page 3 - uplink / more words / another sound effect

Spent some time this evening on the 3rd page. Things starting to really take shape.

Tuesday - page 3 - words / sounds / more lines

Had some time to put into page 3 :

Holiday drawing - Goblin

I did this sketch while I was on holiday in Taupo last week. I coloured it today. Here it is :

Tuesday - page 3 - Back in business !

Alright - I HAVE my new Wacom pen. FINALLY.

I've spent an hour or so working on page three - mostly on outlines and speech bubbles. You can't really get much from what's there so far - but there's some development !

Still Alive !

Hello to my legion of adoring fans !!

Well, hi to my mum anyway !

Just letting you know that I am alive, and - yes - I am aware of how long its been since I posted anything even vaguely relating to my drawing / art.

The school production is currently in full swing prep mode, and that's eating a lot of my time.

My tablet pen is malfunctioning too ( hopefully it's the pen anyway, and not the actual tablet ) which is making doing anything on the computer quite frustrating. I have a replacement on the way - but it got delayed ... hopefully it'll turn up in the next 2 weeks.

So - hopefully an update coming soon.

Tuesday - Ep 1 pg 3 - base

Okay - not had a huge amount of time to draw, but things are ticking slowly along. Today I managed to put together the frames for page three, and moved around some of the original sketch panels to fit. Viola ! :

Next - redo the lines in photoshop.

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 1 - Almost done !

I was able to sit down for an hour with the comic today, and now the first page is almost done !

I think there might be some shadows to be added, and it's finished. Yay !

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 2 - All the holoscreens !

I think all the holoscreens are done for page two now. They were a bit of a mission - particularly the ones in frame 2 - but I quite like the way they all look.

Somehow I'm going to have to work out how to dim the things behind the screens. I'm guessing some kind of localized opacity change. I don't even know if that's possible !

Fiction collection cover - next evolution

Well - work has started again, so I've had less time to be working on the ole art, but I HAVE still been doing stuff. The developments of Tuesday have been slower, but they have been happening. I have been spending a little time working on the cover art for Rish's fiction collection.

I had an idea to use a gargoyle as the central image, and it worked fairly well.

I've just reagganged the text slightly, and it looks reasonably good.

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 2 - The truck cometh

Not much on the comic today - I was busy with housework, and then I took my boys swimming in the afternoon. However - I have done a little bit, adding the truck to the background of the image. I figured that the truck from frame three in the fist page would be visible in this angle view of the uplink / Ryce.

So - something !

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 2 - More lines ! More holoscreens !

More development of the line work ( mostly of panel 4 ), and three more of the holoscreens added.

Tuesday - page 2 - Holoscreen !

I'm pretty happy with the way the holoscreen has turned out so far. That might change when the background colours get added to frame 3, but at the moment it looks pretty darn great !

Shout out to Lynda.com for their hologram tutorial !

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 2 - more linework

Had some time today to put in the rest of the text of page two, as well as doing some more of the linework.

I'm not thrilled with the 'pointing hand' - but it's not too bad I guess. It will eventually be slightly obscured by the holo-screen.

Tuesday - Ep. 1 page 2

I've just managed to install a plug-in to Photoshop to fix a problem where keyboard short-cuts would stop working which has seemed to work, which is really great - it was really annoying to have the shortcuts keep cutting out.

Done the frames and some of the line work on the second page. It's coming along.

New logo commission

My usual client contacted me yesterday and asked if I could put together a logo for an audio fiction collection he was wanting to sell.

I played around with an idea today, mostly involving a stylized version of his face. I would be hoping to do something like this ( if that's where he wanted to go with it ) with a photo shot for the purpose. Maybe a nice profile.

Bonus ! - Tuesday page 2 initial sketch !

I'm not going to post a link to this to Facebook - so this is just one for you regular fans ( hi mum ! ).

This is a VERY rough digital sketch going over the pencil sketch I just scanned in from the page 2 rough layout. It's not much to look at now - but this is where it all begins !

I'm going to try and pretty much give EVERYTHING it's own layer. So rather than, say, all the frame outlines being on the same 'frame' layer - I've now got a frames layer folder, and each of the four frames has it's own layer in the folder. If I need to change something it makes things easier, or limits the damage if I make a mistake.

Tuesday - Speech Bubbles !

I managed to add the speech bubbles this morning. Pretty exciting.
Important lesson - so the text FIRST, THEN add the bubble. Otherwise the bubbles will look weird.
I'm using a free font called 'Back Issue' at the moment. It's okay for now.

Tuesday - various small things

A bunch of little things done. Lot's of base colour added. Some shading. One of the 'men' in the third panel changed to look like Ryce. I'm not altogether sure how 'Ryce' is supposed to be pronounced - not I think about it. In my head it's always sounded like 'Peace'. I'll have to ask JR about that.

Tuesday - shading and title

Had some time over the last couple of days to work on some of the shading for the first page.
I put in the title / by-line as well - which makes me happy !

Tuesday - Sky refinement

I experimented with opacity levels with the various layers of 'sunset' gradients I had - and I think I like this more subtle blend.

I also filled in a little more colour here and there.

Whoa !

Okay - so, the machine is telling me the last time I posted was freaking JULY or something. Sheesh. That's really bad.

I had some time to work on this logo today.

I'll be back sooner than last time !