Covered - FAIL

The Batman and Scarecrow cover I drew with Dom as a submission to Covered was rejected :( but never mind, because it means I can put it up here.
I think it's pretty good, though I prefer the black and white version to the swirly coloured finished item.
What do you reckon?

And our Black and white base picture:

Fists of Fury 2

I've finished my Nick Fury sketch for this weeks ten ton sketch challenge.
All done with real ink, DELETER no.3 and a Saji nib.

Furious

Whilst I only managed to dash off a pencil sketch for last weeks 10 ton sketch challenge, I found it really enjoyable.. the style felt right for me, unforced. I thought I'd try something similar this week for Nick Fury .. it's not gone as smoothly, but it has been a quick sketch and ink process,all done while watching iplayer with Dom, then inked whilst hiding from "Downton Abbey".
I took a pic with my phone, so not sure how it'll look here:

Back in the swing of things

This week the 10 ton sketch challenge is GROO the wanderer. Sergio Aragones created this chap, and anything Aragones does is ok by me.
I used to avidly collect the MAD books that collected his cartoons, even though at age 8 I didn't understand the references to policemen beating up protestors, OR the people playing dice in alleys.
anyway.
Pencil sketch is done.
Inks will have to get done tonight.. though that's not looking likely so it may just be this pencil sketch.

24Hr comics day part 2

FAIL
I managed only 15 "pages" or panels..
Still it fits into the story over at www.wychwolf.com and adds a little blood..

24 Hr comics day- first 7

managed to get seven pages done last night, and will continue to bash out the rest today. I'm posting them one a day on www.wychwolf.com .. chiefly because i can't be bothered to fight ComicPress which I'd set up a long time ago to accept a post a day.. and can't remember how to change. I also gives me two weeks to get back up to speed on the story.

24Hour Comics day

Tomorrow is 24Hr Comics day.
Unfortunately my tardiness in even keeping up a once a week 1 pager leaves plenty to be desired.
I will however give it a go. I have a long train journey to East Anglia, for the University open day, and may be able to sketch out something.
http://www.24hourcomicsday.com/

Bleedin' hell

This week the 10t sketch challenge was a Manga vampire killer... I think.
I watched a couple of the you tube clips, but wasn't completely clear even then.
anyways:

Blood

Pencils for this weeks 10 ton studio sketch challenge...

Ex Machina

I never really got to grips with the ex-machina series, I've read a few Trade collections, but I wasn't sure. They reminded me of the old 2000AD series MACH1, and Angel, the first "Man Activated by Compupuncture Hyperpower" was a Bionic man imitation. he second, about a pilot who has his plane's  circuitry imprinted on him in an accident, and can jump off walls and stuff..
anyway.
Here's  my attempt for this weeks 10 ton studio sketch challenge.
Ex Machina.

Superheroes

Sat watching Bourne film, and "in Bruge" last night, and scribbling in the sketch book.

From my sketch book

A week in Bude, sitting on the beach gave plenty of time to sketch... here's a few pages from my sketch book.

Bullseye

Holiday meant no computer, so no scanning of pics, and no chance to enter the 10t sketch challenge last week.
I did have my sketch book with me though, and had a go at the Bullseye challenge. I'm prepped for the "Ex Machina" challenge this week, as it's bank holiday, and I have a little spare time.

HULK smash!

This weeks 10t studio sketch challenge..

The Defenders.. Hulk, Doc Strange, lookin for all the world like Apu ... and the SUbmariner in the background..

This is my version of the cover of Defenders#1

Hmmmm

Super Fogeys

Posted on behalf of Brock...

If you've never read the SuperFogeys or it's been a while since you have, now's the time to check it out! Launched in September of 2006, the SuperFogeys has steadily developed into a hilarious and dramatic saga that's far and away from its gag-a-day roots. Throughout its nearly four-year run, one villain has loomed over the residents of Valhalla-Home for the Supertired more than any other, the Third Man. We now know he's secretly Dr. Klein, the founder of Valhalla, but what does he want? Who is he, really? And how do Spy Gal, Captain Spectacular, Swifty, Dr. Rocket and all the rest fit into his plans?

Everything has been leading up to the bomb creator Brock Heasley will be dropping on Thursday, August 19th. Early reactions to the revelation (by those lucky few) have varied from "That's a total mind screw" to "Holy Sh---!" (Okay, so that's not a lot of variety. Reactions are pretty much the same across the board!)

To celebrate, SuperFogeys will be running four updates August 16th-19th, Monday-Thursday. Then, in the week after that (after everyone's had a chance to calm down!), seven consecutive daily updates August 23rd-29th, Monday-Sunday. 

It's time to catch back up with SF. What are you waiting for?

www.superfogeys.com

 

Walking Dead

This week the 10t Sketch Challenge is "the walking dead", a zombie comic, that is unremittingly bleak.
Just read vol11, and things are grim, grimmer than grim.
Anyway, here's my attempt, at Carl, the young boy who's grown up with all this horror.

Ten Ton Champions

Roho over at ten ton has made a tumblr blog of all the sketch challenge winners... it is pretty impressive. There's some fantastic work in there. I am proud to even be allowed to post sketches with these guys.
http://tenton.tumblr.com/

Policing the Policy

The "Policy Police" Summer Special is here, Script by Steve, scribblin' by me.
It's strange drawing someone else's strip, as I did each panel, it felt lumpy and wrong, but when I'd finished I read it through it felt it flowed really well, AND made me laugh.
Top stuff.

I have to knuckle down now and have a crack at getting ahead with http://www.wychwolf.com as soon I'll be on holiday, and will need a bit of a buffer.

More good news is that this weeks 10Ton Studio Sketch Challenge is "Walking Dead" Zombies, irressistable, lovely flesh eating zombies.

Inking in the name of...

Well my Kirby Inking failed dismally, I can't help inking in the style of me.
Never mind, the fun thing about the 10T sketch challenge is that you never know what you are going to draw, and I think I'd like another crack at something Kirbyish. I looked at a couple of books for reference, and I'm staggered by the tight lines.
Sure I could clean this up in photoshop, but that's against the rules, and it really does help focus the mind. The strange thing is for much of the inking I feel it looks a mess, and then suddenly bits start to look RIGHT. Galactus's chin works for me, as does the jaw line of Terrax (The guy with the Ax).. though some bits never seem to get there.. like Terrax's axe, which feels like some badly drawn kite, or flag.
Anyway. Time for bed, busy day at BSI tomorrow.

Triumph Heralds of Galactus

I managed to get Monday's Wychwolf drafted last night, whilst watching the truly awful Star Trek film, and then as I had time on my hands, I thought I'd have a bash at this week's Ten Ton Studio Sketch Challenge
The Heralds of Galactus, are the Silver Surfer and other chaps, zooming around the cosmos looking for trouble. In line with some of the recent comments, I've made sure to draw at lest 4 Heralds, making sure the plural is noted... and also that it's a sketch challenge, so this was a quickish sketch whilst watching telly, and drinking Crabbie's Ginger Beer.
Sadly it's rubbish, no detail on any of the teensy figures, but Galactus looks okey dokey..
I may have a bash at inking up in a Jack Kirby mad black ink circles fashion.
I was tempted to have a bash at the Herald from the Ultimates Galactus series... a stripped down half cyborg thing buried under Tunguska.. maybe if I have time.

Dalek

So I get to pick the Ten ton studio sketch challenge, and I go for Daleks, got to love daleks...
I pack my laptop bag for my trip to York, add a sketchbook, some good paper, my favourite pencils, pens etc.. and then i leave it at home.
The result is, I have NOTHING to draw with except a biro, and even more tricky I have my Mum's macbook to scan and crop the picture.
The result is the sort of thing I used to sketch on my college notebooks, or what I doodle these days when I'm in a conference.
Behold, the biro Dalek..

I've won!

Gosh, very suprised to have won this weeks ten ton studio forum sketch challenge.
http://www.tentonstudios.com/forum/index.php?topic=7800.0

a bit pink

For Terri, and her new blog http://aproperjob.wordpress.com

Drypoint

Being made redundant has given me a strange opportunity to think about the avenues open to me for future work. I briefly dallied with the idea of setting up an artistic prints studio, but realised quickly the investment in time and money doesn't have a direct link to sales... sales as always is the stumbling point. It was when i worked as an illustrator, and I'm certain it would be in any other artistic venture.

Anyway as part of the process of investigating various printing methods I thought I'd try my hand at drypoint. I am rather fond of the velvetty look the prints have, reminiscent of old dyelines builders blueprints.

I found a cracking supplier very close to London Bridge, and bought some materials, I also dug out some old lino print materials my wife had for making Christmas cards.

Here's the first result, my entry for this weeks Ten Ton Studio challenge.

Covered at last

My Captain America Submission to Rob Goodin's "Covered' blog was posted on Monday.
http://coveredblog.blogspot.com/2010/04/rob-englebright-covers-captain-america.html
Regular readers will know I've submitted covers before, but this is my first time actually getting published there.
The idea is simple, pick a comic cover, and redraw it in whatever style might work. I picked the Captain America cover, as it fitted into the whole Sepia wartime thing that was/is going on over at http://wychwolf.com
What's interesting is that my drawing style has changed a fair bit since I submitted it (20th April), probably just through practice, and I think I'd draw it very differently now.

I think the days when I could earn a living from illustration are way behind me, but I like to think I can still rattle off a fair scribble.

Burnt legs and coffee

Gosh, my legs are on fire. Sensible people know not to wear shorts when using a Macbook pro for image editing.
Job done though all 20 pages of my guest strip Policy Police in the can, and off in the email to Steve.
I'll put a link here when it goes live.

6 pages worth

I managed to knock out six pages for the Policy police story I'm doing. There are some lovely characters in it.. will let you know when it's all done.

Crush them with facts

Because I am so very very well organised, I have Monday's Wych wolf page up and sitting in the Comic Press queue already..
Because I am shortsighted, i am not using the time to get ahead of myself, and build a buffer, but to dally in the rockpools, and have a go at a guest strip for my chum Steve's "Policy Police' strip.

I've had a quick sketch and my version of the protagonists are now alive in glorious pencilovision..
I've got to knock out a couple of backgrounds, and then I'll knuckle down to the task.
Should have something by the end of the day with luck.

Irony, which as Ted says is like Goldery, or Silvery...

The red oxide colour scheme seems to have "pinked" up a bit in scanning, but never mind.. It's  a Sketch challenge, NOT a long winded arty challenge.
All done, ready for Ten Ton Studio Sketch Challenge tomorrow.

Inked iron

Sat down with a bottle of lovely Sam Smith's brown Ale (thankyou Lisa and Stephen) and inked up the Iron man pic.. I was going to try for an etched look, but blew it half way through, and unfortunately this means lots of spidery hatching lines, using the 0.3mm Staedtler pigment liner.
and nowhere near enough shadow for my liking.
I will make amends with a little colour perhaps, having not learnt my lesson about colouring stuff.

Flashback, to the days when the nights were young...

Ten ton Forum sketch challenge this week is "flashback", a superhero in another era...
I had a go at IronMan as a World War One fighter ace, but there are issues, like his arm getting lopped off the the prop...
anyways, I'll ink it up, but have another idea on the boiler, might get a chance to draw it up before I blast off to Nottingham on Wednesday.

Famous Five

The Ten Ton Studio forum Sketch challenge this week is the "Fatal Five", whom I've never heard of, which is to my credit to be honest looking at the reference materials.
Still, I thought I'd have a scribble, FAIL.
Never mind, next week, next week, that'll be the one.. positive thinking...

Mad as a fish

UPDATE:
They made it, follow the twitter trail on #boyonabike

My dear friend Andy Black is off to cycle coast to coast with his young son this weekend, it's only 147 miles or so, which is nothing for him as he did Lands end to John O'Groats last year (or the year before?) .. but this is a big deal for Linden.
I wish them the best of luck.
I promised him a sketch to stick on sponsor forms, but events overtook me what with my day job at Becta being closed an' all.. still better late than never.

You can sponsor Linden here:
http://www.justgiving.com/lblack

update: