More Dredd Colours

A before-and-after look at a panel of the Judge Dredd samples I'm working on.

Mega City One by night

How romantic... they should really be holding hands with a view like that...

Working on a few new Dredd sample pages this week, in preparation for the Bristol con in early May. I've taken the plunge and gone for full colour this time.

My big news is that I'm going to be doing a few pages for Starship Troopers comic (Markosia) - my first "real" published comics work! This is thanks to Editor/Writer Tony Lee; you can read more about it in the last paragraph of his latest column over at Comics Bulletin here:
http://www.comicsbulletin.com/hoaw/120579061026864.htm

Bloody hell, I better do a good job now, hadn't I! The Dredd stuff is a nice warm-up for the Troopers gig, as I'll be doing full colour pages for that as well - just waiting for the script...

Website Updated

I've updated my main site at last - I've changed the design to a much simpler, faster-loading no-nonsense look. No more rollovers and i-frames thank you very much... from now on it's clean and simple all the way (God I hate web design - I used to love it, now I want it as simplistic and unlikely to go tits-up as possible): http://www.jimmibo.co.uk/

The Creative Process (well, how I do it anyway)

Here is a little look at the various stages a page goes through - at least the stages it goes through when I draw it! This is another page from Imposter.

Pencils: The space on the lower left is for the titles and credits. Tony pointed out that I hadn't left much room for the dialogue in panel 2, so I enlarged that panel before inking...

Inks: I'm very into my brushes and dip-pens these days, they're really starting to work well for me. I used to use various technical drawing pens from 0.1 to 0.8 - and I still do for some bits and pieces, but it's 90% brushes and dip-pens now. The line is so much more varied and "alive." You can see below, how Photoshop saved my arse once again - I drew more space for the panel 2 dialogue, then photoshopped it to overlap the main panel.

Colours: Photoshop once again for the colours. Here's a shot as I started work - I wish I'd taken more as I went along, I'll try to do that with the next thing I colour. I always do the backgrounds first obviously, and the foreground figures are the last thing to work on.

... and here is the final coloured page!

Imposter

Here's a look at a couple of pages from Imposter - which is a pitch I've been working on with writer Tony Lee (Starship Troopers, Doctor Who, etc). I'm not sure if we'll be doing much more of this, but it can't hurt to show a couple of pages off!

Vodka!

According to my sources, my cartoons now adorn the new food/booze menu at Revolution Vodka bars around our fair nation... and I haven't even seen it! As I have no life and never leave the drawing-board, I have one of my trusted minions out there stealing one for me as we speak. Here are a few of the caracatures (did I spell that right?) that I did for the menu. If you can't tell who they are, I haven't done my job very well have I?

All images copyright (c) Revolution 2008:

More Goldfish!

Here is a look at the finished goldfish cartoon - this was for Global Integration; you can see it used on their blog here: www.lifeinamatrix.com I've almost finished the next one too.

In other news, I'm still working on that other special little project, so stay tuned for more on that - and I may actually be published as a comic artist later this year on another project! As soon as it's a "go" I'll be posting the news here.

Booked my hotel nice and early for the Bristol comic con later this year - this time we'll be staying over two nights, so it should be less stressful than the sprint down to Birmingham last year!! We can mosey on down on Friday, and not be so knackered on Saturday morning, so I'm looking forward to that. Now it's back to the drawing-board for me...

Talking Goldfish

This job is never boring... you really don't know what you'll be drawing next.

Just finishing up the colouring for this latest commission, for a compnay called Global Integration - then it's back on to the comic stuff.

Sneak Preview...

Here's a little peek at the pencils and colouring for the next page of that special little project I'm working on (currently pencilling page 3). I'm definitely getting the hang of the graphics tablet - bloody great, it is!

I have some more commercial work which I'll be starting on tomorrow when I've rung the client, so the comic stuff will have to wait a wee while - but I'll be right back on it as soon as that's done and dusted.

Happy Birthday to me!

Turned 36 today... 36!!! Should I be feeling like an adult... because I really don't! When does growing up start then, around 40? Sharon bought me an A3 graphics tablet for my birthday, so my morning has been spent playing with that - it's going to take some getting used to, it's harder to use than I imagined, but for colouring in Photoshop it's fantastic.

So here's another sneak peak at a panel from that special secret project I've started work on, and a look at my "colouring workstation." I've got the whole setup now - A3 scanner, new printer, A2 lightbox and graphics tablet - so there's no excuses!