Colouring...

Here's a simple panel from Project Luna, showing the stages of colouring: First the bare inks, then a little background colour, then I've done the "flats" (just flat basic colours - the bit that takes the most time!) and finally I've added the shadows, shades and highlights. At least this is the way I do it! Next time I'll pick a more complicated panel.

Grusov

More new teaser panels from Project Luna, hot off the press...

Lavoisier

Another sneak preview from the forthcoming Project Luna: 1947.

More Kick!

Here is the latest page I've just finished for Kick! magazine (c) Attic Media Network.

Now I'm back to drawing Luna again (page 17, where we meet Dr Jacques Lavoisier...)

Luna colours

Luna inks...

Squadron Leader William Fitzwilliam Brown; London, 1947

Kick! it

A page from my latest strip for Kick! magazine (out soon!):



(c) Attic Media Network 2009

Crowd Scene Hell!

Oh, how I love a good crowd scene - it takes a hundred times longer to draw and colour than anything else! It probably is my fave panel of Project Luna so far though... here is the whole page without dialogue, so it doesn't give any of our scintillating plot away :-)

BICS 2009 Report!

Have I really not posted since JUNE?! Good grief, that's a poor effort... I will endeavour to put that right, starting now.




Just back from the Birmingham Comics show. I've been busy drawing football action for Kick! magazine, and of course working on Project Luna: 1947 for Markosia. I've been discharged by my Physio, so he's happy with my progress and it's now up to me to keep doing the exercises and build a back of STEEL so I can continue to sit hunched over a drawing-board for hours at a time :-)

BICS was fun, but a slightly more low-key affair (I felt) than the last time I went (2007), probably due to the dark times we live in, etc. Met up with Martin Hayes, writer of Luna - who endured a 6.00 am start to fly over from Ireland, and proceeded to stay up drinking until 6.00am Sunday morning... much respect! Sharon and myself were tucked up in bed before 11.00, watching Lord of the Rings on telly - hardcore.




A demonic Cy Dethan, Martin Hayes and myself




With artist Kev Levell and Martin

We had a good chat with Markosia chief Harry Markos - met up with fellow blogger Kev Levell (who really should be working for 2000AD), Cy Dethan and Nic, the Futurequake boys, bumped into Tony Lee briefly, had a quick chat with Sean Phillips and many more. Oh yes, and Tharg gave my portfolio a quick perusal too. The Leeds Thought Bubble con is next month, so I may drag myself up there too.

Stay tuned for more Luna updates coming soon, as I attempt to make this blog a livelier place!

Luna Characters

A few panels from my latest Luna page, showing some of the "top men" involved in the story...

... and my latest strip for Kick! magazine - on sale now! Artwork copyright (c) Attic Media Network:

English Country Garden...

Another panel from the forthcoming Project Luna: 1947 - tea and crumpets on the lawn, you can't beat an English summer can you...

Lamped!

Out now! Latest issue of Kick! hits the shelves, complete with my latest Game of My Life! strip (Lampard this month!). Artwork (c) Attic Media Network:

Gooooaaaalllll!

Well it's been a busy few weeks - my deadline for the latest Kick! football strip is this Thursday, so I've been hammering away at that, as well as a new cartoon for Global Integration and of course more Project Luna work.

In one week's time, the Bristol comic expo kicks off - and sadly I won't be there, despite looking forward to it for a year! My bad back problems have forced me to cancel. The prospect of a 3-hour train journey with crippling back pain doesn't appeal - and after researching the train tickets, I'd have to change 3 times on the homeward trip on Sunday! Running about with portfolio and bags, trying to find the right platforms for connecting trains with a knackered back - no way. We considered staying until Monday, when you can get direct trains, but the costs just started getting silly - as Sharon pointed out, we could have a European holiday for the same price. I definitely can't drive that far right now, so we had to cancel.

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone else's photos and con reports! I'll be making the effort next year for sure, and we even have plans to bring Scott James over from the States for the occasion! After many months chatting online to the likes of Scott, Cy Dethan and Martin Hayes, a face-to-face meeting/drinking session is long overdue!

I'm aiming for the BICS con in Birmingham later this year, so hopefully my plans won't be scuppered (is that a word?) for that one, and we should have a preview booklet of Luna put together for the event - watch this space.

In other news, Sharon has given me a crash-course in Adobe Illustrator, and I am now capable of doing my own comic lettering - something I've been threatening to learn to do for years. I have no idea why, but I really enjoyed lettering the first 8 pages of Luna, and may offer my services out as a letterer at some point in the future!

As soon as the latest Kick! strip is done, I'll be right back on Luna duties - the back ache is thankfully getting better at long last (since I stopped going to the Chiropractor coincidentally...) so I should be firing on all artistic cylinders again soon.

Hmmm... that was possibly the longest blog post so far... who knew my life was so interesting, eh?

New Luna Pages

Hello loyal readers (I'm hoping there's more than one of you)... despite my crippling back ache, I've managed to get two more pages of Project: Luna 1947 done, and as they don't give away any big surprises here they are!

These "talking heads" pages are often more difficult than a big action scene - at least for me. For one thing, you always need to leave more room than usual for all the dialogue balloons - something I managed to get wrong on a couple of these panels. I'd drawn the characters too big, so reduced them down in Photoshop to leave more room in the panel for the text, before colouring.

Anyway, hope you enjoy looking at these two pages and wondering what the hell is going on :-)

Roooooneeeyyyyy!

Crowd scene panel from the next issue of KiCK! (c) Attic Media Network:

Project Luna: 1947

Here's a sneak preview of page 6 of Project Luna - Only 82 more to go! Loving every minute of it though.

Futurequake

Also out now! Issue 12 of Futurequake, featuring the "ASBO Aliens" story by Martin "Project Luna" Hayes and myself. Here's a taster:

KiCK! Finished pages

Here is a look at the (unlettered) pages of the Michael Owen strip from Kick! that is on sale now! I've now finished the second one, and should have the script for the third in a few days. All artwork is copyright (c) Attic Media Network 2009.

SUPER STRIKERS!

Out in all good (UK) newsagents, supermarkets etc, now! Rush out and buy it for my two pages alone!



I am minutes away from finishing the next KiCK! strip as well - this time it's about Wayne Rooney... one panel has been crowd-scene hell, but it's almost done :-) I'll put up some full pages soon.

In other news, I've managed another page of Luna, and our main alien bad guys have officially been designed...

KiCK!

Long time no blog!

Apologies for my absence, I've been knee-deep in work... I've just got my grubby fingers on a new gig - drawing a football strip for KiCK! magazine (aimed at 6 to 12 year olds). It's been a lot of work, but surprisingly fun, too. The editor has been fantastic, sending through a tonne of good ref photos and links to youtube clips of the actual match I've been drawing. These have been invaluable, as they're very keen to get the players' likenesses spot-on. Below is a panel; once it's published (early next month) I'll put the pages up here.

I now have another strip to draw for the good people at Manitowoc, and then I can get back into Project Luna again.

In other news, I'm now seeing a Chiropractor twice a week to sort out my back pain - so far it seems to be working!

Blast Off!

Project: Luna 1947 is GO!

I have drawn and coloured 3 pages, we have officially started... only 85 more to go (but I'm trying not to think about that!) Here are a few teaser panels - I don't want to post up any full pages for fear of giving too much away.