Tributary 14 - Evil Dead

So I've dropped the ball a bit on this daily drawing idea. Currently I'm being beaten about the brain and body by the busy stick.

As if to rub salt into the wounds this isn't even a new drawing. I drew this for the Oz Comics weekly challenge a while back. But I haven't posted it here yet, so it kind of counts.

Luckily for me it fits the theme, because the Evil Dead movies were the tippity top of my gore lists as a young teen. I was actually quite obsessed with Horror movies as a young'n. So much so, my older brother (and his friends) thought I'd grow up to be a serial killer or some such. Sadly I think they were only half joking.

Of course I'm not a serial killer. But I still like the odd horror flick, stupid and bloody, though they are.To clarify, I've absolutely never killed anyone. Ever.

Looking forward to the new Evil Dead "Re-imagining" too. Groovy!

Tributary 13 - Sonic


The first games console I owned was a Sega Mega Drive. Before that I'd only ever troubled the gaming world with a ZX Spectrum. So owning Mega Drive was like jumping from VHS straight to Blu Ray. Ok well maybe not quite. But the shear speed and colour and ball busting 32bit power of Sonic was like a revelation.

Thanks Sonic. Thonic

Tributary 07 - Garfield


I used to draw Garfield a LOT at Primary School. Apparently I used to teach school friends how to draw him too. I say "apparently", because I don't actually remember doing that (sorry Karen). But then I don't seem to remember much of anything from early childhood (apart from TV and Films of course).

This one's for you then Karen :)

Also thanks to Adele (adelekthomas.blogspot.com.au/) for pointing out that "Fanuary" is actually a charity theme month where Ladies (and Gents) sculpt or colour their pubey regions into interesting designs all in the name of Cancer Research. It's actually all for a good cause so visit here http://www.fanuary.com/.

So out if respect for that and for not wanting to confuse people. I've changed my theme month to "Tributary" which is way more clever anyway and doesn't evoke images off downstairs bits :)

Fanuary 04 - Garbage Pail Kids


I absolutely LOVE the Garbage Pail Kids stickers. LOVE them. When I was a kid I wanted a job creating them, actually I still do. So I took a little extra time with this one, because I wanted it to look like an authentic GPK design. I even tracked down a post from a guy who made his own and very kindly supplied the eps logo and the font for the names. In an extra geeky twist, I put my own face in there and fulfilled another fantasy while I was at it.

Plus, in true GPK style, I created a a "B" named card to keep with tradition. 



It's FANUARY the first!


That's right, I'm declaring a new pun based month project, and I'm calling it "Fanuary". I'm going to attempt to dedicate at least 30mins a day to myself. No client or project work. Just a little bit of time to indulge my own selfish whims.

So I thought I'd share some things that have inspired me over the years.TV, Cartoons, Movies, Music. Basically anything that has impacted on me, from a kid in the late 70s/80s right up till the present day.

Let's start where all things begin. At the beginning. Roger Hargreaves' Mr. Men series was the first thing I ever remember drawing. Really you can't go wrong with Mr. Men. If you could draw a square, a circle, a blob or even a squiggly mess, you could draw a Mr. Men character.

My favourite was Mr Bump, the clumsy little scamp. I seem to remember I had a lot of issues getting the bandages right. Which probably made me cry with frustration, as my hands failed to put down what my brain was telling it.

A habit I haven't appeared to grow out of.

Happy Fanuary everyone!

Scram-Pire - The Reluctant Kid-Vampire


Meet Bud.

Earlier this year I was very pleased to receive an email from author Julia Dweck, asking me if I'd like to collaborate on a new eBook she was writing. Julia is an established and prolific writer of kids books and so it was a real thrill to hear from her and her publisher Kite Readers.

It turns out Julia had seen an earlier post of mine which I'd sub headed "Scram-Pire". Here's the original sketch from that post. It was a particularly hot day back in January here in Oz, so I imagined it would have been doubly terrifying for Vampires.

This simple sketch was enough to get Julia's creative brain clicking and whirring, and she came up with a new concept about a Vampire kid shunning the vampire life. So rather than running from the sun, Bud ends up running from the expectations of Vampire life.

Concept Art and Sketches:

An early idea for Bud

Here is the coloured up version on the initial sketch that I sent to Julia. I also threw in a couple of facial expressions to give her a sense of how Bud would look through the story.


Vlad. The Draco to Bud's Harry

Page Progression:

Rough: First of all I deliver all the pages to Julia in Storyboard form. I do this very quickly and roughly in Flash, using the brush tool.

Pencil Rough: I bring the Flash sketch into Photoshop and begin to produce a more detailed rough

Rough colours: This image show the colour progression from left to right. I use very rough colours to give a plan out my tones plus light and shade, before rendering in the final version (see steps)

Final Version: After lots of layering and tweaking, the final image emerges. 

Cover ideas:

Early cover idea which we scrapped as it looked a bit too grim.


Rough redesign, harking back to my initial sketch that sparked this project

Coloured Rough


FINAL!!

Well that's just a little background into the making of Scram-Pire! I've been a bit slack with this blog lately so I hope this makes up for it.

Bud is available for kindle here for $2.99. If you're kind enough to support us, please leave a positive review and help our rankings.

Thanks for reading :)

Bits and Pieces



A good friend pointed out to me today that its been too long since I posted anything on here. He was right, of course, and I could list a whole bunch of excuses as to why I haven't. But really that's all irrelevant. So here are some quick sketches and scribbles I threw together today. Better than nothing I suppose.

Generic mad scientist guy

He's probably saying something like "they all called me a fool" or some other cliché. Then he'd be all like "they'll rue the day they ever doubted my genius" before doing something sciency and bursting into a standard "MwuhahahHAHAHHA" laugh. Probably.