Here's my four page entry for the 2011 Jonathan Cape Graphic Short story competition. I entered the competition last year with a mad dash entry reported here. This year, I've tried to make it a little more adult, more about an emotional drama. Read More...

Tags: jonathan cape

Well, I've been living like a hermit for the last two months but it has produced something. Here's the first chapter of the graphic novel 'Cziltang Bone and the Reality Shifter' that I've been working on. I was going to make it available as a pdf but the file's 60Mb so, instead, I've put in this post as screen shots. Read More...

Here's a page I've done using only the Tombo brush pens for colour. I'm fairly pleased with it although it does highlight one key problem with brush pens - they don't cover areas well. You might have spotted that the sky is messy, something I just can't fix with a brush pen. I've also found that I couldn't get the right colour for a frog's skin.


The answer, I think, is to use a mixed media approach. I'm going to use gouache or watercolour for large areas and the brush pens for small areas and shading. I bashed out a quick sketch this way and it was both quick and easy.


I'm making progress. Hopefully there'll be a first chapter to show soon!

Tags: tombo brush pens, gouache, frog

After two days of wrestling with the whole vectorising approach (mentioned here) and going slightly bonkers, I sank back in my chair, took a deep breath, put the computer to sleep and bashed out an ink illustration in a few minutes. It's the picture shown. Read More...

Tags: tombo brush pens

Oooh, it's difficult to decide. After talking at length here about the qualities of vector illustration, I've been drawn back to my pencil shaded black and white work. I was examining one of my black and white illustrations for my fantasy comedy novel and wondered what it would look like coloured. I got my water based ink brush pens out (Tombo ABT dual brush pens) and inked in most of the picture. I then finished it off with some gouache to the face, hands and the strange eggy lump on the door. Read More...

Tags: art

I mentioned in the last blog entry about creating a graphic novel with a 'clear line' style. I used Tintin as an example of this method. For those who are interested, there's a very useful article about Herge's methods on the National Maritime Museum website of all places. Check it out here. It's fascinating to see how the page develops; where the 'life' of the story appears and at what point it looks polished and professional.

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Tags: tintin

After three weeks of working away (in between other bits and bobs), I've made some progress on the graphic novel. The first week or so was spent investigating whether I could do the work in gouache - a sort of paint similar to watercolour but less watery (I know that's not a very technical or accurate description but it'll do). I've done gouache illustrations before, I've popped one alongside this text.

I found though that it is a slow job doing the gouache. I think I'd need to spend six months or probably longer just practicing the gouache to get good enough to churn out an entire page of gouache illustration in one day (my target rate). Juanjo Guarnido - the Blacksad artist - has certainly found a way to produce his painted artwork at a viable rate but he's spent years doing fine art followed by more years working as a Disney animator. That's a lot of practice!

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Tags: art

I have to tell everyone about two wonderful graphic novels I've been reading this autumn. The first one is Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi. I bought it for young William to read while on the car journey to see his grand-dad. I gave him the book, he sat down and started reading it and didn't get up again or speak until he'd finished it. So much for reading it on the car journey! I ended up buying the two sequels so he did have something to read on the journey. Suffice it to say, the story is excellent for an eight-year old. Suspense, danger, bad people, good people, troubled people, personal difficulties, loyalties, temptations. On top of all that, wonderful artwork, an imaginative world and an excellent pace. Read More...

Tags: graphic novels, art, amulet, blacksad

When the Arvon graphic novel course finished, I was all ready and motivated to do some comic work. Unfortunately, a very sad event occurred on the way back which I won't go into in a blog. Suffice it to say, that strongly affected the whole of the next week. What I was able to do though was get together an entry for the Jonathan Cape Graphic Short Story competition. The competition had been recommended to me on the course by Hannah Berry and I checked the details on my return home. I had a little over a week to produce a four page graphic short story. Yikes! I decided there wasn't time to think up a new story. I would have to use one I'd already written. In the end, I went for the frog poem I'd submitted to a climate change competition.

Here's what I produced: Read More...

Tags: comics, graphic novels, writing, art

On the week beginning the 20th September, I went on an Arvon Foundation Graphic Novel course (http://www.arvonfoundation.org/) at their Shropshire centre. It was very good. The tutors - Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry - were encouraging, knowledgeable and lots of fun to be with. The emphasis of the course was on the writing side (since Arvon is for writers) and so we explored story structure, editing, setting, dialogue and character. I think what impressed me most about the course was the atmosphere of the graphic novel and comic world. It seemed far more down-to-earth, relaxed and a collection of enthusiasts than other creative areas. Read More...

Tags: comics, graphic novels, arvon, news

Many apologies, but I haven't added a blog entry for months. It's been a hectic two months, for both good and bad reasons, but I'm going to try and catch up today.

The first entry that springs to mind is from the 18th September. I had booked to go on an Arvon Writing week (http://www.arvonfoundation.org/). The subject of the week was Graphic Novels and the tutors were Bryan Talbot and Hannah Berry. Since the week would be about creating stories with both text and images, I thought it would be good to get down and do some drawing. I had done drawing and painting before, but I'd only produced a few illustrations. I decided to dedicate the whole week to producing some fun black and white illustrations for Copper Book. In the end, I only got about three days of work done, but I did produce work I was very pleased with. Here's what I came up with: Read More...

Tags: art, comics, writing, copper book