puggblogg

Loved By Good, Feared By Evil

2011-02-04T12:04:00.000+11:00

Yes another achievement I can be proud of. Sure being published in the Phantom is my greatest personal achievement but Voltron is way up there. This was created July 2010. Now that the book has grown up and left home to explore the world I can look back at the baby picture and share it with my *legion of fans.

As simple as Voltron's design is I still had to put some extra effort and dedication into creating this piece because he's a damn robot. Objects like cars and machines are not my strong point let me tell you. Give me monsters and creatures to draw and my limbs will flail like a hurricane. But give me solid lifeless objects to draw and I'll succumb to day terrors.

Not only did I do this illustration but I also created the title of the book (shown above). That was done as a competition. Boy the heat was on with all the entries. There was a state of mass hysteria amongst the contenders. Actually there were only about a dozen entrants. I asked about it. Glad I won though. Now that will be the second thing people look at when they pick up the book. The publishers did use a temporary logo which is shown all over the internets but mine is the official logo.

I don't get any money for sales but if you want the book you can find it here

http://moonstonebooks.com/shop/item.aspx?itemid=693

* About 5 people which all have split personalities. Do the math.

The Creators Front for Diversity in Comics

2011-01-30T18:13:00.002+11:00

Do you exclusively support large corporations? Do you enjoy power, money and fame? Stepping on the little people is a sport right? Surely diversity and creativity are for dreamers and hippies only. Well here is a very thought provoking and lifelike reenactment of how the big boys keep control over the comic books industry brought to you buy creative hippie Eric Powell the guy involved with making some creator owned property. Anyway not quite Schindler's List 2 but very close. Gather the family and enjoy.

UPDATE: Turns out the video is no longer available to view by the free people of the world. Luckily I had a copy of the video laying around. Let's see how long my luck runs until I'm politely asked at point blank range with a brick to take this one down from my site.

People Are Strange

2010-10-24T22:09:00.004+11:00

There's this strange geek who keeps stalking me online. I had to throw this drawing I did of Doctor Strange at him to make him stop. And he gave me money too. The guy likes buying junk it seems ;P

This would be my first time illustrating the character. I don't know much about him either except he's a part of the Marvel universe and some kind of magician.

Doctor Strange © Marvel

Going Pro

2010-07-05T23:26:00.006+10:00

This was a fun set. I had to read the book before I painting these as I knew nothing about it before I was asked by 5Finity to contribute. Some of the cards I'm quite happy with. Some I'm sure I could have done better. But after seeing artwork that others had created my cards started to resemble what a Pro would look like if meeting up with an irate client. In all the commotion of my violent escape I forgot to sign the cards. But I have salvaged three which yours truly has now autographed. They shall be up for sale on eBay soon. Those cards are The Pro, The Knight and The Voyer.

DROKK! It's Dredd!

2010-06-04T16:11:00.005+10:00

If it wasn't for the Phantom, Judge Dredd would have been my favourite comic book hero. I guess you could say he's my favourite comic book anti-hero. The incorruptible fascist law man is blasting his way into Hollywood once again in the near future under the watch of Reliance Big Pictures and DNA. There will be an Iso-Cube waiting for the bombed out 1995 film starring Sly Stallone once this production has upheld the law.

Over at the 2000AD forums I have started up a thread where fans can create their own unofficial concept art for the new movie.

Fan Made Concept Art Thread

The image shown here is my take on what Dredd could look like if played by Gerard Butler. Not that it shows it's him very well. But it is him Grud damn it!

P.S. I still like the Stallone movie. But don't tell anyone.

2000AD's Judge Dredd © Rebellion

Things Are Looking Rather Sketchy

2010-05-19T11:23:00.007+10:00

Going back a bit I was asked to contribute to the Moonstone sketch card series by 5Finity. Never before had I worked on a trading card set. So this was a first for me. And to make it better I got to choose which Moonstone characters I could illustrate. For those who have even a small snippet of info on me (mind your own business) will know I'd never pass up on an opportunity to draw the Phantom. These cards were quite fun to do. Although I'm not happy with the way the last card turned out. I'm so used to drawing digitally which can make it kind of difficult to get things right with traditional techniques. These cards were done with water colours which for me seems to kind of work out rather than oils or acrylics. But something must have worked because I was asked to contribute to on the Pro sketch cards. I did 25 of them. But that's a blog post for another day.

5Finity

Moonestone Books

There And Back Again

2010-04-21T18:21:00.010+10:00

My power was gradually draining from within me. Time was running out. Three full days had almost passed me by with no mention of slowing down. Or was it four days? It was hard to keep track now of when and where I was. But then in the nick of time my journey was over and I had finally returned to my fortress of solitude where the glow of my computer screen safely but surely regenerated my very life force. My companion, Kim and myself had been on holiday in Melbourne city for Supanova. Day one we attended the convention. There I met with some awesome comic book artists. One of which was a Judge Dredd artist by the name of Colin Wilson. He was very nice and it was a pleasure to meet him. He signed a 2000AD magazine I had bought for the occasion which had his artwork printed on the cover. I was also lucky enough to get a commission out of him. Fifty bucks well spent.

For fun I went and scanned, cleaned and digitally coloured Colin's Dredd. I enjoyed working with the image. Now if only I can work on Dredd officially for 2000AD. Now that'd be the bees knees.

COLIN'S BLOG!
COLIN'S SITE

Big Time Stardom

2010-03-06T21:39:00.003+11:00

That's right I officially became a super-star illustrator when I was asked to present my art and discuss my career and past as an artist. Each time I skipped through to the next image on the electronic white board the crowd was in awe. With "ooh's ahh's and wow's" I knew I had made it. The people were hooked and mesmerised by my sheer brilliance. I guess a class full of six year olds are easilly impressed. It was my daughters class. Her teacher had asked me come along and speak too the lil' ones because I'm the only parent with a creative career. My kid sure did feel special that day.

Will The Turtle Move To Melbourne?... Probably Not.

2010-03-04T10:32:00.006+11:00

Remember back in the olden days, (think way back to February 11 2010) when I got all excited about Supanova and meeting Boris Vallejo and his wife Julie Bell? Well the other day that excitement has been partially crushed because they have cancelled their appearance due to health reasons. I wish them all the best of course. And hope it's nothing that can't be handled. I hope they can get Terry Pratchett. Now that would be awesome above all else. I made that sugestion on Supanova's Facebook page. They say it's a consideration. All fingers, toes and limbs are crossed.

In A.D. 2101 War Was Beginning...

2010-02-27T15:29:00.007+11:00

If you've read my first post you'll know that when ever I worked for Chris Garett, Murphy's Law would interupt production whenever possible. In a proud stern voice I looked it in the eye and said 'You have no power over me!'. For a time I had won. For a time I was a hero. But like most super-villains Murphy was back and angrier than ever. I had two pages left to colour and then the sneaky bastard was waiting. BAM! POW! BOOF! We would battle it out like two mighty beasts in some ancient legend. I was down. My computers power supply had fallen to never fight along side me again. Over the course of a week I found a new recruite and this time he brought a friend. A new graphics card. Now revenge is mine. I've completed the pages and have sent them off.

ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US!

Illustration Friday - Adrift

2010-02-17T15:10:00.010+11:00

So I've decided to join in on this Illustration Friday thing. The aim is to create an illustration based on a key word. And it must be completed and linked to the Illustration Friday website before the due date. The theme this week was 'Adrift' and the image shown in this post is my concept based on that theme.

Out With The Old, In With The New

2010-02-15T16:58:00.007+11:00

Last year I went through a stage where I was trying to think in a different mindset. Usually my artwork was okay but not great. So I attempted to do work I thought was above standard for me. I did a couple pieces that I was proud of. I thought "Wow! I'm really doing good". Now if we go back to the future and look at them. That proud emotion I held on to was furiously extinguished with all prejudice. They looked like rubbish. I'm currently planning on publishing a sample book of my art to show off at Supanova in a couple months. But no publisher will want me if I suddenly fling monkey crap at them instead of cake. The concept of the art and the layout is still holding itself together, but barely. What's that? Give it a make over? Well ahead of ya. Here is an example of one piece from 2009 which has been given the new decade treatment.

Monster Battle: Orc Vs Dragon (2009 Version)

Monster Battle: Orc Vs Dragon (2010 Version)

For Those Who Came In Late...

2010-02-12T11:43:00.074+11:00

Here's a selection of publications from the past year and a bit.

Eagle Vs Shark Ad
This here is my very first published piece. A couple years ago Deviant Art posted a competition where contestants could grab a selection of stills from the New Zealand movie Eagle Vs Shark and create an advertisement for it. Honestly I did not believe I would have had a chance what with all the other deviants... I mean artists out there entering. I quickly rushed something together and threw it in their digital faces. Than came a note or email that I had made it into first place because the director loved the Japanese motif that I didn't even think of doing but did subconsciencly. The image was later printed in the Onion Newspaper.

The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #3
(Cover B)

Here's is my proudest published piece to date. Why because the Phantom is the bees knees and this marks a couple of firsts for me. It's the first time I had a published Phantom piece and it's the first time I was published in a comic book. During my first trip to Adelaide in September 2009 I visited a local comic shop. Adelaide Comics I think it was. I got talking to the shop keeps about this. They were quite excited and called me a celebrity. So they asked me to sign a couple of the books. I bought a few things from them that day too. Then we needed the jaws of life to get my head unstuck from the door.

Street Fighter 20th Anniversary Tribute Book
Udon Entertainment and Capcom posted a competition to the warriors of the world to create Street Fighter fan art in which 300 pieces were to be selected. Some of those 300 were a shoe in to those who were asked to enter but out out the rest my piece called The Vitruvian Beast was selected. Just like the Eagle Vs Shark comp I got lazy again. Obviously I ripped off Leo DaVinci. Still waiting for his zombie corpse to rise up and sue me. The top text is the script from Blanka's original ending where he meets his mother. Such a touching monster moment.

Darkstalkers 15th Anniversary Tribute Book

What the duece is Darkstalkers? Just the thing I was thinking when Udon Entertainment and Capcom returned to mooch off the innocent arty children of the world in their second tribute competition. This time the stakes were higher. More people were entering after the success of the Street Fighter book and this time I had no edge. Because I never knew of Darkstalkers. Days of research and science experiments later I concocted the pefect formula. Monsters, humour and effort. With these powers combined I formed aninstant winner. Oh yeah. High five *SMACK!*

Lai Wan: Let Justice Be Done

(Published in Captain Action Comics #4 by Moonstone Books)

This was my first coloured story. Only 8 pages long but it was still fun. Well partly fun. Like all comic book colourists will tell you, flatting is not very exciting. It's the longest process or feels like the longest. I snuck a little Pink Floyd reference too. In the hospital I painted the walls white and red just like in The Wall. View that here.

Sherlock Holmes / Kolchack: The Night Stalker #3
(Colours)
After the short Lai Wan story this project was a monster to colour. I coloured 32 pages for this story. I tried to colour it the same way as Lai Wan but it didn't quite look like I did. After seeing the printed version I noticed the colours are far too dark on some of the pages. Not my favourite work that's for sure.

The Phantom: Ghost Who Walks #7 Cover Colours
(Cover B and C)
Oh yeah I gots me another Phantom gig. This time I only coloured the cover though. Original line art was illustrated by Lou Manna. Originally I gave Moonstone the dark version. But they said it needs to pop on the shelf. Although I believe the dark version is appropriate for the character i understood what they needed. So i made a brighter versions with yellows and oranges. Lucky I kept the jaws of life because they couldn't decide which one they wanted so they published both.

First Time For Everything

2010-02-11T01:23:00.003+11:00

My fiance Kim and I will be having a weekend holiday in the city in late April where we'll be attending our first ever convention. We'll be travelling a couple hours south by train to attend Supanova in Melbourne. Not sure what to expect from this sort of thing. We'll be taking plenty of money because from what I've seen on the net we'll be needing it. What I'm looking forward to most is meeting other artists I admire such as Boris Vallejo, Julie Bell, Jeffery Cruz and Colin Wilson.

EXCITED YEAH!

When And Where To Begin?

2010-02-09T14:01:00.001+11:00

Okay lets see... Well I'm currently working on two projects. One is a short 8 page comic I'm colouring called 'They Need Me' by Chris Garret. Last year I was in the process of colouring another comic for him called 'Turbulence' but stuff happened and I couldn't continue which was a shame. I hate it when things like that happen. Funny thing is Murphy's Law has been trying to foil me again. But I'm not letting it happen. There was a storm recently which cut the power out. When everything came back on and I sat down to continue colouring this book guess what I found? The external hard drive where it was saved had become corrupted and so I had to start again. Well almost start again. I had already sent of two completed pages. to Chtris and luckily I found those pages and the script in my email so they weren't lost.

The other thing I'm doing is a 200 page manga for a private publisher. It's in the very early stages at the moment. And I mean early, just one page of simple concept art.

Okay that should do it for now.