Fractal Fiction! – page 12

What’s Fractal Fiction you ask? It’s a way cool web comic by some of my U.K. friends as written by Emperor . I recommend you go here and click the start here button on the right. Basically, you need to read the blog from the first starting post to see all the pages in order.

Fractal Fiction’s art team rotates, and I’ve just seen my ‘guest artist’ page put up, so I can now post it up here to share it with you. ‘Enigmatic’ Emperor wrote it, ‘Mysterious’ Matt Soffe did the colors and ‘jumping’ Jim Campbell lettered it up.

For those that like such things, here’s a look at the lines I drew before the U.K. magic was applied to it.

Cheers!

Inks for fun!

I’ve been taking a course on inking over the last few weeks which is being taught by some comic industry professionals like Pat Davidson, Ty Templeton, J.Bone, and Ramon Perez.

The biggest thing I’ve picked up so far is to use a damn BRUSH!

I used to use markers and nibs for almost all my inking. On the last few pages I’ve inked, (including a soon to be released Fractal Fiction page) I’ve been using brushes a LOT and I’ve been really happy with the results. I’ve gotten over my fear of the brush, and now I can’t believe that I’ve avoided them this long! The Darwyn Cooke page below was 70% inked with a brush, and the Ed McGuinness Hulk was about 40% brush work.

Why was I so scared of brushes all this time? In my best Tony the Tiger voice…”They’re great!”

I’ve posted Ed’s Hulk pencils for comparison, but sorry…I don’t have a Darwyn pencil scan. Darwyn’s blue line page was handed to me and I started on it right away. It looked pretty close to the way I’ve inked it though. ;-)

Futurequake #15 -on sale soon!

In a few short weeks Futurequake 15 goes on sale in the U.K. For all the juicy details keep watching the FQ blog and/or the main sight here.

I'm quite happy with it, and I hope folks enjoy it. It was written by Greg Dunford, and greyscalled/colored by Keiren Smith. Please keep a sharp eye out for it.

Since there's a neat 'making of' this cover posted over at the the Futurequake Blog, I'm finally able to show the cover off here. I found it rather interesting that the cover I wound up drawing was NOT the one I would have picked myself! That's why I enjoy getting other artists opinions. Everyone (Including a few pros like Frank Quitely) told me to do the one you see below, rather than the homage to 'Death Dealer' by Frazetta that I was gonna whip up. Just goes to show you that Bolt-1 and the FQ folks have a sharp eye for cover design.

WASTED #3 is now available!

I just got my trusty copy of Wasted issue #3.

"for today's youth gone wild!"

cover by SIMON BISLEY

The "War on Drugs" has Johnny K spreading mayhem over 6 pages in this issue, including this one.


Johnny K is on drugs?!? What madness is this?!? How will he survive? Only Alan Grant can write Johnny's way out of this one...and he does. Pencils by me, and inks by an uncredited Pat Davidson, with tones by Keiren Smith and Jamie Grant.

Other great strips include
TALES OF THE BUDDA
THE DOPRANOS
THE DIRTY DOG
LUSI SULFURA
SPLIFFY THE STONER CHICK
WACCY BACCY RACES
plus loads more

all for £3.25 from your local Menzies paper shop (For those in the U.K.) OR available direct from the

Total Fear!

Curt Sibling , and artist who publishes TOTAL FEAR www.lulu.com/content/5533098 and has drawn stories over in Wasted with me, got in touch and asked me to do a pin-up drawing featuring two of his characters from Total Fear. He wanted a ‘Shard Vs. Roza’. Below are Curt’s illustrations of them along with his colors.




















It’s a WEE BIT different stylistically than the way I draw. ;-) I was quite keen to draw it up for him, BUT in my style. Here’s what I came up with.



Pretty different, eh? I did keep them Curt Siblings nipples though! They really seemed to jump out at me from his art…ahem.

Curt was pretty happy with it, and colored it up. He did a great job, check out the image at the top of this post. Chalk it up to another blending of differeing styles that works out great!

WAR ON DRUGS! Well, a W.O.D. poster anyways...

I wanted to make an art print based on the 'War on Drugs' strips I do with Alan that appear in 'WASTED'. http://www.badpressltd.com Since Wasted #3 is due out in a few weeks and I'm going to be at the Bristol Con in May to sign them, its seemed like a perfect time to whip one up! Here's what I came up with. This print includes almost every element that will appear in the first 5 issues of Wasted. I'm ahead on these strips, so consider this a sneak peek for what's ahead!



I'm quite happy with how it turned out, and hope you guys like it too.

Now if it just had some color... ;-)

Deviant Art & Wolveine Vs. Venom colored

I’ve recently joined Deviant art, and I’m now KICKING MYSELF FOR NOT JOINING SOONER!

D.A. is AWESOME! There is so much amazing work there, I’ve found myself spending loads of time looking at terrific art. D.A. is also how this Wolverine Vs. Venom print just got colored by the super talented (and quick!) Tom Berry - a.k.a. Radiator.

I’ve admired Tom’s work for a while over at the monthly art competitions on the 2000ad boards. I really like his coloring sensibilities. His work is very unique, in a great way. Check out his DA gallery for proof of this.

http://tomberryartist.deviantart.com/

I posted up the black and white linework of this print (shown down below on this blog) over at MY D.A. site:

http://gibsonquarter27.deviantart.com/

and next thing I know Tom says he’s like to color it, but it might take a few months. Fair play. I can wait. Tom said he’d try and get it to me before I head to the UK for Bristol con…then 2 days later, he’s done! Perhaps Wolverine is his muse...I dunno. But I DO KNOW that he did a great job.

Thanks Tom!