Seasons Greetings

Well, that time of year has come round again so here is my Christmas Illustration for you. Hope you all have a great Chrimbo and best wishes for 2017.

If you would like to see the time lapse process animation of how I did this artwork here it is:

My Dad's art

Back in February I started a Facebook page with my sister dedicated to my Dad's art. He made a living as a graphic designer, but his first love was always painting and fine art, which he was always doing, but increasingly so in later life, especially after he was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease in 1994. Over the course of two years or so he produced a staggering amount of work, sometimes painting five or six pictures at once! He'd have them lined up round his studio, and use the same colour in each of them so that by the time he'd painted the last one the first was dry, so he mixed the next colour and started again. It all culminated in an exhibition in Beirut in the spring of 1996 where he sold over fifty paintings.

They cover a wide variety of styles and subject matter from abstract patterns to landscape to still life to etchings and calligraphy, though most of is later work focused on landscapes in Spain and Lebanon and Arabic abstracts and calligraphy.

  

While a lot of them were sold, my sister and I have quite a few of the original paintings and photos of most of them so we will be updating the Facebook page from time to time as a showcase for his work. If anyone out there has any of his other works, particularly earlier stuff, please feel free to post them on the page. You can see the page here:

This one, by the way, is a painting of the back garden of the house we grew up in the late 70s. It's oils on either wood or canvas. I remember him working on it, but don't know what happened to the painting.

Digital Inking With Ugee 1910b Tablet Monitor

This is just a test video of me inking a panel from the forthcoming issue #5 of Fred Fortune. It works quite well,so I'll probably do some more in the future, but with some added sound to help it flow.

Please let me know what you think...

This Week #3

This week I have been mostly reading the third deluxe hard cover edition of  Tim Seeley and Mike Norton's 'Revival'.

Great stuff, a gripping story with some fantastic art!!

  

Ho Ho Ho! Compliments of the season to everyone out there, have a fantastic time of festive fun and a mince pie on us. I'm off to drink lots of spiced ru and milk vodka... see ya in 2016 :)

Merry Christmas One & All

It's that time of year again... Phew, didn't 2014 zoom past at super speed? I don't know where it went! I hope everyone has a very good fun filled festive season with their family and friends... Have a beer or wine on me!

We'll be back in the new year with new Daily Doodles, new issues of Fred Fortune and Fred Fortune: Gold from Poverty Press and Abbot Comics and hopefully some stuff from the Mondo stable including the start of the Mondo Minis series... Maybe we'll even make time to do some proper posts here :)- though we did add several new pages during 2014. 

Creating Comics #2: Writing The Script

Generally I'm not one for the traditional full script method of comic writing, not that there's anything wrong with it. I've used it from time to time when it felt like the right approach for that particular project. My 1994 Fred Fortune strip 'Daze', for example, was indeed fully scripted before I even started to draw the first episode. I think for that one I needed that kind of fully thought out and planned script because it was Fred's longest story at the time and needed that kind of structure for me to have the nerve to push forward and improve my storytelling. When I started on Fred, however, there was never any 'script', I had an idea and sketched a very rough page to see how it would play out, changing bits here and there when needed. This was the best way, for me (and Fred) at the time, especially given the early Fred's nine panel grid layout, as I could get it done so much faster than typing out lengthy descriptions for each panel. Also I think this method helps to keep the finished story looking fresh as a lot of elements within each panel were done on the spur of the moment as I was penciling the work. Here's one of my rough 'scripts' from that era...       

Most of the time I have a story idea running round my head for a while before I put pen to paper so I have a clear idea of the plot and where the story is going to go when I start to write. With the current Fred mega epic, the tentatively titled 'The Really Groovy Story', there's no visual element to the script, either written or sketched, at all. I'm just writing the dialogue interspersed with stuff like 'big car chase for three or four pages'. Then I work out the visual part (page layout, 'camera' angles etc)later on as I'm drawing it. It's a great way to focus on the characters themselves and let them tell the story. For me, this approach feels very authentic as if Fred and his crew are writing it themselves and once I've got the momentum going it's quite a fast process.
Once finished, in 'Groovy's case after I've done each episode, I'll leave the writing side for a bit and do something else (mostly drawing, inking lettering a different story) then come back to it with fresh eyes some time later. Then I might make a few changes here and there, such as rework some dialogue that doesn't feel right or change the order of some sequences or cut them out entirely. You have to be ruthless here... if it's not working for that particular story, get rid of it. After all, if it's a strong enough idea, you can use it in a story where it works well later on. My creative process changes a lot and no doubt the next story I work on will demand to be written a different way again.
I guess what I'm saying is that if you're going to write a comic there is no right or wrong way to do it... as long as the end result tells the story you wanted to tell. Write a full script if that's right for you and your project... if not, develop your own approach. Are their any comic creators out there who use their own approach to writing? If so,how does it differ from the accepted norm? Or do you prefer to write full script? If so, why?


Incidentally, you'll be able to read 'Demon Fridge From Hell' in Fred Fortune:Gold #5, 'Daze' in Fred Fortune:Gold #6 and 'The Really Groovy Story' begins it's run in The Incredibly Stupid Misadventures of Fred Fortune and his Chums!! #7... They'll be on sale as soon as they're ready... Watch this space for up coming info.

Here's the cover of Fred Fortune: Gold #5 to wet your appetite...