IF: Fleeting

A new drawing for Illustration Friday's 'Fleeting' theme. Er, I misread the topic as 'Flighty' and have only just realised, oops, oh well, guess this works for 'fleeting' too... as in, King Nigel often made regular but fleeting appearances astride his beloved giant blue chicken.

From the Attic: American Kid

Went to visit my parents in my home town of Ripley, Derbyshire last week and after doing a bit of hunting in the attic managed to dig out this early comic. Think I must have been around 9 or 10 years old when I did this. It's inspired by American TV programmes like The Wonder Years and Roseanne that I use to watch all the time. Apologies if it offends any US readers! I think it says a lot about how I viewed the town I grew up in.

You may notice that the sixth cell is drawn in a slightly different style. This is because my older brother hijacked the strip and decided to draw it for me - I've even tippex-ed out what I think must be swearing and added cleaner dialogue.

IF: Intricate

A new drawing for the Illustration Friday theme, 'Intricate'. This is my first proper go at a comic book narrative, possibly inspired by the release of the new Watchmen film I'm looking forward to seeing.

IF: Breezy

A new entry for Illustration Friday's theme 'Breezy'.

IF: Instinct & Tutorial

Hello, here's a new drawing for Illustration Friday's theme, Instinct. It sometimes takes me a few days to think of an idea I'm happy with before I start drawing but this week's theme made me think of this design pretty much instantly. I think it's something to do with all the media attention surrounding the Darwin anniversary recently.

This is the original sketch -

I drew a quick thumbnail sketch in the corner to work out the composition before drawing a larger version. I don't really worry about rubbing lines out as these can always be erased on the computer later. The sketch is then scanned in at 300 dpi and imported into Photoshop.

I crop it to size and then adjust the threshold (image>adjustments>threshold) to strengthen the pencil lines. This is the part where I erase/tweak any lines I'm not happy with.

The layer containing the drawing is then turned to 'Multiply' in the layer options so it becomes transparent. I then add several layers of colour underneath. One thing I've learnt since doing more drawing for Illustration Friday is that when is comes to colour, a limited palette is often better and helps retain a consistency to the image.

I keep the different colours in seperate layers so the hue/contrast/transparency options can be changed easily if needed. The shadows are then filled in and the pencil lines I've used as a guide are erased. I've also added an inner-shadow to help lift the animals off the page.

Finally, a texture of rough paper is added to a layer above the shadows but below the animals and set to 'Multiply'. Overall, this took me around an hour.

IF: Celebrate

This is a poster I've recently designed for a new student production of 'Merrily We Roll Along'. It's a musical that celebrates the history of three close friends and the different paths their lives take.

IF: Flawed

New piece for Illustration Friday theme 'Flawed'.