Video Try-out

To celebrate Blogger's introduction of video uploading, I decided to try making a demo video showing a quick way of setting up a scanned image for colouring in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. I've had some step-by-step stuff on my site for a good few years now, but writing textbooks online is a very time-consuming business; these demos are quicker to do and let the viewer see the process in action.

I'd be grateful for feedback on this process; whether it's worth me doing more of these; whether you prefer written tutorials; whether the fidelity of the streaming video is good enough or whether it would be better to make high-resolution copies available for download.

This demo works with Photoshop Elements, full Photoshop and Corel Painter. I'd welcome feedback as to whether it works with other programs such as Paint Shop Pro.

The demo starts with a scanned image. If you're going to try this yourself, make sure your image is in RGB colour mode (look under Image: Mode in both full Photoshop and Elements).

Demo © 2007 Me.
Created using Ambrosia Software's excellent Snapz Pro X.

Visual Treats

Brush-pen drawings by Shane Oakley from his blog. © 2007 Shane Oakley

Had my old mate Shane Oakley over the other week as part of my ongoing programme to assimilate all my mates into The Borg. Yes, Shane's taking his first steps into the wacky world of technology at the moment, and the results can be seen on his blog - http://shaneoakley.blogspot.com. When you see his stuff, you'd never believe he's only been using Photoshop for a few months; proof positive that technology is only as good as the talent behind it.

Shane Oakley from last week; as you can see from his reaction, I always welcome visitors to The Cupboard Of Doom by getting my nob out.

Shane was telling me he's looking to take his work in new directions, using a looser inking style influenced by 50's animation and cartoons (see top). The first results look terrific, and reflect the sponteneity of his rough sketches, something that's sometimes been lost in his earlier, more controlled work (and if you thinking that Shane's work isn't short of sponteneity, you're right, but man, you should see his doodles.)

The Beast from The HANDbook of the Marvel Universe.
The Beast © and ® Marvel Entertainment Group Inc.
The Beast created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
This image © Martin Hand

Another treat is a new online project by national treasure Martin Hand. If you were part of the London comics scene in the 80's and 90's (or a CAPTION regular in its first decade) you'll remember Martin and his atomic-powered man-monster The Flimsy (who turns into puny scientist Bob Block when placed under stress).
After a few years devoted to moderating online forums, Martin's back with a regular art project; a comprehensive series of delightfully bouncy drawings of Marvel Comics heroes and villains, produced in alphabetical order. Point your RSS feed at http://worldofagwu.livejournal.com/, True Believer!

The Beast by Steve Whitaker, from his Blog.
The Beast © and ® Marvel Entertainment Group Inc.
The Beast created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
This image © Steve Whitaker

Another old pal, mighty talent (and former V For Vendetta colourist) Steve Whitaker had begun posting his own marvellously Junoesque renderings of superheroes on his Flickr stream over a year ago (in fact, I mentioned them as I'd used them as inspiration for some illustrations I did last year: Batman Wonder Woman).

Check them out on Steve's blog here.

The Scarlet Witch by Steve Whitaker, from his Blog.
The Scarlet Witch © and ® Marvel Entertainment Group Inc.
The Scarlet Witch created by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
This image © Steve Whitaker

Phil Gascoine R.I.P.

Just heard the sad news that Phil Gascoine has died after a short illness.

Though possibly not a name familiar to many current comics fans, Phil was one of those guys who'd been around forever and seemed to have drawn everything and worked for just about everyone; UK girls comics such as Bunty, School Friend and Jinty; UK boys comics such as Battle Action; mainstream US comics such as The Punisher; even Vertigo with Shade The Changing Man.

Left: Phil Gascoine at Bristol Expo in 2005. Photo: John Freeman

I mainly remember Phil from his days on the committee of the SSI* where he served as newsletter editor and treasurer, as well as acting as liaison with the London Sketch Club who hosted the regular SSI meetings for many years. In those days the SSI operated a strict membership policy, with full membership available only to full-time professionals; as a lowly Associate member I quickly became used to being looked down on by many of the older members, but Phil never drew such distinctions; he always had the same cheerful, friendly welcome for everybody, and in contrast to the weary cynicism of many of his contemporaries, always seemed to bubble with enthusiasm and good cheer.

The last time I saw Phil was in Bristol in 2005, and he looked just the same as ever - if not even more chipper. I was signing, and he poked his head through the crowd to say hello. I asked him what he was up to.
"Polish pony comics mate, lovin' it!" he grinned, and vanished into the crowd. It was the same big grin you see in the photo there, and it's how I'll always remember him.

There's an interview with Phil, along with tributes by fellow creators, at Down The Tubes.






•Society for Strip Illustration, now CCG (Comic Creators Guild).

Judge Dredd: Time's Squared

Page one of Judge Dredd: Time's Squared - sans lettering, you can make out my name-checks in panel one: the Shane Oakley block and the G.N Reid Underzoom.
Judge Dredd © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

Prog 1551 flopped onto my mat this morning, bearing Judge Dredd: Time's Squared, the third part of Ian Edginton's & my time traveller stories. This is my first 2000AD story in colour*, which let me get a bit more experimental in places (I had a very tentative go at doing some Stickleback-style stuff in colour on page 3), though I'm not sure if my attempt to pastiche Carlos Ezquerra's photoshop colouring on page 4 really comes across.

My only sadness was that my little nods to my mates Shane Oakley and Graeme Reid (who provided much of the reference for this strip while I was away from home) in panel one of page 1 ended up covered with lettering; but those are the breaks, I guess. Knowing how this stuff goess, I put backup mentions in page 4, and I present page one here without lettering.

*I was surprised to realize this, but it's true; I've done full-colour strips for The Megazine, and colouring on other people's work for 2000AD itself, but never the full deal before now.

I spent ages on the effects in this panel, so here it is without lettering.
Judge Dredd © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

CAPTION 2007

The CAPTION 2007 quiz: monster!

I spent the weekend at the CAPTION small press convention in Oxford; in its sixteenth year now, I think it may be the longest-running comic convention in the UK, and in that time I've missed perhaps only three years.

CAPTION has changed drastically over the years; venue, organising committee and participants have all altered since the first one in the Oxford Union in 1992. One thing, however, remains unchanging, and it's the thing that keeps me coming back year after year; the enthusiasm of everyone there for comics, and especially for creating comics.

Left: my sketch for the CAPTION auction, on the theme of dreams (collection Jeremy Dennis)

CAPTION is a meeting place for people who are amateurs in the true sense; those who love making comics, who are excited by the possibilities of the form and who haven't had their enthusiasm blunted by the daily grind of trying to make a living, the problems of dealing with publishers and editors, the parlous state of the market. Not that I think producing small-press comics is easy; trying to fit in drawing time around work and family is a tough job, and I have nothing but admiration for those who manage to produce anything under those circumstances. But I do think that for those who can't spend all of their time on comics, such time as they can spend remains a little more precious, the enthusiasm stays closer to the surface.

At the CAPTION auction I managed to bag these issues of Near Myths - featuring the first appearance of Bryan Talbot's Luther Arkwright and Gideon Stargrave by Grant "T" Morrison.

So I go to CAPTION as a punter, pay my fiver at the door, catch up on what's new, pick up the latest issues, take part in a workshop, sit around in the bar, catch up with mates old and new, add to the communal sketchbooks, do the quiz, take a sh*tload of photos; I come back from it every year refreshed, with a few gems and a reminder of why I got into this game in the first place.

How Does That Go Again?

From the forthcoming Stickleback: England's Glory

Stickleback © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD Created by Ian Edginton & Me.

Have just finished the first episode of the new series of Stickleback (a ten-pager, no less), and was afflicted by a problem I'd never experienced before - forgetting exactly how to do the technique.

This isn't quite as drastic as it sounds - I could certainly work out what I'd done by looking at the files from the previous series, but getting a comic in on time requires more than that, you need to remember the most efficient way of doing things. Since the Stickleback technique requires nine processes split between pen and paper (for the rough layouts) and three different software packages, getting back up to speed was a bit of a struggle; I finally got on top of it round about the fourth page.

I was also not helped by the behaviour of my new copy of Corel Painter 10; despite being engineered for Intel Macs and my having oodles of RAM and hard disk space to play in, it was crawling along at a horribly disappointing pace, almost unusably slow and certainly no match for Painter IX under Rosetta (though IX was just randomly unstable enough for me to want to avoid it). After trying just about everything I could think of, I finally narrowed the problem down to where Painter X was installed - apparently it's not happy in the Applications folder with all the other boys and girls, it wants to live down on the root of the hard disk. This revelation came just in time to see me through the near all-nighter needed to finish part 1 of Stickleback: England's Glory, though it still falls over every time if you try and use full-screen mode. Joy.

Rough "pencil" stage - the pale blue is a leftover from working on paper; pale blue pencil doesn't copy, so you can use it to lay down a rough drawing before making a finished pencil drawing.

"Pencils" - I do a finished drawing in mid-grey, indicating outlines only; the blue is left visible to indicate shading.

"Blocking" - underneath the "pencil" drawing, I use Adobe Illustrator to add blocks of bright, flat colour - in the following stages I use these blocks of colour to mask off areas to add texture or shading.

Using the blocks of colour as masks, I add textures to areas of the image in Photoshop.

Next, I add grey tones under the textures.

Finally, I add black and shading using Corel Painter's Digital Watercolour brushes.

Apologies for the disappearance of the pictures from this post last week; I'm at a loss as to why it happened, and even after reloading the pictures this post isn't displaying properly on my browser - I'm getting flattened rectangles where the pictures where originally posted, though nothing shows up in either the "compose" or "edit HTML" settings when I edit the post. Hope this doesn't spoil your enjoyment, 'cause it honks me off royally :-)