Sketch: Tale of Sand

Tale of Sand knocked me of my feet, a completely beautiful book on every level and i cant help but be awestruck and inspired by every page. So here's a little sketch i did after re reading it today.

Very happy to announce that we have officially launched our Improper Books imprint, your can see our launch welcome HERE I'm very proud to be part of this group, we have got some really exciting projects on the line, i know the website is a bit of a Chris Wildgoose fest at the moment, but the other guys have some seriously nice projects in the pipes so keep you're eyes peeled as they aren't far off either. What you can see up there is samples of the Porcelain book and the Butterfly gate series i've been working my recent months away on. let us know what you think of the site and if you have any questions about the projects don't hesitate to contact any of us. I want to shout about this imprint and the projects for hours but i'll let the website do all the talking for now as its had a lot of work put into the site so GO SEE!

Commissions

Over the next couple of Weeks i have a bit of a relaxed schedule before the coming Bristol Expo. So due to that i'm taking on commission requests. so far i've taken on a few so there's some more spaces for requests. if anyone is going to Bristol and wants me to have something a bit neater done then by all means Email me or DM me on twitter. So far the prices are: Head sketch = £5 A4 body and background = £10 Anything more as in more than one character or something bigger then obviously i will charge a bit more. The sketches would be fully pencilled and inked maybe a bit of colour or grey wash... Please eel welcome to give any request. i'd like some decent exercises before the coming conventions

Comic Cons!

Howdy, So far i've booked myself into 3 cons this year with a table and all. first up is going to be the DemonCon held in the Exchange studio, Maidstone on the 22nd April.
i'm down as a DemonCon virgin and general all round convention sketcher virgin, so if you come along be gentle!

Next up is the Bristol Expo on the 12th May held at the Brunel old station-passenger shed & at the Ramada Hotel. i'm going there as part of our new team 'Improper Books' were launching the preview of our first book 'Porcelain' and the first episode of 'Butterfly Gate' both drawn by me! Writer Benjamin Read, Editor Matt Gibbs and My partner in crime and who is later this year having a book coming out through said imprint Laura Trinder (and she'll will be popping her comic convention cherry too)

So come on down to that to get sketches and signed copies of our limited preview prints. and hear what were planning to do and the stories we've got in the works!
Also DreamSolver wise i Think writer Luke Foster is due to be there too so i'm sure you can find either of us to ask any questions or get sketches for that book too!


And finally Thought Bubble held in Leeds at Saviles Hall on the 11th -18th November.
and Porcelain is due for ultimate and total completion for then (eek!) so we are due to launch the full graphic novel then warts and all so expect the whole Improper Books team to attend that too!

So come along and please do drop by the tables and say hi and see if i'm ok and not too freaked out...

In the works..

Hi all, sorry for the radio silence on here, the past few weeks i've been storming away at the inks for Porcelain and have just got chapter 1 finished up, two more to go. Here's a little medley of my photo feed on twitter which i often post on daily, it has a bit of mix a of all the stages.

And yes the idea is somewhat shamelessly stolen from Becky Cloonan's own blog but it's a pretty neat idea if you post progress on twitter alot. so full props to her influence on this post.

Tribute to Moebius

When I got the True Grit job I instantly hauled in as much Blueberry as I could get my hands on and throughout the whole project i had at least one book constantly on the desk. Since then I've referred back to his books time and time again, so I have a lot to thank fr in terms of influence and wanting to be a better creator and Jean Giraud was a creator of the highest order.
One such piece I looked to constantly whilst working on True Grit was this and still do on practically every comic I work on now..

Taken From Blueberry Book #1

A big thank you to Jim Campbell who lettered the piece for me, the very man who lettered the True Grit comic that got me delving deep into Mr Giraud's sea of work..

Background Piece

This here is just a quick sketch for some backgound detail in Porcelain, but i kind of liked it a bit so thought id share.