Porcelain: "Goodbye so soon"

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Finally I've just this weekend wrapped on my end of Porcelain, that's it, vamos!

(Pictured above: all the Porcelain work, to the left the inks and pencils to the right.)

It goes without saying that most artists, especially the ones I follow and admire, pull off this amount of work with double the skill on a monthly basis, so in comparison it may seem like i'm making a big deal out of this, but for me, career-wise, this is a big deal. It's my first comic project that I have completed that has gone beyond the 27page mark. I have others of a similar size in the works but this is the first to be completed.

It is sad to see the end and to say I loved those characters is a massive understatement. Thinking about it, it reminded me of when I had the chance to meet Becky Cloonan very briefly at the last Kapow in London. I was eagerly buying her short story The Mire from her and straight after buying I sat in a quiet spot and read the whole thing, a beautiful story to say the least. One of many things that struck a chord with me in this book was her dedication at the beginning, it read: "Dedicated to those of you with crushes on your characters". After reading the book I went back to her table and asked her to sign it and gushed over how much I agreed with that statement. Here I am at the end of the book and it's great, but almost heart breakingly sad to have drawn these guys possibly for the last time. Maybe we'll re-visit them again or they will be seen somewhere in the distance of another book, who knows? If they do ever come a knocking I'll have tea and little cakes ready. …and spoons.

This week I'll not only be catching up on some much needed sleep and time with my lady (and of course my Xbox may be hard wired into me for a little while) I'll also be sorting out some back matter for the end of the book. I’m hoping to cram in lots of behind the scenes paraphernalia, character sketches that made it in, some that didn't etc... So do stay tuned for the full book. It’s due out in February and I’m always happy to hear any feedback :)

Before I go, I just wanted to express A LOT of love (and cheeseballs) for Ben, Matt and Andre. Thank’s for being the best kind of work buddies.

Thought Bubble 2012: Improper lowdown

Hello, Hello! just packing up our stuff for Thought Bubble convention this weekend so thought i'd just share the Improper Books rough plan of what we're up to. You can see our details HERE Anyway must dash, should hopefully have some pics and news to share up next week. if your going , don't be shy, come say hi and have a chat! I'll be sketching at the table probably doing a charge of £15 a sketch as usual but i wont be on the desk all day as we're doing a bit of a rotation of Improper Artists throughout the day. Hope to see you there!

Porcelain: the final stretch

Hey Guys just thought i'd post a little piece of Porcelain on here. were on the final stretch of the book now. this book has been too fun and had some big learning curves for me.

This here is a panel i had a lot of fun and stress over, thanks to Marc Laming for giving me some tips on how to attack those windows!

Action Short

Just wanted to get back into a bit of posting as it's been horribly quiet here. This here is a little action sample i did recently. I'd been guided towards an advert about an artist looking for someone who would like to submit for a Saturday morning cartoon style action comic. I honestly didn't think i was much good for such a thing but the guy took a shine to my work and asked me to do an action sample showing how i could deal with a Monster, Jet-pack and a grappling hook. being that i'm in the heat of Improper Books deadlines at the moment i tried to pull off something as quickly as possible. so i put together a little 3 page piece, i gave myself a day to do it all so i only managed to get two pages inked and quickly grey shaded.

I had a bunch fun doing it a but i think it's obvious i'm not very well versed in POW POW action scenes! I pretty well came up with the showdown on panel one of page two first and drew around that. I'd be the first to admit there is plenty wrong with this piece and was a bit reluctant to show it but here you go... Anyway i actually got the job on the short but instantly realized i would be biting off more than i could chew with everything i'm on at the moment so i had to back down which is a shame and the guy sounded like a lot of fun to work with and it was nice to get a thumbs up as the guy is a pretty big name in one of the big two so a nice bit of an ego boost. anywho, feel free to give me any pointers, as i say i know this is not the best actin sequence.

Update With A Warm Up

It's been horribly quiet on here, sorry. Here's a quick warm up from this morning will have some updates on Improper projects soon, i promise!

The rather splendid chaps at Scotch Corner Blog are celebrating their third year of bloggery today and asked me to be one of their guest artists to have a brief interview. they have one a day for the next couple of weeks. they have a great line up so keep checking their blog and then after if you haven't as all the talent of Scotland seems to give off a bit of their work in their so well worth following. A big thanks to Graham and all involved in the blog tis an honor to be mentioned. You can see my interview HERE

Sketches from Grinning Demon in Maidstone

Quick post, just wanted to show some of the sketches i'd drawn up for The Grinning Demon comic shop in Maidstone on Saturday, i had a lot of fun doing some commissions and have come home with a couple to get on with too. Everyone made me feel very welcome and had great requests. hopefully i'll be doing another in October if they'll have me! Apologies to anyone who had a request and i didn't get it done but it's in the works so i'll have them done soon. the day just went so quick! I think there are a few preview copies of Porcelain and Butterfly Gate left at the shop so if anyone in Maidstone wants to grab a look at the first chapters of both be sure to head over there and soak up some dark tales!