Eclectic Micks

Grifter Colours

2012-01-30T20:56:00.000Z

BLAM! BLAM! PITCHOOM!

OWNED

2012-01-27T23:35:00.002Z

This made a nice change.

Celtic Warrior

2012-01-25T09:45:00.000Z

The Legend of Cú Chulainn

Chapter 2

Pg 1

Panel 4

FAITH

2012-01-24T14:12:00.003Z

Wanted to try my hand at a Whedon character, so here's Faith from Buffy/Angel. Actually, she's in the current Angel and Faith series from Dark Horse, which I'm really enjoying at the moment. Great stuff from Christos Gage and Rebekah Isaacs.

Dec.

Nazis. I Hate These Guys.

2012-01-23T13:04:00.002Z

Here's a couple of panels from a recent HALF PAST DANGER page. Yes, that flying wing is a blatant nod to Raiders, that's the kind of thing that makes my little brain giddy. Head on over here to see the full page if yer arsed.

The Lousy Bum

2012-01-21T22:03:00.000Z

So sorry Micks, animation work and general company running business has kept me from posting anything here in yonks. Its looking like a busy year but I'm really determined to post something along the lines of illustration or comics or even just sketches here ....anyway heres our old friend Ollie from the good olde days.

UBER ALLES

2012-01-20T21:30:00.002Z

Line art for the colour image of the BotCon exclusive Overlord ('Gigatron') toy that was snuck around the web this week. They're making a toy that nods to his appearance in Wreckers, violent lips and everything. Cool, huh?

Here's a picture of a robot licking a hunting knife.

Prophet

2012-01-20T01:00:00.003Z

Read Brandon Graham and Simon Roy's Prophet 21 today from Image. One of the most interesting and amazing looking books I've seen in ages. Reminds me a little of Ricardo Delgado's brilliant Hieroglyph in a lot of ways, it's as much a travelogue of alien culture as it is a story. Highly recommended. It also contains an inordinate number of scenes of people eating meat hence this picture.

Celtic Warrior

2012-01-19T09:11:00.000Z

The legend of Cú Chulainn

Issue 2

Pg 1

Panel 3

ULTIMATE SPIDERMAN

2012-01-17T14:07:00.001Z

Here's a take on the new Ultimate Spider-man. The great Chris Samnee is starting an arc on the book tomorrow, so I urge all you to check it out.

Dec.

Cloak And Dagger

2012-01-16T15:10:00.001Z

Moonstar.com

2012-01-13T20:13:00.004Z

Thinking of drawing some New Mutants. Why not? Here's a shot of Moonstar from outta dat.

HEY: Last chance to dance with my TF drawings. More Than Meets The Eye#1 came out this week, and I'm very, very proud of it. Incredible writing from James Roberts, and ridiculously good colouring from Josh Burcham which makes me look accomplished. Please give it a spin; I genuinely think it's something the non-TF comic fans among you will dig.

Come say hi to me at Dublin City Comics tomorrow from 2pm for my signing of same issue. And sniff out nickroche.blogspot.com for shots of the uncoloured lineart from the book. I think you'll like it!

Nick

Facetime

2012-01-12T23:36:00.000Z

A random assortment of sketchy faces.

Celtic Warrior

2012-01-11T08:50:00.001Z

Cú Chulainn

Issue 2

Panel 2

NORTHLANDERS

2012-01-10T15:11:00.002Z

My final issue of NORTHLANDERS (#47) is out tomorrow. Make sure you pick it up.

Above is actually a double-page spread from #46. I think it's my favourite page that I drew out of the 220-ish pages I drew of 2011.

Dec.

Grifter

2012-01-09T15:25:00.000Z

Drawing of Grifter I worked on over the Christmas break. Still have a burning desire to work on a book starring this guy some day.

Almost Met The Eye

2012-01-06T18:24:00.005Z

Almost a year without any of my TF comic work 'hitting' the 'stands' and two issues come out less than a month apart. How queer. Anyway, the Super-Shocking, All-New, All-Different first issue of Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye will be available to you all next week on new comic day. Both of the new ongoing TF books are what the discerning robo-fan has needed in their life for a long time, and 2012 looks like a bumper year for fans of the Changey Robots' comic adventures. I won't be drawing any of it past this issue, or at least not in the early part of the year, but I'm certainly looking forward to buying the books more than I have for yonks.

So here is Ultra Magnus from MTMTE, including his vehicle mode that will not be used in the comic itself. Blackballed, my friend. So I wanted to show it off here, cos I tolerate you guys.

BUY THIS BOOK.

Capturing the Celtic Warrior

2012-01-04T13:09:00.000Z

Cú Chulainn

Issue 2

Panel 1

MAN-THING

2012-01-03T17:45:00.001Z

Recent Man-Thing sketch. I get a lot of requests to draw him, which is fine by me cuz he's a lot of fun to draw.

Dec.

Snake Eyes Colour

2012-01-02T22:34:00.001Z

Coloured version of the Snake-Eyes pic I posted a few weeks back. This is one of 4 or 5 versions I've coloured, I can't help but get bogged down with tiny tweaks here and there and then bug the other lads about which version they prefer when half the time they don't even notice any real difference. I'm sure this isn't the final version of these colours either, cos I'll probably change my mind again tomorrow.
Ho hum.

Leftovers

2011-12-30T22:54:00.001Z

I'm nowhere near any newer material to post as I'm currently in lockdown at the Roche ancestral home. So here's something that's older than sin for you to scrutinise.

Happy New Pictures in 2012 I hope!

X

Alien

2011-12-29T17:42:00.002Z

Here's a bit of character design for a personal project. I like how his horrible little feet came out.

SONGBIRD

2011-12-27T13:00:00.000Z

Another sketch from the Lille convention back in November. Happy New Year everyone.

Happy Christmas/Miscellaneous!

2011-12-26T14:15:00.000Z

Hey everybody, hope all are enjoying a nice break from the normal hoo-ha. As I type this I'm munching on a delicious christmas cookie my sterling wife made. Well met, wife.

Here's the pencils to a Cloak and/or Dagger piece I've been working on recently.

Toy Story

2011-12-23T23:11:00.003Z

Christmas snatches time from me once again, so you mjst live with the newly unveiled cover to Transformers: More Than Meets The Eye #1, which launches in January. MTMTE is my last TFs for the foreseeable, bar covers, and will hopefully keep the buzz generated by Death of Optimus Prime alive. Still love those robots though. Hope Slanty Jaws brings me one this year.

Have a homage-tastic Nickmas, Micklickers! X

Spotlights

2011-12-22T21:58:00.002Z

Ah, drawing a cartoony guy with nice flat colours is like having a little holiday. I wish I could draw like this all the time.

Superman Batman 2011

2011-12-21T09:25:00.001Z

Heres a christmas tale

I remember the day we did our first one really clearly. I was in 3rd year college, we both talked about wanting to be in Wizard magazine someday.
The end

I love seing the progression in these drawings. Love it. Its pretty unlikely that we'll still be friends in about 2 years, but if we somehow make it s far as when we reach our 60's, then I think this would be the coolest coffee-table book ever.

Heres to another great year. This year I finished up a 29 issue run on Farscape, which was a blast and is responsible for birthing my comic book career. I ended up truely with a second home in New York. Most importantly, as the year draws to an end, I've signed up for 3 pretty big and exciting books. One should be obvious enough, the second, will be a high profile Image book, which is about to be announced, and thirdly, my own book Cú Chulainn will be out at the end of the year, launching definately across Europe (The contract is signed with a big European publisher)

BATMAN

2011-12-20T14:25:00.003Z

Every December, Will and I have done a Superman/Batman piece. Unfortunately, I totally forgot to do one last year... feel bad about that. Anyway, here's my Batman for 2011. Expect Will's Superman to join him soon.

Dec.

Venom

2011-12-19T12:10:00.004Z

2011-12-16T23:53:00.001Z

Forgot to post yesterday so here's a little watercolour doodle inspired by looking at too many Hayao Miyazaki storyboards.

THIS CHRISTMAS, OPTIMUS PRIME DIES!

2011-12-16T22:30:00.002Z

Spoiler alert.

Apparently, IDW's 'The Death of Optimus Prime' is slithering out a week earlier than scheduled. So this milestone issue will be out on December 21st Stateside, and the 22nd everywhere else hopefully.

To tide thee over until then, check out this panel from the book. Mmm, doomy.

Whoops. Im late

2011-12-15T15:06:00.002Z

MAN-THING

2011-12-13T23:43:00.001Z

GAH! Didn't realise it was a Tuesday 'til just now. Here's a Man-Thing sketch I did at Lille a month back. Don't think I've posted this already.

Dec.

Snake-Eyes

2011-12-12T11:43:00.002Z

Just scratching an itch with this one, really.

To Be Frank

2011-12-09T23:34:00.001Z

As threatened, an inked-up Punisher.

(Still not for you, Egg.)

Mini Me

2011-12-08T18:31:00.002Z

Cartoony-manga version of me and my lady friend. Her hair is much longer now. And our heads are much smaller.

Pigs #04

2011-12-07T13:49:00.001Z

Out next week kiddies. And by kiddies, I most definately do not mean kids, as its not exactly suitable for them.

GATEWAY

2011-12-06T14:59:00.002Z

Hey look! A brand new sketch that I coloured and everything!

Doing Northlanders and Thunderbolts at the same time was rough, so I wasn't putting in the work in my sketches. Now that I'm back on one book, I wanted to try a bit harder, even trying my hand at colour. Dunno if this turned out well; I think I might depend on Jordie to make my stuff look good these days. Anyway, was worth a try.

Dec.

Half Past Danger Frontspiece

2011-12-05T14:30:00.001Z

Here's something I just finished inking ten minutes ago, a little frontspiece I'll be using for part of a design element on the first issue of my book. Sorry if people are sick of simply seeing image after image from this project on here, but I'm literally spending every waking moment working on it so I have nothing else to offer!

Welcome Back Frank

2011-12-02T20:28:00.003Z

In the middle of pencilling up a little piece of gift art (no, it's not for you, Egg.) featuring ol' Festive Frank Castle. Tune in next week where I cheekily use the inks for this piece of my entry.

Half Past Danger

2011-11-30T11:45:00.001Z

Captain John Noble himself.

Please please let some one roar out just as he's about to kill some one:

"What time is it?"

"Is half past fuckin danger, thats what time it is." BOOOOM

All kidding aside, this looks great. I've just seen the coloured cover and it looks like the love child of Drew Strewzan and Adam Hughes. Gorgeous stuff

GHOST

2011-11-29T11:16:00.002Z

I get a lot of sketch requests for Ghost these days. Him, Man-Thing and Songbird are probably the most popular sketch requests I get actually. Anyway, here's a scan of a recent Ghost sketch I did at the Lille Comics Festival. Really like how this one came out. Thanks to Emilien for sending it on!

Dec.

Angel

2011-11-28T10:58:00.001Z

Here's me mid-sketch drawing Angel for a fan at a recent convention. Action shot!
....of me, not of Angel.

Cintiq Chick

2011-11-25T23:30:00.005Z

Using the ol' Voodoo Slab a lot more often these days, but still haven't quite nailed the control I'd like with it. I know it's possible - many Micks, past and present prove this - but I just need to stick with it.

In the meantime, here's a panel I noodled up with it this week.

Check out Nick Roche on the RTE Player

2011-11-24T09:58:00.001Z

http://www.rte.ie/player/#!v=1123565

Skip forward to 15 minutes.
Wohooo Go Nick

And todays eclectic micks Mystery animal isssss.. A HEDGEHOG!

Eighty Awesome Eighties Action Heroes. Dillon

2011-11-23T12:16:00.001Z

Its been quite a while since I've had time to draw up a new Eighty Eighties character, and I think it shows, my style has gotten afair bit grittier and darker which I am enjoying doing these days.
You can see all of the other entrys here
http://sliney.blogspot.com/search/label/Eighty%20Awesome%20Eighties%20Action%20Heroes

BLACK BOLT/MEDUSA

2011-11-22T23:55:00.000Z

Here's a Black Bolt/Medusa piece to celebrate FANTASTIC FOUR #600, which is out tomorrow. It's a big giant-sized issue that has a story featuring the above characters. The story is written by Jonathan Hickman, illustrated by Ming Doyle and coloured by friend-of-the-blog Jordie Bellaire. I hope ye all check it out; I've seen the story and it's an absolute stunner. I can only assume the rest of the issue is the same.

Dec.

More Colours

2011-11-22T13:00:00.000Z

I haven't much in the way of sketches to show at the moment unfortunately, as I'm really devoting all of my time into trying to make Half Past Danger look as good as I can. So for the moment here's another coloured panel from the second page of the book.

PS- Apologies to Dec for hijacking the start of his day on the blog, I forgot it wasn't monday!

Watch Nick. Meet Nick. Lick Nick.

2011-11-18T22:15:00.003Z

Wharro, homies.

I shall be doing one of my rare appearances outside of my hovel this coming week, for next Friday marks the start of the Wexworlds Sci Fi festival in Wexford Town, which is where I'm from, innit? I have my now-annual mini-display of work at The Wexford Arts Centre (where the below shot, coloured by Josh Burcham, shall be available for all to marvel at) and am doing a couple of comic workshops, like what I used to do before I went legit. See www.wexworlds.net for details of what I'm up to and what other ace authors and experts you can harangue if you're in the neighbourhood.

To promote this though, I'm due to appear on live TV this coming Wednesday. Yep, I've finally made it to kids' TV, so I'll be wearing my tightest, reddest pair of trews. I'm on Elev-8 on RTE 2 sometime between 4 and 5pm, and rumour has it, drawing right there and then in front of your eyes and those of millions of dispossessed youngsters. So tune in, and, like, trend my name or something. #nicktightpants will do me.

(Psst: I know the line-art of this pic has been here before, but check out them hues, no?)

Doodles

2011-11-17T12:08:00.002Z

Just playing around with a Japanese G nib and a small Rapidograph pen for funsies.

The Fastest Hunk of Junk in the Galaxy

2011-11-16T09:31:00.001Z

This comes out tomorrow. Wooohoooooo You're all clear, kid, now let's blow this thing and go home!

Someone pointed out to me that our new President of Ireland is actually Yoda.

I've been getting Star Wars work quite regularly lately. Aside from this panel from the Han and Chewie story I've been working on another unnanounced Star Wars book. Can't wait to reveal what it is

JUGGERNAUT

2011-11-15T16:51:00.001Z

Another sketch from the Lille Comics Festival. Really miss drawing that guy.

Dec.

Blue skies

2011-11-14T23:40:00.001Z

Started colouring my book today. Fun. Here's a little panel. The first of the whole book, actually.

Madonna

2011-11-13T15:55:00.001Z

So busy doing storyboards I have'nt made anything "finished" in weeks - but thought I better post something or risk losing my spot here :)
Also I've been striken with a nasty sniffly bug.
And the dog ate my homework. etc.

This is a piece I did for a group exhibition my sister organised last year promoting breastfeeding.

Whoosh!

2011-11-11T23:16:00.000Z

Someone's late for his tea.

Background design

2011-11-10T12:46:00.002Z

This is a bit of background design from a personal project. I was trying to get a messy, cosy feel for this character's basement hideaway. I'll probably end up rendering this as a basic 3d model with SketchUp for reference as there's a lot of complex action that takes place here.

SONGBIRD and GHOST

2011-11-08T09:48:00.005Z

Just back from the Lille Comics Festival. Had a brilliant time. Did a LOT of sketches; the most requested being Man-Thing and Songbird actually. Anyway, here's one I did of Songbird and Ghost that I'm pretty happy with.

Dc.

Tyrannosaurus Yucks

2011-11-07T14:53:00.002Z

Reboots

2011-11-04T23:57:00.002Z

Ah, losing your laptop and harddrives to a virus 3 days before a deadline, leaving only the oldest, oddest images at your disposal for a blog. A fate befitting the winner of an ICN award.

On that note, thanks to everyone who gave me the nod and for your kind messages since.Delighted to see Bob and Dec get the love too.Ridiculous result, but a welcome one.More soon on it.

BYE!

2011-11-02T09:28:00.001Z

APES!

2011-11-01T19:40:00.002Z

BETRAYAL OF THE PLANET OF THE APES #1 is out tomorrow, by Corinna Sara Bechko(Heathentown) and Gabriel Hardman(Hulk). It's also coloured by one Jordie Bellaire, whoever she is. Never heard of her.

Anyway, I've done variants for 3 issues; before I did them I did some rough doodles from various press photos and film posters, just to get a feel for how to draw the Apes from the book.

Dec.

Half Past Pencils

2011-11-01T10:44:00.001Z

Here are the pencils for the first page of my book. To see the completed inks, head over to the website.

the animation art auction

2011-10-30T01:30:00.000Z

just hijacking my post this week to advertise this worthy cause - hope thats ok!

DELETE

2011-10-28T22:37:00.001+01:00

...Too late now. Another sketch from my mini-Who sessions last week. Just playing around with proportions and Nickifying him a little. Y'know. For fun.

Old Man

2011-10-27T18:42:00.002+01:00

When I draw with Manga Studio I tend to go straight to ink and skip the pencil stage to save time but I've been playing around the pencil tools a bit recently. Here's one of my experiments.

Thor

2011-10-26T09:08:00.000+01:00

X-MEN + SPIDERMAN... from 1996!!!

2011-10-25T18:05:00.004+01:00

Posting a pic from 15(!?!) years ago today...

A friend of mine from school scanned this and sent it to me a while back. I think I was planning to draw this comic once I had finished my epic X-Men vs Squadron* crossover. Not bad for a 14 year old, eh?

It's crazy to look back at this stuff. I can kinda remember where I must have lifed some of these poses from. None of it was traced though, I always tried to duplicate a pose in order to figure it out.

[*Squadron were a highly original, not-at-all-like-the-X-Men super-hero team of my own creation]

Dec.

Thompson, I Salute You.

2011-10-24T16:06:00.000+01:00

Seeing Thompson's post a few days back made me realise two(count 'em) things;
1: That blue dude what he drew looked a lot like one of my characters, John Noble. All he needed was a trademark salute.
2: Thompson would have wanted me to steal his drawing and scrawl my changes over it. Hell, It'd be wrong NOT to do it.

Doctor WTF

2011-10-21T20:23:00.000+01:00

Random

2011-10-20T23:33:00.001+01:00

Some random doodles, just playing around with Photoshop.

2011-10-19T10:55:00.001+01:00

I had a go off drawing the new Superman costume. TO be honest, already when I see the classic costume it has started to look old to me. Bizarre. The new DC stuff is great sofar. I'm buying and committed to following way more DC books than I used to. I buy them a month late for the lower price. Hopefully Marvel will follow suit soon

THUNDERBOLTS SPREAD

2011-10-18T13:36:00.005+01:00

For the recent Point One issue of Thunderbolts, there was a double page spread that featured nearly every Thunderbolt who has ever been on the team. This was a LOT of fun for me as I got to have a go at characters I had never drawn before, like Hawkeye, Venom, Bullseye, and even Jolt from the original T-Bolts run. I used the opportunity to draw Crossbones and Juggernaut too, who had both left the team at this stage. There were a lot of characters to compose on the page and when I started doing my layouts at the usual size (5x7.5cm) I just wasn't able to get them all composed the way I wanted. I decided to make the layout bigger; so I could both compose all the characters and get a lot of the figure construction figured out before I started pencilling. I did this layout 3 times bigger than usual; takes up most of an A3 page.

As I recall, after seeing this layout Jeff Parker (Tbolts mastermind) thought that the lettering placement should go through the image more, instead of being sidelined to either side of the page, which was a perfectly good note. To rectify this, I moved the more recent T-Bolts line-up more to the right and took a couple of those and moved them up a bit. See how further up Man-Thing is in this version and how much space is left between Venom and Ghost.

This took a lot of time to research and get right but I'm really happy with how it came out. Jeff didn't make me add all those T-Bolts, the script just asked to include the main characters over the years. I can't be sure, but I got nearly all of them. Might be missing 4 or 5, but I wanted to give long term fans a really cool image where they could see their favourite character from the long-running series.

Dec.

Irish Doodles.

2011-10-17T12:13:00.000+01:00

Early sketches of the lead character in my book, Half Past Danger. Just playing about with bits and pieces before settling on his look. Fun.

northlanders

2011-10-16T14:39:00.001+01:00

heres a rough from a comic based on Brian Boru that I was starting to (re)develop for Clo Mhaigh Eo earlier this year. I did'nt get too far and now O'Brien Press have got one out so I guess it won't go any further.
The first development for it goes back to 2003 - I'll post some stuff I did back below ... the painted backgrounds and layout is by Ross Stewart, character designs by my younger self-

Little Nemo for Starship Sofa

2011-10-16T03:18:00.002+01:00

He has a Viking Helmet.

What?

They Turn Into Cars

2011-10-14T23:13:00.002+01:00

I really gotta try and catch up on me themes; berserkers, tarts and Vikings and I've no time to draw even the glimpse of a horn? I'm a fool to myself. Instead, here's something I found on an old Hard Drive; One of the sample pages from back in 'The' day that has me drawing robots full-time now. Check it.

And buy the flip out of NORTHLANDERS. What's the Norse that could happen?

Northlanders

2011-10-12T09:20:00.000+01:00

I ordered all the trades of Northlanders a good month ago and unfortunately they still havent arrived, which is annoying. Still, its good fun drawing an ol sea hardened viking

BRIDA and MAR

2011-10-11T23:33:00.002+01:00

This is a character study I did of the two main characters in my Northlanders arc; Brida and Mar Hauksson. This is pretty much how I drew them in the book, except Brian Wood asked me to make sure Brida's hair was down. I was trying to give her a signiture look, but Brian pointed out that back in Viking times, a woman with her hair up meant that she was married. You learn something new every day!

Dec.

Declanders

2011-10-10T17:27:00.004+01:00

Dec's first issue of Northlanders hits shelves on wednesday, go buy several copies. We've seen the art and it's gorgeous, right up Dec's alley. Besides, Northlanders is a fantastic book anyway, so you've been missing out if you haven't given it a go yet.

I remember reviewing Dec's portfolio when we were looking for somebody to take over on Freakshow after myself and Thompson had left. Do I wish now that I'd never recommended him for the book? Of course I do. In five or so years he's gone from delivering coal to drawing books for both Marvel and DC simultaneously.

It's hard to begrudge the fella all his success, given that he works really hard and he's an all-round good egg. But I manage it.

laura veirs

2011-10-09T14:55:00.000+01:00

sigh - i had planned an art nouveau tribute to joanna newsom for this weeks theme , even started it but did'nt get it finished in time. heres a 2007 sketch of lovely laura veirs in the meantime.

Granny Goodness!

2011-10-09T05:14:00.003+01:00

No pretty girls for me either- but she really wants to pinch your cheeks- with pliers.

Maybe you're into that.

Snappy Snaps

2011-10-07T22:14:00.002+01:00

Artwork I did a while back for a short story anthology. Sorry if you were expecting boobs. I'll try and deliver some on a different occasion.

The Scathach

2011-10-05T09:32:00.003+01:00

More of a colour test more than anything

SATANA

2011-10-04T10:45:00.003+01:00

Sorry; still swamped with work, but here's something I was playing around a few weeks ago that features a drawing of a sexy lady.

Dec.

Elizabeth Huntington-Moss (Colour)

2011-10-03T11:49:00.006+01:00

Looks like it's ladies week on the blog judging by that saucy little symbol up there, so I figured I'd show more of Elizabeth Huntington-Moss, the female lead in my creator-owned book, Half Past Danger. If you'd like to see more of this lady, or just see what I've been up to in general, then please head on over here to the book's production blog, where you can follow along as I make an arse of myself on the internet. Moreso.

Hmm. The colours seem a tad over-saturated here for whatever reason, better look at them over on the HPD blog.

first date

2011-10-02T06:14:00.001+01:00

i did this sketch for the theme "first date" on the saloon blog -

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND! :) LoL

2011-09-30T22:11:00.002+01:00

25 minute Photoshop sketch. Fun!

900 Posts and Still going strong

2011-09-28T08:43:00.001+01:00

Here is some movie concept art for Celtic Warrior.... what... I can dream cant I?

Just wanted to try my hand at these. They were done in about 30 minutes each. Surprised at how photoreal they came out as I used no referance

DARK KNIGHT BLACK AND WHITE

2011-09-27T13:26:00.002+01:00

Heh, that rhymes. Sorry to double-dip the blogs this week, but I'm really really busy these days. I did a Batman fan-piece for the Comic Twart blog yesterday. Made it into a desktop too. Here's the black and white version.

Dec.

When Irish' Eyes Aren't Smiling

2011-09-26T21:54:00.003+01:00

This is the main character from Half Past Danger, Tommy 'Irish' Flynn. He's sad 'cos his best friend got eaten by a monster.

It's all in the eye

2011-09-24T13:11:00.006+01:00

It finally looks like I'm slithering out from under the mountain of crap that's buried me all summer- hurrah!

I had Big Trouble in Little China on while working this week- it gave me a pang of nostalgia and an idea for this morning's sketch. I've played D&D for 27 years and always loved the sheer lunatic weirdness of the Beholder, a megalomaniac floating set of eyes that shoot magic rays and stuff- just what a twelve year old loves to see.

I've included an earlier version from around 2001 just for fun.

Ships in The Night

2011-09-23T22:19:00.002+01:00

Pencils and Inks for the image that's just been released trailing IDW's The Death of Optimus Prime, coming this December. It's this or nothing, folks.

Will, IOU artZ.

Warp spasm!

2011-09-22T23:41:00.003+01:00

Cu Chulainn's transformative berserker frenzy or warp spasm was always my favourite part of his mythos. I don't know how Will is going to be tackling it but here's my version.

Cú Chulainn

2011-09-21T08:23:00.001+01:00

One of the best things about my year in New York was getting to meet tons of new people. I got reeeally lucky with my housemates as they ended up becoming some of my best buddies annnd, check out how talented they are.

The first is by Stacey Lee
http://staceyillustrates.com/home.html

And the second is by Ricardo Lopez Ortiz
http://rloillustration.com/home.html

Brilliant pieces if I do say so myself

Cú Chulainn

2011-09-20T10:27:00.004+01:00

Here's my Cú Chulainn piece. I believe Will is colouring as we speak!

UPDATE: Will went and coloured the piece for me.

Dec.

2011-09-19T10:14:00.001+01:00

Here's my piece for Will's Cu Chulainn week, from my pencils and inks to colours by Will himself.

Morrigan

2011-09-17T09:56:00.003+01:00

Here's my wee contribution: a quick color sketch of the Irish Battle Goddess, The Morrigan. Like all the strong women in Irish Myth, she's sharp, uses her amorous affections as weapons, and can hold a grudge.

Not someone to offend before a fight, then.

Cú Chulainn Theme Week Begins

2011-09-17T00:30:00.000+01:00

Well, I've been dying to announce this for ages. So its great that the day is finally here. Im going to be writing, drawing and colouring a 6 issue length Graphic Novel about the army of Maeve(Medb) marching across Ireland to face Cú Chulainn. While based firmly in the folklore of the legend, this story will be different than most others, as it will be told from the viewpoint of the Army.

To kick off this week, we are spoiling you with two fantastic images by PJ Holden and John Cullen, both based of the design of Cú Chulainn from the book

If you are interested in finding out more about Cú Chulainn, I highly suggest reading "The Táin" (Translated by Thomas Kinsella), Cartoon Saloons beautiful book "An Táin" and Patrick Brown's ongoing webcomic "The Cattle Raid of Cooley.
Together with the publisher for this book we have big big plans for worldwide distribution for this and hopefully it will contribute to the extremely fast growing Irish comic scene, helping get some of the wonderful stories from this Island out to the rest of the world.

INTERLUDE

2011-09-16T23:15:00.002+01:00

Urgh. This was supposed to send before Will's Wondrous Cu Chulainn week started. Sorry Slinester. I'm in a faraway place where time has no meaning. Normal services - with Celtic-themed chicanery - will resume next week. In the meantime, meet Bulkhead.

And now back to your scheduled week of Celtic Mysticism...

Gambit

2011-09-14T07:40:00.000+01:00

That gambit pg nearly finished. Im away in Poole working with the RNLI today so apologies for the kinda repeated post