Cookie Monster

Here's a real tv hero, everybody's favourite compulsive eater, Cookie Monster. The original drawing is pretty small, only a couple of inches high, doodled on the end of a shopping list. Obviously I was in the mood for baked goods.

 

TrapJaw

The He-man bus is well and truely chugging along now.
This is based on the mighty Four Horsemen Redesigns for the He-man relaunch of the early 00's, all of which were really really well done. It was actually a pretty good cartoon, I dunno how many of the Micks would still be into the cartoon side of things but I certainly am, Its how I got into comics really. (I didnt have Fran calling around and giving me them as a young fella.) Infact, the first time I walked into a proper comic shop I was about 20 yrs of age.
On the subject of cartoons, anyone out there watching Wolverine and the X-Men, first season was pretty damn good but seeing the ending to it, where there gonna go for season two looks pure class, something I never thought Id see as a cartoon.

DOCTOR WHO

Even though i'm a big sci-fi fan, i never liked Doctor Who. When i was growing up, it just looked terrible to me. Watched some of the first season of the relaunched 'Who' a few years ago and it seemed like harmless fun. Have watched more of the Tennant 'Who' episodes and while i still can't claim to be a huge fan, i still can appreciate a family friendly show that is powered each week on smart ideas and that's what great sci-fi is all about. Gotta Star Trek sketch in mind for next week incidentally.

Drew Doctor Who this week mainly cuz when we started this blog, i wanted to take a stab at characters the other Micks have drawn. Nick drew some Doctor Who for IDW, so that's one down; six to go.

Dec.

Sex-Kitten

Ah Cheetara....
Many an afternoon was spent wondering what these strange feelings for a cartoon character were...
She was actually NAKED in the Thundercats pilot; what the hell were they trying to do to all the adolescant boys in the audience?
Worked on me.
Looks like I'm wearing my Adam Hughes influence a bit more on my sleeve here than normal, I guess I just associate sexy women drawing with the master of the art.

We All Adora Kia-Ora

Me still on the He-Man bus + wanting to nail some girlie pics on this Blog + my baby sister's birthday = me drawing She-Ra. Dunno if this counts as my eighties cartoon offering; that might be part of next week's offering, where I revolutionise The Challenge Of The Gobots. Until then...

FOR THE HONOUR OF GREYSKULL!

Boba Fett Redux

I inked Will's Boba Fett (I ok'd it with him first - UPDATED to say: have a look at the original here). It's always interesting to see what someone else does with your artwork when they're inking it (have a look at Gary Martin's book where different artists have inked the same Steve Rude page to see what a difference it can make). It's also pretty useful as a lesson - for both inker and inkee - you can see what someone else sees in your artwork and suddenly stuff that you didn't expect can sort of leap out at you.

In inking Fett, I inked straight onto tracing paper (think that would save time - it didn't, it was a pain to scan in...) I inked the outlines of Fett giving 'bounce' to the lines using a brush (Sapphire Series 51 10/0 - a tiny, four eyelash size brush that is my weapon of choice).

Next were the background elements, trying to keep the focus on Fett himself, so the background bits would fade a little into the background. Inking Starwars tech is fun, the object is to keep the lines from getting too perfect - every thing should look like it's been dented/dinged at some point. If it's a long straight/curved line you shouldn't be reaching for the ruler. And, you can get away with actually adding wobble in some lines.

Once done I whipped the originals away to see how I'd light the sucker, It's a good pose, shot in a dramatic angle so I figured some simple up lighting would help me 'sell' the drama.

I only made a couple of minor changes to the figure, I moved the bottom of the leg up - as it seemed (to my eye, in my inking of it) to be too long and I shorted the forearm of Boba's left (our right) arm. (I really enjoyed inking the right hand, it's a pretty solid hand that I'll be stealing for all of my future figure drawing... you can't have it back - it's locked into my head now! bwah-ha-ha!)

When it was finished there seemed to be a compositional 'dead space' -a framed area that didn't really contain anything. (If it was a comic page, that area would be perfect for a logo/dialogue or another panel). So I dropped a temporary logo in there.

Anyhue, hope that change of pace is interesting/useful/not dull for you. Have a great weekend!

Krang

I love Krang and the big lumbering slob he lives in. I don't want to build it up too much but I do a mean Krang impression. Not the being inside a slob bit, just the voice. Although I've been in some proper slobs can I get a ZING Dec?

Check out this weeks SPAZZMOID

Dragon

I'm extra busy today so for the first time I'm posting an old picture on the Micks blog. This is a dragon sketch I did a couple of months ago. It was probably prompted by a re-watching of Dragonslayer. A great 80's fantasy movie with the best on-screen dragon of all time, who also had the best dragon name of all time, Vermithrax Pejorative. 

Boba Fett

Jesus its wednesday already. Im surprised theres been so little Star Wars on this when were over 50 posts in

BATMAN

You know what's annoying? Car insurance and morgage ads on tv. You know what's more annoying? People moaning about how 'finished' some of the sketches are on this blog. As far as i'm concerned, if you want to do a sketchy one; do a sketchy one. If you want to ink it; ink it. Simple as that.

Anyway, since i've worked a fair bit on my sketches so far, i thought i'd change things up a bit and do a really loose Gambit drawing (as i've been hinting at an X-men drawing for a while). Problem is, i ended up spending too long on it, therefore defeating the point of doing a 'sketchier' piece this week, so i thought i'd try a character i was more familiar with; Batman. Kept this one really loose; open line, no solid blacks and just a loose greywash. You can see the Gambit over on my blog if you want.

I think this might be the first recurring character on the blog. Mooney already did a Batman a while back.

Dec.

Turtle-Headed Warrior

Raphael, surely the finest of the turtles. Followed closely by Leonardo in my book, cos, katanas.
I gave myself a 15 min limit on this one, partly cos I'm busy, but mostly cos, y'know, sketchblog.

Just a Boy And His Pet

He-Man And Battle-Cat, half-finished and half-assed.

That old devil...

Digging into the archives this week - here's something I did a few years ago for a strip that never got beyond a few character designs. I think I'm wearing my Mignola / Nowlan influences a little heavily on this piece (which I am fond of).

Hope you like it!

Whoops

Hey fwends, I forgot my USB key thing so this weeks sketch is at home but I have this one from last year. It's either Swamp Thing or Man Thing.

Click here to see the new Uncle Spunk Nugget

Banner hulks out

I don't think I've ever seen a really nice sequence of Banner turning into the Hulk. It's always pretty much just a before and after kind of thing. In my mind it's a horrific, painful event. Kind of like the transformation in An American Werewolf in London. Except with magic, stay-on pants. 

Chris Redfield

So I had big plans yesterday to draw a RE5 diorama with hoardes of zombies aswell as maybe Sheva aswell, but f#ck me that was a good match on the box so that kinda took up most of my time. The character design in RE5 is pure class, i love costumes that have loads of little bits to them.
Also, with my day landing on a Wednesday, I get to announce any books that come out from the land of Micks. Farscape Strange Detractors is out today stateside and hits Europe tomorrow. Just finished up issue 3 actually so Im gonna get around to adding a few bits and pieces to this blog that are needed.

IRON FIST

More superhero action this week; this time Iron Fist. Anyone who read Brubaker/ Fraction/ Aja's recent Iron Fist series doesn't need me to tell you how good it is here. Those who haven't read it? Go read it; it's VERY good.

With Storm and Piotr Rasputin up here recently, i'm really itchin' to draw one of the X-Men. Stay tuned.

Dec.

Nubian Princess

Really liked Bob's old-skool colossus drawing, so figured I'd tackle my favourite lady of the 'New' X-Men, Storm.

EXCLUSIVE: Bustin' Proven To Make You Feel Good

Hello. Still lingering in the realm of other business, there's been no opportunities to scribble up a Mick-Specific image for you fine people. Instead, have a glimpse into my sketchbook from 2003 and see what I was half-arsing all the way back then.

The thing is...

ARGH. I forgot. Anyhue, this is a telephone doodle - literally. I was on the phone, and I've had to censor notes - which is why there are weird white bits. This should balance out the effort from previous posts...

Master of Puppets is pulling his wire

So far the best thing about being a member of this is the group emails that are sent around. Declan, the scheming mastermind behind the scenes asks us, rather democratically, about ideas and changes. Then the issue is closed with 'So it is agreed. At the earliest opportunity we will exploit the momentum and move the logo at the top 6 pixels to the left'. Like it's Watergate or something.

Check it out, my explosive new webcomic that makes Secret Invasion look like Secret Wars.

Manbat

Who I've drawn in space here, apparently, now that I look at it. Batman has the best rogue's gallery in comics by miles, and I won't hear any of this Spider-Man nonsense. Doc Ock is alright but Electro? Green Goblin? Bleh. I don't think I've ever read an actual comic with Manbat in it but I liked him in the old animated series. He would have made a way better sidekick than Robin. Batman and Manbat. Awesome. 

Willverine Wednesdays

Its coming up to the end of an issue deadline for me so heres a quick enough one for this week. Actually had a nice face drawn for wolvie but figured he needed his cowboy cap. He's a little small for my liking, kinda wish I had done him a bit stockier. One of my fav things to draw really for some reasons is stubble. Even if sometimes digitally it can be a bit of a pain as the laptop doesnt ususally keep up as your dotting away

LOCAL

This blog's been running for over a month, and there's been only 3 ladyfolk characters so far. I thought i'd try tip the balance (ever so slightly) this week and draw a female character. But who? Wonder Woman? Storm? No gentle reader, i picked Megan McKeenan from Brian Wood and Ryan Kelly's LOCAL. A lovely hardcover of the series came out late last year so i picked it up and really enjoyed it. Not sure why i decided to draw something from that series, it's just what popped into my head this week.

Dec.

Metal Gear Solid

Following the (tenuous) videogame character theme initiated by Will, here's my favourite character; Solid Snake. Love the series of Metal Gear games, especially the first and fourth installments. I'm also a massive fan of Yoji Shinkawa, the art director on the games, and of Ashley Wood's artwork for the IDW series.
This one was really quick, about ten minutes with the ol' blue pencil and then 15 mins of colour on photoshop.

KA-POW!!

Whassup true-believers,
Mooney here for the Roche. He's away on bidness today so asked me to stick this up for him. This is a piece he whipped up for myself and Jackie, since I'm a rather fanatical Dr. Jones fan and she for whatever reason likes the Tennant.
I think you'll agree, pretty bloody fantastic sketch.

Dinosore

Right, see, what happened was this: I'd decided, for myself, at least, it was time to tone down the barmy over the top, trying to outdo everyone thing. So I did a rather nice little headsketch of Dr Fate. But, you could literally count the number of lines on it on one hand (4)- so I wasn't happy with how much apparent effort I put in. And... at the same time, I wanted to do a painting of a dinosaur (this is my seventh painting ever...) sadly, it looks better in the flesh.

Anyhue, I can only apologise for this maximum effort 'sketch' - next week something in plain old pencil.

UPDATE: You can see some prelim sketching for the painting here and here

Colossus?

Is that how you spell his name? I'm going to do all the old xmen and hopefully stitch them all together into one pic.

Oh yeah, check out my new webcomic

Swamp Thing

So I finally managed to do a full figure shot, with a background too. Huzzah! Here's a book I'd love to draw, Swamp Thing. I like monster or creature stories more than anything else so this'd be perfect for me. Also organic detail is always the quickest thing to draw because it's so random. It always looks like you put more time in then you actually did. 

Sonic Boom

Im all capcomed out of it at the moment. Got my hands on an Xbox, Street Fighter 4 and Resident Evil 5 about a week ago so by day Im drawing and by night im shooting zombies and shoryukening it up. I actually remember as a kid staring for hours at the first drawing of Street Fighter 2 I saw. Since then the art for the games has always been phenominal. I love the style of the new game with the Giant hands and muscles, and especially the promo art where it looks like a master of Japanese Kanjii art went over the already stellar illustrations. For this piece I was gonna try and recreate the effect but about half ways through I decided to go down a slightly different path.
PS, did any one see that they made M. Bison Irish in the new Street Fighter Movie... Nuts