Old Red Eye

Another X-man, this time Cyclops, probably my favourite of the team. I always go for the Blando-Calrissian, vanilla-ice, borax-by-the-book leader types for some reason.
You just know where you are with those guys, they do exactly what it says on the tin.

Birthday SMASH!

Hey-hey. Genuine excuse for the tardiness today, gang. I was hijacked for my (sorta) surprise (almost) thirtieth birthday party. Thanks SO much for everyone who made the effort to come along to Roche towers for the occasion, and a big hurrah for my Whittle wot masterminded the whole thing. (Though the blindfolded taxi ride was terrifying. Now I know how Dec's dates feel...)

Anyway, did this piece as a birthday commission last year, and felt it fitted today. (No fucking way was I gonna get a chance to draw today.) Enjoy!

Non-affiliated-group-of-heroes Assemble!

The only thing these sketches have in common is that they're all superheroes drawn in a slightly goofy way. Cap Britain was coloured (and now greyscaled), Wolvie was b&w using a brush and the silver surfer is a pencil sketch.

The only time I've ever used this art style in anger was for a kids comic, I'd love to really have a proper go at drawing like this on a superhero strip, though...

Mister Amperduke

This is a sketch to be included in the second edition of Mister Amperduke

The Eclectic Micks sketchbook is currently being assembled by Will but we haven't decided on a name. I like either 'Eclectic Micks: Collected Gick' or 'This is my favourite piece of yours yet'

SPAZZMOID

If I only had a brain...

The first issue of 28 Days Later is out today, and in honour of that event I decided to draw the artist (fellow Mick Declan Shalvey) as a zombie. And yes before somebody says it, I know that they're not really zombies in the 28 Days Later movies.

Star Wars

I had a funky idea for a post today but i dont have time because I gotta turnaround a quick cover for a book, so maybe well see it next week, in the meantime, heres something (unfinished) that Ive been tipping away on

28 DAYS LATER #1-- Out this week

Forgive my blatant self promotion. And my blatant apology. Just... forgive me already.

My first issue of 28 Days Later is out this week; tomorrow in the States and Thursday on this side of the Atlantic. Reckoned it'd be a good idea to do a sketch to celebrate. Gonna give the original black and white of this away to a lucky customer at Asylum Books and Games in Aberdeen.

Dec.

Buns of Steel

Next up in my series of x-peoples: the mighty Colossus.

Brain Food

Quite enjoyed doing this week's piece, which is a rarity! Sometimes I find squeezing a sketch out a little tricky, but this was a welcome respite from the day job. As well as that, I don't think I've ever drawn Venom before, which can't be right, considering I was a teenager in the early nineties...

Anyway, I was happy to give last week's Spidey a worthy adversary. Maybe next week I'll knock out a JJJ...

Moleskin

Wotcher muckers!

Some of my fellow micks have been very good at drip feeding you poor people panel after panel of artwork from a single sample of comics. (I'm looking at you Sliney!)

I, on the other hand, am willing to share an entire Moleskin sketchbook with ya, here's just ONE image from the entire 100-and-something pages of sketches...

The entire set is here.



UPDATE:

So, apparently, iPhoto is very cleverly linked to flickr in that, if you delete photos from iPhoto (because, you know, you need the storage space and sure you already have those photos on flickr so it doesn't matter) iPhoto will then synchronise the deletion of those photos with flickr, thereby deleting them from flickr too. Very clever. Very fucking clever, I don't think.

Argh. Apologies. I've lost the entire 56 photo set of sketchbook pages, I will try and get them back - but I suspect the only way to do that is to repeat the entire taking the photos thing again - and that was mad just doing it once.

Again, sorry.

Up

Just a doodle this week. One of the kids I brought to see UP wanted the 'old man in is car'. The kids were more impressed with the Cintiq than the movie. Great film.

Wolverine. No seriously

Nick's pic

I really loved the Spidey sketch that our own Nick Roche graced us with last Sunday (scroll down four posts to see it in it's original glory). So I thought I'd give it a coat of ink and colour and present it as my own work. My inking style is quite different to Nicks's clean, animated look so it's a bit of a hybrid.

Mooooooo

Easily one of the best characters created in the 90's I used to love drawing Earthworm Jim over and over again, day after day. I figured that since all the Micks here are older and would associate "Grooooovy!" with the Fonz or something that id share him with them.
I actually used to have these really innappropriate (but hilarious) posters when I was about ten years old for the Jim Gameboy game featuring slogans like "now you can play with your worm in public." There was a whole series of them, id love to track them down now some how.
I actually wasnt intending colouring this but ended up mucking about with the colouring pencils in Manga Studio and ended up colouring it that way. It was a whole lot of fun but id never do it for anything bigger

KILLER CROC

Since Thompson figured out that 95% of his Micks pieces were headshots, i realized i've only posted two headshots on this blog so far. So, here's a new one; Killer Croc, a villain from Batman's Rogue Gallery.

This drawing is heavily inspired by the version of Croc i saw in the brilliant animated series from the 90s. I had never seen/heard of him before the cartoon. I believe the design was by Kevin Nowlan, and i can see the Nowlan influence in this sketch. I also looked up some reference of crocodiles to get some extra texture detail. That's when i realized how good the design Nowlan came up with was. The construction of his cheekbones and jawline really mimics the features of a crocodile's head.

Dec.

The Bat and The Cat.

Finished up that Batman/Catwoman commission over the weekend. Watched Batman Returns again while working on it(hence the hybrid Pfeiffer/Comics version costume). Wotta movie, so much more... Burtonesque than the first one.

Pretty happy with the piece overall, when in doubt... black/red/grey.

T-Minus 20

And lo, with 20 mins remaining in the day, the ever-reliable Mooney realises that he promised comrade Nikolai that he'd post his piccie for him this week as he's attending his 102nd transformers convention of the summer.

Spidey.

-phew-

Brain in a jar. BRAIN in a JAR!

Character design stuff. Full of little details that a) will never be used and b) make me laugh.

On other notes:

Check out the podcast I'm doing with some pals at http://www.sunnysidecomics.com (you'll need to scroll down to the first one...) Next one is due on Monday.

Also, happy to say, Eclectic Micks will be at BICS. Chances are, there'll be me, Declan, Mooney and Will Sliney.

Batman

Hey hey! Look at me drawing Batman. I thought I'd give him a go since everybody else has and I need a few more finished pieces for the much vaunted and discussed Eclectic Micks Sketchbook.

My crap webcomic about an elf woman fighting dragons complete with a shitty map I drew like Lord of the Rings has a new page today

Hellboy

I love the whole Hellboy universe, it's the exact subject matter that I love to draw. Monsters, nazi's and magic. And more monsters. I particularly love the B.P.R.D. series, especially when Guy Davis is drawing it. Best monster artist in comics bar none. In fact one of the books I'd most like to draw is a B.P.R.D. book. That or Conan. So if you're reading this Scott Allie, drop me a line and we'll 'rap'.

Superman

How many more weeks can I get away with panels from one page?

SPIDER-GIRL

Here's another character i've never drawn before, nor did i ever think i'd end up drawing.

Never read the Spider-Girl comic (aside from the first issue, i think), but i always liked the costume. When i was getting into Spidey comics in the 90s it was during the 'Clone Saga' when Peter was replaced with a clone of himself. The clone had a revamped Spidey suit (designed by Mark Bagely i believe) and i loved it. When the clone was enevitively killed off, the costume was used for the daughter of Spidey in a possible future... or something. Ah who cares, i just like the costume.

Dec.

Batman Pencils

Working on a Bats commission at the mo(more Batman, just what the Blog needs..), here are the pencils. I'll stick the inks up at some point.
Watched the Burton movie again for ref for the car the other day, still love it to pieces. The new Nolan-helmed movies are undeniably great and all, but design-wise the Burton flicks are in a different league for me.

T.U.R.T.L.E. Power!

Was rattling off this little Raphael when I realised I've got a folder full of more accomplished Ninja Turtle pieces from when I was warming up for the Titan gig in 2007. So instead of persevering with a new experience, I present to you the Turtles as they appeared in the surprisingly-not-shit Fast Forward iteration of their animated series.

FUTURE TURTLES!

Frank (icognito)

Sure, Shalvey can draw a good Punisher WHEN HE MAKES AN EFFORT. Look how shoddy this is, and it only took 2 minutes. AHHAHAHAHA.

Next week: more of the same.

Sonic the Hedgehog

This isn't exactly what I wanted but the composition is okay. I'm going to redo it and paint it up. Sonic. What a game. That crappy looking pile in the back is meant to be a destroyed robot with a puppy poking it's head out of the wreckage.

New page up on my webcomic today too

Batman returns

While I was looking at Will's post from yesterday I started sketching Batman, hence we end up with two in a row. He's by far my favourite comic character although I don't know how comfortable I'd be drawing him in an actual book, so many great artists have done amazing takes on him over the years.

Batman

Im stretching out pabels from these sample pages now I know but the demo for Arkham Asylum is coming out on friday so I'm a little pumped for that

Punisher Vs Deadpool

Here's a recent commission i've been tipping away on in my spare time for the last few weeks. It was a lot of fun to do, as i've been itching to do a good Punisher piece for ages and Deadpool is a character i've never drawn before. I've posted in-progress stages of the piece on my own blog. Click to see the initial roughs, layout, pencils and inks before i finished it with some grey-wash work, as can be seen above.

Dec.

Nightwing/Elektra

A couple years back I drew a 3-page Nightwing v Elektra sequence. It never really came out like I hoped(what does?), but some elements of the pencils weren't all that bad. Here's the second page in progress. I like the up-shot of Elektra in the last panel.

In Vincent's Bull

I have a very big crush on the art of Ryan Ottley, and yet, here's my first ever doodle of Invincible, the comic he makes that gets printed and sold to us, the people. Used computer crayons to make it not black and white. That's why it's in colour.

BYE!

Hulk (a regular obsession...)

Page from an old sketchbook - slightly dodgy scan. Not sure exactly when this was drawn by the surrounding pages had drawings of Neo, Trinity and Morpheous - so Matrix 1 or 2 era...