Drowntown at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

Yep, Robbie Morrison and myself will be talking about Drowntown during the 'Stripped' event at the Edinburgh Book festival. We'll be at the ScottishPower Studio Theatre on Saturday August 24th from 5 to 6pm. For more details and for tickets click here.

In addition we'll be talking about our roots in '2000AD: Back to the future' on Sunday 25th August at Baillie Gifford Main Theatre from 3 to 4pm where we'll be joined by among others Dan Abnett and David Bishop. Again, check out the link for the lowdown.  

...which gives me the excuse to post some *really* old Dredd art from back in the day...

Forbidden Planet review Drowntown

 http://forbiddenplanet.co.uk/blog/2013/review-drowntown/

Thanks Forbidden Planet! Reviews like this one make me feel it's been worth all the extra effort...

Designing a Hydrobike - part 2

Here's a few shots of this hydrobike in polygons.

 

 

Drowntown Launch Party at Gosh! comics

Head down to Gosh! in Soho on June 21st, aside from hosting the launch party for Drowntown it's also the coolest comic shop in the city.

more info here - Drowntown launch party and exhibition

Designing a hydrobike - part 1

I decided to design a different version of the hydrobike that's in the comic.

I figure Gina, as a courier, would be riding a street bike, battered up and past its prime but possibly well tuned all the same. I was thinking here I'd try to design a sports bike version, something she'd aspire to.

...first off, scribble out a bunch of bikes. I have sketchbooks full of this stuff, most of which is garbage and serves only to discover what I don't want to pursue. Eventually something half decent emerges.

I decided on this sketch as a starting point. It has a bunch of elements that keep cropping up in previous sketches, but also seems ergonomic enough to be feasible. Most importantly though, it looks aggressive and sporty, which is good...The next step is refining it further in Photoshop.

 ...this is a mix of kitbashing source images and some loose brush work, just to define the volumes and lines and work in some mechanical detail to help as I model it up...

I'll get into some 3d stuff in the next post.

Drowntown splash page

Here's another splash page from Drowntown, plus the original pencils...

A few panels and pencils from page 1...

more DT pencils...

'nuther Drowntown sketch

Here's a wideshot of the first set in the story from a fairly small panel; a silted up section of street that's been partially drained, and into which our main character is slowly sinking. The final version in the comic is a slightly tightened sketch with barely more than a few acrylic washes.

Hydrobike inks

Another panel from Drowntown

Some Drowntown sketches

Thought I'd share some pencils from Drowntown in conjunction with the finished acrylics.

 

Drowntown Blog

Introducing the Drowntown blog.

Drowntown: Book One

The first of three Drowntown books is out in the UK in June. Pre-order your copy at Amazon.co.uk.