Black Widow

This was another attempt at a superheroine from last year, Black Widow this time. The pose is a bit stiff, so not my favourite. There's some heavy duty 'pouting' going on here...

Yesterday's Lily: Jeffrey Catherine Jones 1944 - 2011

There will probably be a lot of tributes to Jeffrey Catherine Jones, who died today, but artists have this knack of affecting each of us personally - it's what they do - so here's mine.

I first discovered Jeff Jones' (as he was then) work in Heavy Metal magazine in the 80's, 'I'm Age' was the one-page strip that leapt out at me. The simple but beautifully drawn line line work, strangely philosophical and full of metaphor but with a distinct humour appealed to me. The fact all the women were naked helped! His painted compositions and covers managed to turn shadow, hair and clothing into strange dreamlike shapes purely as a compositional element. His shadows were deep and mysterious, and his lighting never gratuitous. And he was the master of simple composition, where so little seemed to be happening but so much was being said, an achievement few artists manage. The women he painted were more allegorical and sensitively drawn than many of the female figures one was prone to seeing in 'fantasy', certainly in the 80's, and sometimes seemed androgynous and imbued with a degree of ambiguity that was refreshing.

I don't know much about Jeffrey Jones' life, why should I? The life of public figures, on even a small level, often gets too confused with what they achieve and what they create. But she wrote an autobiography for her website which can be found HERE. Suffice it to say, bravery takes on many forms, one of those ways is to be true to yourself, probably the hardest kind of all.

Jeffrey Catherine Jones spent a lifetime creating extraordinary art, and that's how I'll remember her. As Frank Frazetta said: "Jeffrey Jones is the greatest living painter."

My favourite 'I'm Age', followed by some scans from an old copy of 'Heavy Metal' I have containing an interview with Jeff Jones.

Bristol!

Next weekend (14th - 15th May)I shall be at the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo. Really looking forward to it! Come along and say hello if you're in the area! It's pretty much my first Con., so be gentle! Will have some prints and a small amount of books for sale. I'll be the guy in er... black... sitting between a couple of chums Matt Dixon and Kev Crossley.

http://www.thefallenangel.co.uk/spexpo/bristol.htm

Red

I've been unable to update my website for a while due to commercial work, but decided Sunday was 'my' day, so blasted through this thinking the on-line challenge it was for closed today. It turns out there's another week! Doh! Oh well... I might tweak it if I have time (the rim-lights are a bit half-arsed) but it's effectively done. Inspired by looking at the work of Scott Altmann, and a pic I did ages ago ( LINK ), a re-interpretation of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. I hope it's obvious she's meant to be pregnant! (Did a final edit).

Gorilla Artbook

I was privileged to be able to submit some work to this collection by the members over at GORILLA ARTFARE!

Lots of delicious and fabulous art, independently produced!
Due out on April 14th!

Some interior pages HERE

Ms Marvel

A second Marvel superheroine. I was trying a slightly different technique in Photoshop by using nothing but flat round brushes on her, and no brush textures. I wasn't very happy with the pose on this one, but enjoyed doing her face so thought I'd post it.

Rosie Poe

Hello 2011! This is Rosie Poe... not sure her look is finally decided yet, but had to get it down whilst I was thinking about it.



Edit: I've decided to set up a separate blog for Miss Poe, so if inclined please join in here:

ROSIE POE

Christmas Emo!

Happy holidays! :o) May you have a special time!

Harajuku Warrior

A character design for the Character of the Week thingy...

She's not much of a warrior I suppose... pointy umbrellas aren't the best weapon in the world. But she can 'pout' you to death.

Something old, something new...

In May of 2011 I shall be attending the Bristol International Comic and Small Press Expo. Please come along and say 'how do' or wibble at me in a manner of your own choosing. Alternatively buy something. This shall be my first Con (almost), so I am a con virgin! There will be other people who are prone to drawing attending, eg: Matt Dixon, Kevin Crossley and Dr Geof all three I am acquainted with, almost intimately, so there will be safety in numbers. I shall provide more information closer the time, some of it even relevant.

Now... a big post of mixed stuff, old and less old... First, something dark and bizarre... An image I started ages ago when I was going through my 'girls with swords phase' (it's a phase - recognise the fact! Like eating peanut butter and Marmite on Digestive biscuits is 'a phase', or Worcester Sauce flavour Twiglets is 'a phase'). I decided to tweak it into shape with the idea of making it into a mock movie poster, but it ended up being more like a poster for a play; some sort of pseudo occult classical nonsense. Used a few over-laid textures to age and 'atmosphere' it up.


The last Character of the Week (ChoW), a re-design of 'Barbarella' or Mrs Jetson as someone pointed out generously.



An old Character of the week, John Carter of Mars, from the Edgar Rice Burroughs stories. This probably could do with more time on it, but trying to keep the Chow's quick was part of the idea. Aah, girls at the foot of an heroic chap... (what's that all about then?)... how timeless...



Based on a song by The March Violets, 'Dress for You'. It's ketchup, she's a messy eater. Bit of a play with a brush or two downloaded from CGHub and supplied by the generous Ditlev



Another old Character of the Week, 'The Magus', based not so loosely on Aleister Crowley, A bit of a mish-mash this image, but I kind of liked the face.

And some sketchy stuff. A sky pirate and a couple of cowboys from long ago!

A drawing done for an art exchange anniversary thingy on GorillaArtFare. We each were given another artist to do a version of one of their images I got the wonderful Karla Ortiz. I chose to slightly cartoonify one of hers, and made a right pigs ear of it!
Finally a real oldie, an instruction I did sheet for one of the old Halcyon model kits, this one of Judge Death sculpted by the excellent Colin Batty

A WICKED Hallowe'en!

I felt Elphaba, The Wicked Witch of the West might be appropriate for Halloween! I did her 'pink', the fact she was green totally skipping past me, so added a green tint! Used a bit of pose ref, and a the usual Photoshop brushes. Have a good one, even if I'm being a bit premature!

Edit: Elphaba just got a Gold Award on CGHub! Thank you for that! :) I think the Witch of the South, Glinda, should be next, or maybe of the East and North seeing as those two don't get much 'airtime'!

Edit: Process gif HERE

Emma Frost and stuff...

No post for ages, so apologies. Long term projects and a house move have swallowed much of my time, so hopefully things will be steadier for now...

Marvel's Emma Frost - A little Mr Hughes inspired on the approach to the cape, but the rest is me own (referencing her costume of course)!



A personal piece based on a photograph by John Wright of actress Emily Fitch. I wasn't after a likeness, it was mainly the outfit and the pose I liked so just wanted to do something inspired by it.


Another image based on the same sequence of photographs from John Wright. Less like the original.



This was a Character of the Week on ConceptArt.org I never finished it for the challenge. The topic was The Queen of Music. I did mine inspired by the eighties band Strawberry Switchblade...


A very quick old ChoW, but I've not put it anywhere, I think. The Endless' 'Death' goes Emo... (Heavily influenced by Joe Chiodo) When I did this I forgot to up-scale my resolution so the original is very small unfortunately.


Thanks you for visiting! :o)

The Necromancer

I don't know what it is with Blogger but I have these intermittent periods when I can't see any images from any blog at all! Not just mine... any blog! The text shows up but not the pics...

Anyway, an inbetween jobs piece for 'Character of the Week' on Concept Art. A student Necromancer called Rosie! This was just for fun.

Io9 Article

Wow! I've been featured on io9! A friend sent me a link and I feel enormously honoured! I think I need to get back into some good old fashioned horror pin-up! :) Thank you to them!

IO9 FEATURE

Hoorah!

Frank Frazetta, Peter O'Donnell and Loose Ends...

Frank Frazetta 1928 - 2010

Gee, I'm bad at updating! Before I do, though, a word about Frank Frazetta, who passed on recently. As a kid I used to buy Conan books just for his covers alone. I was a bit more of a sci-fi geek than fantasy, but there was something about his work that struck a chord, as it did with many kids of my generation. There were few art collection books available then, unlike the way there is today, so I used to cycle the eleven miles to my nearest bookshop with a couple of quid in my pocket earned from shovelling cow/pig-crap at my weekend job on a farm. I would buy books by people like Ray Bradbury, Michael Moorcock, John Wyndham, Bob Shaw, Robert Sheckley etc, but after a friend at school showed me Frazetta's work when he was copying 'Death Dealer' for art class (in those powdery school paints you used to get) I fell in love with the easy use of colour and the bizarre landscapes he used to paint. Impossibly proportioned Rubenesque women and pumped up seemingly steroid enhanced men (a friend once described as looking like a condom full of walnuts). The funny thing is I didn't want to paint like him, or at least his subject matter, big muscular blokes didn't really appeal. I wanted to draw X-wing fighters, The Starship Enterprise, Batman, and bizarrely images of Joan of Arc as well! But I loved his work, and like so many things recently, I've realised his artwork on those 'Sphere' paperbacks decorated my imagination as much as the spaceships of Chris Foss or Tintin or Asterix. Here's to you Frank!
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Peter O'Donnell 1920 - 2010And someone else who's death went almost unnoticed was Peter O'Donnell at 90, who created the wonderful Modesty Blaise in 1963. Modesty was a precursor of Emma Peel of The Avengers, and pretty iconic when it came to the depiction of strong women in comics. She was drawn by a number of artists but apparently every story, whether novel or comic strip was written by O'Donnell.


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Some old and new sketches, and things that will probably never be finished...
Dragon's Egg 1:Kid Pirates:

Some spooky scarecrows. Quite old these, but I've not put them on the blog.


Dragon's Egg 2:
Dorothy and the Cowardly Lion:


Erica, Zombie Killer Rough:


A 'Character of the Week' I never finished, maybe I should as it's almost there...


A slightly bizarre rough of Isis for a Character of the Week:

A personal piece: The Vampire Queen!


And finally a pic from junior school... many years ago! A combination of Star Trek and the Thames TV logo... why!?

Teddy and Beast

OK... so I said I'd update more often this year, what an idle promise that was! Sorry, but the muse has kind of been difficult to encourage recently. Sometimes it just isn't there... However here are two images from recent weeks. The first is an adaptation of a piece done to a brief. I spent a bit more time on it after the deadline and turned it into something else purely for me. The second is a bit (!) darker and is called 'Beast'. There is a bit of history to this image but that's another story, it's inspired by an old photograph of the mark of the beast!