Draw Futurama
Well it’s that time again.
The next #draw project is here and it’s #drawFuturama. Normal rules apply. It runs until the end of May. Enjoy!
@deladeso
bryce via @sallepierrelamy
@richmooksmith
@AlCapwnd
@jamesboast
Thomas Jones via @sallepierrelamy
@jmctwits
@bizzodoes
@Alandalby
@zeichenwege
@t1do
@hp_matt
@lewisfarrow
@sallepierrelamy
@dochackenbush
@ben_cameron
@jellibat
@hallofeternity
@wsionynw
@ChrisBaldie
@themooks
@chris_doherty
@bruised_blood
@t1do
@jonbalenciaga
@kataang102
@fredrik_s
@mcDonlads
@kanamesan91
@aitchsee
@ladybender2
@Hallofeternity
@geeksarecool
@0100
@Zro_toys
@richardjkeys
@manon_charpenay
@KyWilkinson
@dafttom
@Jimbo_designs
@mushybees
@400footghost
@themooks
@Chesha
@jonbalenciaga
@dochakenbush
@themooks
@jmctwits
@jam_wah
@jonbalenciaga
@jontofski
@themooks 
@sallepierrelamy plus a video of him doing it here
@dafttom
@dochakenbush
@_scottpollard
@andresdenkberg
@wendelabra
@themooks
@knowlio
@erinhunting
@treebeerd
@monkeysvsrobots
@warwickjc
@thingsbydan
@fredrik_S
@rukemusic
@joelist
@raid71
@rickeadescomics
@tomthepen
@quantumpirate
@ben_cameron
Moved
I’ve decided to use this tumblr for just the #draw projects. My new one is http://themookscomics.tumblr.com/
Cheers!
J
Ghost in the drawer comic
Here is a 3 page comic I did the other week. I just wanted to do something quick and gentle. Enjoy!
Commission
I did the above commissions for the lovely people at DMSQD.
They were a lot of fun and I’m open to doing more here
So if you want one get in contact.
Ripped off
A long time ago I created characters called the Mooks and they were my first foray into comics.
They were my way of being creative after I got home from working in animation all day, so I kept them simple and filled them with foul language. I did some strips in an art mag called Dangerous Ink and a self-published comic, as well as lots of one-offs.
Now it’s been a long time since I’ve done them and I kinda feel like I’ve moved on. However, today someone I know brought my attention to this person:
http://lol.yougetcake.com/?t=grade-12
Clearly he’s ripping me off. I think that’s obvious, but my first reaction was that I didn’t care. I’ve moved on, good luck to him.
Then a few people mentioned that it may get mistaken for my work. While I think the difference is clear, others I guess might not. Even though I’ve moved on a part of me still doesn’t want people to think this is my work.
So I’ve emailed him. I didn’t really know what to say. I just asked that he acknowledge that he’s ripping me off on his website and facebook. What else do I say? He’s not going to stop doing it.
It’s an odd situation and I don’t want a witch hunt. There are people getting ripped off like Drew Millward and Erin Hunting where they’re using current work and it will actually effect their earnings. Clearly this is not the case here. All I want is for his work to not be mistaken for mine.
I await a reply.
Boo! Comic
I was invited to be part of a new comic anthology by Paul Harrison-Davies & Andrew Waugh called Boo!
The idea is to make a Horror comic for children. To tell a scary story for kids aged 8 and over in 4 pages. No pulling punches or watering down - we believe kids want, and need, a good scare.
The level of talent on this project is insane. Along with Andy and Paul there’s Rob Davis, Gary Northfield, Jonathan Edwards, Jamie Smart and Warwick Johnson-Cadwell.
I’m in awe of these guys, so to have my work next to them is a privilege.
Here’s a rough taster of my strip:
You’ll hopefully get to see the rest along with everyone else’s in October.
Here’s a link to the Boo! Comic tumblr
Secret 7’s
I became aware of the Secret 7’s competition last year due to friends having work in it.
You can see the details here
It’s for a great cause and I hope I get to be a part of it. I’ve done two submissions and fingers crossed one get’s chosen.
I’ve linked them below if you want to vote for me
Draplin
Today I watched this talk from last year by Aaron Draplin. I found it very inspiring.
His Website is here http://draplin.com/
My Process
I find other peoples process for creating their work fascinating.
For instance, Dustin Harbin’s post on scanning here was really helpful to me and changed a lot about the way I work.
So with that in mind I thought I’d do one. Who knows, maybe someone will tell me a better way of doing what I do and make me more efficient.
I start off by drawing out my idea in pencil and then inking it up using a brush pen. Then I scan in at 600 dpi as a bmp. This cut out a problem I had a while back of not having clean blacks. Once it’s scanned in I then clean up any mistakes and dirt picked up from the scanner (which I really need to clean and always forget).
Once I’m happy with the image as black and white I save it and then convert it to RGB or CMYK. I’ll then add another layer and go back to the background layer and select all the blacks (usually using the contagious setting on the magic wand) and fill it in on the new layer. So this is now my line art layer. I used to fill in the individual areas using a magic wand, but this new method is a lot quicker.
Once this is done I’ll then throw another layer underneath and fill it with white to cover over the original background layer.
I don’t see myself as a great colourist. There are times that I have a strong idea of how I’m going to colour a page going in (the good days) and others I have vague ideas (the bad days), but mostly I just play.
So I’ll put down blocks of colour to try and get an idea of what I want, sometimes I’ll use gradients, but I tend to leave that until later as it’s more of a ball ache to select that area when I want to put the textures in.
Eventually I have a basic colour palette, although sometimes I’ll jump ahead a step to add texture to see if it works.
Next it’s textures. I have only really started using textures in the last few years. I really enjoy the richness it can give a fairly flat area, although I’m still learning not to use too many and swamping the page.
Since the areas have already been colour blocked out I can take a texture, position it over the area, select the colour and copy and paste it over the top with an opacity on the layer. Sometimes I’ll just cut the texture to size by erasing it to fit, usually when I’m going to delete the line art on top of it.
With some of the textures I may tweak the colour as well in which case I’ll use the Colour Balance or Hue/Saturation and play around until I get what I need. The brightness/contrast is also one I use for adjustments.
With this page I also had line art that I changed the colours of. In this case if the line art isn’t connected to anything else I’ll select on the line art layer and then add a layer above and fill it in there. Initially that’s what I did here and then I changed my mind and redrew an element of it on a separate layer.
To make a few areas glow I also added circles of colour that I blurred using Gaussian Blur and put a little opacity on.
Once I’m somewhere near where I want to be I’ll then do a layer of shadows and a layer of highlights. I’ll put the opacity to about 70 and fill in the areas with black (shadows) and white (highlights). Then I’ll select the whole layer using magic wand and contagious setting and go across each layer and use the brightness/contrast to get the effect I want.
Now that’s all done I’ll save and then flatten the whole image and then use the Colour Balance for one last attempt to get the colours right.
So that’s my process. It has changed a lot over the years and I’m sure it will keep doing so. I hope it’s been helpful and feel free to ask any questions.
Below are a few work in progress shots of a piece I did a while ago.
Ink + Paper
Ink + Paper is an A5 comic magazine filled with talent and soon I will be lucky enough to contribute.
I will have a strip in the Ink + Paper #4 and here are some of my early coloured panels (minus the text).
