SPIROU COMIC!!!

This is the 2 page comic I did for Spirou along with Sylvain Marc. I drew the main comic in the middle and Sylvain did the purple strip all around the edge. The theme was fantasy giving us a great excuse to draw barbarians, wizards, swords and other thoroughly enjoyable fantasy crap!

Below is a look at the behind-the-scenes process...

SPIROU COMIC - PROCESS AND DETAILS!!!

As an excuse to air my dirty creative laundry in public I thought I'd give you a bit of a look at the process behind producing the 2 page comic I just did for Spirou.

First off I sketched out a REALLY rough layout. This gave myself a chance to work out the pacing, composition and because there's no real dialogue, just basically write the thing in drawings.

Next I refined the rough. I developed what the characters look like, posing, expressions and got stuck into more details.

Then I did a rough colour script. At this point I could discuss colour choices back and forth with Etienne who commissioned the piece and land on something we were both happy with.

And then the final piece...

Here it is with Sylvain's strip added around the edges. Hope you like it!! Below are some close-ups of some of the panels.

SPRIOU TEASER!!!

Here's a little teaser from a two-page comic I produced for Spirou. I'll post the whole thing once it hits the news stands. The same issue will also feature some deliciously tasty contributions from Dave Needham, Sylvain Marc and Alan Kerswell, artists with whom I've had the displeasurable pleasure of working alongside for a very long time. Big thanks to Etienne Gilfillan for bringing it all together.

Speaking of Dave Needham, check out his new blog where he'll be ungracefully dumping his doodles onto the interweb for your viewing discomfort. I first met Dave when we were both 8 years old and we've been drawing together, fighting each other and generally embarrassing ourselves ever since. This is a cover we produced as an illustrative partnership for Oddbins Wine Merchants 2002 price guide.

WHAT THE?!

This was produced for a fun project I was asked to take part in by Erika Medina. The fantastically talented Dave DeGrand also made a monstrous contribution!

MONKEY CAKE - PART 2!!!

Here are details of the 'Animal Mix-Ups!!!' puzzle from the back of the Marks and Spencers cake box I did earlier last year.

KILL THE ELF!!

I did this for a certain young Elf on the occasion of his birthday. And, with a tremendous shock to the system, I actually used REAL paint and brushes!!!!

MONKEY CAKE - PART 1!!!

Earlier this year I had the pleasure of unleashing my scribbles on some cake packaging for Marks and Spencers in the UK. Here are the results! If you click on the second image of the full box wrap-around design you should be able to see the details more clearly.

SCRUFFERS!

These are the two hairy shit bags that share our flat with us. The lady at the bottom likes licking plastic bags and the gentleman at the top enjoys eating sick.

POLLUTION MONSTER!

Here are some rough colour set-ups and character designs I did for a commercial pitch earlier this year.

THE HIDEOUS AMPHIBO-MAN!!!

GREETINGS EARTHLINGS - PART 2!!!

Some more silly scribbles from the Greetings Earthlings kids book.

GREETINGS EARTHLINGS - PART 1!!!

Here's a bunch of black and white illustrations I did last year for an Alien-themed kids book of poems called Greetings Earthlings published by Macmillan.

HIPPOPOTAMOUSE!

Here are some designs that were pitched for a series of kids books featuring the results of animal cross-breeding! This one is what would happen if a mouse somehow mated with a hippo.

CHIMPS!!!

These were produced as stickers for a book designed to help children with behavioral problems. The chimps had the unenviable task of helping the kids identify and understand different emotions etc.

MORE ILLUSTRATIONS!

The top one was done for a poster to advertise a production at the Polka Theatre in London, and the bottom one was produced for an article about healthy eating in Sainsbury's magazine.

DOGHEAD!

Here's some character illustration work I produced for Jill Marshal's children's book, Doghead, published by Macmillan in the UK. It's about a boy who is bitten by a stray dog in a graveyard and discovers he is destined to become Anubis, Egyptian god of the dead: half-human, half-jackal!

The top one is the artwork they used on the cover and the two pieces below are the rough character development work and potential poses for the cover.