2000AD Prog 1 Redux

Warren Ellis is running a fun competition over on his web forum.


The brief:
You are an artist/designer. You have to put together the cover for the first issue of a weekly science-fiction anthology comic called 2000AD. You don't know much about what's in it. You've been given the following pieces of information to include on the cover somehow:
"featuring the new DAN DARE"
"M.A.C.H. 1 - his incredible hyperpower will amaze you!"
"SPACE-AGE DINOSAURS! Read 'FLESH' "
"STOP PRESS! GREAT BRITAIN INVADED!"
The cover must include a logo and the numbering, which you've been told is not the usual "issue one," but "Programme 1."

I thought it would be funny if Dan Dare had been a girl for the relaunch... The image is from something I did previously, but didn't want to show here at the time.

V&A Illustration awards

I've entered the V&A Illustration Awards 2010 with the work I produced for Cambridge University Press. The work was for a couple of books published earlier in the year, but I have only entered with illustrations done for Tales of Terror.


My entries can be found here. It's all very exciting. Fingers crossed for me everyone!

The reason I entered was a twitter post I saw made by Dave Gibbons. Now, I'm not wholly sure I like twitter, but without it, I doubt I'd have entered...

Judge Dredd and Tweak

One of my all time favourite Dredd world characters appeared during Judge Dredd's first epic adventure The Cursed Earth which ran way back in progs 61-85 over thirty years ago. The character was Tweak, an alien who ate rocks and read minds...


There is a scene where Tweak looks like he is about to crush Dredd's head like a melon in a vice - but he is simply reading Dredd, to see if he can be trusted.

2000AD cover competition

Over on the 2000AD forums, they have a monthly art competition. This month is cover-recreations or "cover versions"... Basically anything you want to do: a straight recreation or a mix up with 2000AD characters and albums, dvds or book covers - even other comics...
I've chosen to do a cover that never was - but potentially should have been... Fink Angel, one of my all time favourite Dredd-world villains first appeared in prog 193. The initial story ran for 4 progs, but Fink would return again...


In the story, a cover to a newspaper falls into Fink's hands alerting him that his estranged family have all been sentenced to death by Judge Dredd - well naturally, being the Cursed Earth homicical maniac that he is, he sets out to avenge his kin!

There has been some corking entries already and I've thrown last month's recreation of prog 310 into the mix already. Something rattled around my goldfish memory and reminded me that I'd done another (sample) cover for 2000AD...

Last July - very nearly a year to the day in fact... I presented this to the blogging fraternity.
That was when the light went on in my brain and I knew what I wanted to be for the first time in over a decade. Looking at this - I can see how much more accomplished the Fink cover is in comparison - nothing really wrong with this Dawn of the Dead spoof...
but I feel like I've come such a long way in what has surprisingly been only a year!

Oddly enough there are some pretty strong compositional similarities in these two pieces... a slight twist where the villain is the wide-stanced focus (although he shares some of those quirky zombie characteristics) and the "hero" is in the background - other wise there's not much to tell, which I think means that the basics of my approach aren't that different and I am just honing my skills.

Superman : Man of Style!

I found a great website called Project Rooftop via drawingboard that holds regular redesign contests. This month sees Superman's 70th birthday! He doesn't look bad for an old fella, does he? Anyway, the brief was to re-design his outfit...

01 02
03 04

I wanted to streamline the suit, get rid of the cape which I always felt would bunch-up and give Clark a hunchback when he wore his civilian clothes. Once I had done that there was the issue of colour, I wanted to see the traditional colours (01) in order to judge my other treatments against it. Firstly I went all X-men and Batman black and rubbery (02), then I tried hinting at the old Kryptonite (03) but in the end I liked the cooler, de-saturated feel (04).

I also redesigned the logo, well in marketing terms I think they call this a refresh!



For a comparison to the traditional Super-suit please take another look at my other Superman illustration: Superman's Dilemma

I had a great time doing this but in the end, Superman is just fine as he is, roll on another 70 years!

Ten Images For Ithaca

Another competition... details can be found here.

^ click to enlarge ^

Dream.

I've been fiddling around with this for a couple of weeks... got down to it properly and finalized my submission today.

I found this title very reminiscent of a GCSE exam title. (GCSE's, for anyone outside UK are qualifications taken around the age of 16)

This is my interpretation of the theme: dreams are like thought bubbles fading into a night sky of fantasies...
I think it works... I'm moderately happy with it but as with all creations, at some point you have to stop fiddling and let it go!

Illustration Friday - "Save"

ITV in the UK have been runnning a competition to create a creature for their brilliant drama Primeval. I've just submitted my entry, the deadline for entries is April 7th, so if you're interested you'll need to be very quick! Details on the competition can be found here (until the deadline at least).

If you're unfamiliar with Primeval, a rough guide to it would be Doctor Who meets The X-files, Jurassic Park, Stargate and The A Team but whatever it is exactly, it's definitely good fun!

Illustration Friday's theme this week is save... obviously if you were faced with the creature below, you'd be hoping that someone came to save you!


I'm calling it Hyenaman until a better or more suitable name occurs to me (or until a really good one is suggested to me).

On the subject of being saved... Taormina is in need of saving again and if you haven't already visited to see her most recent episode - please do and feel free to comment too! (plug, plug!)

Beast of Bodmin

•••EDIT••• 12th APRIL 2008... Illustration Friday's topic this week is "Fail" - this failed to win the place in Fantagraphics' BEAST book... it originally failed to generate any comments! - I hope it doesn't fail intrinsically... the original posting below will give you all the details! •••END OF EDIT•••

Fantagraphics Books had an open submission to be included in Beasts Book Two. More details on the book can be found here.

I thought this might be an excellent opportunity for some exposure...
Unfortunately my piece wasn't chosen. On reflection, I'm not sure my style is particularly appropriate for them.
Here was my submission...


The Beast of Bodmin Moor. There are lots of rumours surrounding this creature, ranging from an escaped Puma to an 'Alien Big Cat'! There have been lots of reported sightings and lots of mauled sheep... but nothing concrete. Enter Mulder and Scully... or perhaps Sherlock Holmes is more appropriate for this interpretation...
Even the Natural History Museum in London investigated it... check it out here.
There's been a few hoaxes as well, but rest assured, I won't be starting another!

original large image here

Times 'Crash' Competition

I found this competition in one of my web searches for design and illustration contests.
Harper Collins and Times Online have teamed up to run a competition to design a new cover for J. G. Ballard's "Crash" and full details for that, can be found here.


The nature of the subject matter could be described as extreme and because I wouldn't want to upset anyone, I have "hidden" my actual entry as a linked image. So, if you are interested and not easily offended, please click the image above to see my actual entry. If you would rather not see what I've done to strike a balance between the possibly offensive nature of the topics dealt with in the book and what would be palatable on a bookshop shelf - please ignore that this post is even here!

Vistobrahma Gallery

My "Cheeky" (Chica Brahma) Vistobrahma entry is up on their gallery! I'm pretty chuffed as I thought it was never going to appear.


There is going to be a public vote at some point... I'd really appreciate the support of those of you who can be bothered to go and vote when the time comes. Here is a quick link to the site again.
If you're worried that the gallery was slow to load because they had 100's of entries up, they've fixed it now and there only appears to be 33. I'll try to keep my eyes peeled for when the voting goes live, but for now, I'm just happy about the exposure!

Cheeky - Vistobrahma Entry

Here finally, after much fiddling (and hair pulling as the transition from pixels to vectors didn't go at all smoothly) is my entry. I've just uploaded it to the gallery on the Brahma site, and hopefully it'll be viewable before long...



I'm not sure I enjoyed this as much as I could have, in many ways it was torturous! I do think this version is far more successful than the original though!
Thanks go to Vicky, Phil, Matt and Rup for support and good advice.

Vistobrahma Competition

I found a link over on the ever brilliant DRAWN! for a competition to do an illustration based on the very palatable Brazilian Brahma beer. The brief wanted entries to reflect the Brazilian nature of their brand and express something about the curves of the Brahma bottle.

originally I thought this was the finished piece...

...then I thought this was the finished piece...


But, on further consideration, and in line with advice from Matt and Rup I think the piece needs to be treated more graphically. So I am currently working on an Illustrator version... I hope to enter that and post it here soon.

My basic concept was that the Brahma bottle was quite womanly shaped. Brazilian women are, I think, traditionally thought of as being quite sexy. I liked the juxtaposition, Hour-Glass Figure, Woman, Beer Bottle. I think the Brahma brand is quite cheeky. I had wanted a freer feel to my final piece, in the hope of capturing some Brazilian spirit. I just don't feel it's working for the brand.

If you are interested in entering yourself, check out the competition details here, but you'll need to be speedy as closing date is 25th Jan.