Mercy me!!!

Since starting work on chapter 4 I've gone back to chapter 3 to make sure I've kept characterisations consistent. One character who I realised I didn't thoroughly flesh out was Maester Arms, Opeel's instructor in the art of endo. He's a rough and tumble military man who wears his hard service across his face, literally. The one benefit to having your eye burned out by R'hezan acid is it can be replaced with a handy thing called a chemitronic eye which allows the viewer to see in temperature.

The next is none other than Mercy Valdein who made an appearance in chapter 2 as the little girl with a big crush on Opeel. As a child she was quite shy but after years of attending military school she's as tough as anyone.

From paper to screen

I posted the sketches earlier, but here's the final product. I added in the 'picture on a table' element at the last minute because the dimensions of the drawing didn't fit properly on the card. But, I think I like it better this way. It gives the whole image depth and makes the illustration pop a lot more. 

Oh, and here's Santa in colour. :)

It's Christmas Time

Here are some of my sketches for my holiday cards.

I think this is the design I'll go with. What I think it will end up as is jamming the whole frame with characters from the Mighty Orange-Peel universe (some that have hit the cutting room floor and some of the more obscure one). I'm going for a 'every one wants to be surrounded by loved ones at the holiday' feeling.

This is just a sketch of O and Mhetli about to get into a snowball fight. I like the drawings but think the idea was a bit too blaze. Mostly because I HATE snowball fights!!!

I was seeing the final of this being O surrounded by whirling snow and light. But, I've done something similar in previous years (and didn't really like it in the end anyway).

And Santa. I don't think I've ever actually drawn a picture of santa so this was just to get into the spirit. I never actually believed in the guy so he's not really in the running for my card but it was fun to draw. I mean how could you not love a jolly fat dude in red?

A fighting chance

So, I've just written my first action scene: Mhetli and Opeel finally meet and instantly engage in fisticuffs.

Here's Mhetli combat ready and Opeel in his gear for compulsory military training. I'd love to say that gives O a fighting chance, but he's not very good.

Opeel goes digital

I've made some desktop wallpapers from the pencil drawings. What do you think?

Here's also a first glimpse of Mhetli, the main antagonist of the book. I've finally started writing the chapter where he's introduced so it's been helpful to make create some visuals that inform a lot of the writing. He's a mean looking dude and a lot more intimidating than I imagined he'd be, but I think that's good. Looking to see what stuff he gets up to when he and Opeel finally meet.

I did the Opeel wallpaper first but think Mhetli's has been more successful. I think I'll go back and redesign Opeel's.

Sem in action

Working on chapter three has forced out a lot of new drawings. Here's one of Sem at her best getting ready for a Sparrein match.

St Andrew's Day Ceilidh - 26 November 2010

I did some design work for a friend who works with Lomarra Events. I've designed a logo and a flyer for their first event, a St Andrew's Day Charity Ceilidh in aid of Macmillan Cancer Support.

The brief was to create an invitation that was aimed 'at younger people, international students and the like, but [still] accessible to older folk as well... it should be bright, young and fresh with accent colours.'

I took a bit of license as I was asked to use the St Andrew's flag for inspiration but thought a soltaire on blue would get too washed out in the sea of Scottish themed events. The red I chose to be striking and slightly regal (also, inadvertently conjures images of St Andrew's crucifixion!). And, I chose a particularly angular kilt image and with intersecting accents of white to give the feeling of crisscrossing.

For the image I thought what do people really go to ceilidh's for... men in kilts. Male, female, gay, straight, doesn't matter. Guys love wearing kilts. Girls love seeing guys in kilts. And everyone pays attention when they see a dude jump and spin, the question on everyone's mind, 'is he a real Scotsman?'

So, here is my homage to ceilidhs, kilts and St Andrew.

It's going to be a fab event folks so come along and support a noble cause! 26 November, 7 pm - 1 pm. St John's Church Hall, Edinburgh. You can order tickets online with Lomarra Events.

Chapter 2 is finished!

Chapter 2 of the Mighty Orange-Peel is finished! After writing the chapter and scrapping it and starting from the beginning I've come up with something that I'm quite pleased with. Chapter 2 focusses on the story of where the name The Mighty Orange-Peel comes from. So, now that the prologue and chapters 1 and 2 are complete it's time to let them sit a while and come back to them in about a month with fresh eyes.

And what good timing! It was a happy Saturday when two books I've eagerly been awaiting arrived in the post! I've been good not to dive into them until I'd finished my own stuff. But, now that I have I'm going into 'sponge' mode where production is arrested and I spend time immersing myself in the things that inspire me. I visit galleries, sit outside, read lots, watch films and so on.

The first book on the list is 'The Spook's Bestiary' by Joseph Delaney. These are part of the Wardstone Chronicles. Fab books and the illustrator, Julek Heller, has made some mind blowing pencils for it. The second book is 'The Search for Wondla' by Tony Diterlizzi. One of my absolute favourite artists who created Diterlizzi & Black's Spiderwick Chronicles. I love his art but I've not read his writing before so I'm keen to get into the book.

I'm also watching out for D. M. Cornish's Monster Blood Tattoo: Book 3 - Factotum! Cornish is an Aussie writer/illustrator who's created the amazing world of the half-continent. Really rich text and illustrations. That's out later in October. I think I'll have to get back on the trail of Opeel before that but it will be ready for me during my next break!

In the meantime I'll be posting some earlier works and any illustrations I make in the coming weeks to keep things ticking along!

Jack and Alice

I have finished the second chapter of The Mighty Orange-Peel (sic) and I'm letting the text and the characters lie for a while. I hope to come back to it with a fresh pair of eyes and read the first two chapters along with the prologue to make sure the tone of voice is consistent and that the story not only flows but is engaging and, ultimately, is a good read.

In the mean time I'd like to introduce you to two old friends of mine. This is Jack and Alice, the main characters of my first picture book... Jack and Alice. They're fraternal twins who, over the course of their first book, explore the ups and downs of having to share. They learn that the benefits of having a partner in crime and loving each other far outweighs any of the draw backs. Here are a few of my favourite panels from the book

Alice gets some eats and Jack gets his!

They can play nice when they try.

Playtime with their dog, Glasgow.

Pirates versus Lady Posy.

The kids scrub up nice!

Opeel 1/2

Well, just in case you're wondering what Opeel looked like as a little tyke, here he is.

I've been working on the the part of the book where the nickname The Mighty Orange-Peel comes from and it takes place when he was just a wee boy of 8 years old. Here is the eager beaver in class raising his hand to answer a question. Ah what a keen youngster.

The infamous Raephite Grimm

Sem's dad, Raephite Grimm is the lead scientists at Black Star Labs the company that Opeel's dad works for. A very respectable chap Raephite is always well groomed with his accademical's knot and his double mustachios.

The Grimm and Westhill families have been close since the Grimms moved to Bansho. Raephite became Mr Westhill's supervisor and set up a play date for their kids. O and Sem became fast friends and their fathers have continued to work together and be friends.

The Family Westhill

Introducing Nereth (mom) and Gravander (dad) Westhill. Nereth is from the northern province of Arbon and has fair skin with bright blue eyes and red hair. Gravander's family is native to the southern province of Garz (Opeel's home province) and has much darker skin and jet black hair (well, the hair that's left and hasn't turned grey) with bright blue eyes. I think my mom and dad will be relieved to see there's not much resemblance seeing as Gemmy's parents are maniacal geniuses.

Gravander is an employee of Black Star Laboratories in genetics research and also teaches at the Head University in Garz and Arbon. He sports the tell-tale scholarly hair tuft on his head and chin. It's an ancient tradition that symbolises the scholar's commitment to intellectual pursuits and not those of the outward flesh. What would he have done if the crown of his head was completely bald, you ask? Well, imagine the world's worst comb over with the hair from either side of the head gathered into a ponytail on the top. Nice!

Teddy Bears' picnic

So, I've been doing a lot of writing this month so have not made any 'notable' new illustrations. There are bits and bobs in the margins of my ruled note book so I might post some of these later on.

Until then I've trolled through my old illustrations to see if there was anything interesting for me to post. So, here see the beginnings of my version of Teddy Bears' Picnic.

I discovered, while listening to the song, that the lyrics are actually quite sinister. So, I started making some doodles for a watercolour picture book that I'd like to do about what actually goes on at this picnic that warrants the warning 'you'd better not go alone'.

So, here are some of the treats at the picnic. The first is the Cabeza Pop. The second is a scrumptious Finger Sandwich.

Finding Semjanine Grimm

"Sem’s bangs had been cut bluntly, and very unevenly, high on her brow. At the beginning of the summer she had dyed her hair a bright red. And now, her hair just long enough to be pulled back sharply into a pony tail, it showed off a full two inches of her natural yellow colouring springing from her scalp. Her bangs, which just the day before had also showed the same tell-tale sign of time passing, had lost their edge of red and now only her natural buttery-yellow hair colour sat above her equally yellow eye-brows... Sem’s eyes, though the same green as her mother’s and more than sufficient for seeing with, were admittedly narrow and shrewd. To compensate she had taken to drawing heavy mascara lines under her lower lids which actually made the problem worse. O had even thought, sometimes, that she might actually be pretty if she stopped drawing unnecessary attention to her eyes and quit dying her hair such strange colours."

Originally Sem was going to be named Ben (Benjanine). I had come up with her father's name, Raephite Grimm, completley indepently when I first started jotting down ideas for the story. But, once I put two and two together, I realised she would then be 'Ben Grimm' which is also the name of none-other-than Thing from the Fantastic Four. So, I either had to make her a craggy rock creature and potentially be sued by Marvel Comics or I had to come up with another name. So, I thought, Sem, was an equally fitting unisex sort of name.

Sem is O's best friend. They went to the same school and became friends once O rose to fame as the kid who blew up the school gym (No, you Buffy fans, he did not burn it down, he actually blew it up. And no he did not do it because it was not graduation and the mayor had turned into a giant snake demon.).

Anyway, above is a first drawing and description of our heroine.

We are not alone

So far the 1,000 words a week (min) on the book is ticking along. At the moment though I'm producing more drawings than writing but as long as both keep coming I can't complain.

In Arbea, we are not alone. Human beings are not the only sentient species on the planet. Humans, Rhe'zans and Gechans all share the world.

While prejudices still persist all species have learned to live in harmony. This is primarily due to the fact that each species inhabits regions that the other would find uninhabitable. The Rhe'zans reign the island to Rhe'za to the est (west) and Rhoge to the sor (south). Humans mostly rule the larger continents Arbea major and Arbea menor to the ist (east). Gechans are scattered throughout the world on smaller isles and coastal regions in the warmer climates.

The picture above shows you the three species. Meet (L - R) Opeel, Rhe'aml, and Piicol. What's their story? I suppose you'll have to wait and see.

In living colour

My favourite part of the illustrating process... colour!!!!

Since I was a kid I've spent a lot of time practicing colouring in watercolour, colour pencil and marker. But, for some reason I took to digital rendering. I think it's my love of comic books and inability to clean up after making a mess with paint that led me to digital. plus it produces such a smooth result.

It was Salvador Larroca's work on Xtreme X-men that sold me on clean digital rendering under natural line drawings. There's a loss of synergy when you wipe away the scratchings from a pencil drawing in exchange for sharper inked lines. The raw pencil against the hyper-real colouration creates a poetic dissonance.

The way I create illustrations in colour is a process of creating layers in photoshop. First I create an outline from the original drawing. Then I build up the image from the base (usually the skin) up. This allows me to make some quick flat colours to start before I start doing more detailed cropping and shading. It gets particularly fun to zoom in and start working on details that eventually build up to a much richer clean image.

raeFraefaelun Oariadne Gemiinus (Gemmy) Westhill

It's finally happened. The Mighty Orange-Peel has something other than a nickname. Thanks everyone for your suggestions and thanks Ariadne for the start to his name. Hope you don't mind the acknowledgement of your contribution!

'raeFraefaelun' is his faelty title inherited from his mother's side (Faeletor - reigning owner of a large estate of land or faelor. Something akin to a Regent or Lord. The title is then derived from this, 'rae' denoting heir or descendent of, 'Frae' being the area of land in question and the 'faelun'. 'sae' proceeds the land name if the title is inherited from the father.). 'Oariadne' is his mother's family name which follows the faelty title. 'Gemiinus' is his given name. This is diminished to 'Gemmy'. 'Westhill' is then his family name, from his father. If the title had been inherited from his father his name would simply be saeFraefaelun Gemiinus Westhill.

What's the Mighty Orange-Peel's real name?

The Mighty Orange-Peel has a face! I'm having a great time writing as the illustrations feed the writing, which then feed the illustrations. It's fun to see how the characters develop in the process. Here's the short passage in the prologue that lead to the drawing you see:

"Leaning against the opposite aquarium, his jet-black hair stood out against the back lighting, distractingly resembling the sea anemones inside. I glanced side-long at him and realised, on closer inspection, his hair looked less like an anemone and more like the hair of someone who had been electrocuted at the top of tree and, on his way down, his hair tangled in every branch."

I still haven't come up with a name for him yet though. I know his surname is 'Westhill" which is the name of my old middle-school where I first came up with the idea that turned into Opeel. But, he doesn't have a first name yet. All the secondary characters have names. But, being the main character, O has been a bit of a toughy. What do you think he looks like?

The world of Arbea

Here are my first map sketches of the world of Arbea.




After five or six drafts of the prologue to the Mighty Orange-Peel, the text finally came together. it took mapping out the world first. O lives in Bansho Island City in the province of Garz on the continent of Arbea Major. Here's a quick glipse of some early sketches of where O lives in this fantastic world.

Emoticons

Here are a series of 'emoticons' that I did for my own personal use. I'm fortunate enough to be blessed with synaesthesia. I experience certain musical notes as colour and emotion.

The emoticons were born out of my desire to find more personal expressions of my mood for when I'm chatting on line. See if you can guess what the different colours mean. (It's kind of obvious as they're labeled).

More viruses 2

Above:

Zygomycosis

Tape Worm

Hook worm

Hepatitis

Tuberculosis

More viruses

Just a preview of some of my favourites.

Above:
Gonorrhea and Chlamydia
Gastroentinitis
E. Coli
African sleeping sickness
Intro to viruses illustration

Viruses in technocolour

I collaborated with my friend David S Kroll, MD on 'The Humorist’s Field Guide to Infectious Diseases for Those who
are Especially Curious'. If the book convinces you to wash your hands (with soap) just a little more often than you did before, then reading it will have been extremely worth your while. David, being the doctor, wrote the text and I did the illustrations.

The black and white illustrations were done with pen and ink and then cleaned up in photoshop. I enjoy the challenge of doing finished drawings without doing pencils first. I do plenty of sketches and but do the final product in just ink. I've done a few of the drawings in colour rendered in photoshop. I think I prefer them just in black and white. I hope the drawings coupled with the text take you to a head space that lets your imagine do the rest. I think the human imagination can come up with more vivid colours than can be produced by one person's hand.

My first blog

Well, everyone. This is my first blog. I'm hoping to start adding in a back catalogue of older work to get me started and start working through my present day journey of illustrating texts. But, while I'm gathering the older bits and bobs together I'll start my blog off with my latest.

I'm currently writing/illustrating the story of the Mighty Orange Peel. The world of O, the main protagonist, and Bansho Island City, his home town, has been growing like a weed in my brain for almost 15 years. I don't believe that it will be finished in a oner. Something this big will continue to pass in seasons; growing, resting, germinating, growing and eventually blossoming into something sweet and juicy for others to digest. Here are two illustrations that I've drawn of O and his best friend, Ben.

As I draw I write, scribbling characteristics and details of the characters that may or may not weave their way into the eventual narrative. Mostly, these little details help make the characters real in my head, making writing about them as easily as if I was telling you about a memory of my own.