Redshirt Dead

I'm having a cracking time getting back to cartooning. Might mate Dizzy Cochrane and I have started a cartoon series, Redshirt Dead. I'm working on a fair few of our ideas at the moment but here is the first sneak peak at a completed panel and the process.

Drawings for Black Star are finished pencil drawings (which I love). But there's something nice about the stark thick black lines of a cartoon that just can't be beaten.

Also, with transferring the drawn images on velum with ink I can cheat and not go back over incorrect lines etc. I've drawn with a tablet before but it doesn't have the same physical reality and presence as something that's been drawn by hand and scanned in.

Enjoy!
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For the base drawing it's just pencil on paper. This is I think draft 7!!! 

 

I trace the drawing onto velum using a medium Stabilo permanent marker. I use a fine tip for smaller details. I find the fine creates a bit of 'texture' in the final drawing and I really like the bold blocky outline.

Final product: I then take the final outline and block in the infamous redshirt and add block shading to key items to highlight the joke. I've used a bit of crosshatching to give a wee bit of depth but not so much it detracts from the ultimate punchline. 

Sci-fi fans... can you tell what it is yet?

Check us out the Redshirt Dead Tumblr where new comics will be published and also follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

New frontier

It's been ages since I did cartooning and with the book the aesthetics of my visual art have been firmly dedicated to Arbea in the past few years.

However, a mate of mine came to me with an idea for a project that I just couldn't pass up. Here are some sketches for an up and coming project that I just couldn't wait to share!

I think having a partner in this venture will keep the project fresh on all frontiers. I find working with others on creative projects to be incredibly rewarding. You have someone to bounce ideas off of and help sharpen and refine them. You also have ideas that otherwise might not have come to light. It also means that the load of creation be shared.

Enjoy!
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Jack and Jane

Some aliens

Krytasian sketch in my notebook