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.