And some more bits and pieces...

This is a somewhat random post, for since my return from my lovely visit to Belgium, being tired, I fell foul of some mutating bug that gave me flu and assorted similar ailments and has, even now, left my energy levels low, but to misquote John Paul Jones, ''We wont give up the ship...yet!'' Grin. Or should that be gibbous grin?

But, it has been a while, so here in no particular order are some more pictures to look at from the present and the past.

The following were done for a Le Grimoire book project. That is three were, as one was deemed unsuitable to meet the text, but I show it off anyway.

Some old hand fans might realise one of these is a sort of reworking of an older piece I did for another book.

Now a few older pieces. First a Zombie Knight.

'Updated' version of an older piece

A 'new' version of Zagor the Warlock, but the next will be even more different.

Above we have an old three page annual job done in the early 1980's for D.C. Thomson. I've added it here for those interested in technique really, as it is all done with an inked brush. I would like to add that I was not responsible for the colour choice or the job that was added to the original B/W art.

Lastly, some work for Luke Crane and Thor Ovalsrud's new Torchbearer project.

 http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/burningwheel/torchbearer/posts

There will be a fourth full page piece, which is 'in the works' along with some newer work for the Summer.

So, till the next time ...

Well, the Goblin decided to come back...

Alack, alas and gadzooks [he said in mock Arthurian] things are becoming bizarrely murky in Dinglyrussiedell it would seem. The missing Goblin came back and the naughty zombies, [err...can zombies be naughty?], ran away ...or I forgot to scan a copy, [Sounds more like it, dim-bat.],  he 'said' with gnashing and grinding of teeth and a tearing of remnants.

Ah well, such is life.

So, the Goblin came back, still asleep too it would appear.

 

Once again we have to question the standards of the Goblin NHS..... ["Disgraceful", said Ol'Thunderblogs in the Telegraph].

For you who care, this picture appears [more or less] slightly larger than S/S.

News. Well, Mons, Brussels and the Trolls and Legends Festival approaches. A small blurb has been added about my good self ... link below.
http://www.trolls-et-legendes.be/2011/index-en.htm

More bits and blobs will hopefully be posted on my return.

To finish this short post a few oldies but goodies [well, if you squint, while standing on one leg in the left corner [as you look over your shoulder] when the moon is in the seventh Quadrant of Kiquel].

 

 Dave {Morris} has been adding a few oldies ...on his own excellent blog. The first from The Hearts of Ice.

The second from a proposed strip, The Dying Trade, about vampirism, that went into limbo. It was done with brush rather than pen, and was supposed to be in colour.

In a similar vane a part from The Heart of Harkun, that was done with Jamie Thomson [only the dummy draft layout sketches really survive. The colour [here] was reproduced by poor photocopying before the advent of cheap computer generated colour printing.

Finally, a version of one of my maps ... this for, The Lands of Legend.

 

Next time, the movie adventures  .... or something :).

COMPETITION: answers

Right, the answers to the competition. 
First realise my answers are based on my knowledge [as it is], and memory [poor as it is].


Picture 1. 

The village is Dunning, and is listed as having architectural interest as it covers a range of historical features throughout its buildings. One house was the only real 'undamaged' survivor of a highlander attack during the first major Jacobite rebellion of 1715. Apparently it's now been restored. It is one of those annoying fallacies that these rebellions [it and the Bonny Prince Charlie one of 1745] were Scotland rising against the English - a load of twaddle. 


The well itself stood at the top of the street where I lived and actually worked giving fresh spring water when I was a small boy. the village featured two such wells for many years [the other being in Tron Square]. At the back was a hill, the land then was 'empty' common land, and under the grass the hill was made mostly of sand - in fact, a 'sandpit' existed near the top and the steepness of the hill [from the old wood at the top down to behind the well] was the scene of many a sledging accident when young. lol.

Picture 2. 

The oldest church [there are two] in the village and its tower is an example of Norman {Romanesque} Architecture of about 1200 [though not the clock lol], and is called St Serf's. It stands by the edge of Tron Square in the so called 'centre' of the village. The tower has very narrow stairs and it has a lovely view from the top of the surrounding village where the bells are housed. Once, whilst sketching up there, and concentrating on what I was doing, I was caught by a peal of bells and alarmed nearly fell out one of the windows.

St Serf, who established the church in Dunning was, according to legend, where he fought and killed a Dragon that was terrorising the village. Part of the upper village is still called The Dragon [pronounced dreygon], and close by runs the Dunning Burn where people believed its lair [the Dragon's Den] still existed even when I was a boy. I was never convinced, but it was a nice myth. 


Picture 3/4.

This famous Celtic Cross - is the Dupplin Cross. 

Forteviot, which is close by, was once the last Pict capitol in Scotland, and the cross stood nearby in a field, near the River Earn, protected by an old fence but otherwise overgrown when I was young. It is a beautiful example of Celtic work, and now, after a lot of wrangling, stands in St Serf's church which stopped being a place of worship in 1972. It also has some lovely examples of late Victorian/Edwardian stain glass [see picture below].

For those interested - Forteviot, was also where Edward II had a hunting lodge and he was said to have been there, hunting the valley of Strathearn, the summer before the Battle of Bannockburn 1314 [near Stirling] . One of the great defeats of the English by the Scots, and an interesting aside, in 1513 at the battle of Flodden nearly 200 years later the Scots suffered their worst defeat against the English. In each case, in my opinion, the result of being led by puffed up arrogant fools. War does promote such, doesn't it.

Picture 5.

Happy penguins in front of St Mary's, Dundee by the Nethergate, apparently they are 'marching' towards the Discovery, Captain Scott's ship which is now berthed on the River Tay.


Picture 6. which features the infamous second Q.8 [AArgh!!] 

DC Thomson, is the most famous company in Dundee, and has been responsible for a whole range of comic titles. Having left Art College in Dundee, and having moved to England, I later freelanced for DC Thomson as a comic artist [this was during the early 80's]. The company has always been famous for two 'big foot' comics in particular - The Beano and The Dandy, who featured, among other great characters, Minnie the Minx and Desperate Dan [Dan's statue actually carries a copy of The Dandy]. 


Picture 7.

This cloud picture of a 'dragon' was seen over the village on our last visit. Often patterns, and combinations of objects, and surfaces, can help trigger imaginative ideas for creatures and other things. Such methods reach back to the ideas of Leonardo da Vinci as a source of artistic inspiration. 


The final question was about the local legend of a monument which can be found outside the village on the back road to Auchterarder, which itself is more famous for the Gleneagles Hotel and its golf courses. 
This monument is dedicated to the burning of a witch, called Maggie Walls in 1657. but no records can be found [they say] so it must be a myth. I beg to differ, when a student, I did a lot of research on the village, and, yes, there is no record of a Maggie Walls [witch or not]directly related to Dunning, but in the records of Perth, the city nearby, there was a record of a Maggie Walls accused of witchcraft at around that time. Yet no mention on the Internet; curious.


So there we go. A little about a Scottish village called Dunning, once a thriving market town with around 200 pubs [now 3]; with a Roman marching camp nearby; a standing stone commemorating an ancient battle [legend said], which where, as it was ploughed around, I watched it over the years 'shrink'. Dunning was also where I spent most of my better formative years as a young boy, where living in a house, [near the well in Q.1], that had originally been three three old weavers cottages joined together, strange events often happened. 


In finishing, I realise there were not many entries actually sent in, but thank you for all those who tried. 
I kind of suspect the time of posting was 'poor' and I should have planned it better, and if I ever do another, the competition will stay open for a week and all 'correct' entries will go into a hat, then the winner selected.

Brush and ink

Time does fly, and as I see it's been a while since my last post I thought I'd 'catch up' as they say. This feature is primarily about brush and ink work rather than that done with a pen.

As I remarked in my last post, I was comic artist for a while in the UK. I did not work for boys comics [mainly because I wasn't asked] but girls both weekly and in annuals. The comic market for a long time in the UK was dominated by two companies: DC Thomson [of Beano fame] and IPC, formally Fleetway, [of 2000AD fame]. I was introduced to the world of drawing comics through a comic artist, Ken Houghton, who ran a comic artist evening class at a school where I taught Art & Design. He was a lovely patient man, a very good teacher, who died too young, and is missed by those who knew him. One of his other students at that time was a very young 16 year old called Sean Phillips who has since risen to be a well known comic artist working these days for for Icon, an imprint of Marvel Comics [Criminal], and Marvel Comics [Marvel Zombies]. {updated thank to Dave Morris}.

Most of my comic work was done for DC Thomson, which although it still exists with its headquarters in Dundee, does not have the comic output it once had. Titles that I worked on included Bunty and Tracy [I've yet to meet anyone who actually admits to reading such comics]. For IPC I had the chance to work on a couple of pieces for a comic called 'Misty', including, in full colour, one of their annuals. Although in the case of the annual strip I had the same problem as I had with the Robin Hood game book, to make the creatures 'recognisable' as Hammer Horror 'types', but not so much anyone could sue. Still it was fun.

The actual comic process involved being given x amount of pages [usually three] and what was called a 'panel' script detailing scene setting and dialogue spoken, they were similar to radio and film scripts in many respects. You had some freedom about layout but always had to leave space to accommodate the 'speech' balloons. You were given roughly two weeks to complete each weekly segment and not expected to miss any deadlines. If possible it was sensible to create a backlog in case of accidents or incidents. The worst was while I was working in Papua New Guinea, when six pages were lost in the post and I had to redo them fast. I've often suspected it was wasn't the mail that lost the work but a counter clerk at the post office, who just took the stamps as a 'finders fee'. After that incident I always ensured to watch the parcels being franked, and funnily enough, nothing like lost artwork ever happened again. Strange.

In those days, none of the original artwork was ever returned and I only have a few comics, which I bought myself [now somewhere under piles of other stuff ] and poor photocopies that were given to me for 'character continuety' to remind me of the work I did. At the moment I can only find a a couple of bits of photocopies, and they're in poor condition, to show examples of that working period. I've 'cleaned' them up as best I can without too much loss of detail, but they're not great, however, as examples of  brush work they at least show the difference from dip and technical pen.

From the look of the strip parts shown below, the first was done for Bunty and the next two forTracy [but I could be wrong [as usual].

So, there you go, a couple of examples of brush work. For those who like more detail they were drawn with an HB pencil and brush inked [except panel borders] with a Windsor & Newton series 7a sable brush size No. 2. A brush that is sadly no longer available, yes they still sell a Series 7 but it's not got the hair length or handling of ink quality of the 7a series.
By using ink of course, even with careful cleaning, you went through brushes like a dose of salts. Well I did . Why do companies often 'cancel' excellent tools for a weaker variant? Barmy I'calls it.

On an aside.
I did do one item, in brush and ink, for a competition run by Marvel Comics, involving the Hulk where you had to write, draw and think of an idea of a 'what happened next' scenario, in their [now defunct ] magazine called FOOM. I'm very vague on the detail now, but the prize was lots of Marvel 'goodies' and I considered it might act as useful 'try out' as it was supposed to be judged by an artist and an editor back in the States.  I had thought my entry had come to nothing until a year or so later, when a friend remarked in a letter about how pleased I must have been for 'winning' that competition. This was a real surprise as I heard nothing since I posted of the art page, so he sent me the relevant copy of FOOM, where I read how excited [?] I was to have been the winner of the competition, and to have received all those 'goodies' as prizes. So I contacted Marvel and asked about where all my prizes were as I'd never heard from them at all - I received a cursory note from some editor minion and four old copies of FOOM  [including the one that said what wonderful prizes I'd received]. Even to this day that shoddy behaviour rankles. [Altogether now.... Ah, sad little you.] My opinion of Marvel has remained little changed since such treatment. [Ah].