Bowties are cool.

The yuletide brought with it, as it has done the past few years now, the Doctor Who Christmas Special. Which I quite enjoyed.

So I drew some pictures:

As companions go I like Amy and Rory a lot. Certainly more than any of the others since the programme restarted. I don't really remember the original run. 

Merry Christmas

Also here's Mike and Antonia: 

Man how we used to tear apart this town.

Here's a quick M. Ward, as promised, to complete the She & Him set.

Edit - I've since put the two in one picture: 

"She was not one for emptying her face of expression."

It was suggested I try draw a cartoon of Zooey Deschanel, and lo:

I think at the next opportunity I'm going to complete She & Him and draw M. Ward, because why not?

After that I may redraw Zooey with a better expression (an actual expression would be a bonus).

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons.

To begin, it is my brother Kieran's birthday today. Hopefully he'll have a terrifically acemazing day, but the poor chap's at school so who knows?

I haven't really drawn anything otherwise, as I've been dealing with this university thing. I do however have this to offer you, which is essentially a straight copy of this photograph. 

Hopefully I'll be picking up the pace now though, at least for a while.

Here is a colour practise I did the other day, with an old drawing:

I'm a bit rubbish when it comes to colours, if I'm honest. I usually know exactly what I want, but it's hard to find the colours in my head. Usually a fair bit of messing around is required. I've also found the actual application of colour to be difficult, quite often. 

In any case, I thought this picture was interesting as a comparison to the picture of the lady in the previous post. I think that picture, done only a few days later, and pretty rapidly, is already considerably better than this. Not good, by any means, but certainly better. 

Which is nice.

Distracted from distraction by distraction.

I've been busy with all manner of things lately, so haven't really drawn an awful lot, besides a Christmas card that you clearly can't see yet.

Anyway, to fill a gap, here's a quick scribble I did last night whilst watching Rear Window. It doesn't actually have anything to do with Rear Window, but I like to imagine that it's these little details that keep you captivated.

Kind Hearts and Coronets.

It's not as though I'm particularly a fan of the monarchy. Indifferent, for the most part, I'd say. In any event, everyone loves a good wedding, and I like silly things.

I should sell this on a tea-towel.

B-sides.

The last couple of days have brought only drawings that are utterly terrible. Here is a taster of them.

This is, theoretically, Aesop. Roughly based on a description I was given of him. It's a lazy drawing in a million different ways.

This was supposed to be Rafael Van der Vaart, but it just isn't. There are numerous other mistakes, but the main one is that is just doesn't look like who it is supposed to be of. 

This is, more than anything, a half-hearted attempt at trying something different. Realistically though, it wasn't different enough to excuse it being, frankly, rubbish.

Spooktacular.

Hello!

In addition, here's a very rapid drawing of my favourite television detective, as there was a new Suchet episode on the other day (I have never read the books, I'm not sure if I ever will; to me David Suchet is now the definitive Poirot). 

Plans and Previews.

Just a few little sketches and bits and bobs for a children's book I am writing. These are very much rough character ideas, and people will likely end up looking somewhat different. I also am leaning more and more toward not inking the final drawings. They'll be coloured too, but I've not decided on the final medium yet. (As ever you can click on the images to enlarge them).

As you can see, I often make little notes by drawings, when planning them. 90% of them aren't actually constructive at all. The smudged out writing is all plot stuff. 

Also, here's a quick preview of something I'm doing for Hallowe'en. I accidentally exported the image in black and white, rather than colour, and it ended up looking like this. I thought it was rather cool, and quite different from the "proper" image.: 

Bits and bobs.

I haven't been able to get near my scanner the last few days (it's attached to a different computer than mine for space reasons) so I've not updated with anything in a while. Apologies.

As I was suffering from incredible bouts of guilt, I decided to quickly make a new header, up at the top there. After that was done I (very) quickly drew a picture of Sky Larkin on the computer. Why Sky Larkin? Because I was listening to them at the time of course.

I didn't really do them justice I am afraid. I highly recommend giving them a listen by the way, I think most anyone could enjoy their musical sounds. 

If you have Spotify you can listen to them here.

Page Five.

As with the others, you can click on the image to make it bigger. 

I made a font. I'm happy with it for now, but maybe not in the long run. I also drew some things rather too small when pencilling, and as such inking was not at all fun. But, eh, there you go. 

Also, here's a stupid five-minute drawing I did the other night, for a friend's birthday. It's intentionally ridiculous: 

Page Four.

Previous pages can be found here. 

Completely drawn on tablet, for the first time. Not sure if I will carry on doing it this way or not. Apologies for the font, I'm still trying to figure out a good way of lettering.

Tone Deaf.

Here are the first three pages of the comic with tones thrown on. Now I can get on with the rest of it.

All quiet on the western front.

Apologies for the silence that past couple of weeks, I'm trying to get myself onto a teaching course, as well as a few other things, so doodling has fallen by the wayside somewhat. The next page of my comic should be up soon.

This then, is a fill-in post, and not nearly as busy as the regular ones.

I picked up Manga Studio the other day, and have only had a very brief chance to mess around with it. My main intention was to add tones and so on to paper-drawn comics, but I may use it to draw on as well. I haven't messed around with brush settings or anything on there, and it already feels incredibly friendly and easy to use.


Compare the paper-drawn:

With the computer-drawn:

Clearly I have picked entirely wrong tones, and the font is utterly terrible, (we shan't even talk about the lady's shoulders/torso) but I feel like it has a lot of potential, particularly as the drawing was very quick.

Here's another quick example, the pencil-on-paper version is in a previous post: 

There's still all manner of mistakes, but I think I'm going in the right direction, and the ease is pretty phenomenal. 

Edit - I forgot to add the following: 

They say it's your birthday.

Sometimes I do little pictures for friends' birthdays. This, for example, is for Amanda whose birthday it is tomorrow:

She quite likes Optimus Prime.  Here's another I did for her a couple of years ago: 

This is a picture of The Beatles I did, in a vague attempt to roughly show their evolution, for good chum Mike. I forgot to scan it at the time:

A couple of years ago I made a kind of Comic Book cover for him, with a Magician-type hero character version of Mike on the front. I don't have it and I never photographed it/scanned it. However! It nearly looked like this:

Before I had a sudden rush of common sense. The final drawing was roughly based on this: 

On the subject of rough planning sketches, here's one I did for a picture for my brother's birthday. He'd quite like to play for Barcelona. The final had ticker tape and all sorts of excitement. 

I think this next one was for Penny's birthday. Was it for Penny's birthday? Not that fond of it in 

retrospect. Penny! Feel free to demand something new for a holiday-in-which-gifts-are-given.

Finally, here's a Christmas Card I did a few years ago. Can't precisely remember when, but it was whilst I was at university:

Edit: I have been told off because I forgot this, of Rebecca. I'm disappointed with it for much the same reason I am of Penny's. There are others I've likely forgotten too, I'll leave you to imagine them:

Adventures in the Airtrade.

I don't really want that to be the title of this comic, you know, but every time I try to think of one it keeps bubbling up. Annoying.

You'll note that these are very spartan, very white. I intend to add tones, but that's for another day. A day in which I know how to add tones. Also these are literally the second, third, and fourth comics I have ever drawn. I'm not making excuses, after all, this is purely for my own enjoyment, but just so that you know.

Also my lettering is abysmal. This will also be fixed.

Also...Well, you get the idea.

(click on them to make them bigger, if you want)

More to come, obviously.

The next post is almost certainly about birthdays, and birthday doodles. 

O Newton, release this apple from its earth shackles.

You will have seen from the previous post that amongst my rough ideas for the children's story was a dirigible/airship. This was originally intended to appear in the second part of the story, although I'm not so sure that it will necessary happen that way anymore. In any event, my mind flew off in a different direction once the balloon came into play, and I started planning a very different story. 

I'm not going to give anything away, but maybe you'll like some of the idea sketches. 

As a drawing, this isn't very good, but I liked the character straightaway. At the time she wasn't going to be used for anything, but was drafted in once the idea formed. 

I went with the bottom one in the end. 

Fleshing out hair/clothing ideas, and getting the personality completely wrong at the same time. 

Next time: the first three pages. Sort of.