Thursday 31 December 2009

SIR PATRICK STEWART



Congratulations to Patrick Stewart who has been honoured with a Knighthood by the Queen ,i have been a fan of Sir Patrick since the 1980's he's a wonderful actor and i was thrilled last year when he said this about Macbeth the graphic novel from Classical Comics which i designed and drew.

"I'm fascinated by your approach to the play and its language. I find them gripping, dramatic and, although for me the original Shakespeare is always my reason for turning to these plays, I think that what you are doing in illuminating and making perhaps more lucid, especially for young people, is clever and meaningful."

- Patrick Stewart, Actor

Sunday 27 December 2009

BUDDHA-FUL NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL


Hope you enjoy the new year celebrations and party hard like my chum Buddha
this illo is for Wasted issue 3 out in February 2010

copyright ALAN GRANT/JON HAWARD/BAD PRESS LTD 2009

Sunday 20 December 2009

Coca-Cola Santa Claus: Coke Christmas Art by Haddon Sundblom


I would like to wish everyone a very merry christmas and a very happy 2010!!

saw this image on the net fantastic painting and pose Haddon Sundblom was a amazing talent and i always enjoy looking at his paintings.

Wednesday 16 December 2009

FRANKIE BOYLE ART FOR BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009




I drew Frankie three times the first idea was to have him look like a demonic super powered elastic man coming out of a volcano the producers liked the idea then i was asked to draw him in a pose opening his shirt Superman style, i drew his pose twice as his original face looked too nice so i had to butch up his face and add a beard here's the art in progress from pencils to inks to colour
colouring by Nigel Dobbyn

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009

Tuesday 15 December 2009

UNUSED ART FOR THE BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009 SET







MICHAEL MCINTYRE as a superhero he was drawn by another artist in the end,PETER KAY and SIMON COWELL,
HARRY HILL as a Magician, RUTH JONES as a warrior Zena type, DAWN FRENCH as a nurse,


ARTWORK COPYRIGHT BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009

Saturday 12 December 2009

THE BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009




The Jonathan Ross pictures where my samples to get a job illustrating portraits for the set design for the 20th British Comedy Awards 2009 for ITV1, i was asked by the Production Designer Simon Kimmel to draw Mr Ross looking like a superhero, the producers of the show liked my samples so i was given a contract to work on the show

in the end only 3 got completed and used for the final set design they where Alan Carr ,Sheila Reid and Frankie Boyle they where coloured by my good friend Nigel Dobbyn.

art copyright BRITISH COMEDY AWARDS 2009

Saturday 5 December 2009

JONATHAN ROSS MASTER OF THE MYSTIC CHAT SHOW




on Sunday i'll be able to talk about these plus why i drew them ....

Friday 4 December 2009

THOR BY JMS AND COIPEL


one of the books i have enjoyed a great deal this year has been Thor by J.M Straczynski, Olivier Coipel, Laura Martin fantastic stories with wonderful art full of grace and power and beauty.

i bought a poster by Olivier Coipel by Marvel it's printed on plastic and it's so huge i don't know where i'm going to put it ,but here's the image of it as you can see it has over tones of Lord of the Rings about it, personally i can't wait to see the Kenneth Branagh Marvel movie slated for 2011

ARTWORK COPYRIGHT MARVEL CHARACTERS INC

Thursday 3 December 2009

THE TEMPEST MYEBOOK.COM PREVIEW


http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=22109

Wednesday 2 December 2009

MACBETH PLAIN TEXT ON MYEBOOK


Preview pages of Macbeth on mybook.com
http://www.myebook.com/index.php?option=ebook&id=21017

Monday 30 November 2009

HELLBOY DARKNESS CALLS TPB DARK HORSE


I read over the weekend Darkness Calls Hellboy tpb published by Dark Horse a wonderful book with a great story by Mike Mignola (who also provided covers)great art work by Duncan Fegredo and Dave Stewart on colours this story had it all giants, dead armies, wood spirits, faeries, witches it really was a joy to read and everyone who worked on the book did a brilliant job
a gem of a book highly recommended

Friday 27 November 2009

WASTED ISSUE 3 BIZ BUDDHA COVER


In the new Diamond Previews catalog for February issue 3 of Wasted the adult humour title features a cover by Simon Bisley the image is ''the Buddha'' of Tales of the Buddha rockin out ,i was thrilled when Alan Grant told me the Biz was drawing fat chops for the cover here it is

i love drawing that strip as it makes me laugh out loud every time i read the scripts Alan Grant is a genius writer i feel very blessed that i got to draw them.

Thursday 26 November 2009

RONNIE JAMES DIO


just read Ronnie James Dio has stomach cancer , i hope he can beat it ,he's one of my rock idols my thoughts are with him and his family

Tuesday 24 November 2009

BACK ART DIRECTING HAMLET FOR CLASSICAL COMICS


Just finished a hush hush job which I'll be able to talk about next month, now back drawing layouts and approving pencils on Hamlet for Classical Comics .

glad to report seems the Classical line of books went down well at the NCTE in Philadelphia 3 day show.

by the way if anyone wants a commission drawn for a loved one for a Xmas prezzie you better get in touch with me soon so i can fit them in my schedule

the picture is one of the things I'm selling on my private art collection gallery on comicfanart.com it's a poster of Shinobi master ninja drawn i think 1993 using inks and markers and pencils I'll try and get a decent scan done of this

Sunday 22 November 2009

JUDGE DREDD COMMISSION



This was drawn for a 2000A.D fan Karl Kennedy (who has every issue of the galaxies greatest magazine), Karl wanted to be drawn as a Judge next to Judge Dredd during the Apocalypse War ,this was a lot of fun to draw, in all it took me 2 days to complete a day for pencils and a day inking.

Thursday 19 November 2009

PRIVATE ART COLLECTION SALE

added more art for sale that includes my KISS MANGA PIN-UP'S, promo pin-up for THE HELL CREW oil painting

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryDetail.asp?GCat=34682

Wednesday 18 November 2009

WOW 10K HITS


Just noticed this blog had hit over the 10 thousand hits mark, thanks to everyone who has spared the time to view my work and updates.

can't show anything new at the moment due to contracts and getting permission to show what I've been up to the last few months ,i should be ok to show a Dredd commission in a few days though.

Sunday 15 November 2009

V&A ILLUSTRATION AWARDS 2010




Just entered the V&A illustration awards
Book Illustration and Editorial with The Tempest
as my dear old mum used to say ''nothing ventured nothing gained ''
fingers crossed

Friday 13 November 2009

NOVEMBER DIAMOND PREVIEWS MARVEL POCKET BOOKS





Here's some Marvel Pocket books that are available to order in this months Diamond Previews

all the covers where penciled by me for Panini U.K ltd under license by Marvel characters inc.

Thursday 12 November 2009

THE LIFE AND TIMES OF MARTHA WASHINGTON IN THE 21ST CENTURY


My brother kindly bought me this book today to cheer me up 600 pages of Dave Gibbons arty goodness and a great read from the mighty scribe Frank Miller.
i love Martha Washington it's going to be great to read her life story all over again in this fantastic very heavy hard back slip case edition ,a great production job by the Dark Horse publishing crew , if this book gets Hollywood twitchy to do a movie i hope they get Beyonce to do it , any way a top read and product worth buying to fill a very large Christmas stocking.

LOBO VS JUDGE DREDD PITCH FROM 1993


Found this in one of my old folio's a pitch i made to DC comics and 2000A.D way back in 1993 ,i didn't get the gig ,shame as i thought Alan Grant and John Wagner would have had fun writing this.

LOBO COPYRIGHT DC ENTERTAINMENT / JUDGE DREDD COPYRIGHT REBELLION A/S

Monday 9 November 2009

private art collection for sale

art from my private collection is now on view for sale looking for offers ,there's 17pieces of art in all

http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryNew.asp?GCat=34682

Sunday 8 November 2009

THE MIGHTY RUFUS DAYGLO



Had the pleasure to meet up with Rufus Dayglo in London on Friday after i had a business meeting there ,we went for a beer and a bite to eat and Rufus showed me some Tank Girl covers and Tankie comic madness, wonderful work full of humour action and detail i really enjoy looking at his work.
Rufus is a huge fan of Comic art just like me so it was great to catch up and chin wag about stuff.

TANK GIRL Skidmarks issue 1 is out this month from Titan drawn by Rufus it's brilliant Alan Martin writes a cracking fun romp and the book will give you a big fat grin.
go buy !!

Monday 2 November 2009

HAVE A SAFE FIRE WORKS NIGHT


remember remember the 5th November, wishing every one a very happy and safe bonfire night

Saturday 31 October 2009

SIR CHRISTOPHER LEE


At long last one of our greatest movie stars has been knighted congratulations to Sir Christopher Lee, my favorite Dracula

Thursday 29 October 2009

HAPPY HALLOWEEN


HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM HECATE THE QUEEN WITCH

ART FROM MACBETH THE GRAPHIC NOVEL PUBLISHED BY CLASSICAL COMICS LTD COPYRIGHT 2009

Tuesday 27 October 2009

clobberin time Dredd style !


here's a close up of Joe givin some sweet justice from a 2 part Judge Dredd story i'll finish thursday ,it's been alot of fun but alot of work ,i've had old school vibes drawing it ,so i hope the die hard Dredd fans like the work.

artwork copyright Rebellion A/S 2009

Monday 26 October 2009

MIKE CAREY LIKES CLASSICAL COMICS!


Mike Carey famed writer of comics ,novels and film writes
''I've loved the Classical Comics Shakespeare graphic novel adaptions that I've read - Macbeth, The Tempest and Romeo and Juliet. I never would have guessed it, but in a way, comics - with their parallel verbal and visual narratives - are perfectly placed to realise the complexity and tonal diversity of a play. It's capturing the lightning in a different-shaped bottle. Amazing stuff!''

Sunday 25 October 2009

THE TEMPEST MAGICAL SCENES







When i was designing the Tempest visual look i wanted it to first look beautiful to the reader more detailed than Macbeth and also i had the brief that the costumes had to look 15th Century in look , so all this was a major factor why the book took me 57 weeks to draw i had to design the trees ,rocks, creatures, costumes, characters,draw ships, goddess's, monsters it was a lot of hard work but a lot of fun too.

this book looks amazing thanks to Nigel Dobbyn's use of colour and effects with the wonderful skies and light through the trees ,the dramatic lighting he does over my art really adds to the drama it was a real pleasure working with Nigel on Macbeth and the Tempest these pages show his colouring talents really well ,also Gary Erskine's fine crisp inking over my pencils really added to the book also.
i was very lucky to work with these great talents.

one thing i liked reading fairy tales as a young child was the artist's used to draw faces in rocks and in trees so I've done the same with the Tempest if you buy the book see how many faces you can see in the landscape, i also like the fact you can look at the book over and over again and still see new things in the backgrounds and details you didn't notice before.

ALL ARTWORK COPYRIGHT CLASSICAL COMICS LTD 2009