Flight

The front cover for a compilation of all my Bear Pit comics so far.

I think I need to specifically practice covers. Every time I have to make one, even for my own comics, I spend at least one working day banging my head on my desk, unable to think of any appropriate ideas. I just don't want to misrepresent the contents of the book!

Inspired Anthology 2013 - Cover

This is my cover for the 2013 Inspired anthology, Mixtape. I was very pleased to win the vote again this year, as the other cover was very good! I'm a little worried the colours won't be bright enough once it's printed, but we've never really had that problem before so hopefully it won't be an issue.

You can play two games with this cover. One is 'spot the character expats', I'll start you off by saying Iona from Patience is a Virtue is very easy to find. The other is 'spot which headphones were added in the digital colouring stage because Sarah realised the composition wasn't good'.

Inspired Cover 2

I did two covers for the Inspired cover competition, the one I posted a few days ago drew quite heavily on the comic I'm submitting, so I also did this one as a more general sci-fi cover. I like them both, but I think I'm being biased towards this one by all the drawing for the internal comic. Anyone would get sick of beautiful, delicate robots after several weeks of drawing them.

Inspired Anthology

I thought you might like to see my cover design for the sci-fi anthology Inspired is putting out later this year. You can see a few more on the Inspired blog, as well as a lot of development work from the other members. I'm working on a second one, but it's turning into a lesson in why I should always scan my lineart before I paint anything, as I'm now having to go through the laborious process of tracing all the lines on Photoshop, printing a blue-line, re-inking it by hand and scanning it in again to colour digitally. If anyone knows a faster way PLEASE tell me.

Obviously that's taking forever, so here's some of the development work and the world's most basic page sketch to tide you over:

If you're interested in some of Inspired's older anthologies (I've got a comic in Pick & Mix 2, hint hint) we now have an online shop that you can find HERE.

Carver

Tada!  The last picture from Alaizabel.  It's supposed to echo the picture of Marey Woolbury from the start of the set.  I think it came out better than the other one, to be honest, the hatching is a bit tidier.

Also the cover, if you're interested.  It's an oil painting, which is a medium I have a lot of experience with, but not much skill (in my opinion).  It's supposed to be a bit indistinct, but I might have taken it a bit too far.  What do you think?

Also, singing to your plants.  Is this adorable, or a sign that you're a bit of a nutter?