Good Christmas for Ducks

That's me done for 2012. Many thanks to anyone who has checked in throughout the year to see the latest posts and especially to those who've taken the time to drop in a comment - always welcome. Stay hip and see you in 2013.

Pat.

No Moore.
OK, bad joke, but every line of the above scribble was delivered with a fondness associated with those whose memory make up the fibre of one's past. Can't imagine someone of his English eccentricities being allowed a break in front of the BBC's cameras today. Heard a magnificent poem on the radio this evening  by the great Murray Lachlan Young, eulogising Patrick Moore. Very funny. If I discover a link to it then I'll post it here...

Kenneth Kendall

Gone today. Remember him well for his news-reading back in my youth.

Triple Cowpoke

Strange folk abroad in the misty swamps...
Patterns in photoshop are great to add time saving details and effects. I pulled this old drawing from the virtual sketchpad to try some pattern making in the shirt, face, hat and neckerchief. Also added a bit of shadow to help create some volume...good fun.

Gareth Southgate

Gaz. Is he still advertising Pizza?

Joey Barton

'Allo, 'Allo, it's Monsieur Barton. Très funny.

Roberto Di Matteo

Bobby D.

Gruesome Non-toothsome

Coloured up and finished from previous line work...trying out various ideas and techniques. Based on a landlord I once had.

I See You! x2

A sneek peek of a couple o' new monsterously ghastly pics I've been making on and off over the last few weeks. Pretty hard to work on when Photoshop won't let you make more than half a dozen actions before crashing each time. When are those new Mac's gonna hit the high street? 'Dear Santa, I have been good all year...tho' I have sworn a lot'. I wanted to get one image done for Hallowe'en - fat chance! Maybe H2013?

Keep smilin'.

Process of Jordan

Jordan

(Acrylic on canvas board)

Am doing a bit of old school painting...yeah, with real paints! - remember those? Two reasons: one; because real paints rock, and two; I'm only just coming out of a serious slump of technical issues with hardware and software. Aaaaaargh!
However, the above process of paintings is not recent, but was completed a while ago for my sister-in-law, as a memento of a departed pet. Painting pet pooches or pussy-cats is always to stray into a dangerous arena. I'm thinking of those kitsch pet portraits you can see propped up in a garage sale which only serves to remind you how a rash idea can turn into an offense against humanity... and somehow one that is more easily made than when painting human portraits or landscapes. I hope I've managed to avoid that crime here, but maybe it can't ever be totally avoided. Perhaps the transgression's already made with the choice of the subject matter, before one's painted the initial stroke...ach, move on!

Scrappin' it - Mean & Fear

Just some scraps for this post, faithful visitor. I'm having computer meltdowns at the moment and new gear is in order. Transitions are always painful and time consuming, so having nothing better to show, I've gone back through the virtual sketchpad and sifted through the many doodles, trials and experiments I'm always scratching away at. Most of them don't see the daylight as they're usually unfinished, lame or dead in the water, etc. But sometimes a judicial crop here and a bit of text there can inject a bit of life. So in the absence of anything more note-worthy here are some perennial fan-art faves from the greatest comic in the universe: Judge Fear and Mean Machine Angel (again).

Autumnal Joe

Time for another Dredd. Another experimental piece - though not immediately obvious - so not imperative to have everything absolutely cock-on, finish-wise. Just running some tests on certain techniques and time needed to execute them; all to see whether the whole process is worthwhile. I love this kind of finish but the process can be a drag. Which is a real pain if you're doing a lot of stuff with it.
 Anyways - when it comes to the uniform, I've always preferred the big flared lid. Don't know where I saw it first but that's how I prefer to draw it...

Tweetin' ma lines...Rusty Cooker style

After holding off for a dang long while I've re-activated my twitter account as I found it was the only way I could communicate with certain people who weren't active elsewhere. So if you're not a regular blog-checker yourself but are just plain silly about twitter and you want to be informed if a new morsel of art has been loosed upon the virtual world then sign up here - you'll now be welcomed with open wings. I hereby promise no meditations on what I've had for breakfast...

Artists & Illustrators: create your profile...

Just a quick heads-up for all you who are looking for further online sites to promote yourselves and your artwork. The online magazine site called 'Artists & Illustrators' is offering free profiles, albeit with the limitation of only three pieces of work and no opportunity to sell originals. You can improve your lot with them by paying a smallish sum where you can have unlimited uploads, sell your originals and write your own blog, all for the sum of £2.49 per month or £24.99 per annum. To find out more, click this link which'll take you to the relevant page. Your first thought is probably 'why pay for a premium profile  when I can get those services for free elsewhere?' and it's a fair question. A&I obviously feel they have a greater reach than your average free site so I can only suggest creating a free, limited profile with them to start with and then try the paid version for a few months for the purposes of selling your originals. If after that it doesn't pay then quit it. See ya there and good luck!

Ya Missed The Hutch!

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Charles Bronson

Here's a sketch of Chuck I drew a few weeks ago now, with the intention of colouring it up at some point. Ha! I'm full of good intentions...

Haruman: Tank commander

Makin' tracks...more digital sketchpad silliness

Torquay Landscape I

 

I visit family down south west in Torquay throughout the year and usually take a camera if I wander the country lanes that divide up the countryside. Always end up snapping rusting railings, delapidated outhouses and collapsing barns along with various farming implements seemingly abandoned and in various states of decay. The above image was drawn from a photo taken in a semi-failed road close to my parent's house which seemed to be populated with all the above examples.

South facing...naturally aerated...

Really should put down Call of Duty and go sort out those soffits...

SBP & Ps with Pc

From the virtual Sketchpad...

Cutting loose and having fun after a day of questionable output...

Ger-night!

Tomorrow's another day, etc.

Buscemi-Pelé-Smalls Mash-up!

Another little experiment working with multiple images for the purpose of more advanced and involved compositions. I liked how the colours worked so I decided to upload it...

Pelè

The great Pelè!

Günther Takes The High Mountain Pass...

Günther's taking the high mountain pass to visit his girlfriend Heidi in the next valley over. Today, as always, he'll be late, due to him stopping to appreciate the fairy lights, a phenomenon of high altitude and bad grog.

A totally organic experiment hence there being no sense to this whatsoever other than the mangled narrative I've suggested above. If he's got ginger hair, how come he's got a 5 o'clock shadow? Oh well...

Pete

Peter Cook

The great comic actor, writer and comedian in digital pencil.

Discovered this in the vaults, about 9/10ths done - so I dusted it down, tarted it up and shoved it out the front door.

We Love Skullzzzzzzz!

Skulls are always great fun to draw/paint/spray/doodle. I never tire of finding different ways of drawing a skull with a pair of crossed bones...not since that first school exercise book, all them years ago...

Waiting for...what?

What are you waiting for?

Sergio Toppi - remembered

A quickish sketch of the great Italian artist and comic illustrator who died yesterday, and is surely deserving of a more involved study at some point. That's three legends gone this year - very sad. I haven't discovered one definitive web site dedicated to him but if you want to see this master's work (and you really do want to see his work) then your best move would be to image search his name on google - do it now!

Angry Avian

I'm experimenting here. Used Sketchbook Pro, or rather a free trial package, to do all the rough sketching as well as the inking. It's really proving to be a more powerful tool for drawing than Photoshop...well, more powerful than the CS2 version that I'm still using. Maybe the latest version of Creative Suite has addressed this. The inked stage was still taken into Photoshop for all the colour work as it's still got all the advantages in that department. Do any of you guys use Creative Suite 6? Have they improved the settings for intuitive sketching, drawing and inking or does Sketchbook Pro still hold the high ground?

Judge Death sez "Fools!"

Photoshop +PC

More fan art: this time Judge Death, one of Dredd's apocalyptic antagonists. Good fun to do, this.

Anthony Burgess

in Photoshop on PC

Changed the brush settings and went for a more dip pen approach with this one. Why? Anthony Burgess had a wild head. 

Pussy Dredd

"There's a riot goin' on..."

Dr. Tennant

David Tennant

Drawn in Photoshop

Po'verine

What do you get if you cross a flexible panda with a mutant? Answer: Po'verine, of course. Just my little cross-character pollination silliness. I was surprised how much I liked Kung Fu Panda. Great set designs, environments and animation - very inspiring.

...and not leaving it there, I had to go and and make a little logo for him.

Bowie!

The thin white duke in full ghoulish glory. Shame he went and got his teeth fixed. He'll keep getting drawn by me, I'm sure, as I've never quite nailed him as I'd like...

Old-Style Future Frontiersmen

Some crazy coots I drew a couple of months back as a bit of a fun exercise. Var-mint!

Miles of Jazz...

Due to other important non-art based distractions, it's been a long time since any posts. While I get round to finding time to remedy this, you may want to read a little online interview I had with Jeffrey Hyatt who writes and curates a Blog/site dedicated to Miles Davis. As well as Jeff's knowledgeable and comprehensive input, his site is a great resource for interviews with writers, musicians, artists and others, all linked to Miles Davis in some way. So if you're interested in Miles, Jazz or just want to find out a little about the caricature of Miles Davis I recently drew then take a look here. Some answers I've given before elsewhere on the web but I'm hoping it still makes for a good read...

Howard Stern

Shock Jock Howard.

David Lynch

I've sketched the great film maker and painter a few times but I'm gonna try to make time at some point to create a great full-colour, full weird-out portrait - as befitting his unique work. His hair deserves a separate painting all for itself...

Miles Davis

Sketched in Photoshop with Cintiq...

Wild Thing

 Maurice Sendak

Creator of 'Where The Wild Things Are' and another exiting artist...

MCA

What's all this? Another of the great and the good has passed the mic for the last time. Sad to hear of Adam Yauch's premature departure. Painted the above to the soundtrack of Paul's Boutique, which along with Check Your Head are my fav' Beastie albums. Funky farewell, MCA...

Levon Helm

Twanged on 6music this evening to hear the great live version of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' by The Band - not just a great version of this particlular song but a great live performance and recording of any song. On finishing, Gideon Coe remarked that it had been played as part of a tribute to The Band's singing drummer who'd died after a long battle with cancer, which I was unaware of. I'm a late convert to The Band and am still catching up, but this quick post is for Mr Helm. If you're interested in watching Levon & The Band performing the song live then click here (link good at time of post).

Coloured Judgement

Always worth doing the time painting Dredd...

old blog header 2009

Back in the day when I started up this blog, the above image was my header. Doesn't do justice to the baby blues that the owner normally peered through, but they're still the coolest...Original image - acrylic paint on canvas board

Colour me Dredd

Just a wee sketch of my favourite fascist law man.

Double Balotelli

Bobby Womack cracks up

Here's a quick-ish colour sketch of Bobby Womack to help keep this blog alive. No particular reason other than I liked the reference image.