Skinnyelbows on Game Art at Confetti Nottingham

Hi All,

I'll be doing a quick lecture about Game Art in all its forms at Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies in Nottingham tomorrow at 4pm (that's Thursday, November 10th from 4pm, fact fans!)

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The Confetti Cafe.

I look forward to meeting new faces, inspiring them and hopefully shedding some light on the realities of working in game development...

I'll see thee then, then!

Skinnyelbows: Now on T-shirts, Hoodies and Stickers...!

Hello All!

Feel free to pop on over to my REDBUBBLE page to see some of my original designs that you can get on Men and Womens size t-shirts, hoodies and also in sticker form. Here's a sample of the first wave:

Hope you like. We shall see if I sell any, it's a nice way to get some extra use out of my doodles.

I'll be adding more and more as I make them, so be sure to check back from time to time...!

Cover 2000AD Prog 1757

Here's my cover to this weeks 2000AD Prog 1757, "Flight of Angels!":

 

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2000AD Prog 1757

"Flight of Angels!"

As always it kicks off with a brief from Tharg, who wanted Angel Zero on her glider, zooming at the reader -  guns blazing. BLAM!

I knew John Burns was drawing the strip, so I started to think about the strips he did for Look-In but, as I didn't merely want to imitate Johns superlative style (one of the finest comic draughtsman right now) - I wanted to be sympathetic to the artwork and story - that led me to Arnaldo Putzu, cover artist for Look-in magazine.

Me and my sister used to get Look-in when we were children and, while I never knew his name at the time, I LOVED his covers.

 

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Arnaldo Putzu at his best...

Using his bold use of colour as my starting point I ran up two thumbnails based on the brief:

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Two similar but different treatments, 

colour was the driving force on this piece.

Tharg liked the one on the right here, but he made sure I kept her eyes on the reader in the final piece - a small but VERY important point for many covers. 

It's the eyes that can grab the viewer.

Now, the reference shot - here I am rolling about on the floor to get an idea of how you'd hold the guns if you were in that position. I look daft, I know - but you've got to break a few eggs to make an omelette. And I sure look like a stupid egg...

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Posing can be fun, rolling around on 

the wooden floor - just be 

careful of splinters.

From there I hit Photoshop hard and painted up the final piece you see below.

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The full artwork minus cover furniture.

Here's a detail of the piece so you can see it close-up - hopefully the eyes are fixing you with their gaze...

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"Look into my eyes... "

And with that, Tharg was happy, I was happy, so we're all happy! Right?

Another fun cover for the Galaxies Greatest Comic, it really has to be one of the best gigs in the Universe!

2000AD Prog 1757 is in the shops now! - you'd be crazy to miss out ;)

Until next time, my fellow Earthlings!

Reminder: Games Day 2011

Hello All,

Just a quick reminder to say I shall be attending Games Day 2011 with those lovely folk from The Black Library this coming Sunday the 25th September, 2011 at the Birmingham NEC LG Arena!

So, if you have any of you have copies of my Black Library covered books, Horus Heresy books or posters (there may also be numbered and signed limited edition prints available on the day), feel free to bring them along to get signed. I believe I'll also be taking part in a seminar about the Art of Black Library!

Oh, and there'll be a bunch of people who write words as well, so you can talk to them about sentences and paragraphs or something... ;)

There may even have a special sneak preview of upcoming artworks on my iphone for anyone who asks very, very nicely...

Tickets available here: Games Day UK 2011


UPDATE - it looks like all tickets are sold out, see you all there!

First Look: Cover: Aurelian

Hello All,

So, we've had the Pledge, The Turn and now, the Prestige moment...
Those nice folk at Black Library have now revealed my artwork (in their newsletter) for the new Horus Heresy novella by the über-cool Aaron Dembski-Bowden, titled: Aurelian

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Intense!
The result of a lot of
Hans Zimmer soundtracks
and a well outlined brief...

Needless to say the messageboards have been getting a lot of heat, people seem to like it, which is always nice to know.

Either way, I'm proud of it. Aaron has a knack of pushing the boundaries of what to expect in a cover and this one didn't fail to push against that. Check out his 'blog for a far wittier take on the cover art.

Sheesh, that boy's a GREAT writer... Cheers Aaron - you wonderful bundle of talent!

Next up on my drawing board, assassins and aliens...

Music To Paint By...

Hello all,

I just finished a nice big cover for my brothers and battle-sisters at Black Library and, by way of a teaser (kind of), I wanted to share the musical inspiration for the piece (the best bit comes in at 2:50 in):



YEEEAAAHHH!

Without giving too much away, this summed up perfectly the mood I wanted to achieve with the piece.

More often than not, I listen to soundtracks when working, mostly Hans Zimmer. Or have my iPhone on shuffle, so it'll keep me amused when it bounces from Lady Gaga to Dragonforce to Ennio Morricone ;)

So, anyone else use particular pieces of music to get them fired up?

Art Prints at Games Day 2011

Hello All,

A quick note that Black Library will be selling limited edition prints of the 'Path of the Seer' cover at Games Day 2011, alongside Jon Sullivans' awesome 'Battle of the Fang' cover:

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Come buy me at Games Day!

You'll be able to see all the insane* amount of detail that went into the cover in this print, there's even a special tribute to an 80's band in there, if you can find it ;)

See you there...!

* Well, 'insane' may be a bit extreme, but I did dream about swirling lines for nights after...