Sneaky preview

Bugbear Shaman

We're in that last phase of preparing Oubliette Issue 8, and the team is bleary eyed and emotional.  I keep smacking Pete on the back of his head shouting "Man up, soldier!  Only a few more pages to go!"

Actually, nothing of the sort happens.  The last part of Oubliette is rather lonely.  No more gags, no more flinging around anarchic ideas, just heads down, shoulder to the wheel and any other cliche for hard graft that comes to mind.  Our proof reader extra-ordinaire has been infected with primary school coldy germs(care of his beloved granddaughter), but continues to make his eyes bleed, magnificently combing the pages for hideousness whilst honking loudly into a large hankie.

Goblin Quest

Yesterday,  I finished the last ever episode of Goblin Quest.  I can't say I'm sorry.  It's probably some of the most detailed cartooning work I've done, and no doubt I'll look back on it and make some fatuous comments of how "I did that", but right now, I'm just glad it's over.

I love this mag, but the last part of it is like the end of a marathon.  Except, that wall doesn't just appear, it continues to fall on me repeatedly, battering my enthusiasm.

Alright, enough whinging Marg.  Time to man up, soldier!  Only a few more pages to go! 

Somebody, please smack the back of my head.  Ouch.  Thanks Pete.

The Wraith

One of the things I hoped to be able to do by having my iPad, was draw for the Monster Book in the evenings(my big computer is at work). I'm continuing to practise in Sketchbook Pro, and here are my latest offerings.

We might use the close-up wraith illustration in the Monster Book and the full length wraith will take its place as a contender for the next Oubliette Compilation (Issues 5-8).

I realise I seem a little undead-centric, but this might be a result of watching The Walking Dead, which continues to be one of my favourite leisure-time programmes.

Undead on the iPad

Marg got her new iPad earlier today. Having not owned an earlier model iPad, the whole family have spent most of the afternoon trying to get a go on it. Once she had a proper chance to try it out as a drawing tool, she mangaed to produce this charming portrait of a generic undead type fellow in just under half an hour - not bad for a first try.

She's using a drawing app called Sketch Book Pro and a Wacom Bamboo Stylus.

G'Ettin there, my son!

Pencillings for the cover of Oubliette 8 are now finished. Pete's gone for the Ettin .

When I do the covers for Oubliette, I constrain my drawing with one question: How will it look as a thumbnail when it comes to sale?

About twenty years ago, I used to cartoon for a multi-cultural magazine called Dost (means friend in Hindi). One of things that they liked about my cartoons was that they could blow them up or shrink them down, and they wouldn't lose detail. I honestly don't know how that works, it's one of the weirdo features of my style.

Anyway, it may be of interest to note that the figures on the covers have deliberate geometric symmetry, for example, Issues no5 and no2 are based on a cross shape, Issues no7 and no3 are based on right-angled triangles. These shapes appear to translate well when shrunk down in size.

Right, enough bumf. Back to work. Mouse Watch time. Ye olde D&D-ers may particularly enjoy what I have planned...

Oubliette Issue 6 - Inspiration

In preparation for one of the Sithakk pictures, in which a Sylvmorten warrior has been poisoned and is beset by tremors, itching, bleeding and fits, I looked up various images to assist with my art conception.

The disturbing artwork depicting inmates of various asylums by 18th century artists gave me all the visual stimulus I needed. It's possible I didn't go far enough, but sometimes, less is more, more or less.

Oubli-art for Issue 6

(Previewed here The Skeleton Lord from Monster Club and a single frame from Mouse Watch both to be found in Oubliette Issue 6-out soon).

Infected with plague, and bellowing "unclean" periodically, I've had my head down getting the art together for our next issue.

With each magazine, I have attempted something a little different. I've mucked around with greyscale, attempted a higher degree of realism, experimented with block colouring, looked at all your blogs and the sorts of pictures you admire and attempted to incorporate elements of modelling and shading as used by the artists show-cased.

My style has been to reel off whatever is my head without too much forethought. Images appear suddenly and very vividly, and I get them on to paper as quickly as I can, and clean them up in photoshop. This sort of technique, produces pictures with immediacy and drive, but they don't necessarily tickle the connoisseur palette. But does a magazine require masterpieces on every page (my head is shouting, "Yes Marg-sort yourself out"). I recall a critic talking about Orson Welles in a stage production of Moby Dick saying for the first ten minutes he was the most magnificent thing he'd ever seen in terms of voice and presence, but after that, even that magnificence managed to be come mundane, because it was all the same-there was nothing which surprised, because it was all masterly.

Now such a comment is not meant to inspire people to be mediocre with occasional flashes of brilliance. Laurence Olivier struggled with recreating masterpieces: he exited the stage after an electrifying performance, to be greeted with "You were brilliant!", to which he replied "Yes! But I don't know why!"

These anecdotes and many others chase each other around my head whenever I draw or write, and whilst I'm not into suffering, pain and angst(okay, I occasionally indulge but I do know it's a complete waste of time), I do believe that life can be directed towards a process of continual self-improvement. I'd like to improve my drawing, and whilst I fight the good fight, I can enjoy spectacular failures and be modestly and most Britishly pleased by any accomplishments. If what I do is interesting and varied that's a bonus. Chief in my head is blanket accessibility. I'm into being inclusive-anyone should be able to enjoy this stuff-ah which leads to some of my naughty stuff. Yes, I did draw pole-dancing mice, and implied various unsavory happenings, but when I do things like that, I try and keep it all in the grand tradition of British Panto. Hopefully it's multi-layered enough that it can mean separate things to different ages and levels of experience. Maybe I won't be showing the raven eating the eyeball of the decomposing head on a spike to my five year old, but there's always next year?

The Black Dwarf

Like many other gamers who grew up in the 80's, I have a soft spot for the art of the Monster Manual, and lots of other publications of the same vintage.  However, to really hit my nostalgia buttons, I need to pull out some of the old Asgard Miniatures that, along with my friends, I would buy from the Asgard shop in Nottingham, every month or so. 

Citadel Miniatures were also based in Nottingham, but they were almost regarded as the enemy - such was our devotion to Asgard's precious castings.

My favourite Asgard figures were sculpted by Jes Goodwin and Nick Bibby.  Before Goodwin defected to the enemy, he sculpted a superb range of Dwarves.

Pictured here is The Black Dwarf (photo borrowed from the net), which I asked Marg to look at for inspiration for the cover of the next issue.  I'm so chuffed with the outcome, I wanted to show it off straight away. 


Here's the sketch, and the almost finished, photoshopped image.  I think someone's made him angry.