Arkship Prophecy revealed!
- At December 04, 2018
- By Niel
- In Artwork, Writing
0
The Arkship Saga continues with book five, Arkship Prophecy, which is now available to pre-order! Members of the Arkship Saga Facebook page have already seen the cover, but if you’re not a member then you can see it for yourself now! Just click this link!
What’s it all about? Well….
As the Church of the Infinite forces its doctrine on the survivors of humanity, the battle-weary Prince Halstead finds himself torn between his desire for peace and the growing tide of resistance, led by his estranged wife Bara. As the survival of humanity hangs in the balance, Halstead must finally decide what the Infinite Gods want him to do, a decision that could change the balance of power across the Cluster forever.
Meanwhile, the followers of the prophet Gofal, in hiding from the brutal forces of the Church’s Inquisitors, work towards a better future, one that may demand the ultimate sacrifice of their outlawed cult.
Past and future collide in this fifth volume of the explosive Arkship Saga. If you liked Battlestar Galactica, Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series or The Expanse then this might be the series for you!
Creating a book cover
- At October 16, 2018
- By Niel
- In Advice, Artwork
0
Want to see how I went about creating the cover for Tobin Artichoke and the Queen of Heaven? Take a look at this short video on YouTube for in insight into the process.
And if you want to read the book you can find it here!
Steve Dillon: RIP
I was shocked to read of the death of comic artist Steve Dillon at the end of last month.
I’ve loved his artwork since I bought the very first issue of Warrior back in early 1982. This comic (and Steve’s contribution to it) was a massive influence on me. I was just eleven when that first issue appeared without fanfare at my local newsagents. I didn’t know anything about it but Steve’s cover drew me in and, once I’d thumbed through the pages, I had to buy it. Fifty pence was half my pocket money but it was well worth it.
I didn’t know it then but Warrior contained a wealth of British talent who would go on to redefine the comic-book landscape over the coming decades: Alan Moore, Gary Leech, Alan Davis, David Lloyd, John Bolton, Steve Moore, Paul Neary, Steve Parkhouse, Grant Morrison, Jim Baikie, Brain Bolland and, of course, Steve Dillon. I still have the full run of Warrior comics. They’re battered, well worn, yellowed with age, but still full of originality, oozing the punk energy of young creative minds testing their abilities.
Steve drew Laser Eraser and Pressbutton, tucked away at the end of the comic. His clean realistic style appealed immediately and I studied his artwork for hours. There’s a natural storytelling style on display even in this early work, an understanding of timing and animation that gives his work a cinematic quality.
He made futuristic environments and vehicles look real, giving them a grubby detail that suggested age and decay.
He was the perfect artist for strips like Judge Dredd, drawing some of the most popular and enduring stories.
Steve went on to co-create the comic anthology Deadline, a natural successor to Warrior, before working for the large american publishers. He’s probably best remembered for Preacher but for me Steve will always be the artist who captured my eleven-year-old imagination and took me on an adventure to dozens of different worlds.
Draft 3 completed
- At April 05, 2016
- By Niel
- In Artwork, Writing
0
Very happy to have completed the third draft of Project Artichoke. Diane read the second draft and gave me her thoughts on that, which helped inform the revisions in the new draft. Having left it alone for about a month I came back to it with fresh eyes, which is always useful. I’ve been using the time in between drafts to work up some illustrations – I’m hoping that a publisher will want me to do this for the entire book, but we’ll have to wait and see. You can see some of my work-in-progress pictures on my Instagram account. The third draft and the illustration samples went off to my agent last night, so all I can do now is sit and wait for feedback. Publishing is all about the waiting.
Sketchbook stuff
- At December 18, 2014
- By Niel
- In Artwork
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Here’s a dump of some recent sketches in my notebook. I really must draw more often!
Ice Warriors production sketches
- At September 11, 2013
- By Niel
- In Animation, Artwork
0
If you’re a Doctor Who fan you might have heard me shouting about the release of The Ice Warriors on DVD recently. Like many early Who stories some of the episodes are missing from the BBC’s archive. The Ice Warriors, first broadcast in 1967 is a six part story with episodes 2 and 3 lost to the ether. So in order to complete the story for release on DVD BBC Worldwide commissioned the production of animated versions of the missing episodes. Along with documentary maker Chris Chapman I produced the animated episodes. Director Chris Chatterton led the character design effort but this was something I was also involved with in the early stages. The hardest part was agreeing on a look for the Doctor, and our work went through many iterations. Here are a few of my sketches from that early period in production.
Most of these are face studies using photo reference. We were trying to capture the essence of Patrick Troughton’s performance in a stylised form – not easy! Chris took these drawings and combined them with his own studies to create the final artwork used in the animation.
I also did some turn-around artwork for the Ice Warrior, Varga. This is an early rough.
Finally here’s my artwork for Victoria. By this stage Chris had set the tone for the designs so my work on Victoria is a more finished, following in the the set style. Each piece of character art has to be broken up into various components in order to be used for animation. This means that the foot, calf, knee and thigh all become separate pieces of artwork, one overlaid on top of the next, so I couldn’t resist adding in a bit of extra hidden detail onto Victoria’s foot.
The Ice Warriors is out now! Here’s a clip from the animation:
Alien comic images
- At June 19, 2012
- By Niel
- In Artwork, Blog
2
The excitement (and disappointment) around the release of Prometheus reminded me of some old artwork I made many years ago for an Aliens fanzine called Dropship. I did a couple of covers and some interior art, all black and white pen and ink drawings.
It terrifies me to realise I did these almost 20 years ago!
This first one was a cover image, and I remember enjoying doing it at the time. I always tried hard to make the black areas work, to give some shape and form to the characters. It was only weeks later that I realised I’d missed off the tail! How did that happen?
I tried to correct that on this second image, but still missed off the alien’s horns/spikes that run up its back. I was still learning about the alien’s anatomy and, in my defense, reference was pretty thin on the ground. I was trying to suggest an intelligence by putting the marine’s pulse rifle in the alien’s hand. The pose is quite balletic for an alien, but I enjoyed it, and this is porbably my favourite of these three. I don’t think I had the patience for the stipple effect in the background.
This third one is my least favorite, but at least its got all the right bits on – tail, horns etc. Its the pose that bothers me, its just not sinister or dynamic enough. We can’t tell if the alien is going to rip our throat out of sing to us. But I had fun doing those light shafts in the background, so it wasn’t all for nothing.
At the time I harboured ambitions to be a comic artist, but got sidetracked into animation instead. I’d still love to do some comic work one day, but the craft has advanced so much in the last two decades that I’d have a lot of catching up to do. I still prefer black & white art over coloured stuff though. I was brought up on black & white comics and I think its much easier to appreciate the artists work that way. Maybe one day I’ll get out the pen, inks and brushes again. Maybe.
Life on the Farm
- At November 12, 2011
- By Niel
- In Animation, Artwork
0
A long time ago I created a comic strip with Gordon Fraser about talking animals and the Farm that time forgot.
Gordon and I had met at school and soon became firm friends. During College we went everywhere together and when the real world beckoned we stepped into it together. We both harboured dreams of a life as comic artists and we collaborated on several projects. The one that has endured over the intervening years is a comic strip, originally called The Funny Farm, now known as Farmageddon.
Farmageddon ran for two years in our home town newspaper, appearing six times a week. When a new Editor came on board and didn’t find the strip to his taste Farmageddon came to an abrupt end. But, over the years, we’ve never been able to completely stay away from the old Farm. I’ve dabbled in animated versions of the characters and now the original strips are getting a regular dusting down and a digital reprint courtesy of the Birmingham Mail’s website.
Read More»A stab at Ricky
- At July 09, 2011
- By Niel
- In Artwork
0
Something else from the sketchbook – my attempt at Ricky Gervais, drawn last September while watching him being interviewed.