Hi-Ex! 2010: The Aftermath

Well, it's been a while so I thought I'd belatedly post up my experiences at the recent Hi-Ex Comic convention in Inverness.

(Above)
Outside Eden Court, the 501st Garrison check for droids.
(Pic courtesy Joe Gordons' Flickr)

First up, I want to say a big thankyou to Rich and Vicky and all the organisers who made the event so much fun.

After a solid two day drive, stopping off at Stirling at a fantastic B&B, we made it to our holiday cottage 20 miles outside of Inverness - literally in the middle of nowhere, fantastic. Just like the But an' Ben in The Broons.

The opening Saturday of the event was slightly nervewracking, sitting at the artists table alongside the likes of Colin McNeil, Charlie Adlard and Simon Fraser.

Initially I thought people would be looking at me as if to say "Just who do you think you are, sitting next to professional comic artists?", after a while (and making sure my portfolio was open and prominent) I realised I am a professional comic artist and people were interested in chatting and getting sketches done.

Phew, panic over.

(Above)
The artists table: GaryErskine, Simon Fraser,
Alex Moore, Carlie Adlard Colin McNeil and little old me.
(Pic courtesy Joe Gordons' Flickr)

(Above)
Artists hard at work sketching for charity,
whilst I stand up and look like I'm about to pick a fight.
I was in fact having a nice chat about the nature of freelancing.
(Pic courtesy of the Hi-Ex Gallery)

I spent the next two days sketching constantly, with all the proceeds going to the chosen charity, Children 1st. I believe the total raised so far is in the region of £2000 - so well done all.

What was particularly nice and a definite strength of the show was the broad remit it had, it covered comics, gaming and childrens books - and the crowd reflected that. I drew plenty of pictures for some lovely wee boys and girls, one cheeky chappy didn't have any pennies left for a picture of Darth Vader I did for him on the Saturday only to return, briefly, on the Sunday and thrust a shiny 10p in my hand. Gawd bless ye, ye wee scamp.

(Above)
The Games room, friendly people getting everybody involved in the hobby.
Run by the great chaps at Kingdom of Adventure.
(Pic courtesy of the Hi-Ex Gallery)

There were other moments that I'll merely list otherwise this'll turn into a mega-post that nobody will read:

• Going out for the all-you-can-eat buffet was an eye-opener and certainly not recommended if you haven't eaten much during the day.

• Chatting to Cam Kennedy was real fun, he was a real seasoned pro with a cheeky glint in his eye.

• Talking to Colin McNeil about his influence on my Black Library work was great, hope I didn't bore him too much with talk about rim lights.

• Discussing with Al Ewing about the direction of some exciting 'self-published' future projects.

• The chaps who noticed I was there on the Saturday and brought their entire Horus Heresy collections to get signed on the Sunday, cool.

And generally, meeting other artists, writers and publishers was fantastic experience and I'm sure I'll see them again at the many other Con's this coming year.

(Above)
2000AD creators and fans - great people all of them.
I am there, at the back, in the shadows -
look carefully, you'll see me.
(Pic courtesy of the Hi-Ex Gallery)

Right. After that, my family and I spent a lovely few days exploring Loch Ness (sadly, no monster) and surrounding area, only to get snowed in for a few days whilst the Highlands experienced freak blizzards. Mind you, I got to make a great big snowman with my kids. Ace.

(Above)
Beautiful Loch Ness on the drive from Inverness to the cottage.

(Above)
Blizzards, snow, grey clouds. The roads were shut.
It was very much like the Shining.
"All work and no play..."

On the journey home we spent a whopping 15 hour drive back home, stopping off at the Deep Sea World to break the journey up.

All in all, we had a fantastic time - best of luck with future events!

So, in future news, Wales Comic Con, Bristol Comic Con, Workshops, more book covers, a 3D World article and even more comic covers.

Stay tuned.

Strip: 2000AD Prog 1678

Ta-daaa! My first interior strip for the Galaxies Greatest Comic, "Chrono Cabbie" with script by Alec Worley, painted art by me and lettering by Annie Parkhouse.


If you want to know just what the hell is going on, get yourself down to your local newsagent/ comic store and buy yourself a copy today!

It seems to have gotten a positive response from people, so I'm a very happy man.

Dream... come... true...!

Hi-Ex! 2010

I'm looking forward to heading up to Inverness this weekend as a guest at Hi-Ex, the Highlands International Comics Expo. Me and loads more artists and writers shall be there, some of whom I'm very excited to meet; I'll have my autograph book at the ready. Whilst there, I'll be sketching to order - with any proceeds going to the Children 1st charity.


New issues of Dogbreath #22 will be on sale and I'll be venturing into the Games Room to see how the RPG and wargame sessions go. Also, I'll be selling (and signing) prints of some of my covers, so feel free to come along and say hello - it'll be good fun.

See you there.

Workshop Sessions: Huntingdon

Hello All,

Last Thursday I spent a fantastic day of workshops at Huntingdon Regional College, at the behest of Andrew - whom I met at this years 'Black Library Live!'

(Above)
Huntingdon Regional College.

I knew the day was going to be special when I arrived and found I had a special V.I.P parking space. Oh yes, I said V... I... P...! Check it out:

(Above)
Yo, for real - check out the VIP.

The whole day was very well attended, with the morning sessions talking about approaches to and problem solving within concept art.

(Above)

Great turnout - everybody was keen and enthusiastic.

(Above)

The importance of silhouettes.
As taught by 'The Skilful Huntsman'

Then it was over to the students to practice what I had preached. They all did a great job - taking on board the basic ideas and having fun making stuff up. Well done all.

(Above)

Busy at work.
Silhouettes based on 'Old Ironsides' -
the nickname of Oliver Cromwell, from Huntingdon.

After a lovely lunch, we spent the afternoon talking about 3D, modelling and rendering. I used some of my early Black Library projects as examples and explained to the students basic core concepts such as subdivision modelling, 3 point lighting and the importance of clean topology in their models.

(Above)
One of my early 'Horus Rising' models.
Talking about subdivision smoothing and lighting rigs.

Then, as a last bit of fun, I took requests from the crowd to draw on their whiteboard. After each sketch I got a round of applause. Yeah, that's right, APPLAUSE!

It was quite humbling to get that kind of response to my doodles, the only other time I've seen that happen was when I went to see the late, and most definitely great, Tony Hart at my school in High Wycombe. I figure I'm in good company.

(Above)
Tyranids, Predators, Cloud Strike and a Space Marine (in helmet)
Now, where's my round of applause?

Although if anyone is really deserving of applause it's the students who were keen, attentive, polite and hard working. They made the whole day worthwhile. I wish you all the best.

A big thanks to Andrew-Fovargue for the photos and for organising the day.

Next up: To the north of Scotland - HiEx in Inverness...!

Recap: Signing, London GW

Hello, it's been a while since a solid beefy post, mainly due to deadlines/ illness/ family commitments/ more deadlines.

So let us take this opportunity to talk about the signing Mr. Graham McNeil and I had a few weeks ago at the Games Workshop store in the Plaza, Oxford Street, London.

Graham has already posted his write up here, so I won't go into too great a detail again, in case our stories don't corroborate.

I travelled down on the Friday, and visited all the comic shops I could find - and found a truly wondrous cavern of artists materials, Cornelissen & Son - where I could have easily spent a small fortune. We had a meal at Monkeynuts in Crouch End, where I had the best steak and pepper sauce. Good times.

Google maps on my iPhone made simple tourist-style wandering a truly revolutionary experience. London seemed a far more fun place to explore with the power of the internet and GPS in my pocket.

(Above)
Abracadabra! International Magic Shop on Clerkenwell Road.

I also took the opportunity to visit the International Magic Shop to say hello and stock up on more Bicycle cards. They were extremely welcoming and offered us a cup of tea and a chat. I shall be visiting again, methinks.

(Above)
Chatting to Dan Havardi about composition or colour palettes or something.

I arrived on time, having successfully negotiated the London Underground with help from my sister and a shiny new Oyster card (thanks, sis!). The whole session went extremely well, Mark, the store manager commented that it was the busiest signing he'd ever seen. Graham and I were signing and sketching for a solid 2-3 hours, if I remember correctly, and only when the queue petered out did we get a chance to have a quick chat.

(Above)
nabbed from Graham's excellent blog

The wonderful staff kept us well fed and watered, even some of the good people in the queue brought us doughnuts - that is above and beyond the call, good work all! Mark and the staff gave Graham a parting gift of a fantastic Magnus the Red conversion and I received a diorama of Leman Russ and his wolves. Cool.

(Above)
Awesome conversion - very flattering as well. Good work chaps!

After that, Graham dashed off to sign some books at Forbidden Planet and my sister and I went to El Camino in Soho for a big bowl of Nacho's. Had a quick mooch about some more shops and then back on the train filled with drunk football fans - finally getting home to my beautiful wife and children. Life is sweet, as they say.

(Above)

A plate of Nacho's - my benchmarking system for any establishment.
El Camino's were amazing.

Thanks to all that made it such a memorable day, thanks for the doughnuts and thanks for the compliments.

See you all soon.

A Thousand Sons: New York Times bestseller

Double WOW! - fantastic work Graham, Black Library and little old me, we've made it onto the New York Times bestselling novel lists:

(Above)
There, highlighted, look... it's us!
22) A THOUSAND SONS, by Graham McNeill (Games Workshop)

I'm aware freelancing can sometimes about peaks and troughs of success, so I'm currently savouring this monumental peak in my career by having... tonsillitis *cough*

Still, I have to say how proud and honoured I am to be associated with such an incredibly successful, talented and decent bunch of people as those who consistently put out such entertaining and high selling books. Not only to those who make the books, but also those millions - yes, that's right, I said MILLIONS, who have bought and read the series - without you good people supporting us and enjoying the books, we wouldn't be here.

Bah, this is beginning to sound like an Oscar™ acceptance speech.

Anyway, here's to much, much more.

Excelsior!

Cover: 2000AD Prog 1673

It's been a long while since any real posts (deadlines and all), so here we go with another 2000AD cover for the Galaxies Greatest Comic.

My initial idea was for a "90's rave version of Dredd in a Denim advert" - but with more mutants:



Add to that a dash of Brendan McCarthy 90's colour palette, a hairy chest and a good dose of digital painting and voilà, the finished product:


Apologies to Jon Haward and Chris Blythe, as the reference I had for the piece was the B&W line art - so I went ahead and gave her blue hair because it contrasted well against the pink. It was only when I recieved my contributors copy did I notice that she had green hair - I think no-one seems to have noticed!

It seems to be a cover that has split the online fans, which I'm quite pleased about, it's better to have an opinion than not.

With that in mind, here are some of my favourite comments regarding the cover from the 2000AD messageboards, copied and pasted ad verbatim:

W.R. Logan - "Cover: Would go in to my worst cover ever catagory."

DanDontDare - "That cover could have been so much better - the actual artwork is fantastic, but I loathe that pink background Ugh! "

Jamescor - "All the purples on the cover remind me of McCarthy for some reason."

Mikey - "Cover I like this; initially I thought I'd eaten a funny mushroom, but on reflection it's eyecatching and different with being greatly executed."

Tim Tailz - "Havent got round to reading it yet but the cover is superb."

Good work all, thanks for caring enough to post - that's why I love 2000AD fans (myself included!)