TIME TEAM Unearthed 1

A series of behind the scenes looks at the making of a TIME TEAM illustration. I'll be sharing roughs , sketches and final pencils in this exclusive look and the fun I had drawing this feature.I hope you enjoy!

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Above is the pencil drawing for THE KEYS OF MARINUS that was sent to the editor for approval. This was faxed over with notes written on the margin ( as can be seen).









Above are the layouts and final pencil drawing for THE WAR GAMES. Both roughs were pretty similar as I'd settled on the basic design. The final pencil drawing pending approval had a large forground Roman figure inserted to give the image depth.









I pretty much nailed the design I wanted here first go. It was a simple exercise of lightboxing through and fleshing out the image.

Groovy Age of the Mummy !

for Curt...

Tackling Torchwood

Last year I did plenty of work for Torchwood Magazine. I got the opportunity to work on both strips and fiction art. My first job of 2010 was three illustrations for a story - attached is my favourite piece from the job ( issue out now). After doing a quick pencil sketch - some pictures were shot on my new digital camera of me hefting a spade. I used this to give some reality to the piece. It's easy for an artist to get swept so far away in their own world they can forget reality. Getting something as simple as a spade right can anchor a drawing for an audience.

I've also included my very first character sketches for the magazine . They were much more stylised interpretations ( which I liked) but it was felt a slightly more realistic approach was wanted. Still that's the point of sketching. As Degas said - draw something 100 times if you have to -but get it right.

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INVASION SNAP!

Edit: Thanks to GK for scan of original art he owns.











I don't have the pencils on hand for this as it was done some years back. I've drawn the Time Team feature for Dr Who Magazine for something like 7 years! This is a favourite because it's from Pat Troughton's THE INVASION. A cyberman goes bonkers and runs off down the sewers! - Zoe ( in fab fluffy boa) and her groovy 60's photographer friend take a snap!

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Trial of a Time Team

Unusually I chose to present this rough in colour ( usually I stick to b/w wash). The three protagonists seemed fairly well balanced and I was given the go ahead.


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Some artists choose to blow up their roughs and then trace through the design using a lightbox. I've tried this myself - my only bugbear is that it can stifle a drawing before it's properly born. I usually draw by eye from my rough ( sometimes I use a simple grid) - but mostly I like to see where the drawing will go. As long as my basic idea stays intact - I'm happy.





Finally the piece is finished and emailed off for approval. In this case Sith's expression needed work ( he's the ugly green creature). I worked directly in photoshop to do this fix - not particularly difficult. Sometimes stuff like this is picked up at pencil stage , sometimes later. Factor in my *creative* inking and not every job swims through smoothly.

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REIVES

Terry Sharp is taking shape. I'm selfishly keeping the art under wraps ( even my co-creator is in the dark) - as soon as I'm happy with the new way I'm working is going - I'll post some snippets. All I can say is it's a joy to be back delineating Terry's adventures.

In other news I'm dallying with REIVES - a hunter of witchhunters...

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