The Dance

The Doctor Dances illustration seemed a straightforward idea. Captain Jack riding the bomb with Rose and the Doctor holding the Empty Child in the forground . What could be simpler? I liked the idea of Rose's Union Jack T shirt being prominent and went for an ambitious low angle shot you see in the first pencil. Editorial came back to me with changes. Jack needed lifting higher so as not to look like he was tiny on top of Rose's nose and Rose's face needed work . I duly reduced Jack and tidied up Rose. Editorial still weren't happy and I knew it was time to reassess the art. Instead of tweaking her face I needed to do something radical I learned from an illustrator called Tom Stimpson.

Tom ran an illustration agency and one week he was on vacation. A piece of his art came back needing corrections. A hand opening a blind didn't look right. It fell to me to tackle it. I basically fudged what he'd done and the client still didn't like it still. So when Tom got back , he took it away and completely redrew a new hand from a different angle and pasted it on. Experience had taught him sometimes you just need a new approach to fix something. Too many artists try to save their precious drawings rather than jettison when appropriate. It's made my life easier knowing this.

So I redrew Rose from a new angle and quickly too! Editorial was very happy and I progessed to inks and colour without a hitch. When I saw it printed I realised it had been cropped at the bottom and my favourite bit of drawing - the kids' shoe was gone. All part of the dance I guess...

I wouldn't drink that ...

Here's my very first professional comics page , written by John Freeman , it's page one from Karyn : Skinner which ran in the Megazine. I remember working on this after I came home from my day job ( as an artists rep) . I think I got 3 pages into the script before I downed tools and went into Fleetway to show the editor the pages I was that nervous. Luckily he loved them and this style has been the backbone of my career...