Torchwood Mind's Eye step by step

This illustration was a double page spread ( covers two pages). Firstly I set up the correct size template in Manga Studio with central page divide. I wanted the old Victorian school building to feature strongly with Ianto looking back pensively whilst Jack watches in the SUV. Two figures and an interesting building are more than enough for an illustration. I pencilled up the drawing in blue pencil in MS and after editorial comment *lifted* the SUV higher and made it more prominent.

Next on a new layer  I inked the drawing using the pen and marker tools in Manga Studio. I made particular use of the horizontal and vertical ruler tools on the building. The tree was inked on a seperate layer and then the rain added on a new layer using the rain filter. I then customised the computer rain to my liking - deleting lines and adding new ones . There are no perspective lines in this illustration so it must be viewed as four seperate planes - SUV  forground , Ianto mid ground , Building in background with horizon line of rooftops

Finally the file is exported into Photoshop for colouring. With such a relatively detailed drawing I kept the colour scheme simple.

Three  artworks for seperate stories by Torchwood mag readers. Went in heavy with the brush pen and mortared the cracks with colour!

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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Torchwood Dog Fight!

Where does time fly to? Seems like only yesterday I was posting here but the clock says different. I'm in the latest issue of Titan's Torchwood mag - it was great to be asked to draw this episode called Broken - written by Gary Russell!

The flash from the past is from a MEGAZINE fiction called DOG FIGHT - it's in the style I worked up for Terry Sharp - though stylistically I'm wading through new/old waters at present drawing a black and white strip to be coloured by somebody else. It's a secret and it's huge fun...

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