wobbly lines and blotchy colour

2011-09-08T20:38:00.003+01:00

Just a quick Wordsmith update. I'm doing the pages in batches, and here's one of the painted ones - unlettered as yet.

Wordsmith Issue One

2011-08-25T13:00:00.004+01:00

Wordsmith, Issue One

This is one of the penciled pages from the upcoming Iron Age Productions' mini-series Wordsmith.

Please excuse my rather wobbly pencils - there's a reason I don't post my pencil work very often!

Alan Po discovers speaking his poetry has dark and powerful effects on the world around him. By Santana and Wyke. Coming late fall from Iron Age Productions.
Wordsmith is ©2011 Iron Age Productions. Writer Jon Santana. Artist Jonathan Wyke

Iron Age Productions site http://www.ironagecomics.com/ (under construction)
Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/Iron-Age-Productions/11345501205

MangaStudio Pencils

Wordsmith

2011-08-19T12:24:00.006+01:00

I've recently been contacted by Iron Age Productions to work on a six issue mini-series with them.

Wordsmith, written by Jon Santana, with art by me, is scheduled for late autumn publication, and follows Alan Po, who discovers that speaking his poetry aloud has a dark, powerful and very real effect on the world around him.

I'll be posting bits and pieces here of the development of the art - starting with some of the initial character designs, and going all the way through to the final, if un-lettered, pages.

Iron Age Productions are here on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#!/pages/Iron-Age-Productions/11345501205

Some doodling

2011-06-07T13:24:00.002+01:00

I've recently been playing with some new software, and this is part of that process. I'm enjoying using MangaStudio and my Wacom as a sort of fancy digital sketch book, and these hand studies are part of the learning curve I'm on.

Idiot Wind continues

2011-06-01T10:41:00.002+01:00

Here's the next page of my Idiot Wind. I realise that it makes little sense at the moment; the current absence of text in a non-linear story is, of course, not helping, but I'll be adding the text when I've done a few more pages.

What I'm attempting to do here is to show both a shift in character focus in the story (the shading moves from colouring both where the characters are together, to just on her as she leaves), and a physical and emotional withdrawl as the female lead leaves.

It's been correctly pointed out, by much, much better writers and artists than me, that I'm not quite hitting it correctly yet, so when I go back in for a final pass on these pages, I'll make some changes, and slightly re-do some elements of the page.

New story

2011-05-17T21:30:00.002+01:00

This is really just fiddling about. It's being fit in and around other things and, as usual, I'm hoping rather than expecting to be able to bring it to some sort of conclusion.

At the moment, I'm thinking that the final work won't be much more polished than this, in an attempt to get away from the tightness of my work. I may add a wash to it once the background's working in, but I may also wait until more pages are done so I can see if it's needed.

New software, Booo

2011-03-24T15:17:00.002Z

I hate new software, it never does what I want it to do, and forces me to learn.

I brought a copy of MangaStudio, mostly for it's inking properties, but have started to play with penciling directly in. It's tricky, and certainly it's The Future, but I suspect I'll stick to unsing dead trees for a good while yet.

Steampunk Commission

2011-03-01T12:22:00.002Z

I don't often do commissions - mostly as no bugger is daft enough to want one, but this piece started out as one. I got stiffed on the fee, so it ended up as being just for fun.

More Idiot Wind

2011-02-16T16:00:00.004Z

A couple more pages from Idiot Wind. It's about relationships, sex and mistakes really, and is non-linear, so will make sod-all sense until more pages are up (and the text is dropped in).

Progression

2010-11-16T10:00:00.003Z

It's been a couple of years since I started drawing again with anything approaching seriousness, and I thought I'd re-visit something I'd played with back then to see how I'd progressed. I think the realism went up, if the soul went down.

More Champions Villains

2010-11-07T11:11:00.003Z

These character designs are from Hero Games' Champions Villains Book III.

By this third book I feel I was actually getting the illustrations right. It seems I may take a while but I get there in the end.

These three are 'The Monster', a supernatural movie-monster type. 'Lamplighter', a sinister fella who is supposed to have some resemblence to Patrick Stewart. 'Bulldozer', a vain and somewhat stupid villain, but one I remember from actually playing the game over 20 years ago!

Idiot Wind

2010-10-19T20:37:00.003+01:00

These are just a couple of pages from a self written piece called Idiot Wind.

I haven't included any dialogue here, as the pages were really just a style test.

St John's church

2010-10-14T15:32:00.001+01:00

A drawing done for fun.

Wander across the road. Sketch. Wander back. Drink coffee.

Nice day.

Champions Villains

2010-10-13T13:54:00.004+01:00

These are a few of the character illustrations I've been doing for the three upcoming 'Champions Villains' books. Unusually I got to do the illustrations in colour this time, and thoroughly enjoyed it, even if my colouring isn't exactly comic-book style.

The first of the three books is out now in PDF format before it returns from the printers in old-fashioned paper form, with the other two to follow. Champions Villains Book One is to be found here: https://www.hero games.com/viewItem.htm;jsessionid=aZHb6piUDfmb?itemID=250189

The characters are Archdruid Airetach, Gyre and Tartarus, and of them all I'm most please with Gyre - doing a mirror-finished cloak was tricky.

Just a quick one

2010-09-23T11:09:00.002+01:00

This is just a personal piece really, done for my sister Emma, as she's now Very Old Indeed!

Huginn & Muninn

2010-08-20T14:05:00.002+01:00

The preview of Huginn & Muninn, written by Ian Struckhoff and drawn by me is now almost complete, and will be included in Ian's Black Label Comics' Anthology #1, published in time for this year's New York Comic Con.

Also in the Anthology are works by artists far more talented than me, full details of which can be found here, at BLC's deviantArt page: http://blacklabelcomics.deviantart.com/

As a taste, here's a small snippet of the artwork:

Fantasy Hero

2010-06-26T11:36:00.003+01:00

These are my latest pictures done for Hero Games, this time they're interior pics for their upcoming book Fantasy Hero. One of my aims in doing them was to keep the main characters' face hidden, so the players can transpose their own character into that situation.

They were fun to do, and it was great to be able to use colour for a change.

Fantasy Hero is published by Hero Games, and can be found here: http://www.herogames.com/

Hero Bestiary

2010-05-18T16:01:00.003+01:00

Some more illustrations for a Hero Games book, this time it's the Hero Bestiary, a compendium of monsters.

These were a lot of fun to do - I got to tackle part of the Celtic monsters section.

Hero Games' site, with links to buy this book, is here: www.herogames.com/

Here are three of my illustrations for it:

Huginn & Muninn

2010-04-10T12:10:00.003+01:00

This is something I've been working with writer Ian Struckhoff on for a while now.

By necessity, it's been slotted in around other work, so I've only been able to do a panel at a time really. I am, however, quite pleased with how this first page has come out. There is a little more, but nothing I'm really able to show.

Should anyone be in Boston this weekend at the Boston Comic Con, Ian has a table there, and will be showing work by much better artists than me, examples of which is here, at The Deathlings website.

Huginn & Muninn Story ©Ian Struckhoff, Artwork ©Jonathan Wyke

Hero System Martial Arts

2010-03-03T16:17:00.006Z

Some more character designs for a Hero Games book; this time, the Hero System Martial Arts suppliment.

Hero Games: Champions Powers

2010-02-16T11:53:00.003Z

Some illustrations from the third Hero Games book I've worked on, the upcoming Champions Powers Sourcebook.

These are three of eight Chapter Heading illustrations, designed to start each Powers Chapter.

A little bit of character design

2009-12-23T11:38:00.006Z

With Westside Stories due to start in early 2010, here's a work-in-progress sketch of character design and style for one of the main characters. There's plenty to do on it yet, but I'm reasonably pleased with how it's going.

Playing with a continuing series

2009-12-16T14:06:00.002Z

Westside Stories will run from January 2010, and will be an attempt to run a continuing series.

The plan is for me to do the first couple alone, then gather submissions from people interested in providing a character, a story, some art, whatever, and try and evolve a strip with many creators, but one over-arching theme.

Some people have already chipped in with both scripts and characters, so I've some hope that it'll work.

Zoroaster In Aethiopia

2009-11-16T07:48:00.002Z

Here's something I'm very excited about!

My run on Richard Carbonneau's Zoroaster In Aethiopia has now started!

I really had an absolute blast doing this and if you have time the time to check it out and let me know what you think, I'd really appreciated it! If you do go, make sure you take a look at the quite brilliant strip The Marvel, also written by Richard, with are by the fantastic Robin Simon.

Anyway, the link to Zoroaster is here; http://www.webcomicsnation.com/rscarbonneau/zoroaster/series.php

Short Stack #5 now available

2009-11-09T17:47:00.000Z

Another snippet...

2009-10-04T21:40:00.002+01:00

Here's another snippet of some upcoming work...

More snippets from upcoming work...

2009-09-08T11:18:00.002+01:00

From pages two and three;

A little bit of my Short Stack piece

2009-08-05T14:28:00.005+01:00

This is a small section of the strip I did the art for to be published in Angry Gnome's Short Stack comic. Story is © Shawn Gabborin.

A small snippet of an upcoming strip

2009-08-02T14:22:00.002+01:00

This is just a small section of the art I'm doing for an upcoming strip...

Reasons and explanations

2009-08-02T10:24:00.001+01:00

When I first went to art college, one of my ambitions was to work on a comicbook. As my career progressed, and I moved more into Graphic Design and away from Illustration that goal faded from view, until around two years ago, when I started doing little sketches for friends who, like me, played in the online game City of Heroes. Producing these re-ignited my love of both drawing and the comicbook medium.

Recently, by accident really, I've been contacted to produce artwork for a number of different publications, and have found my former goal to suddenly, surprisingly, within reach.

As a first post test, here are a few of the illustrations I recently produced for the Hero Games publication Lucha Libra Hero (on sale here: https://www.herogames.com/viewItem.htm?itemID=238817 )