Superhero of the Month...

Superhero of the Month is a really cool blog that asks readers to redesign a different superhero each month. This month the chosen character is actually a team- the Birds of Prey, who have had a changing roster over the years. I chose to redesign Black Canary and Huntress, who have been two of the team's most enduring members. I have no idea if they will be posting my designs, but I'm posting them here for you to see, along with a brief description of how I came up with each design.

I think the key to the Birds of Prey is that they are rugged women who will do what nobody else can, so it was this that I kept in mind when designing them.

The Black Canary has always struck me as a trashy dresser with those fishnets and leather jacket, so I took that as my starting point and made her the type of woman who'd be at home in a rough nightclub. I kept leather as her main texture, but moved the fishnet onto her back and forearms, covering her up her legs while echoing traditional martial arts arm strapping. I cut her hair short so that it won't get in the way in a fight.

The Huntress is a brawler, so I gave her tough leather padding and got rid of her exposed hair and her cape, which would be a target in battle. I covered her mouth with black cloth to emphasize her ninja-like stealth, and mounted her trademark crossbow on her arm so that it can't be wrestled from her. Her harness-like styling mirrors her traditional crucifix motif, while also suggesting a tough, S+M look.

I hope you like the designs, I had a lot of fun drawing them!

Irwin Steveson from Darwin

Darwin is a comic book I'm working on at the moment, written by Graham Beadle of the Grinning Demon comic shop. This is a pinup or Xenobiologist Irwin Steveson I cobbled together for Creator Owned Day, the 1st of March. If you're on Twitter look up #creatorownedday to see more excellent independent creator-owned characters, and check back here over the next few months for more updates on Darwin as it progresses - this one is really going somewhere!

More painting...

These two pieces were painted maybe 18 months ago or so, and were really just a way of teaching myself to oil paint, after a break of about ten years. I hadn't enjoyed oils at school, it always seemed very messy and all the colours turned into brown... painting these showed me I was wrong! I really enjoyed painting them and I liked the results. Obviously these were painted from photos - Amy Winehouse and Grace Jones did not pose for me, obviously. As a side note, I never actually finished the Grace Jones painting, but I hung it on the wall to get it out the way, and just sort of got used to it. I think I like the roughness of it though. I originally intended to sell the Winehouse one, but then she died, and selling it seemed like it'd be in poor taste. Anyway, I hope you like them, and are enjoying the little tour of my non-comic artwork!

I also paint...

I only ever seem to post Photoshop sketches on here, but in actual fact my passion is for painting, and could do it all day and night if I didn't have to be elsewhere! I thought I'd post a few commissions that I've done for people over the last year or so. They're all oil paintings on canvas.

Stone!

I've contributed a page to a comic book, set in Maidstone, called STONE. It will soon be on sale in the Tourist Information Centre, and I assume also in The Grinning Demon comic shop. It is written by bona-fide comic writer and novelist Dan Abnett, and each page is drawn by a different brilliant artist. If you live in the area pick it up and support the efforts of the fine creative people who have contributed! I've been doing some stuff for it today, but took a break and sketched this, to rest my weary brain!

Donna Troy!

In mid 2011 DC Comics relaunched their entire superhero line. My little pitch for a miniseries would have been Donna Troy.

Donna Troy was introduced in the early to mid sixties as Wonder Girl, a younger version of Wonder Woman, before gradually developing an identity of her own. She was a key member of the Teen Titans in their heyday in the early eighties. Editorial changes to Wonder Woman's origins forced a number of startling alterations to Donna's own history, which little by little removed the character from her classic origins. A new Wonder Girl, Cassie Sandsmark, was introduced in 1996, further affecting Donna's position in the company's shared universe. These factors, and others, have left Donna Troy with a distinct identity crisis!

In this most recent relaunch, DC has solved this problem by... seemingly erasing Donna Troy from ever having existed! I'm not the world's most massive fan of the character, but I know she has her staunch followers, and in my opinion her classic red Teen Titans costume is a classic example of clean costume design. So here's my pitch...

California, today... A man is on a surfboard out in the ocean, waiting for waves. Unseen to him a black, swirling tentacled creature is edging ever nearer to him beneath the surface... He waits for a wave, we wait for the beast to attack... and then SPLASH! Donna erupts from the surf with the creature's inky, swirling form held high above her head! They make their way to the beach, where they spend the day getting to know one another. He learns of her upbringing by QueenHyppolyta on Paradise Island, as the adopted younger daughter of Wonder Woman, after she was found washed ashore in a cot-boat as a new-born baby. Now that she has come of age she has travelled to man's world in search of her true heritage. She learns that he is suffering from cancer - an illness she has never heard of, a black swirling mass that cannot be defeated with fists. She has much to learn of friendship, support and mortality, and that would form the central theme of the miniseries. At the same time she will be trying to rein in further aspects of this demonic mess that has escaped from some cavern beneath Paradise Island as it spreads across America. Crucially, she will not find the answers to her birth that she was looking for, but will discover that it can be her quest for truth and justice that defines her.

Visually, the series should be designed to appeal to, rather than exclude, female readers. As a young woman brought up on a small island, Donna feels a great affinity for the sea and will settle by the beach. This will be super-heroics meets the OC or 90210, all seen through the eyes of a girl brought up by warriors in complete isolation.

So that would've been my pitch, if I'd worked in comics! I hope you could visualise it a little bit - in my own mind I've read it, and I can tell you it's great!

Thanks for listening!

I'm back!

I didn't really document things in 2011, I was too busy doing them! I'm going to try to retroactively post some bits and bobs! I hope to get back to posting on a more regular basis as my day job changes, but I won't make any promises!