For ANZAC Day. Lest We Forget.

The original recruitment poster, by Harry Weston, 1915.

23/4/2015. Rest in peace, Chuckie.

On the 23rd of April 2015, my partner lost her special friend "Chuckie". He had become someone special to me as well, a personality like no other. The loss hit us very hard. I had the opportunity to contribute to Comicoz's 'Australia!' anthology last year, which was created to raise money for Beyond Blue; and since Chuckie assisted the fight against depression on a day-to-day basis, and was a "supervisor" on later issues of 'The Soldier Legacy', I was compelled to bring him into 'Soldier' continuity too. A cheeky character on and off the pages, he was our little Aussie hero, and we miss him greatly, every day. 
Rest in peace, Chuckie.

Process: Anatomy of a Cover/Pin Up: Retro Sci-Fi Tales #3, April 2016

After a post it note thumbnail, this was scribbled up. 

In a nutshell: Was approached by friend Darren Koziol, DarkOZ publisher of 'Decay' and 'Retro Sci-Fi' Magazine, to to a short story. I'm flat out finding time to sleep lately with all the other commitments, so a cover was proposed. From a list, I chose to draw 'Space Amazons', as I have a thing about drawing trees for some strange reason. *Shrug*- and thought it would be a cool challenge. The Alien landscape elements sounded like a fun opportunity. I scribbled something up, and tried to utilise the trees as a circular framing device for the figures in the composition, and place the figures in a staggered "fan" formation, countering the lines of action and heights for a bit of variety in their placement in relation to one another. I dig perpendicular lines in compositions- something I've seen Kirby pull off, or shown in Disney books on avoiding parallel placement of limbs in a pose, so this was attempted with the spear placement, for instance. Well, that was the thought process, anyways.

Raw scan. Inking is not my jam, but I take the Steve Ditko approach of using inks to "draw" the detail in, that the loose wrireframe scribble is missing. Keeps the job "fresh" in my head, rather than feeling I'm re-drawing something I already drew. Ultimised blacks in the foreground to re-enforce the framing of the figures, so that I didn't loose them in the image.

I'm not a Cheesecake artist, and frankly, that stuff doesn't interest me; A good drawing is a good drawing. In this instance, the subject matter and reference material suggested figures a bit too cheesecake for my comfort zone, and figured the Amazon component, coupled with the "John Carter of Mars/Sci-Fi fantasy/Red Sonja/Robert E Howard" vibes, should speak to female forms of more athletic frames, than buxom bikini types. So in this case, UFC/Women's Boxing and Olympian forms were referenced, at a poor man's attempt at what a Frank Frazetta drawing would look like if he drew like me (a monkey with a pencil taped to his paw, in comparison). If I can learn from a pose, I will. 

Cleaned up scan, with pencils eradicated. The handy part about drawing in Prismacolour animation pencils (actually, mine had died by this point; I think this image was using cheap, kids colouring in pencils that came free with a marvel pencil case :P), is that Clean ups after scanning the image is super quick in photo shop.

So this was the scanned image, with a black and white adjustment layer/filter applied to "knock out" the colours from the pencil roughs. Saves a heap of time (relative, without a Cintiq that is…*sigh*) in the clean up process, rather than deal with smudged/scribbly graphite that photoshop can confuse with ink lines when darkening/adjusting levels, contrast etc.

Re: inking- a discipline in itself, and something I continue to try and learn/challenge myself, particularly when I have the tools, time and courage to move beyond the cheap, store-bought calligraphy markers and art line pens. The smoke, for some reason I love trying to draw different sorts of clouds; the cross hatching with the thick to thin lines, is another poor man's attempt- in this case, Joe Kubert. The attempt is to at least give each element its own treatment- a Klaus Janson tip- so that the mud doesn't look like bark of a tree, the moss looks different to the bushes, the mist (it looks kinda Arthur Adams-ish, but I wouldn't point it out to him, it would be an insult) looks different to the heavy smoke clouds etc. I figured at least I could use colour to reinforce the difference.

If I recall, the colour scheme shifted during the course of this; Colouring for me is the ultimate fight; make this image work, or at least get as close to the vision I have in my brain not always the case- but the main idea was to simply select a main colour, and work in terms of complimenting the main colour, without overdoing the values, and still supporting the focal points.

So this was essentially the colours, sans ink lines. Flats to renders and final flourishes etc. Always starting with a base gradient/colour, I wanted to further reinforce the alien landscape, and support the light/framing of the inks to tell the "story". An illustration can still convey a story, which is why I always promote th importance of understanding composition, and visual storytelling language regardless of the chosen medium; knowledge and practice of these elements always lift an image over a mere "drawing". 

I think the hardest part of the colouring was that damn Alien Parrot in the foreground...

The Final image: A bit of a challenge to say the least, but at the moment, I don't hate it. That's a win, in my books. The problem with something like this is that the variety of colour elements run the potential of clashing if not handled subtly. Being able to utilise complementary colour-rim lighting, helped further separate the figures from the environment, without having them feel like their colour scheme clashes, or that they don't belong/feel part of the image. Some Colour holds and bits used to knock the edge off some of the parts in this pic, and given the number of these I got a chance to scribble a signature on, over the last weekend at Adelaide OZ Comic-Con (where the book was launched), I guess some people thought it was alright, so I'm content.

Thanks Darren for the opportunity to draw your characters, and for publication of the image. You can find DarkOZ publications on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DECAY-horror-comic-249103491793685/?fref=ts, or from their website  www.darkoz.com.au.

https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=995150443855649&id=249103491793685

Scribble Dump 2

More Stuff I haven't thrown up lately. Tried some things; not sure how successful I was, probably because I'm not 100% happy, but then again, I never am. Anyways, back to the drawing board.

Scribble dump

Can't share what I'm doing book/pages-wise, so here's some muck around images. Cheers!

Something different: LoveSac Australia

Every now and then, when the right request drops into the inbox between comic book pages, I dip my toe back into freelance graphic design-style gigs. Too many "Clients from Hell" over the years killed my taste for this sort of work (not all were, but some expected so much in no time for little money, regardless of other commitments I may have had at the time), but in the case of Lovesac Australia, they're good people. Bottom line, if you trust them, they trust you, and they pay for your time, they're worth your consideration. Cheers, guys grin emoticon Love your products!

This job involved drawing cartoons to liven up the 'SacVac Pack' instructions:

http://lovesac.com.au/products/sacvac-pack?variant=9290608901

"Comic book artists are tackling subjects like depression and war history in their work" - ABC News 21st Feb, 2016

ABC News - Australian Comic Arts Festival
Comic book artists are tackling subjects like depression and war history in their work #comics #Canberra.
Posted by Siobhan Heanue on Sunday, February 21, 2016

Many thanks to Journalist Siobhan Heanue and her crew on the day, ABC News, and Cath Brinkley of The Australian Comic Arts Festival, along with Bruce Mutard.

Guest for OZ Comic-Con 2016: All Cities!

A busy year awaits. Cheers OCC! Looking forward to seeing everyone in Perth and Adelaide in April, and Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane later in the year. Thank you :D
 http://www.ozcomiccon.com/2016/guests/paul-mason/

ABC News national coverage of ACAF

A great weekend at the inaugural Australian Comic Arts Festival. A pleasure to hang out with good mates, catch up with old ones, and meet some awesome new ones. Many, many thanks to Cath Brinkley, and Wolfgang Bylsma and Bruce Mutard for the event- am so looking forward to next year.

Cheers too for the lovely ABC reporter and camera men who spearheaded this coverage. ABC iView cleared the news program already (which in all reports went nation-wide on Sunday and Monday on ABC), and the follow up article. Humbled to see 'the Soldier Legacy' book strike a cord. Also discussed were mates Mark Sexton, and Ryan Lindsay, along with quotes from my partner, and panel presenter Amanda: http://mobile.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-22/comic-artists-tackling-hard-subjects-through-their-work/7188278

Also a big thanks to Mal at Impact Comics in Canberra Civic. A sponsor of the event, he is also stocking trade paperback volume 1 and 2. An awesome shop, I managed to score some Wil Eisner material. Very pleased :D

Gotta run, but also want to send a quick thank you to the meet up crew at Brisbane Square Library for holding the fort while Amanda and I were away at the event. See you next month. Cheers!
Oh, you can read Amanda's far more comprehensive account of the event here: http://backflipbacchi.com/2016/02/21/aussie-comic-book-secrets-revealed-acaf-debrief/

Guest at next month's Inaugural Australian Comic Arts Festival

Running February 20th - 21st in Canberra, and organised by the awesome Cath Brinkley and Comic creator/scholar Bruce Mutard. Many thanks for the invitation to attend. A whole host of Comic creators will be teaching development workshops on the Saturday 20th at the Novotel, including my good mates  Wolfgang Bylsma, Mark Sexton, Tristan Jones, Jason Franks, Julie Ditrich, Queenie Chan and Ryan Lindsay. I'm also looking forward to touching base with Louie Joyce, and meeting Thomas Campi. My partner Amanda Bacchi is a professional interviewer and panel host (for events such as OZ Comic-Con across the country, The Brisbane Zombie Walk etc.); she will be MC'ing a few panels on the weekend as well.

Very much looking forward to seeing everyone in Canberra next month, and hopefully an event which will continue to grow!

I have been approved to run 2 workshops available ( and I believe a third one on the Sunday for kids.)
"Sequential Narrative" and "Essence of a Panel", which will aim to condense information from classes I teach at The Queensland College of Art.

Info at the link: http://www.acaf.com.au/product-category/workshops/

Info on Sequential Narrative:

What goes on in the panels and between the gutters

"What makes up a narrative-driven comic book page? What happens between scenes? How do writers and artists utilise the medium of comics to tell stories?

By learning the ‘rules and tools’, and conventions of visual storytelling though case studies and examples, we can better understand the medium of comics, and how to improve as a visual storyteller and writer.

Whether you are simply interested in how the comic page communicates with the reader, or an aspiring/developing creator, the idea is better awareness of the possibilities of visual storytelling via comics, and noting prominent creators in the history of the medium."

Essence of a Panel

Empathetic characters, acting and illustration considerations

"You are the director. Your characters are your actors. Before a character utters a word in a speech balloon, your panel must convey the story visually. The importance of character considerations in writing/development of that story, and the visual representation of that character (from thumbnails and design to finished panel) are paramount to creating the empathy felt by the reader. Dynamic poses, how choices and structure conveys character, where to use subtle acting/poses, the importance of referencing, and how character relates to cinematic storytelling and the visual grammar of comics.

The aim of this workshop is to give attendees a better understanding of how to plan compositions in relation to character, who their characters are, and how to “show” and not just “tell” how a character is feeling.

The outcomes from this workshop will be to assist aspiring and developing pencillers/illustrators in telling stories visually, and also assist writers to understand story from a visual sense, particularly when approaching script in relation to character and conflict."

Posted on the Soldier Facebook page earlier:

ACAF (The Australian Comic Art Festival) Workshop panels in Canberra on the 20th of February are now available for...
Posted by The Soldier Legacy Comic Book on Wednesday, January 13, 2016