S K E T C H T A S T I C N E S S

The Tumbler...

2012-02-01T23:26:00.002Z

does it come in black? :)

any excuse for a Batman reference!

I just setup a Tumblr account - seems like a cool way to keep track of artists u like and get your work out there and exposed ( oo-er ) a little more, plus it's simple and quick to use, so check it out here if u like

ME TUMBLIN'

In other news...I have finally finished the pencils for my DKR pinup, here's a peek before I properly scan it in and think about colour. I'll put the full size Lineart up probably shortly.

oh yeah - and I was passed this link the other day to an awesome custom brush preset, plus other goodies - highly recommended for getting a pencil feel in photoshop - check it out

STUMPY PENCIL

Back soon!

Dark Doodles

2012-01-22T22:52:00.000Z

Trying to put together a proper movie poster pinup thing for Dark Knight rises, which is great fun - a chance to draw Bane, Bruce, and Gary Oldman again. nice. But, still working stuff out, so i thought i'd just stick some of my sketches up whilst i work through compositions and stuff. Gonna go stare at my new Drew Struzan Ouevre book for inspiration - awesome book, possibly my best xmas pressie! cheers bro'! Then, some more sketching whilst re-watching season1 of walking dead, waiting for season 2 to start up again. sweet.

2012-01-20T23:53:00.001Z

In a half shell, they're the heroes 4

In this day and age who could ask for more

The crime wave is high, with muggings mysterious

All police and detectives are serious....

and I'm not even googling the song words. Yup, I can remember almost all the lines to Turtle Power. And a lot of the lines to other cheese tastic tracks on the movie album '9.95 by Spunkadelic' anyone?

Turtles was bloomin' awesome, constantly introducing u to crazy new characters, wierd mutants and fantastic action figures. It also introduced me to american comics, so I've got a lot to thank the turtles for. I managed to find the new IDW comic books in scotland over christmas, and so these doodles were what i got up to inbetween festive actives and catchin up with buddies. Finally got them scanned in, and thought I'd throw a dash of colour, specifically on Slash - he was one of my favourite characters, basically a bad ninja turtle. They kinda did a screwed up version of him in the second movie, but the action figure ROCKED!

anyways, back with more batman ( yes more ) in a day or so...just the doodles mind, this bat-pin up is takin ages~!

have a good one!

Cowabunga!

Dark Knight Rises

2012-01-06T13:26:00.000Z

When Gotham is in Ashes....you have my permission to die!

So I'm just a little bit excited about the new Batman movie. A teeny tiny bit. But I realised I haven't drawn all that much batman, so thought I should rectify the situation...I also got to watch the 6 min prologue introducing Bane in the imax recently, which rocked, and got my pencils intching to draw Bats all the more...

one of the coolest moments in the teaser trailer is at the end when u see Batman backing off Bane in some kind of fisticuffs, with guys surrounding them in some industrial looking place...so I was going for that kinda thing.
I'd like to do something else with both Bane and the Bat but we'll see.....

This was pretty much the last thing I did in 2011 ( although I do have a couple other half finished pics ) so I'm looking forwards to doing my first proper piece of finished 2012 artwork very soon. New signatures are always exciting!

Hope you are all suitabley stuffed after xmas...I got into the new IDW Ninja Turtles comics during my holidays, and have been doodling the heroes in a half shell a little, so maybe I'll stick a pizza flavoured pin-up on the blog soon. Man I loved turtles back in the day. COWABUNGA!

ps...I just updated the image with a tweaked version, couple of things weren't right.

Wacom Inkling Review

2011-12-14T19:13:00.002Z

Howdy folks

Now this is not something I usually do, a lil' ol review on the site, but felt compelled to share my experience of this new device afte reading some crazy reviews that I feel completely misinform other artists out there.

Sooo..

The 'Wacom Inkling' is a new device made by - yup - Wacom. You probably saw the youtube video a few months back, which was quickly shared between most artists I know and rapidly shared over the internet like a skateboarding dog singing don't stop believin.....the video was full of magic, wonder and promise. Ooooh....aaah. check it out here....

Wacom Inkling Trailer

Basically, the device allows you to attach a small device to your sketchpad and draw with it's specific pen which will capture every line so u can easily usb the artwork into your computer and thus cutout the need to go and scan every page of your sketchbook. What also looked exciting was that your captured artwork could be imported as Vectors, and potentially tweaked in Illustrator and give u sweet crisp artwork.

So when I got the chance to try one of these new gadgets out at my new job, I thought 'heck yeah!'

Skip to the end - Massive Dissapointment.

I attached the wireless device to my A4 sketchbook, and tried it in a few diferent ways - one the train whilst commuting, scribbling ideas was my first test - that didn't go to well, so I thought 'give it another chance'. So last night I got it all set up at home, comfy seat at the table, and used it to clean up a rough on my layout pad. The pen has a sensor light that should flash as you use it if it's picking up the signal ok, so I kept checking that this was working fine, and was concious of being careful and neat. But when I imported the images this morning - bad dates Indy. Bad dates.

Here's the comparison pics - on the left is the scanned artwork, the right is the Inklings...'interpretation'.

You can see that although sometimes it's not too far wrong the fact that it's not right just isn't good enough. And as for vectors - well when we tried to use this function it gave the image so many points in Illustrator that any manipulation would be a nightmare, plus it wasn't exactly the smoothest result. You'd still be much better tracing the artwork in Illustrator itself.

On the plus side...it does bring artwork into Photoshop on a seperate layer from the background, and u can use even more layers within the picture itself by hitting a button whilst u draw - but again, this is mute if the drawing isn't gonna come through correctly anyway. Plus I'm gonna stick up a tutorial very shortly on an easy technique for seperating out your line art in Photoshop.

So in summary my main problem is this - when I want to take my artwork into Photoshop or Illustrator or whatever and give it the digital treatment - or just have the image on my computer - I want it to be pretty much perfect. And that's what any old scanner out there will do. For not too much cash either.
It doesn't matter how much time this might save you by cutting out scanning - if the image doesn't match up there's literally no point whatsoever. Plus you're restricted to using the Biro pen thing that comes with the device. Which is ok, the pen feels quite nice, a little thick, but good if u like drawing with biro pens....but not all the time.

My advice to any artists out there thinking of picking this up - DON'T.

Go get a scanner for half the price, and draw with whatever medium you like - your favourite pens, pencils, potato shapes....go nuts. Or save the money towards a Wacom pad/Intuous drawing tablet thing and draw with the light pen. Or...if you're feeling flush, get a nice Cintique!

Just don't waste your time or money with an Inkling.

Oooft. I've never written so much!

Next week - a thesis on why The Dark Knight is the best film of the last gazillion years.

Not really.

But it is.

Cheers!

Ross ( I'm not wearing hockey pads )
I'm not wearing hockey pads

F R O Z E N

2011-11-23T21:55:00.001Z

Yo! Still waiting to hear a release date for the second Birdsong Anthology wherein this short story is gonna appear, so in the meantime I thought I'd stick it up here so if u really wanna u can give it a read. This was a pretty rapid project, probably 2 to 3 weeks from conception to completion, some late nights but good fun - coz drawing comics is always AWESOME! :)

Lemme know whatchya think...

Got a bit of a back log of stuff to post at the moment, so will be back mega soon, probably Saturday!

Ross

ps - here's some makin' of doodles. :)

Nov Scribbles

2011-11-18T13:49:00.001Z

Howdy

Bunch of sketchbook stuff this time - the Fuzzball scribbles I'd mentioned previously, I think of these as sort of jumping on points for developing little stories - very tempted by an idea around the middle sketch entitled 'Captain Fuzzball and the Slugpits of Saturn'. But we'll see how that goes...

Other page is just a bunch of doodles recently , was working on some kind of barbarian monster slayer, but it needs some refinement, not sure if it will go any further.

Right now I'm deep in Illustrator, trying to get to grips with it before I start my new job. More on that soon....

Adios!

2011-11-13T21:07:00.001Z

Getting around to pushing forwards with the other 2 pin-ups in my Alien Trilogy lineup ( forget ressurection..it's ok but....well maybe ....lets just see if I get 3 done first ) .....anyway, finally got a composition I'm pretty happy with for this pin-up based on my favourite of the saga, the original masterpiece A L I E N. The main idea that was always part of the design was using the reflective Alien skull to depict Ripley in her cryo sleep pod....I thought that worked really well, it was just figuring out the stuff around that. In the end what I've focussed on is the horror side of things - the chest burster scene is one of the most iconic moments not just in this movie but in cinematic history, so it seems only right that it splatters across the design. I also like the way the blood can maybe look kinda face-hugger esque, might need to tweak that on the final version to get it reading right, but it's got potential. So I'm gonna be working this up over the next month, stay tuned for the final piece.
I've also started sketching on the alien3 pin-up - it's awesome fun drawing a cartoony bald Ripley, but I need to figure out some stronger composition ideas and hooks, so maybe I'll stick on the Blu-Ray version for the first time ( just picked up the Anthology recently, nice ) , which should give me some ideas.

And yeah, that finished Zombie Strong is almost done.

Almost :)

2011-11-08T22:49:00.002Z

Howdy - back again with some quick thumbnail sketches. Good to get stuck into some more environment painting, so this is stage 1. Gonna take a couple of this and develop into a more finished concept. Good fun doodling these little things....not sure which are jumping out at me xfactor style to make it into the next round....the shantytown towers with the snake creatures wrapped around them are probably high on the list...I do like the weirdnes of the onyx spike thing protruding from the crack in the earth......we'll see! Vote in the comments! :)

..i really should've numbered these. screw it, I'll go update the concept now, and u won't even know the diference, cozI'll switch the picture before I post it! haha! I don't even know why I'm telling u this!

Zombie concept is almost done, back real soon with that

Ross

2011-11-07T13:51:00.001Z

Found some doodles in a sektchbook the other day, thought I'd work them up a little - so based on the big guy at the top left I gave him a less cartoony head, and expanded out the body, to draw this tough guy Zombie boss character thing. Working up a painted concept for the next post. Plus I'll post some fuzzball doodles soon I promise!

Gang Boss

2011-11-01T21:45:00.004Z

Howdy!

So back in the days not so long ago when I was thinking of doing some more Astrofunk, this guy was potentially some kind of Rival Gang leader that would give Sol a few problems. I'm a bit busy to be drawing the actual comic strip itself right now, but I wanted to explore more digital painting processes, so this guy is unusual for me in that there's no pencil used in the process anywhere. I imagine this guy to be some kind of street graffiti punk that maybe follows Sol into space, but ends up getting all kitted up in this crazy armour to kick Sols ass. But that might never happen :)

Was scribbling fuzzball last night, will post some in a couple of days, great fun.

Adios!

Ross

Couch Kid

2011-10-31T13:37:00.002Z

Back!

Ok, I'll try to get back to some more regular posting on this ol' here blog thing. Starting with this little guy! Basically he's just a bunch of couch scribbles and thoughts, and then some photoshop bits n bobs. But I like where some of them are going , so will hopefully from this initial ideas pool take one or two of them further into development. I'm also itchin' to draw some more Captain Fuzzball, but we'll see how that pans out. Gotta get my comedy head on for that guy!

-Got more to post, so back tomorrow!

Ross

2011-10-24T11:45:00.005+01:00

Howdy!

Busy days right now, hence not quite as much posting - basically I've been putting together a new Portfolio website so folks don't have to put up with my blog style ramblings, and can get straight to the artwork. If you wanna check it out hit the jump below

WWW.ROSSBURT.COM

There's a few things up there that haven't been on the blog, so go give it a look!

Got a few new things in progress though, so I'll be back here real soon. Cheers!

Ross

Spare Parts - Heroes and Villains

2011-10-14T19:01:00.003+01:00

Here's a look at the work I put together for the 2 dudes at either end of Spare Parts - Mar-T, the heroic robot you play as in the game, and Sulba Krung, the evil bad dude you ultimately want to defeat. Getting the chance to scribble ideas for both of these guys was really awesome, had a lot of fun on this project.
Back reeeeel soon.
-Ross

Harpie Sketchin'

2011-10-04T20:38:00.004+01:00

Howdy

Got out to another Life Drawing session at the pub on Sunday evening, and it was another fantastic night of lager, ladies and Caligraphy pens! I didn't use a pencil all night infact, I went straight for it with all of these, and as a result there were certainly a few pages that didn't make it up here! But , that just meant that I had even less time to capture a pose, and generally i find that works with u when using pen - no time to think too much, just go for it. So the above pics range from 3 minutes for the quickest doodles, to probably 15 mins for the longest ones. And the girls really were dressed up with the wings n stuff m, as it was Greek Mythology themed, hence Harpies, medusa and...-well, i may have exagerated the Boars head from the papier mache' prop!

Great night!

Back soon

Ross

Astro Doodles

2011-09-19T21:33:00.003+01:00

oK.....sooo....

I could perhaps maybe be possibly tempted to draw some more Astrofunk :)

Been enjoying scribbling away with some new Caligraphy pens - which I used for all of the below - u get a great fresh line with a real mixture if weight to it, more energy. Obviously it means if you make a mistake u either try to disguise it or start over, but hey that's part of the risk reward with these guys! Then I splashed some quick colour in photoshop to punch a few things out.....

But yeah, I am toying with a new Astrofunk idea, looking at what I would want to do....it would definitely be shorter in page count, and I'd probably start looking at just a real short 5 to 8 page thing and see how that goes. Anyway, it's been fun drawing Bad dude Byakko again, it would be cool to pit him against a huge monster. - Thoughts?

Back in a couple days with more stuff!
- Over and out!

RaB

Brush with a Giant Robot

2011-09-14T22:11:00.003+01:00

Evenin' all...

So I'm trying to do some more digital painting, and this one is just a quick test with some new Custom brushes. Just fly straight in, not really knowing what you're gonna paint, and see what happens. My first attempt didn't fly, but this one started to look ok, so gradually added more elements - all the foreground stuff wasn't there initially, but the value range wasn't large enough, so got some darker blacks in there. Think this one turned out ok...I like that although it looks like the humans are worshipping the robot dude you're not sure whether their gonna fight it or not......hopefully keep going with practising more of this kind of stuff, plus got a few more things in the pipeline. Lovin the photoshop right now!

The Old Republic

2011-09-12T22:31:00.003+01:00

IT'S A TRAP!

ok, so I bumped into a couple of Stormtroopers today in hmv, somehow managing not to buy the Blu-Ray complete StarWars saga there on the spot....must wait until payday!
Anyway, it made me wanna come home and finish this off, been doing it on and off in the background for a week or two. EA's 'The Old Republic' looks awesome, and the 3 trailers released so far are epic beyond phantom menace proportions ( actually Attack of the Clones is my least favourite but don't get me started on that! ) This guy, Darth Malgus, really lept out in the first trailer as this bad ass Vader esque sith lord, throwing his saber around and generally kickin' ass! So I thought I'd sketch him up in a much more cartoony style than any of the official art you'll see, and get some of that saber action into the pic.
It's not even that late tonight, so I might just go back to photoshop and do something else! ...Just got to figure out what? hmmm...

FLY CASUAL!

Dragon Quicky

2011-09-09T09:12:00.003+01:00

Mornin!

I've been awake for hours today...woke up at 5.00am and could not get back to sleep. Too many ideas going through my head...I've been reading a few more comics recently, and it's been giving me the old itch. So rather than go back to bed this morning I ended up doodling Astrofunk! ( with Countdown on in the background ) . It was a lot of fun, and I've got a few ideas I'm messing around with on what I would do if I draw some more. But that's another story, maybe I'll stick some doodles up here soon.

For now, this is a quick digital painting practice - spotted a cool picture of a piranha online, and it was the basis for a dragon creature inspired by aquatic creatures. I like the idea of painting up a full body shot of this dude, maybe eating a Shark to show how massive he is, but this head study took maybe 1 hour or so, around that. I've been looking at creature design a little more recently, so will have some similar stuff up here again shortly.

Have a good weekend all!

SK8 Merc

2011-09-05T23:54:00.004+01:00

Yo - back once again with another quickie. Didn't spend too long on this as I've got loads of more important stuff to be getting on with drawing and painting, and I've done stuff like this before, but it was a lunch break sketch I thought I'd colour up simply. I do like the idea of doing something with Skateboarding bad-asses, flying down a half pipe shooting stuff....nice. Gonna go get on with another pic! Back again very soon!

Ross

ps - The background graf texture is from my mate Max's texture site, link below, cool stuff. Cheers Max!

Max Textures

Z O M B A B E !

2011-09-01T23:45:00.004+01:00

Hey - I did say Arnie style 'I'd be back' , and here I am - just a quickie with a hotty - Zombabe to be precise. Just a quick doodle that I decided to paint up, not spending too long over it at all, just havin' a laugh - the most fun was figuring out what to write - I came up with some pretty dodgy dirty weird stuff along the way - but that probably doesn't surprise most of you who know me! Back with some more on...Sunday night I think. Adios!

Ross

GRUNKK!

2011-08-31T00:26:00.003+01:00

..no idea what that means sorry - and I didn't spend too long thinking about it either, but it's the name I've given to this guy. He's based on a couple of quick sketches which I've also stuck up here, thought he could be good fun to paint up, so got on with it! Got loads in the pipeline there should be a real onslaught of pics coming yer way in the next few weeks..so stay tuned!

Back real soon!

Ross

Spare Parts

2011-08-23T23:33:00.003+01:00

..yet more from the Spare Parts Archives!

If u like what u see go try the game on XBLA/PSN ! It's great fun!

XBOX SPARE PARTS

Anyways, here's a mixture of stuff....a little more environment work with the Demo level mountain top that you're ship crash lands upon ( notice placeholder ship rough - just not unique enough! ) , there's also another robot ( the girly one! ) , some enemy stuff in the form of the Spider Monkeyz various incarnations, and a little glimpse of some backstory, with the Krokks that inspired some of the levels and backstory throughout the game.

Enjoy!

MONSTERS!!

2011-08-19T00:22:00.003+01:00

....under the Bed!

Been a bit slow with the posts in the last couple of weeks, which I will blame on my sons birthday and as such playing too much Dinosaurs/Batman/Starwars games n stuff. Nice :)

Anyways, I should have lots more in the coming weeks, got a bunch more Spare Parts stuff to stick up shortly, plus some Deathly Hallows 2 stuff comin, plus about 5 things I'm in the middle of in the ol' photoshop. So expect more regular doses of sketchtasticity!

But for now, here's a link to a short film for which I did some concept work. I can't stick any pictures up here or it'll kinda spoil it, but it's only a couple of minutes long so give it a watch! Plus it's really good, and was a pleasure to be part of the production, helmed by my good buddy John Fairfield. When he's famous hopefully he won't forget this! :)

Yoy can check out the film here

MONSTERS UNDER THE BED!

Back real soon!

Ross

Sketching...

2011-07-14T22:24:00.003+01:00

Been doodling a lot recently, which is always fun....got a few ideas I wanna try and kick into development and pursue, but most of these here are just random scribbles from the train/sofa/bed/toilet.

ok not the toilet.

Back soon!

-Ross

Party time!

2011-07-13T19:31:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post of a fun little piece I just finished - my son Elliot turns 4 next month, and I got tasked with putting together an invite - Jungle themed! RAAR!
So here's what I came up with, which Elliot seems to giggle at, so client happy = job well done :)

Man that was fun!

Ross

PS - I just updated the pic by removing details...sorry interweb yer just not all invited! :)

GameKeeper

2011-07-11T17:53:00.003+01:00

Another doodle that I decided to colour, similar to the Pirate below...just took the first sketch straight into Photoshop, and mucked around with lighting and stuff.

In other news, I've got a new PC set up at home - feels a bit more studio esque now - albeit a small messy studio ! So hopefully I'll be posting some more stuff regularly, and painting away into the wee hours.

Back soon

Ross

Tarot Sketches

2011-07-04T13:03:00.003+01:00

Howdy Went to another life drawing session at my local pub last night, this time Tarot themed. So lot's of fantastic poses inspired by the themes of the Tarot deck, and basically a great night. I'd recommend checking out a session if u can, they are run by the very talented Jake Spicer and are held regularly in Brighton, just occassionally venturing upto Guildford to entertain us. Always good to get back to basics and get some practice in! ..especially accoimpanied by a couple of pints!

Indiana Jones....

2011-06-22T21:25:00.002+01:00

Throw me the idol!!

So a few days ago it was the 30th anniversary of pretty much the greatest adventure movie ever put to film - Raiders of the Lost Ark. So that seemed like a pretty good excuse to start scribbling Dr.Jones. Got the dvd out, bit of googling of Harrison, and the sketch pad was out. Right off I wanted to focus on the Idol, the opening sequence is probably my favourite bit of the movie, and it's such an iconic moment that I wanted to use it's power....but then I started to think about how many freaky skulls and corpses there are in this movie that u kind of forget about...for a family movie there's a lot of those guys in there, and most of the raiders pics I've seen haven't featured these prominently. So then these guys got added...and the imposing ball of doom just seemed to make sense.

Anyways, it was a quickie really , didn't want to overwork it...just focus on composition and the feeling of adventure. Who can believe this movie is 30 years old, still looks amazing. Even the melting faces :)

Back soon!

Ross

Conrad Concept

2011-06-20T17:51:00.002+01:00

Howdy! Thought I'd stick up some more of my work from Spare Parts. When we found out Simon Pegg was going to be lending his supreme talents to the game it was pretty exciting - when I found out I was gonna be desiging the character he voices - well that was hot dang awesome. As the pic shows, originally we were going to make this guy in 3D , like a floating retro computer terminal thing. Eventually the design moved to 2D , and also started to reflect more of an actual face rather than a more abstract lifeless object. So we went with something that definitely had a hint of Simon to his look, with the little moustache that also lends itself to the expression set. We ended up with the fun little digital hologram face - how's that for a slice of fried gold! :) I've also put up the Krofax starship - for this one I looked at a variety of inspirations, including Wierd bugs, Prawn like molusk things , the Sydney opera house, and a cool hotel in India. Drawing spaceships is never dull! Last one is another of the robots - this one more Samurai inspired, again sticking to the template to fit the animation skeleton for all robots, but pushing it where we could. One of the more bad-ass of the bots! Back soon with...stuff! Adios!

In space....

2011-06-16T22:00:00.002+01:00

..no one can hear me draw!

Maaaan, drawing Xenomorphs is fun. A friend said to me the other day that ALIEN is his second favourite movie, and he's Bang on, it is amazing, and my favourite of all the xenomorph movies. So when I was asked to draw this for a friend I defnitely researched more of the classic Ridley Alien, and the background was inspired by the Nostromo, particualrly the mother room with it's orange dotted lights everywhere.
I used to draw these things all the time as a teenager, the Dark Horse comics ( or the titan uk equivalent ) were awesome, and I couldn't get enough. Particularly loved 'Labyrinth' with beaufiful art by Killian Plunkett, no on Clone Wars. So it was surprisingly enjoyable to come back to drawing one of these again properly after all those years. Cheers to Josh for getting me into it! Got some more Spare Parts stuff coming very soon, plus other bits n bobs!

Oh - thought I'd include the original drawing also - you can't beat pencil n paper!!

This is RAB...signing off :)

Aaaarrrrr...

2011-05-23T13:03:00.002+01:00

Ok, so recently I've been trying to sketch in a diferent way, where rather than drawing lots of quick scribbles trying to maybe design a character like a pirate, I've just sat down and slowly drawn out a sketch, taking more time to consider each line. So this guy wasn't designed so to speak, just a one off drawing that I did whilst parked on the sofa, and thought 'he could be fun to colour'. So that's what I've done. I'm enjoying it as a diferent approach to doodling, requires more concentration and thought but worth it. Got another one of these almost done, will be up here in a few days. Just loving the drawing right now!

Oh...and a Xenomorph on the way! MOTHER!!!!

-Ross

Clone Wars

2011-05-22T11:50:00.003+01:00

Howdy - Quick post before I run to catch a train - I've been working on a CloneWars pin-up based on the trilogy of episodes starring the NightSisters and the wicked Savage Oppress. He's the main focus of the pic, so I spent a little longer on his pose, finally got to one I was happy with, so it's now in the colour and lighting stages, but the pinup itself still has a few other characters required, so don't expect to see it up here for a month or so...but it was great fun sketching this guy, there's been a lot more cool new characters introduced in the last series of Clone Wars, and I've really been enjoying the show, worth checking out. Back soon with a Pirate!

Gotta Dash! - Ross

She-Warrior!

2011-05-17T19:32:00.005+01:00

...or 'Orc Fucka' as u might wanna call her. Up to you.

Been working on this one for a while, finally put some time into the finishing touches....you can see the early sketch in one of the sketchbook posts below....I might put up a development progress thing of the stages this thing went through, from scribble to line to flat colour to lighting etc. Been a lot of fun, she's I suppose just my take on Red Sonja really...with a couple of tattoos, went slightly celtic/mayan with those, liked the blockier look, i was gonna go with a proper tattoo sleeve, but it looked too modern.

Got another couple pieces not too disimilar to this one, so it could be a busy week on the ol' blog!

Reptilian Ogre

2011-05-05T18:40:00.003+01:00

Thought I'd try painting up one of the sketches that I posted a few weeks ago, so I went for this fat bad man. Thing. I don't paint up stuff in this style that often, so it's definitely good to get practice, trying to lean away from cartoony stuff a little more for a change is probably good for me. It's a little overcooked but hopefully the next one is quicker and easier. Got a few days off so gonna try to tidy the desk, clear the lightbox, resist the x-box, and get some more drawing and painting done.

Back soon!

HOT GONK FOOTY

2011-04-27T18:35:00.003+01:00

NOT the third of my Jabbas Palace postcards, but a quick side doodle of the torturous droid 8D8. Gotta love the screaming Gonk droid in this scene from ROTJ, had a lot a fun fuckin around with this. Got a couple more pics in the pipeline, maybe get another up this week, and of course the third postcard is on its way. Adios!

JET SET RADIO 10 - TWEAKED!

2011-04-14T21:29:00.005+01:00

Yo! soooo....yup, I know I posted the original version of this poster a good few months ago...but I glanced at it the other night, and it bothered me. I think I rushed it to meet the anniversary deadline, and my original teaser image of Gum skating away from us was stronger than my final pinup of the gang, so I thought I could definitely make a good stab at fixing it up.

The main things that bugged me were lighting and the the wierd border that smacked of photoshop a little too much. So I've gone in and played around, hopefully it's more dramatic and exciting now, and just works better as a pinup. Glad I went back to it! I've put up a comparison so you can play spot the diference! Have fun!

Actually...wowzas, I just checked and I posted the original almost a year ago! Time Flies eh!

Spare Parts Concepts

2011-04-12T22:23:00.004+01:00

Howdy folks...

Finally getting around to putting up some concept work from the game I finished last year.
It's been out on xbox live for a few months, and was one of the most enjoyable projects I've ever had the good fortune to work on. I was lead concept, and although I occassionally got the odd concept artist to help me out, it was quite a small team, which meant I got to draw and colour a lot of the cool stuff myself. SPACESHIPS! ROBOTS! AWESOME! :)

So first up I'm gonna stick some stuff from the 'Hub Ship', basically the crashed ship wherein you start the game, and your main hub area that you return to again and again. I'm also gonna put up one of my favourite of the alternate robot characters - Issa4c. He's heavily influenced by retro 70's/early eighties robots, and basically rocks.

So I'll be back in a few days with some more stuffs, like the villains spacecraft and some more environment stuff....if you haven't tried the game go check it out .

Cheers!

Ross

Jedi Pic 2 - Rebo Band

2011-04-07T19:14:00.004+01:00

These guys rock - literally! These guys have always been one of the coolest things about the jabba scene in Jedi, and I've based this pic on the original version, so the lyrics are what i reckon she 's singing with a little help from the internet. It's not that I don't like the special edition version, I think it's very cool, but in CG-ing Sy Snootles herself I think she lost something, ok she gained much more animation and movement, but she has a cool puppet look in the original that I referenced when sketching this up.

Plus how cool is Max Rebo! A blue elephant dude on a flashing lights organ piano bowl thing! He's the Billy Joel of Jabba's Palace! ( google it kids )

Anyway, a heck load of fun drawing these guys - now just the last of the 3 'Postcards from Jabba's Palace' to do....although I sketched up the Amanananamanaman version I am tempted to draw Hooded Luke instead, force choking a pig. hmmm....

Boushhhhh

2011-03-29T23:17:00.002+01:00

Howdy

First of my starwars pics is finally coloured, just been squeezing in the odd hour here and there to gradually work it up. Decided not to clean up the pencils on this one, just coloured straight over, if there's no need then why waste time! Originally had more browns and oranges in chewie and boushh closer to their actual colour schemes, but decided it was more atmospheric and ominous pushing it all more towards the blues and greens of the dark palace. Always loved Leias disguise, fantastic design, and was a great toy when I was....31 ;)
I think I actually got Leia Boushh in a bag of 8 figures for a pound in woolworths all those years ago, when they had surplus stock after Jedi had come out. Happy days!

More astrofunk coming soon maybes, but probably Sy Snootles next! Adios!

Ross

Return of the sketches

2011-03-22T21:38:00.003Z

Howdy

Just a quick tease of some new sketches that are work in progress....I'm in the middle of three Return of the Jedi sketches, all Jabbas' Palace themed, which is just great fun to draw, and was always one of my favourite moments in the movies, with such a wealth of cool characters. Anyways, been sitting over the lightdesk most evenings, so now just gotta do the photoshop leg of things.....back soon with some finished product!

no Strings Attached

2011-03-14T21:34:00.005Z

Quick post from a life drawing night last week....

Rowan and I spent a night at the keystone for 'Strings', a life drawing class themed around puppets and mannequins - which meant that there was the odd puppet string thrown over the model, and every song included the words 'puppet','string', 'doll' or...well u get the picture. Needless to say, Cliff Richards 'livin doll' was played too many times!

However, the class was excellent, and yet again it proved the old equation worked.

Sketchbook + Naked ladies x Beer = Awesome.

Drawing turned out pretty well, unfortunately most were too big to scan, so I took photos instead, hence the low average quality of images. Anyways...got Return of the Jedi on, off to draw some StarWars....back in a couple of days with something hairier. :)

Cold as ice....

2011-03-09T21:14:00.007Z

Howdy

I got back in contact with an old comics buddy recently, and wound up with a comic flavoured request - could I fill a 3 page gap in 3 weeks. Black n white, A5...so I thought 'yeah why not'.

A week and a half later I still hadn't nailed the exact story I was gonna draw, and was throwing around about 4 ideas.

Skip to the deadline at the beginning of this week, and those 3 pages had somehow become 8!
Anyway, it was a lot of fun working on a real quick comic project, so I've put the first 3 pages up here...you'll have to wait until the release of the comic to see the rest....it's gonna be part of the second 'Birdsong' anthology, wiht a bunch of short stories by some very talented folks - I'll be sure to put links and details up here when it's out.

Think I've got a digital painting needing finished, so might get onto that now if I get the chance - back real soon with more scribblings! Lemme know what ya think of the Frozen preview...

cheers

Ross

More sketchbook stuff

2011-03-04T19:02:00.003Z

Back again! ....

Been trying to draw as much as possible recently, and really enjoying just scribbling away, hence another post of sketchbook random stuff. Again, some of this will remain a sketch, might work up a couple ( the barbarian chick is currently sitting in a half painted state ....one day i might return to her ! )... my forgotten love! :) Most of my sketching these days is on layout paper rather than in actual sketchbooks, i love that i can just tear it out a page and muck about with it, get it on the lightbox, play around more. But I end up with piles of loose sheets of sketches, which is kinda why these sketchbook pages have the layouts I've gone for......currently finishing off a short 8-page comic for an anthology due out soon, so should be posting some of that next week, plus maybe finally some painting stuff. Have a good weekend all!

-Ross

Pulp Fuzzball

2011-03-04T00:17:00.002Z

Evening...morning....or wait, it is pretty late, goodnight! I just jumped in my quantum accelerator and vanished, awakened in the past with a mirror image that was not my own, bought this classic Captain Fuzzball comic book, came back to the future via a lightning strike and the help of a perverted hologram and BAM - stuck it up here on the blog. Orrr....I did a quick Captain fuzzball sketch on a lunchbreak a few weeks ago, started playing around with it, limited astrofunk colours palette, retro comic stylings, and ended up with this. Not to say that there's a new Captain Fuzzball comic coming anytime soon, but u never know. This was great fun anyway. Back in the next few days with more comic stuff and some doodles - see ya then! - Ross

FOR YOUR EYES ONLY.......

2011-02-17T22:32:00.002Z

..ONLY FOR U!...

.the passions that collide in me, wild abandon something something...

gotta love Bond themes!

anyway....listening to some Bond classics as I finally post some new artwork. Been pretty slack this year, but I have been scribbling a lot, so I figrued I'd put some of those together into a little sketchbook sheet. Some of these may make it further, some will perish in history! But I'm trying to draw as much as possible, and really enjoying it, got a ton of ideas going on but isn't that the fun ? Juggling all the crazy stuff?!?

Always have an escape plan :)

Ross

ASTROFUNK issue 2 - SOLD OUT!

2011-02-10T21:50:00.004Z

Howdy folks - Just a quick note to say I have zero copies left of Issue 2 of ASTROFUNK! Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy, muchos appreciated. Hopefully I will get more of issue 2 re-printed soon, but at the moment you'll have to make do with ordering issue 1 if youwant any funk - of which I still have a few copies left.

But fear not - if you're desperate for an Astrofunk flavoured fix you can still download the online edition of Issue 1 from SuperRealDigital at the link below

Super Real Digital - Astrofunk 1

Issue 2 will also be available for download there real soon!

As for issue 3 - I've been doodling some Astrofunk recently, so you never know, it might happen in the near future..... I'll be getting a lot more artwork up here in the next few weeks anyways, so check back in with the sketchtasticness real soon! Adios!

Ross

Spare Parts: Launch Trailer (HD)

2011-01-19T12:29:00.000Z

Today is the day! SPARE PARTS is finally out, now available on
XBOX live or PSN, at a measley 800 points - around 6.20 - what
a bargain! :) This is the new launch trailer, which the guys here
at ea did an amazing job with, so give it a watch then go download
the game, it's a lot of fun!

Cheers

Ross

Spare Parts - Concept Review

2011-01-15T23:39:00.001Z

so this is a new Viral video for Spare Parts, which is about to appear on PSN and XBOX LIVE very shortly, and shows...well, maybe some of the fun we had whilst working on this game with some great people. Even the crazy ones in this video :)

So I will be posting lots of Spare Parts related stuff over the next few weeks, there's also a nice little feature on XBLA just now with Inside Xbox, plus some Themes and Wallpapers up on PSN, so everything is ramping up. Good times!

Back soon!

Ross

Spare Parts: Simon Pegg Interview

2010-12-11T13:12:00.000Z

Howdy folks

It's been a while, and I've not even finished off the last post...but wanted to quickly throw this up here, nice little interview with Mr. Simon Pegg, who voices one of the main characters in Spare Parts. It was very very cool getting to design the character of Con-Rad knowing it would be Pegg, and certainly influenced its design. The video shows off some cool footage of the game, and if you keep your eyes peeled you might even spot some of my concept art towards the end. The game should be out real soon, so I'll keep everyone posted on that also...

Might eventually post some new artwork up here soon! Maybe Santa will bring me a new sketchbook!!!

Ross Burt and the Lost Map of Influence!

2010-10-13T23:56:00.005+01:00

So i spotted these kicking around the internet recently, and thought it sounded like a fun thing to put together - just didn't realise how long I would take picking which images to use, where to put them, how big they should be....but finally got there. There's a template u can find easily on google if u fancy putting one together yourself. The idea is something like to remind yourself and show others what has influenced your art over the years....now for me and I'm sure most of you, that's a heck of a lot of things, but I've tried to stick to artwork itself that has influenced my artwork, rather than get into toys , movies, and everything else - although some of my choices kinda involve elements of some of those areas. What I have tried to do is pick images that represent more than one thing - so not only an artist, but a topic or theme too.

Anyways, I'll put together a proper description to go with this shortly, talking about each image, but it's getting late, so for now u can just look at the nice pictures :)

ok...so here we go with a run down of the pics:

Cheeks - Panthro - Starting at the top left, one of my favourite current artists is Sean 'Cheeks' Galloway. Love his stylisation and simplification, and the fact he designed the recent Spiderman animation means I can now enjoy his work with my son which rocks! This image also covers Th-Th-Th-Thundercats, which was a massive influence when i was about 9, one of my favourite cartoons from my childhood that i occassionally watch again these days, just a fantasticly strong and varied set of characters, and a great mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

Jamie Hewlett - Gorillaz - next up is another of my current faves. First got into Hewletts work at Art College, i kinda missed the Tank girl comics first time round, but I still remember first spotting Gorillaz on the cover of Dazed magazine , and pouring over the Clint Eastwood video. There's a lot to love about Hewletts work, it's contemporary and unique, and the characters have real life and personality...plus i love that u can see it's hand drawn, he doesn't hide the pencil lines. Quality.

8 bit MegaMan - so this covers a bunch of stuff - first up, i love retro video games, the blocky stylings of the NES and the sweet old school arcade cabinet graphics look amazing and have always stuck with me. Plus when i was like 8 or 9 I used to keep a Megaman scrapbook, and draw all the Robot characters. GoodTimes.

Calvin and Hobbes - the genius that is Bill Waterson had to take a large chunk of this map. I first discovered these guys in my early teens, during our Saturday library trips. Finding comic books of anykind in there was hard enough - but this was amazing...these days I own all the books, and I find myself going back to them time and again, pouring over Bills amazing work. And this image best sums it up for me - whenever you read Calvin and Hobbes it feels like you're a kid again, in front of the fire on an autumn/winter day with the comics out. These guys were also the biggest influence behind my Captain Fuzzball comic strip. I only wish Bill would come back to them for one last volume..... Amazing.

Ralph McQuarrie - Rebo Band - oh man. StarWars. Well, Return of the Jedi. I'll go into the entire SW thing later with the main image, but this pic is up there for a few reasons - first up, McQuarrie was probably one of the first concept artists i was aware of, I got the Jedi portfolio for christmas when i was only 7 ish, and it was stunning. This is one of my favourite pieces from that folio - I loved Jedi mainly for the Jabbas Palace scene - so many wierd and wonderful creatures and characters that it blew my tiny mind. Mcquarries work captured moments from the saga in breathtaking style. Wow.

Bryan Lee O'Malley - Scott Pilgrim - I discovered this about 4 years ago when I moved down to London, and quickly caught up on the first 3 volumes. I loved the fact it was simplified with bold lines like an animation, in an almost Cartoon Network kind of way, but it wasn't a kids comic - and it's mix of smart dialogue and original action was a big influence when putting together my first issue of Astrofunk.

Chris Warner - Predator - This is a blast from the past. I remember sitting drawing around the age of maybe 13, and my Dad asked me what I wanted to be - and I said 'Comic Artist...like Chris Warner'. This guy was one of the first artist names I recognised, he was drawing a lot of my favourite comics at that age, when I was getting the british reprints of american stuff - so his Predator strip was one of the first, then Terminator, then his Aliens vs. Predator. I used to sit and just copy some of his covers or splash pages. I guess his work was a kind good balance between cartoony and realistic, and he was working on these cool movie tie-ins. Loved it.

Joe Madureira - Marvel Heroes

J.Scott Campbell - Mary Jane

Gendy Tartakovsky - Clone Wars

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Street Fighter - Third Strike

Mike Mignola - Aliens

STAR WARS - Drew Struzan

ooft..this is taking longer than i thought...to be continued !

In space....

2010-09-28T00:08:00.003+01:00

...no one can hear you sketch!

So i saw some pics from the Aliens Blu-Ray a couple weeks back, which got me doodling Ripley...aaaah, sweet Sigourney.....anyways, then I started doodling an alien, then a bit of henriksen, and before I could say 'HIGH-FIRMATIVE ' it had turned into a pin-up thing of some kind. So I thought I should finally finish it up, and get onto some proper concepting nonsense, get back into some more drawing. But drawing Aliens whilst watching Aliens has been awesome fun, infact I am very tempted to do an alien sketch with dallas and the crew, but that should really wait....

backsoon!

Spare Parts Adventure Trailer

2010-09-21T22:28:00.003+01:00

New Trailer Alert! This one is all about gameplay, showing off lots of cool new stuff, so don't sit around reading this nonsense from me - HIT THE JUMP BELOW!

SPARE PARTS ADVENTURE TRAILER

Back Soon with a Bishop, a Queen, and a Newt!
Adios!

Spare Parts Website

2010-09-15T08:48:00.006+01:00

Hey folks

Quick update with some news on Spare Parts, the most awesome robot adventure game xbox live has never seen but will soon! The website has just gone live, so hit the jump below to check it out - it's got all the latest news, screenshots and trailers, new bios and pics, cool wallpapers.... and if you scour the site u can unlock cheeky concept sketches, so what are u waiting for ? get over there!

WWW.SPAREPARTS.EA.COM

March of Dimes Auction Links

2010-08-29T11:15:00.003+01:00

hey folks

So the cards i posted below have gone up on ebay.....remember this isn't you giving money to an old git like me, all goes to a great cause helping new born babies. So if u fancy any of them , here's all the links u need below....spread the word!

Harry Potter

Voldemort

Slave Leia

Jabba

Gamorrean Guard

Cheers to all bidders!!

Return of the Sketch Cards

2010-08-26T23:58:00.006+01:00

Back again with some pics of the sketch cards I've been doing this week...

These cards are for 5finity, and will be on sale this weekend on ebay ( links coming soon), with all proceeds going to charity March of Dimes, dedicated to baby health - click on the link for more info

Anyways, I was just gonna draw Star Wars, but the temptation to draw Voldemort was too much, and I didn't want him to be all alone, so Harry got thrown in there too. I'm pretty excited about Deathly Hallows, so it was a good excuse to watch the trailer again. ...and again :)

The Jedi scene was a lot of fun, and includes some of my favourite characters - I always loved Jabbas Palace, as a kid it was this amazing place filled with fantastic characters and creatures, just awesome. This is 3 cards that join together, so if someone wants the set they gotta cough up the moolah!

So this was a lot of fun, hopefully someone picks them up and helps out a good cause whilst getting some original art in the process. Or check out other cool sketch card art at 5finity

mE-bay!

2010-08-23T22:34:00.005+01:00

howdy .....so yeah, still no new artwork. man i suck.

BUT

couple of cool things....first up, I'm currently right now at this very moment of the space time continue...um...thing ....drawing some new sketch cards, similar to the pulp girl cards i was doing a few months ago. The best thing about these cards? well, there's 2 best things...

1 - you can buy them and the money goes to Charity

2 - because it's for Charity I can draw what i want. so they are STAR WARS sketch cards!

So i am trying to finish them off right now and all going well they should be on ebay this weekend in charity auctions. I'll keep the blog posted with any links...

and speaking of Ebay....

I was just browsing the intergalacticworldwideweb and happened across some Pulp girl cards on the auction site we all know too well.....there's about 137 Pulp Girl cards up there, but if for some reason you wanna avoid the others and buy one of mine, then there are a couple of sellers with my cards for sale.....here are the links!

Stitches Sketch Card

Dust Bunny Sketch Card

Honey Brown Sketch Card

So I'll be back soon with hopefully..one day...when I ain't burning thru paper at EA...some actual NEW drawings.

Adios!

SR Digital

2010-08-06T09:01:00.002+01:00

Howdy kids

Thanks to a cool team up with Jason Martin over at Super Real Graphics, you can now get Astrofunk digitally, online, right here on your computer! yupyupyup, how cool is that! You can buy a pdf for a mere 99cents! bargain! There's also some cool other comic strips up there for sale, and more coming soon, so hit the link below for the good stuff

http://superrealdigital.blogspot.com/p/astro-funk.html

Mega busy right now, but got some cool stuff ont he horizon, so hopefully back real soon!

Bafta Young Game Designers

2010-07-28T21:03:00.003+01:00

Howdy folks....me again. Thought it was about time I put a new post up here, and although I don't have any new artwork yet, this recent video gives me a reason to at least post something, rather than just sit here and listen to the Inception soundtrack again ( great movie, great score ).

So a month or two ago I was asked by ea to record a video for the Bafta Young Game Designers awards. They run a competition to get kids involved with making video games, and were crazy enough to ask me about my day to day job as a concept artist. So if the thought of me rambling on about this interests you then check out the link below. Or maybe you just want a look at my messy desk and robot sketches :)

Bafta Young Game Designers

Anyways, was nerve racking but good fun, although I do put on my best teacher voice. You'll never hear me speak that clearly in real life ! Back soon with some actual artwork....once i get this Spare Parts game finished that is!

Adios!

JetSetRadio is 10

2010-06-30T22:51:00.003+01:00

Finally got my pin-up done for the tenth anniversary of Jet Set Radio, and just in time too.
Didn't get nearly as much time on this as i would have liked, was hoping to incorporate rival gangs and a few more elements, spend a little longer on it in general, but I'm quite pleased with it, and it was certainly great fun drawing all the GGs.....check out the other anniversary pics at the JSR10 blog

www.jetsetradio10.blogspot.com

SPARE PARTS TRAILER

2010-06-24T22:51:00.003+01:00

Check out the brand new first ever footage of my new game Spare Parts.....I was only involved with this at the Storyboard stage, but the guys have produced a fantastic trailer with some great animation and interplay between the two robots, combined with some cool gameplay footage....

SPARE PARTS TRAILER HD

Back soon with my Jet Set Radio 10th anniversary pin-up! Seeya laters!

Spare Parts

2010-06-13T14:46:00.006+01:00

Robots Robots Robots!

Just a quick post to highlight my newly announced game from EA Brightlight. I'm lead concept artist on SPARE PARTS, and we've just released the first screenshots and description of the game..... I picked the Eurogamer site to show off the link, as i love their description 'Hurrah! A videogame that sounds like a videogame!' :)
Hit the link below to read more about the game.

Spare Parts @ Eurogamer

Hope you enjoy checking it out, when there's more news released then this will be the place to check it out!

Goonies!

2010-06-09T00:05:00.003+01:00

What? It was the 25th anniversary of 'Goonies' yesterday? ( one of the most awesome kids adventure movie ever ) Dang - well to celebrate, I thought I'd do a quick sketch on my lunch break - so this took about 45 mins to rough and finish, then spent half an hour in photoshop just tweaking and stuff. Great fun.

GOONIES NEVER SAY DIE!

Time to get back to listening to the score.....aaah, Fratelli chase!

Sketching Sketch Cards....

2010-06-07T13:41:00.005+01:00

Howdy

Recently I got lucky enough to be invited to work on some original Sketch Cards for the 'Pulp Girls' line over at SuperRealGraphics. Basically a 'sketch card' is an original piece of artwork that if you're really lucky, like the luckiest guy ever, having a lucky day, drinking luck potion in the land of luck - then u might get one of these badboys :) - So it's another challenge for me in that there's no Edit-Undo or Photoshop to clean up mistakes - much like last weekend at the convention, it pushes u back to basics, and is great fun at polishing your colouring in skills :) As you can see, my desk was covered in Markers, FineLiners, Posca Paint pens, anything i could find....I had spent a good few hours just roughing out poses and ideas, and I was a lot more careful and patient than when working on a piece which i am gonna take to into photoshop, but really enjoyed drawing all 12 cards - can't reveal any of them yet, but they're coming out in July , so I'll get them on the blog soon-ish. Anyways, I always like seeing pics of where artists work, so thought I'd stick some photos of my mess up here!

Check out Pulp Girls here - http://pulpgirlsblog.blogspot.com/

Convention time....

2010-06-02T01:11:00.003+01:00

Howdy....ok, so it might be a little longer than i planned since my last post, but things have gotten just a little bit busy at work. I did however find time to get my butt down to the awesome Movie Comic & Media Expo in London this weekend. I've only done this con once before, when I launched issue 1 of astrofunk - since then it's changed a little , but obviously for the better, as it was chockablock full of funky anime costumes and comic fans - apparently taking a record attendance of 41,000! wowzas. Anyways, I got to meet and catch up with some mega cool people, sell some comics, practice my sketching skills with a couple of comissions like Wolverine above, and generally have an awesome time. Thanks to everyone who dropped by and picked up the comic, hope you're enjoying it. Hopefully I won't leave it as long before returning to this con next time!

Dr.Sketchy

2010-04-21T23:28:00.005+01:00

I was lucky enough to get out to a Dr.Sketchy night on Sunday, where upon I sat in the pub, pint in one hand, sketchpad in the other, and tried to draw whilst admiring the beautiful models in burlesque. Which was nice.

Poses sranged from 1 and 2 mins, to 10 mins max, or there might have been one 15. Anyways, had a great time, really good night, would recommend it, and will probably try and catch them in London in the near future. Oh - the volcanoes, voting cards and....platipus - they were crazy challenges set by the host. There weren't actually any Platupi in lingerie at the event. Platupi? Platupusses? Platu-pie? mmmm :)

ANTLERED BEAST

2010-04-09T18:13:00.002+01:00

Friday! Woo! But before I hit the pub, I've just got time to post this....it's the colour version of the first of my new Uncanny Sketchmen challenges, which u can check out from the links on the right....that involved sticking to black n white, but i wanted to push this thing into the land of colour, so here we go. He's inspired by a few diferent things, vultures, antlers, lizards, and just my wierd head. Right - pub time, Have a good one!

YO

2010-04-06T21:17:00.003+01:00

Howdy

Been trying to draw alot more recently , so this guy is basically just one of many sketches i've been working through to the colour stage, with about 2 to 3 more in photoshop at some stage or another. I was starting to work towards drawing a Tokyo gang, but this guy is more just your average street punter. Hopefully I'll get on to the actual gang soon, but up next under this theme is probably the detective chasing them. Anyways, this guy was fun, played around with the opacity of the pencil layer alot, and ended up barely using it, which was a nice change.

In other news - The Uncanny Sketchmen have returned!
We finally got our butts in gear and started setting drawing challenges again, so you can check out the results so far at the link below.....I'm planning on taking my creature design through the colour process for this blog. Hopefully we can keep up a good momentum on sketchmen and post 3 or 4 new things a month!

THE UNCANNY SKETCHMEN RETURN!

Stay frosty!

Jet Set Raaaaadio

2010-03-22T00:16:00.002Z

Howdy!

Just a quick shout out about a new blog I just launced - if you're a fan of the awesome video game series that is Jet Set Radio, then jump over to this link now...

JetSetRadio10

It's the tenth anniversary of the original Dreamcast JSR, a game which zapped me right between the eyes when it first came out, and it's following sequel was my main reason for buying an xbox years later....

Anyways, the idea of the blog is to showcase loads of new artwork by all the massive JSR fans out there, in time for the anniversary this June.....so if you fancy putting something together then drop me a comment and I'll add ya to the list!

I'm gonna get to work on my poster shortly, and am looking forwards to trying to draw all of the main cast in one image, but for now here's my Gum flavoured teaser....

UNTOUCHABLE

2010-03-12T12:42:00.004Z

What's the matter? ...can't ya talk with a gun in yer mouth? '

..eheheheh, this is just a quick sketch i did last night before dozing off to sleep....I really wanna get drawing a lot more, so hopefully i can have at least one blog post a week from now on...looking back over the last year i didn't produce nearly enough new artwork !

Anyways, The Untouchables is one of my favourite movies, and I've never drawn connery before, so i sketched this out in about 20 mins. Just Pencil n Paper, there's nuthin like it!

..oh, and Ennio Morricone helping me out in the background :)

'WHAT ARE YOU PREPARED....TO DO!!'

Done Dee

2010-03-09T21:53:00.004Z

D-Conned! I've almost recovered from my awesome weekend in Scotland....D-Con was fantastic, I got to meet lots of cool peeps, had my mind blown by some crazy costumes, got chatted up by a Tie fighter pilot, and sold a good couple of comics, so thanks very much to everyone who dropped by the stall, much appreciated. If you picked up the comic then lemme know whatchya think with a quick comment, you never know, you might just make issue 3 even better than 2!
I picked up a few emails and deviant links, so it'll take me a week or so to get around to replying to everyone, but thanks for the links and I look forward to checkin' out yer stuff.

I also got the chance to do my first ever Astrofunk flavoured interview, and hopefully I'll have a link up here soon to the podcast.

Oh and well done to Branstar who walked off with the street fighter tournament again...comiserations that the prize was yet again another piece of my artwork ;)

Last of all - here's the poster i put together exclusively for D-Con...if you look closely you can just spot the Law hill in the distance, i had alot of fun doing this one, thanks to everyone who picked one up...hope to see you all again next year, which I've no doubt will be even bigger and better!

Dundee Calling...

2010-03-03T22:47:00.004Z

D-CON is almost upon us, so I'm packing up the funk and jumping on a train to Scotland this weekend. Hope to see loads of you there, I'll have both issues of Astrofunk for sale, along with badge packs and a couple of posters, one of which is a brand new image I created exclusively for D-Con, here's a sneak peek....

So come along, grab some comics, play some streetfighter, hang out with some Stormtroopers...just a regular weekend in dundee! kicks off around 2, check out details here

D-D-D-D-COOOOOOOOOOOON

pLUS - you can now pick up a copy of Astrofunk in London at Orbital Comics, just round the corner from Leicester Square.

RETURN OF THE FUNK!

2010-02-21T19:06:00.009Z

'I had it Marcus...I had it in my hand.... ' And it's in my hands at last! Astrofunk 2 has landed, and it's great to finally be able to read through it as comics were meant to be seen, in your hands, under your nose, IN YOUR FACE! :) I'm currently updating the astrofunk website, but if you're desperate for a copy then you can drop me an email and order by paypal.....

And if you missed out on issue 1, you can get a tastey combo of both issues for just £5.00! Bargain :)

Funk x 2

2010-01-30T00:45:00.004Z

And ...it's.....done!! I finally pulled my finger out, knuckled down, stared at my laptop every night, denied myself xbox, sat down and actually finished Astrofunk 2! It's been...well....over a year and a half in the making, but it's now at the printers, and all going well, should be in my hands in a month, and on sale at D-Con!

Soooo, to wet your appetite, as a tastey little starter, here's a look at the cover and first 3 pages...the cover was obviously an important image...looking back at issue 1, I'm really not that happy with the cover, so my goal with this one was to make it more dynamic, put more personality in the main figure, better expression, and just something that jumps out at ya!

The first 3 pages show a diferent view of the Astrofunk world and characters, exploring their lives on earth before they ventured out in to the ever expanding universe....there were some tough challenges for me in these first pages, but it was great fun to draw diferent situations and locations.

Anyway, check it out and lemme know yer thoughts, and if u want to pick up a copy of issue 2 in a months time then just gimme a shout!

Back soon!

Imagine FX gets funked!

2009-12-16T12:56:00.003Z

YO! Astrofunk 2 is nearing completion, and i'm gonna put a preview up here very shortly...in the meantime you can catch a glimpse of the funk in the new issue of Imagine FX magazine here in the UK. Fantasstic mag with lots of cool tutorials and links to quality artists, and for some reason I'm in there :) Small interview on the upcoming DCon manga and Digital art convention in Dundee in March. I'll be there with issue 2 of AstroFunk - which means I'd better go get busy! Seeyasoon!

Find out more about the magazine here Imagine FX

FGN 2

2009-11-10T19:06:00.003Z

W-W-W-Woooowzas! Has it really been almost 3 months since my last post!
I can't believe it, i guess moving house has kept me busier than i realised...anyways, couple of games just got released on Friday that I worked on earlier in the year, so a good excuse for an easy post - this stuff is from Family Game Night 2, just released for the Wii, and there's a tiny bit of stuff from a brief stint i did on the DS version of FGN. All great fun to work on with a very cool bunch of folks.

Astrofunk 2 is getting there, it's feeling more and more like an actual comic that i can read from start to finish...kind of, so hopefully it'll be finished soon. I'm kinda holding off posting anymore titbits to save it for the final article, but might just throw some lineart up here in the short term. Otherwise another 3 months will pass with no posts!!

Cheers for stopping by!

Funking it up....

2009-08-13T00:10:00.002+01:00

Quick teaser poster i had fun doing for Astrofunk part 2. And giving myself this deadline may actually mean i finish it! fingers crossed :)

hALF bLOOD pRINCE

2009-07-16T20:18:00.003+01:00

Potter!! The movie is finally out, which means our Harry Potter video game is also released. I was lucky enough to work with the guys early last year storyboarding the cutscenes for the game, which was fantastic fun for a potter geek like myself, sitting drawing Dumbledore, Snape and the rest was great fun, and getting a peek at the new characters like Jim Broadbents Slughorn was amazing. So here's some of the boards I worked on, covering the very first opening cut scene of the game, a moment between Ginny and Harry in the room of requirement, and one of Slughorns memories. Hope u enjoy checking them out, might drop a few more Potter bits n pieces off in the next few weeks.

CaptainFuzzball part 3

2009-06-30T18:18:00.005+01:00

The third installment of my new ongoing Fuzzball flavoured comic adventure comedy thing. 'Nuff said :)

Captain Fuzzball 2

2009-06-15T00:25:00.003+01:00

Mornin' all! As promised Fuzzball is back, in the second of his new adventures.....and Zeek is with him, you didn't really think I'd get rid of him did u? :) The story follows on from where part 1 left off, but reading part 1 isn't essential - although i would obviously say if u haven't already checked out the first part then scroll down and do that first! It's great fun working on this stuff, and there's definitely some more coming very soon, probably another 2 weeks time or so....see ya then!

Captain Fuzzball Returns!

2009-05-29T18:16:00.006+01:00

Welcome to the first Fuzzball Friday!

It's been a few weeks since I last posted, but I've been busy finishing off some brand new Captain Fuzzball strips that will
debut online at this blog.....currently I'm thinking there'll be a new one every fortnight or so, really enjoying writing these at the moment, adding that extra character really alloyed me to get some banter going between them, much more fun. But it's not all about me, I wanna know what u folks think, so give it a read, and hopefully a chuckle, and drop me a comment. Enjoy!

Astrofunk 2 Cover Concepts

2009-04-27T12:28:00.002+01:00

-Howdy!
Back with some Astrofunk issue 2 action this week - I'm almost finished the final version of the cover, but thought I'd stick up some of the work involved in getting there. As you can see, it's changed along the way, the only constant being that right from the initial sketches i knew that i wanted the cover to use the 8bitChick, and preferably show off the 8bit guns themselves, so went doodling crazy. The first page shows where i got to with my first pass, i liked the fact that u saw the scared rabbit and the stickers of the chompatrons, but upon reflection the post just wasn't exciting enough....soooo, i went back to the sketchbook, and came up with the idea of her running towards us with chompatrons by her side, and i think it works much better - there's more energy in the pose, and i think it just reaches out and grabs u more. Or here's hoping anyways - sure you'll let me know if i'm way off the mark :)

Back next week with....something else!

sPACE wARDEN

2009-04-07T22:04:00.005+01:00

New character time!

This guy is a new villain for Astrofunk....can't say too much about him without revealing story elements, other than he's a traffic warden in space - with a gunslingin' twist. Developing this guy's been great fun, especially working on his face..trying to get a stylised version of those Gene Hackman wrinkles, and an evil grin, makes u happy to be sitting at a lightbox :) I find creating the reference sheet really useful, even if u think you've know hot to draw a cowboy or whatever, there's always some little nuance u can find....either that or a completely diferent idea! Working on some colour passes next, so more from this guy soon. Oh, and that Astrofunk 2 cover which i promised....it's a comin!

More FGN...

2009-04-03T18:55:00.002+01:00

Just a quick post coz i gotta run home and make a curry :)

Some more work from Family Game Night, which I've been enjoying getting to grips with on xbox live, especially Connect 4...even though I suck! So if u want an easy win, challenge me :) I got to do a good variety of stuff on this game, and these show some more of the diferent aspects of that - whether it was designing trophies based on the games or creating views that appear outside the games room, or concepting the diferent themes for the room, all great fun.

Next up - I'll have the cover for Astrofunk 2 next week, maybe not finished but at least a sneak peek at the work so far. Until then, adios!

Family Game Night 360

2009-03-18T13:31:00.005Z

Back again!
Today sees the release of Hasbro Family Game Night on xbox 360 - so right now u can go online and download the first of the 3 games, Connect 4, Battleships, and Yahztee, along with the gamesroom which comes in a variety of themes. Concepting these themes was one of my main duties on the project, which i worked on for most of last year.....so I thought I'd start by sharing just one of these themes - Secret Agent. This was one of the last to be concepted but one of the most enjooyable to work on. You can see from the screenshots that the in-game model turned out pretty close to my concept, and the View concept with the potato walkers is actually used as the in-game texture for the view outside the window. This game was really great for me in stretching my skills into some more realistic enviroment work, and I've got afew more to post up here in the coming weeks.

You can download the room and themes for free and try out trial games, so even if u don't fancy spending pennies on the games u can check out my concept inspired themes :)

Check out info and trailer on the game over at xbox dot com below

http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/h/hasbrofamilygamenightxbla/

Plus check out a selection of screenshots from the game and reviews over at Ign below

FGN ScreenShots

Trivial Pursuit

2009-03-17T12:53:00.004Z

Friday the 13th saw the release of Trivial Pursuit on consoles everywhere, and I was lucky enough to get to do some cool stuff on the project. I wasn't on it for very long, but managed to produce all of the avatars which u see in all versions except 360. I created about 30 of these characters, each with 5 expressions to show their reactions to the questions posed....so here's a quick glimpse at some of those, the game is great fun and not as stuffy or boring as i remember triv being when i was growing up :)

Got another game out this week , so will get some concept up from that in afew days, 'till then Adios!

SF4 Pics

2009-03-10T23:14:00.002Z

Quick post - got my SF4 prizes through this morning, so wanted to drop off some quick photos for those that requested it. The US version contains 2 dvd style cases as shown, and as u can see my artwork is found inside the 2nd case containing a soundtrack CD and comic. Apart from the image being a bit more cropped than i would like, it's all pretty dang cool - plus the US game and anime dvd all run on my PAL xbox, so good times :)

D-CON - Thanks to everyone who dropped by the astrofunk stall at D-Con, great to meet lots of new fans and say hi to some old buddies, if you've just picked up the comic then drop me a comment here on whatchya think , your suggestions could help shape issue 2...which i should post more of soon...ish. Keep sketching! ...and playing street fighter...but mainly sketching :)

HADOOOOOOOOUUUUUKEN!!

2009-02-17T22:25:00.007Z

News just in - the human torch was denied a bank loan today. :)

In other news, I was lucky enough to have my Street Fighter entry selected as one of six finalists which will each appear in diferent versions of the game. It's amazing to be up there with the 5 other fantastic pieces, there's some truly awesome artwork - you can check all 6 out here at the capcom blog

CAPCOM UNITY BLOG

It was great fun working on a pic for one of my favourite video games series of all time, so I'm pretty excited to see it out there - the entries are each on inside covers of the dvd/game cases - my entry is on the inside of the anime disc in the Xbox360 Collectors Edition

Anyways, some guys requested desktop versions of the image, so the two images above are for normal or wide desktops. Now I gotta go play some street fighter!!!

oh - and thanks to Chris and Gordon for feedback whilst i worked on the image, cheers guys!

UPDATE - Looks like the artwork only appears in the US version for anyone keeping an eye out for it.

cHOMpTaSTIcNES

2009-02-10T13:31:00.003Z

U WANT IT ROUGH?!? OK U GOTS IT! :)

Working away at Astrofunk 2, been making great progress and managed to find a cover design i'm pretty happy with , so might get that up here soon....plus should be some Fuzzball up here soonish too, but in the meantime here's some of that 'roughstuff' that Captain Nolan requested :)
These Chomptastic robots are great fun to draw and appear alot in issue 2, so thought I'd stick some of the roughs up here , plus the initial sketches for page 9+10 of issue 2. These are ususally done at post it size then blown up to A4, and i always enjoy looking back at how a page started....back soon with more Funk!

Oh - Astrofunk and I will be appearing at D-Con, an Anime and Art Convention in Dundee on the 28th Feb, so if yer in the area drop by and say 'howdy' :) see link below for info

http://www.d-con.org.uk/

And here....we........go !

2009-01-24T02:09:00.003Z

HOWDYHOWDYHOWDY! It's been a long night, and my whiskey glass is getting empty, but finally I have it - the first 2 totally finished pages of ASTROFUNK 2!! It feels great to be back in the world of astrofunk drawing these characters again...I've got alot of issue 2 drawn out and ready to colour, so it's a definite release for later this year, as for exactly when, stay tuned..... These 2 pages are 8 and 9, so not the beginning of the issue, but a good place to give u a preview without reavealing too many of my secrets :) Gotta say a big thanks to everyone who has been asking about the second issue, always fantastic to hear from someone who enjoyed the first one, really gets me even more excited to be working on this sequel....so I hope u all enjoy these pages, be sure to let me know what u think! Up next is some Captain Fuzzball, I'm working in a slightly diferent format for him at the moment, with quick little one scene gags, the first of which will be up next week....this is a format I've always enjoyed when done by the masterful Bill Watterson in Calvin & Hobbes, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Hopefully it means you get more captain fuzzball up here on the blog regularly, albeit in smaller doses....but don't worry , I have 2 or 3 larger adventures in the works for him, including of course the back up strip in AF2. Anyways, I think I should finally call it a night and allow myself to sleep......hope u enjoy these pages, thanks again for support and be sure to say Hi....Goodnight~!

Wishing Well Studios

2009-01-20T23:12:00.008Z

First post of 2009! ...and it's just a quicky, ease u into things gently :)
Just wanted to point folks in the direction of 3Dtotals site - where they have just added the link to a new 'Making of' feature by the very talented guys at Wishing Well Studios. It's well worth a look, and details how they put together the latest scene from 'Mules Gold', covering everything from concept through modelling, lighting and more. Check it out at the link below

http://www.3dtotal.com/

As for me - got a number of projects on the go at the moment, but mainly focussing on ASTROFUNK 2 ! It's going really well, and check back later this week for the first glimpse of two finished pages....infact i gotta go colour them now! Adios!

Gauthier Arcade Edition

2008-12-30T23:20:00.004Z

Just a quick post of a custom vinyl toy thingy i painted up recently...these cool little guys are called 'supa coin op bros' , google them for some awesome custom jobs that put mine to shame....but this was great fun, a leaving gift for my good friend Captain jacques Gauthier , who has taught me many new skills of the pencil variety over the last 3 years at ea....cheers for that buddy! me can draw betterer now! ...well, a little :)

nUDE

2008-12-15T12:51:00.006Z

Ho-Ho-Howdy! This is the last of the pictures from my life drawing this year....it's been fantastic getting back into it, was a really great course and I'll hopefully go back to it next year, although not immediately. Need to put some more time into astrofunk and other me stuff, aah how I'll miss the nudity :) Gonna try to get a couple more blog posts up before the end of 2008, so stay tuned and keep sketching!

oPPOSING fORCES

2008-11-24T17:56:00.005Z

Hola!
Been a while, but thought I'd drop in some work I did recently for an SF4 competition....don't imagine this entry will get anywhere, as there are some fantastic pieces I'm up against, but it was great fun getting down to drawing the street fighter cast, and knowing it was for the comp really pushed me to put the extra time in, so I'm pretty pleased with the end result.
I wanted my image to immediately say 'SF4' as a pose to 'that could be any street fighter game', which is why i focussed on Seth, the new Boss in the latest game. It's interesting looking back at my early work on this, and realising how weak some of it was, I really enjoy seeing the progression....infact I want to add a quick video to this post of the progression of the final piece, coz that alone went through a number of changes. In the end I settled on the hexagons inspired by Seths background stage floor design, and used them as an easy way to show every fighter. So there all in there I think! If i have missed one, don't tell me ;)

mAG bLAG

2008-10-30T16:28:00.003Z

Just a quick shout to mention that the new 'Official Nintendo Magazine' has a cool 6 page feature on the making of ZUBO - and I was lucky enough to have some of my work featured. As someone who used to devour these magazines as a kid this gets me kinda excited, so forgive me for shouting about it :)
I used to love looking at the artwork for the latest mario game, copying drawings of final fight characters, doodling evil megaman bots, or creating my own street fighting dudes. For me, checking out some new artwork for a game was more exciting than a new screenshot, probably still is.. :) Anyway, the sketches shown are from some of the move storyboards i produced, so i might get afew more of these up here soon. Adios!

Life Drawing Portrait

2008-10-28T00:07:00.002Z

We got the chance to spend the whole of last weeks session on a portrait, so I thought I'd take the chance to try out my new set of coloured pencils ( cheers Captain Dearsley ) . It was great fun, spent just under an hour on line work getting a likeness, then went crazy with the colour, layering it up for about another hour, so this is about 2 hours work. Anyways, seems like all i post is life drawing these days, hopefully get something more exciting up here soon!

quickstyle

2008-10-16T01:13:00.002+01:00

couple of quick little paint jobs....didn't have much time on either of these, but wanted to get some painting done, so sat down with a glass of whiskey and the wacom pad. good times :) gonna try to get into something bit more meaty in the next few days, but was good fun just stayin loose and crazy with these 2, basically starting with silhouettes and working into those. Hoping to get an enviroment piece up next, probably involving some more hot monster action :) see ya then!

Round 2 ....and 3

2008-10-14T00:15:00.003+01:00

More nudity - this covers the last two weeks of life drawing, did the pastel piece this evening, and last week was a mixture of shorter poses. Great to get some practice at colour studies, looking forwards to maybe trying out some painting next.

Ray

2008-10-08T18:12:00.002+01:00

Woo!! Zubo is here at last, so I thought I'd share a little of my work from this awesome project. I mainly worked on storyboarding the battle moves for the game, but this cool little guy Ray was one of the few characters that I got to concept myself. He was the last to join Team Alien, and the storyboard shows his unique battle move. I had a fantastic time working on this game, and it's great to finally be able to play it myself! It's out now on DS, so go grab a copy! You can check out more about the game at the official site here

ZUBO.ea.com

Return to Nakedness

2008-10-01T00:43:00.008+01:00

Started a new life drawing class last night, good to get back to it...been a good few months since my last class, so felt tough at first, but soon got going, and was really enjoying it by the end. The tutor kept all the poses pretty short just to warm us up, so all of these were about 12 mins. Looking forwards to trying some longer poses and diferent mediums....oh, and finding out whether u gain any new drawing skills upon hitting your thirties....although it's more likely i've lost some, much like my hair :)