Last Page Battle Scene

So, Richard takes his small (ish) band of men into merry hell and against all odds, dies. Overwhelmed by sheer numbers. His head is removed and put on public display at Micklegate in York. This is a Lo Res test for the colouring, which is next. Some of it works, some, like the motion blur at the bottom, does not.

“Lets Get This Over With”

The Duke rallying his men for a ‘quick’ skirmish beyond the Castle walls, over confident in his martial abilities and strategic position maybe? While forces loyal to the Lancastrians have infiltrated his troops and are getting ready to turn what might have been a bit of sport into a political and physical BLOODBATH.

The Lancastrians Are Coming...

A grey foggy winter scene. Richard at the top of Sandal Castle with his son and other Nobles, viewing the first of the estimated 15,000 Lancastrians to arrive.

Quiet Before The Storm

It’s the dead days between Christmas and New Year’s eve 1460, castle business goes on apace keeping up with the influx of Richard’s men. The Duke of York in the forge is having his armour adjusted to accommodate his recent good living when suddenly the Earl of Salisbury bursts in. “VIENE TORMENTA!”

Christmas Time Already

Pencils for a half page banquet scene. There is going to be a fair bit of writing  here hence the large areas of texture. I tried to make this as accurate as possible, but it got a little boring, so I played around with the room layout. Whether a room like this would have existed is hard to tell, so this is my best guest with reference to hand and a bit of drawing ‘voodoo’ thrown in for good measure. Drawn with a 2B pencil and then the contrast upped a bit to get the chiaroscuro effect from the candles.

Richard Loses That Damn Hat–Hurrah!

Duke of York with a funny medieval hat, kinda glad he’s lost it.

Character Heads

Character test drawings from my best guess pixelated web and medieval manuscripts research.

Weapon of Choice = Pencil!

Pencils for the first half page of a short strip I’m working on. This page is A4 Landscape and drawn with a 2B pencil. This will be scanned in at high resolution, resized to A3 and then coloured digitally over the top. I was going to use pen and ink and watercolour but changed my mind at the eleventh hour. I’m just not accurate enough with a pen, where with pencil I can erase and redraw to at least get a passing resemblance to the thing I’m supposed to be drawing. And I like the atmosphere it creates too. As a side note, I decamped to Helen’s studio for the day to do this and plan on doing that for the next few days to get this pencilling stage complete. Three and a half pages to go, which will now get quicker to do I hope.

Wire, wire, wireless…

Frustrating past few days spent sorting out a new wireless router, three computers and a wireless printer/scanner on a home network. Did these quick sketches of our grubby old ginger cat as a way of celebrating me getting it all working.

Medieval Weapons Research 2

Monday afternoon I was allowed to sit in on a session at Sandal Castle Visitor Centre. Drawing and taking reference photos of re-enactment weapons and helmets and costumes. A lot of my research so far has been from websites and black and white locally produced books, so to be able to handle and feel the physical shape and weight of medieval equipment is an eye opener to what these objects actually look like. Now, I just have to find a complete working medieval castle and an army of 28,000 fighting men and my research will be complete.

Layouts

Above: These are the first set of layouts for a comic strip I am working on. Being roughs, they include a lot of mistakes and rethinking and blank boxes towards the end. Most of the content is in there though, it’s now a matter of working on timing and panel flow to make it work as a comic strip. I’ll redraw these pages a few times using a light box and layout paper and then it’s time for some editorial input.

Character, Materials, and Illustration Tests

Top: Drawings getting into a character.

Bottom: Image is a ‘materials test’. Trying to find the way this project wants to be drawn. I have no choice in this matter, my drawing power is connected to the wind and tides. Dip Pen and Ink is the winner, (now there’s a surprise).

Cumbria Sketchbook

Helen and I spent last week in and around Keswick in Cumbria. The weather wasn't that brilliant, with cloud hugging the mountain tops for most of the time we were there. Here are a few of the pages from my sketchbook. Soft, water soluble things to draw with are good for this type of environment.

And being on holiday I lost count of what day it was, is that good?