How not to draw comics...

Conception

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 20:33:00 +0000

I've been stretching my artistic limbs a little lately and doing a bit of concept work, illustration and game design (I'll blog more about that soon). Today was a bit of character design for a one of the comicbooks I'm working on. This character only plays a small part, but he features on the variant cover I had to make sure his costume was properly designed.

For this all-digital process I experimented with multiple players. When I ended up with something I liked, the figure was copy-merged and pasted to the right hand side, then used as a base to work on top of. My actual Photoshop file looked like the one below:

Click the pic for a better look.

An unusual format for me, but I quite liked the process.

Thought Bubble

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 20:45:00 +0000

At the minute I'm the bus stop at Leeds airport waiting for the bus to bring me to the Thought Bubble Festival. Graham Pearce, creator of the hilarious Sgt Mike Battle comic is sharing his table at the con with me over the weekend, so if you're about, call over to table 179 in Saville Hall and say hello.

I'll be selling copies of Jennifer Wilde #1, as well as Cancertown, Slaughterma's Creed, prints and custom sketches. This weekend will be one of the best times to buy comics off me as collaborators Cy Dethan, Nic Wilkinson, Vicky Stonedbridge and Maura McHugh will be about the con and can sign them for you, or I'm sure.wouldn't mind a chat about the books if you're not one for adding scribbles to your comics.

Treading Ground

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Fri, 30 Sep 2011 19:46:00 +0000

New comic journalist website Cosmic Treadmill are presenting a spotlight week on Atomic Diner, and have a review of their latest comics including Jennifer Wilde, plus and a quick interview with myself, complete with an exclusive splash page art from Black Scorpion.

I've posted a breakdown of said splash page on my Tumblr this week as well. Click the preview above to bring you there.

Jennifer Wilde has been getting rave reviews everywhere, so check in with http://jenniferwildecomic.com/ if you want to hear the feedback.

I'm working away on both Jennifer Wilde #2 & Black Scorpion, so expect more previews soon.

Jennifer Wilde #1 Where, When and Why

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 13:07:00 +0000

Jennifer has been cast into the Wilde. My copies of Jennifer Wilde #1 have arrived and they are very nice indeed, a really nice paper and print job.

If you want to get your hands on one, there's a blog post up on JenniferWildeComic.com letting you know all the places you can buy Jennifer Wilde #1, including direct from Atomic Diner and Forbidden Planet Belfast. It's also got nice review quotes from John Freeman and Hilary Lawyer as well as some process shots as I worked out how to draw a 1920s steam train.

I'll also be personally bringing a few copies over to Thought Bubble, leeds in Novomber to sell. If you want to pre-order one from me, just let me know and I'll hold one for you.

Back to the drawing board for more Jennifer Wilde layouts...

Black Scorpion

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:12:00 +0000

I little while back I mentioned I'd be working on a one-shot spin off of the extremely well reviewed 'League of Volunteers' (it's been called the 'Irish Hellboy'), written by Rob Curley. That comic is Black Scorpion and above is my cover (which 99% finished, with only a couple of tweaks to go).

The cover marks my first all digital, Cintiq drawn work for print, but I'll be back to real inks for the interiors. Rob and I discussed the process of creating comics and from that, Rob is writing the comic somewhere between full script and the old Marvel style, so it's going to really fun working out my panel to panel storytelling.

In other news, Jennifer Wilde #1 is at the printers, so it shouldn't be long at all before it's available to buy. I'll also be at the MCM Expo in Manchester on Saturday 30th July, so if you're close by come and say hello.

A Jedi, a Superhero and a Judge walk into a bar: Commissions

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 11:00:00 +0000

Some recent commissions. These were custom drawn to be comic book interpretations of the clients.

I've started a Tumblr blog for rough and work-in-progress images, and you'll see the rough stages of these pieces over there at Downey Doodles.

2D Festival

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 17:35:00 +0000

Another fanastic year at the 2D Festival. Plenty of sketching, selling, drinking and even a little bit of dancing. I didn't brig my camera for fear of losing it, so all these photographs are lifted from the Facebook pages of Ciaran Flanaghan and Phil Friel.

Sketching on the festival floor. Might be Hellboy for Ron.

I think think was the busiest year of the 2D festival yet.

More sketching. Looks like Venom.

Tommie Kelley and I staring into Space.

Being very professional and taking notes before the Sunnyside Comics presents: Piracy, Creator owned and digital comics.

Slaughterman's Creed cover painter gets close and personal. No, we're not lovers and no it wasn't 'that big'.

Aimee and I enjoying drinks.

Lily Daniels and Daniel Clifford flew over from England just for the dancing.

And they took full advantage when they could.

Roll on 2D 2012.

Slaughterman's Creed FP Belfast Signing

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 30 May 2011 10:56:00 +0000

To celebrate the launch of Slaughterman's Creed I'll be signing copies at Forbidden Planet Belfast on the 11th of June. Slaughterman's Creed inker Andy Brown and cover painter Ryan Brown will be there also.

If you come along there's a free sketch with every copy bought on the day and Andy Luke will be signing and giving out FREE print copies of our Absence comic.

Hopefully see a few of you there and spread the word if you can.

Slaughterman's Creed: Video Nasties

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 23 May 2011 20:14:00 +0000

I got my hands on a few copies of Slaughterman's Creed on the Sunday of last weekend's Bristol Comic Expo, and it's so good to see another year of work held in my hand.

I was suprised that the pages, and Vicky's colours especially, look even better in print than they do on screen. Mr. Green's tattoo's stand out fantasticly well on the glossy paper.

A real life Green: Scott Grandison, who was crazy enough to get his face painted as Mr. Green to host our panel: The Task of Blood: Creating Slaugherman's Creed.

A photo from the panel itself, which went down really well with a healthy audience listening in. You can download the audio, posted under Scott's podcast 'Comicbook Outsiders', here, and if you want to see the presentation slides you can download a PDF here.

I spoke a little about uising reference and models, which included a short 'reference to final pencils' video which you can watch below.

The whole Bristol weekend was a fantastic launch for the book, with lots of people coming by to pick up a long list of pre-orders. Together with sales on the day we shifted over 100 copies which is by far Markosia's highest ever selling convention book.

Next up is the 2D festival in Derry where I'll be on the Creator owned/Piracy panel on Friday 3rd June at 8:30pm, then selling Slaughterman's Creed and sketching at the Comic's open day on the Saturday.

Hopefully see a few of you there.

Ps. Thanks for the photos Vicky

Absence - A comic about Epilepsy

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 09:04:00 +0000

Absence is a comic written by fellow Belfast creator Andy Luke about his experiences with epilepsy throughout his life and drawn by me at the start of this year. Absence is a touching, informational, funny and maybe most important of all, FREE comic funded by Unltd. Its drawn in quite a different style for me to suit the A5 print and was really fun to draw.

We're having a launch party this Thursday, the 21st April, at Catalyst Arts, 5 College Court, Belfast. Free comics, free entry and maybe even some free nibbles and refreshments. All welcome so come along for the craic.

If you prefer to read your comics digitally, absencecomic.com has just launch and hosts the entire comic, with details to get free copies delivered right to your door. The site will be updated with details of our Apple Store launch via Oxicomics in a few weeks.

I'll also have some copies on our table at the Bristol Comic con in a few weeks time, so pop along for a free comic.

Kapow! Sketches

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 12:00:00 +0000

I had a great time at the Kapow! comic con in London last weekend. The room was buzzing the whole weekend and my table was constantly busy. I only had a few copies of Cancertown (as much as my hand luggage could hold) but sold out by noon on Saturday and just about all my prints were gone by closing time.

I was constantly commissioned for sketches, with a small queue forming at a few points, and I've seen a few pop up online that I've posted below.

Daredevil for Stew

The Shadow for Alan

Iron Fist for Luke

Venom for Ben

I'll be at the FanSciCon in Dublin this Friday selling Cancertowns, prints and hopefully doing some sketches. I've added a little 'upcoming events box' to the left sidebar so you can keep up with my con season schedule. FanSciCon Sounds like a fun day, so I'll hopefully see a few of you there.

Jennifer Wilde Cover Art

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 15:25:00 +0000

Jennifer Wilde is my latest project, created and co-plotted by Rob Curley with a fantastic script from Maura McHugh. The book will be published through Atomic Diner and draws from Irish history, with ties to the great Irish writer Oscar Wilde, to tell a supernatural pulp noir tale that starts in 1920s Paris.

#1 Cover art:

"At the start of the Jazz Age in Paris in 1921, young French artist Jennifer Chevalier becomes embroiled in death, espionage and revolution which takes her across the three nations of France, England and Ireland - ably assisted by the ghost of Oscar Wilde." - Jennifer Wilde Synopsis

I'm half way through drawing the first issue of the 3 part miniseries and I think you can tell by the description above there is so much fun stuff to draw and play with.

There's a Facebook page here, where you can follow the creative process.

Big Blog: Slaughterman's Creed Bristol Panel, Order Cancertown, Jennifer Wilde, Kapow! etc.

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 10:18:00 +0000

Lots and lots happening recently so it's time for a big blog roundup!

Slaughterman's Creed panel at Bristol: I'm really excited that I'll be part of The Task of Blood: Creating Slaughterman's Creed panel at the Bristol Small Press Expo. It will be held at 12pm on Sunday 15th May at the Mercure Hotel and will be hosted by Scott Grandison of Comic Book Outsiders. It'll bascially be Cy, Vicky, Nic and myself chatting about making the book, showing some work in progress and I hear there may also be some Mr. Green facepainting and sweet. If you're a Facebook-er you can keep up to date on the events page.

Kapow! Con: I'll be attending the Kapow! Comic con this coming weekend 9th - 10th of April. I'll be at table 87 ("in the island beneath the Tardis and Darlek."). I'll be drawing custom £10 sketches and selling the prints that you can see in the Shop section. I'll also have previews of Slaughterman's Creed, Jennifer Wilde and other stuff on display so if you're attending drop by for a chat.

FanSciCon: Just a week later on the 15th April I'll be a guest at the free, one day FanSciCon in Dublin. It will be held at UCD Students Centre in Dunlin from 9am and promises to be good fun. It's in association with Rob Curley's Sub City so I'm sure we'll be showing off some Jennifer Wilde Stuff. Speaking off...

Jennifer Wilde: The Facebook group for my latest project Jennifer Wilde from Atomic Diner has just started up its Facebook page. If I haven't mention before it's written by Rob Curley and Maura McHugh with art by me. There's little a Preview of the #1 cover over there, which I'll post in a bigger format here once I get the logo added.

Order Cancertown and Slaughterman's Creed: We had a little trouble with Amazon, but you can now pre-order both Slaughterman's Creed and the Cancertown re-release through both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. If you prefer to shop in a comic store, Cancertown is on Pg 218 of the latest Previews catalogue for shipping in June and available to order in-store now. Slaughterman's Creed was in last month's catalogue, but Forbidden Planet Belfast have ordered a few copies and are taking reservations for them at the minute.

Digital Revolution: If you prefer to read your comics digitally on your iPad, laptop or even phone you can download all of Cancertown via Graphic.ly for under $6 here. I wish I had a tablet to see how it looked.

Phew! All this stuff going on and I still have to get the actual art done.

Slaughterman's Creed advance reviews!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 16:15:00 +0000

We've been hearing word back from advance copies of Slaughterman's Creed we've sent out and one of the most exciting came from Punisher artist Laurence Campbell who has written the foreword to the book. You can read the whole foreword on Cy's Blog but here's a brief excerpt:

"It’s Stephen Downey, the artist, who I feel so sorry for. This may be because, being an artist myself, I know what he’s going through. You see, people are going to readSlaughterman’s Creed and will be going to the artist saying, “How do you come up with this dark stuff? What goes on in that scary mind of yours?”

And Stephen Downey will say, “It’s not my fault - it’s the writer, Cy Dethan. He put it in the script."

Advance reviews have been popping up on the internet and here are a few snippets and links to what people have said:

Geek Syndicate:

"The story is a violent one and art matches it but I never found the violence to be over the top. It felt real, visceral and horrible, as true depictions of violence should be. The second thing is this book is for adults in both the aforementioned violence but also in the plot, the themes and the characterisation. "

Hi-Ex blog:

So, all in all, I’d say this book is a bit of a triumph for all involved. With a strong narrative, well realised and rounded characters, strong visuals and a wonderful seam of oh so black humour this deserves to be a hit for all involved. And not turning it into a movie would be nothing short of a travesty.

Everything Comes Back to 2000AD blog:

I was a big fan of Stephen’s Cancertown art but the improvement between this and that is marked and has me excited to see how his next project looks. Cy’s writing is very tight and the book has a real British cinema feel to it.

There are great reviews on the Small Press Big Mouth and the Sci-Fi pulse podcasts.

With so many words in this post, I thought I should share another panel from the book:

Red Ghost

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:49:00 +0000

I was asked by Stephen Coffey to provide a variant cover to his upcoming Red Ghost comic that he's working on with Rob Carey and Patrick Burton. Working off Rob's designs, and incredible looking preview pages I created the following cover:

Rob also worked on 'The Indifference Engine' with my Slaughterman's Creed collaborators Cy Dethan and Nic Wilkinson, as well as being coloured by Cancertown's Mel Cook. The indifference Engine is out now as a digital comic on the Playstation network and Graphic.ly now and I believe will be out in print late Summer.

Keep an eye out for both Red Ghost and Indifference Engine. I'll definitely be picking them up myself.

Slaughterman's Creed is Open for Orders!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 23:41:00 +0000

Slaughterman's Creed is now available for pre-order, to be either delivered by post or picked up at the launch in May at the Bristol Comic Expo! This was a huge project for me, with 110 pages that I either pencilled or fully inked and coloured. It's a great, complete story by Cy Dethan who's blog I'm going to quote ordering details from because I'm too lazy to reword:

"Things are ramping up towards the launch by Markosia comics of the hardcopy edition of Slaughterman's Creed at Bristol Comics Convention in Mid May.

There is going to be a convention special edition, signed by all the creators, on sale over the launch weekend at the special price of £10.

Everyone who buys it on the day, or pre-orders it before the 14th May to be sent out after the show will be entered into a competition to win an original piece of art pencilled by Stephen Downey and coloured by Vicky Stonebridge.

We know that not everyone will be physically going to the con, and some people will only be there for one or other of the days, so if you would like to reserve a copy to be held behind the stand, or posted out to you, please then you need to get in touch with us now and we will add your name to the list, and email you to let you know the options for how to pay.

If you are not coming to the show there will be postage added to the £10 which is £2 in the UK and £4 for overseas delivery."

So there you go. You can always get in touch with me about pre-ordering a copy instead if it's easier for you.

Here's a gory little panel, with colours by Vicky Stonebridge and inks by Andy Brown to whet your appetites:

Slaughterman's Coming, Cancertown's Back!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 18:46:00 +0000

It's been a great few days for my creator-owned projects.

From yesterday all 6 chapters of Cancertown: An Inconvenient Tooth are back on the Playstation network as a digital comic, published through Markosia and complete with audio commentary from Cy Dethan and I. Well, Cy does most of the talking, clocking in a couple of hours of facinating insights spread over the chapters, while I chip in with a few art process snippets. The first chapter is free, so if you have a PSP why not check it out. Markosia have also announced that Cancertown will be coming back into print sometime later in 2011.

Look at that beautiful cover! Harry Markos at Markosia has also let us announce that Slaughterman's Creed will launch at Bristol International Comic Expo! Above is the all-but-finished graphic novel cover (pencils by myself with digital paints from Ryan Brown). Cancertown went down a storm 2 years ago at it's Bristol launch so we're hoping things will go as well for Slaughterman's Creed. It'll also be in stores some time after that. Must book some flights now...

It's in the (body) bag!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:11:00 +0000

The final interior inks, colours and letters (by the talented Vicky Stonebridge, Andy Brown and Nic Wilkinson respectively) have been added to the last page of Slaughterman's Creed and the book is done!

Cy Dethan has added a 12 page lettered preview to his website (and to our Facebook group which you may care to join) so you can finally add a little bit of context to those random panels and works-in-progress I'd been posting early last year.

It's a little odd seeing artwork that I drew over a year and a half ago only surfacing now, (I finished the interiors of the book about 6 months ago, but it's 110 pages long and the panels below were drawn sometime just before the launch of Cancertown at Bristol '09) but I'm proud of the book and you're in for a gory treat with Cy's cracker story.

Here's the first two pages of the graphic novel (I handled full art duties for the first two chapters, so this one's all me with Nic's lettering and of course Cy's words), but head on over to Cy's site for the rest of the preview:

The story will be released on the PSP as a digital comic through Markosia later in 2011 and other formats will follow. I'll update the blog with all the info as I get it.

Christmas Wrap

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 12:37:00 +0000

A number of things have come to fruition in the last few weeks so this is a bit of a Christmas wrap up.

I have a new strip up at Talesofthe.com; a creepy retelling of The Little Matchstick Girl. I've used a very different drawing style and I think it's the first comic on he web that I've written, drawn and lettered myself so let me know what you think. This is part of Tales of The Season, which features Christmas Comic from Kevin 'Gio' Logue, Andrew Croskery, Mal Coney and Wayne Simmons so make sure to check them all out.

All being well, I have some comic work lined up for early next year, starting with a one-shot for The League of Volunteers from Atomic Diner, a pulp adventure team book set in 1940s Ireland. This will be a spin off from the regular series, written by Robert Curley, which is launching now with art from Barry Keegan. Issue 1 of the regular series is limited to 500 copies, so if you want to get in at the beginning, you can order it from the Atomic Diner site here.

Cancertown will be returning to the Playstation Network early in the new year as a digital comic. If you can't wait until then, Cy Dethan's Indifference Engine reunites most of the Cancertown team, adding in penciller Rob Carey and was just released digitally on the PSP this week. It gets a featured mention on the Playstation Blog and already gathered great reviews. I can't wait to read it myself.

I've been listed as the number 21 NI's 'Reasons to be Cheerful' in this months AU mag (previously know as 'Alternative Ulster'). It was a nice little write up and there's even a little crop of the Cancertown opening splash page in there. Copies of AU mag are free and widely distributed all over Ireland, or you can view the whole magazine online right here. I'm on page 49, but here's a screen grab of the article. Many thanks to Reggie Chamberlain King for the write up.

I have some other comic news, and I've just started my first video game work, but I'll talk about that when I have more to show but it certainly looks to be a busy start to the new year.

An Engaging Story

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 13:29:00 +0000

For those who haven't already heard, myself and Aimee got engaged this past weekend which has made me extremely happy. I won't bore you with every detail of the proposal, but there is some artwork involved and Aimee has encouraged me to show a little of it off and it needs a little background summary. Who am I to argue with my future wife?

Aimee has always thought of Rome as her favourite place, and the Trevi Fountain as the most romantic spot in the world (it may have something to do with a Bon Jovi video), so under the pretense of a Christmas present from my mum, that she had supposedly won and passed on to us, I organised a weekend away to coincide with our 4 year anniversary. You may think it doesn't sound plausible that Aimee would believe such a coincidence, but the fake email addresses, phone calls and the fact that it was Aimee who picked the dates (I knew she'd pick our anniversary) and other little things kept it a surprise.

I drew the story of 'The Monkey and the Penguin' who fall in love and turned in into a little children's-style story book (Aimee is obsessed with penguins and calls me her Monkey. Please try not to throw up) and gave it to Aimee to unwrap at the Trevi Fountain. It starts off as a fairly inconspicuous children's story and gets more personal as the book goes on, so I'll just show off a few of the first pages here.

The last spread had the Monkey at the Trevi fountain handing out a box to Aimee as the reader. The box had a flap held down with a bit of ribbon that acted as the box lid and opened up to reveal the diamond ring. I took from the ring from the book, got down on one knee and well the rest is a bit of a blur, but I said everything I wanted to and asked Aimee to marry me.

And Aimee said 'Yes'.

The Beginning...

Free Stuff!!

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 18:35:00 +0000

I've set up a system where I can send you prints or sketches to your house at absolutely no cost to you, but I'll still get paid for it.

Here's how it works:

If you'll be doing a lot of Christmas shopping on Amazon.co.uk this year, and will probably spend over £100 (as some people are inclined to do), if you access Amazon by clicking through the Affiliate link at the top right column of this page, then I get 5% commission on anything you purchase on that visit without costing you any extra. In return I'll send you some of the items from my shop based on the amount of commission I earn.

Update: If you aren't going to be spending as much as £100 on Amazon this year and follow the steps below, and I'll choose one person at random and send them a print of their choice.

Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Make sure your browser doesn't have any Amazon tabs open, go to www.stephendowneygallery.com and click the affiliate link at the top of the left column. This will bring you to Amazon.co.uk.

Step 2: Shop on Amazon as normal. I only get commission on items you place in your basket after you pass through my site, so make sure you haven't any items in there from previous Amazon visits or it won't count. Then check out and buy those items within 24 hours.

Step 3: Based on your total checkout price, work out how much commission I'll be getting (5% of what you spend) and use the shop page on my site to work out the equivalent items you'd like. For example if you spend £100, I get £5, which is the equivalent to one print in my shop. If you spent £300, I'd be getting £15 so you could choose either a sketch or three prints (P&P is free for all items in my shop shipping to the UK & Ireland, a shipping charge would apply to anyone further afield).

Step 4: Send me an email to Stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com letting me know which items you bought on Amazon, the total cost and what you would like me to send you in return for the commission.

I've already had a couple of people test this system as it works really well and everyone gets something extra at no cost to them. An extra Christmas pressie for everybody!

Leed Time

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 23:18:00 +0000

This past weekend was my first time at Leeds Thought Bubble and it certainly won't be my last; a really welcoming and friendly event packed with people. It was also the first time I'd been behind my own table for the entire con, sharing with my Torchwood cover colourist Ciaran Lucas and his traveling companion Alan Beirne. I'd spent a few hours behind Ciaran's table at the MCM previously, but this time I was properly prepared with a few prints and proper drawing materials and was able to make back the weekend's expenses (not counting the whiskey's on Saturday).

Here are a handful of the many sketches I produced during the day. Thanks to Alan for his photography skills.

Daredevil

Portrait of a customer

Hellboy (with Horns)

On the Sunday I went to the John Romita Jr workshop (did you know he only sleeps 5 1/2 hours a night and works a 12 - 15 hour drawing day!), attended Bryan Talbot's Grandville talk and had a very positive portfolio review from a Marvel editor. I also managed a quiet drink with Slaughterman's Creed colourist Vicky Stonebridge and Rich Clements and may have agreed to work on a short project. This is what happens when you buy me whiskey. More on that later.

I also seemed to have picked up my first Con Flu. A comic con Rite of Passage I believe.

A Penny for the Thought (I'm selling stuff!)

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:45:00 +0000

So I'm heading to Thought Bubble in Leeds this coming weekend, 20th November. This being my third English con of the year it's getting quite expensive, so I'm making up some prints and original pieces that I can sell to make back a little on the costs of flights etc. Therefore I can officially unveil the new Shop section of this site! The link is in the navigation bar above please click through to see what's available.

Here are a few of the prints I'll be selling at £5 each (inc P&P).

I'll also have the original art for most of the above illustrations which will be selling for between £15 and £25. If there is one of them you really like just email stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com and I'll hold it for you.

I'll also be doing some sketching on the day that will look a little like this:

Sketches will be £10 on the day and again you can preorder or if you're not heading to the con, order via the shop or email with free shipping.

If you're not an original art collector yourself, it might be a really nice christmas present for that someone special...

Disclaimer: The copyright for all the above characters belong to their respective owners and these prints are sold only on a personal level. If any of the copyright owners have a problem just email stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com.

Cover Story

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:40:00 +0000

You may have seen one of the Work-in-Progress Slaughterman's Creed cover's slip out on the net this weekend while I was prancing around the MCMexpo. I finally have the chance to share the cover here along with the slightly unusual process behind it.

I had worked on another cover before with Ryan Brown and after seeing his digitally painted work over Simon Bisley's 13 coins comic pages, asked him if he would paint over my pencils/layout for the Slaughterman's Creed covers (Ryan's brother Andy is the co-founder of Beserker Comics, and inked the interior latter chapters of SC).

I had a rough idea for the cover and sketched out a quick layout (which I can't find at the minute, but I'll have found it by the time the cover is finished and post it then), set up my studio lights and took a few reference photos. Here's the one for Sidney himself:

Using the reference photos I sketched out the graphic novel cover layout below.

At this point (as those who were following my blog last year will know), I had planned to spend my Summer in Canada and continue drawing. Things fell through at the last minute and although we had a brilliant month in Belize instead, we did a lot more traveling and A3 scanners are few and far between.

Each digital chapter will feature an individual characters so I had to draw each one separately and Ryan agreed to paint and compose them together for the GN. I had to wait to get to Seattle four weeks later to print out five blue lines copies of the sketch and pencil out the individual characters over it. Since Sidney was already in the foreground he needed the least done, but I did tidy him up a little.

By the time I'd finished drawing the characters we were on a plane to Las Vegas. I thought it would be easy to find a scanner there, but all I could find was slot machines and wedding chapels. I was sending my laptop back home the next day, so all I could do was take photos of the pencils on my camera (see above), load them into my dropbox, along with the original reference photos and some interior character shots and upload via the hotel wireless.

Yip, that WIP cover painting was actually painted over a photo sent from Las Vegas. I reckon Ryan did a bloody awesome job!

Expect another update, with more sketches and ref material when the cover is finished.

Cons, Creations and Kronos City

noreply@blogger.com (Stephen Downey) — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:58:00 +0000

Had a brilliant time at #BICS this weekend, which saw the launch of the Sleepless Phoenix: Suvival anthology that holds Andrew Croskery, Andy Brown and myself's 'Welcome to Absolution'. The book marks Andrew's first printed work, but it won't be long before you see more as he signed up his, Alex Wilmore and Lauren Ann Sharp's 'Kronos City' graphic novel with TimeBomb over the weekend.

The anthology sold so well (on top of a ton of preorders) that Lauren and co. are going to continue publishing and hopefully bring out another anthology next year.

It was brilliant meeting up with everyone, and a couple of comicbook opportunities may have presented themselves. Bring on MCM next week. Here's a Hellboy sketch I'll be bringing with me: