As you might be able to tell above, I've been playing around trying to figure out how I'd draw wolverine for fun. I also did studies on Big E of the WWE (hes HUGE!).
The Valkyries are from a commission I just finished. Theyre NPCs in a DM's DnD game, three sister-deity figures. This is the only place I've shared the inks, and you can download them in this post if you like!
Sketch of Amanda Holiday from Destiny. Gonna ink this later in the week. Ikora and Cayde-6 also coming by next tuesday.
Working on a commission now of 3 Valkyrie style characters, very lineheavy but good practice. Once I've finished I'm hoping to get the tutorials finished and posted here. I have a bit of backlog of stuff to post here, sketches and drawings i havent posted anywhere.
TLDR: Expect content Tuesday & Thursday this week at the very least. Need to update this and show more gratitude to everyone and catch up on perks.
2017-10-24 00:09:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Making a digital print that'll be free to download for patrons of the Vanguard from Destiny. Heres Zavala!
2017-10-05 21:11:30 +0000 UTC View Post
Some recent doodles in between jobs, practicing using manga studio as well as general painting stuff!
Jackson, I can't find the last message you sent me (got an email but I cant find it anywehere on the site), so if you have sketch ideas fire em on!
Not too much to say about these, same typeface, but a cleaner look. I used to prefer having the logo all coloured, but considering my work is always coloured, having something monochrome that can just drop in is far handier.
Regarding the two default colours here, I've always liked this pair of colours since I played Viewtiful Joe years ago on the Gamecube, and I've found myself using them more and more lately!
2017-09-14 20:46:56 +0000 UTC View Post
A difficult but enjoyable one, this.
The client wanted a logo of sorts for a community he represents, and asked for very specific uniform, gear and posing. I learned a lot about why aspects of the uniform would be the way they are, for example the rolled up sleeves and strapping down of all lose material. It will definitely inform any future designs.
This is the only place that im sharing the full design with all his gear (aside from the client too of course!).
This was also my first project using Manga Studio. Ive had a copy of it for ages, but the UI seemed awkward and I never had time to figure it out. Thankfully I finally did because OH HELL is it great for drawing in. SO much faster and responsive, helps a ton. The main help is that it speeds up the 'flatting' stage by more than half, saving me hours per piece.
Oof this one is big and complex, have to design 9 characters (based on real people) and its harder than it sounds!
Had a financial dry spell in june then all of a sudden got like 5 commissions at once so I'm trying to get through them to buffer my bank account before Dublin Comic Con next month (have to print lots and buy stuff for my table!).
Aside from this, whats on the agenda is; Jackson's commission, Colm's 2 pieces, and I need to upload some more digital prints.
for now though, I'm not feeling too healthy so I think I'll have to call it a night!
Hiya guys!
I tried my hand at making a quick PDF of some art and WIPs from the last 2 months for you guys to download! Link should be below.
here you go guys! pdf attached!
2017-05-18 21:08:57 +0000 UTC View Post
Yondu coming along well! Just need to colour him now, as well as a couple small fixes, and he'll be available for printing :)
2017-05-16 16:46:46 +0000 UTC View Post
Working away on this (and two other concurrent projects), because the nature of dealing with clients means sometimes youre waiting for email replies, so rather than fiddle my thumbs, I work on the next commission in the queue.
This ones been fun so far!
As for the digital print, the idea is to do an hour on it per day till its done, but I don't imagine it'll take more than 2 more days! Then I've to design May's digital print for you!
rough pencils for the Guardians digital print coming this week
2017-05-08 15:08:04 +0000 UTC View Post
This guy wanted his mates as their favourite Overwatch characters. Fun, but Overwatch characters are detail heavy, I may alter pricing for future heavily armoured characters, because its undeniably longer to do.
2017-05-05 06:20:01 +0000 UTC View Post
Selection of some of the commissions I've been doin!
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-The overwatch one is a WIP, penciled version. The guy wants his mates drawn as their main characters in Overwatch. Fun!
-The Handsome Jack piece is a sketch I was commissioned to do, and the person loved it so much theyve since commissioned the full ink and colour so they can use it for a tattoo.
-The Adidas one ive shared a couple times, but thats finished now thankfully!
-Craft Pirate was for one of my oldest mates, who needed a mascot for a business venture. This was a lot of fun, a bit different to my usual and I learned an awful lot making it (by accident, as always lol.
-The final image is a WIP for a guy who wants an icon for his twitch channel.
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Thankfully I've gotten the lions share of the work done now, just lines and colour for the twitch, overwatch, and handsome jack pieces, and I'm caught up. Hoping to get time to do the GotG print before the weekend too.
I think i bit off more than I could chew with the commissions, and certainly made promises regarding time that were hard to keep, and said "sure" to things that werent actually that easy and cost a lot of time. All a learning curve though, I'm figuring stuff out as I go. Generally, email inquiries have been pleasant and 99% of people have been super polite. Lots of people get put off by the idea I'd charge €100 or more for certain illustrations, so I make a point to do a cost / time breakdown when giving quotes.
Like... some people don't understand this shit, done right, takes time, and is a skilled labour, so the cost reflects that (and believe me, im charging pretty low as it is).
Lesson learned is: dedicate less time per week to commissions. Money coming in is rad, but I can get by with slightly less, and that way ill actually be able to do personal projects and fun stuff for you guys again. Gonna set a day for patreon stuff next week too, a weekly thing.
2017-05-04 02:14:44 +0000 UTC View Post
MAN I am slow. As per usual I DRASTICALLY underestimated how long this'd take. The dude is real patient though, so its ok.
THAT SAID, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna miss on having the digital print for you by tomorrow, have to delay it till monday/ tuesday. Just means two digital prints for May, as I'll do a different print during the month!
Anyway, I've a couple commissions lined up for next week, much simpler than this, so I'll be able to do sketches again, read your script Jackson, and finally finish page 2. Gotta learn to balance paying work and everything else.
I'm bad at all this lol.
This is a WIP snippet of one of my current commissions, for a chap in London. He wants it printed on a canvas too! Its a pretty in depth commission, but honestly, the hardest part is done now.
The beginning stages, the figuring out, is the hardest. Its when I'm more likely to feel the worst about my skill level, when I get hit hardest with imposter syndrome. Nothing as scary as a blank page, and this process is all fighting to create out of nothing.
Inking and colouring isn't easy, but its less emotionally taxing in my experience! Anyways, the guy seems happy enough so far, and has been a joy to work with, even being quite patient when i was a bit behind on his project due to feeling ill/ commuting for half the day.
Finally finished this! Been juggling a couple commissions at once, chipping away at different ones when I get tired of another, seems to be working!
This was a fun experiment, in that I still don't feel super comfortable with how i draw women, but practice is always good!
I like her hair especially. Anyway, yet again I had too much fun with this and it ended up being way over rendered instead of the flat image the pledge level is at, not that I mind haha, i think its a fun problem to have, and people getting commissions sometimes get more than they paid for, so everyone wins.
Page two done. I'll definitely need to speed up a bit, id say I could do a page like that start to finish in 15 16 hours.
Page one is here: Batman: Mask - Page one (inks)
On the left is the initial sketch, on the right is the current work in progress.
Don't forget to leave some suggestions for sketches!
couple warmup sketches as i try to get used to the surface and the newer options and techniques available to me. nothing amazong to see, but im learning some tricks :)
2017-03-31 18:59:14 +0000 UTC View Post
Colm asked for an image to use for a dance festival he takes part in for his patron perk this month. lot of fun stepping outside of my usual stuff for this one.
its also the first full illustration done on my new surface pro 4!!
2017-03-30 22:09:23 +0000 UTC View Post
Felt like I was hitting my head against a brick wall with comic stuff today. Brain wasnt firing off how i needed it to. Instead of just giving up tho, I changed gears and caught up on study. Heres a selection of lifedrawings and sketches, from pics online and screenshots of Its Always Sunny.
2017-03-25 00:27:15 +0000 UTC View Post
Woo! Heres page one! You guys get to be first to see each page as its finished (the whole thing will be posted publicly when its finished of course!)
I listen to the podcast MBMBaM pretty much constantly while working. Its over taken my old favourites like Achievement Hunter, Funhaus etc (still love those of course) as my go to entertainment. I just really appreciate that I know I'm gonna have a good time, and none of the jokes are particularly mean spirited.
Plus theyre funny as fuck! So its fun to draw one of the brothers.
If you're interested, this guy Griffin does a great series on youtube with one of the brothers called Monster Factory (where they use character creation systems in games to make the worst most attrocious looking creatures).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYZl_YOMg7E
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Previous McElroy related art: Final Pam - Justin McElroy
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2017-03-15 09:34:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Batmobile! Really happy with it, especially since ive never designed a car before!
Less than a month left on my government supported self employed scheme, so expect my output to increase in the coming weeks!
