Store

I'm pleased to say that my online shop, Art Nuggets Store, is now online. You can now purchase your copy of Hilt through this service powered by Big Cartel and it can be shipped to you anywhere in the world. Happy shopping!

Style Tests

This week I'm taking a break from my day job at Defiant Development to blitz my comic in an effort to get ahead on it. It's been a productive few days and is going to be capped by my attendance at ZICS (Zines & Indie Comic Symposium) this weekend. I'll have a table there selling my wares, and will be doing a talk abut my motivation and process I use in my Hilt at 2pm on Sunday.

In the meantime, I thought I might show a couple of style tests. I've always been keen on the heavy black look, bold shadows and harsh lighting, as well as the screentone techniques used in manga. I was looking for a good ratio of striking style to effort put in. The top image used the screen tone masked off to add tones and gradients. The middle version is pure black and white, but has a degree of shading that I've added using a custom brush. In the bottom one I've added colour with a few simple gradients. Click on the images for higher resolution.

In the end I went for the screentone version, the reason being that I can get a lot of mood and lighting effects using it. It would also allow me to do the backgrounds in a lot more simple but effective way than with pure black and white or colour, using fogging and some custom brushes for leaves, trees etc. I think I've made the right choice.

Sample Page

The creation of Hilt continues apace. Having settled on a style, I thought it high time that I let you all have a sneak peak as to what the final product is going to look like. As you can see, I've gone for striking black'n'white. This has a couple of advantages for me. I've always been a great fan of monochromatic art, as it allows the form and composition to shine, without the distraction of colour. Additionally, it means, in theory, a reduction in production times, as well as a reduction in costs when it comes time to print.

As a big fan of Akira, I've always loved the way simple gradients of screentone can add depth. As some of you may have seen on my personal blog, I've been playing around with the technique for a while now. In some panels I've gone a step further, using the screentone texture to shade in more detail. As always, it's a balancing act to get the greatest amount of effect while not losing too much time.

Since starting this comic I've become aware of the fantastic work of Sean G Murphy and his fabulously illustrated comic Punk Rock Jesus. Sean shows how well the screentone technique can be used to enrich black'n'white artwork and is one of the finest examples of it's application outside of Manga.

I'll be posting more artwork and panels as the project nears completion, including some rough layout pages, so stay tuned, and thanks for looking. Click on the image for higher resolution.