Bus Bum

People! 

Gather round me, and hear my words: weekend travelcards should be half price if I only get to use half the frikkin service!!! Let's march for discounts!

Or not, cos I'm warm and cosy at home now, after another 5 hour trek on nighttransport. Pff, let them keep their money. It's amazing how tranquil one can feel with central heating, a nice internet connection and a cup of Baileys Coffee beside me. Anyway, onto the art:

This is a page from Azrael issue 1 which came out last month (on time too, naysayers). I decided to show a bit of the page process cos some people asked me, and I have no completed covers yet to show you. So what ye see above is the sketch, the layout that I use to base all the tricky arting on. Loose, eh? You betcha.

This next stage is where I use my ink layer to outline the main figures and whop in the boldest shadows. No backgrounds here, as I do that on a different layer.
Next up is the adding of greys. These really are the meat of the art, with the black lines being the skeleton, the colour being the skin, the...er...borders being...uh, the pants...*shuts up*
Ok, more meat on the bones. I love Potatoshop so much it *hurts*.
Here I add the background layer. It usually differs from page to page, but in this case it all was all on one layer and then I cut out the main figures. Like old school, but with shiny macintosh machines and less screaming.
Then I add the swords and fire to a new layer. What, you thought I drew that on the same layer...?...*chuckle*, no no no, Grasshopper. Noone would be that stupid. 
This is where I thought I'd be able to leave it. I added a new layer for the colours and painted them on, and a few tweaks with some white paint, but then I got a most distressing email...
Yes, apparently I had got his mask wrong. So last minute panic revisions resulted in a new layer over the painting and some old school patch-em-up tactics were employed to remedy this error. Seamless, eh? Go on, you can say it, I'm not bashful...

Right, next time I update (like, thursday) I will probably show something other than the blow-by-blow stages of a picture, maybe doodles I make on the toilet...?...or perhaps drunken scribbles of naked ladies...

Whatevs. I have to get back to reality now and continue distracting someone from the boredom that is the internet tonite. Hi Kim!

F xoxo

Ahoy mateys

Hello my lovelies

So, some of you out there have been wondering what has happened to The Great Frazer Irving International Comicbook Rockstar lately. Well I must confess the past 2 months have been rather hectic, what with me working like a madman on "Azrael" for DC Comics, as well as attending the NYC Comicon in feb, not to mention spending a fair few evenings racing around London's Soho in the wee hours of the morning with a thoroughly Awesome individual with whom I plan to rule the entire Earth alongside in the near future. Fret not, we will be merciful and benign dictators. But no whistling on a Tuesday!!!!

To tease and appease thy thirsts for art, I present to you lucky lucky people here some stages in the production of the latest cover I have made for "The Darkness" from Top Cow comics. Not all secrets are revealed, in fact, seeing as there's no fee for this I might just leave the images lying around with scant explanation. If I can get the html to work then I might make this a regular feature here, so you can all come back and salivate over yer puny laptop screens.

That's the sketch above. Messy, eh? yes, that's what my editors have to deal with. But it captures the essence, and you'll see how it all comes together...

That's the first stage above. This is where I do what is almost the traditional style of inking, where black lines are used to outline and define, with shadows n shit, but it's still far from done...

This is where I use Potatoshop's layers and start adding the greys. This stuff makes it so much rounder and Phatter, don't you think? And I can add more too...

Now here I've added more greys to give it more body and depth and ting. It's like using ink washes but without the pain and screaming.

Now I've jumped a whole buncha secret stages to the point where I have the background added and the colours too, all using my special secret ways. Don't ask, I'll have to kill you afterwards.

And here's the final image. Almost. There were edits afterwards, which those of you who will be buying the comic (not *just* for the cover I hope, but if you do I won't complain) will no doubt spot, but this is the internet, where you get to see stuff that never makes it to the page.

I may do more of this now that I seem to have overcome Bloggers utterly useless tools and got me pix where I wants em. Come find me on Twitter if you haven't already, and watch as I relate every tiny boring detail of my life online, just like everyone else. And don't forget to check out Azrael from DC, issue 2 out late April, issue 3 late May. It sells fast so grab one whilst you can. 

And then expect the resumption of Gutsville. It ain't dead, loyal ones. Just sleeping.

Fraze xoxo