Lee Mitchell, Isabella and The Voice

 

I've not done many gig sketches this year but yesterday I went to see Lee Mitchell at Sunday Night Live. I really love the chilled out atmosphere you can find at music events in coffee shops. They're better for location drawing because the room is well lit.

  

There are not many opportunities to draw drum kits, so I always jump at the chance to practice. I think I enjoy it a lot because there is a large variety in shape, size and set up. At most gigs its usually pretty difficult to see the drummer too.

 

I've decided that each week I'd like to show you some of my character sheets and development illustrations. Last week I posted a drawing of an alien called Annie, this new picture is of her mum Isabella.

Arctic Monkeys - A Certain Romance

"There's only music, so that there's new ring tones."

 Recently I found a piece of work I'd written in secondary school that quotes this song. I think the task was to write an article based on the title 'Young people nowadays don't know what real music is.' It's mostly a big rant about the music I liked and disliked when I was 15. I got a B grade and a little note that just says 'I thought this was good!'

One of the original starting points for this project was to make some comments about the mainstream music industry and reality TV. I've been watching The Voice so that I could make an informed opinion instead of annoying assumptions. So now I spend a lot of time ranting about it like I'm a teenager all over again. It makes me very wound up that the show pretends to be an Anti-XFactor show when really it's just the same thing. I'd write a proper article if I was better at that type of thing, but I can put my feelings towards the situation into this graphic novel instead.

Annie

 

Hello! I'm working on a new free mini comic to hand out at comic book events (and for you to read online of course!). The printed version will be in black and white like the old mini comics, but I was having so much fun with the cover and back page I decided to colour them.  

This is Annie, one of the main characters in the graphic novel.
 Fun Fact: I named her after a song!

Elastica - Annie

.... In Space

Hello, I'm still deciding what type of design work I would like to post here without giving too much important story information away. I found some drawings (from reference photos) that I did at the beginning of this year to try and improve the science fiction element of this comic. I got a bit carried away and started turning them into little zine articles.

 

 

 

 

 

Billy Bragg - The Space Race is Over

I was planning to put some of these illustrations together in a zine but I didn't get around to it. There was a playlist of songs that was going to feature in the back and this was one of them. (I'm hoping to link you to more influences as I go along)

I've also finished scripting a new mini comic and I'm hoping that can go online quite soon.

Thanks for reading!
Sammy

Blog Relaunch

 

It's been a long time since I updated this blog but I'm going to be working on this project more this year so I've been editing the layout ready to start uploading regularly again.

Thanks 

Sammy

Doodle Blueline Tests and Greenbelt 2011

I did some Giant Rhinos sketches while I was at Greenbelt. I wanted to see what they would look like with blue line art because I've been using this kind of colour scheme on a comic for my Ink+Paper submission.

These are gig sketches from the weekend. The bands featured here are Paul Bell, Extra Curricular, Listener, Idlewild, Jenny Lockyer, Helen Arney and The Unthanks. For more gig sketches visit flickr.

Gig Sketches and Jumping the Shark

Sorry about there being no new posts over the past couple of months, I'm still working on the comic I just don't want to give too much away. Gig sketches have been quite important for the Giant Rhinos comics so I thought I could post some more here. These sketches are from The Godiva Festival in July. The bands are Russian Gun Dogs, Skylight, Young Knives and The Sunshine Underground. I also set up a Flickr set which compiles a lot of my gig sketches from the past couple of years.

I have been continuing my webcomic short story website since finishing university. The story currently being uploaded weekly is called Jumping the Shark. It is a sequel to Best Day Ever and it will feature the Giant Rhinos characters later in the story.

I'm working on a couple of other short stories for some group anthologies over the summer. I'm very excited to be contributing a slice of life comic in Ink + Paper and compiling a Sci-Fi anthology with Inspired Comics.

For more frequent updates on projects please follow my Portfolio Blog

Thanks,
Sammy

Bristol SP Expo 2011 and Dummy Books

Sorry I've not updated in a while. I hit a point where I didn't want to give away any more of the story and things. I have printed some dummy books that contain the first chapter of the Giant Rhinos In Space graphic novel. I had a lot left over after the London Book Fair so I've decided to sell the 18 copies left. I am selling for exactly the printing costs and I've added a unique sketch inside each copy.

Thank you to anyone who bought a copy from the Inspired Comics table at Bristol Small Press Expo.

The comics are available from my Etsy shop and probably the next couple of events Inspired Comics have a table at.

This blog is probably going to be uploading slower than previously. It will still be the best way to keep track of the project. If you'd like to follow other projects I'm working on - I have a general portfolio blog now and also a more personal tumblr blog which updates more frequently and is full of sketches and photos.

Research Experiment

This isn't for this Giant Rhinos project, but I used the same characters for a pretend advert in my Research Experiment final piece. You can read the whole parody comic online here.

I've set up a new portfolio blog you might be interested in too.