This was the first idea that I had for the competition and it sparked
loads of further ideas. I don't remember my reasons for doing Voidshaker first, however.
I
had trouble thinking what to do at first but then I suddenly had a
flood of inspiration. To the point where I could no longer choose just
one. This is one of the first ideas. Voidshaker from the story
Atavar. I don't know how this would work as a spin off. It would
certainly be interesting. Mostly it's just one big excuse to do Atavar
fanart.
I
have used the current 2000AD comic ratio to create this image to give
the sense that it could be a teaser within the pages of the Galaxies
Greatest Comic. Overall I am happy with the outcome of this image, but
I'm now looking forward to moving on to something different.
This picture represents me trying out loads of different ideas.
First
off I wanted to test my inking skills. This was an interesting
experiment and I think I learned some stuff - or perhaps just became
aware that I'm better at than I thought. In the end I think next time I
try to to inks in this manner I may take a different route. I think
adding a bit more detail to the artwork and then having simpler
colouring might something cool to tryout. I just have the feeling that
this particular piece has ended up with a somewhat generic comic book
feel. That's kind of cool because I didn't know I could do generic
comic book stuff.
The next thing I wanted to try out with this
picture was the colouring. I had a little go at something different
when I was painting Uncouth Company. Adding a greyscale layer over a
colour layer and then using a mask to give a washed out colour effect.
It worked well for the background in Uncouth Company and it worked OK
for all the colours in this picture, but I'm not entirely happy with
it. I think I'm going to return to exploring my colouring method from
days gone past. It's good to know that I can achieve certain effects
with a masked greyscale layer.
Lastly I was using this artwork to
have a go at recording and making a time lapse video for a YouTube
channel. I really liked my progress gif of Uncouth Company and Peril,
but there is so much missing from them. It can be really helpful to
look back and see what I did if I want to try and achieve a similar
effect in the future. Plus I like time lapse videos of people making
artwork.
So onto the content. I have finally reached a point in
my re-reading of my 2000AD comic collection where I picked the comic up
after a five year hiatus back at the end of 2006. One of the stand-out
strips from that seasonal special was Kingdom. Created by Dan Abnett
and Richard Elson this story saw the introduction to genetically
engineered canines protecting a land they call Anarchticy. Abnett and
Elson have paired up before for the wonderful Atavar series and return
to form with Kingdom. It is a shame that over the last six years there
have only been three Kingdom stories. I think I read that a forth is on
its way and is long over due. This has to be my favourite strip
written by Dan Abnett who is more famous for is work on the never ending
Sinister Dexter and what I consider a less than stellar run on Durham
Red. I think that even the much maligned Sancho Panza was better than
those. Kingdom and Atavar seem to demonstrate Abnett's strengths and
Richard Elson's artwork is compelling and consistently enjoyable to look
at.