Uncouth Company

 

My entry to the 2000AD forum's art competition for October.  The theme was "1800AD - Steampunk 2000AD" and under advisement from my eldest brother I want for a war themed picture (he suggested Rogue Trooper, but having done that for the previous competition I said Bad Company would be better).  I had a look at some paintings of 19th century British military and got an idea of a basic composition.  Then it all started going wrong.  I haven't had this much trouble with getting a picture started in ages.  It took two weeks before my initial rough sketches started to look good.  The whole project has been mired with frustration and disappointment.

Then it was the last week before the contests close so I was up against the clock.  This really didn't help matters and I may have panicked a little (missing something obvious I should have done to speed the process up).  When it finally started taking shape and looking presentable I was unable to tidy up a multitude of faults that were bothering me from the start.  I tried out some new ideas that worked out well and others that were disastrous.

There are some things I am really pleased with in this picture and some I find embarrassing.  Lessons have once again been learnt and this is the first time I have ever finished anything like this - so for a lot of firsts, it is good.

Featured are the characters from Bad Company, created by Alan Grant and John Wagner initially although credit should (imo) be given to Peter Milligan for reworking the concept and writing it and to Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy.

At the back we have Wallbanger.  Infront of him (left to right) we have Mac, Kano, Danny Franks, Thrax and Joe Scummer.  In front the them (again, left to right) appear Dogbrain, Trucker, Malcolm, Mad Tommy, Shrike and Flytrap.

Bad Company is the property of Rebellion and 2000 AD

Legend in the Fog

 

"All hope seemed lost. The enemy had pressed the attack throughout the night. A night that seemed without end. My comrades in arms fell one by one. There were so many. Too many. All hope was abandoned.

It came like the wind. Like some powerful vengeance carried by the poisonous clouds all around us. It tore through our enemy and left them wrecked and broken. Just as our enemy were defeated so was the night. On the horizon we could see the sun rise and with it returned hope to those few of us who survived. From the mist of noxious gas emerged a figure. Our hope. Our saviour. Our Legend in the Fog."

This idea, although not entirely original, came to me last week. I had some very clear and interesting ideas about how I would approach this little project. It was also, almost by coincidence, that 2000 AD's community forum are currently running this competion. So what they hey, I figured I'd enter it.

I do like Rogue Trooper, even with it's silliness (telekinetic guns, anyone?). The overall story of the traitor general is certainly a 2000 AD classic. Speaking of which, Rogue Trooper is owned by 2000 AD.

2000AD - Low Life - Aimee Nixon

 

Hey, it's Aimee Nixon from 2000 ADs Low Life. Since I've been engaged in my big 2000 AD read I have got to the point of reading back issues I have never set eyes upon before. This was due to not purchasing any copies for about five years. Sacrilege, I know. I have recently filled that gap, so much of what I'm currently reading is new to me. Including the start of the marvellous Low Life strips. It was nice to see those early strips had a focus on Aimee Nixon and not Dirty Frank like in more recent strips. So I decided to do some Low Life inspired artwork.

This picture was yet another learning curve. One big lesson was - plan the background at the start along with everything else. I really wanted to include some of Mega-City One's skyline. My previous Mega-City One picture has always left me disappointed and I have been really keen to give it another shot. I decided to use this picture as a test to see whether it would be worthwhile to have another crack at the future city. I did have some difficulty planning the background, but after flicking through my back issues I came up with this basic idea. Overall I am happy with this picture on completion, but there are some problems that were mainly due to the work flow - which wasn't well planned at all.

Low Life was created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint and is the property of 2000 AD.

The Port City Waterways

 

Something I did a while back before my latest artist block.

BFG Girl

 

Back to the drawing board after a horrible four month hiatus and this is what I came up with.

The Two of Hearts

 

Based on a couple of old sketches I did a long time ago. I really wanted to try a different lighting method this time around as well as trying out a different way of colouring. Both have turned out successfully. Would have had this finished yesterday but I got caught up in something else. Kinda irritating, I wanted to move on to the next picture and relax a bit today.

Santschinja Larook

 

My entry for the contest

The original character was designed by

I took some artistic license with parts of the design, but tried to stay as close to the original design as possible. Overall I am satisfied with how the image turned out.

The original