Category: Comics

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Cartoon Creation Corner – The Big Picnic Workshop in Rochester

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Not a bad backdrop to be running comic workshops with the fabulous Gary Northfield in Rochester yesterday…
Rochester01Armed with some fantastic worksheets provided by the Phoenix Comic, I was helping Gary out in the Cartoon Creation Corner as part of the Big Picnic, itself part of the Fuse Festival.

Gary is an incredible comic creator, responsible for (amongst other things) Derek the Sheep from the Beano, Gary’s Garden from the Phoenix, the all ages graphic novel Teenytinysaurs and the upcoming book Julius Zebra, which I’m looking forward to reading to my boy when it’s out in 2015!Rochester02We got asked to draw all sorts of odd creatures and things for the steady stream of kids and their parents that came to join in the comic making fun. Here’s some of my efforts…Rochester03 Rochester04 Rochester05I drew this owl at the request of a young girl, to put up on her wall. Afterwards she politely told me she’d wanted a barn owl and I’d drawn a long eared owl.
Felt such a fool. Rochester06One popular worksheet showed visitors how to draw the Evil Cat character from Laura Ellen Anderson‘s Phoenix Comic strip: Evil Emperor Penguin…
 Rochester07People also created strips from scratch including this one about a cactus who blows up a rival plant food shop…Rochester08Lots of great work was laminated and hung out to view in a pop up gallery…
Rochester09 Rochester10 Rochester11 Rochester12Did you spot a Porsche, Scooby-Doo and One Direction?

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Superhero Workshops at the Cartoon Museum…

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Yesterday I returned to the great Cartoon Museum for a couple of fun workshops with children from a school in Tottenham.

The theme of the session was Superheroes!  Now while I read a lot of superhero comics (mainly Marvel – Go Nightcrawler!),  my doodles quickly displayed I need a little practice (maybe fifty years) before being able to draw them…
Superhero-1 Superhero-2Superhero-9I did manage a highly sophisticated visual explanation of word balloons though…Superhero-3The children did some fabulous panels…
Superhero-4 Superhero-5 Superhero-6 Superhero-7 Superhero-8Click here and here for samples of work from my previous trips to the Cartoon Museum!

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Hanging at my table at May MCM London 2014

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I’ve done a half dozen or so MCM Comic Cons now and still enjoy them.

Always nice to see old friends, meet new folk and draw portraits, plus I’m still touched that anyone wants to buy my comics and prints!  The most gratifying thing is when people have already bought something at a previous show and liked it enough to come back and buy something else!

Here’s some pics, starting with with my table spread…
mcmmay14-01It was bigger than in previous years – no wonder some people come for 3 days…mcmmay14-02My lovely table buds Francesca Dare (check the feathers) and Van Nim…mcmmay14-03 mcmmay14-04 mcmmay14-05 mcmmay14-06Van surprised me with a lovely sketch of Grace Park as Sharon from Battlestar Galactica…mcmmay14-07My comic creator friend Karen Rubins treated me to these beautiful things…
 mcmmay14-08Amazing how quick the weekend goes but I made the most of my table and found time to work on upcoming Lucy the Octopus strips…mcmmay14-09Speaking of Lucy I’ll leave you with some of the Lucy the Octopus style portraits I was commissioned to do over the weekend…mcmmay14-10 mcmmay14-11 mcmmay14-12 mcmmay14-13 mcmmay14-14This next one is my friend and soon to be collaborator, Manga artist Chie Kutsuwada…mcmmay14-15 mcmmay14-16 mcmmay14-17 mcmmay14-18Looking forward to my next con…
London Film and Comic Con 2014
Earls Court 2, Old Brompton Road SW5 9TA
Friday 11 – Sunday 13 July 2014

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Gnash Comics Workshops in Devon

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Had a great time yesterday traveling to the lovely town of Ashburton in Devon.

I find long train journies great to work on, and had time to finish a script Paul Shinn will be drawing for the upcoming Tempo Lush Tales, plus some work on a project for Titan Comics and then a blog about the making of Lucy the Octopus.  All coming soon!

Anyway, the real reason for the trip was to run a couple of comics workshops at Gnash Comics, an absolutely fantastic shop with a great set up and mix of goodies.

Pleased to say that Tempo Lush comics are now on sale there too!

The first workshop saw a wonderful bunch of local kids developing fabulous story ideas, like this…Gnash-1The second workshop saw the turn of the grown-ups!  Some of them pictured below – Maybe there are signs I worked them too hard.
Gnash-2We did some fun work on story development and thumb-nailing towards finished comic pages.  There was a lot of talent on show…Gnash-3 Gnash-4 Gnash-5One of the most satisfying parts of the trip was the fact that adult workshoppers made plans to meet regularly and talk comic making.  Hope big things grow from that!

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One Day Workshop at the Institute 10 May 2014

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There were some fantastically skilled kids in my workshop at The Institute in North London on Saturday.  Warming up with a bit of quick character doodling…Institute-Day-Workshop-01 Then designing characters hinting at their personality and backstory…
Institute-Day-Workshop-02 Institute-Day-Workshop-03 Institute-Day-Workshop-04 They came up with some fantastic possible endings to a three panel strip...Institute-Day-Workshop-05 Institute-Day-Workshop-06Then came the point in the workshop where I asked them what they’d like me to draw peeping over the top of a box.  “A not very well drawn tiger-cub!” they all cried.  Nailed it.Institute-Day-Workshop-07I like to use my collaborator’s work as samples of comic making.  Here are some early Rosie and Jacinda designs by the great Zarina Liew…Institute-Day-Workshop-08The kids picked up ideas of character design, story crafting and thumbnailing really well…Institute-Day-Workshop-09 Institute-Day-Workshop-10 Institute-Day-Workshop-11 Institute-Day-Workshop-13And finished up the day making some fantastic comics…Institute-Day-Workshop-12 Institute-Day-Workshop-14So happy when the kids really get into their work!

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Pin-up for Rachael Smith’s House Party!

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A number of groovy artist types have contributed pin-ups for Rachael Smith‘s upcoming House Party Graphic Novel published by Great Beast Comics, including Paul Shinn (see his here) and John Cei Douglas (check his out here).

If anyone’s around London on Friday 13 June 2014, I’ll be at the House Party official launch at Orbital Comics!

Here’s my finished pin-up effort…
Richy-House-Party-Pin-UpAnd here’s the colours planned out before adding texture and tone.
Colour-Map And here’s the inks before I coloured it.Ink-Scan And here’s the pencils from before I inked it.
Pencil-ScanSo there.

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Secret Agent Fun at Discover Children’s Story Centre

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I had such a great day on Saturday taking part in a comic making workshop as part of the Secret Agent Themed Season at Discover Children’s Story Centre in Stratford, East London on Saturday.

Sunday would see the skills of Sarah McIntyre, Gary Northfield and Alex Milway assisting any kids up to the mission of making fantastic comics and characters.  Saturday however, the crack team of agents consisted of (left – right) myself, David O’Connell (who organised the day perfectly and created some brilliant worksheets), Laura Ellen Anderson and Jamie Littler.Discover01Discover02David (above) drew a fantastically evil scientist (below).  My secret agent was called upon to sort him out! Discover03 Here’s Laura wowing kids with her drawing talents…
Discover04 This was definitely a highlight of the day for me – Laura and David having an improptu Tadpole Attack Squad draw off.  It was a fierce battle!
Discover05 When I heard that Laura had an octopus character in her Phoenix comic strip Evil Emperor Penguin, we had to have an Octopus draw off too!  Was amazed at Laura’s unplanned linework – so good!
Discover06 Some more Secret Agent themed art by Laura, myself and visitors to Discover…
Discover07 Jamie did a mind-blowingly good take on the evil inventor including a Laser Shark!
Discover08 Discover09 Hmmm… Well, you try drawing Scooby-Doo without any reference then!  I had to explain to the girl who asked for this who Scrappy-Doo is.  Kids today, eh?!
Discover10 Finally here’s a secret message, written using David O’Connell’s secret code!
Discover11So good to work with David, Laura and Jamie and especially at such a special place as Discover!

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Showing 165 kids the fun of making comics

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Earlier this week I had an intense but fun day running six comic workshops for children at Cranmer School in Surrey.

All in all, 165 kids worked to produce comic strips with some serious talent on display…

First I wowed them with my mastery of zoological form…Cranmer1 Cranmer2Then they warmed up finishing off one of my strips…Cranmer3 Cranmer4Finally, they were let loose making their own comic strips from scratch!Cranmer5 Cranmer6 Cranmer7 Cranmer8 Cranmer9 Cranmer10 Cranmer12 Cranmer13 Cranmer14 Cranmer15Some great work was produced and featuring robots, dog people, living goalposts and all sorts!

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My WASP 2014 work…

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I’m so thrilled at how all the work’s turned out for this year’s Webcomic Artist Swap Project.
Amazing creators involved!
Also, I was chuffed at having the chance to work with Nicola Streeten and Rachael Smith.  See the resulting comics below and visit tempolush.com/wasp for more WASP comics to appear over the weekend!

A Year at 50 – Written by Nicola Streeten. Art by me!
Richy's-Art-for-Year-at-50

Lucy the Octopus – Written by me!  Art by Rachael Smith2014-02-26-WASP-Rachael