Technicolour Fun!

 

I've digitally coloured a recent ink piece. Basically just wanted to have a bit of fun and have a bit of retro pop and crackle fun in the vein of Mike Allred and Steve Rude.

 

This will be available as a print this weekend when I'm attending London MCM Comic Con. Hopefully see you there!

Sketchbook 012

Emanata - Update

 

 

A (belated) update to highlight that I've got more material available on the Emanata app.

The app is available to download on Ipad, Iphone and Android and gives you the opportunity to view and download the work of many independent comic creators, with a lot of material available to view for free.

There's my 18 page story 'Light and Dust' available to download for $1.99 and also spooky short wrtitten by Mark Kavanagh, 'The Hollows' to view for free.

Older material is still available, the first issue of 'Charlatan Tales' and also 'Random', which is available for free.

It's a decent app with a smooth interface and it does no harm to support independent creators doing what they love.

Heathen Beats

 

 

I've recently completed this ink/watercolour original piece.

 

I've got a soft spot for all that weird 70's pagan stuff such as 'The Wicker Man', 'Blood on Satan's Claw', the books of Alan Garner and Susan Cooper and the likes of recent horror movie 'Kill List'. For sheer stylization purposes I collided all that with motifs and imagery from clubland; mirrorballs, headphones, turntables.

 

 

 

 

 

Along with ink and watercolour there's acrylic and charcoal thrown into the mix. This has really wetted my appetite for doing more original pieces that combine soft watercolour build ups and strong inking.

 

The piece with a black mounting board frame is approx. 52cm x 44 cm and can be purchased through my etsy store.

 

Destined

I've recently created a series of 10 comic pages for Northern Ireland based charity 'Destined' which focuses on helping and empowering adults with learning disabilities. It was created in conjunction with NI-based comic company and creators of Zombies Hi!, 'Uproar Comics'.

The pages highlight people involved with Destined and use their own words and likenesses in telling their stories and how Destined has positively affected their lives.

 

I wanted to make these pages warm and inviting so used clean linework with little cross hatching, shading linework etc. and also kept to a palette of bright, pastely colours with minimal, soft, subtle shading applied. I created the pencil, ink and colour work, the lettering was done in-house at Uproar Comics.

The full series of final lettered pages can be viewed here: http://www.destined.ie/Destined.pdf

The full series of unlettered pages can be viewed over at my Behance site: http://www.behance.net/alfiegallagher

Here's one of the pages through the different stages of pencilling, inking/colouring and lettering:

Fun!

Here's a bit of fun I've worked on recently. Just wanted to have a bit of simple 'pop' fun so dusted off the Sixties variants of these characters. Have been taking in the work of Steve Rude lately so wanted to go for that super-clean inking style.

Hope to get this coloured to have as a print for attending London MCM in May.

New Empress Magazine - Action v Romance

 

 

The latest brief for New Empress magazine was to 'have Arnold Schwarzenneger punching Katherine Heigl' for an article posing the question 'why can't/shouldn't men enjoy rom-coms'.

 

Obviously wanted to keep image of male actor punching actress as light as possible as was uneasy about it tipping into dodgy waters. Arnie basically drew himself as there's only one AH-NULD but I spent far too long trying to get Kathereine Heigl right and to have a heightened caricature look that would immediately be recognisably 'Heigl-esque'. I just couldn't get a foot hold on any features to ramp up. Have definitely walked away with a firm respect for the work of caricaturists such as Mort Drucker, who would do panel after panel, page after page of instantly recognisable caricatures of famous faces/celebrities for MAD magazine, to the point where you take it for granted.