It's in the (body) bag!

The final interior inks, colours and letters (by the talented Vicky Stonebridge, Andy Brown and Nic Wilkinson respectively) have been added to the last page of Slaughterman's Creed and the book is done!

Cy Dethan has added a 12 page lettered preview to his website (and to our Facebook group which you may care to join) so you can finally add a little bit of context to those random panels and works-in-progress I'd been posting early last year. 

It's a little odd seeing artwork that I drew over a year and a half ago only surfacing now, (I finished the interiors of the book about 6 months ago, but it's 110 pages long and the panels below were drawn sometime just before the launch of Cancertown at Bristol '09) but I'm proud of the book and you're in for a gory treat with Cy's cracker story.

Here's the first two pages of the graphic novel (I handled full art duties for the first two chapters, so this one's all me with Nic's lettering and of course Cy's words), but head on over to Cy's site for the rest of the preview:

The story will be released on the PSP as a digital comic through Markosia later in 2011 and other formats will follow. I'll update the blog with all the info as I get it.

Christmas Wrap

A number of things have come to fruition in the last few weeks so this is a bit of a Christmas wrap up.

• I have a new strip up at Talesofthe.com; a creepy retelling of The Little Matchstick Girl. I've used a very different drawing style and I think it's the first comic on he web that I've written, drawn and lettered myself so let me know what you think. This is part of Tales of The Season, which features Christmas Comic from Kevin 'Gio' Logue, Andrew Croskery, Mal Coney and Wayne Simmons so make sure to check them all out.

• All being well, I have some comic work lined up for early next year, starting with a one-shot for The League of Volunteers from Atomic Diner, a pulp adventure team book set in 1940s Ireland. This will be a spin off from the regular series, written by Robert Curley, which is launching now with art from Barry Keegan. Issue 1 of the regular series is limited to 500 copies, so if you want to get in at the beginning, you can order it from the Atomic Diner site here. 

• Cancertown will be returning to the Playstation Network early in the new year as a digital comic. If you can't wait until then, Cy Dethan's Indifference Engine reunites most of the Cancertown team, adding in penciller Rob Carey and was just released digitally on the PSP this week. It gets a featured mention on the Playstation Blog and already gathered great reviews. I can't wait to read it myself. 

• I've been listed as the number 21 NI's 'Reasons to be Cheerful' in this months AU mag (previously know as 'Alternative Ulster'). It was a nice little write up and there's even a little crop of the Cancertown opening splash page in there. Copies of AU mag are free and widely distributed all over Ireland, or you can view the whole magazine online right here. I'm on page 49, but here's a screen grab of the article. Many thanks to Reggie Chamberlain King for the write up. 

I have some other comic news, and I've just started my first video game work, but I'll talk about that when I have more to show but it certainly looks to be a busy start to the new year. 

An Engaging Story

For those who haven't already heard, myself and Aimee got engaged this past weekend which has made me extremely happy. I won't bore you with every detail of the proposal, but there is some artwork involved and Aimee has encouraged me to show a little of it off and it needs a little background summary. Who am I to argue with my future wife?

Aimee has always thought of Rome as her favourite place, and the Trevi Fountain as the most romantic spot in the world (it may have something to do with a Bon Jovi video), so under the pretense of a Christmas present from my mum, that she had supposedly won and passed on to us, I organised a weekend away to coincide with our 4 year anniversary. You may think it doesn't sound plausible that Aimee would believe such a coincidence, but the fake email addresses, phone calls and the fact that it was Aimee who picked the dates (I knew she'd pick our anniversary) and other little things kept it a surprise.

I drew the story of 'The Monkey and the Penguin' who fall in love and turned in into a little children's-style story book (Aimee is obsessed with penguins and calls me her Monkey. Please try not to throw up) and gave it to Aimee to unwrap at the Trevi Fountain. It starts off as a fairly inconspicuous children's story and gets more personal as the book goes on, so I'll just show off a few of the first pages here.

The last spread had the Monkey at the Trevi fountain handing out a box to Aimee as the reader. The box had a flap held down with a bit of ribbon that acted as the box lid and opened up to reveal the diamond ring. I took from the ring from the book, got down on one knee and well the rest is a bit of a blur, but I said everything I wanted to and asked Aimee to marry me.

And Aimee said 'Yes'.

The Beginning...

Free Stuff!!

I've set up a system where I can send you prints or sketches to your house at absolutely no cost to you, but I'll still get paid for it.

Here's how it works:

If you'll be doing a lot of Christmas shopping on Amazon.co.uk this year, and will probably spend over £100 (as some people are inclined to do), if you access Amazon by clicking through the Affiliate link at the top right column of this page, then I get 5% commission on anything you purchase on that visit without costing you any extra. In return I'll send you some of the items from my shop based on the amount of commission I earn.

Here's how to do it:

Step 1: Make sure your browser doesn't have any Amazon tabs open, go to www.stephendowneygallery.com and click the affiliate link at the top of the left column. This will bring you to Amazon.co.uk. 

Step 2: Shop on Amazon as normal. I only get commission on items you place in your basket after you pass through my site, so make sure you haven't any items in there from previous Amazon visits or it won't count. Then check out and buy those items within 24 hours. 

Step 3: Based on your total checkout price, work out how much commission I'll be getting (5% of what you spend) and use the shop page on my site to work out the equivalent items you'd like. For example if you spend £100, I get £5, which is the equivalent to one print in my shop. If you spent £300, I'd be getting £15 so you could choose either a sketch or three prints (P&P is free for all items in my shop shipping to the UK & Ireland, a shipping charge would apply to anyone further afield).

Step 4: Send me an email to Stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com letting me know which items you bought on Amazon, the total cost and what you would like me to send you in return for the commission.

I've already had a couple of people test this system as it works really well and everyone gets something extra at no cost to them. An extra Christmas pressie for everybody!

Leed Time

This past weekend was my first time at Leeds Thought Bubble and it certainly won't be my last; a really welcoming and friendly event packed with people. It was also the first time I'd been behind my own table for the entire con, sharing with my Torchwood cover colourist Ciaran Lucas and his traveling companion Alan Beirne. I'd spent a few hours behind Ciaran's table at the MCM previously, but this time I was properly prepared with a few prints and proper drawing materials and was able to make back the weekend's expenses (not counting the whiskey's on Saturday). 

Here are a handful of the many sketches I produced during the day. Thanks to Alan for his photography skills. 

Daredevil 

Portrait of a customer

Hellboy (with Horns)

 On the Sunday I went to the John Romita Jr workshop (did you know he only sleeps 5 1/2 hours a night and works a 12 - 15 hour drawing day!), attended Bryan Talbot's Grandville talk and had a very positive portfolio  review from a Marvel editor. I also managed a quiet drink with Slaughterman's Creed colourist Vicky Stonebridge and Rich Clements and may have agreed to work on a short project. This is what happens when you buy me whiskey. More on that later. 

I also seemed to have picked up my first Con Flu. A comic con Rite of Passage I believe. 

A Penny for the Thought (I'm selling stuff!)

So I'm heading to Thought Bubble in Leeds this coming weekend, 20th November. This being my third English con of the year it's getting quite expensive, so I'm making up some prints and original pieces that I can sell to make back a little on the costs of flights etc. Therefore I can officially unveil the new Shop section of this site! The link is in the navigation bar above please click through to see what's available.

Here are a few of the prints I'll be selling at £5 each (inc P&P).

I'll also have the original art for most of the above illustrations which will be selling for between £15 and £25. If there is one of them you really like just email stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com and I'll hold it for you.

I'll also be doing some sketching on the day that will look a little like this:

Sketches will be £10 on the day and again you can preorder or if you're not heading to the con, order via the shop or email with free shipping.

If you're not an original art collector yourself, it might be a really nice christmas present for that someone special...



Disclaimer: The copyright for all the above characters belong to their respective owners and these prints are sold only on a personal level. If any of the copyright owners have a problem just email stephen[at]stephendowneygallery.com. 

Cover Story

You may have seen one of the Work-in-Progress Slaughterman's Creed cover's slip out on the net this weekend while I was prancing around the MCMexpo. I finally have the chance to share the cover here along with the slightly unusual process behind it.

I had worked on another cover before with Ryan Brown and after seeing his digitally painted work over Simon Bisley's 13 coins comic pages, asked him if he would paint over my pencils/layout for the Slaughterman's Creed covers (Ryan's brother Andy is the co-founder of Beserker Comics, and inked the interior latter chapters of SC).

I had a rough idea for the cover and sketched out a quick layout (which I can't find at the minute, but I'll have found it by the time the cover is finished and post it then), set up my studio lights and took a few reference photos. Here's the one for Sidney himself:

Using the reference photos I sketched out the graphic novel cover layout below.

At this point (as those who were following my blog last year will know), I had planned to spend my Summer in Canada and continue drawing. Things fell through at the last minute and although we had a brilliant month in Belize instead, we did a lot more traveling and A3 scanners are few and far between. 

Each digital chapter will feature an individual characters so I had to draw each one separately and Ryan agreed to paint and compose them together for the GN. I had to wait to get to Seattle four weeks later to print out five blue lines copies of the sketch and pencil out the individual characters over it. Since Sidney was already in the foreground he needed the least done, but I did tidy him up a little. 

By the time I'd finished drawing the characters we were on a plane to Las Vegas. I thought it would be easy to find a scanner there, but all I could find was slot machines and wedding chapels. I was sending my laptop back home the next day, so all I could do was take photos of the pencils on my camera (see above), load them into my dropbox, along with the original reference photos and some interior character shots and upload via the hotel wireless. 

Yip, that WIP cover painting was actually painted over a photo sent from Las Vegas. I reckon Ryan did a bloody awesome job! 

Expect another update, with more sketches and ref material when the cover is finished.