Blog – Darren Reynolds

venomber 2024

It’s nearly the end of the month so time to clear the old iPad again and free up some precious precious megabytes. Before you ask, no I haven’t seen the new movie… I only just recently saw across the spider-verse, I’m truly on the cutting edge of the zeitgeist… what day is it again? Why are mullets a thing?

Sketched in procreate while watching the **Tyrell Cannon stream** earlier this month

Slight adjustment, not sure if it’s any improvement really

The next page was drawn without ref just goofing around. I do quite like the idea of a slacker spidey going against a gobby with an ill-fitting rubber mask for some reason though.

I recently started a new job at one of the local uni’s that involves a bit more desk work than I’m used to. I’ve been keeping some scraps handy and have been doodling while waiting on queries, etc. I was feeling fishy last week and managed to sketch these lil dudes.

Starting to feel happier with some of my inking lately and the way it scans, here’s a page from the A5 sketchbook that feels like something I can build on.

The urge to create fanart at the moment is strong, the only problem is that every book I’ve read recently I kinda want to do something for, it’s an affliction. This is something in procreate for Remote Space by Cliff Rathburn that I’m hoping to work on a bit further next month if I get the chance.

Had a quick go at the Manero challenge of the month for November. I don’t think I’ll finish it up but I had fun trying out the layer mask technique he explains in the video. I used a photo of a Godzilla toy as ref but it didn’t really feel like I was getting away from just drawing a straight up copy.

I was thinking of drawing up some Gangsters versus Monsters trading card art earlier in the month but didn’t get past the layout stage.

Procreate continues to be a lot of fun and those pencil brushes are so nice, here’s a wee ghostie that hovered onto one of my pages.

Feeling like Christmas is now creeping up pretty fast and it’d be sweet if I could do something for it, let me know in the comments if you have any character suggestions or something you’d like to see. Always welcome some feedback if you feel inclined, take care and look after yourselves!

Absolutely

It’s been a fun exercise just sketching up some layouts of Absolute Batman for this challenge on insta. I won’t be entering but thought I’d post them here just to clear up some thinking space (the deadline is 27th Oct if you’re interested).

I would have probably went with option one or two but they just feel too similar to a few of the covers I’ve seen so far… besides, did you see that Harren variant at the weekend? Holy crap!!

I should exaggerate these proportions even more, this guy should be massive, a brick sh*thouse!

I’ve been sketching in procreate more lately and some of the brushes have a definite Kent Williams/George Pratt/Jason Shawn Alexander vibe.

Probably overdoing it with spatter and rendering on this Batman sketch, have to remind myself to simplify and think in form.

I watched Aliens a few times after not seeing it for a good few years. It was one of the few movies I brought with me to watch while visiting my in-laws for two weeks over the summer (along with Mad Max: Fury Road & Across the Spider-verse).

I’ve been thinking about doing some more Aliens fan-art but I haven’t drawn anything for it. These are some of the first attempts at something (sketched without reference). Hopefully it’ll develop into a final piece/cover/pin-up, I’m pretty sick of just squeezing in sketches lately.

Gangsters v Monsters #2

The comics machine Matt Garvey kindly asked me to provide a variant cover (my first cover) for the latest issue of Gangsters v Monsters. Look at that preview art by the awesome Andrea Schiavone! So good!

After sketching a few of the characters and initial ideas on paper I worked up a quick cover layout guide in affinity designer and imported the logo files. I then exported the guides to clip studio paint as a draft layer and scanned in some of my loose sketches.

I switched between procreate and clip studio to create the thumbnails, for some reason thumbnailing was just easier in procreate.

I liked all four of these and couldn’t really decide on a favourite, they all would have been fun to draw, honestly.

Initial set of thumbnails with roughly spotted blacks

After receiving confirmation from Matt on the second thumbnail I started inking the mummy head first, followed by the werewolf before tackling the rest. I decided very quickly to limit the brush size to 0.4, 0.8 and 1.0 for consistency. In hindsight I prob went a little overboard with the texture on the mummy in contrast to the other characters.

Rough sketch to final inks in clip studio paint

I haven’t really been colouring much this last year so took a few hours to refamiliarise myself with some basic techniques before flatting the file, practicing on this art from the previous post.

Flatting WIP, lotsa layers, some would say too many

I had a lot of difficulty nailing down my colour palette and worked up some rough options after finishing the flats.

I coloured this over a few days so decided to create a reference page in clip studio to remind myself of the brushes and combinations used. It was very quick to put together and saved me a good bit of time in the end thankfully.

I had a blast on this and now that the project has surpassed its goal I’m really looking forward to seeing this in print come December.

Shout off in the comments if you’re getting a copy, I’d love to hear from ya!

notober

Nope, not doing it, you can’t make me, what’s that?… you’ve made a list of prompts with vague references and obscure characters appealing to my unquenchable nostalgia… ahhhhh, hmmmm… maybe I could… just one a week… or maybe seven at the weekends and post them together in a batch… collect em in a zine… release it on gumroad… that could be fun… I could make it woargghhhhhhhhhhh!!! Damn yooouuuu October!!!! You vile cursed month! Every fraggin year!

Anyway, now that I’ve cleared that up, please enjoy these random drawings.

My old Belfast comics meet-up pal Stephen Downey turned 40 recently and I quickly sketched up some fan art of his latest @outsidergames project Tax-Force. It’s heavily influenced by the X-Men animated series which is basically all you need to know, go wish-list it on your computer.

Wee goblin inspired by @boe_ink latest posts on instagram, goblins are good craic.

Had a go at the new bats and that axe, lotta fun and it got me excited to pick up the first issue this week. Since reading it though I think these henchmen dudes are supposed to be wearing ape skulls, oh well.

Look… it’s been a long week and an even longer weekend, it’s times like these that the Jarbats will emerge in the sketchbook… meesa not sorry.

Batman Day 2024

I was drawing this dumb Batman last night when I realised I’ve missed yet another momentous #batmanday… and no, I didn’t go to bed, Batman’s not the boss of me!

I actually sketched some bat stuff in August when I watched the latest caped crusader series.

Really like the character design choices and the overall German expressionist influence, Clayface in particular was straight outta Caligari (someone should make that t-shirt).

Some more sketchy stuff… I’ll eventually draw an epic aliens masterpiece.

Core skills

Been focusing on fundamentals so far this week… mainly late at night when I should be sleeping. Anyone else feel like quitting their day job to spend 3-6 months improving their anatomy skills?

July 2024

The search for a decent white out continues with this disaster of a drawing, look at those smudges, oh well, the rest of my alien sketches shouldn’t suck quite so hard now at least.

I tightened up my pencils a little bit from the initial drawing but prob should have spotted my blacks before inking. I made some adjustments to the final inks and removed some marks, etc. in clip studio paint (no guarantees I got em all).

Pissed off with my efforts on bristol board I retreated to my wee sketchbook for a bit of craic this last week, completing the following spreads over a few lunch breaks at work.

Really like the way the uni pin brush was behaving on the last two FleshBobs here.

It’s FleshBob!!!

Couldn’t resist mocking these up as stickers.

Scribbled some Death Fist in the sketchbook/procreate, he’s pretty neat too y’know.

Reproductionist

I’ve been trying to reproduce the work I’ve been doing lately in clip studio paint on paper. The results have been varied but I feel like I’m getting closer with the second page here using a g-pen nib and Pentel aquash brush. Weirdly I much prefer drawing on copier paper for these as opposed to bristol board. The g-pen nib is really chewing up the Daler Rowney bristol board I’ve been using, getting all clumpy.

I got the idea to use the aquash brush recently from Franck Bonnet’s instagram, he dips it and uses it as a brush, genius!

Gas man

I sketched a few Swamp thangs while on hold with my gas supplier listening to what could only be described as interdimensional flushing toilets.

May 2024

June is almost over so it’s time to clear out the iPad and share some sketches from May.

Really thought Windows95man/Teemu Keisteri (Finland) and alyona alyona & Jerry Heil (Ukraine) would have scored better in the competition, great performances and personal favourites. Would be tempted to do some proper fan-art of these artists at some stage, especially Windows95man… Bambie Thug would also be a lot of fun to draw.

Initial SW sketches and inks, that Yoda is suspect

Usually don’t bother much with #maythefourth but thought it’d be interesting to draw some SW characters quickly from memory. Considering how much of the star wars I’ve watched over the years it surprised me how these turned out without ref.