June 2025

Had a pretty good response to the Dredd sketch on bluesky, a big surprise really, I haven’t seen much reaction to anything I post there honestly, lucky to get a reply or comment at all. Haven’t drawn any Dredd stuff in years, the helmet is always tricky but this looks alright… it might even be a new favourite of mine. The Eastwood of this is entirely accidental btw, couldn’t resist adding a wee speech bubble nod to auld dirty Harry.

Was in two minds about posting this Ultramega but I’ll let it slide as I’ve already put it on insta… that’s late night posting for ya. Someday I’ll do a decent drawing of this awesome character and melt some eyeballs.

May 2025

A bunch of scraps and colour practice from the month of May!

Being green

Honestly, any one of these could be a self portrait.

April 2025

Got into drawing flies in a big way this month and filled a few pages in the grid notebook (I found this Etherington brothers tutorial really useful, the proportions are trickier than you’d think).

I produced two sketchbooks using Affinity Publisher and scribbled some rough ideas for covers, layouts, etc. I didn’t end up using the cover ideas but I might do something for the next one. Ideally, I’d like to spend time drawing a new detailed cover illustration as opposed to just using existing art.

Finished off the wee yellow sketchbook with some late night sketches using black and white posca markers. I really like how they came out, the fly head especially looks great on the page.

I started a new A5 sketchbook and decided to just fill the first few pages quickly to break it in. The paper wrinkled really badly with the posca paint markers, makes scanning these a real pain.

Not much in the way of digital work this month apart from a few doodle/scrap pages in procreate.

Finally, couldn’t resist picking up this tiny guy on the weekly grocery shop, such an awesome wee fig.

zzzzzzz

Got aliens on the brain again, gonna have to work up something later in the month at a more reasonable hour…. so very tired.

No fly zone

March 2025

Not much time for drawing but I’ve been adding to these larger pages of bedtime doodles, sketching some favourites and other stuff.

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?

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’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.

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.