Is planning everything?

on March 22, 2025 at 6:01 pm

I mean, yes, yes it is. That being said…..

With issue #20 of Lloyd and the Bear it was my first panel introducing Grizzle’s ship and hey, I PLANNED. THIS. OUT. Like, I have angle shots from the front, side, other side, the interior…. okay, not ones from below or above but still, I planned but when it comes to drawing the first panel it still took tiiiiiime (backgrounds yet to be added later)

Is it just me or is this a thing for everyone?

(I really hope it’s not just me)

Okay, and with that self internalization panic I’m off (sorry, just wanted to share)

More soon! Bear hugs!

Whoops!

on March 11, 2025 at 8:06 am

So there was a time when working on Lloyd and the Bear that I use to go from really loose thumbnails to sketching out individual panels without seeing how the entire page looked until I put it all together (followed by some quick reworking of panels! D’oh!)

I’ve got better at taking my time and planning things out now but I recently lost some of my layout plans… until the other day when they were hidden away in a subfolder on my PC! So I’d already done a panel on one of the pages but wasn’t overly happy with it and then having found the original layout I went back and used that instead!

The top panel made it hard to fit in the speech bubbles I wanted to use and also it just didn’t look that interesting. Even though the new panel isn’t exactly dynamic I figure it flows better from the previous page.

I’ll keep the old panel in the hope of using it later in this issue but as everything if pretty much planned out I don’t think it’ll happen! Ah well!

Okay, on to the next panel of issue #20! More soon!

Bear hugs!

Update!

on March 3, 2025 at 7:30 am

Okay, it’s been a loooooong time since I did an update so here we go with me trying to make the most use of my time by doing a morning post before heading off to the day job!

So on Friday (before being away for the weekend) I finished the last ‘people’ panel of the book with this!

With this issue I’ve been doing things a bit different with first doing all the panels with our heroes and other people in them and then going back to do all the exterior panels AND THEN going back and doing the interior panels (which is why anything I’ve shown on social media lately looks a bit empty)

Why’d I do this? First I was still working on the design of some of the ships that show up in this book but I also wanted to get on and do some work. Secondly, I figured if I kept switching from doing pictures of our heroes and that to doing ships and buildings and what have you that over time people might look a bit different as my style evolves/changes.

So yeah, next ships, buildings and lots of Peow! Peow! Peow! Yay!

More soon! Bear hugs!

Not getting a signal in London is REAL!

on July 25, 2024 at 1:03 pm

Continuing with my commentary on issue #3 of Fenton Hud and I wanted to cover a few things with pages 15 and 16.

So first of all, the phone signal. As I’ve mentioned before I don’t plan the Fenton Hud books and put the story together in small 3 to 4 page scenes. But with this particular plot point I did go back and make a change to the opening pages and have Tabs not able to get a phone reception (originally she was waiting for an important works call which is what got Maya’s attention).

The top row is from page 16 and has Tabs trying to contact Fenton but as he’s at the coffee shop (that Tab was at previously) he’s not getting a phone reception (an annoying real thing in some places in this here London!)

Anyways, she’ll go on to leave him a number of voicemails after she’s seen Cuddles’ body which all happens off panel but ties up to Fenton’s timeline (as he’s running a bit behind) on page 16 with the missed messaged he gets when he leaves the shop.

So yeah, it was a great way to not only tie locations together but also create a running plot point through a good bit of the issue.

Oh, and as for Heston’s disguise and plan to kill Tabs – he was the barista at the coffee shop and if it wasn’t for Maya, Tabitha would have been poisoned. Go Maya!

And that’s me for now but I promise there will be more soon! Bear hugs!

Gibson

PS. Heston had left the coffee store as soon as Tabs got taken away. You can see the other staff being confused where he’s gone in Fenton’s timeline back on page 5! Heston returning to the same location but in a slightly different disguise? That’s ballsy… or messed up – I’ll let you decide!

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From kissy face to grizzly death

on July 8, 2024 at 5:28 pm

Okay, so with page 14 of Fenton Hud I got to draw my first ever kissing scene in a comic and WOW(!) I found that seriously tough! Like, to get both people in the shot evenly and make sure neither is hidden by the other? TOUGH!

Or maybe it’s just me but yeah, I really wanted to get this right so hope you all find it not only looked genuine but gave the feels.

And hey, after that we have Cuddles’ death (which worryingly wasn’t so hard to draw…)

So back when my better half was reading Fenton Hud #1 for the first time they mentioned that Cuddles was a bit of a Mary Sue and was a bit too skilled in a lot of different things. This stuck in my head and with issue #3 and deciding I was going to kill someone off it made sense that it was going to be Cuddles.

So yeah, I’m kinda saying that this wasn’t my fault…? So sadly Cuddles bit the bullet. Is it wrong that I love the second panel like A LOT?!?

And on that happy note…. Bear hugs!