Chris Askham's Blog!

St Trinians

2012-01-08T22:48:00.003Z

The current theme over on The Weekly TAB is Ronald Searle, in honour of the great cartoonist who recently passed away - I couldn't resist having a go at a typical St Trinian's student.

Sinister Dexter Sneaky Peek

2012-01-06T20:07:00.003Z

Here's a sneak peek at a Sinister Dexter strip I've been working on for the 2000ad fanzine Zarjaz. It's a punchy little 3-pager, scripted by Tony McVeigh. And it's embarrassingly late too, for which I apologize to all concerned.

Russ Post

2012-01-01T22:26:00.004Z

First post of 2012, and it's Russ Post - one half of Matt Howarth's Bugtown Bad Boys 'Those Annoying Post Bros'. I picked up a big bunch of back issues of this back in the mid-90's and even with the modern wonders of eBay, find it nigh impossible to fill any of the gaps in my collection. Currently having a re-read and I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it stands up, unlike a lot of other comics from that period.

Angel

2011-12-22T09:38:00.002Z

Another entry for the Weekly TAB - this weeks theme was Angels.

Father C

2011-12-21T00:43:00.001Z

Merry Christmas, All!

Dredd Remodelled v2

2011-12-16T10:58:00.002Z

Now with added daystick and some minor additions to the uniform. Thought it gave him a more 'bad-ass' look!

Illustrator test 001

2011-12-15T22:54:00.005Z

Still playing about with illustrator - here's a very simple pumpkin image (taken from an online tutorial). My results are slightly rougher than that of the tutorial, and I made a few alterations to suit my own purposes and tastes, but I quite like it!

Dredd Remodelled

2011-12-14T19:45:00.003Z

Here's my re-imagined Judge Dredd, which I coudn't resist entering on the Whitechapel forum REMAKE/REMODEL art thread

Jaramsheela

2011-12-14T16:22:00.003Z

A new one for the Weekly TAB - Jaramsheela from the pages of 80's British anthology Warrior.

Dune - Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen

2011-12-09T11:47:00.004Z

Created for the new Dune theme over on the Weekly TAB. I've never read any of the books, and it's been many years since I saw the David Lynch movie, but this is Feyd-Rautha Harkonnen, as played by Sting in the movie. I didn't even attempt to capture a good likeness in this image, but I did want to get the general style of the character, and give it my own stamp.

Tara

2011-12-08T16:05:00.004Z

Another portrait.

Snow Queen

2011-12-07T22:36:00.001Z

Another one (of many) images that I keep coming back to, and playing about with.

Sponge

2011-12-07T17:13:00.001Z

An old small press character that I can't help but keep coming back to - Doctor Sponge and his glamorous assistant, Nurse Goodbody. The good Doctor has had three incarnations over the years. Who knows when he'll next put in an appearance...

American GI

2011-12-01T16:50:00.000Z

Created for the World War 2 theme, over on the Weekly TAB. Really wasn't keen on the finished inked image, but it's amazing what you can hide with some good old grey textures.

Dirty Frank

2011-11-25T19:40:00.000Z

A quick Dirty Frank drawing. Dirty Frank being, for those not in the know, one of the main characters from the 2000ad strip Low Life (written by Rob Williams, drawn by D'Israeli). Might colour this at some point.

Omnivistascope model 7

2011-11-24T18:15:00.000Z

Out now is Paul Scott's sci-fi anthology Omnivistascope 7, which features my artwork on his Auto Muto strip, set in a future world where the cars rule the roads. As usual, it's a meaty volume packed with comics, articles and photo strips and it's one of the finest quality small press books out there - square bound on fine quality paper stock. And all for just £5 plus £1 p+p. Buy it from his website now, through the link above.

Trip to the Fair

2011-11-18T12:37:00.001Z

The Weekly TAB

2011-11-17T22:40:00.001Z

The theme for this week's Weekly TAB was Cartoon Collisions - taking two characters from any medium and splicing them together to make one. I've gone for a Dan Dare / Judge Dredd hybrid.

Something a Bit Seasonal

2011-11-13T21:28:00.001Z

New portrait

2011-11-09T21:56:00.001Z

Not a big fan of doing portraits, mainly because I'm rubbish at them. Just can't seem to get a good likeness no matter what, and I struggle to find a comfortable style that feels like my own. But taking all that into account, thought I may as well post this anyway.

Battle Angel Alita... Take 2

2011-11-09T14:10:00.000Z

Drew this a couple of months or so back and posted it up here, but something about it never quite sat right so I've had a little play about and made some minor modifications. Originally, I think the eye level was slightly too high and it gave the face a funny look, so I've lowered that a tiny bit. I've also added a few spray can effects, just to frame the character in a bit.

Gon

2011-11-08T23:52:00.000Z

My latest entry for the Weekly TAB - Gon, Masashi Tanaka's bad-tempered, pint-sized manga T Rex.

More Dredd

2011-11-06T16:05:00.001Z

A Henry Flint inspired Dredd sketch.

New Illustration

2011-11-03T15:19:00.001Z

Originally a group of 3 youths, but one of them didn't look right, so I cropped him out.

New Illustration

2011-10-28T21:59:00.000+01:00

Something I've been working on over the last couple of days, purely for my own entertainment. Something a bit different to celebrate completing the Jikan strip.

Jikan - Demeter

2011-10-21T14:48:00.001+01:00

Another sneaky glimpse of my Jikan strip for an upcoming issue of Paragon. Just one page left to do on this and it'll be all done and dusted. Except for the bits that I'll probably go back and redraw. Yep, there's a few of them...

Photoshop rain

2011-10-14T01:24:00.001+01:00

Had to post this, purely for the reason that I've never managed to create convincing rain before either free hand or digitally, but for the first time ever I've come up with something that I'm fairly happy with. I imagine that most folks came up with this result some years ago, but for me this is a breakthrough, especially as the current strip I'm working on relies on the heavy usage of a LOT of rain.

Hopefully, come the morning I won't have forgotten how I created this astounding new technique!

One Eyed Monster - Another Illustrator test

2011-10-09T09:12:00.001+01:00

Another experiment with Illustrator. The top image was hand drawn / Photoshopped, the bottom one is the Illustrator trace.

Spock!

2011-10-08T21:33:00.001+01:00

Another one for the Weekly TAB.

Star Trek week.

Muscleman - Adobe Illustrator test

2011-10-08T17:52:00.000+01:00

A quick experiment with Illustrator, as I'm currently trying to get my head around how it works. I've tried before with little success, but think I'm finally making some headway, even if it's only the very basics. This was a quick trace of an original hand drawn image, the Illustrator image being the bottom one here. I've included them both here for comparison purposes.

Jikan - Demeter

2011-10-07T12:27:00.001+01:00

Powellnuts

2011-10-02T15:41:00.001+01:00

Just completed this little strip for Dan Powell to use as a header over on his blog, and if you follow the link you'll get a bit of back story about how it came about. It's actually based on a Charles Schulz Peanuts strip, but Charlie Brown and Lucy have been switched for 'Schulz' versions of Dan and some indie chick type.

The Lament Configuration - Part 2

2011-09-27T22:59:00.000+01:00

I've narrowed the eyes a little, converted to greyscale and deepened the darker areas of the picture for a moodier feel.

The Lament Configuration

2011-09-26T23:43:00.000+01:00

My contribution to the Weekly TAB, with the theme this week of 'The Mind Of Clive Barker'. I've long been a fan of the original Hellraiser film, based on the novel The Hellbound Heart, but didn't fancy tackling one of the Cenobites from the movie (and I haven't got the patience to draw Pinhead's nails!). Instead, I've gone for this individual toying with the Lament Configuration - the box which opens the gateway to the Cenobite's world.

Jikan - Demeter

2011-09-24T14:08:00.001+01:00

Jikan - Demeter

2011-09-23T12:17:00.001+01:00

SPOON!

2011-09-22T21:04:00.001+01:00

The Tick, created for the Weekly TAB, which this week had the theme of Bugs & Insects.

Jikan - Demeter

2011-09-18T20:38:00.000+01:00

Another sneaky peek at my artwork for the Jikan strip in Dave Candlish's Paragon. The great thing about cropping these panels is that you can get rid of all the crap around them, and end up with a half decent image. The strip has been scripted by Mark J. Howard.

Jikan - Demeter

2011-09-09T18:41:00.001+01:00

Here's a small preview of the Jikan strip I'm currently working on for Dave Candlish's Paragon. It's been a bit of a tough one to get my head round, but I think I've just about cracked it now, and have moved on to the inking stage. Fingers crossed, I should start making a bit of progress now!

Hammer Horror - The Mummy!

2011-09-06T00:02:00.001+01:00

As immortalised by Christopher Lee in the 1959 Hammer Horror movie. Created for The Weekly TAB.

The Weekly TAB

2011-08-30T23:43:00.001+01:00

Red Sonja for this week's Weekly TAB. The theme - Sword & Sorcery.

The Weekly TAB

2011-08-20T21:45:00.001+01:00

It all seems to have gone a bit black & white on here just lately. This is my pic of 1950's low budget B movie Robot Monster for the Weekly TAB.

Dogbreath Preview

2011-08-13T21:18:00.000+01:00

Not giving too much away, as this has only just been completed and won't be seeing print for a while yet. A small panel from my next Dogbreath strip, featuring Strontium Dog Johnny Alpha. The strip is called Potentials, and is scripted by Eric Moore. Dogbreath is just one of the many fine publications from FutureQuake Press - more details here.

Quick illustration

2011-08-09T18:33:00.000+01:00

Character sketches

2011-08-07T22:05:00.000+01:00

A couple of character sketches for a (late) comic strip I'm currently working on. A Russian Captain & his First Mate, and a Vampire.

Robots

2011-08-03T22:54:00.000+01:00

Two for the price of one, this week on the Weekly TAB. The theme was robots, so I've gone with Battle Angel Alita (one of my favourite manga characters) and Megatron (of Transformers fame). Old mucker Phil Kowalski has dropped hints a few times that I should have a go at something Transformers-themed, so this week was the ideal opportunity. My own experience of the shape-changing robots is limited to the old Marvel UK comic from the 80's, and I was a big fan of Geoff Senior's art in those issues.

And Battle Angel Alita (by Yukito Kishiro) is just a visual delight to read.

The Weekly TAB

2011-07-24T16:23:00.001+01:00

This weeks theme on the Weekly TAB is Bad Guys & Gals, and I've gone for Evelyn Crow, from Garen Ewing's Rainbow Orchid series. One day I might just drum up the courage to ask Garen for a commissioned sketch of Evelyn, as she is by far my favourite character in the series. The Rainbow Orchid is available from Amazon (amongst many many other places).

Siti's Sisters

2011-07-23T10:50:00.001+01:00

A selection of illustrations from the 'Siti's Sisters' series of books, written by Helen Orme and published by Ransom. The titles are aimed at reluctant readers in the 10 - 14 year old bracket, who would find Jacqueline Wilson too much of a struggle.

In the words of the publisher...

Siti's Sisters is designed for girls aged 10-14 with a reading level of 7 - 8 years.

The stories follow the ups and downs of Siti and the four close friends she calls her Sisters. Problem boys, bothersome brothers, trouble with teachers, parents, parties and fallings out - readers are bound to identify closely with the charactersand their experiences.

The fast-paced, funny and light-hearted stories are all in the region of 1200-1500 words in length. All of the books feature tightly controlled vocabulary, simple sentences and contemporary black and white illustrations throughout to help readers engage and follow the narrative.

The books are currently available for pre-order from Amazon here.

T-Shirt design at Redbubble

2011-07-23T09:08:00.000+01:00

Just uploaded this design over at the Redbubble site. Nice to try these things out every now and then. Recently sold a sticker on there, and received the princely sum of 6p in profit.

Cricketer

2011-07-21T20:39:00.000+01:00

Shameless copy of a Colin MacNeil panel

2011-07-17T21:30:00.000+01:00

I think it comes in handy every now and then just to shamelessly copy the work of another artist to get an insight into how they work (as long as you're not passing it off as your own work, obviously). And if your going to copy a Dredd panel then who better than Colin Macneil - one of the top Dredd artists around. I've made some little unintentional alterations to the original panel, and it was quite rushed, but it was an interesting experiment. My Dredd has a slightly shorter chin (intentional), and a wonky shoulder pad (unintentional).

The Weekly TAB - revisited

2011-07-17T21:13:00.001+01:00

And here we are again, with a very quick colour job and some minor alterations. I've shortened his right ear a bit because I think it was sticking out a bit too much, and covered up his foot because it just didn't look right.

The Weekly TAB

2011-07-17T20:23:00.001+01:00

My entry for the current theme - Star Wars - on The Weekly TAB. Could probably benefit from a touch of colour at some point... There are a lot of things I would probably correct on it, but I didn't spend that much time on drawing it so I can't really complain.

The Weekly TAB

2011-07-10T20:20:00.001+01:00

This week's theme on the Weekly TAB is Trees & Plants, so here's my entry - everybody's favourite creature from the bog - Swamp Thing. I was quite pleased with how the inks came out on this one, probably one of my more successful drawings of late, and the colours tend to cover the ink lines up a bit, so I've shown both versions side by side.

Sportsmen

2011-07-05T23:06:00.001+01:00

A new chap added to my growing collection of sportsmen.

Wings

2011-07-05T20:58:00.000+01:00

The Weekly TAB

2011-07-01T10:51:00.001+01:00

Here's my current entry over on the Weekly TAB. I'd quite like to add a bit of colour to it, but think that'll have to wait for another day. The theme this week was Americans versus British, and I've gone for a kind of spin-off of the Judge Dredd / Batman team-up 'Judgement On Gotham.

Dark haired girl

2011-06-27T22:57:00.000+01:00

Some ball kickers

2011-06-22T22:45:00.001+01:00

I don't know nothing about 'the beautiful game' - but here's a couple of chaps waiting for some controversy or other to break... Who's doing what to who? It'll all be in tomorrow's papers...

The Weekly TAB

2011-06-21T22:50:00.001+01:00

This week on the Weekly TAB it's Doctors & Professors so, in contrast to my previous post, here's a grim and gritty Doc Holliday

Teens

2011-06-21T20:50:00.000+01:00

Another example of the new style I'm trying out. All clean lines and bright flat colours.

Paragon 8 cover - final version

2011-06-19T11:09:00.001+01:00

Here's my completed artwork for the cover of Paragon 8, which'll be seeing the light of day sometime in the coming weeks. I really enjoyed working on this, and it was a thrill to be producing some colour cover art for the first time in ages. Check out the Paragon blog for all the latest info.

New stuff

2011-06-17T21:47:00.000+01:00

Haven't been posting much new stuff on here for a while other than the odd Weekly TAB link, due to just being too damn busy. Here's something a bit different though, a bit more illustrative than the comics stuff, and it ties in a bit more with the type of work I've been doing over the last few months. Expect to see a bit more of this kind of thing over the coming weeks.

The Weekly TAB

2011-06-10T10:52:00.001+01:00

This week on the Weekly TAB it was Norts vs Southers week, the two warring factions from the 2000ad future war strip Rogue Trooper.

Zarjaz 11 review

2011-05-22T16:07:00.001+01:00

There's a very nice Zarjaz 11 review up on the Everything Comes Back To 2000ad website.

Above is a snippet of the Joe Pineapples strip I drew for it, which was written my Lee Robson. Zarjaz and other publications can be purchased from the Futurequake store here.

Amy Pond

2011-05-18T23:05:00.001+01:00

My latest entry on the Weekly TAB - Amy Pond, from Doctor Who. Capturing a good likeness isn't one of my strong points so I didn't even attempt it with this. Still took a lot of fiddling about before I got it to look right though. Tried to keep the colours as simple as possible so as not to over-complicate matters...

Paragon 8 Cover - Initial Colours

2011-05-14T15:43:00.001+01:00

My first go at the colours, keeping things quite loose...

Paragon 8 Cover - update

2011-05-14T12:53:00.001+01:00

A slight alteration - I've moved Jikan's sword around a bit, so that it follows the basic flow of the rest of the image. Hopefully makes it look a bit more dynamic. All the basics are now down, and ready to throw on a bit of colour.

Paragon 8 Cover - Inks

2011-05-11T22:08:00.000+01:00

Here's the inked figure of Jikan for my cover to Paragon 8. Seems to be going okay so far - next stage is to start adding some colour and the background pattern, which I might have a bit of a play around with.

It's Wild West Week over on the TAB...

2011-05-07T17:25:00.000+01:00

... and I've added some colour to an old pic for my contribution. Check out the blog here.

Paragon 8 Cover

2011-05-06T23:07:00.001+01:00

A3 pencils for the forthcoming Paragon 8 cover. So far so good, although not sure if the proportions for Jikan's right arm are slightly off...?

Paragon 8 Cover

2011-05-04T21:37:00.001+01:00

Here's my rough design for the cover of Davey Candlish's Paragon #8, featuring time-hopping, demon-hacking samurai Jikan. It's been a long time since I've had the distinct pleasure of creating a cover image, so I've been quite looking forward to this, although I'm slightly apprehensive about it too.

I'll be documenting the progress of the cover here, in the hope that if it starts to go monumentally wrong, then someone might at least point me in the right direction. This is one of three designs that I came up with, giving Dave the final choice of which one he wanted to go with.

To find out more about Paragon, check out the blog here.

Captain Winston Bulldog

2011-05-01T17:46:00.000+01:00

Not had much time for anything other than work and the Weekly TAB recently, but here's a quick sketchbook drawing of Captain Winston Bulldog, from Bulldog Adventure Magazine. Bulldog is the creation of Jason Cobley, and has been a mainstay of the small press for many a long year. He's had a list of artists as long as your arm, each with their own distinctive style, and I had the pleasure of providing artwork on a strip back in the late 90's / early 00's. Every now and then Winston re-surfaces in one form or another, but you can read some of his classic adventures in the form of a lovely trade paperback from Lulu here.

The Weekly TAB

2011-04-18T21:44:00.001+01:00

My Shakara pic for the Weekly Themed Art Blog. There's some really cracking stuff over there, and you should probably check it out...

The Weekly TAB

2011-04-10T23:55:00.001+01:00

A new one for The Weekly TAB - Satanus, the Black Tyrannosaur from the pages of 2000ad. It's Dinosaurs and Monsters week on the TAB, in honour of the new series of Flesh, currently appearing in the prog. I quite surprised myself by knocking this one together in just a couple of hours (not bad going for me...).

Zarjaz 11 Now Available

2011-04-06T18:10:00.001+01:00

Zarjaz 11 is available now from The FQP Shop, and features the Joe Pineapples strip by Lee Robson and myself, with letters by Bolt-01. Here's the full round-up -

Contained within the cover by CLINT LANGLEY, you will find:

Joe Pineapples- Tin Man by Lee Robson and Chris Askham
Mongrol- Blogging by David Withers, Bolt-01 & Mike Carroll
Mek-Quake- Little Jobs by The Emperor and Conor Boyle
Deadlock- Unrepentant by Richmond Clements, Gibson Quarter & Jim Campbell (inks & letters)
Blackblood by Eric Moore and Dunk! Nimmo
Steelhorn- Shadow of the titanic by Matthew Badham and Matt Soffe
Robusters- Terror in the Baltic Ben Clark and Nick Dyer
A.B.C. Warriors- RICOCHET by Richmond Clements and Kevin Levell.

Thanks to the amazing Mike Carroll for the astounding logo for the issue.

Zarjaz 11 will be going to FPI and now ORBITAL of London in the next two weeks for those who buy their copies from shops.

The Weekly TAB

2011-04-02T19:35:00.001+01:00

A new one for the Weekly Tab. It's Hellboy week.

Cursed Earth Mutant 2

2011-03-31T23:04:00.001+01:00

A companion piece to this one. Both pictures are sketch book drawings from last summer, inspired by various residents and holiday-makers of Skegness.

The Weekly TAB

2011-03-29T17:13:00.001+01:00

The current theme on The Weekly TAB is Non-2000ad UK Comic Characters, and I've gone for this pic of Robot Archie. The more astute among you may notice that this isn't an entirely new image - it was created for the Fractal Friction Art Swap last year - but I've been meaning to colour it for a while now, and this seemed the ideal opportunity.

The Weekly TAB

2011-03-23T20:38:00.001Z

The current theme on the Weekly TAB is Video Game Icons, and I've opted for 90's scrolling beat'em up Streets Of Rage from the Sega Megadrive. They don't make 'em like that anymore, more's the pity...

The Weekly TAB

2011-03-13T01:09:00.001Z

The new theme on the Weekly Themed Art Blog is Tron. I haven't seen the new Tron. And I was a little kid when I saw the original. So I've done a bit of a swipe of one of the promo pics from the movie. Hopefully I've given it my own slant, rather than just copying the original image (which should be pretty easy to google).

Diesel Punk

2011-03-08T21:35:00.000Z

The current theme on the Weekly Themed Art Blog is 'Diesel Punk', and this is my entry. As always, I found the colouring a bit daunting and ended up just throwing a lot at it. It could do with a bit of fine-tuning here and there, but for now it'll have to do.

The Weekly TAB

2011-03-02T21:30:00.001Z

This is my contribution to the new Weekly Themed Art Blog. The theme this week was Exorcism, and I've gone for more of a' possession' flavour, but that's close enough for me. One part The Exorcist, one part Hammer Horror and one part EC Comics.

The Dog

2011-02-21T21:16:00.001Z

Wulf Sternhammer

2011-02-19T14:37:00.001Z

Viking partner of mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha.

Big Man!

2011-02-15T21:16:00.001Z

A brief respite from all the robots, zombies, mutants and bounty hunters. Something a bit more child friendly! Not much more than a finished rough at the minute, but thinking of doing a bit more with it in the long run.

Johnny Alpha

2011-02-11T21:18:00.001Z

Another Johnny Alpha pic, looking mean 'n moody. Something wasn't quite working with the right arm and gun, but it'll have to do...

Johnny Alpha

2011-02-10T23:24:00.000Z

Always difficult to draw a convincing Johnny Alpha, as he's such a distinctive Ezquerra character. I've drawn Alpha before in the past, but this time I've taken a different tack and tried as much as possible to make this Carlos' Alpha, hopefully adding something of my own to the mix. This is all prep for a forthcoming Dogbreath strip, and it'll be interesting to see how it pans out. Not too long ago, I completely failed to draw a convincing Durham Red for the same comic, but I'm hoping that I've learnt a thing or two in the last few years.

Strontium Dog costume design

2011-02-05T13:16:00.001Z

A sketchbook design, based very much on Carlos Ezquerra's early Johnny Alpha. Although it has to be said, the costume hasn't changed much over the last 30-odd years.

The Grinderman...

2011-01-31T21:52:00.000Z

A quick 10 minute drawing. I normally steer well clear of caricatures, just because I'm not very good at them, but this one didn't seem so bad.

The Skull!

2011-01-30T22:05:00.001Z

First practice sketch with the new brush pen.

Fancy a brew?

Hoodie

2011-01-12T23:24:00.000Z

Sci-Fi Art Now blog

2011-01-11T16:14:00.000Z

Extremely chuffed to see my interview up now on the Sci-Fi Art Now blog. The above picture appears in the book, which is a lovely 192 page hardback coffee table volume, and is still available from Amazon here.

Iron Man

2011-01-09T13:36:00.000Z

Cursed Earth Mutant

2010-12-30T16:23:00.000Z

Hastily coloured.

Character design

2010-12-29T12:08:00.001Z

Punky Emo Goth Girl

2010-12-27T19:56:00.000Z

Character design

2010-12-23T16:01:00.001Z

Character design for a Japanese steam punk romp.

Portrait

2010-12-15T22:55:00.000Z

A rusty pencil sketch of Daughter No 2. It's a long time since I've tried to capture a proper likeness of a real person, but I think I almost nearly got there with this one. Just about.

Desperado

2010-12-14T22:52:00.001Z

Sketch book drawing.