Anyway...

I am now OUT of Comic Book Idol 3. It was lots of fun, has led to a few cool contacts and loads of groovy online friendships, and has generally been the sort of experience I could recommend to anyone. It's the final this week, and it's down to two very talented guys: Jon Reed and Charles Paul Wilson. If I'm being honest, my favourite artists have already gone out, but these two have loads to offer. Reed brings a distinctive voice and plenty of detail and guts, while Charles Paul Wilson (the Third!) is just a damn fine drawer with a good eye for an atmospheric spot black. Anyway, head over to http://forums.comicbookresources.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29 and vote. I reckon CPW III has it in the bag.

What else? Oh yeah, cool stuff is happening with Panini: I've been given the go ahead to start drawing a Doctor Who strip for sometime in the New Year. The script is already written, and I'll be starting the pencils either later this week or early next. Stand by for sneak previews!

In the meantime: sketches!

SONTARANS!



WONDER WOMAN!



BATMAN!



HULK (WITH SHOPPING LIST)!



WOLVERINE!



THAT'S ALL!

What the -?

Things of note:

- I moved from Dundee to London. London is great, except: ACCOMODATION TINY

- I finished draft one of my next script for Doctor Who Magazine. It contains the words "Ringo", "peanuts" and "northampton".

- I got annoyed at how last week's comedy playhouse thing on C4 ripped Arrested Development off blind. One bit in particular, a courtroom scene involving an incompetent lawyer who was a mesh of GOB and Barry Zuckerkorn, and a bible thrown at a woman who was actually disabled (instead of pretending) was very naughty. I really liked the writer's episode of Doctor Who, but this scene had me literally screaming at the telly. Maybe I should just go out on a Friday night.

Oh, and this happened:



I made it through the submissions phase of Comic Book Idol 3, which means I've got a ton of work (and bowel-clenching terror) over the next few weeks. If you love me, vote for me. If you hate me, and you want to see me fail at a high-profile comics job, vote for me and I WON'T LET YOU DOWN.

SKETCH-A-DAY (almost): HEROES FOR HIRE!

Marvel Comics' best characters: Power Man and Iron Fist. Yes, Iron Fist. You're welcome.

CLICK

SKETCH-A-DAY: THE ATOM/DARKSEID

Here's a scene from Grant Morrison's DC Comics epic Rock of Ages. What happens is that... no, it's too complicated to explain. But this (spoiler) is how it ends, with one of DC's smallest, least powerful heroes (the Atom) going up against its most ferocious villain (Darkseid). Drawing this was like pulling teeth, honestly, but sometimes it's like that. Hey ho.

Click for BIG ACTION!

SKETCH-A-DAY: CLASSIFIED #4!

Another character from my side project that I'm working on. It's a girl! With a jetpack! I'm not entirely sold on the face just yet, but she's got something good going on I think.

CLICK!

SKETCH-A-DAY: CLASSIFIED #3!

Another character from my thing that I'm not gonna talk about yet. Hope you (whoever you are!) like it.

SKETCH-A-DAY: CLASSIFIED #2!

From the same side project as yesterday's sketch, here's another character. He's a sort of computer guy!

CLICK!

SKETCH-A-DAY: CLASSIFIED #1!

Colour sketch of... well, that'd be telling, wouldn't it?

Click!

SKETCH-A-DAY: THE FLASH

Drawn in pencil, then india ink. I really love doing chunky lightning and speed line effects, so drawing the Flash is a total thrill.

Click:

Bang bang

The old blog has been a bit moribund of late hasn't it? But no more! Here's how it's going to be for the next... ooh, let's say a week: a sketch a day! So new content every day, and if it goes well and works for me I'm gonna try to stick to that from now on. We're kicking off with TWO sketches: Captain America and Batman, the latter in a state of awful, having been shot. I hope you like 'em!

Click for biggedness!

Website yes!

Yep, thanks to the gorgeous, witty and wonderful Miss McC, my art site is now up and running. Remember what Ben Grimm says:



Check it out at http://danmcdaid.com. There's a ton of stuff over there, old and new (more than you'll find on my blog at the mo) and it's gonna get updated almost all the time, so why not look at it, and let me know what you think over here? Makes sense!

Further Excite-o-news!

The third draft of part one of my DWM script has been approved (with some tweaks) and is even now in the fragrant hands of the Who Production people. Oh man! Now I have to write part two!



In other news, I was in Toys R Us today, mulling over whether to buy a replacement sonic screwdriver (the old one lost its main button... bah) or splurge on one of them 12 inch Clockwork Men from last year's excellent Girl in the Fireplace episode, when I came across the toy tie-ins for a cartoon called Ben 10. I haven't seen the shows yet, but my understanding is that it's a Dial H for Hero kind of thing, where some punk kid gets to change into all sorts of monsters and fight evil and that. Pretty nifty, and the designs are gorgeous, so I done bought me one: a little fella called Greymatter. He's one of the neatest things I own: a kind of bipedal praying mantis in a white jump suit with a little alien chum and big bug eyes. He's great, and I fully intend to collect the set. My girlfriend doesn't mind that I'm a simpleton by the way.

Maybe one reason I was so drawn to Ben 10 is because it's not dissimilar to a (sadly abortive) game I designed for a software company a few years back - the main character even looks kind of similar! - but more on that soon...!

Cheerio!

Excite-o-news!

Hello people! Sorry it's been so quiet around here of late. It's been for a thoroughly excellent reason I can assure you: I've just finished doing a small stack of illustrations for this year's Doctor Who Storybook. Hooray! I'm honour bound not to say too much about it at the moment, but I can say I'm illustrating a story by one of the writers of the TV show. Go me!

In related excite-o-news, I've also just handed in the first draft of the first part of a story I'm doing for Doctor Who Magazine called, er, The First. Again, I have to keep schtum about this at the mo, but as I'm sure you can imagine I'm virtually bouncing off the walls.

Let's have Davros' cheeky motto of the day:




Alright!

Grrn frrrg yrrrslvvsss

Zombie attack! This is something I did for my pal Matt: he and a few programming types/games design types are working on what sounds like a corking idea for a videogame and he asked me if I would provide a cover. And here it is, from first stage roughs to final colours. Hurrah! I had a *lot* of fun doing the zombies, and was so confident that I would get them right that I sketched them in only very loosely before going in with the blacks (I usually pencil quite tightly cos I hate doing corrections). Lots of dangling entrail and splashes of ink - top fun!

Roughs:



Inks:



Colours:




And a nice close up of the zombie scum:



Frrg yrrz!!

Compare 'n' Contrast

I have no idea if anyone’s even still reading this thing, so infrequently is it updated. Anyway, if you’re still out there people: hello! And do drop me a line.

In the meantime – this is something I like to do from time to time: get an old picture (this one’s about three years old now) and redo it. It’s a good way to see how I’ve progressed and to see if there’s anything I used to know but have since forgotten. I remember the day I did this pic: I was living in a crumbly old bedsit in the “nice” end of Dundee and living on a diet of baked potatoes and cheapo wine. I did most of my drawing at the time in this carbed up, pissed up state, so it’s no wonder much of it wasn’t very good. Anyway, I had this image in my head of what I wanted to see, and it was basically the sort of thing I *always* want to see – Marvel superheroes rushing into battle while things blow up behind them. But it came out bad:






Right? Actually, there's some okay stuff there (I like the shadows on the Sub-Mariner (that's the guy who, for some reason, is diving off the left of the page)), but it's mostly a little shakey and why does Captain America (the guy with the shield) look so smug? Anyway, I think I’m better now so I wanted to have another go at it. And here’s the mark 2 “Marvel superheroes rushing into battle while things blow up behind them”:




For the non-comics fans, these are: The Sub-Mariner, Captain America and the (original) Human Torch, collectively known as The Invaders. They were (I believe) Marvel Comics’ first superteam, brought together during WWII to go and smack Hitler square on the jaw. It occurs to me now that I should have put their sidekicks (Bucky, Toro and, uh, another guy) in as well. Maybe next time…

COMICS BONUS!

I have also drawn Captain Marvel. He fights mind-controlling worms and talking crocodiles in the past (and he once fought Superman to a standstill). I think there's too much red in this picture, but I still quite like it.

Updates ho!

Yes!

Here's a few things from the portfolio. This is the year of the big push, illustration-wise: I've been kind of sitting around on my arse for too long, too scared to put my work out there. So this is it: a few bits from portfolio that I'll be sending out to publishers etc. If you like 'em, let me know. If you don't, let me know why!

This was a design I did for a games company a few years back for (guess what) a project that never came about. Damn shame, cos it was a really, REALLY cool idea. Anyway, here's one of the maps from that I've tweaked and painted up in photoshop.



The player character from same.



Hmmm... what else? Alright, here's a couple of things I coloured up recently. Firstly, that Lara Croft pin-up - and secondly (from way back) a shot of Banquo and son fleeing Macbeth's assassins in my (never-realised) update of the Scottish play. I'm really pleased with the colours on these - and I plan on applying this style to a slightly more ambitious piece soon. Stay tuned!