Friday 7 October 2011

Jack Union Monster Hunter

A very talented friend of mine has a twitter feed where he writes about Jack Union; Victorian Monster Hunter. He recently asked if 29 people could volunteer to create an image to an assigned tweet from his latest story. I decided (despite not having a go at drawing for a long time) to volunteer. Thankfully I was given one which I managed to get some ideas down for straight away.

I just made today's deadline. Out of stupidity I completely missed the size requirements when I first started so after re reading I had to start a fresh. I think I could have done better and unfortunately I couldn't afford to buy some new graphic markers so I decided to put it in photoshop afterwards and try to achieve the graphic marker effect that way. I think I managed quite well considering I am rusty at both drawing and photoshop and over all I'm happy with how it came out (though I wish I'd spent more time on the face).

The pictures may even go up at the MCM in London at the end of October which is really exciting!
I would highly recommend signing up to his tweets at: https://twitter.com/JackUnion1885 or if your not into twitter you can also sign up over at facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/jackunion1885

He also has a book coming out in the next 6 months! I can't wait to buy a copy.

Right, I'll stop stalling now and actually post my attempts for his project.

My assigned tweet was:
"The water level is to my waist when I hear it wading past, possibly the last still alive. I raise my pistol and give it a fair choice... "

 This is my second one and the one used I just wish I'd had more time to work on the face. I think If I were to do it again I'd make the water a bit more apparent. Try to add more of a 'glow' to the lamp and maybe try and put a hint of something in the background... a wall or debris like I did with my original (but that got cut off when I cropped it).


This is my first attempt which was originally a landscape image which I then had to crop. Then added into photoshop. The fish were meant to glow, not sure why I decided they should but I just went with it. I also added some fire flies in a jar and around to try and put some light into the underground setting. Unfortunately it didn't work well as a horizontal image as you miss the things I did around the edge. I'm also not overly impressed with the photoshoping I did over the top. I would have been happy with a normal scan had I been able to find my art pencil crayons rather than my crayola basic 12 pack lol. So in a way I'm glad I had to restart. I prefer the second attempt (above).