James Reekie Illustration

Ling Magazine "Lisbon"

2010-03-08T07:54:00.007Z

"Lisbon" illustration for "Ling" Magazine. Artwork created in Manga Studio.

It's probably too early to post this image, as I only sent it in this week, but I didn't want to post another black and white "Frank Sartre" spread just in case people were getting a bit bored of page art and I wanted to remind the world that I draw other things as well as comics!

The above illustration is for Ling Magazine, the in-flight magazine of Vueling. They have a one page feature in every issue offering 10 ideas for things to do in one of their destination cities written by a local. This one is for Lisbon.

I can't post any process images because I went straight into the final artwork, working on each element and balancing the colour and line style as I went. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed producing something much more colourful and playful than the darker stuff I've been doing lately.

Have a great week!

Chapter 02 Inks

2010-03-02T07:34:00.003Z

Ink linework spread from "The Ballad of Frank Sartre" by James Peaty, Insomnia Publications, created in Manga Studio

Yep, still cracking away on chapter two. More house moving and other work has slowed up the process, but barring other distractions I'll really be able to crack on with this over the next couple weeks.

Have a great week!

Chapter 02 Continues

2010-02-16T08:34:00.004Z

"Frank Sartre" page artwork, created in Manga Studio, Insomnia Publications

Around other projects I am cracking on with the inking of chapter 2 of Frank Sartre. With this chapter I got really into the penciling and page layout. I think that when you are enjoying yourself on a project where you have complete control over the creative process you should push on with that to keep the enthusiasm as high as possible. With that I mind I penciled & lettered the whole of chapter 2 in order and now have the task of inking and colouring the whole thing.

I'm hoping the flow of one task will keep the momentum going. It could, of course, prove to have the complete opposite effect! We shall see. I guess the good thing is there's plenty of chapters and pages to go (I'm guessing we're 2/5th's of the way through?) so I can change it up whenever I damn well please!

Have a great week.

The Silent Planet Cover

2010-02-07T12:29:00.004Z

Pitch cover for "The Silent Planet" By Paul J. Salamoff. Lineart in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop.

First things first, I am now back in the UK for the time being and in the process of flat hunting in London. All very exciting but moving and trying to keep a full time work schedule is pretty challenging. I've become very accustomed to the nomadic lifestyle over the last 6 months and am well versed in grabbing a few hours work whenever I can and wherever I am.

The image above is a cover for a pitch of "The Silent Planet" by Paul J. Salamoff, (you can see some page art here) which is being pitched next week so everyone please keep fingers crossed for that. It's an excellent script and I really hope the project will get the green light. More news on that when I get it.

Have a great week!

Colouring in Manga Studio

2010-01-27T15:19:00.008Z

Crop from "Sea wreck", line art and colour in Manga Studio

On the first day I scanned in a drawing into a computer, I coloured it in Photoshop. I didn't even own a computer at the time and I was in a workshop on my art foundation course. As my education and then career continued and I experimented with animation and computer created artwork I learnt many other applications and created artwork in various different ways. However, whenever it came to colouring up my drawings I always went straight for the old faithful, Adobe Photoshop.

Early last year it became clear that I would spend some time leading a nomadic lifestyle. I realised that a scanner was not going to be travelling with me and so I had to find an alternative to drawing "for real". I tested out a few applications and found Manga Studio. I haven't looked back since. I love working digitally, I love the line quality, the quick resizing and alterations in the drawing stage, being free of piles and piles of paper and scanning and, most importantly, the blessed "undo" button.

Of course Photoshop has all these tools too, but I just liked the way Manga Studio was set up and how the tools reacted to the way I draw. The pencil and pen tools specifically just felt great from the off. To me, Photoshop is a bit clinical and just doesn't feel right for drawing.

The default way, digital pencil and line art in Manga Studio, colour in Photoshop. Panel art from "The Ballad of Frank Sartre", currently in production for Insomnia Publications.

So, after producing my line art in Manga Studio I would export the image and jump straight into Photoshop. To be honest, I'd never tried out the colour tools and completely glossed over them when learning the program.

A weeks or so ago I was asked via email, "Why don't you colour in Manga Studio?". Good question I thought. I used the excuse to upgrade to the Expert version of the software (my goodness, it's so much better! So many more tools! If you're using Debut version, seriously consider switching!) and knocked up an image to play with.

Test image. Drawn in Manga Studio, colour test in Manga Studio then Coloured using the airbrush tool in Photoshop

After penciling and inking as usual I used the Magic Marker tool to colour the image. I found it quick and easy, isolating large areas and using the pen tool to add in some detail. I then went back to the original line art and coloured as I would have done in Photoshop using gradients and the airbrush.

Initial conclusions are... well, it's a different look, more of a classic hard edge colour comic book style. I felt this was perhaps a bad test as the extreme light suited the airbrushing. I tried to get a similar effect using the blur and pencil tool but... it didn't really work!

I pushed on to the first in a series of concept images I'm doing for a new project. I drew up the ink line as usual and dropped a dark slate colour over the image. I worked back into the colour using the pen tool and I must admit I am really pleased with the way this one turned out.

"Sea Wreck" Artwork produced in Manga Studio

In this case the hard edge really suits the image, picking out all the sea ripples and the textures on the wrecks. As with all tools, digital or otherwise, you are always learning new things about them and ways to use them. In the future I'm definitely going to play with the colour in Manga Studio more and am not going to default to Photoshop for all my colour artwork. Having said that, stick an airbrush tool in Manga Studio and Robert's your mother's brother...!

Steampunk Fun

2010-01-11T06:21:00.006Z

If it's not too late, welcome one and all to 2010, I hope you all had a wonderful festive period. For my first post of the new decade I delved into my shiny brand new "Illustration 2010" folder to find... this image and this only! "Frank Sartre" certainly is monopolising a lot of my time at the moment!

This image was a bit of fun I knocked up at the end of last year. Amongst many of the plans and schemes I have for the year ahead is some pin up concept work and this is the equivalent of me flexing my muscles in preparation.

When creating an image like this I browse through reference imagery thinking about the story, who are the characters, why would they be in the scene and what's happened before or after the snapshot in time. Without thinking the story through I can't make pose or costume decisions or anything really! This is a good starting place but I can't wait to crack on with more ambitious work! Oh and I also have to make apologetic nods to the fantastic artists who heavily inspired this, Ashley Wood & Mathieu Lauffray.

Digital pencils, Manga Studio

Digital pencils and inks, Manga Studio

Final image, colour in Photoshop

The Silent Planet and Frank Sartre Chapter One

2009-12-14T07:09:00.008Z

Looking at my schedule, this will be the last post of 2009. It was a big year for me, moving to Greece, starting in the comics/graphic novel industry and the icing on the cake with my illustration getting into "Images 34".

Anyways, rather than looking back, I'll show you what's going on right now! Here's a couple of final artwork spreads from the pitch pages of "The Silent Planet".

Title spread from "The Silent Planet"

Interior art, "The Silent Planet"

I've been hard at work on Frank Sartre and have completed Chapter One. Only 110 or so pages to go... Below I've posted some of the page art (out of story order to avoid spoilers).

Ok, so, I'm back in London for Christmas in a few days. Hope you all have wonderful festive periods and thanks for visiting my site and viewing my artwork. All the best for 2010!

The Silent Planet

2009-12-07T09:03:00.005Z

Work in progress ink linework from "The Silent Planet"
by Paul J. Salamoff

Over the last couple of weeks in between other things I've been working up some pitches pages of a new graphic novel project, "The Silent Planet" by Paul J. Salamoff, the writer of the Vincent Price issue I completed recently. It's a science fiction story about the crew of a spaceship sent to find a group of scientists on a remote planet.

It's all still very early days with the project and I have "Frank Sartre" to deal with first but I'll post some more stuff from the pitch pages once they are finished.

Get Me Out Of Here

2009-11-30T06:42:00.006Z

Full page feature illustration crop.

Earlier this month, Steve Sayers, Art Editor on BBC focus and fast becoming my client of the year asked me to produce some illustrations for a feature in the December issue, "I'm an IG Nobel Prize Winner – Get Me Out Of Here!".

The feature asks 6 winners (see more about the prize here) how they would escape being marooned on a desert island. I won't go into too much detail about how they do it, the enterprising amongst them utilising their own creations as much as possible, but if you are keen it is a very interesting article and I suggest you pick up a copy!

As far as my drawings were concerned, Steve had sent me little stickmen roughs placed on the page layout to show how he wanted to illustrate the solutions the inventors had come up with. I simply worked these up into digital colour roughs using Manga Studio for the line work and Photoshop for the colour. Steve asked me to base the style on a "shoes" illustration from my portfolio and I think the simple line and colour gives the drawings a real "Boy's Own" feel, suiting the article to a "t".

Sketch of "Clocky" solution, Gauri Nanda turns an alarm clock into a makeshift solar powered boat to paddle for help on bamboo oars.

Upon approval I then worked up the finals, drawing the ink line digitally in Manga Studio and colouring up selected areas in Photoshop. These sparely coloured finals actually take a long time as you find yourself doing a lot of adding and deleting sections until you find the right balance.

Final "Clocky" solution.

Final "Coconut bombs" solution, Dr Elena Bodnar uses a bra to fire coconut shells filled with gunpowder to attract passing ships.

"Stink" solution, Charles Spence uses a plastic bag filled with vanilla to attract ships by smell.

"Big smoke" solution, after constructing a huge "S.O.S." sign Troy Hurtubise builds a giant fire pit to attract a rescue.

"Coin tube solution", my personal favourite, Len Fisher uses loose change to create an electric current to signal passing ships.

The full page title illustration based on the "I'm a Celebrity" TV show logo.

Images 34

2009-11-23T05:53:00.006Z

AOI Images 34 call for entries artwork by Frazer Hudson

Every year since I was as a student (so, 5 times then) I've entered images for The Association of Illustrators best of british illustration annual publication and show "Images". As per usual this year I checked the list of selected entries and grinned a sly smile to myself as I saw my name was absent. "Maybe next year" I thought.

So, it was to my confusion and brewing excitement that I received an email last week asking me why I hadn't confirmed my page and stumped up the cash for Images 34. A frenzy of emailing back and forth to the organisers followed and after a lot of "we posted things", "I moved house", "Oh, it seems we missed you off the list", turns out my astronaut image below has been selected for the "books" category.

"Today Was Not A Good Day" image selected for Images 34

To put it mildly, I'm completely thrilled. Having a image selected has been one of my major goals both professionally and personally since I first found out about Images in college. Also Ralph Steadman, the reason I got into illustration as a lazy talented kid who was always getting balled out his tutors for not doing his homework and chatting up girls in art class, is in this years book. Me and Ralph. Together in one volume. I can't get my head around that one. Imagine if we're on opposite pages...

So, there's a show, awards ceremony and the all important book which all happens next summer. I'm sure I'll post more information but your best bet to find out more is to check the AOI Images site.

Frank Sartre – In the dressing room

My work on Frank Sartre continues. I'm managing to put in at least two days on week on Frank if not more so the project is bubbling along nicely. I think there's going to be a little feature on the Insomnia blog at some point soon, but I'll post a link when that happens.

Have a great week.

Frank Sartre Chapter One Panel Sketches

2009-11-16T15:51:00.007Z

Frank walking through Cosmopolis

I've been busy scribbling and have completed the pencils for chapter one of "The Ballad of Frank Sartre" for Insomnia. Looking back over the pages I thought it would be nice to post some panel sketches. I'll post some spreads in process stages at a later date, once I've got further into the book.

These sketches are all drawn digitally in Manga Studio. I would love to work in real pencil on real paper with graphite staining my hands but since my studio has needed to be pretty mobile lately, what with being an international man of mystery, I've stuck with the digital. Also I find drawing digitally get's the job done several thousand percent faster. As a commercial enterprise, you can't argue with that really.

Oh, and for those who are wondering these panels are not in order and I've taken care to omit anything that is really crucial to the story's development. No spoilers here! These sketches are my pick from the twenty nine pages of chapter one.

Smoking in bed

In the cinema

Frank, close up

Frank entering a bar

Barfly

Frank

Man about town

In the bar

The band

Wiseguys

Vincent Price Presents "The Effigy"

2009-11-09T06:15:00.008Z

So, the other project to come out of my initial round of pitch page promotion was a one shot on the "Vincent Price Presents" series for Bluewater Productions. The issue I've now completed for them is "The Effigy", written by Paul J. Salamoff, and is a classic slice of American small town horror. Scarecrows, cornfields, bullying... all the good stuff!

Inspiration and reference

One of the major discoveries I've had since starting this comic book journey is something I suspected, but perhaps I should have known. Producing lots of images on one page is just like producing one image. The process is exactly the same. Reference, sketch, final artwork. The only difference is you have to do 10 images across a spread over a couple days. As soon as you make any less effort with a panel than you would for any single image then the art suffers.

If you have a strong process as an illustrator I've found you don't tend to panic... or a least you panic less! You simply drop into your system and knuckle down. All the art for this book was 100% digital, sketched and inked in Manga Studio, coloured in Photoshop using a graphics tablet.

I always produce tonal roughs (thanks "classical" Illustration degree) as it really helps with composition and with the colour stage.

Panel Process

Final Spreads

Hopefully no spoilers there! The pages are currently being lettered and I'll let you know when the book's coming out.

Frank Sartre

2009-10-28T09:35:00.005Z

Frank Sartre – The City of Cosmopolis

I am thoroughly thrilled to announce that I will be producing the art for "The Ballard of Frank Sartre" for Insomnia Publications. The book is written by James "Supergirl, JSA, Green Arrow, Batman" Peaty and I've been working on it already, producing concepts and starting page layouts over the last few weeks.

Mood board created from early research

To give you a flavour of what to expect here's the pitch;

"A mysterious killer is on the loose in the surreal city of COSMOPOLIS and only one man can stop him!

But as panic spreads, that man -- part-time nightclub singer, sometime private eye and full time philosopher, FRANK SARTRE -- has other things on his mind.

Who is the mysterious stranger known only as 'Mr Memory'?

What is the secret of the library containing only one book?

And why do all paths lead back to a fateful car crash one rain swept
evening in a very ordinary part of New England?

This heady, meta-textual investigation of guilt, passion and obsession will be a treat for fans of David Lynch, Dennis Potter, Grant Morrison and Paul Pope.

This book is a huge and exciting undertaking for me and I am stunned that this has happened so quickly. The estimate on deadline for the book is 12-18 months although I'm hoping I can get everything done faster than that. I'll be focusing on the project as much as I can and I aim to post weekly updates with some sketches and art previews.

More soon!

Pitch Pages

2009-10-07T10:44:00.010Z

So, like a teenage cat burgler, I want to break into comic books and graphic novels.

Well, I don't want to break into a store and steal them, so that unfunny metaphor really stinks, I just want people to pay me to draw them. My illustration work is heavily influenced by comics and graphic novels and I've drawn a few small strips but I've always shied away from trying actual page art as, well, firstly it's really hard and secondly... everyone wants to draw comics so I figured no one would give me a break.

The move to Athens has freed up my week a bit and, taking deep breaths, I sat down and thumbnailed out a pitch script.

I couldn't have dialogue but I would've have put any in as I wanted to concentrate on telling a simple story with pictures. I knew I had to show pacing, mood, action... and in 6 pages I didn't want to trouble myself with concluding anything. I just wanted it to feel like part of a larger story.

I've posted all the pages I sent to around 40 or so publishers below. All drawn in Manga Studio, coloured in Phototshop.

Within a couple of hours I had some responses! When I had finished dancing around the room I started emailing back and... well. There's a couple of projects on the horizon, contracts pending, and when everything's final I'll post all the exciting details here!

Stay tuned. Good things are coming.

Patrick Moore

2009-09-28T11:31:00.009Z

About a month or so ago Steve Sayers, the Art Editor on BBC focus Magazine asked me to produce a full page Illustration introducing a feature on a crash course in astronomy from UK TV legend Patrick Moore. I had done a feature for Focus a month or so earlier and there's no better compliment than being commissioned again so quickly.

The initial verbal brief Steve gave me was "Patrick Moore as a Mekon" which had me grinning like an idiot with the thought of spending time researching Dan Dare, one of my Sci Fi heroes. I dived straight in, gathering inspiration maniacally.

A few of the reference images I gathered.

Steve had supplied me with a rough page layout to draw over and, with a pretty clear idea of what I wanted to do, I sketched up a rough straight over the top in Manga Studio using the pencil tool. He had also requested that I do the monster movie type treatment, which I was more than happy to do.

I bought the sketch into Photoshop and quickly splashed some colours over the top, adding in some background options, the one here being spaceships and colliding planets.

The roughs came back with the comments (paraphrased), "Wow! Loose the spaceships and green head colour. He looks like Frankenstein."

I opened the first rough in Manga Studio and inked back over the first sketch. I went for a heavier, pulp style of linework, pushing up the shadows to reflect the Eagle Comics/Pulp magazine/Monster Movie style I was going for.

I flipped the pose of the arms and sorted out the dodgy binoculars from the rough. I also decided to draw in all the mountains under the type. Now, strictly speaking this was unnecessary, but as the rough Steve supplied contained placeholder text I wanted to help the designer out (having done layout myself) and produce a completed image. This allows the text box to be set to whatever size is needed. Also, it felt better to be working on a full image, rather than with a huge lump of dead space in the centre of the illustration.

I exported the image into Photoshop and began to airbush. I always slap a gradient over the whole image, much like a watercolour wash and then add definition with a transparent toning layer on top. I also add little additional areas of colour blending down. I like to work with as minimal a palette as I can get away with and this technique allows me to keep everything together.

Colour with the ink layer down to 30% underneath.

For the type I tried a bunch of different options, setting in Illustrator, adjusting existing typefaces, tracing and overlaying... In the end I just sketched it out by hand (in Manga Studio again, using a dip pen tool), using movie poster references for style.

Type artwork. This was then coloured corrected and tweaked in Photoshop.

Final image. Published in the October issue of BBC Focus.

Athens

2009-09-10T15:31:00.007Z

So, if you know me in the "real world" or have been following my twitter, you'll know I have moved to Athens, Greece. For how long it will be depends on how it works out. Service is now resumed and will be exactly as before, except I will be sitting in front of computer in Athens rather than London. Oh, and it's hot here. But it has rained too. To be honest I'm a bit confused about the whole thing.

(Pssssst. I've started a little journal about my experiences emigrating here. Don't tell anyone though, yeah?)

25/9/09 UPDATE: I've deleted it. I wasn't keeping up with it. Greatest plans of mice and men and all that.

Food Glorious Food

2009-08-18T10:52:00.002Z

I was asked by the agency to create some food imagery for some potential projects. It's been years since I've concentrated on drawing a sheet of real stuff. Probably since my foundation tutor asked me to work up a whole sketchbook of drawings from life. It's been a fun challenge, but I am a little concerned I've gone a bit "dark" with the drawings... Oh well. Might have another go later in the week.

Jumpers for Goalposts

2009-08-14T14:32:00.002Z

Moving into different subject matter as requested by the agency. I should be posting quite a few different things over the next week or so... depending on moving home busyness.

Watching the rain

2009-08-13T14:53:00.001Z

Kind of appropriate in the middle of an English "summer". A replacement spread for the book... maybe!

Office Stress

2009-08-12T08:26:00.004Z

So, I screwed up with my book.

I got very confused with the online service and whether or not I should include blanks on the inside front and back of the cover.

Whatever I did, I was wrong. All the text printed one page out so all all my rectos and versos were up the swanny. A disaster! Luckily for me it turned out to be a happy one.

I had designed the book with large double spread images separated by black spreads with the text. Seeing the left hand portion of the image first created a great lead in to the image and improved the context of each image vastly. I have therefore decided to redesign the book with this in mind, adding some extra artwork on those pages.

I also decided to change a couple of spreads that weren't working. Below is one of the new images.

Onwards and upwards!

Look Magazine and Kleenex

2009-08-11T07:40:00.005Z

One of my images was featured in this Look magazine advertorial about creating a drawing to go on a Kleenex box. It was out at some point in July.

What Happens When

2009-08-04T10:22:00.014Z

I was contacted by Steve Sayers, Art Editor on BBC Focus Magazine, to produce 15 Illustrations for a feature on "What Happens When...", answering questions about what the body is doing when itching or blushing etc. This project was very enjoyable and I even got to sneak in a vaguely-Heath-Robinson-inspired creation along the way too! Should be out now in the August issue.

Above image: "Blushing"

"Cramp"

"Farting"

"Itching"

"Cracking Knuckles"

"Heartburn"

"Seeing Stars"

"Sensitive Teeth"

"Twitchy Eyelid"

The End

2009-07-27T08:46:00.003Z

Final spread for the book. Going to finalise the layout and organise a proof print.

In the Doghouse

2009-07-23T13:50:00.002Z

Sleeping

2009-07-22T14:52:00.002Z

Bit of an experiment for a book page using a "leaves" overlay effect. If you squint, she looks a wee bit like Cheetra.