Stray Lines Postcard

Here's my design for the Stray Lines limited edition postcard set:

The project has achieved full funding way ahead of target and as of writing, there are just 3 days to go to bag your copy of Stray Lines via Fundit. Despite what I wrote earlier about October, the book will actually be available for advance contributors towards the end of August (way ahead of general release). Also remember the additional offer for regular Blackshapes orderers still stands.

Nota Bene

You too can get your own personalised 'Note' - simply order a copy of Stray Lines in the €15 or above sections and let me know. More details here.

Stray Lines: Endless Lap

Since I finished the 'Where's Larry' book earlier this year I've done more comic pages than probably the last 3 years put together. So far most of the pages are yet to see the light of day but they are coming.

One story which I'm really excited about and that will appear first in October is the 12-pager 'Endless Lap'.

Here's a few discarded panels I added ink wash to:

The story is straight black and white but these capture the mood I think.

It's going to be one of five long stories in Patrick Lynch's new anthology 'Stray Lines' which also includes stories from Paddy himself, Chris Judge, Barry Hughes and Gus Hughes. I've seen some parts of the other contributions and with what Paddy has in mind production-wise it's guaranteed to be one class package.

Paddy has been funding the project via crowd sourcing site Fundit.ie and demand has been such that over 3/4 of the target reached in the first 10 days. I'd encourage any Blackshapes regulars to get in at this point and bag an advance copy as the numbers of the book will be limited. It doesn't mention it on the Fundit site but the cost includes postage to anywhere in the world. As an added bonus if you're a Blackshapes shop regular (I'll know!) and you order the 15 euro or over package, I'll do you one of my notes.

I won't go into the details of my contribution to the anthology - it's one of my usual 'Cryptic blind alleys' as Paddy succinctly puts it in the Fundit description - but here's some of the character designs:

The girl character I borrowed from the periphery of another in-progress story. She's based on a real person I spotted at life-drawing class - one of the other artists rather than the model! When she came in (late) she had on a sharp looking business suit and a really stressed head which gradually chilled out over the course of the drawing session.

This page has my first notes after that life drawing class:

There isn't a huge amount of room in 12 pages for a character's back story and I like a face to suggest a bit of history without being a typical hip comic chick so I tweaked her a bit for the Endless Lap story:

This was the final look I settled on:

The dude is perhaps a bit more opaque and less interesting. Here I was playing around with varying degrees of 'toughness':

A girl and a guy as the main characters? Is it a love story you ask? Buy the book and find out!