Filed under: dino detectives, my antarctica | Tags: antarctica, art, cartoons, children's books, documentary, graphic novels, illustration, picturebooks, science
My Antarctica hardcover releases March 2024!
This is the first picturebook I’ve illustrated, and it’s actually a 100-page travel diary. So maybe not a picturebook at all. Or maybe a picturebook like no other.
The ever-wayfaring author of the book, G. Neri, got to see both of our Antarctica books up on the big giant screen ahead of the Houston Museum of Natural Science showing Dinosaurs of Antarctica, the sister documentary to our book Dino Detectives, in their Giant Screen Theatre.
Pre-order My Antarctica in the USA from Amazon, Target, or ThriftBooks.
Pre-orders in the UK currently only from Amazon, but watch this space.
Filed under: illustrations | Tags: art, cartoons, children's books, comics, graphic novels, illustration, science
When I was giving school talks about Dino Detectives I spoke a bit about the process of going from script to full-colour artwork when making a page of comics. I thought I’d share here the examples that I used from the book, going from a script, to thumbnails, to scrappy roughs, to blue-line underdrawing, to the final line drawing. Then the process of layering the colour on, from background, to characters, then adding details, then shadows, and finally a few special lighting effects.
Filed under: illustrations | Tags: comics, graphic novels, illustration, science, sketch
Big thank you to Washington DC’s Awesome Con for having me alongside Greg Neri to talk about our comic book, The Time Travelling Dino Detectives of Antarctica, releasing to coincide with the new big screen documentary, Dinosaurs of Antarctica, from Giant Screen Films.
We appeared via video along with a panel of scientists to talk about dinosaurs and comics, and also to show off some new drawings as answers to questions about life on the frozen continent (how do you take a shower in Antarctica?)
Attendees can take an epic journey back in time to a prehistoric world now lost to ice, with this sneak preview of the giant screen adventure, Dinosaurs of Antarctica. Meet the scientists, Libby Ives, Dr. Patricia Ryberg, Dr. Nathan Smith, G. Neri, and Corban Wilkin who explored the frozen continent’s glaciers on a quest to uncover its secret past, and learn how to draw a dinosaur with the award winning team behind the comic, “The Time Traveling Dinosaur Detectives of Antarctica.” (Panel details: “Dinosaurs of Antarctica” – 3:15PM – August 21 – Room 144AB)
https://geekinsider.com/awesome-cons-science-fair-brings-another-year-of-innovation-exploration-and-fun/
Huge thanks to Deborah Raksany from Giant Screen Films for organising this!
Filed under: comic artists, comics, graphic novels, illustrations, my comics, politics | Tags: art, books, children's books, climate change, comics, graphic novels, illustration, politics, sci-fi, science
So 
this is just one illustration for an upcoming info-comic-book, pamphlet, public-information type-thing, that I’ve been working on with the Supergen Bioenergy Hub. It shows energy crops being grown to produce bioenergy and reabsorb emissions released by the previous generation of energy crops, ad infinitum. Drawn with a brush and ink, but coloured digitally!
Several other artists have been working on the project alongside me, including the brilliant John Swogger whose blog is extraordinarily active and interesting. Check him out.
More on this project soon. Also, A Dream of a Low Carbon Future, shown in my last blog post, is out in print and digital format.
Filed under: comics, graphic novels, illustrations | Tags: art, books, children's books, climate change, comics, graphic novels, sci-fi, science
Take a look at just-a-few panels from my comic for the upcoming graphic anthology novel science book educational kids thing, A Dream of a Low Carbon Future, presented by Leeds University’s Doctoral Training Centre in Low Carbon Technologies.
The book’s a multi-character exploration of a future Britain shaped by climate change and showing how human society can use technology and new ways of living to adapt to a changing world.
The story I worked on is about a girl out of time, obsessed with a past which everyone around her sees as obsolete. It’s a sort of central narrative which ties together other parts of the book.
Filed under: graphic novels, illustrations | Tags: art, books, children's books, climate change, comics, graphic novels, illustration, science
All I’ve been doing for the last month is colouring comics digitally, but I’m finally done, and not a moment too soon. I need to get my hands back on some physical drawing stuff before I lose my mind!
Above: an unused illustration for A Dream of a Low Carbon Future. Looks like brown crayon in the lower part there, but it’s just pixels.
Filed under: comics, comics theory, graphic novels, illustrations, my comics | Tags: art, books, cartoons, children's books, climate change, comics, graphic novels, illustration, science, writing
I’ve been in the habit, for a long time, of drawing TOO SMALL! So right now, working on the Low Carbon Future graphic novel project with Leeds University, I’m drawing these pages at the largest scale I’ve ever done for a comic, and I have to say, it’s very refreshing.
These pages I’m doing are to be printed around A4 size (210x297mm), which is large, so I’m drawing them at something like 500x720mm, not far off A2, which is gargantuan. I think people used to draw comics on paper that large, to be printed on big full newspaper pages, and they scanned them with those massive old drum scanners you don’t see anymore.
Admittedly, I am making this easier for myself by using the ‘french graphic album method’ of drawing two half-pages and then printing them together. It makes having the thing on your drawing board a lot less cumbersome. Anyway, more on this when it’s looking finished.
Filed under: exhibitions, illustrations | Tags: art, books, cartoons, illustration, science
Just got back from Darmstadt, Germany, where I was attending the week-long 2014 Climate Symposium as a sort of artist-in-residence.
I spent the week responding to themes in the conference lectures and discussions and producing artwork as visual accompaniment right there in the beautiful Darmstadtium Science and Congress Centre. I worked alongside comics artist James McKay who was also painting all week on themes of Climate Science. We were asked to attend after producing the book Dreams of a Low Carbon Future, which debuted at the 2013 Thought Bubble festival. (And right now we’re working on the sequel.)
The whole event was wonderfully organised and although many of the scientists and researchers attending said they’d never seen anything like this at a science conference before, everyone seemed to enjoy watching the process, especially when I spent some time actually drawing at the front of the main conference hall as talks were going on. Nerve-racking at first, but very exciting.
A number of attendees asked about buying the artwork I produced at the symposium. The work is going into an exhibition for a few weeks, but after that I’ll be able to sell the pieces, which are all A1-sized (594 x 841 mm). Feel free to contact me for details.
Filed under: comic artists, comics theory, illustrations, my comics | Tags: art, books, children's books, comics, doctor who, graphic novels, illustration, sci-fi, science
Just a piece I neglected to post until now: an ink and watercolour inspired by the Doctor Who episode ‘The Eleventh Hour’, for a big fan of the programme.
The Doctor crash-lands in the back garden of Amelia Pond, and when he leaves, tells her he’ll return immediately. By the time he does get back to her, Amelia’s now a grown woman who’s been obsessed with him her whole life, even though, to The Doctor, very little time has passed. I liked the night-time tone of the greens and blues.
Once again, don’t forget if you’re in Leeds or anywhere nearby, come to the Thought Bubble Festival next weekend (23rd and 24th) and get your free give-away copy of the graphic compendium that is Dreams of a Low Carbon Future, featuring comics and illustration by myself, as well as a mixture of other comics artists, climate researchers, and school-children who have contributed their own work.
Come for the book, stay for the talk on Sunday at 3.50pm with James McKay and Paul Gravett:
Corban Wilkin 