August - it’s the eighth month. Oh yes.

Into August we go! So what have I been up to?

I was privileged to get to colour part five of the Torchwood “Rift War” epic - another chance to lay me Crayola’s over Paul Grist’s art! I love his style. It’s deceptively simple, but it works so well. We had a punishing deadline on that issue, but got there in time - and during a page lull I managed to skive off to Birmingham for a few hours and attend the Transformers UK convention, Auto Assembly. I must admit to being a bit gutted to not get there as a guest (maybe next year, eh?), but it was a fun day. Got to meet most of the other Titan UK colourists, which was brill, and also got to meet some of the IDW boarders in person as well. Good bunch! Met Simon Furman and Andy Wildman again, and was officially chuffed as fuck to meet Staz and Geoff Senior as well! Ah, childhood heroes… especially weird meeting Staz as I coloured his recent TF UK strip! Glad he liked it. Had to leave earlier than I’d have liked to finish up “Rift War”, but still a good day. Bought myself a set of 2nd hadn Duo-cons, and a Masterpiece Starscream. Well cool!

As to the rest of August, I’m hoping to work up some fill-in work on Doctor Who, and then it’s into Septemeber - a hopefully relaxed month starting off with mine and Ceri’s wedding and honeymoon!

Rambling away

Ah, July… what an interesting month you have been so far.

Finished up Torchwood Rift War part 4 at the start of the month, off the back of some fill - in work on Dreamwork’s Tales. SJ Gallant provided the lovely artwork for Torchwood, and considering he’s based in the States, he does a better job of accurately mapping Cardiff than the show does! Good show that man.

Torchwood Rift War 4

I managed to contribute (in a very teeny way) to IDW’s Spotlight: Doubledealer, in that I coloured one page! I had to match the style of colourist Liam Shalloo. We have quite different styles, but all things considered, I think managed to match his style quite well. I was quite gutted to not get to colour the whole issue, especially after colouring both Cyclonus and Hardhead, but no matter.

Hardhead was released earlier this week, and seems to have gone down really well I’m pleased to say! Was a blast working on that. Hope I got to work with Nick Roche again sometime soon.

I also managed to lay some colours down on a GI Joe cover, although I’m not sure if they’ll be the final colours used. If not, hey, it was still a good experience and good practice. Art by Robert Atkins on that one, I’ll try and post that up soon.

Other than that, July’s been a fairly lean month unfortunately.

The day job brought some interesting news - the company I work for is stopping all new sales in August, and 300 people are being made redundant. I know I’ve got pay up until around March 2009, and if I get axed my last day will be in Oct, which I hope will give me the push I need to get into graphic design/colouring/something creative full time. Can’t really stomach going back to another call centre… To that end, I’ve also decided to try and get back into animation - I’ve bought a copy of Toonboom Studio, and if I do get canned I’m going to try and use the spare time to build up my portfolio… it’s been 7 years since I properly animated, so I’ll be a bit rusty. Wish me luck!

Halfway through 2008 already?!?! Yikes!

So June is here, and is almost gone already. Wow. It’s been an incredible year for me so far. In the last 6 months I’ve been very privileged to get to officially work on Transformers projects both in the UK and the US, something that’s been a goal of mine since what… 1984? Since I first started scrawling and scribbling those big robots… Makes me feel fantastic to contribute to the franchise in some small way. Here’s on of my first renders of Prime…

I got better though…

Anyways…

I hit a fantastic milestone in January, with my first published Transformers UK issue that was coloured totally by myself, and nearly 6 months later, I picked up my copy of Spotlight: Cyclonus, the first US  Transformers comic I got to colour solo! Response so far has been very positive indeed, which has been a big relief. Don’t want to cock this all up just yet… Cyclonus is the first part of a four part story called Revelations, and I’ve been privileged to read the lot (and colour half of it). It’s a cracking tale, got a real sense of epicness to it courtesy of Simo Furman, and some amazing action - I felt like I was reading Target 2006 again, from back in the old days… granted, there were some bits that I’d have liked seen happen a little differently, but on the whole - a rollicking good story, up there with the best Simon’s produced. Can’t wait to see the rest in print!

Some sample Cyclonus pages, art by the fantastic EJ Su… and if you haven’t seen the pages of Spotlight: Sideswipe yet on Chris Ryall’s blog - WOW. EJ is just WAY too talented. It’s kinda sickening really.

Proud of my little in-joke too… Nightbeat on the page, had to slip a small pic of Columbo onto one of the monitors. Heheh!

So what else have I been up too? Well, after completing Hardhead, I launched into the cover and interiors for Transformers UK issue 14. A story aptly titled ‘Aftermath’, the Alterno-Movie bots deal with the fallout from “Twilights Last Gleaming”, with story by Furman and art by Gary Erskine, who’s previously drawn some of the TF UK covers. Captures the 2007 movie style quite well. And it’s 11 pages as well! Here’s the cover, and a coloured pic of one of the previews from Simon’s blog.

Hehe, feels like Clarence Bodicker in Robocop… “GUNS GUNS GUNS!!”

Outside of the field of giant transforming robots, I was lucky enough to get to work on some fill-in colours for a Shrek comic for the UK Dreamworks Tales magazine, and am currently throwing some crayons over Rift Wars part 4, for an upcoming Torchwood issue. Should be good. Will try and post up some preview stuff if i can soon. Deadline’s a little punishing on this one (11 pages in under a week), but it’s sorta self imposed as I’m off on a camping trip this weekend, and I don’t have a laptop…. camping in Wales… what are the odds of it NOT raining? Slimmer than Kate Moss on Atkins? Possibly so. Anyway, I’m confident I can do it, and I can always catch up on sleep next week. I lead a glamorous life.

Saw both Hulk 2 and Iron Man this month - conclusion? Marvel Studios should continue to make films of their own franchises. Well done lads!

Heading into July soon - what’s upcoming? I’ve no idea. Hoping to get some further colouring work from both IDW and Titan, god willing, and soon I’ll start approaching other publishers too, and see if I have any luck there as well.

August brings Auto Assembly, the Transformers Convention in Birmingham! I’ll be there in Brummie-land, so if anyone sees me, please feel free to say hello, as I’m dead shy and will probably be hiding in a corner somewhere or spending the honeymoon money in the dealers room or something…

Okay, that’s enough nonsense for now. This is Ripley, last survivor of the Nostromo…. signing off.

May!

May has come to an end, and with it, Spotlight: Hardhead! I finished up colouring the last few pages of Nick Roche’s fantastic scribblings earlier today, and now the waiting game begins for it to see print… after Cyclonus of course! So what’s next? Well, I’ve recently added the ol’crayons to an upcoming cover for TF UK, and will soon be starting colouring work on interiors for the same comic. I’ll try and whack some preview stuff up soon, if I can!

Windy Things and Rigid Craniums

Well, this week I handed in the last coloured pages of Spotlight: Cyclonus to IDW, ready to kick off the Revelation four part story arc! I was pretty happy with how it turned out. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the greatest colourist in the world, but I’ve tried hard on this project, and I hope people will be happy with it. Simon’s story is cool, starting to tie up a few loose ends from other Spotlights and various ‘-ations’ series, while still focusing on what makes Cyclonus tick… or should that be un-tick… and EJ Su’s art is always fun to behold, and he pulls off some great stuff here!

I can’t give much away, but I know page 2 was shown at BotCon, so here’s a little lo res preview, click to enlarge…

WIth Cyclonus done for April, I move onto the next project for May. The first Headmaster I ever owned as a toy, and here I am colouring his very own Spotlight! Yep, Hardhead is on his way, aiding Nightbeat in some more alien sleuthing. Simon Furman has been doing his best to crush poor old Nick Roche’s drawing hand by including damn near every Micromaster ever seen… ever! It’s going to be fun to scribble this one in!

Fun!

More soon - I’m off to see Matchbox Twenty tomorrow as well, so I’m a happy bunny!

Marching on!

March is turning out to be a busy month!

The first part of March saw me laying down the colours to issue 1 of IDW’s Zombies: Hunters. Hitting the shops in May, the story is by Dara Naraghi, with art by Don Figueroa. Don’s style here is quite different from his style on Transformers, and was great fun to colour! At 22 pages it’s my first full length coloured US comic. Lots of muted, desaturated tones, to make the BLOOD stand out! Raaargh!! Dara’s writing is also deeply good fun to read, and there’s some great fun characters in this tale. Here’s the cover art for issue 2 - I came on board after the first issue’s covers had been done, but I’m hopeful that I’ll get to colour the rest of the series covers. Should be starting on issue 2’s interiors soon.

The colours I laid down for issue 3 of Titan’s Torchwood magazine should soon be available in the UK. Written and drawn by Brian Williamson, it’s an action packed tale of duelling alien motorcycles of doom. In Cardiff. Excellent fun! Couple of samples…

Staying with Torchwood, I’m also colouring up Simon Furman’s ‘Rift War’ story for issue 4. Art is by the fantastic Paul Grist, who’s deceptively simple style I just love to bits. Bit of promo art by Paul… I’ll try and post some pages closer to the release date (end of April). I’m currently on deadline on this issue, it’s stressful but exciting at the same time!

The last part of March, heading into April also sees me colouring up E.J. Su’s finely tuned mechanical art for Transformers Spotlight: Cyclonus (Revelations Part 1), written by Simon Furman. The start of the big wind up to several ongoing story threads, the story Simon’s come up moves at a lightening pace, and makes for a fast moving Spotlight! I was chuffed to get this bad boy… after trying to match Josh Perez’s finesse on Spotlight: Arcee, it’s nice to start a Spotlight in my style! It’s out in June, so keep ‘em peeled…

So that’s my plate for now…past work for Turtles should be surfacing shortly, along with the cover to TF UK issue 10 (see earlier blogs).

That’s all for now!

Cowabunga!

Titan’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle issue 12 will soon be appearing, and it marks my first non-Transformer colouring work! Great fun to work on such a cartoony style (art provided by Diego Jourdan), for a story by Simon Furman. When I got the job I was all “Great! I remember the Turtles from when I was a young buck! This’ll be easy!”, but it soon became clear this is not the same show as the one I remember. Time Travel? No April O’Neil? Eeep! A bit of research later and it’s all okay, it sounds like a great update of the franchise. Really looking forward to seeing how this one turns out in print! Some samples for ya…

Outside of the comic realm, I’ll soon be whipping up some small character art for Slow Genius, Cardiff’s premier all-female improv group! I’ll also be providing some updates for Ecsite’s training materials after that. Busy busy!

January and February are over… March forward!

So, what have I been up to colouring-wise that’s now been published? Let’s take a walk down a very short Memory Lane. Well, it’s more Memory Drive really… but I digress.

The end of January saw Titan’s TF UK issue 9 hit the stands. With a “Scorponok” story by Simon Furman, it heralded the return of Marvel TF G1 legend Staz Johnson on the pencilling duties. I was absolutely thrilled to get to colour this, and it was quite a difference having to work only with the pencils. The art was never inked, so it involved a little bit of clean-up and processing before I could whack the colours on. fantastic experience, and I think it’s fair to say the deadline envelope was well and truly pushed on this one!

February saw IDW’s Devastation #5 roll into the shops, and I was lucky enough to snag 3 pages (20, 21 & 22) of the issue alongside IDW mainstays Zac Atkinson and Josh Burcham. EJ Su’s beautifully precise lineart was a joy to colour, and trying to make sure my style meshed well with Zac’s was a fantastic challenge, I loved it. Josh was working on page 19 as I was finishing up my 3 pages, so I had no idea if my page 20 would mesh well with his, but I think we were in the same sort of mindset for the colouring, and the final issue blends very nicely.

Following swiftly afterwards was Spotlight: Arcee, featuring the massively detailed art of Alex Milne. I’ve yet to get my hands on a printed copy yet, but that was another issue where I had to match the style of another colourist - Alex’s partner in crime, Josh Perez. Josh’s style was very intense, a real tough one to match, but I gave it a good shot. I’ve always felt that Perez’s colours were a little too dark, so I was mindful with my pages (9-16, 18, 20-22) to try and find a middle ground that was true to his pages, but maybe a bit less dark. I’ve heard that the issue printed quite darkly anyway, so I’m looking forward to seeing how dark it actually turned out. Hopefully, it’s ok… but hey, sometimes you can’t win ‘em all…

Toward the end of February, Titan’s TF UK issue 9 hit the stands, featuring an alternate reality story by Simon Furman, with art by fellow Welsh TF maniac Simon Williams. I got to provide the colours for this issue, and that was a blast! I was pretty happy with how the whole thing turned out. I must admit to being a little disappointed with not getting to colour the next installment, but still, I was glad to get this one!

Onto some upcoming TF stuff… I got to try my hand at some front covers too, which was great (but quite a responsibility too, so I hope I did a good job)! Out in March sometime I believe, is IDW’s reprint of Marvel’s Space Pirates, and I got to lay some colouring down on Nick Roche’s lineart. I was really looking forward to working with Nick, who I’d met at a signing in London a while back. The Oirish has immaculate taste in t-shirts. By an odd twist of fate, I got to colour another Nick Roche cover, this time for Transformers UK issue 10. That’ll be out at the end of March, and should be a good’un!

It’s been a great start to the year, getting to colour professionally on a franchise that I’ve loved since way back in 1984. It really is a dream come true, and I hope to push it even further. In the next blog I’m hoping to put up some piccies of the non-Transformer stuff I’ve been lucky enough to get to colour - a few issues of Teenaage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Torchwood, and a little IDW number called Zombies: Hunters… with art by a certain Don Figueroa…. Oh yeah. I’m psyched!

Now if I can keep the colouring work coming, maybe I can move out of the day job… I find selling secured loans far less entertaining for some ker-razy reason….

More soon! Feel free to drop me a comment!

First Post, and all that jazz!

Hi there! Welcome to my ‘work-blog’. As the title suggests, my name’s Kris Carter, and I’m an aspiring digital colourist based in Wales. I’m starting this blog to display my work, my methods, and just track my progress with my colouring.

I’ve always known I wanted to pursue a career in art & design in some capacity. I’ve worked as a graphic designer/studio manager at a US newspaper, I’ve been a graphic designer for a design company in Britain, and in 2004 I began to colour some of my own Transformer comics on my computer. Nothing spectacular, but I carried on doing it, and by 2006 I was beginning to think I could maybe do this professionally. I submitted work to several publishers, and got several rejections - but I persevered, and as luck would have it, a collaborative project of mine on the Allspark boards had helped influence a much larger scope project on IDW’s forums, called Transformers: Mosaic. My work on this helped gain more recognition, and a Mosaic I drew and coloured was printed in TF:Devastation 2 (an issue I’d missed out on colour work on a few months prior).

I was thrilled, and fortunately soon I was offered 3 pages to colour on Devastation 5. Following that were 12 pages of Spotlight: Arcee, and 2 issues of Transformers UK for Titan. Variety has arrived in the form of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (UK), Torchwood (UK), a few TF covers (UK & US), and Zombies for IDW Publishing - in the space of 2 months I’ve been working on around 90 pages-worth of work.

It’s hard work, as I’ve a full time job as well to pay the bills, but with my fiancée Ceri’s support my plan is to keep plugging away at the colouring work until I’ve reached the point where it can be my full time job. I think my colouring is good - but it can be a LOT better. I’m going to keep trying my best to improve, and reach the next level. Stay tuned for more soon!