Hopefully, you have seen the Icon I use for my twitter and facebook. If not, I have linked an image below for you to enjoy thanks to
James Anderson's Flawless skill in Illustrator...
Cliff England Comic Art Icon
Why do I bring this up? Simple,
this is my Original character "Griffen" . He is a Special Ops, Soldier turned Freedom Fighter that is a man out of time. There is quite a back story with this character, but needless to say, it's something I need to keep under hat until I have time to follow up on it professionally. I hate giving away original stories... hehehe. If any writers out there have free time, and want to help me work on it, let me know.
This character has developed over the years, first drawing him during my teenage years, up to today. Some of my favorite images are below...
Griffen in 1996
This image was from 1996. His first depiction was very reminiscent of the Top-Cow/Sylvestri, Leifeld, Lee Genre of Cyborg Hero. I have been accused of leaning heavily toward Lee/Leifeld's styles, but I myself enjoy Art Thilbert, mark Bagley & Art Adams and see the influences as I progress. I once heard Todd McFarlane quoted as saying he never wanted to be like anyone else, there was no point in it. Or something close to it. I totally agree with it, but if you can pick up some tips along the way, I say do it.
Griffen Pencils
As time went on, I sketched the crap out of this character, but never put him in ink much. To that, I hold much regret. He is on of the most enjoyable characters I ever drew. In Nov 2011, when I picked up the pencil again, this was the firs thing I had drawn in nearly a Decade. Looking at it, I told myself that I should continue to do more, so that night I went out, and picked up some art supplies and came home and inked him, as seen below...
Griffen Inked
Now, realize, I hadn't drawn anything in nearly 10 years. Small sketches from time to time, but never anything focused. Looking at this I realized that I had made a severe mistake and from that moment on, I have been in school. During the rekindling of my artistic skills, I realized that I had never seen anything of mine in color, so I contacted my colorist James Anderson. I asked him to Color some work, and he agreed. Below is the result...
Griffen Colored
Now, as I stated above, I had never seen any of my work in color before. And this was the first time my colorist had ever tried coloring comic style drawings. This piece took off and people enjoyed it a lot. I got a lot of attention from those at Valiant, and other smaller independent Comic Firms inquiring about this character, and other details about my work. I attribute that to James' wonderful coloring jobs.
Below is another piece I managed to get time to do last year, and hope to see colored soon if everything goes well...
More Recent Images of Griffen
I think this one piece will be absolutely amazing once it's professionally colored. The lights and other metallic effects should all come together and make this scene come to life in ways black and white simply can't do.
I hope you have enjoyed a glimpse of my Original Work over the last week or so. Keep checking in, I have much more to throw out, and should have a little free time in the next few months to put some more Original work out (School Willing). I am burning it at both ends with school, family and work.
I will be taking Web Development as a summer course, as well as an NRA Certified Firearms Instructor Course at the end of May, so my time is short. Enjoy this work, and share it with your friends and family if you like it. If you are a writer, and want to hear me babble about my Ideas,
email me anytime.
Much more to come (I didn't think I had this much Original Stuff, lol). So Keep Checking in!
