Snowglobe

 

 

 

Happy Christmas!

New Empress Magazine - A Certain Nightmare Before a Certain Christmas

 

I've recently created a black and white illustration for the latest edition of New Empress magazine.

The editor had a few jitters about depicting properties that come under the ownership of a certain house of a certain mouse so this called for a bit of abstraction. The final piece turned a lot more abstract and basic (basic in a good way hopefully) than previous work for the magazine.

Seasons

From time to time, I really enjoy shutting Photoshop down and doing one-off original pieces, specifically in ink and watercolour.

This is simply a bit of fun created lately...

 

 

 

It's approx. 45cm x 35cm on watercolour paper and can be bought for an absolute steal over at my Etsy shop.

Movember Mohawks

 

My brother works in construction in the outback in Australia, the team decided to raise money in November through the Movember movement, with the spin that they'd grow mohawks/mohicans.

 

I created poster to help advertise it of the team all sporting coloured mohicans and built it in a Brady Bunch style layout.

The Hollows via Emanata

A link via Emanata Comics to a 9-page supernatural tale created last year, 'The Hollows'.

It's scripted by actor/writer friend Mark Kavanagh. Further details can be found on this previous link.

Happy Halloween...

MCM: After the Con Rush

I had a table in the Comic Village section of MCM London Comic-Con at the weekend, this is the fourth time I've had a table at MCM and still getting used to taking in the tidal wave of teenage manga cos-play passions on display.

This time around I got a roller banner up to help synchronise the somewhat shambolic brand that is Alfie Gallagher. Creator not present in shot.

 

I had a few new prints available, these along with other original work and prints are now available over at my Etsy shop.

 

 

Here's a selection of sketches and pieces I created there and then over the weekend...

 

 

 

 

Also, finally sold out of my print run of first issue of Charlatan Tales. I really tested the long tail theory to breaking point on that one.

 

As well as having the opportunity to meet and re-meet a lot of good people, I picked up a few bits and pieces. Got my first volume of recently read favourite 'The Bulletproof Coffin' signed by David Hine and got to pick up the second volume 'The Bulletproof Coffin: Disinterred' for a guilt-inducing steal. Also, finally got round to picking up 'Winter's Knight: Day One' by Robert Ball. It's as much a testament to great design as it is to great drawing and storytelling. The playful abstraction in the images really helps the flow and segue between dream and reality, past and present. There's a real sense of creeping dread built up and sustained throughout. Inspiring stuff! 

Yay!

One third 'The Iron Giant' + one third 'Calvin and Hobbes' + one third 'Pacific Rim' = Yay!

 

Rough beginnings...

Ladies & Gentlemen Anthology

Over the summer I wrote and drew this following two-pager for inclusion in the upcoming third anthology-style issue of 'Ladies & Gentlemen' from Water Closet Press.

Richard Worth and Jordan Collver are creating fun Victorian-set ripping yarns and monster mash hi-jinx so far in the first two issues of 'Ladies & Gentlemen'. I really like the art style of Jordan Collver, check out the teams recent work, 'Weird Planet', for some really fluid drawing and dynamic page layouts.

There was a bit of to-ing and fro-ing tweaking (twerking?) the dialogue but all for the greater good.

 

 

The unlettered final pages can be viewed over at my main portfolio site.

 

Below are the initial greyscale ink pages. I attempted adding an ink wash to bring some old timey noise and dirt to the pages. Although the washes seemed heavy enough when initially applied, they dried in lighter than I would have wanted. 

 

The anthology edition will contain multiple story and pin-up contributions from numerous creatives so looking forward to seeing how others filtered the material and world of 'Ladies & Gentlemen'.

 

The Water Closet Press team will be releasing the anthology at Thought Bubble convention in November.

Agent Stardust

 

 

 

 

These are the original pencils I worked up from:

 

 

I'll have a print of this available at MCM London Comic-Con on the weekend of 25th-27th October.

 

Inklings

A fun little banner I created for my brother Feargals' musings and posts over at his own section on the Captain Comics website...

The Cosmic Plectrum - Pencils

The next issue of 'Charlatan Tales' is going to include a single self-contained story.

I've finished 28 pages of pencils, it'll contain my sporadically popping up shaggy dog of a character 'Spaceman'.

In my mind initially, the story was to be a daft bit of good-hearted fun which collided Steranko's Nick Fury material with Gilbert Shelton's Fabulous Furry Freak Bros. work, though most likely it'll be lacking the dynamism and verve of Steranko and the warmth and satire of Shelton.

Below is the first six pages of pencils:

 

Nest step, jumping in with the inking and doing the pages in full colour...

www.alfiegallagher.com

 I've finally got round to a complete overhaul, redesign and recalibration over at my main site, www.alfiegallagher.com.

 

I wanted something that was trimmed down to the essentials and works smoothly across all screens and viewing devices so kept main elements centrally placed and dimensions to work snugly within tablet screens.

 

I wanted design elements, tabs, backgrounds etc. to work along with pre-existing branding-style design work I did. Initially I created the design below, a clean vector framework with a kaleidoscope of illustrated images all circling around my hand drawn 'AG' signature.

 

 

This was then carried through as a banner to be found on this blog and my Facebook page, incorporated into my Twitter account and also utilised in my business card designs.

 

 

I carried the neutral grey and faded framework design from the info side of the business cards across to the website as unimposing background elements which wouldn't override the actual work icons and samples.

Finally I have to give a massive thanks to cousin Dermot Cullen who had to carry out far too much massaging to the mangled Frankenstein coding and html page files I created and he also incorporated in the coding for the viewer application. Thanks Dermot!

Mirror - inks

Work in progress...

Sketchbook 014