Brand new art: 3 STRANSKI magazine portraits

Happy Friday...!

Chewing the Phoenix fat...

Who'd like to listen in on a big round table comic chitchat between myself, Patrice Aggs, Neill Cameron, Daniel Hartwell and Adam Murphy?  What's that?  EVERYONE???  Very well, your wish is granted.

At the end of August I attended CAPTION, Oxford's small press comic convention.  It was a lovely day and I had been invited to join two panel discussions, the second of which was all about the mighty Phoenix comic.  The entire session was recorded and you can download and hear the whole caboodle NOW by simply clicking HERE.

Alternatively hit the image below and you'll be taken the Panel Borders page where you can listen online by simply clicking the PLAY button on the right of the screen.  ENJOY!

Many thanks to Alex Fitch and David O'Connell for inviting and hosting/invigilating on the day.

3 new environment concepts...

More new stuff from my sketchbooks today!

Lorenzo!

Desert Island Comics

Here's something fun to share on a wet Monday morning (well, it's certainly been raining hard here in Bristol).  A short while back I was invited to contribute to an ongoing series over on the Forbidden Planet International comic blog.  The feature is called Desert Island Comics, and each week it offers their guest of choice the chance to tackle the following quandary: if you found yourself shipwrecked on an island with only 8 comics for company, which 8 would you select?  Oooooh, what a tricky problem to solve!

My selection, and reasons for each title's inclusion (these eight volumes are ESSENTIAL reading, in my opinion) has just been posted and you can read the full piece HERE! 

As a little sneak bonus for you guys, here's a cover gallery of the comics that made my final cut.  If you want to get a head start on your Christmas List for Santa, I recommend adding the lot!

- Robin

 

1st Plymouth International Book Festival

Having grown up on the South Coast, we Etheringtons feel a close affinity with the ocean. Our Dad is a keen sailor, our older brother William used to live on a barge, Lorenzo ... er ... likes ice cream, and I like sunbathing. Er, yep.

Anyway, you can imagine our pleasure at being invited to the inaugural Plymouth Book Festival, the first show we've done where the stage actually overlooks the open sea.  The setting, beside the lighthouse on Plymouth Hoe was brilliant!

After applauding the winner of the first Plymouth Young Laureate and watching her receive her prize (Ailie Kerr, and an iPad no less!) we took to the stage for laughs, lessons and comic-based japes.

We then spent an enjoyable hour chatting to the audience and signing and sketching pictures for all the children (and adults) present, before hopping on a train back to Bristol.  We were honoured to be part of a brand new festival, and in such sterling company (not sure Simon Callow was impressed by my Jenga-style tower of banners, but you can't please everyone!).

Many thanks to Kate Wilson and all the festival staff for making us feel so welcome and for all their help and assistance. We look forward to returning in the future!

Interview and step-by-step guide to how I design book covers...

I was recently interviewed on my book cover design process for the excellent Once Upon a Bookcase blog. You can read all about how I approach design, lettering theme and final artwork, along with seeing illustrations of the various stage of production RIGHT HERE!

Awesome college work by Jen Smith!

Right, this is tooooo cool! The talented Jen Smith, who many of you UK peeps will know from comic expos over here, recently sent me a package containing a quite simply awesome treat! Inside the little cardboard box was a small "wooden" crate, and inside that was a tiny sculpt of a monster from one of my illustrations! This was a piece of course work Jen produced for her college course. In Jen's own words:

"For this brief we had to design and make a promotional piece of packaging containing information about 3 digital artists (Delme Rosser, Lorenzo and Nikki Stu) to be given out as a free gift to people coming to an art exhibition."

There's lots more info on what Jen did HERE, go check it out!

Oh, and she got a distinction for the work, so BIG CLAPS all round!

Lorenzo!

Sketchbook Inspiration: 24 WEIRD Trees

A few trees and plants from my sketchbooks today. I find trees and foliage to be great fun for sketching, as they have such a lot of inherent organic personality...

Lorenzo!

Etherington Brothers launch comic making competition in the Puffin Post!

Yes! If you're a Puffineer, Puffin-ranger or perhaps even a Puffling, then you're going to be in with the chance of winning copies of both Baggage AND Monkey Nuts in an exclusive new competition we're running in the Puffin Post! And all you have to do is draw an awesome comic!

To give you a bit of a helping start, we've laid up a special spread in the magazine with some tips on how to create fun characters, worlds and storylines! I'm proud to say that Robin and I are now Honorary Puffineers (see badge below) so you can expect more from us in the PP sooooon!

Lorenzo!

Muddle and Win: Exclusive look at new novel with full wrap cover by Lorenzo!

Wanted to show you guys my cover for John Dickinson's fantastic novel Muddle and Win: The Battle for Sally Jones which was launched this month. I've done a little interview for a book jacket blog about my process in the creation of the book, which I'll post a link to as soon as it goes live, along with shots of the roughs etc, but for now, just enjoy the pics...

Lorenzo!

Character pose sheet: 41 Piggies and a hat

Character pose sheet for Piggy from YORE! who spent most of his time emoting abject terror and indignation...

Lorenzo!

Thursday Art: More vehicle designs

A few more motor car sketches from my time in Edinburgh today. If you want to get all my recent concepts in one easy-to-download file, just go HERE!

Lorenzo!

New mystery Von Doogan character!

With The Curse of the Golden Monkey heading towards it's exciting conclusion, I thought I'd show you one of the new characters who'll be appearing in Doogan's next even more thrilling adventure!

Lorenzo!

Tuesday Art: Wrecking ball!

Another one from a recent sketchbook here! Enjoy!

Lorenzo!

Doogan winners - are you one of them?!

YES! I'm VERY pleased to do a role call on the latest batch of Von Doogan winners! These lucky adventurers have not only solved some of the Doog's most troubling challenges, but also had the good fortune to win the Von Doogan Certificate of Adventuring Excellence!

Here they are, lined up for your applause...

Puzzle number 28: "The Golden Monkey"
- solved by ROLY PEEL (What a great name!)

Puzzle number 30: "The Big Choice"
- solved by JULIET STOREY

Puzzle number 31: " Kuthulu's 1st Task: Strength"
- solved by VICTOR FOSTER

Puzzle number 32: "Kuthulu's 2nd Task: Trickery"
 - solved by BEN NEIGHBOUR

Puzzle number 33: "Kuthulu's 3rd Task: Agility"
- solved by LUKE MYHILL

Well done all! 

And finally, here's a quite simply AWESOME piece of Doogan fanart by an unknown young Dooganeer - completely AMAZING!

Lorenzo!