WesterNoir Tales Kickstarter

The Kickstarter for WesterNoir Tales has been approved.

Here's the link to the pre-launch page https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kiawordsmith/westernoir-tales

Gator Man figure for Table Display at Conventions.

This year I've focussed my convention table more and more on the WesterNoir series.

Adding 6 inch figures of Josiah Black and Cassidy McRae to try to make my table stand out a little against the sea of tables of great comics books around me.

The figures certainly drew people to the table and I had some really interesting chats with people I would not had met had the figures not been there.

But I need to add some monsters.

I love Gary's design for the Gator Men, first seen in issue 2, and so this monster was the obvious choice.

The first thing I do when pinging figures is lay down a flat layer of the base colour. This layer is watered down a little as I want it to fill all the little cracks and holes. There's nothing worse than seeing a little bit of grey when you look in detail at your finished work.

The eyes are the first thing I actually paint as it's easier to move the skin to the eyes than it is to paint the right size and shape of eye onto the skin colour.

I was tempted throughout to paint the iris and pupil in but love the way the orange stands out against the green and so left it as is.

Putting a lighter layer for the skin gives the figure its three dimensional feel. I actually stopped the lighter green on this time, playing with it as I felt it better reflected a crocodile's skin.

Picking out the detail of the sales on his back with a little green, accentuated but a darker green circle around it ... I love the way this came out.

Then adding a dark blue for the jeans base colour. 

Yes, there are two figures, one for the Convention Table and the other for the WesterNoir Tales Kickstarter.

A nice brown belt and a simple dark brown base (I don't like the bases to be too busy as they distract from the figure).

and he's done.

Very happy with how he came out.

Just submitted my WesterNoir Tales for Review on Kickstarter

It's been a while since I used Kickstarter but am happy to say that, whilst it has changed a little, I could still work things out.

You can check it out at:- WesterNoir Tales Kickstarter

WesterNoir Tales

This weekend I'll be working on the Kickstarter for our collected WesterNoir Tales.

WesterNoir Tales is a collection of the tales in the three published Tales of WesterNoir, and includes some new tales and also things that we didn't find room for in the ongoing series.

The stories are all by Gary and/or myself but the art is from a lot of people we admire, and are friends, in the independent comic book scene.

Originally the printed tales were in greyscales but Gary and I have been colouring pages for a few months now, adding to some pages already coloured by Matt Soffe, and the book is now fully coloured and pretty much ready.

Here's the first view of the cover... by Gary Crutchley, coloured by Matt Soffe and designed by Andy Bloor, as always.

Well, that was EPIC

I really enjoy the Cons in Glasgow.

Jemma, my daughter, spent 4 years there doing her BA and I always enjoyed the city when visiting.

Steve and I have been to a few now, but this time we were forced to get an apartment in the city centre due to the ridiculously high priced hotel rooms. Turns out this worked out really well though as there were more food places to choose from and plenty of great little pubs. Also the trip in to the venue was only two stops on the train from the station that was only 10 minutes away from the apartment.

Yes, we'll be looking to do that again.

The two day event was busy for us on the Saturday and not so busy on the Sunday.

All in all we did pretty well though and were happy with the number of books we sold, the number of people we chatted to and the interest everyone showed in what we are doing. It was also great catching up with fellow creators.

I was particularly pleased that we sold some WesterNoir figures and badges.

It all helps 😀

I took this photo of Steve behind the banners
as I think it's kinder to everyone.

Had a great time and am looking forward to doing it all again in March.

EPIC Con in Glasgow

Steve and I are off up North on Friday for this weekend's ACME Con in Glasgow.

It's favourite of ours and one we look forward to.

Pop over and say 'Hi' if you're in the area.