Real Heroes

Thats the title of the big project I was working on recently. It is a 192 page hard cover book, being published by Harper Press (of Harper Collins). Part of the proceeds from the book go to Help for Heroes, the wonderful charity that raises money for wounded British soldiers. The book is sponsored by The Sun newspaper, whom I have worked for in the past, and I had a very good time working with again on this project.

Here is the description of the book by the publisher:

A unique, full-colour, action-packed collection of true stories of heroism from the British armed forces. ‘Real Heroes’ is packed full of everything you could want to know about the inspirational bravery of the men and women involved in current conflicts. Discover a wealth of fascinating information about servicemen’s kit, weapons, vehicles, survival aids, tactics, bases and frontline accounts of experiences of battle. Stunning feature-length animated strips depict the most thrilling action from the front line, from the Tora Bora cave clearance right up to the recent Operation Panther’s Claw. Other features include detailed maps, interviews with key personnel, understanding Afghanistan, military awards, breakdowns of battle units and insightful pieces from expert authors including Ben Brown, Patrick Bishop, Christina Lamb, James Holland and Ed Macy. ‘Real Heroes’ is the perfect gift for anyone who wants to support our troops — proceeds from the book will be donated to Help for Heroes, a tremendous charity set up to support the men and women of the British Armed Forces who are wounded in the line of duty. Exciting, eye-catching and informative, ‘Real Heroes’ is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn more about modern warfare, or simply enjoys a fast-paced account of real courage, comradeship and battle.

I completed 86 pages of comics for the book. Eight stories. All-in-all it was about 346 separate images. I modeled and textured various vehicles, characters, equipment and environments. All of the images were set up and rendered first, and then composited and painted up in Photoshop. Here is an example of the kind of work that I produced:

This image won’t be appearing in the book.

The initial deadline for this work was three weeks. Which was insane. I researched, plotted and storyboarded all of the stories, as well as modeled, textured and rendered nearly ALL of the images in those first three weeks. Luckily the deadline got pushed forward, which gave me a lot more time to spend on the images in the Photoshop stage, as can be seen in the above image. The work took about eight weeks to complete, with another two weeks taken up with editorial changes and tweaks. The editorial stage went quite smoothly, and the editor at Harper Press was great to work with.

I think the comic pages turned out very well, especially considering the time it was all completed in. I haven’t seen the rest of the book, but I’m sure it’s all going to be VERY good.

The book is due for release on the 26th of November, but is already available for pre-order in a lot of places. Here is the AmazonUK link.

I hope to have my copies soon, I am really looking forward to seeing the final printed product.

All the best,

Kev

So I’ve finally finished the BIG project I was working on. Well, I actually finished a couple of days ago already and have been taking it somewhat ‘easy’ since then.

The three week project turned out to be more than nine weeks, which was good and bad for many different reasons. Good: I got to spend more time on producing better looking images. Bad: the initial stage, the planning, the research, the base of the whole project basically, was produced under a hectic schedule in those first three weeks. Nevertheless, I am very happy with the results, especially considering the amount of work that was completed in such a short time.

What is the project? It’s a 3d comic project for a very good cause. There is more to it besides the comic stories, but other than that, I can’t tell you any more at this stage.

I will hopefully resume my daily character drawing soon, as I really miss doing that. I’m working on a new project at the moment, that will hopefully lead to more work, so my time is taken up with that.

Anyways, I look forward to letting you all know more about the big project as soon as I can.

Best,
Kev

Hey everybody,

Here’s a work-in-progress image of a matte painting I’m working on, it’s a portfolio piece.

Kev