Christmas, the coldest place to hide

Once again the might Last Exit To Nowhere had me back to produce their Christmas (or other seasonal excuse for a holiday) cards.

This year it was time for collective favourite, The Thing, to inspire a set of Little MacReady cards.

As always, the cards are beautifully printed and well worth sending to your favourite lover of scuttly-head, meat creatures.

And if your significant other has already been consumed by an alien meat beast, then there's always the other sets to chose from.

Hop to it!

Alpine Alien

Been a long time fan of the Alien franchise (despite a couple of weaker entries (we're also pretending AVP doesn't exist. At all.)) and I'm eagerly looking forward to Alien Covenant.

From what I've seen so far its looking pretty 'on point'. The idea of seeing the xenomorph scuttling through forests is an intriguing one, with all the other movies taking place in engineered (see what i did there?) structures.

I don't know if we'll get to see that, however the fact that in the trailer they suggest there are no birds or insects implies that they've been scared off by... something.

Or eaten.

I drew this before I saw the beautiful poster art that was released a few weeks ago. If the film is half as good as that artwork then we're in for a real treat.

Roll on may!

They mostly come out at Christmas, mostly.

For the second year running, I was commissioned to create another set of Christmas cards for Last Exit to Nowhere. This year, Ripley is the focus of the hero's fantasies.

If you order a set now, you have plenty of time to get them to your nearest and dearest in time for the festive season.

The John McClane set I illustrated last year are also available here.

In fact, the quality of the prints is far better than a card has any right to be. You could frame them up and pass them off as art prints, thus garnering yourself kudos from your nearest and dearest. Then you could buy yourself a nice T-shirt as a reward for saving money. Just sayin'.

426 (with free bonus video!)

Happy Aliens day! (almost)

Apparently.

I'm assuming the 26 of April is some kind of ancient pagan festival, and not a commercial ploy by a leading film studio to boost the popularity of one of their IPs. Right?

Regardless, Alien and Aliens are spectacular movies. Fact. As well as both being seminal science fiction movies that pushed the boundaries of what was possible at the time, both films are genuinely terrifying in very different ways.

Alien saga's ongoing themes of motherhood are never so apparent as in the relationship between Ripley and orphaned space urchin, Newt.

Over the years I've had numerous questions about the process of creating digital imagery so I've decided to record myself at work on the Newt image. It took about 1:15 to complete, not including sketchbook doodling.

Its an odd sensation, showcasing the process of creating this kind of speed-paint, as It allows a glimpse of the trials and frequent errors that help arrive at the finished result.

I have no doubt various bad habits and lack of planning are evident, but I hope some of you find it useful. Feel free to send any questions. Or answers. I always like a good answer. Especially if its correct.

'Mad props' (I think that's right), to hashfinger for the excellent music.