Sketchbook

Figuring out if Pigment Princess is deranged or mean. Or both.

Pigment Princess

Some more character designs for an early version of the colour snatcher.

Sketchy villains

Early Mime Man and Stick Man attitudes.

Pigment Princess

 

First doodles of Pigment Princess in the sketchbook. The colour wheel shield was there from the start but the palette skirt and brushes in the messy bun fell by the wayside.

Mime Man

Mime Man poses and attitudes from the sketchbook.

Sketchbook

These are the very first ideas I put down for Mime Man and Stick Man.

Stick Man

Stick Man character designs from Uniform Uproar.

Gum Girl book 4. Uniform Uproar page 3

Designing lots of alternate Gum Girl costumes was fun. Also, big blue fella's Follicle Fiend outfit.

Gum Girl book 4. Uniform Uproar page 2

When I drop my daughter off at school I always feel bad for the kids who've forgotten when it's a non-uniform day, so Billy claimed to have forgot. Of course, every day is non-uniform day for Billy as he never wears a tie and always has on his hoody. I hope someone puts it through the wash at weekends.

I wondered which villain in the Gum Girl universe it would be easiest to create a costume for. I decided on Caesar Salad. A few items of veg, an ivy wreath, a pair of flip-flops, an old bed sheet and voila!

I also like the lad in the helmet (inspired by the musicians in Daft Punk) and the Octopus Prime outfit. He's either very handy with a needle and thread or one of those kids whose parents always "help" them with their homework.

Gum Girl book 4. Uniform Uproar page 1

The idea for this story came from schools obsession with uniforms and making everyone look the same. At my school we had to wear a grey shirt and a red tie. Despite this, all the boys went out of their way not to look smart and the girls were fortunate in not having to wear the tie. I've never worn a tie since and long forgotten how to tie one.
In the end the story was about a non-uniform day which gave me plenty of fun in drawing a variety of Gum Girl costumes.

Unused cover rough

For book 4. I ended up using this pose but modifying it to make it work better. Gum Girl's face is in front of her leading arm and I shrink her trailing arm to fit.

Mime Man

Unlike Pigment Princess I got the character design for Mime Man right first time.
Here he is in classic "trapped in an invisible box" pose. Or is it, "I'd like an envelope this size,"
pose?
Here's a lovely review of Gum Girl: Music, Mischief and Mayhem! from the
fine people at Forbidden Planet.

Gum Girl Book 4. No Noize page 3.

PARRRP 2. This time it's personal. My favourite bit of this page is the bottom left panel where Grace's pigtails flap in the wind.

Gum Girl Book 4. No Noize page 2

PARRRP!

Book 4. No Noize page 1

As I'd taken away colour in Colour Clash I thought it'd be fun to take away "sound" in No Noize. Silent, or pantomime comics, are pretty tricky as everything has to be told without any dialogue. The challenge was to fit a satisfying story into the space, as I find it takes longer to tell a story through pictures alone.

Pigment Princess

Pigment Princess went through a couple of designs until I got her right. This is my first attempt. I liked the colour wheel shield and kept that throughout but the rest needed some work.
Gum Girl: Music, Mischief and Mayhem! is now out.

Gum Girl: Music, Mischief and Mayhem!

Another rough cover idea that we didn't use in the end. The idea of having a spectrum of colours did eventually make it as the background element to the final cover. Again, I used the Tentacle title as a place holder until we'd arrived at Music, Mischief and Mayhem!
The book's out August 1st, check it out.

Book 4. Colour Clash page 3

Pigment Princess has even drained the green man!

Book 4. Colour Clash Page 2.

Do not adjust your screens, Pigment Princess is draining the colour from Catastrophe!

Book 4. Colour Clash page 1

In the first story of Gum Girl: Music, Mischief and Mayhem, Grace is wanting to paint an exciting new colour on her bedroom walls while her mum has her eye on something more soothing.

Gum Girl: Music, Mischief and Mayhem! Cover rough.

This is one of the rough ideas for the cover that wasn't used. The idea of Gum Girl flying was there but the pose and composition needed work. Also, I wasn't certain of the title at that point so used the Tentacles one as a place holder.

Gum Girl book 4: Music, Mischief and Mayhem!

Yup, it's that time of year again. Schools are breaking up for the holidays, the sun might be shining and a new Gum Girl book is released!
Out August 1st ... let's cut to the blurb:

The town of Catstrophe has been infiltrated by three ne'er do gooders once again! In the first story a mime artist has cast a balloon of silence preventing any noise whatsoever - no music, no laughter, no bird song. Mime man has wiped out all the good noise as well as the bad. So Gum Girl retaliates in super gummy style! In a second adventure Grace notices that all the colour is draining out of objects (including herself!). Bemused and alarmed, she follows the disappearing trail of colour to none other than ... Pigment Princess! The outrageous Pigment P wants to control the colour scheme of all in Catastrophe! Someone has to stop her! And at a Fancy Dress Day at Calamity Primary, the school is sabotaged by Stick Man - an ex-counterfeiter of banknotes who accidently slipped into the photocopier during one of his scams and became who he is today. His special skill: copying himself. His mission? to erase all individuality. Gum Girl has her own ideas about everything becoming the same and sets about wiping out his crazy plans.

As usual I'll be posting behind the scenes art and other goodies in the lead up to the release. See you tomorrow!

andi

Oof!

Layout for the first page of Time Trial.

Cover sketches

Looking for poses for the Countdown to Destruction cover.

Cover rough

What time is it? Play time? Tea time? Hammer time? No, silly, Gum Time!

Space Cadets page 3

A space probe taken down from the school roof and an ex-junior member of the  Evil Genius After School Club. What could possibly go wrong?

And the layout for this page.
You're welcome.

Space Cadets page 2

Mr Gibson wants you all to Think Big!

Space Cadets page 1

From Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction. Grace gets it in the ear about Saturday evening telly.

Countdown to Destruction

Unused cover idea. One of the stories is called Time Trial, so there's a clock theme.

Roller Grrlz page 3

 Page three of Roller  Grrlz from Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction. Cats, roadworks and rocket boosted roller skates can never end well.

 Here's the layout for the page. Panel six contained a feeble gag that was removed for being feeble.

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction

Book 3 is out now. This is page 2 of the Roller Grrlz story and the introduction of a new villain, Roller Raider.
As Gum Girl says, "Uh, oh. Built in rocket boosters?"

Roller Grrlz

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction is out now. Gum Girl checks out a robbery at the "safety first" Catastrophe fireworks factory.

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction

The book is out today. Yay! Here's the rough version of the cover. Making covers is fun so I tend to do a few different versions and then we choose which will work best.

Time Trial Page 3

 Gum Girl book 3 out tomorrow (March 7th). Like Billy, I was never much of a maths scholar.

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction

Time Trial page 2. Hang in there, Gum Girl. Book out 7th March.

 This is the rough layout of page 2. Layouts are useful for figuring out where to put the word balloons and the characters. The character to speak first in a panel is the one I put on the left side, as we read left to right. Also, I make notes for important details that are in the script,  here Grace is wearing a watch. The odd thing is that when I draw quickly and freely I can capture an expression or bit of body language that I can't quite get again in the finished page. I think the final panel is better on the rough than on the finished page.

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction!

The third Gum Girl book is out on the 7th of March (Thursday) yay! The first story is called Time Trial. Grace discovers that it isn't her lunch money that is going missing at school but her lunch time! Only Gum Girl can find out what's really going on.

Gum Girl: Countdown to Destruction

I just received my early proof copy of Gum Girl book 3 and it looks awesome! It has my fave cover
yet (thanks to Mark and Ben, design heroes) and the poppiest colours. As you an see, they make
a great set. I can't wait until the book's out on March 7th.
best,
andi