StripFiction

Waka About Character Designs

2012-01-23T01:09:00.000+01:00

The posted sheet is character design for a comic adaptation of a classic 1970s song titled Waka About. I shall start the illustration shortly.

2011 Work Folio on Scribd

2012-01-22T12:55:00.001+01:00

You may view and download my 2011 work folio at on Scribd.

Recent Event: Reorganisation & Redesign Of My Blogs & Portfolios

2011-12-11T10:18:00.001+01:00

I have reorganised my sites for more interesting viewing. All my relevant links can be found on my landing page at olusolaakinseye.blogspot.com. From there you can choose what you want to see or where you'd like to go. The attached image clearly explains this.

Thank you for visiting my site. I hope you always have a reason to keep coming. I promise to always have something new to show. Cheers!

Cartoon: Poverty And Superstition

2011-12-05T07:23:00.001+01:00

I have developed interest in cartooning current events and locally relevant matters. Two recent cartoons I finished within the last few weeks are about Poverty in Africa and a news piece about a group of superstitious armed robbers operating in eastern Nigeria.

PARANOIA!: Cartoon Strip Art

2011-10-02T05:02:00.000+01:00

I have been too busy to illustrate my script for Paranoia! Chima Kalu, an excellent comic book artist was available and willing to help out. I just saw his finished work an it was very well done. My story came to life under his mastery of pen and ink.

Posted below are a few of the line art for the strip.

Studio Update: Comic Magazine Creation

2011-09-16T23:05:00.001+01:00

I have been working on creating a new comic periodical under the Cowrie Comics imprint. I am unable to post my designs yet but below is a discarded image from one of the designs.

Blunda Man: Character Design

2010-10-19T20:27:00.000+01:00

I have been developing a character to use as a vehicle to drive my planned forey into animated shorts. I named him Blunda Man- an obvious play on his bungling nature. Then I head a very funny story titled 'The Dog Died' and adapted the short tale into four cartoon strips. Attached is my character design for the two characters in the story.

Oluronbi and the Iroko Man: Uploaded

2010-06-30T20:56:00.002+01:00

I just uploaded the complete comic strip adaptation of Oluronbi and the Iroko Man on the portfolio site SHOWN'D.com. You can link to it here.

Al Williamson and Frank Frazetta: R.I.P.

2010-06-26T18:21:00.004+01:00

I first encountered Al Williamson's work on his Star Wars newspaper strips. His lush and detailed illustrations quickly caught my attention. This man was a master of rendering and illustrative composition, as well as the lazy artist's nightmare!

Frank Frazetta, on the other hand, wowed me with his powerful coloured illustrations for book and comics covers. His most memorable works, to me, were his paintings of Conan the Barbarian. I learnt much later about his commendable illustrations on newspaper strips in the 50s!

These were artists who loved what they did. They were not just interested in knocking out the next page. They gave serious attention to details. Imagine my sadness to learn of the passing of both great artists this year. Please take some time to read about them and view a little of the wonderful works they left us in the following New York Times articles.
Al Williamson
Frank Frazetta

Oluronbi and the Iroko Man: Pencils

2010-06-26T17:00:00.003+01:00

I have been working on various projects other than the Paranoia! story line. My comics adaptation of the Yoruba folk tale: Oluronbi and the Iroko Man is now being converted to strips. I saw the need to add more details hence the additional pencil illustrations, some of which are posted here for your viewing pleasure.

The Passion of My Life: Completed

2010-04-20T12:29:00.010+01:00

I have not kept my promise to put up something here every month. But I have several projects in progress, I just haven’t had time to post them.

This post is neither a cartoon strip nor fiction. But I have decided to include my regular comic works here as well since both media are very similar.

The work features a brief biography of yours truly, how I came to fall in love with what I do. I had to go home to my parents and raid their library for old greyscale kodak photos of my younger (and cuter) self. Posted is a step-by-step process of how I developed the three page work. A rough sketch of each page was done and used to develop the final pencil pages (The reference pictures were useful at this stage). Secondly, I used the light box to redraw the pencil pages in ink. Thirdly, I scanned the inks into my PC and painted them in Adobe Photoshop. Then I imported the painted pages into CorelDRAW and laid in the panel outlines and captions.

I hope to put up the final pages soon.

Ah! The picture below was taken in those days when I wake up in the morning, eat my breakfast and bounce all the way to school daydreaming about comic book characters. But now I'm a grown man, matured. I wake up in the morning, eat my breakfast and bounce all the way to work thinking about making comic books. Wait...

PARANOIA!: Script

2009-09-11T15:09:00.003+01:00

Thank God! I just finished the script for my first comic strip. It is titled Paranoia. I've had the gist of the story in my mind for over six years now. I can't wait to start on the character designs and references. It's been a while that I have done intensive comic work. My responsibility in The Comics Hut studio is mainly supervisory.

Paranoia is 22 strips long and I will be drawing 2 strips each on an A3 size paper. I plan to draw with HB pencil and render using black Rotring ink.

Past Event: Newspaper Strip Inspirations

2009-09-01T17:11:00.024+01:00

StripFiction is the name I have given to a line of cartoon strips I will be developing over the next few years, hopefully. I grew up on a steady diet of black and white newspaper strips: Modesty Blaise, Gun Law, Garth, and James Bond. The strips showcased excellent illustrations and I used to cut out the strips and glue them together in a book.

I was greatly influenced by the quality of artwork featured in those strips. The creative use of the limited space to tell stories; the economic, yet powerful use of lines and shades to present interesting and varying compositions; and the attention to detail that is so lacking in today’s strips- had a profound impact on my illustration style.

Frank Bellamy’s lush illustrative style on Garth (in The Daily Times) and his use of chiaros curo

Jim Holdaway’s use of solid black spaces and portraiture on Modesty Blaise (in the now defunct New Nigeria Newspaper)

Yaroslav Horak’s technical and stylised drawings on James Bond (in Saturday Punch)

All these were a delicious serving that titillated my creative palette. The strips were licensed by Nigerian newspapers from their British counterparts. Sadly, this collaboration stopped and I only had my memories to fall back on (over the years, I had misplaced my cutout collection). In time, my attention was almost exclusively on the Marvel-DC superhero comics. But I never forgot my roots. Over the years, I have done a lot of work in the conventional comic book medium. I currently work at The Comics Hut, a Nigerian comics publishing company. But lately, I have been feeling a creative hunger to express myself in this pre-comic book medium: the strip cartoon. Hence the reason I have created StripFiction.

I hope to start with short stories and gradually move on to longer tales. I plan to work in black and white or greyscale. Though I do not have an outlet yet, I will canvas for a spot in any willing periodical as soon as I have enough material to start with. This blog will feature behind-the-scene matters like character sketches, story inspirations, scripts and artworks. I look forward to your comments and hope you find a reason to check on this blog every month.

Enjoy!