A Clash of Spears

Dacian Command Group

My commission miniature painting service which was launched officially last year is really picking up pace. The last 3 months have seen me busy working on a large collection of Middle Earth Strategy battle game miniatures and also a new range of miniatures produced by Temple of the West to accompany the miniature game of ancient warfare, Clash of Spears.

The Clash of Spears figures are available in 3 sets, a Dacian command group, an ancient Germanic command group and a cool band of Gladiators from the Spartacus revolt! All figures are 28mm, metal and sculpted by Stavros Zouliatis .

I currently have space in my schedule to take on some more miniature painting commissions so please do get in touch for a no obligation quote. You can email me (Steve) at thebeetoons@gmail.com

Germanic Command Group

Spartacus Revolt

Death and Taxes

Well it’s been a busy old time since my last post. I have spent most of the past few months working with games designer Andy Hobday on Death and Taxes, a 112 page campaign supplement for The Barons’ War miniature wargame.

I have worked on the design and layout of the book, provided illustrations and painted some of the Paul Hicks sculpted miniatures that feature in the book. Working on a project like this is a real joy, allowing me to indulge in all the aspects of art and design that I enjoy.

Templar Knights painted for the Death and Taxes book.

I’m happy to say that there is more on the way for Barons’ War and I will be working with Andy and Footsore Miniatures & Games on some really exciting new projects, as well as revisiting some existing favourites!

The priest of St Oswald’s church, as featured in the book, Death and Taxes.

Savage Frontier

Friday saw the launch of a brand new Kickstarter campaign from Footsore miniatures and games.

Savage Frontier is a new range of 28mm miniatures sculpted by Stavros Zouliatis for wargaming the French and Indian war.

I have provided illustrations and produced the graphics for the Kickstarter campaign and also cover art for the forthcoming rule book.

You can check out the campaign here.

What News from the Mark?

Over the weekend I finished painting Éomer, Marshal of the Riddermark.

This stunning plastic kit is from Citadel Miniatures, and was a real joy to paint.

Éomer will make a fearsome leader for my Middle Earth Strategy Battle Game, Rohan warband. Orcs watch out!

Take a look at my commission painting page to see more of my miniatures.

The Barons’ War

Some of you may know that my hobby is miniature wargaming. So it has been a real joy for me to work with Andy Hobday and Footsore miniatures.

Towards the end of last year I was commissioned to work with Andy on his Baron’s War project. This involved some illustration and design work, including the logo and promotional graphics and illustrations for the book, leaflets, packaging and tokens. During a conversation with Andy I dropped in that I used to design and layout books before making the move into comics. So this saw me make a return to book design when I was invited to put together Andy’s new rule book, The Barons’ War, A Medieval Skirmish Game.

Originally planned to be a 50 page pamphlet to be given away to the backers of The Baron’s War 2 Kickstarter campaign which is centered around a miniature figure range sculpted by Paul Hicks. As the rules were play tested and developed the page count of the book grew and grew and grew and continued to grow as I began working on the design and layout.

I think, with my understanding of how tabletop wargames work, this helped me put the book together quickly and helped me decipher Andy’s scribbles when illustrating the books diagrams!

Coming in at a hefty 136 pages, and sporting a beautiful cover painting by Peter Dennis, the pefect bound A5 book is now available to order from Footsore Miniatures and Games both in print and pdf format.

I’m really pleased with how the book has turned out and I’m hoping for more design and layout work in the future. Graphic design seems to be a business area that is growing for me again and definitely something I will be embracing.

So if you are a rules writer or games company looking for a book designer please do get in touch!

Biffo the Bear

In this years Beano Annual I was really pleased to be asked to bring back old cover star Biffo the Bear, drawn from scripts written by Jess Bradley. I also contributed a Bash Street activity page, the kids show you how to make a cup levitate!!

So I hope you have all asked Santa for a copy!

2020 has been a busy year for me workwise despite a global pandemic. I’ll share a bit more of what I’ve been up to soon. Until then I will leave you with a few clips from Biffo, enjoy and Merry Christmas!

Lockdown

Here is my cover art for the brand new book in the Lucy Wilson Mysteries series, Lockdown.

Here’s the blurb from publisher Candy Jar books….

Earth is in lockdown. But for Lucy Wilson, staying home doesn’t mean staying safe.

Dinosaurs, killer plants, even Meme Lords – some enemies just don’t respect social distancing. So Lucy and her brainbox sidekick Hobo have no choice but to come to Earth’s defence again – although never forgetting to stay two metres away from each other!

In this collection of short stories, Lucy finds herself contending with the challenges of a pandemic, while continuing to rise to the mantle of her legendary grandfather, Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart. 

The Lucy Wilson Mysteries is a Lethbridge-Stewart spin-off adventure inspired by characters created for Doctor Who by Mervyn Haisman and Henry Lincoln. 

The royalties from this book will be donated to NHS charities. Whatever is raised Candy Jar will double. This book is available exclusively through Candy Jar and will not be available via any other retailers.

Lockdown is available to purchase here

Tunnel Fighter Time Lapse

My work in the tabletop games industry is continuing. I am illustrating and designing all sorts of things for miniature games such as logos, card art, dice, tokens and even the miniatures themselves! Alongside my children’s comics and book work it has meant that I have had to become a very versatile artist. It keeps things interesting and I have had a lot of fun developing different art styles for different projects.

Yesterday I took a bit of time out to draw something just for fun. Sticking with the theme of tabletop games I drew a Dwarf tunnel fighter. Here is a time lapse video of the drawing, enjoy!

Steve.

Massive Update!

This website has just had a massive update with new links and loads of new work. It’s been so long since I updated the site I have tons more work to display so have a look around if you haven’t visited for a while. You will see I’ve been quite busy.

Enjoy!
Steve

Mortal Gods

So in my last post I mentioned a move into the tabletop games industry!

Over the last year or so have been working closely with Footsore Miniatures and Games as a designer and illustrator on their tabletop miniatures game Mortal Gods.

The game’s theme is set in the Classical Greek period and players battle each other with war bands of Hoplites which are represented on the tabletop with miniature figures which the player will build and paint. If you’re familiar at all with Warhammer it’s that kind of thing.

The stats and rules for the warriors in the game are displayed on decks of cards, and it’s these cards that I have been illustrating. It’s been great fun to be able to work in a style very different to my usual humour stuff I do for the kids comics.

I took a lot of inspiration for the art style from the black and white art seen in the Commando comics published by DC Thomson.

This work is ongoing with the game proving popular, we are looking to expand the game beyond the Greeks and have it cover the Bronze Age period as a whole.

Also coming very soon will be a Mythic supplement so players can play out the adventures of Perseus and Jason and the Argonauts!

Here is some of my art from the game, enjoy!