Hot Stuff...

This was one of the most enjoyable commissions of my career so far. When Nick Moore from Dr Burnorium's Hot Sauce Emporium initially asked me to envisage the character to front his business, I came up with the above sketch to hopefully satisfy his search for a malevolent travelling salesman type. I always have enjoyed the opportunity to draw malevolence, having been largely (though not completely) denied it throughout my career in children's comics, so I was very keen to have a go at it. However, from experience, I'm always aware that what the client asks for and what they actually want are not necessarily the same thing, and so I tend to hold back on drawing anything to extremes for a first draft.

I was reasonably pleased with the initial offering, and the hint of a darker side to the character, hoping that Nick wouldn't think I'd pushed it too far. He replied with fulsome praise for the drawing, but a passionate plea for much more evil, and his quite brilliant and inspiring vision of how to achieve it. This was music to my ears, and I didn't need to be asked twice - Nick left no doubt that he wanted me to really go for it, and I enjoyed every second of the project from there on in, as did he.

The result was the following three stages of the evil Doctor, who you can find fronting the Hot Sauce Emporium website at http://www.hotsauceemporium.co.uk/ (warning - site does contain some colourful language). Nick was the kind of client cartoonists like me love to deal with - enthusiastic, hugely appreciative, focussed, driven, clear, and above all, mad as a hatter! He also sent me samples of his wares... his catchphrases of "Let's get out there and melt some faces!" and "Your Pain Is Our Pleasue" are entirely appropriate.

Pencil...

Ink...

Colour...