Updates on some things

I made a few other things. A lot of character sketches, both for projects I'm dealing with and just to help out other creators.

I don't know why, but I felt the Mignola flowing through me when I drew this.

Also, some comics pages.

More stuff (my titles are pretty much useless, aren't they?)

I've decided to scale back my output. I won't try to push for a page a day, but I will go for at least two panels a day. The quantity suffers but the quality might be raised since I'm doing less in one sitting.

The nature of Maletilla, with its gray inks, tells me to ink as soon as I finish the entire panel itself since it'll be a pain to discern what is inked what what is just a line of graphite. Noodler's Lexington gray has a reputation for its closeness to the appearance of graphite itself. Mix that with my messy pencil work and you have a recipe for confusion. Of course this means I'll be hamstrung in terms of speed since I'm used to drawing the panels in graphite and inking it a good while later after I'm done with all the other pages. Black ink standing out from the sea of gray really contributes to that, y'know.

Realistically, I CAN pencil and ink a single page in one day, buuuut I have a certain sickness. It's called laziness. That and I don't have an economic incentive to really push myself to finish it. There's that abstract incentive to push myself to making better art buuuuut pride and the compliments of the few people that would see the final output isn't the most convincing thing to make me go further than what I can for now. Maybe it'll be different if I'm getting paid. I don't know. At least I'm trying. With that said, here are the latest outputs that I've pushed out of my metaphorical loins for Maletilla.

I was still fatigued from drawing all that crazy perspective crap from the other day when I was drawing this. I had to fake it just to get myself to finish this. It may or may not be too obvious, but I had to replace panels three and four, with four being replaced twice. I might go back to this later on when it's all done and replace them again with better art.

Saving the third panel for last since it's one of the most complicated shots in the entire comic. It's also the fourth panel in the actual script since I combined two and three into one panel. I might just crap the first two panels of this page altogether and slap the last three panels into another piece.

Testing out the overall composition of the panels with perspective. I wanted to go two-point with it but it's at the very edge of the page in the final piece but I don't know how to get past that. Not yet anyway. Also it's on a block so it's not easy to rip off unless I feel like ripping it off. I don't right now, honestly.

Have some art for my other project. You, whoever is reading this lonely little blog, have seen some other concept art in the last post. It's a little alt. history thing where them Nazers won WW2 and they live in a giant enclosed bubble. Lots of drama and scifi crap. Drawing Nazers in alt. history scenarios is always fun. Man in the High Castle, Dead Snow, big market.

I tried to me maximalist here. I just can't do it. It's also the proper version of the guy I was drawing the other day. Got back with my collaborator and she drew me the way she imagined him. Clearly, he isn't supposed to look like his 17th century namesake.

Cat

Art+Concept Art

I really shouldn't have jumped into drawing the art for Maletilla without some practice to get back into drawing. The stuff comes off as a bit stiff and... well... unpracticed. I can at least say that my hold over two-point perspective has grown. Three point... RIP. Don't bother for awhile. One day...

See that establishing shot? I worked my ass off for that. It may have killed my appetite for backgrounds for some time. You'll see with page 2.

I couldn't pull off a full, three-point perspective for the establishing. I was tempted to just ham it, but I couldn't pull it off. I also tried that with the other panels, but after those first few hours trying to work out that establishing shot kinda taught me to at least do one-point perspective for every shot when possible. I should have rested and gave myself more time between panels. I just phoned it in for the rest of em after the mental exhaustion of the first panel.

Here are some concept art for the comic with my other friend. She wants an ersatz Gustavus Adolphus, thus the semblance to him. I'm also trying to get a handle of caricature and photorealism to an extent by trying to find the essence of Gustav's face in the linework. Oh well. On to more art and mastering my minor skills in art.

Scripts

Just finished writing my first comic script. There were other attempts but this is the first one that I actually finished and was at least a smidgen happy with the turn out.

Never been the best with names...

I made the language bilingual, leaning on English but with frequent touches of Tagalog. I'd set up a phrase or sentence in Tagalog then directly answer it or set up a direct (as possible) translation in the next line. Hopefully it gives it an extra bit of liveliness.

I wrote this while I was off on my "Uzamaki" high. Uzamaki being the magnum opus of the horror legend Junji Ito. I've been doing it on and off for at least nine months. Then comes the harder bit... refining and then drawing it. That comes later. For now, I rest and think my storytelling choices through.

A good many months to write one thing is a good amount of time to learn and drop things. Creatively, this is a Frankenstein of my different phases. The skeleton though, for the most part, was maintained from the first few versions of it. It's only my interpretation into its more comic-friendly format that's changed.

Pictures of the characters and some of the beasties tomorrow.

A few things

I've gone back to writing something that isn't a school paper. Mostly a dream journal and a script for a comic I'm making. My friend also enlisted me to do breakdowns and layouts for her comic and pencil it as well. Oh well. More projects to do and I'm spreading my creative wings.

Hooray.

Also, have some sketches.

A lil sketch.

A sketch of my uni

The dream journal and my usual hand writing.

As it says, it's a sketch of Madrid.

"Maletilla" in its barest form

Have some thumbs for the new project I'm making with my usual collaborator, Daze. My ultimate desire in this thing is to experiment with presentation and to keep my panel count as small as possible while still articulating enough information to thread each panel together in a coherent manner.

The image being referenced by the "refer to thumbs" note. The triangle with the circle is supposed to be "the Matador" swinging his thing with the Cop acting as the bull. The line made by his body, as he faces away from the previous panel, is supposed to act as the panel border.

I inked that one little portion since it wasn't so clear in the pencils.

Also, my favorite brush pen is dying. Sad. I'm too cheap to buy the Pentel Pocket Brush cartridges and used ink not meant for this stuff. That's what I get. Oh well.

Premier Preview

http://premiercomics.tumblr.com/post/162484051355/premier-comics-fallwinter-mini-preview

They're using my thing for the preview.

Nice.

Been a bit busy, can't post as you can no doubt tell. It's only for a few more days. Posts soon.

Current Status of the Jury-rigged Watercolor Blocks

It looks okay-ish at first aaaaaand theeeeeeeen-

-they're a bit shit upon a closer analysis...

Took a bit of effort to separate the pieces away from each other.

Made a couple booboos with the x-acto knife.

Don't mind the homework and Platinum Preppy Highlighter in the background.

See where I tried, partly in vain, to try and cut away parts of it for easy removal?

I shouldn't have jumped into things all excited, spending a few hours coating the sides of these stacks of paper and pressing down on them while they dried. They're a bit hard to take off, even if you've left a good chunk un-glued and ready for removal from the rest of the block. Imagine what it'd be like to do it with a block that's been coated from all sides. Now add the field conditions that come with urban sketching that aren't there in one's studio, or basement or dirty old room, what have you. RIP.

Guess the next generation are gonna have one side left un-glued. Aw well.

Same palette I talked about before but I made this with a waterbrush than any tradional watercolor brush for painting with this.

Have the sketch I submitted for the Jackson Urban Sketching Competition. As far as I can tell based on the Terms and Conditions I can post the drawing elsewhere without fear of losing my right to participate in the contest. Hopefully...

I drew the underdrawing a few days before I painted over it, both on location and in the space of a couple hours. I may be new to the medium, but I think I may be getting a better handle over painting backgrounds. Some progress, as negligible as it is, is better than none at all!

 

 Also, have a recent watercolor sketch.

 Oh and a map I made for a DnD session for a guy.

Some random crap pt. 2, cont. of the one from yesterday

Some other character sketches for the thing I was talking about the other day.

The prostitute character from the script.

The Matador. I'm playing around with his facial expression.

More of the Matador.

Some random crap

I'm tackling another project. I'm really excited for this one with the shift in style that I'm planning for it. I wanna use more abstract and cartoony designs for the characters while trying my hand at large-scale crosshatching again for the backgrounds. Give it a nice contrast, you know. Kinda like Cerebus, especially when Gerhard took over as background artist while Dave focused on the writing, character drawing, and lettering.

A couple studies. Thank you Google Images.

Using really big, sweeping curves here, gonna try to move away from edges and corners for this one.

Some practice for the backgrounds and observational drawing of arms.

It's mostly in the thumbs stages right now, even then it's still mostly in my head and I have yet to commit it to paper, but I already have a script handed to me and all I need to do is draw it.

I intend to go Chaykin-esque with my layouts. A lot of American Flagg! aping here. That and I wanted to change up the station points of my panels too. Be just as clear but with more esoteric methods of communication of message. In application, think of it like this.

Rather than drawing the main antagonist raising a club to beat the main protagonist with straight. Why not draw suggest the club in the previous pages, devote a good chunk of it a panel or two prior to a certain panel, and in said certain panel, where the antagonist is about to beat the protagonist, just draw the shoulder-chest junction area with the shoulder raised and really exaggerate the cloth folds than focus on the hand and the club itself. I've never been too good with my words so the explanation may not be too clear... bah. You'll see it eventually. 

The after

The before

Apparently, there's a way to transform watercolor sketchbooks into watercolor blocks. I've been itching to try it out with my Grandluxe Sketchpad and a Clairefontaine Paint-On Multi-technique paper, the latter of which I plan to use for drawing comics that involve wet media. If it were dry media, some heavy inking in the big chunks of black aside, I might go with some Hahnemuhle Skizzen Sketch pads. Anyway, all I'd need is a good glue of sorts and a throwaway brush. The glue, made by a company called Redstone who makes cheap Chinese ink and India ink, is cheap too. A little bit less than $2 for 250g. The amount I needed to pay for shipping was more expensive than the actual item itself. Ha. Kinda reminds me of when I bought some fountain pen converters for my Pilot pens off of Amazon. It's always the shipping...

The other method includes glue once again, named Tear Meander, but it's a glue made for fixing shoes and cloth but a watercolorist recommended it and it conforms to ASTM standards so it's gotta be good.

That's all for now.

Premier Deadlines

http://premiercomics.tumblr.com/post/161947535835/premier-comics-submission-premier-comics-is-back

Why not give this a shot, try making a comic.

More on the new comic I'm making

In order to give the comic a more religious vibe, I've decided to study the forms and linework of Eastern Orthodox icons which have a certain ethereal quality to them as well as a distinct artistic style unique to them.

An icon I've culled from the shallow waters of Google Images

The first (crappy) sketch.You can see some of my notes in the picture, it's pertaining to how the facial structure is off compared to the original.

Hatching is annoying. So... maximalist and perfect. It clashes very much with my impressionist influences.

I traced this over another drawing of Orthodox Jesus I made earlier (which I can't post cus I can't find it). Someone pointed out I drew the hair too big and it kinda looked like a turban.

Drew this with my fancy new brush, an Escoda if you can no doubt see. This too I traced from that lost sketch.

Starting by sketching Icon renditions of Jesus Christ feels appropriate before tackling Saul/Paul.

Not aping a painting here. All imagination. I've been reading about how Saul looks like and this is how my interpretation turned out.

I've also been thinking of offering the comic some fussy decorations much like the ones you'd find in illuminated manuscripts and other classical text. In modern times, you can point to Jean Giraud's illustrations/comics and some of Mike Mignola's earlier work for having similar design elements on the pages. 

See the little bumps on the near top of the page? There are better, more obvious examples of this in Arzach but I can't find them online.