Jesse Acosta's Blog

Here comes the Bride

2012-01-30T15:28:00.001-08:00

Not too long ago I sold a portrait of Boris Karloff as Frankenstein's Monster. The buyer was so happy, he commissioned me to match the painting with a Bride of Frankenstein portrait. I'm pretty thrilled about the project, not only am I honored a fan loves my work and commissioned more from me, but I also get to join the bride with her husband. I've wanted to paint the Bride for some time, but lack of sales and business of daily life kind of slows down my productivity. But with this sale, and potential future commissions, I'm back in my groove

A note to those who do commissions. As soon as I started the basic sketch on the canvas, I snapped a photo with my cellphone and emailed the buyer with a note about my progress. I usually do this, but this is the first time a buyer has told me that he "felt a part of the process." I've never thought of it like that before, I just wanted them to know I was on task with their commission. But now that I know that there is a personal touch beyond that with frequent updates, I am even more encouraged to let my customers know what is going on with an email an photo.
So with that, after work tonight I'll be hitting the paint and canvas and sending a new photo update.

Pied Piper of Hamelin

2012-01-17T11:55:00.000-08:00

Sketches of The Pied Piper of Hamelin 1-17-2012

I'm working on a storybook for the Spokane Comicon, and this is my sketch dump so far.
The book will be The Pied Piper of Hamelin, and so far I'm having fun with the Piper. I based his design on several illustrations I found in research, particularly the pattern cloak.
The man in the hat is supposed to be the mayor of Hamelin. I'm having a hard time finding costumes for 13th century German local officials, so I just made a wild stab. A lot of pictures I found had important people in hats, so I made a funny hat, I hope it doesn't look too "Russian." I like the mayor's look, but I'm sure the clothes will change when I find more reference images.

I may draw a couple more officials, then some children, and I'll be ready to illustrate. I've divided the story text into 9 pages. The book will be laid out with text on the left page, and a full page illustration on the right. I also think I might draw rats crawling around the text as well.

Another fun idea I came up with is using a hole puncher to cut out "bites" from the corner of the cover when this is complete.

I'd love some suggestions! If this goes well, I may have to make more pocket storybooks.

A year's worth of reading

2011-12-29T13:09:00.000-08:00

So at the beginning of 2011 I decided to keep track of the books I've read. I've never kept a list before, so it was quite surprising to see how many books I managed to fit in the year. With a total of 27, that amounts to 2.25 books a month, not too shabby. I think towards the end I was reading a little faster than that average, since I was finishing the Dresden Files. Those books consumed me, I think I read the last two books in the series in one week alone!

Here's the list, it's not actually in order of when I read them, I grouped them by author mostly.

F Scott Fitzgerald - Great Gatsby
Cherie Priest - Boneshaker
Cherie Priest - Clementine
Cherie Priest - Dreadnought
HP Lovecraft - Herbert West, Re-Animator
Tim Powers - On Stranger Tides
Sethe Grahame-Smithe - Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Sara Gruen - Water For Elephants
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Summer Knight
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Blood Rites
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Death Masks
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Dead Beat
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Proven Guilty
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - White Knight
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Small Favor
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Turn Coat
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Changes
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Ghost Story
Jim Butcher - Dresden Files - Side Jobs
Fritz Leiber - Swords Against Deviltry
Robert E Howard - The Savage Tales of Solomon Kane
How to Build a Better Blog
Robert E Howard - The Coming of Conan the Cimmerian
HG Wells - The Time Machine
Richard Matheson - Hell House
Richard Matheson - Stir of Echoes
Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come

Now some of these books, I've actually read before. I've read Conan, Solomon Kane, Time Machine, and The Great Gatsby years ago. But like any great movie, a good book is worth reading again as well!
Now that you have an idea of my taste, I'd love to hear some recommendations for my reading list for 2012!

Venom Painting

2011-09-07T00:35:00.000-07:00

Finished this acrylic painting today. It was a commissioned project, and I'm glad to be done after a month. I'm ready to move on to other work. We did 25% up front fee with my rough sketches as a guide, and 75% upon completion. I usually do 50/50, but I knew her, and I only needed enough money up front for a few new paints and a canvas.
Note to new artists doing commissions: Always factor in your need for new tools and equipment on top of your estimated hours of work on the project, multiplied by your worth per hour.

For example: ( Estimated 8 hours of work x $20 per hour rate ) + $20 canvas + $20 new tubes of paint = $200

Acrylic on canvas, 16"x20"

24 Hour Comics Day Challenge!

2011-09-05T18:18:00.000-07:00

It's that time of year again! The 24 Hour Comic Challenge is fast approaching - this international event, now in it's 8th year, will be held October 1st - 2nd, 2011.

The Challenge is simple; you have 24 hours to create a 24 page comic - this means writing, drawing, lettering, all in one 24 hour period. This is the 5th year that the Challenge has been hosted in Spokane, and this time there will be two locations available for local participants.

The Comicsmiths' Guild will be hosting the Challenge, in a location that should be very convenient for those in the Spokane Valley area or coming from across the border in Idaho. You can RSVP at the Facebook event page: 24 Hour Challenge - Spokane Valley

The Valley Challenge will run from 8 am Saturday to 8 am Sunday, and will be held at:
Otis Orchard Community Church (Annex Bldg.)
23304 E Wellesley, Otis Orchards, WA 99027

Guild members will be in attendance, and there will be additional activities for attendees - we'll have updates on activities as more information becomes available. This is a kid-friendly, all-ages, event and all are welcome!

If you'd like to find more information about the Challenge, and 24 Hour Comics in general, please see the official website: 24 Hour Comics Day

Pixel Paintings

2011-08-03T14:56:00.000-07:00

I get a lot of recognition for my pixel paintings. I paint all of these on hard masonite board, it makes the surface a little easier to work with since it's hard and perfectly flat. I use M Graham acrylics for all my paintings, they are very viscous and full of pigment, making strong marks on the board.

They take a lot of effort, I have to rule out squares across the masonite, then start marking out squares from a printed reference sprite image. I need to mix colors to get an proximate match to the original sprite. Then the pixels are painted with fine brushes to keep crisp squares. I take a lot of time and effort into these projects, and that's why I think they stand out from the others who have attempted pixel painting. I've seen people who use poor quality paint, I've seen people not paint with precision, I've seen people who rush the painting. Pixel paintings above all are not jobs that can be rushed, they are too intricate.

So far, I've done five pixel paintings, and I have one in the works. Out of the five complete, I've sold two. The largest painting was the Ryu Street Fighter painting, measuring at 4' x 3'. The smallest have been Boo and the One-Up Mushroom, measuring at 9" x 12". Raccoon Mario is 16"x20" and I enjoy that size best, it makes for just enough size for a decent sized sprite. I usually work with smaller sprites, as you can see from Street Fighter, those characters in that game take up a good 50% of the screen, hence why the masonite had to be so huge.

Boo, Raccoon Mario, and Thwomp are still available for sale on my Etsy shop, and I'm willing to do commissions of all kinds, from pixel paintings, to my standard style.

For Sale - 16"x20" - $75

Sold - 9"x12"

For Sale - 16"x20" - $75

For Sale - 9"x12" - $35

Sold - 4'x3'

I dare you to check Etsy, and see if you can find someone with comparable pixel painting work. I doubt anyone takes the time in their paintings like I do, I doubt they are as meticulous, and I'm sure the paint isn't as vibrant.

Working on an anthology

2011-07-31T16:37:00.000-07:00

My colleagues at The Comicsmiths' Guild and I are hard at work putting together our second anthology. This year we are going with a Halloween theme! I'm super excited, I'll be doing a six page tale starring El Gran Búho. I haven't spoken much about him, mainly because I haven't had time to work on a project yet. But this anthology entry is a perfect introduction to the character!

Head shots

Early concept art

Page from a potentially upcoming mini comic

El Gran Búho(The Great Owl) is a world renowned Mexican luchador (mask wearing wrestler), who also moonlights as a monster hunting defender of justice by night. If you've ever seen classic lucha films, you'll get an idea of where this guy's inspiration comes from. If you haven't seen these films, imagine an old Universal or Hammer horror picture, starring a masked Mexican wrestler as the hero, and then add a bit of the colorful nature and silliness of the 60s Batman tv series, with just a dash of a Godzilla movie essence.

The hero is much like Santo or Blue Demon in nature, he has a strict moral code, and uses his fantastic wrestling skills to battle the forces of darkness. He never removes his mask either. I'm actually excited to do some playing with that concept, it was one of the more entertaining notions of the old lucha films. Santo would go to sleep with the mask on, eat with it on, brush his teeth, swim, etc. There would also be sequences where he would remove the mask, to reveal another mask underneath.

I'm two pages in on this six pager, due by the third week of August. If things go my way (which generally doesn't happen), I plan to be done with three pages by the 6th of August.

Mumm-ra Sketch

2011-06-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

Decided to post some sketchbook stuff. Drew Mumm-ra today! 5"x7" bristol, pens, brush pens, and pencil.

Spokane ComiCon 2011

2011-05-24T22:15:00.000-07:00

So Saturday May 21st, instead of being raptured away, I ended up wheeling and dealing my comics and art at the Spokane ComiCon at Spokane Community College. There were 1,300 attendees this year, a really great turn out! I sold a ton of prints, sketch cards, and original art. I was pretty happy overall! Next year I'll be running a bar from the poles, instead of cord. I didn't like how low the cord hung, it made it slightly hard to talk to tall attendees. I'm also planning on building a wall behind to hang paintings and a banner.

Here's my small collection of photos, I'll be posting more when I get a chance to steal some from others :) I didn't have much of a chance to photograph, as I was glued to my table.

This was a better pose, but we forgot flash!

This is me (left), and my buddy Amanda Robinson to the right.

My girlfriend, Veronica, to the left.

Lantern Corp!

I think I'm drawing Jasmin here

These are my buddies at The Comic Smith's Guild. I'm a member, but I sat across.

Lars Brown, of North World, sitting to the west...

Pink Lord Vader

My favorite costumes of the day, Blue Beetle and Booster Gold!

A very sweaty Beast, Mystique, and Dark Phoenix

Tuskin Raider

Apparently a team of DeLoreans were needed to stop the Rapture

My best friend, Aaron, decided to show up at the end!

Butt Hurt Space Marine. He loaned the suit to the
owner of Merlyn's Comics and Games, then was super butt-hurt
over the owner getting attention.

Why do we wonder about Wonder Woman? Because we think she is a Wonder Man...

The Gotham Sirens

Harleyquin!

Matt Nelson of the Comic Smiths' Guild

Rogue!

Scarecrow, apparently throwing gang signs he learned in prison.

Spokane Ghostbusters

Is that Princes Leia underneath?

I did a doodle of Bruce Lee, munny style!

I also did a munny style Iron Fist

Jasmin, my favorite of the Disney princesses.

Your Brain on Latino Comics

2011-05-18T22:42:00.000-07:00

So, recently I found out about two things:

1) Your Brain on Latino Comics by Frederick Luis Aldama
2) Latino Comics Expo 2011 in San Francisco, CA May 7th-8th

Your Brain on Latino Comics has sort of became my new little bible. It's packed full of info regarding traditional comics and comic strips regarding the Latino community. It's so funny to be flipping through this book as well, and to have spoken to so many of these creators online. I'm in love with this book, and I think it's well worth checking out!

341 pages! ISBN: 978-0-292-71973-6

Then we have the Latino Comics Expo. This happened over Mothers' Day weekend. Sadly I don't live near SF, so I wasn't able to attend. But now that it is on my radar (This was actually the first year for the event), I will have to keep it in mind for the future. So many people attending that I'd love to meet, it really sounded like the place to be for me. Not sure if they are giving out booths like a typical con, but it's also something I'd like to get involved with too.

Speaking of cons, I'll be at the Spokane ComiCon 2011, which will start at 10am at Spokane Falls Community College. I've been getting everything ready. This will be my third year at this convention, and each year my booth gets more elaborate, and I get just a little more prepared. I hope to see some of you this Saturday!

Preparing for Spokane ComiCon

2011-05-18T16:52:00.000-07:00

So today I'm packing whatever I can in some tubs, and double checking everything for the con. It's a real stress, but it's also so much fun. I'm pretty proud this year because I'll have a really nice display for my art, I'll have my ipad for art references, plus I'll be using my iPad with the Square App to accept major credit cards. This will probably be the most professional my booth will look yet!

I'm also beating myself up over not finishing The Heidegger Experiment mini comic. I'll just have to suck it up and finish that and more next time. Every year I'm learning more, and expanding more. It's really great.

One last note, I also made sure to pack something I think every artist with a booth should have: a dispenser of hand sanitizer. Have it available for attendees, and use it yourself. I shake a lot of people's hands, touch people's belongings, they touch my stuff, etc.

Yo Gabba Gabba print designs

2011-05-18T12:31:00.000-07:00

I just finished these up to display at the Spokane ComiCon this Saturday. I'm pretty stoked about them, they were fun to make!

My girlfriend's nephew loves this show, and it's not hard to see why. It's creative, it's silly, it makes you laugh and dance. I'm glad not everything for kids these days is either junk flash style animations or Sponge Bob.

Kettle Brand TIAS

2011-05-17T10:59:00.000-07:00

I just saw at my local Yokes Fresh Market that there is a new brand of Kettle chips called Tias:

I'm curious, are these chips made from real or artificial tías? Where are they getting their tías? It looks like their headquarters are located in Salem, Oregon; perhaps I should check Salem local papers for an unusually high report of missing tías?

All joking aside, I really think their marketing and branding team dropped the ball on this one. Nobody who speaks Spanish wants to eat an aunt flavored chip...

Frankenstein's Monster

2011-03-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

Just finished this Frankenstein painting. 18"x24" acrylic on canvas.

It's also for sale on Etsy: http://etsy.me/fJU00T Stay tuned for a Bride of Frankenstein!

CSG Anthology reviewed

2011-03-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Nicole Sixx of Comicbooked.com gives the ComicSmiths' Guild Anthology a review! Check out the writeup and the video!

http://ow.ly/4hIWS

Two Color Stencil Design

2011-03-14T10:43:00.000-07:00

Did a two color stencil design tutorial at deviantArt last week. Here's the link:
http://fav.me/d3bdhiu

I hope this helps some people out, it's a simple and effective way to make your own shirts with cheap products so you don't have to invest much into one or two designs.

Sorry I haven't been updating as much as I should. I've been posting work at my deviantArt account, just not as regularly here. I also still need to revamp my website, it's annoying.

Pages for iPad

2011-01-19T22:35:00.001-08:00

So, I'm glad I bought a word processing app for my iPad. Unfortunately I've run into problems. I'm trying to write some papers in Spanish, and even though I switched virtual keyboards to Spanish, it seems Pages has it's own dictionary. My entire page is in red, and it continually tries to auto correct words. It's a headache. Does anyone know how to change languages in Pages? Any help would be great!

iPad Sketcbook Pro tutorial coming soon!

2011-01-14T11:16:00.000-08:00

So yesterday I broke down and bought a webcam off eBay. I've decided to make a tutorial of what I can do, maybe it will help others out. I'll be posting here and on twitter, so check for it in a week.

Okay, and as far as illustrations, I swear things just snowball with me. Ultron went from a simple sketch, and now I have redrawn it as a vector and now I'm coloring it... Crazy. Here's a side by side:

To the left is the original illustration, colored in Sketchbook Pro on iPad, and the right is the vector illustration thus far. Only flats here, but I'm already 30% done shading Ultron. I'll probably be done tonight and share once again.

More on Stylus, iPad, and Sketchbook Pro

2011-01-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

So, has anyone else used the iPad for making art? I am, and I'm having a great time.

I've been using Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for my iPad, and it's really great. A lot like Photoshop, with layers, brushes, smear, plus you can do mirror drawing where it reverses everything you draw onto the opposite side of the canvas. This is really great for making front facing faces with ease.
The only features I am really wanting to see are layer masks and magic wand. Yesterday, when I was coloring an illustration, I had to color all my flats, then go back with an eraser to keep everything within the lines. A little bit of a pain, but it's really easy to clean up with a precise stylus and a lot of zooming in and out.
I am also using an iFaraday stylus, the tip is very soft so you can glide the stylus across the screen without sudden stops like many rubber tipped styli. I just saw that iFaraday now has an artist pack of styli that have different shaped tips. I might buy this in the future. From a review I saw on Youtube, the iFaraday stylus is much more precise than the Pogo stylus.

I've also tried Adobe Ideas. It's very cool because it turns all your marks into smooth vector strokes. Unfortunately, Adobe wants you to pay $4.99 for multiple layers on your project. No thanks!

I've also heard of Brushes, which is supposed to be really great, but I haven't bought the app yet.

At the college, I printed off some of the Sketchbook Pro manual for reference. This is really great, because most of my knowledge was learned via a short Youtube tutorial. I highly recommend checking out the manual, there are so many things I'm learning in it that I didn't quite know how to use.

Currently, I wish Autodesk Sketchbook Pro had two features: magic wand and layer masks. I would like to isolate a selection, then color within that, but without a magic wand or layer mask, that makes it a bit of work.

I'm still uncomfortable "sketching" on the iPad. I'm unsure why, maybe I just like the feel of pencils and pens in my hand. Maybe it's something I just have to train myself with. I'd like to draw right on it, then color like this guy on Youtube. For my last project, the Ultron:

This was originally a hand drawn illustration that I penciled, inked, then scanned onto my computer. From there I imported it into Sketchbook Pro and started coloring.

Ultron colored in Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on iPad

2011-01-12T23:52:00.000-08:00

This is my first attempt at doing anything real on my new iPad. I colored this during my breaks at work today, about 40 minutes worth of work. I drew this Ultron sketch yesterday and scanned it in, then uploaded it to iPad where I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro on the iPad to color.

I used an iFaraday stylus to draw with, I find it more accurate than my fingers. I heard in a Youtube video about Sketchbook Pro that the iFaraday is much better than other stylus that works for iPad. Autodesk Sketchbook pro is essentially a super light Photoshop. I can do layers with minimal blending modes, and several different kinds of brushes.

When I did this, it was originally just to play around with. I uploaded a low-res image of Ultron, and when I started getting into it, I was too involved to stop. I wanted to redraw him with better line art and on a higher resolution, but oh well. Next time I'll have to try working with a 150 or 300 dpi illustration and see how it handles it.

Is anyone else drawing on their iPad on DeviantArt? I haven't really sought it out yet, I hope so, I'm just going by my intuition from previous use with other graphics programs, so I'm kind of guessing how to do things. Maybe I should read a manual too, but that's the irrational man in me lol.

Does anyone want a tutorial in Sketchbook Pro for iPad? Does anyone think there is a better app than this for digitally illustrating on the iPad?

Still alive :)

2011-01-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

Hey there! I'm still alive! It's been a busy winter, and I've got a lot going on!

First, let's pimp The Comic Smiths' Guild Anthology!

I've been madly at work since this summer, putting together this 40 page anthology with the Comic Smiths' Guild. Basically I was editor-in-chief on the project, plus I'm the third story in. It's a tale from Solar Flares. Click the comic to head to Indy Planet, and buy a copy, only $2.99! That's a deal compared to current 22-paged comics on the comic racks that cost $4!

and now, how about a sketch?

It's my interpretation of Ultron if he were in the Megaman Universe!

Okay, how about some more news? I might be attending RadCon in the Tri-Cities, Washington. Two hours away from my home, Spokane, WA. It will be February 18th-20th. I'm hoping to do some meet-n-greets and spread the word on the guild, as well as sell some paintings. Speaking of that, I sold the Super Mario 1-Up painting on Etsy!

Lastly, I got an iPad for Christmas! It's pretty slick, and I'm hoping to get some productivity out of it. I have Photoshop Express, and AutoDesk Sketchbook Pro for it right now, and I'm thinking about checking out Brushes. I'm also on the market for a word processing/Power Point app, not sure what to get yet. Currently, the majority of my iPad usage has been email, internet, and games... LOTS of games... specifically Nova 2. If you don't know it, it's essentially a really amazing Halo clone for iPad. Since I'm in college, I really would like to use this for school purposes as well. I've been toying with the idea of making a "How I use my iPad" blog, where I talk about what I want to do with the iPad, what software I've tried, accessories I like, and how I use them. For those who have interests similar to me, this might be a good resource. My major interests in conjunction with the iPad will be movies, Spanish, art, comics, word processing, college, and a little gaming.

Well, that's about it, I'll be updating more frequently, I promise.

Nanographicmo

2010-10-17T21:36:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share this, this sounds like a more "at your convenience" 24 hour comic day. Instead, it's over a month's time. You have to at least pace yourself 2 pages a day. I might consider doing this, since I let 24hr Comics Day slip out of my hands.

nanographicmo:

The idea for Nanographicmo is modeled on the nanowrimo.

The Nanographicmo starts November the 1st and ends at 12 am November the 30th.

The goal: to finish a black and white, 48 page graphic novel with cover.

The contents: original works; characters, story (because watchmen and mensch have...

original link: http://nanographicmo.tumblr.com/post/1339095334/nanographicmo

24 Hour Comic Day is here!!

2010-10-02T08:13:00.001-07:00

24 Hour Comics Day Challenge is here. In Spokane, WA I will be participating with many other artists, including the Comic Smiths' Guild, drawing comics 24 hours straight! Can't wait to see you all there! Good luck everyone!

Terrain Art Show Friday October 1st 2010

2010-09-26T21:19:00.000-07:00

I will be have a painting in the Terrain Art Show this coming Friday, Oct 1st, 2010. The show will be from 5:00pm - 1:30am at the Music City Building, 1011 W 1st Ave in Spokane, Washington.

I hope to see you there!

Weekly Sketches - The Shadow

2010-09-26T21:14:00.001-07:00

The Comic Smiths' Guild has decided to do weekly character sketches, similar to that of ComicTwart. Last week we chose The Shadow. Here's my submission!

Here's a link back to my deviantArt page as well: http://nomadikk.deviantart.com/

It took me the whole week to finally draw a decent illustration of The Shadow. I couldn't get it right until my lunch break today at work! I like how the final result came out.

I can't wait to see what the other members have done with The Shadow. This was my choice last week, he's one of my top super heroes. I'm very curious to see what next week's character will be too!
-Jesse

Thwomp Acrylic Painting complete

2010-09-24T22:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a better scan of my finished Thwomp acrylic painting. 16"x20" acrylic on masonite.

It's available for sale, $200, if anyone is interested. Just email me, or leave a comment. I have a few more paintings in the works: A 1-Up mushroom, Dry bones (koopa turtle skeleton), and a goomba!

Thundarr, Pirates of Dark Water, more!

2010-09-24T00:02:00.000-07:00

Looks like WB is going through their vault and releasing various "WB Archive" order-on-demand dvds from their wbshop site. Pirates of Dark Water came out a couple weeks ago, and Thundarr The Barbarian comes out Sept 28th. Others being released include Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space.

I'm pretty stoked, I already have Pirates of Dark Water and will be ordering Thundarr next month. A few sad things about these WB Archive releases: 1) They are DVDR, not pressed dics. Older dvd players have trouble with DVDR discs. 2nd, there are no extras, remastered material, commentary, etc. The dvds are barebones and the menu that pops up is a generic "WB Archives" menu that asks if you wish to watch all the episodes or episode selection.

While I would have gladly waited another year, and an extra $10 to cover the costs of making these dvd sets more glamorous, I'm still very happy that they are available finally. Also slightly sad to watch all of the Pirates of Dark Water, only to get to episode 22 and the abrupt ending due to the cancellation during it's original air date. I remember being upset as a kid because it was quite a bit better story than other shows at the time. Unlike other tv shows from my youth like Masters of the Universe and Thundercats, Pirates actually holds up really well when watching it as an adult.

Thwomp Acrylic Painting

2010-08-29T20:03:00.001-07:00

Since people love my pixel paintings, I've started on Thwomp from Super Mario Bros. 3. First phase is drawing .5" squares, it sucks to keep straight. Then I pencil in the black pixels to use for reference:

Next on to the painting process. By the way, my Super Mario 3 painting is still for sale on ebay, only around 2 days left! http://item.ebay.com/190434587124

Super Mario Acrylic Painting 16" x 20" !!!

2010-08-27T11:15:00.001-07:00

You know you want to buy this beautiful painting: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190434587124

I'm cleaning out my closet full of paintings. I'll miss this one, it's a favorite. I'm also working on some new ones, Link and Thwomp (That big block with spikes that tries to fall on mario), a flying koopa turtle, and maybe more. Stay tuned!

Post Con info, and Mario Painting for Sale!

2010-05-25T13:05:00.000-07:00

First, I just want to say that the Super Mario painting is now for sale on Etsy: [link] I'm also accepting pixel painting commissions, just e-mail me for details:

Now onto the con info. I just want to say I had a whole lot of fun. I made way more this year at Spokane ComiCon than last year, mainly because the con has grown so much. It keeps getting better and better thanks to Nate OBrien!
I shared two tables with Peter Foglesong and Matt Nelson, two amazing artists! Big shout out! As usual, we were a great teamup. I was so busy doing sketches and making sales that I couldn't leave the booth very often to mingle. So anyone out there from the con whom I didn't get to chat with, drop me a line! I'd love to make some new con buddies. I had so many sketches going on that I had a waiting list of sketches, and if it became too much then I'd forward them to Peter or Matt, and vice-versa.

Here are some photos to share, some taken by me, my girlfriend, and the rest I stole from Nate's wife's facebook lol. She took great photos, I just had to share a few!

Matt at the table, in charge of the adult scissors

Me, looking thrilled as always

Matt is a master of the unusual facial expressions

Me, drawing away

Matt and I, we likes the draws...

I like how all of us are drawing, and at a tilt. If you notice, I'm tilting opposite, due to my sinister talents at drawing with the left hand.

Setting up the main lobby

Standing in line

More line action

A Nine creature and Poison Ivy

Wolverine, I didn't know your muscles were inflatable!

No-Face was by far my favorite costume! Way to go Rebecca! The mouth was usually closed, and it appeared as though it didn't have a mouth at all. She would offer "gold bars" (chocolate) like in the movie Spirited Away, and when you reached for the candy she would draw the mouth open. It was great!

In a galaxy not too far away...

Lars Brown, creator of North World, peddling his wares

Our tables! 16' of art awesomeness!

Annie Absalonson and Zephan Osiris, making awesome art!

Friends and foes of the force!

Darth and son

Trooper in training

You don't see this very often!

Baby Storm! So cute!

Umm.. Iron Ma'am, you have your head on upside down!

The crew that put the con together, great job guys!

Free Comic Book Day!

2010-04-29T12:11:00.001-07:00

The Comicsmiths' Guild will be on hand at local comic book stores this Saturday and Sunday to do free sketches for kids, as part of this year's Free Comic Book Day weekend.

On Saturday members will be at Lightning Comics in Coeur d'Alene, ID from 10:30 to 3, as well as Merlyns(This is where I'll be, stop by and say hi!) in Spokane from Noon to 4. The Guild will also be back at Merlyns on Sunday at the the same time.

Free Comic Book Day is a single day - the first Saturday in May each year - when participating comic book shops across North America and around the world give away comic books absolutely FREE to anyone who comes into their stores. So drop by a local comic shop this Saturday, see what's happening in the world of comics and pick up some free books!

Many comic shops organize events, such as in-store creator signings or contests, to coincide with FCBD. So wherever you're at, be sure to check with your local shop and see what's happening. And if you're in the Spokane/CdA area, drop by and meet the Guild!

Merlyns Comics and Games
19 W MAIN, SPOKANE, WA, 99201
(509)624-0957

Lightning Comics
411 W Haycraft Ave # C1
Coeur D Alene, ID 83815
(208) 667-2400

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2010-04-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

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Return from Emerald City ComiCon 2010

2010-03-19T09:57:00.000-07:00

Finally catching up on the sleep I've missed during the con, but had to jump right back into my Logic class. Final is Monday, it was a little intense to miss a day of school for me, I'm pretty good at showing up every day.

Let's start off with the commissions I sold at Emerald City ComiCon 2010.
Michelangelo Sketch Card
Bumblebee Sketch Card
Raven Sketch Card
Starfire Sketch Card
Gaara Sketch Card
Tara Sketch Card
Robin Sketch Card
Robin Print
Flash Commission
Blue Beetle Sketch Card
Molly(from Runaways) vs Spock Commission
Rogue Sketch Card
Invisible Girl Commission
Robin Sketch Card
Starfire Sketch Card
Cyborg Sketch Card
Larry Commission

Not bad. Typing all that out kind of shocks me how many strangers have received a sketch card from me! It's a pretty cool notion that so many people enjoyed my work. I actually had a few people who thought I worked on Teen Titans. When I explained that I'm merely a fan, they said I should work for Cartoon Network because my work is so on-model That made my day.

Okay, so to counter all the money I made, here's a list of all the stuff I bought:

Francavilla Commission of Zorro (My Holy Grail of ECCC)
Sketch card from Pia Guerra
Sketch card from Mike Norton
Sketch card from Corey Lewis
Sketch card from Scott Kurtz

Tomb of Dracula issue 50 (fighting Silver Surfer)
Thor issue 152
Magnus Robot Fighter #42
Magnus Robot Fighter #14
Werewolf by Night Issue 15 (fighting Dracula)
Thor issue 221 (vs Hercules)
PVP #3
PVP #4
PVP #5

I also bought a bunch of Zorro and Blue Beetle comics for .20 each! Then I had Mike Norton and Francesco Francavilla sign them. Sunday is such a great sales day, the vendors are pushing to sell everything so they don't have to haul as much back home. I actually didn't know Norton was there, or else I would have brought issues from home. But I was able to find three copies of my favorite issue (#26, Spanish language edition), so it worked out. Also, Scott Kurtz gave me his three PVP books because he didn't want to ship it home. When I approached him to draw a character on a sketch card, he was really intrigued by the idea. He hadn't seen them before, so I gave him a pack of Canson sketch cards. He was thrilled, it was the least I could do for getting a free sketch and three free books.

At the con, I just met so many people. It was so great to people that I'm a fan of and tell them how much I appreciate their work. So many people enjoyed my work, and made some new friends. It was great all around. If I ran into you at the con, let me know, I'd love to chat it up!

Oh last note, I was interviewed by Seattle-Geekly! The interview is on Episode 54, check it out. Also add them to your iTunes, they are a really from podcast! I'm an instant fan now!

Now let's see the photos!

Mini Comic Coming Soon! Also, comics ive bought in the last weeks

2010-02-18T11:15:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the lapse in keeping updates. I've been busy with work, school, and life. It is the usually dance I deal with, and it has been hectic. But between all that, I am finishing up on a mini comic that will be ready for Emerald City Comic Con. I'll be there, if you are attending, find me and my Comic Smiths' Guild friends in the Artist Alley!

So, the comic I have underway is called Torero Intergalático, it is all about Bull Fighting in SPACE! Yes, that is correct. It is wild, fun, and everything everybody in the comic world has been longing for. Okay, I kid, but it will be fun to share with enthusiasts at ECCC.

Besides that, I've been doing a lot of comic reading. Right now I am really enjoying Day Tripper, published by Vertigo, created by Gabriel Ba and Fabio Moon. It is really amazing, and I am really inspired by these two amazing Brazilian artists/comic creators! The story is really great so far. I'll make my stab at what is happening in the comic. I think the end scene in every issue is what could have potentially happened to the main character of the story, and it is trying to convey that life happens everyday and one must make the best of it because you don't know what the future holds. Really great stuff. I heard some people say the writing is off, as though it is their English Second Language coming through in the writing. I didn't notice anything myself, but I know many people who speak English as a second language, so I might be used to it. Also, I read a lot of translations, so that might be another factor. Final statement: Buy this comic, it is currently on issue 3 of 10. Check it out!

Besides that, I also received my tax refund. Most went to bills, and for upcoming trip to Seattle for ECC and prints/comics to sell at the table. But I had some extra to splurge on comics, so here is what I bought:

Umbrella Academy #2: Dallas
Atomic Robo #2
Dynamo 5 #1: Post Nuclear Family
Dynamo 5 #2: Moments of Truth
Black Coat: Call To Arms
White Picket Fences
Gunwitch Outskirts of Doom
Jason and the Argobots #1 Birthquake

I'm pretty stoked! All these I have been longing to read, and now I will have them. I ordered from instocktrades.com I try buying all my trades and ogns from them because they offer a great discounted rate, as well as free shipping on $50 or more purchases. I save a heck of a lot of money. I still hit up my local comic shop for all my single issues though.

Speaking of local comic shop, let me see if I can name everything on my pull list:
Daytripper
Kill Audio
Thor
Zorro
Orc Stain

I think that is it, kind of wimpy, I know! But I'm not a huge fan of the big two right now. I actually just picked up a few issues of Amazing Spider-man, I'll try dipping back into that. Spidey has been an alltime favorite, I'm hoping I like the direction he is going. I might have to try the Marvel Adventure line of stuff too, it sounds fun and light.

Well, that's about it for now. I'll be updating my site soon, with new art and my Torero Intergalático comic. Chau!

24 Hour Comic Day

2009-10-03T00:35:00.000-07:00

Today at 10a,m I will be participating in 24hr Comic Day. For those that don't know, its an event held all over the world in different locations (Spokane, Washington location is at Merlyns on W Main). Every artist involved will attempt to draw one 24 page comic in 24 hours. Its pretty daunting considering that most comic pages are drawn in an 8 hour period.
I'm packing up my goods tonight. Not only do I need my art supplies and paper, but also references, mp3 player, movies, and also lots of food. It will be fun.

BTW, random story: I went to the store to buy some Jarritos and some freshly made churros. While driving home, a highschool idiot runs out into the middle of the road and I step on the brakes. Jarritos go flying, shatter, and ruin my churros in the process. Next time I'm just running over the kid, we need less idiots and more churros in this world.

Final Note: 24hr Comic Book Challenge! Asi que ya lo saben, la cita es esta 3 de Octubre a las 10 am y no paramos hasta el 4 de Octubre a las 10 am (Merlyns W 19 Main, Spokane). Estan listos para el reto?

Spokane Street Fair!

2009-09-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Members of the Spokane Comicsmiths' Guild will be at Merlyn's tomorrow (Saturday the 12th) after 3pm as part of the Sustainable September Main Street Fair!

We'll be drawing free sketches for kids between 4-6 and taking sketch commissions for others. There should also be a variety of prints and original artwork for sale as well. If you're a Spokane local, swing by and say Hi, meet the Guild and pick up some art!

In addition to the Guild, Merlyn's will also be host to local members of the 501st Legion from 2-4pm. Get photos of yourself with stormtroopers and more of the Galactic Empire's finest!

The Street Fair will also feature live music, entertainment, sustainability info, kids activities, bike tune-ups, food and fun! In the street - 0 block of West Main, 3-8pm.

The Paradox of Our Age - An Interesting Poem

2009-09-07T23:28:00.000-07:00

I read this over the weekend, and thought I'd share:

The Paradox of Our Age by The 14th Dalai Lama

We have bigger houses but smaller families;

More conveniences, but less time;

We have more degrees, but less sense;

More knowledge, but less judgment;

More experts, but more problems;

More medicines, but less healthiness;

We've been all the way to the moon and back,

but have trouble crossing the street to meet the new neighbour.

We build more computers to hold more information to produce more copies than ever but have less communication.

We have become long on quantity, but short on quality.

These are times of fast foods but slow digestion;

Tall men but short character;

Steep profits but shallow relationships.

It's a time when there is much in the window, but nothing in the room.

Sick Blog

2009-08-26T15:03:00.000-07:00

So I've been sick for the last few days. Horrible allergies, then a cold, and now I believe its turned into a sinus infection. I keep drinking juice, gatorade, and hot tea to keep myself hydrated. Its not fun. Yesterday I slept almost the entire time. As soon as I'm done writing this, its back to bed again. I hate sinus pressure!!!

Anyway, I've been unable to draw the last few weeks. Perhaps its due to the oncoming sickness. But I can't draw anything worthwhile, all the poses and gestures look stiff and ridiculous. Right now, I'm just drawing quick gestures in a cheap sketch book, hoping to break this funk.

Well, back to bed. I'll probably take a shower first. Steam is a big help. BTW, I've been reading Arturo Perez-Reverte's Capitan Alatriste. Its quite good! It reminds me of Isabel Allende's Zorro and Alexandre Dumas' Count of Monte Cristo.

Back to the dungeon...

Daily Sketches 7/27/09

2009-07-28T13:32:00.000-07:00

Trying to keep up with my daily sketches, I scanned these in this morning. Random doodles while watching tv:

I have a fairy tale that maybe I'd like to illustrate, its very hard to draw several different looking wizards. I think I may have to dress them in different cultural clothing, maybe make one rotund, another spindly thin, etc.

A robot. I don't like the hand, but the rest is okay. I'm not big on drawing robots, mainly because I'm not good at coming up with gears and mechanism stuff to get it to look robotic.

I'm thinking of drawing a whole bunch during the week, then on the weekend scanning a once a week post with all the daily sketches for the week. It might be easier for me to do than just drawing, scanning, updating the blog, etc.

Daily Sketch

2009-07-26T19:13:00.000-07:00

I am alive an well, those of you who are my friends on Myspace, Facebook, and the real world know this. I just don't scan much, I'm working on some stuff and I'd prefer to post the final product.

Here's a sketch though, did last week while watching Avatar The Last Airbender:

It took about 5 tries to actually get a decent sketch of my favorite hero, Zorro. Copic brush pens and Faber-Castell multiliners.

I should be updating soon, I'm working on a couple paintings and a comic, so more artwork is in the works. I'll try to keep my daily sketch more regular as well.

Light at the end of the tunnel

2009-06-14T14:55:00.000-07:00

I just finished my final project for my Anthropology class! Woo hoo! I just turned it in, its a Virtual Museum starring the Codex Borgia as its major exhibit. If you're interested in Aztec Culture, check it out:
http://www.jesseacosta.net/aztec
It was a rush design job, which is why it isn't super fancy at all. But I think it works well enough for delivery purposes.

All I have left now is a final exam for the class, and an impromptu speech in my Communications class. I can see the light, and I'm almost there. I can't wait to get back to my art and projects without having homework and other things piling up on me.

As a side note, I'll be on the radio tomorrow (Monday June 16th) at 10:00am on 92.3fm. I did a project for my Communications course on Immigration, and during the project I had to contact several people to interview. One of these people happened to be Olgalucia, the host of Latitud, the only Spanish speaking radio program in Spokane, WA. Well, she wants me to present what I found out on the air. I'm pretty scared, but excited at the same time.
I'm also planning on doing some flyers, web design, and some other stuff for her program as well as a few other radio programs on KYRS 92.3fm. I'm trying to pick up some volunteer work so I have some interesting stuff to write about when I apply for Eastern Washington University. I only have a couple quarters left at the Falls, and I can transfer over.

Alright, so I'm going to kick back for a few. It feels good to finally finish my exhibit project.

Spokane ComiCon TODAY!!

2009-05-30T02:16:00.000-07:00

Everyone needs to head to the Spokane ComiCon at Spokane Falls Community College today and attend. It starts at 10am, and there are prizes for first attendees, costume contests, auctions, all sorts of goodies. I'll be there selling my paintings, comics, sketches, and more.

Come by and say hi!!!

For more info: http://www.spokanecomicon.com/

Spokane ComiCon, Free Comic Day, More Work, Sketchbook!

2009-05-19T22:54:00.000-07:00

I'm compiling some entries from my deviantArt page here, so here goes:

Everything is going to plan for the Spokane ComiCon. I have 100 (yes that's right, 100) sketchbooks made up for the event. Here's the cover:

I'm expecting to have a lot of extras, I know I'll be handing them out to friends and family, as well as selling extras here and there. I'll also have Solar Flares 24Hour comic available as well, both in Spanish and English. If anyone wants either book after May 30th, you can email me or post here. I'll let you know the details.

I'm planning on having a couple portfolios of my art on display, some 6"x6" sketches on display to entice people to buy $5.00 small sketches. I'm also thinking of doing a $5.00 deal for a book and a sketch inside the book. I'll also have a mini easel on the table displaying some smaller paintings, and a big easel behind displaying my big pieces. I'll be rotating pieces throughout the day.

I'm also going to sift through my work to see if there are any pages worth making prints of.
I hope to see lots of people, stop by and say hi!

During Free Comic Book Day, our group ran into some issues with references when drawing sketches for the kids. Fortunately we were in a gaming/comic shop, so there were some references to be found. But in light of this, I decided to run out to the store and pic up a 2gb microSD card for my phone. Its soul purpose is to be filled with reference images of super heroes, video game characters, manga, movies, tv, whatever. With this, I can thumb through and have references on demand!

But here's the tricky part, what are some of the most beloved characters that I should put on the card?

If you have the time, give me a top ten of your favorite all time characters. With a decent list, I have a direction for character choices. Thanks!

Lastly, I wanted to share a colored piece I just finished (or think I finished, I'm debating on some minor things):

I'm thinking of maybe turning the mountain lineart into color just to give a depth feeling. I'm also thinking of changing the lineart of the etching on the rock into a darker grey instead of the black lines to make it less prominent. Lastly, thinking of changing some of the detail lineart on the tree into a darker brown for a similar reason as the rock. If you have any opinions, let me know!

Free Comic Book Day - Free Sketches for Kiddies

2009-05-03T18:03:00.000-07:00

So this year we set up a table at the local shop Merlyns for Free Comic Book Day, and made free sketches for the kiddies! We were there from 11 - 2 I believe. It was so much fun. It really pushed me outside the box to draw stuff I'm not used to drawing. I was actually in shock because all the kids either wanted Star Wars or Halo (Master Chief) sketches. Only a couple comic book characters!

I made a list of all that I drew for the event,

Darth Maul, Darth Vader, Master Chief, Yoda, Bobba Fett, Clone Trooper, Mario, Wolverine, Flash, and Harley Quinn. I may have been missing one or two from this list, we all did a couple repeat characters. Master Chief, Bobba(or Janga) Fett, and Yoda were real popular. The guys in suits look a lot alike as well, its was getting tedious. At one point I couldnt remember who I was drawing for a minute! It was a clone trooper, I had to look at the helmet!

My favorite one was probably Mario because the girl was interested in my art supplies, its really cool that others are interested in drawing too. I also drew Mario from memory, which was scary! I know what he looks like, but it would have been nice for a reference just in case.

Here are some of the other fellow artists who made FCBD at Merlyns a success with free kids sketches:

One of my sketches from the event:

Origami Ninja Stars, Free Sketches for the kiddies, Comic Convention, MORE!!!

2009-04-30T11:09:00.000-07:00

I haven't been posting very frequently, I've been busy with school, work, and trying to get enough art ready for the Comic Convention. I'll be selling a sketchbook of work there. Its May 30th, at Spokane Falls Community College. For more information on the Spokane ComiCon, head here: http://www.spokanecomicon.com/

This Saturday, I will be at Merlyn's (19 W Main, Spokane, WA, 99201, 509-624-0957 ) from 11 - 3pm or so, drawing sketches for the children for Free Comic Book Day. For more info about Merlyn's, head here: http://www.merlyns.biz/ For more info on Free Comic Book Day, head here: http://www.freecomicbookday.com/

Last bit of news, In my Communications course at the college, I have to instruct the class on how to do something. I choose origami shurikens, about the only origami I still remember from Elementary school. I used to make these all day long in class, then during recess I would chuck them at kids.

I made a quick visual aid poster to help students while I instruct. Here's the poster:

Little Red, sleeping away

2009-04-03T16:41:00.001-07:00

Here is where I was a few days ago with that tree problem:

and here it is today:

I just printed it(non photo blue) onto bristol board, and I'll be inking within the next couple days. Any thoughts before I hit it with the inks?

Robin Comic Page

2009-03-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

Its been a while since I've updated. Last week of school was hectic, work has been keeping me too busy, hanging out with new and old friends, and I've been constantly working on art.

Finally, after a month, I was able to finish this with my friend

He wanted to ink something of mine, so I did a quick mockup page of a Robin story I made up. This is the first collab project I have ever done, it was a lot of fun. It was liberating to give my pencils over to a friend whom I trust. It was also refreshing to see what he did with my pencils!

In other art related news, I'm not sure if I will be able to get my Little Red Riding Hood comic done by the comic convention, but I will definitely have pages to show in my portfolio from it, as well as some pages in my sketchbook that I will be selling. Busy busy busy. I'll probably be working on some paintings very soon. I've been wanting to paint more, but its been a push pull between comics and painting.

Well, I have some more work to get done. If I'm lucky, I'll post within a day, with a page from Little Red Riding Hood.

Evolution of Robin

2009-03-04T09:41:00.000-08:00

So over the last few days, I've done a sketch of Robin (actually a couple), then inked it, and today I colored it... Here we go:

Also, a random sketch at work of Robin:

I used the same method of inking that I did for my Caperucita Roja Inking tutorial I did a while back. First I had my sketch in my sketchbook, I scanned it in, changed it to non photo blue, printed it on bristol board, and inked with a brush and Higgins Black Magic ink.
I did the coloring this morning, during my break between classes.

I think its time to draw another Teen Titan, I have tons of Robin illustrations already ;)

Daily Sketch Return?! and Convention News

2009-03-02T06:41:00.000-08:00

Life's been very busy. I've been handed three class assignments, two of which I did the work over the weekend. I'll be presenting rough drafts for one today for my film class's storyboard project today. I'll also be doing a presentation in my Sociology class.
Beside the school and work rinse and repeat daily grind, I'm also putting myself to a schedule to get things completed and ready for the upcoming Spokane Comic Convention. I guess they were booking like mad this week, glad I decided to lay down my money for a table finally. But that also means no more lolly gagging...
I'm planning on doing a handful of speed paintings, maybe five, for the convention. I'm planning on doing one a week, spending one of my days off each week working on them. I'm also going to try to return to the (semi, kind of, not really) Daily Sketches. I want to do this, so I have more work to pick and choose from when I put together a small inexpensive sketchbook to peddle at the convention. I will have paintings, Solar Flares 24 Hour comic, a sketchbook, and Little Red Riding Hood comic for sale and ready for the convention.

To kick off the Daily Sketch, I did this last night:

I'm thinking that I will do a portrait of each of the Teen Titans from the tv series for paintings at the convention. I saw a few people dressed as Raven and Robin, so I think there is a decent fan base here.

Daily Sketches - 2/14/09

2009-02-15T21:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, I haven't posted any daily sketches in a LONG time... I've been drawing, painting, and doing all sorts of other shenanigans, yet I haven't really had time to share.. so this is a good opportunity to get back to that business again :)

First, a recent acrylic painting:

11" x 14" - Acrylic on Masonite. This was a Valentine's gift for a great friend of mine, I think she loved it, at least I hope so :) Its her favorite character, Harley Quinn, from Batman. This was a lot of fun to do, because I put down the brush and paint for a couple month hiatus because of school and my current work on my Little Red Riding comic. This reinvigorated me to do some painting again, I'm planning on at least some small paintings like this, and maybe a large one or two that will be ready for the Spokane ComiCon on May 30th... BTW, I need to buy a booth for Artist's Alley soon.

The daily sketches from today:

Today at work was slow, real slow... and a real blessing. I spent all my breaks and other free time doodling these. I might do a portrait of Joker similar to the sketch above, as a small 11x14 painting like the Harley one. Also, I want to do a 16x20 painting of Batgirl there. I love the action of her fist fighting, it looks exciting and vivid. I think fans would appreciate them at the con and buy the paintings.

Lastly, I went to a curiosity shop and picked up a bunch of old 50s - 70s comics. They really inspired me for my upcoming Little Red Riding Hood comics and Solar Flares volume 1. The old comics have ridiculously stupid ads inside, and I've decided to mimic them and make my own. Here's one that I put together last night:

It mimics another Growth exercise program that was in the comics, I took a lot of the wording straight from the comic; it was too good to change! Lastly, if you reread it as those "special" enlargement ads we see today, this advertisement is even more hilarious..

So, that's a mighty blog entry, I hope it satisfies my few readers. Its time to get back to drawing.

I LOVE Magnus Robot Fighter

2009-02-13T19:48:00.000-08:00

So today I came across an obscure comic while browsing. Its called Magnus Robot Fighter 4000ad, printed by Gold Key Comics. First thing that drew me was the painted covers, very pulp magazine like on the cover. Second, its a Flash Gordon type guy beating up robots! I love it! I have an affinity for '50s era robots too, so this is my thing. Now I have a an urge to find as many of these as possible, Magnus is amazing! I'll definitely be looking out for other issues or collections at comic cons, etc.

If I had the opportunity to get the rights, I so totally would. I just get so giddy with golden age heroes, pulp heroes, and the like. There's a sort of awesome charm to them that is hard to find in today's comics. Is it the art style? The stories? The smell of the old comics? A time I long for yet never experienced? I don't know what draws me to this stuff so much, but it definitely gets me excited to draw something. It also gave me some ideas for a future Solar Flares comic. Perhaps Francisco needs to battle robots at some point!

Scott Pilgrim #5 - A Review

2009-02-09T08:56:00.001-08:00

New book by Bryan Lee O'Malley, in the ongoing trials of Scott Pilgrim released last week

I think I could use my journal entries here to be of more use to people, so I think I'll start doing occasional reviews of the things in my life, namely art related goodies.

So on Friday I went to the Comic Shop to pick up my latest books, plus see if they had received shipment of the new Scott Pilgrim book. They had one copy, it was destiny for me to purchase it!

One of my favorite things about reading comics is finding a relatively new artist, and watch them grow. I believe that #5 is the strongest of Lee's visual storytelling. His line quality gets stronger and cleaner, his panel layouts more interesting, and his toning becomes more dynamic. One sequence in particular really impressed me. There's a moment where Scott and Ramona have a heart to heart, and she starts to disappear into a white flash. It looked really nice, I think it would be fun to play and try to replicate the effect.
One of the things that threw me off in previous books was the similarity in character's looks. One is supposed to happen, Young Neil is supposed to look a lot like Scott. Unfortunately, that can make it difficult for the reader. Second, Ramona changes her hair quite a bit, also making it difficult to follow. Sometimes I also think Ramona and Kim look quite alike as well. This is very difficult for a black and white comic, if it were color, we could notice the changes more dramatically with the different color hair and such. Again though, by volume 5, O'Malley has made these characters much more distinct and easier to differentiate.

As for the story, its kind of sad in this one. It was told well, I loved the art, and it was a fun easy read; but man was it a sad story. I guess I can't say sad = bad, but I guess I've liked the care free happy-go-lucky attitude the book carried previously. This change of pace is good though, I'm hooked, maybe more than ever now, to see what happens in the next volume.

If you have not read the series, please check it out:
http://www.radiomaru.com/ - Website for Artist and Creator Bryan Lee O'Malley
http://www.scottpilgrim.com/ - Official Scott Pilgrim website
http://www.onipress.com/ - Oni Press, Publisher of Scott Pilgrim, and many other great comics

Basic Inking Process Tutorial

2009-01-24T23:35:00.000-08:00

I just posted this tutorial on deviantArt, and now I'm sharing it everywhere else:

STEP ONE:
To start, I draw out small sketches on a page in my sketch book, trying out various ideas. Once I have something I like, I scan it into the computer at a high dpi (600dpi or so), and reprint it at a much larger scale. From there, I can retrace it onto a clean page in my sketchbook and refine the picture, fixing mistakes, and adding details.

STEP TWO:
Now with a better pencil sketch, I scan it into the computer once again, and convert it to a faded cyan (called non-photo blue or non reproductive blue) in Photoshop. To do this, I convert the image mode to Grayscale, then to CMYK. Then I go to Image>Adjust>Channel Mixer. From here, I leave the Cyan Output Channel untouched and move directly to the Magenta Output Channel. I drop the Magenta level from 200% to 0%. Next I move to the Yellow Output Channel, dropping the Yellow level to 0%. Then finally I move to the Black Output Channel, dropping the Black level down to 0%. You should be left with a Cyan image. The next step is to change the layer opacity to 50%, so the Cyan isn’t so intense.From there, I print it onto bristol board. This way, my pencils are left untouched by a possible ink mishap, and my pencil illustration is perfectly replicated onto illustration board without blemishes like heavy erasing or pencil smudges.

STEP THREE:
Here, I begin my inking process. I use Higgins Black Magic Ink, and two Connoisseur brushes http://connoisseurart.com/, one small and one fat. I also use two kinds of Bristol Board. I use Strathmore 300 Series 9”x12” vellum Bristol Board for Illustrations like this, and Canson Fanboy 10”x14.25” Manga Art Boards for manga pages (or Comic Art Boards for comic sized books). I prefer vellum to smooth because it grabs to the pencil pretty well, but its only a personal preference. I also enjoy Canson Fanboy’s Art Boards because they come bluelined with rules for panelling and marking bleed room, safe area, and actual page size.

STEP FOUR:
I decided to scan this at about 80% complete. If you notice, there are a couple inking errors, but I will fix them with acrylic titanium white paint when I am finished. At this point, everything has been done with a brush, but now I am going to use a Micron Pen to ink her fine hair lines, her eyes, and the fringe on the cloak/serape. I have left these specifically because I will be using a french curve for inking the hair lines, and circle templates for the eyes. I am using a pen for the fringe because they are so small, I don’t trust myself completely yet with a brush to get all that line work done without making a fatal mistake so close to the final product.

STEP FIVE:
Finally done with line art. I scanned it in at 1200dpi as bitmap, which removes any of the non photo blue that can still be seen. From here, I’ll convert it to grayscale, and rescale it to 300 dpi at the correct size it will be printed at. With just some minor cleanup of stray spots of black, the image is now ready to be colored!!

STEP SIX:
At this point, I’m sure everyone has a grasp on the actual digital coloring process in Photoshop.

So, this is my Caperucita Roja (Little Red Riding Hood), which I am planning on making a manga sized comic book. If I can work fast enough, the book should be printed in time for the Spokane Comic Convention, May 30th, 2009.

MY TOOLS:
Okay, here’s a run down of the most basic tools that I use. First off, I have a set of Speedball nibs and nib holders, and I’d use that over the Micron pen that I used for the fine lines before. The ink in the Microns pulled up slightly when I did some erasing, and its just not that strong of a pigment compared to the rest of the inked page. Next, I have a wrist rest for a computer mouse. This elevates my hand when inking, keeping me from dragging my palm into fresh ink. Next to that, I have a Gerber baby food jar. I use that for my water. I am currently using Higgins Black Magic for my ink, it looks very dark when I am done inking. I also use a metal lid from an energy drink can to dispense my ink. I can use the dropper in the Higgins Black Magic, and drop a few drops in the lid, and I can visually see how far I am dipping. If you dip too far with your nib, ink can soak into the wood of the brush and start to ruin it. Secondly, I don’t have more than a few drops out at a time, which is better than an unopened bottle of ink that could cause major damage if spilled. Lastly, I have my brushes and Bristol Board, but I’ve already mentioned the product names.

I hope this tutorial gave you a basic understanding of my process, and maybe you learned something that can help you excel with your art.
-Jesse 1/24/2009

Conflicted

2009-01-20T11:49:00.000-08:00

So, today at school today I was given the opportunity to play "crime-fighter"... I was hungry, so I stopped in the campus cafeteria and bought a Starbucks Frapaccino and a breakfast sandwich. I went to the cashier and she rang up my total as $5.16 or so... But as I handed her the cash, she voided one of my items and the total dropped down to $2.00 and some odd change. This was a big red flag to me, as I worked ten years in food service. Five as a waiter in a restaurant, and five in the kitchen and cafeteria at Sacred Heart Medical Center. As I walked away, I kept an eye on the cashier, and she pocketed the extra two dollars from the voided item...
Yeah, so after eating my sandwich, I decided it was the right thing to inform the kitchen manager. I asked for the manager, and told him of the situation. He went ahead and checked the sales records on the computer in the back... I don't know the outcome of the situation, but I felt really conflicted because of it.

On one hand, I really dislike theft. Honesty is a big virtue in my book. It really bothers me to see my cash that is meant to pay for the food, as well as pay for my college experience, end up in the pocket of a cashier. It disgusts me to no end.
But on the other hand, I really feel bad about putting the cashier's job, integrity, and college education in jeopardy. A lot is at stake here, but I have to keep telling myself that I essentially didn't put her in that situation; she did it on her own.

Caperucita Roja

2009-01-17T21:23:00.001-08:00

So, I think I have a final design for Caperucita Roja here. The coat has changed since last time because a standard serape covers a lot of details on the front of her body. I want to add some thinner lines in her hair, and maybe a pattern in her dress, but I haven't come up with one yet.

This has been pretty difficult to work on lately with Winter Quarter going on, but I have really enjoyed my classes so far. I'm taking Intro To Film and Ethnic & Racial Sociology. In Film, we just finished watching Casablanca. I hadn't really watched the film since I was a kid, so I didn't really know how good of a movie it is. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone, there is a lot of great dialogue, comedic wit, interesting characters, and a fun setting (Casablanca, Morocco).

BTW, tomorrow (Sun Jan 18, 3PM) at Merlyns (19 W Main Ave, Spokane, WA 99201) will be another Comic Artist meetup. Its been really nice to get together with other like minded artists, if you're interested, I hope you can make it!

Caperucita Roja -I think this is it-

2009-01-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

If you've been following my blog, I've been working on the character designs for a Little Red Riding Hood comic. FINALLY I think I have come up with the perfect Little Red. I just need to refine it a little bit, and play around with her cloak, and then I think I will have it.

One of my major issues was dealing with that hood... I finally decided to go with a more Link like Cap instead, mainly because the original is called: Le Petit Chaperon Rouge (o en Español, Caperucita Roja) meaning Little Red Cap... Previously with a hood design, it was difficult to attach the hood to the cloak, while still showing her hair and face.

So I'll do a model sheet, showing her at several angles, and moving in certain actions to get her design down. Then I think its time to move onto Abuelita, El Cazador, y El Lobo... ;) I'm very excited for this project!

First Day of School

2009-01-06T14:05:00.001-08:00

Today was the first day of school and I'm pretty excited. My first class was Intro To Film, and after reading the syllabus, I am pretty stoked. I have seen the majority of the movies on the film list already, and sometime in the quarter we will be storyboarding a Children's Story/Fairy Tale... I love it when my classes give me the opportunity to draw, I get to show off a little!
My second class is Ethnic and Racial Sociology. The topics we are already talking about are pretty interesting, and the instructor seems very knowledgeable. She was born and raised in China, and has a PhD. In class she asked a few students about their racial background and what it means to them, of course she had to pick me. I hate talking in front of strangers, I get pretty nervous; then to talk about myself is even worse!

So today I bought my parking pass, my film book, school supplies, paid off my JC Penny card, and several other errands... all during this nasty weather we are having. I did a lot of errands today and started school, I feel like a weight has been lifted now.

School is CANCELED!!!

2009-01-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

So school is canceled for tomorrow... I'm kind of happy because I know the blizzard coming tonight will be awful, but I just bought some new clothes and school supplies. I was ready for class damnit! So school is postponed until Tuesday..maybe....

More comic work, and more

2009-01-01T14:43:00.000-08:00

So I'm still working on this Little Red Riding Hood design. I keep looking at other people's works for ideas for children, but I'm still not hitting it on the head the way I'd like to. I want to make a little 12 page comic with this, once I get the character designs down.

So here's another that I did a few days ago:

I like that its cleaner and much more streamlined, but I don't like the face at all, and the hair isn't what I envisioned at all... It seems the more manga direction I go, the more I lose what I was aiming for.

Now she has become too tall, I wanted her to be very young and short, kind of like Lilo from Lilo and Stitch. I want to give her an ethnic appearance, but with the pigtails, it looked more Native American:

Here's the newest attempt:

I shrunk her head down because it looked too big and manga like the previous time. But now it looks too big and her shoulders too wide. I'm also having such a hard time drawing girl hair. I guess I've just never had to pay much attention to pig tails and bows, and all that frilly stuff.

Besides Little Red, I was sick for a couple days. I had a stomach flu, and couldn't do much but watch tv. There was a House marathon, so I watched that. I really enjoy funny asshole characters like House. I don't generally watch the show, or many shows though, because I don't like to get caught up in it and have to watch it weekly. But since I was sick, I just kicked back. After 20 episodes, I noticed medical shows really bite for tv, and how can anyone watch them for very long? Every episode is the same situation: patient in extreme situation comes in, banters with doctors, doctors have inter-work relationships and fight with themselves, patient almost dies, they misdiagnose (generally Ive noticed on House, they think everyone has MS), then they try a surgery for the patient to almost die again, and then they solve it.

I also watched Magnificent Seven again. I think Magnificent Seven and Seven Samurai are the best movies to look at for dealing with a story with multiple main heroes. That movie is so perfect, you could take it to any setting and retell a great story. You could replace Yule Brynner with Aragorn, Steve McQueen with a fast arrow shooting elf, and other characters with various fantasy characters and it would be a great fantasy movie.

Anyway, its a brand new year which is very exciting. There's a lot of stuff happening this year, so I'm pretty happy for that. School starts on the 5th, so I'm going to have to learn how to balance school in the early morning and working in the afternoon and everything else in the evening. It will be a challenging quarter, but I'm glad to be getting more credits out of the way.. I feel like I'm digging myself out of a ditch, I should be able to go to Eastern by next Fall or Winter if I keep up the pace.

Anyway, everyone have a Happy New Year.

More Caperucitas Rojas

2008-12-27T20:48:00.000-08:00

Still working on a look for the little hero:

I'm having trouble with the face and hair... Children are difficult to draw.

*update*
I drew a face, and I like it. But I still don't like the hair quite yet..

Caperucita Roja

2008-12-21T20:48:00.000-08:00

I'm thinking of doing a short comic of Little Red Riding Hood... Here's some rough illustrations so far:

Its been a while since I've posted any new art, so this is a nice jumpstart.

A second design. I may have to find a happy middle between the two. My idea behind this is a more of a Legend of Zelda: Link To The Past sort of feel in the style of art. Link was sorta squat like Little Red here.

Asthma attacks + sleep = weird dreams

2008-11-29T13:03:00.000-08:00

So I've been having trouble with my asthma the last week, maybe change of weather, probably because my dog insists on sleeping on my bed when I'm at work. Either way, I've been waking up several times at night, needing my inhaler. Well, last night, I ended up with some bizarre dreams, mainly because I probably felt really uncomfortable not being able to breathe during the night.

I just can't understand people who deliberately ruin their lungs, being able to not breathe is a nightmare. It's like wearing a plastic bag on your head some days.

Thrifty

2008-11-13T11:36:00.001-08:00

A friend at work collects old lunch boxes, everyday he has a different lunch box. The lunch box thing got me thinking, I should buy a couple old lunch boxes and repaint them! So I started the hunt today at the Christian Thrift store by my home. I did not see any lunch boxes unfortunately, but I did find something! Super Mario All Stars for Super Nintendo! The game generally goes for $20.00 on Ebay, and I picked it up for $3.00. I was pretty stoked, this has four Super Mario games on one cartridge.
Looking around the thrift shop made me think about how easily we toss things out, and buy new junk, just to toss that out as well. There were many nice and functional things there. I saw a French Press for $3.00! It looked brand new, and those generally go for $20.00 at Target or other stores. I may go back and pick it up for a friend. They had many bags as well. I'm thinking of going on a trip this summer or spring, I'll definitely be heading to a thrift store for a bag to pack my stuff, why pay $50.00+ for something new in a chain store, when I can spend a quarter of that in a charity based store.

I think a lot about how much I spend, and how in the past I burned through cash on ridiculous things. Nowadays, I buy my books either used, marked down, or with a coupon from Borders. I buy my graphic novels either used from The Comic Shop, or I buy several at a time through instocktrades.com, which has free shipping on $50.00+ purchases, no tax, and generally a markdown of 30%. I rarely eat at fast food these days, preferring to buy from the grocery store and spend a couple extra minutes to prepare something.

I'm sure others are feeling the effects of our current economy, the dollar really doesn't go as far as we'd like these days. I'm not trying to be preachy or anything, I'm just trying to share the ways I am being frugal.

CLOUD NINE!!!

2008-11-04T21:08:00.000-08:00

So last week I mailed out a bunch of copies of my 24 hour comic (printed, folded, stapled, cropped, it looks nice all together) to a bunch of mini comic/zine distros, people into mini comics, and I even sent it to the Isotope Mini Comics Annual Competition. I actually found out about this competition a couple days late for the event, but I decided to send it in anyway, just to see what they thought. Here's the email:

Jesse,

I just received and gave a read on your SOLAR FLARES book. It's a nice looking book thanks for sending it!

This year's Isotope Award competition was pretty fierce, I saw more amazing books from first-time comic creators than ever before, and I think Jonas Madden-Connor's OCHRE ELLIPSE (our 2008 winner) is definitely something really special. You can check out more about his work here:

http://www.family-style.com/mumblingmynah/
http://thedailycrosshatch.com/2008/10/17/ochre-ellipse-2-by-jonas-madden-connon/

We give out this award annually, I'm proud to say that the attention has helped get each of our five previous years winners picked up by pretty major indy publishers. We definitely do everything we can to make this award more than just a nifty trophy, I always consider my
winner a little like Ms America, and make sure every reviewer, news source, and publisher I know of gets their hands on a copy and gets a chance to talk to the winner if they want to. It definitely makes me happy to see both Joshua Cotter (2004 winner) and Danica Novgorodoff
(2006 winner) have gone on to get Eisner nominations for their next projects. So yeah, pretty cool!

But I digress. Here's really what I'm writing you to say:

#1. You've got a pretty sharp looking book despite cranking it out in just 24 hours. Very impressive!

#2. If you put some time into your submission for next year (and submit the book on time - laugh!) I wouldn't be surprised to see you ending up as a finalist.

#3. And seriously... keep up the excellent work, man!

- James
http://isotopecomics.com

Yeah, so I am pretty excited about this!!! :)

Daily Sketch Catchup!!

2008-11-03T19:43:00.001-08:00

First off, I'm writing a bunch of ideas I've had for comics down into some books, and breaking them down into lengths to see what would be a quick one shot comic, or a short run, or something ongoing to kind of guage what I should be doing. I kind of want to print a book similar to my last comic, but with 48 pages or so, with a couple stories in it... I'll be working on that for the time being.

I've been drawing almost every evening, but I don't keep up with scanning as often as I should. Here's a few:

Francisco Valerio, from my 24 Hour Comic... I might actually finish a couple comics with him, people seem to respond to it.

Francisco is a little to strong, beefy, gallant, and confident here. It reminds me of Flash Gordon, and I want Francisco to be a little more lost and apprehensive.

Francisco Valerio running from a moon Zombie.

sketch from last night...

Doctor with a reanimator lab coat...

Spreading my comic to friends and strangers alike

2008-11-01T02:42:00.000-07:00

So, I've been reading about zines for quite some time, but as far as I can tell, they are near impossible to find around town. The reason I got onto a zine kick was because of last year's 24 Hour Comic Day. I wanted to print my comic, and then I started reading online about mini comics and the zine subculture. I want to get into that, and share my comics on a more peer to peer basis.

I personally believe my printed 24hr comic looks really cool. Yes, some of the art is cheesy, but that's due to time constraints. I'm talking about the overall package. Its manga sized, 5"x7.5", full bleed, and strict black and white. The cover is #90 cardstock, and the inside pages are 24# paper (a little thicker than generic printer paper), double sided, and saddlestitched. I figure if my rush job 24 hour comic looks this nice, imagine actually spending the time to make a nice comic, utilizing screentones and grayscale effects, more time on the layout and design, everything!

This idea is really kickstarting my engines on getting comics out there. It wasn't expensive either. Honestly, if I buy the cardstock and heavier paper and have a print shop print on that, I think I could get even a better deal.

So, getting back to spreading my comics. With my 24hr comic, I have sent it to friends all over the world (seriously), and even to some zine places, and zine fans, in hopes of catching someone's eye. Some strangers out there will be getting a random mini comic in the mail, and I hope they enjoy this random surprise.

I'm thinking if I pursue this, I'd like to offer these comics on my website for sale via paypal. I have tons of ideas, and now I have proof that a nice looking comic can be made from home, so there is nothing stopping me from making my art. NOTHING! :D

I have several one shot stories that I'd like to render into a mini comic, as well as several longer stories. This practice could also help me build a portfolio to attract the eye of a real publisher... Hmm.. This also means that I'll have some comics to hustle at next years Spokane ComiCon.

24 Hour Comic en Español

2008-10-28T11:06:00.000-07:00

This was my 24 Hour Comic submission for this year. For those that don't know, 24hr Comic Day is a worldwide event where people have 24 hours to try to make a 24 page comic. Its quite difficult, and you can't refine your work, so you just make do and move on...

24 Hour Comic in English

2008-10-28T11:04:00.000-07:00

Woes of Lettering Comics

2008-10-26T00:59:00.000-07:00

Right now I am lettering my 24hr Comic I did last week in both English and Spanish. The English is done and up here if anyone is interested, and now I'm working on the Spanish translations. Main problem, most fonts don't carry the following characters: á é í ó ú ¿ ¡ ü ñ

So, my tedious task is to now manually go through each page and insert my ~ and ' over characters, and flip my ? and !... Its a major pain in the butt.

Has anyone else gone through any similar issues? Any better solutions?

Batgirl and Robin

2008-09-27T21:55:00.000-07:00

Work and school is a volatile combination. For the first week of school I was very stressed out about my astronomy, health, and working full time. Finally, I moved into a pattern and I think it won't be as bad as first feared. But my art has really been slipping because of my studying. I've been working on this on and off for about a week:

Its drawn on 6.625"x10.25", so its actual comic size. I used a Pentel Brush Pen to do this whole thing. I'm really trying to learn how to ink and utilize more black areas. I'll be getting back to The Joker soon, its just such a pain to setup and photograph each step. With illustration, I can just start drawing on paper anywhere at anytime without having to setup to draw.

School Daze

2008-09-22T23:02:00.000-07:00

First, my daily art:

On break at work I cleaned up the page, spotted some more black onto Robin's coat which I think really helped. Then I did my usual fun coloring out of boredom. Its nice to have colored pages in a sketchbook, its more striking, even if my coloring is pretty flat. It has been a while since I used colored pencils, I need to get into a rhythm before I start getting too creative.

Now a more imperative topic. School started today... Oh the horror. I could not fall asleep for the life of me last night. If something important is happening the next day, I can't sleep. Anyway, I woke up and got online to check out my online courses. Health and Astronomy. My Health class doesn't seem too bad, but my Astronomy seems to be a nightmare. I will have to be extra organized and assertive to accomplish my classes, art, and everything else I want to happen this quarter.
My Astronomy teacher wrote a novella worth of information. The syllabus, an intro letter, discussion questions, a lecture, this week's agenda. It was a lot. I just read through it and my eyes are bugging out. I had to write notes on just what he expects each week from me! Tomorrow I have to get up early to pick up my books, my financial aid check, and a parking pass just in case I need to do something on campus. I'm frightened by the amount of work this teacher is demanding. I am very interested in Astronomy, but I am hokey pokey about my pace. Maybe I need a fire under my ass to jump start my mindset back into a school sort of pace.

In other news, I totally forgot my Spanish Instructor's birthday party. We are good friends, and hang out a bit outside of classes. I have been so bogged down getting over being sick, kind of feeling in a rut, trying to get art ready for a few events, and mentally preparing/fearing school. My mind was elsewhere all weekend, I totally forgot it and I feel horrible. After I am done posting this entry, I will be drawing her a birthday card. It will be personal and it will mean a lot to her. I also packed up my guitar and a folding music stand. For her belated present, I am going to play a couple classical songs. I was also wanting to paint a sign for her class as a surprise. She just got a new office for her school, and needs to decorate. I am going to hand paint her Spanish class sign, I think she will like it. Unfortunately, do to time constraints, it won't be in her hands until probably next week.

Last bit of info. Last night, during my insomnia, I watched the very tail end of a PBS program. There is a black scientist guy I see all the time on tv. I've seen him on Conan O'brien talking about astronomy, he gets so excited about it. I've seen him interviewed on news networks, he's somehow some kind of big science geek. Anyway, he had some show on, and he was talking about the evolution of writing. I would have LOVED to watch the whole program, history is awesome, especially about things I am interested in. Anyway, he started talking about his crow quill pen (basically the same thing I use to ink, but I use steel nibs rather than an actual cut feather tip). He said that if he is going to write something important like an article or a speach, he uses a crow quill pen. Each time he dips for new ink, he gets about six or seven words before redipping. He states that this process gives the piece a cadence feel to his writing, he thinks a lot more, and there is a unique thoughtful flow that is lost in the 'now now now' technology of a keyboard.
I really think he stumbled onto something so true. Even when I use a brush to ink, I am so much more thoughtful with each stroke. It is so different, and has a more organic flow than any pen.

Okay, enough yammering. Time to draw a Birthday Card.

Doodling and La Bamba

2008-09-21T22:18:00.000-07:00

I think I mentioned this before, but I bought a new sketchbook. This book is just for me to practice 100% comic stuff. I want to have nice complete work in it, inking, colors, panel layouts, whatever.
So, while watching La Bamba, I drew up this:

All using the pentel brush pen. I haven't erased pencil marks yet because its still too wet to brush an eraser over. Approximately 45 minutes all together. Another thing I am trying to do is loosen up and have fun, when I participate in the 24 hour comic day, I don't want to stall and just stare at a blank page. I did a lot of that last year. I notice if I start doing something, anything, it makes it easier to keep going.

Daily Work Doodles

2008-09-20T11:51:00.000-07:00

I've been drawing a lot of Batman and Robin at work lately. Trying to not worry so much about being perfect, and just having fun. This is actually the first Batman I have drawn that I actually like.

If I ever worked for Marvel or DC, I'd love to do one of their kid's comics. Teen Titans or something. Anyway, I need to clean up and get painting again. I've been painting on Joker, but I haven't been able to photograph much.

All Spanish Today

2008-09-17T17:56:00.001-07:00

He estado trabajando en varias pinturas en los ultimos meses. Quiero tener otra exhibición de arte pronto. Invitaré a todos mis amigos y familia de nuevo. Se siente bien tener amigos cercanos que vengan a apoyar mis intereses.
Hablé con el dueño de "The Missing Piece Tatto" y le gustaría llevar algunas de mis pinturas. Su taller tiene muchas pinturas, muchas de éstas vendidas. Me gustaría vender algunos de mi trabajos y posiblemente conseguir algún reconocimiento.
Este año venderé libros de dibujos, pinturas y dibujos de comisión en la Segunda Convencion Anual de cómics. Algunas de mis amistades han conseguido beneficiarse de ello y han hecho conecciones. Con mis nuevas pinturas, y un portafolio mas grande, me gustaría ver si puedo encontrar trabajo pintando portadas para compañías de cómics independientes. Oni Press y Blue Water Productions son bastante grandes y no lejos de Spokane.

Just practing my Spanish for a change.

Robin in the style of Damion Scott

2008-09-16T02:34:00.001-07:00

Sorry I've been so sluggish with the Joker tutorial. I was sick last week, and this week catching up on bills, just lots of stuff going on so I haven't been able to photograph anything new.

I just realized I have been rusty at drawing since Ive been painting Joker for so long. So, to prepare for the 24 Hour Comic Day I will be participating in again, I am filling a sketch book with tons of fun gestures. I want to really make something cool this time.

I've been liking Damion Scott's art a lot, especially his work in Robin: To Kill A Bird. So to try to learn some techniques from him, I drew the same Robin he did as a cover in the back, but with a bit of my style to it. I like his animated feel to it, he's not worrying about rendering everything to infinity like Jim Lee.

The sketch was probably 15 minutes at the most.

Joker Painting Tutorial Pt 7

2008-09-07T16:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been a while since the last update. I never realized how draining it is for me to try to think of painting in steps, it really slows me down and makes me not want to paint! Step by step is hard, because I generally don't work in one fashion. I like to fool around a lot with the paint, sometimes I work on more interesting parts when I get bored with the monotony of some parts of the painting.

Okay, so now I'm going to introduce a new acrylic additive, a retarder:

This stuff is really nice, it thins the paint a bit, and it lets it sit longer before drying. This will be useful for wet on wet blending action.

This is where I left off last. I was fooling around with water and darker greyish blues to make shadows on the bottom of the strait jacket. I didn't like the outcome so much, so I went out and bought the retarder since I knew it would be easier for this effect.

Here's I've mixed my Payne's Grey (the darkest background color) with Azrilian Crimson to make a purple. I mixed about a dime size amount of the color, and added about four drops of the retarder to it and mixed it in. Then I painted the upper portion of the face with it. After that, I used some titanium white and the purple together to make a lavender middle tone:

This is where the excitement begins! I can now use that retarder to make my paint take longer to dry. I can have a wet dark purple, and a lavender, then blend them together on canvas using a swirl motion with the brush. I try to keep a lot of strokes in the look to give a real painterly look. I'm heavily influenced by the old pulp covers and movie posters of the 40s, they really had a cool painted look to them.

After a good transition of purples, I add on top of it a small amount of titanium white and retarder to get some bright white on the forehead, and cheek. This is really my favorite part of painting, its about building volume. I add dark colors, medium colors, then lighter colors, then I can darken it if need be, or brighten it more, until I am satisfied.

Here's the whole thing at the moment. Yes, Joker's face is very purple at the moment, but I'll be lightening it up a bit later on, after I get the face and everything else finished.

That's pretty much it for now. I'll probably be finishing the face, then going back to the strait jacket again. After that, I'll be working on the pants, then I'm going to have the pants fade back into the background by adding some more Payne's Grey and impasto. From there, it will be about tweaking little things and making minor adjustments.

Joker Painting Tutorial Pt 6?

2008-09-01T01:57:00.001-07:00

I can't remember what part I am up to now in my painting process of The Joker, but here's another update. Also, a side now, this is my 50th blog post! Yay! Now if somebody actually read all this, it would be worth celebrating :D

I finally picked up a light, but I'm unsure if I like it yet. My lighting is still uneven, but its at least better than before. I'm about to put 5000watt daylight bulbs in the whole basement just to work properly. I'd imagine the police would be stopping by though, expecting a grow house. The den is pretty poor to work in though, its the worst lighting in the house, but its the only room with enough space to work in. Here's my new setup:

You can also see the easel I built.

So now, I've decided to start on his straight jacket. I used some naples yellow, neutral grey, and payne's grey to make a slightly yellowed greyish tone. I'll probably have to play with this color a bit before I'm sure I'll be satisfied with the color. I originally wanted an off-white / cream color for the straight jacket, but it was a little too bright when I tried it.

Oh yeah, I also was playing a bit and colored his mouth for the heck of it. Cadmium Deep Red with a little black for the tongue. The mouth is ivory black with some payne's grey.

So, that's it for today. I'll be working on the rest of his top, adding some highlights and shadows next. Not too much after that, his pants, his face, and a lot of finishing touches to round it all off.

Joker Pt. Part 5

2008-08-29T21:43:00.000-07:00

Continuing the Joker's hair! This time I want to add some darker and lighter tones of hair to give a sense of volume.

There is about four different variations of green for his hair, some lighter with olive green, burnt umber, hooker's green, and naples yellow. I just keep adding strands of hair, until its like this:

I may add more hair later on, depending on what I feel about the piece when its closer to completion.

That's about it today, sorry its so short. I need to stop at a store tomorrow to pick up a better lamp for painting. I had some people make several suggestions, I'll see what I can find.

Joker Painting Tutorial part 4

2008-08-29T00:15:00.000-07:00

Now its time to start the hair. I'm using a Hooker's Green for the base coat, and I fill the whole block of hair:

Now I'm going to use a smaller brush, like one I might ink with. Whenever my brush strokes have to be smaller and more precise, I make sure my small brush is pretty damp feeling before dipping into the paint. I think it helps the bristles move and flow better when I make my strokes. I'm just starting by adding some locks of hair with a mix of Hooker's Green and Naples Yellow. I like using this in the mix for a lighter green instead of using titanium white because it looks a much more vibrant:

Now that my layer of light hair is done, I'm going to mix less yellow into my hooker green and make slightly different shaded locks. I'll make about three layers eventually with different shades of green to make up The Joker's wild hair:

That's about it for today. Its been pretty difficult for me to paint recently because the sun is setting sooner and I work late in the evening. I have a few lamps at the easel, but its not enough quality for me to work with. Regular bulbs give an ugly tone to most of my colors. I also have a day lamp which is good, but its a reading lamp, so I'm not getting enough light over my whole canvas. I just need to buy a good lamp for painting with, if you have one you use for painting, let me know!

Joker Tutorial part 3

2008-08-26T22:08:00.000-07:00

Continuing with my tutorial on painting, I'm going to start talking about dry-brushing. Dry brushing is a technique where you load the brush with just a little amount of paint, and even brush it until its 'dry', meaning there is almost no paint coming off the brush. Once you get the brush ready, you lightly brush your painting, and only the impasto part of the painting that sticks out will get painted on. This will give the piece an even more raised effect.

I mixed my Payne's Gray with just a little zinc white, and prepared my brush for drybrushing. I painted around, and I especially painted around the Joker to give him a sort of haloed glow around him. After I highlighted with the drybrush, I mixed more zinc white to make a whiter light blue, and continued the process. I did this about three times to give a nice gradient of brightness.

This is the first drybrushing layer. You can see that there isn't too much of a difference between the original Payne's gray background and the lighter blue. I want each layer to be a subtle change.

This is about three or four coats of drybrushing , each getting brighter and brighter.

Now that I'm done, I peeled away the frisket of The Joker, leaving his silhouette. See how the frisket protected the Joker illustration below? Actually, if you look closely, you can see I had only one spot of bleeding, and that was a small spot on The Joker's nose, but I can paint over that just fine. Now its time to paint The Joker!

That's it for tonight, I hope someone out there is learning something from this tutorial!

Painting Tutorial Continued

2008-08-24T15:10:00.000-07:00

I worked a bit more on my Joker painting and took some more photos. Remember, this is all my rough thoughts, I'll be much more thorough when I actually compile it into a proper tutorial. I believe I'm going to make this into a website and a DeviantArt tutorial.

This segment of the tutorial will be on my impasto technique, its nothing fancy, but good to use. If you look at my Grim painting or my Automaton of Mars painting, you can see the impasto technique being used. I got the idea originally from Brom, no secrets there. My first painting I actually ever completed was Grim, and it is deeply rooted in Brom's work. I think I have separated myself from that quite a bit though. That's what I believe artists do, they see something they like, they imitate it for study, take what they want from it, and build their personal style.

Okay, first up is the Impasto medium. Actually the brand I use is called Molding Paste from Golden's gel mediums. The photo I found here says Light Molding Paste, but I prefer the regular molding paste, its a bit heavier, more sculpting, and feels a bit tougher and longer lasting. I think it takes longer to dry as well, which in my book can be both a plus and minus.

This stuff is kind of like mud. I use a palette knife and just go wild, making marks, slashes, splatters, whatever. I'll impress the knife into a bunch of medium on the canvas then pull up and down a few times to get a real textured look.

I'm applying amounts of the paste all over the areas of the background for this piece. I want the background to look something like a stone wall, lots of texture. Once i get the paste where I want, then I start messing it up.

This is where I press down with the knife and lift repeatedly to make a messy texture.

I'm trying to get it everywhere except on The Joker. I want it to look like a maniacal prison cell in the end.

Okay, I have the paste how I like it for right now. One note, I used to paint flat on a table when I started painting a few years ago, before I built my easel. Yes, I said I built my easel. I like to build whatever I can, so its to my specifications, and generally much cheaper. I also built my light box for transferring sketches onto bristol board. Anyway, when I painted flat on a table, the impasto technique would actually start going slightly flat as it dried due to gravity! Now that my canvas is standing straight up, depending on how thick it is, it has the potential to run down. I'm going to let this dry, its not too thick for me to worry too much. But when its dry, I'll take another photo, and then possibly add some more paste if need be.

That's all I have for now, hopefully tonight I'll get some more work done, which means more photos and blogging. Tonight I am going to see the new Star Wars movie with an old high school buddy whom I haven't seen in almost ten years.

*Update** 9:35pm

Okay, so I'm back from the movie and I worked some more on the painting. BTW, the Star Wars movie was pretty good. I didn't like that the droids were really stupid though.

Okay, one of my tools I use is frisket. Frisket is generally an airbrush artist's tool, that's actually where I learned to use this first. Frisket is like a giant clear sticker than you can put over your painting, then cut out shapes with an exacto blade and paint over it. Once you're done, you can peel it back up and the covered area is protected from your paint job.
I'm going to use the frisket to protect The Joker, while I get wild and paint the background. I want the background to have some gradients and drybrushing effects, so as I wildly paint, The Joker will be safe behind the frisket.

I don't know if you can see it in the photo, but I cut a square piece of frisket around The Joker. Now its time to use the exacto blade to carefully cut the silhouette of The Joker.

Here, I have The Joker cut out, and ready to paint.

I am using Paynes Gray here to start a base coat of the background. I want the background to be a very dark blue with lighter blue highlights. Paynes Gray works well for this because its almost black. One thing I'll have to remember is that when this dries, I'll have to rotate it and be sure to get the bottom of the canvas completely covered with paint as well.
A note about painting over frisket. Always try to paint going away from the frisket, not towards the frisket. If you paint towards the frisket, you potentially can lift up the frisket and accidentally paint into your covered area. If you paint going away from your frisket, you'll keep pressing the edge of the frisket down, ensuring a safe bond to the canvas.

How I paint, the beginning of a tutorial

2008-08-23T00:37:00.000-07:00

I think Im going to make a tutorial. I'm taking photos and scans of each step so far with my Joker illustration. I haven't seen too many traditional acrylic painting tutorials here, or anywhere, perhaps it will be useful for someone.

I kind of made a quick rundown so far:

My first sketch of what I wanted Joker to look like

First sketches to figure out the pose. didnt like this, because it was
to directly forward, very boring and undynamic. I drew a little sketch
below to figure it out.

Another idea, this is going into a better direction.

My first sketch.. its okay, but it needs more arch in his back and a
bit more madness.

This is now really getting somewhere. but its drawn in my pocket
sketchbook, and needs to be redrawn much larger to make better
details.

Larger paper, very early stage

Final sketch, ready to project with my opaque projector, onto a canvas.

This is my opaque projector. It takes 4"x4" illustrations, so I scan
my final illustration, and reprint it at a size that will fit. Then I
fit it inside and project it.

This is in the process of the projection. Note, I didn't take a photo
of my Joker painting while I was transferring it with my opaque
projector, so that's why the two other photos don't match. I was going
to do this some time ago with my St Jerome painting, but then set it
aside to work one some more imperative things.

Now that it is aligned to the correct size and focused, I can sketch it over. The reason I do this process, rather than just freehanding onto the canvas is because I get very nervous with a giant blank canvas and lose direction, a sort of artist block. I feel I can be much more creative and loose onto sketchpaper without worrying about screwing up a big canvas.

Now its on the canvas, ready to paint. The canvas I believe is 18"x24"

I'll keep taking photos, and writing. I want it to be pretty thorough so people can maybe learn something, or even teach me a few tricks to my process of painting.

Joker continued

2008-08-21T22:56:00.000-07:00

Ive been drawing, but mostly things I don't really care to share yet... I've been trying to draw Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but they are kind of hard to draw, the shell makes it hard for me to pose them in a dynamic way. I'll keep going at it, been wanting to draw a Ninja Turtle for some time. But I have drawn more to the Joker illustration. I actually just redrew it on canvas to prepare to paint.

Castro Monday?!

2008-08-18T20:36:00.000-07:00

So, today I drew Fidel Castro... No idea why, but I did. So that's him below. By the way, my personal opinion is that he's dead, and the Cuban Government is covering it up. Dude has to be dead, he's been sick and old for so long.

Don't know what else to say, so this is a short blog today?

Joker, possibly a painting?

2008-08-16T19:45:00.001-07:00

First up, daily sketch. I've actually been drawing and redrawing this. I think I have three tiny sketches of this in my little sketchbook for work, if you look at the previous posts, then you can see an older rough of this:

So what do you think? Is the pose decent? Face decent? different angle? bigger teeth? smaller head? anything? I really want this to look nice, I've never really drawn or painted fanart before, so its important to me to have this look good. Joker has always been laughable to me because I never read how macabre and sadistic he is. To be honest I haven't read much Batman until a month back when I read Gotham by Gaslight and The Killing Joke. The new film really opened my eyes to appreciating Joker so much more. Cesar Romero and Jack Nicholson just don't have the screen presence like Heath Ledger.

So, my brother is better. Thanks all of your for your kind words, they meant a lot to me. I guess his heart naturally went back into normal rhythm, it was the surgery that threw it into a-fib for awhile.
Let's see. I've been thinking about things to write about, and now I'm drawing a blank. Oh yes, I wanted to mention that I noticed a trend in my favorite comics. Some examples off the top of my head that I have been currently reading: New X-men, Young Avengers, Runaways, Blue Beetle, New Avengers, Scott Pilgrim. What's the thread between these? A: Children. I love it when young kids get super powers and have to deal with extreme situations. It was my dream to have a super power a kid, and I suppose I'm living that dream through these comics. B: I love team books. It's more bang for your buck. New Avengers made me want to have an comicgasm because it has Spider-man, Iron Fist, Wolverine, Luke Cage, Dr. Strange, Hawkeye, plus more. Holy shit what a line up, favorite characters all around, in one comic.

So, that's about it for the moment. I've been terribly busy and frustrated, so my daily sketching has minimalized for a little bit, but honestly I am trying to keep a decent update.

New Painting

2008-08-10T22:44:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to get back into my painting, so here's what I'm working on at the moment. I haven't done a traditional portrait in some time, we'll have to see how that works out:

Besides the painting, I've been pretty lazy this weekend. I wanted to work more on my comic, but I just can't get in the mood to do serious work.
This week I also have to see a financial aid adviser, to see if I can take Spanish. I'd love to take it from the college on top of what I am doing, but they might not let me because I already fulfilled my language requirements. We will see, once I know that, I can plan out my schedule a bit easier. I'd like to take Spanish and Health this quarter. Something interesting and something necessary. Taking a daily Spanish class would really help my learning curve, self study and once to twice a week private lessons isn't enough in my opinion. I'd like to accelerate at a faster rate, which means daily doses of Español. I never hear enough Spanish in the day. I watch Telemundo when I can, and I listen to a few Spanish radio shows, but that's just little bits, interaction would be preferred.

The seam at the crotch of my pants tore open at work today

2008-08-08T20:47:00.000-07:00

Yeah, so my crotch tore open at work today. I had to borrow some OR scrubs and finish the last quarter of the day mismatched. I thought it was pretty funny, but I try to not take things too seriously.

So, I'm trying to get some sketches ready for potential paintings. I want to do the battle maiden, the knight and witch, and Joker. So in light of that, I have been working up the Knight and Witch illustration:

This is what Ive been doing in my tiny sketchbook. I like the positioning of the characters, but I hate the knight's face, and his hand looks like he's grabbing for some boob. I also need to find a cat reference photo, because I also obviously can't draw cats! Sorry, never owned one or paid enough attention.

and this is my idea for a painting. I was thinking it would be awesome to have crazed Joker staring off at us in a straight jacket. Another thing I can't draw is straight jackets. I haven't really seen one, so I need to find another reference for that.

What I need to do now is photocopy my tiny sketches onto bigger paper, and redraw them onto a new sheet and clean and detail them. a wallet sized sketchbook doesn't cut it for details.

I'll hopefully have comic come art up soon, all this drawing has been hopefully prepping me to draw some pages for the comic. I just felt I was rusty before taking on my comic. The (pseudo) daily sketches is helping a lot. Its getting me in rhythm, and more in practice.

Also, the spanish blog will be here soon as well. I'll probably write it up tomorrow. I'll also have a translation below, so those that don't speak the Español can still follow along, and those that do read the language can correct me!

A few daily sketches!

2008-08-04T19:26:00.000-07:00

Okay, needed to make up for some missing days :D Actually, I was so tired this morning, I accidently left for work an hour and a half early! So I sat in the cafe, drawing and listening to podcasts.

A witch, I'm working on an idea for another painting of a witch and a templar knight.

Brother Diego :D

A girl

Lastly, this is very rough, but this is the idea for my painting of the knight and the witch. I'll need to work on this on a larger sheet of paper so I can work on details, and add much more. I think the background will be in a cometary. Very bizarre, I know.

Approved & Daily Sketch

2008-08-02T17:43:00.000-07:00

First, the daily sketch. I was going to upload this yesterday but never got around to it, so today I added a bit more details to it at work.

I'm thinking of working this on a larger paper, flesh it out more, and painting it in acrylic. Its very Frazetta themed, so I'll probably start sorting through his works for a color scheme if I decide to take this to completion. One thing I need to do is give her more hips, and figure out a top, because I don't think Valkyrie Battle Maidens were just topless, though that would be a great distraction against male enemies.

Okay, now onto my excitement for the day. I was approved for financial aid, which means I will be attending college again in the Fall! I'll be taking Spanish in the mornings (on top of the private lessons I already do, I really want to be fully bilingual), and I'm on a waiting list to join Astronomy, which will be an online class. That will be ten credits, and I'm excited for both!
Oh, I'm also thinking I'll be starting a couple blog entries a week all in Spanish. I don't get to practice my Spanish as often as I'd like, but I post blogs at least 4 times a week (should be daily since I am doing "daily" sketches), so I could turn this into an exercise in language. Don't worry non Spanish speaking friends, I'll post in English as well. For those that do speak Spanish, please make suggestions, or point out my bad grammar!

Breaking Bad Habits in art

2008-07-30T20:28:00.000-07:00

First off, my daily sketch. I did this in the early afternoon. Jean Grey, going for the original X-men costume. Decided to toss her hand out front, because I never play with cool foreshortening/perspective jazz like that. I'd say that was the only thing good about this quicky, I really need to work on longer, bigger, daily sketches... working on it.

As for me, I ended up getting really sick at work yesterday. I started sweating, I felt like my head was in a fog, headache, congestion, and a nasty runny nose. As soon as I was done with my first break, I had to ask to leave, it was getting gross. I was constantly blowing my nose or sniffling, yuck. I went home, took a shower, took some medicine and slept for about five hours. Later that night I was up for maybe four more hours, feeling still sick, I went back to bed.
This morning, I was still feeling pretty bad, called work to tell them I'm still not feeling well enough, and slept until noon.
I hate sleeping, I feel like I'm wasting time that I could be using on art, or doing something important. I also hate to call into work. I feel like I'm letting down my co-workers when I'm sick. Well, I only get sick a few times a year, and I'm getting over this one. A few hours ago, I started feeling less sniffly, less congested, but my head still feels like its in a fog. Hopefully it will be all better by tomorrow. Tomorrow I am supposed to be off work, but if I'm feeling better, I'll call to see if they need me.

As for my art, I feel like I am hitting a wall at times. I have a bunch of bad drawing habits from my youth that just need to be broken. I'm reading Burne Hogarth's Dynamic Figure Drawing, Andrew Loomis' Figure Drawing For All Its Worth, and watching a Glenn Vilppu dvd, hoping to find some techniques to break my bad habits. This is really frustrating me right now, if anyone has any good art books to check out, please let me know! I sometimes feel like I am drawing with the wrong mindset, and there is an easier way, but I'm just forcing my work. I don't know. I think in part, I need to loosen up, work on bigger paper, try more dynamic poses, and be more comfortable with anatomy. Long winded blog, I'm just trying to vent and mentally sort out some thoughts here.

The Joker - Daily Sketch

2008-07-28T19:55:00.001-07:00

I'm really wimping out on these daily sketches! I haven't had enough time to put into something really cool. I spent about 15 minutes at work, and came up with this Joker:

It could be better, but the little sketchbook I have is so small, I get timid about drawing full bodies because there is little room for detail. I need to get over my stupid ocds about drawing, and just draw til my pencil falls off the page.
Anyway, my Joker is taking a lot from the cartoon series, then I also added the Chelsea smile, just like from the newest movie, which I saw again!!! Just as amazing on round two.

Other than my daily sketch, I bought I new t-shirt today. Its a Comic Book Shop t-shirt, but it has the Danzig logo on it, pretty impressive stuff. The CBS shirt was $8.00, if I were to buy the Danzig shirt at Hot Topic, it would have been $25.00, the CBS shirt could not be passed up.
I also went to the annual Baroque festival in Riverfront Park yesterday... For some reason, many women were confusing baroque with Civil War southern belle. What the hell?! They needed to be beaten, but not as badly as the people trying to do an accent, announcing the events on the mic. They were speaking softly, or gently, hard to describe, but in their mind that equates to a European 17th century accent. It sounded a little closer to gay than baroque to me, but I never lived in the 17th century so what do I know?

Oh, I also bought a few used books a couple days ago from abebooks.com, for those that don't know, its a network of used bookstores across the globe, and you can find anything you want at great deals. I picked up two Burne Hogarth books (Dynamic Figure Drawing, Dynamic Anatomy), Drawing a Likeness, and Drawing Animals. Hoping these might add to my arsenaul of art skills.
Well, that's about it for today. I'm seriously trying to put together some nicer stuff for a daily sketch, just you wait!

Más sobre mi hermano y pintura de hoy

2008-07-25T19:22:00.000-07:00

First off, my brother had his heart shocked to try to reset it to a sinus rhythm. It worked but only for a while, and he's back in a fib. He's on some medication and was sent home, but they are going to be talking with the doctor to see what to do next. Hopefully all will go well for him, he's really healthy, so I don't know why he's having this happen to him.

Secondly, I stayed up most the night, after I left the hospital, working on this:

I did this in one friggin night. My friend Jessie asked if I could have the painting of this done for her so she could give it to her husband today. So I worked my ass off through the night to paint that, and then I get a call while heading over that she was out to eat with the family, and to bring it over maybe tomorrow... Yeah, a little irritated after burning the candle at both ends.. Oh well, life moves on. Now that it's sitting around, I might add the detail to the shell that I wanted originally.

No Daily Sketches, and my brother

2008-07-24T19:42:00.000-07:00

Sorry there hasn't been any frequent daily sketches this week. I have been drawing a little, but my mind has been preoccupied lately. My brother had surgery yesterday to remove bone spurs from his neck. That all went fine, but last night his heart went into Atrial Fibrillation. For those who don't know, basically it means he's having irregular fibrillations between heart beats. Here's an example:

Wow.. I've worked way too long in a hospital... I worked five years in the kitchen, and three months as a transporter, and I know all this info from dealing with patients and staff, that's sad!

Anyway.. Tomorrow, the doctor is going to stop his heart and start it back up again to hopefully reset it back to a normal sinus rhythm. Again with the stupid nurse jargon, I sound geeky. So, that's what is holding me up from doing a lot of work. I have some pages I'm going to be doing as daily sketches for sequential art practice coming up. I'm also doing two paintings, those should be done soon enough and up in the gallery and here. I'm going to take a shower now, I've been at work all day, and spent all my breaks and a lot of time after work in my brother's room at the hospital.

Shouting into the void known as the Internet

2008-07-23T01:36:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I feel like my blog is me just talking to a wall. Anyone out there? First three people to respond with an idea (some restrictions apply), I'll sketch it up for a daily sketch.

Dark Knight and THREE Daily Sketches

2008-07-22T02:41:00.000-07:00

I saw The Dark Knight today, it was the best movie this summer! I was kind of grumpy that people were suspecting Heath Ledger to be receiving awards for his role before the movie was released, but now I say he deserves everything he can obtain for that role. I feel bad for his passing because he deserves the hype. The film was phenomenal, the movie is like a great crime drama plus Batman... Amazing, watch it again and again!

Secondly, at work I put together a couple daily sketches. First two about 30 minutes each, the last about an hour and a half.

This is some crazy dude staring in the sky while smoking. I was thinking of awful office jobs while drawing this.

Someone said something about Dead Pool, so I drew a shaved headed zombie with goggles and a gun.. makes sense, right?

Lastly, I tried imitating Mystique's pose from an X-Men cover by Humberto Ramos, from memory. I did pretty well if i do say so myself. The arms are slightly funky, but the overall piece contains a sense of attitude.

Its hard to put together daily sketches, since some days I don't sketch at work or home due to just being busy. So I feel these three made up for some missed days. Also, I'm trying to work my way up to longer sketches. Its just hard, because most of my free time is only during my breaks at work, so I'm just drawing on my little pocket sketchbook which is hard to render details on.

Hellboy 2 & Daily Sketch

2008-07-20T17:08:00.000-07:00

First off, the daily sketch. I spent about a half hour tops on this. Its in my pocket sized sketch book, I sketched it at work:

I've been having problems recently drawing decent profile faces, so I did this to get back into the swing of it. I might have a few more of these as daily sketches for practice.

Okay, now onto more movie talk. I saw Hellboy 2 last night, it was a lot of fun. I like how the sequel got into the world and lives of the non-humans, and we saw the bonds between all the characters since time wasn't wasted in having to introduce each character.
As always, Selma Blair is gorgeous as ever. I think the Princess in the movie may have been Gweneth Paltrow, she looked an awful lot like her, but she was heavily covered in elf makeup... or at least I assume her race was elvish. If you want a silly action movie, Hellboy 2 might be for you.

Second Daily Sketch in one day?!

2008-07-17T23:02:00.000-07:00

I felt since I skipped a day or two, trying to keep the daily sketch going, I'd double up for today. This took about 45 minutes as well, again, its a friend's character, but my own take on it. My friend, Heather, draws with a heavy manga influence, I thought I might try to introduce that a bit more this time.

Daily Sketch, and some thoughts

2008-07-17T16:41:00.000-07:00

So I sat myself down at a local cafe for close to an hour today to draw a friend's character my own way. By actually noting start and end times for the drawing session, I realized I am the sloth of illustration. This is what I came up with:

I think a lot of it has to do with confidence with pencil strokes and the capability to move on.. I spend a lot of time loosely sketching, erasing, redrawing, erasing, redrawing.. I also noticed certain things I hate to draw, namely foreshortened limbs (the hand and arm coming up front), bars of a bird cage (I think in part because I had no reference to a bird cage), and female clothing. I think I grew too comfortable with comic book women who just wear lycra.

How does one speed up their drawing? Is it by just drawing religiously, or forcing to move faster?

Daily Doodle for Tuesday July 15

2008-07-15T21:52:00.001-07:00

So, to honor my word about trying to do daily sketches, I have uploaded my first sketch for the blog project. I did this while on break at work. Its no 90 minute sketch, but it is a start!

Tried to draw someone, I did it from memory, so likeness went out the window, in my opinion!!

My left arm has a "driver's tan"

2008-07-13T20:29:00.000-07:00

I started listening to Sidebar Nation, a really great podcast that interviews some great people in the comic world. I love to hear the artists' ups and downs, gems of knowledge, how they broke in, and how they work. Its really inspiring!
For those who know, I'm trying to put together a couple comics, so I'm trying to collect as much information I can. I thought I could draw, but a pinup or portrait is so different than telling a story through sequential art. I'm fighting to find my voice in telling a story, so to practice, I'm going to try to share 90 minute sketches when I have time. One of the artists on Sidebar Nation, Eric Canete, actually is doing this daily, and he feels its a great exercise.
As a second exercise, I bought a sketchbook small enough to fit in my cargo pockets of my scrubs. This way I can sketch on my downtime at work. Usually just on my breaks and lunch since we are so busy, but its added minutes to my drawing.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts after going for a long hot walk with my dog. I'll be hitting the sketchbook momentarily!