I think....

Composition and Layouts .If you feel like there might be something that doesnt look right for even a second. There is. Get out the eraser and do it over. Every single time ive redrawn or started from scratch, ive ended up liking the new version more. You always end up learning SOMETHING.

Nobody ever got angry about extra effort.

First Project

Been Jonzing for a Green Lantern drawing (I sometimes forget I can now draw all the things I love...with minimal disappointment). So I designed a 2 page spread/ensemble drawing. This is the first page I started. Did the majority of rendering yesterday. Always was a fan of Kilowog. The second part of the spread will be my next project. Havent decided what it will be. I originally was going to have the left side be kilowog and the rest of the corps following Hal and Tomar-Re. But now...Im aching to draw some other characters. Maybe a "C-List" ensemble. More soon. Hoping to finish pencils today/weekend so I can do some more sequentials.

Peace Out Internet.

New Season, New Goals

Ive found myself getting into a bad habit today. As I sat at the drafting table slapping together character ideas or just warm up sketches, I realized that outside of formal paid work this past month or so (storyboards/character designs) I really haven't produced much formal completed art work. Nothing that I could put in my portfolio at least.

I feel like I am struggling constantly between my portfolio and my technical skills. While I really just want to be able to draw everything and anything as well as humanly possible, I also NEED to have something tangible to send to future clients and project partners. So Im adding an hour a day to my schedule for final drawings. once I start a drawing, I will be updating on its progress fully until it reaches completion.

hmm...not a bad idea. Let the great Experiment BEGIN!

Now I just need to find an drawing idea.....

WP

Sketchblog: couple of quickies...

Just a couple of quick sketches before jumping into doing some layouts for a project I am working on. I hope to update in the next week with more info on it. But for now...Metron and Plasticman!

Today's Sketch is really just a study more than anything. Just playing around with face and facial muscle I guess.

This is a sample page from Eric Williams and my short story included in Mysterious Visions Anthology. I know it doesnt count for the sketch blog,..but the true sketches will start monday.

I may be bias in this since it meant I didnt have to do much lettering on this page...but boy do I love giant silent pages. No lettering, no exposition. Just draw as much stuff on the page as possibly and let the art guide your eye. no making space for future dialogue....no sound effects. Im currently working on a similar page for Eric for our upcoming Super-hero/drama-thriller. It should be a blast and I hope to beat this one....

Its my birthday.....AND Failure Fridays!

I realise that it has been over a month since my previous post, but I have moved and umm.....(quietly whistles while looking at various other websites).


Today is my birthday...but also Friday. So I would like to try to start adding to my blog Failure Fridays. Where I can post Jobs that either I did not get, or did not pan out the way intended. I feel like all artists websites and blogs are so self-conscious that they act like some kind of evil dictator limiting the information and view that the public have of them. When in fact just about 90 percent of growth comes from these failures. I learn how to draw something when I screw it up, not when I accidentally do it perfectly the first time.

So this week...is a small project for a local company that I bid on and lost the project to another artist (an much more appropriate choice im sure). It was a cartooning job where I would have to do various 3 panel comics detailing two childrens exploits and the family that is forced to deal with them. Here is the family lineup/breakdown I came up with. I really do like how it turned out...But in the end "the call" came through and the client went another way. But I still like the characters and it was fun to do something other than grinding teeth/capes /and blood for a while.

A Rob Liefeld Education

I love the fact that every time Rob Liefeld is interviewed at Newsarama.com or any news is released that has anything to do with him, a creation of his, or one of his past antics...you can rest assured that he will be in the comments section fighting fanboys and commentors alike.

I have never been a particular fan of Liefeld's personally.... But I have always found his work to be inspiring. It inspires me to work harder... and most importantly...teaches me to Never let my ego get in the way of my growth as an artist.

I think the most important thing any artist can learn to do is never consider themselves done learning. Never stop trying to improve. If you spend all day working on a project, and some small part of the drawing keeps drawing your attention away from it as a whole...then there probably is a reason. It is easy to say "its been a long day..its good enough" or even worse "they get what they pay for". But anytime you decide that something isnt just "your style"...but admit that you could have done better, you have already grown as an artist. Being an artist has been described as the constant pursuit of perfection. Plato explained that all things represent an attempt to create perfection. He used the example of the "perfect chair". That all chairs are an individuals attempt to create the perfect chair. They represent whatever attributes that one particular person interprets as perfect for that particular chair.

As artist we work with this same problem. We each pursue the perfect form of anything we draw. We see an image in our head, and try to recreate that on paper. That is our pursuit of perfection. When we are first starting out, we are held back by inexperience, lack of technique, and more importatnly a lack of significant failures. When I fail...I get embarrassed. I hate embarrassment. But when we take the easy way out...we avoid chances of failure by keeping things simple. And thus we cheapen the product.

This is what Rob has taught me. Sure...you can cut corners and focus on the more flashy distractions that are so easy to get caught up in when it comes to comics and comic art. But eventually....on a long enough timeline....it WILL catch up to you. And twenty years later...when the art is still saying the same thing it did before, how much closer to that perfection have you come?

Ill keep trying for mine.

Doooooooove!

What a week. No posts really. I have tons of information and sketch work that I would love to upload...but I want to give it a bit more time before putting it up on the internet. Call me paranoid.

Also..I am in the process of moving apartments (in february...stupid I know) so I am almost totally enduring that daily.

On the plus side...I just received copies of Showcase no. 75 (the first appearance of HAWK AND DOVE) as well as Hawk and Dove #1 by Steve Ditko. Hotcha! Hawk and Dove are one of the funniest things in life.

Now that I think of it...I should start a list.

#1. Hawk and Dove.

ifanboy article

Recently the guys over at ifanboy.com asked Eric and I if we wanted to contribute to an article they were putting together concerning the struggles so many unpublished creators go through to see their product hit shelves. The Article used a rough approximation of what both Eric and myself had to say.

The little bit that follows is what I had sent to Eric before we Amalgamized (its a word now) our experiences during the ongoing production of Hastings. One of my major intentions with this blog is to recount for anyone interested in hearing just how annoying and eventually rewarding it can be to just just outside something you love so much.


"Why the Hell are we doing this? Ive asked Eric that several times. I ask myself almost daily. A main-stream comic is read by few enough people as it is. What chance do two unknowns like us have in this market? You throw yourself at least 12 hours a day into something that offers no page rate or promise for publication. All you have is the constant desire to see something of your own brought to life. Telling a story that means something to you. Fighting with the nagging urge that hounds you to put it on paper. You worry about working in a potential vacuum while still trying to be wary that everything and anything you may have seen before may possibly taint your own idea.

Do you work to serve your story and idea, or do you attempt to create an illusion just to bump sales? It is common knowledge that a good chunk of Serial Comic sales are based on a good cover. This fact has been exploited ever since the first issues hit the stands. A little intrigue and suggestive visuals lead you to expect anything and everything from a comic, only to get home open it up and realize there is nothing reminiscent between the pages. So do you serve yourself as a creator, or your creation through shrewd marketing tactics and transparent lies? Do you make a flashy cover that attracts the eye but does nothing for the final product? Do you write scenes that are controversial instead of serving the story? Where do you draw the line between the commercial product, and the reason you chose to make the product in the first place.

Normally these problems would be handled in house. A publisher or editor would make these decisions for us. But Eric and I have to see the lines for ourselves and choose a side. Do we try to get a sale, or do we try to make our comic?
So we hope to tap into the rush you get from your individual idea enough to translate it to a piece of paper 8 by 10 and relay that same feeling in some way to a reader who didn’t buy the product because of a name or a license. He wasn’t sold with Toys, logos, commercials or PR. The people who buy these comics are people looking for fresh voices and original ideas. The problem is that it is our idea to give them that. That is how you get noticed. They look for something new. And you hope you have it. But who are we kidding…it’s a lot of our friends and family. Every comic shop might mean 5 sales. Each family member and friend hopefully can be jokingly threatened into 2 copies. But at the end of the day, how do you push your message into the faces of the guy who loves comics but has been conditioned to the "present and feed" marketing structure that comics thrive in today.

But, the tighter the hole is to squeeze through, the harder you push. Because you're in creator owned properties, you are not peddling someone else’s baby. You are not backed by someone else’s dream. You only have your vision, your ideas, and the need to get one more out there. These ideas are solely yours. If you are lucky you find a small set of people who feel confident enough in these ideas to pull together and produce something that is your own. For most of us there will be no mug or lunchbox for our ideas…but when you are selling comics in the independent fields…there are always more people. Standing on the professional on-ramp, hoping you have what it takes to merge when the opportunity presents itself."