Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Imagine if you came face to face with this guy at a carnival...


Granted i think carnivals are pretty scary places in general...fucking carnies... but after being in a rut of some sorts i've actually taken a new approach at character design. Im drawing a character to fit a certain personality. This guys a new addition. I sketched him out using these crazy japanese pens i fell in love with. They draw like a medium between pencil and ink. and using Photoshop i added some quick gradient tones . Meet bobo, childhood fear # 2 and i intend to have the protagonists encounter this guy soon in the upcoming comic. Comments ?

Sunday, May 25, 2008

A Small Distraction


A couple years ago i drew a two panel cartoon for something depicting the "Stages of life". im not really sure what prompted this but i randomly happened upon the rough sketch of it from those past years and since i was bored, decided to re-draw it. Its a little something that kinda helps break the pace of the normal comic routine. I've also seemed to hit a roadblock in creativity it seems. I'm having some trouble staging the beginning of the main part of the comic. Perhaps im over thinking things. I'll give it a break then come back to it. Its probably the easiest thing to do but the hardest thing get started on. Anyhow enjoy the drawing...

Tuesday, May 20, 2008

The Prelude is Near Completion

I was waiting until i had completed the drawings in pen and ink for the prelude before posting em just because i wanted it to have some semblance of continuity. Each page was different in a sense because i became increasingly comfortable with taking risks while creating the panels. Its all new to me so im simply drawing from what i've felt seemed to be effective as far as layout is concerned. There is no dialog and very minimal sound effects. There are no colors either yet. Im debating whether to color it in fully or leave it grayscale and perhaps color in only the main character's scarf or something. if anyone has any suggestions that would be great. Im curious to see what people would say was going on without narration or dialog; just to see if the drawings carried any bit of the story without having to rely heavily upon text and such. Anyways. Here goes.

Monday, May 12, 2008

"I Am Not Afraid of The Dark" Poster


Heres the aforementioned Poster which started this whole process... Comments are Definitely welcomed. (Thanks Niv)

Chasing The Dark

Do you remember when you were a little kid and were scared of practically everything? Remember being scared of:
  • The Dark?
  • The Boogyman?
  • Lions?
  • Tigers?
  • Bears?
  • Etc...?
The only comfort was that right before you got caught/killed/maimed/dismembered, you woke up safe and sound in your bed.
What if that didn't happen?
What if you didn't wake up?
What if when you opened your eyes all you saw was the same element of fear which closed your eyes in the first place?
Now thats some scary shit.

The idea of this comic came simply from a tagline i wrote on a poster i drew a month ago. Originally it was intended just to be blown up and made into a poster to put on the wall, but every time i looked at it i felt like there was some hidden potential that remained untapped. At this time i was desperate for a story to sink my teeth into in order to kick off my year long desire to create a comic which i would be satisfied with. And after a year of sketching random things, this one simple and darkly haunting piece was my catalyst of creation. My spark, some would say, i'd like to thank my muse.

Some think its silly and some would say its a pretty easy task to come up with a bunch of drawings and make them cohesive. Add text. Add colors. Then suddenly...voila! theres a comic book for all the kids to read.

like all art, the finish piece never does the artist justice. The countless hours put into each and every line, every stroke, every pose, glance, expression. Expression... thats the key. The Artist expresses himself through his medium. His Muse guides him. (oh and just for the record im not saying that all artists these days deserve this kind of respect, like Picasso...Fuck him, give a paint brush to a paraplegic and he'll come up with better work. i mean really the jackass paints elementary school art and gets paid millions. check out
"Nu au Fauteuil Noir".(45.1 mill for that one) really Go ahead. if im wrong then so be it but if you agree with me then please lemme hear it)

When people pick up a comic, they automatically associate the fact that it contains pictures with the fact that childrens book also contain pictures... and that therefore comics are for kids. There are certain comics i assure everyone are most certainly NOT for kids. Rather they allow a group of creators, or a team, of people of different talents (Writers, Pencillers, Inkers, Colorists) to work and collaborate on a single piece of work. One that by the end of the entire process they all are proud of. So to state that all comics are just for kids is just stupid. For anyone who wants a perfect example of a GREAT comic book( great drawings, story, colors) Read "Identity Crisis" Written by Brad Meltzer (fiction author of Zero Game) Rags morales , Alex Sinclair. Its a DC comic but i guarentee if your a fan of reading fiction then you will love this book, even if comics aren't your thing.

Now with all this being said and done, i am no way near a great artist but i do take a certain amount of pride in my work. I've studied and observed the way certain artists draw characters and such and am constantly trying to apply them in my work, adapting them in order to build my own style.

Ok Now lets Start the Show...