10-9 - Your History - Sneak Peek!

Panels 5-7 of Page 1 of the new 6 Page Mini I'm working on. :3 I decided to try something a little new with my inking and add a little... okay a LOT of dry brushing to my repertoire in trying to find the look I like and my voice as an artist. I realize waaaaay back in Life Drawing good ol' Larry found I had an insane obsession for textures and pattern and he had commented it was something with enough development would make me stand out.

Of course in Sequential Art use too many patterns and textures and it's the Kiss of Death. All I knew really in me trying to go straight up graphic with my work I was getting quickly unsatisfied, and honestly I had that craving to be different which of course is my freaking MO.

These three panels are more of a test run than anything. I have to see if I like it by morning. I adore Maya's hair and just how it looks like hair and I think I'm good to go with doing it like that from now on. I maintain I draw John's hair differently every time. @_@ That buzzcut will end me. D: Also I need to work out if I'm ever going to do feathering on my figures. I'd like to try it eventually now that my hand is getting steadier with a brush and I'm getting bolder about things... I'm just afraid I won't like the look too much. :/ Never know till I try!

Enjoy. :3

Salvation At Last!

The first print run of the Salvation Zine is hot off the press and assembled. :D Fifty-six put together in two hours, out of a thousand or so. Man I have a long way to go till the full order is ready by August. D:

The specs of this project was definitely different for me. It had to be a ten page 'zine, palm sized, in Portuguese, be produced seriously cheap, and be completely disposable. Not only that it really challenged me to think of images of of faith for the interior that were universal and not be accidentally offensive to a foreign culture.

The cover is 4-color and then each page on the interior is toned the color of the bead of the witness bracelet it represents. It was thanks to taking Computer Coloring last quarter with Nolan I used my new skillset to make the coloring process go so much faster and know not to over render and use the color style appropriate to the lineart. :3 Also thanks to Shawn and Cara's advice here and there I've finally spent some time with inking with a brush. :3 While it isn't completely perfect yet it's TONS better than what I spit out last quarter. I've been experimenting with what a brush can and can't do an I learned in inking the interiors for Salvation that once you try applying the brush to something rather small it get's veeeeeeeery tricky and often times turns into a mess.

Man I've been so turned off to my Copic Multiliners now. Inking is so much faster with a brush it's amaaaaaazing. :O Sadly I might have to order some Holbien Special Black online somewhere because I'm running low and I'm trying to get by with Dr. Martin's Black Star which I found here in P'cola locally. Yeah... It's pretty black... but it's also pretty thin. If you have too much water in the brush it goes a grey purple reaaaaaaaaaallly quick. I should photograph my small ink collection I'm slowly amassing on my desk. It's crazy. You'd think an artist lives here. XD

The Doubt

Either it's due to all the pollen in the air making my head feel like it was stuffed with gym socks or because today is the fourteen year Anniversary of something Really Bad happening to me I'm pretty emotionally fragile right now.

Basically I'm doubting myself yet again. X_X UGH. Now is NOT the time to be a tard. I think it's getting to the point that I'm surrounded by so many mega talents and that I'm not pushing myself as hard as I can. Which is ironic because about four nights a week I'm pulling all nighters to get things done and still coming in second place. D: Maybe it's my diet change, could be I'm drinking WAY too much caffeine as I pretty much consume half a box of Crystal Light drink mix A DAY. It could be that even if I walk to class every day I'm not getting enough exercise, I'm losing weight by lack of not eating as much and not eating the proper things, not by sweating it out on the treadmill.

I think I really need to study harder. D: I was working on my 10-9 Final today and ideally I'd like Page 1 in the can by tomorrow night, it's also the hardest fucking page in the story. But I found in pencilling and inking it today of which I only got as far as two panels in two hours something's not right here. And they were TINY. Sides the anatomy was wonky, I was making up details as I went, and I seriously need to sit down with reference and work this shit out. Like what the uniforms would look like from head to toe -- Thankfully I have an excellent book on the subject. What each of the characters would look like. Character acting which is such a weak point for me because I can bounce around my room all I want but from seeing it in my minds eye to put to page is bitch ass hard. I even have trouble seeing hands in my head as I'm constantly putting thumbs on backwards or making characters left handed. Not kidding! @_@

That second story beat of my Materials and Techniques assignment was due today and Shawn walked by asking 'That's not Beat Two is it?' which little by little the voice in my head started screeching 'That means you're going to redo it yes? -.-' Which I think I'm going to beat him to the punch and do so since thankfully class is cancelled on Monday. I still need to figure out how to make sense of the ending because that's coming up fast. @_@

I just think it's again just like how it was back in PJC. I hit a plateau and got too scared to take the next step. I was at the top of my game but got so comfortable I gave up trying until the younger kids caught up to me then I started stressing out. The fact that I'm going to a school with folks that already had professional work before they even enrolled, and here I feel I'm starting to get past my shelf life.

This was to be the quarter that I broke through what we call around here 'The Awkward Phase' and I feel like I'm still behind the curve.

So I'm going to quit my bitching and DO something about it.

The Plan:

• Get back to keeping more thorough track of my day planner. This is manditory.


• Buy a new water bottle. A BIG ONE. A 64 ouncer if at all possible. Carry it everywhere.
  
• Walk two miles every day. Thankfully I have a 15 Minute Mile DVD.


• Do warm ups for drawing every day. Incorperate it into classwork. Shawn is teaching us techniques like inking with nibs and brush and such so if I need to practice my anatomy good god do it with a nib. Need to draw rifles? Draw them with a brush. Uniform design? Ballpoint pen. SCAN the results no matter what.


• Even if all nighters are manditory be responsible. Manage time. Plot a chart of when I'm going to work on what when.


• Be strong with people that say they wanna chat that I can't chat because it's getting to be a major problem to the point that I just may have to start ignoring pages or not logging in.


• Show up an hour early to school every day. If there's a class in session in my classroom, go somewhere and work. Stop wandering around to socialize. And stop sleeping in until the last possible second.


• Start on assignments the second they're assigned. Go to the Temple every Friday for extra help. Stay the whole time.


• Do Connector Assignments on time. This hasn't been a problem but I'm starting to push my luck here.

What a way to break my radio silence here but it's time to get back into action. >_<9