Nguyen's Blog

Three approaches to drawing

2012-01-12T01:08:00.000-08:00

These are three approaches to drawing that I find useful to understand. Some people draw for fun and don't really care about learning or having progress but for those of us who do care, we need a measuring stick to track our progress. The best way to improve is to work on improving in areas or methods that you are weaker in. The three approaches as summarized are:

1 - Drawing by measuring relationships between features and using shapes to create a simple building structure. I simply call this the 2D method for clarification since you will measure flat shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, etc.

2 - Drawing using three dimensional forms to create the illusion of space and masses. This can be called the 3D method because you will think of everything as solid forms such as cubes, cylinders, spheres, etc.

3 - Drawing based on gesture focuses on movement and the life of the character. I'll call this the gestural method. This is where you feel the pose.

Here are my examples of how each approach differs on a simple subject of a little girl's head.

Most of the time you will infuse two or even all three of the methods into one drawing. But sometimes, one method will clearly serve the purpose of your piece. You just have to decide which one will best deliver what you want to say through your drawing.

If your drawings tend to look flat, maybe you should work on the 3D method and use masses and forms to make your character(s) appear more solid. If you draw using gestures and end up with sloppy scribbles, work on cleaning up your drawing to a finished level. If your drawing looks stiff and lifeless, you should probably practice some gesture drawings.

I am not saying anything new here, just regurgitating past lessons to help myself remember some basics and hopefully give whoever is interested some ideas. If you have questions and or comments, I'd love to hear them. Otherwise, have fun drawing!

How to cut men or not cut men

2012-01-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

This is how you are supposed to cut Men. Refer to the drawing not the photograph.

Not to pick on this Kenshi specifically, but there are so many wrong things about this photographed men cut. "Ki ken tai no ichi" means spirit, sword, and body as one. Let's start with that. See if you can point out what's wrong with this Kenshi's form. It's pretty obvious and there are plenty of wrong things happening here.

Destined to be self-taught

2012-01-10T00:09:00.000-08:00

Typical... my drawing class got cancelled due to lack of enrollment. It's back to self-teaching for me.

Two birds with one stone; find out where I got hurt and learn anatomy by drawing.

In November 2011 I got a good wack to my left elbow (where I thought my funny bone was) by one of my Kendo Senseis. I've been having a hard time extending my left hand forward fully since then. This is very bad for my Kendo right now especially since a tournament I'm entered into is happening in a couple of weeks.

Anyway, I looked up what the funny bone is and turns out that it's not a bone. It is the ulnar nerve that wraps around the elbow. The ulna is attached to the hand on the pinky side. When you hit the funny bone, or more correctly the ulnar nerve it sends pain down to the ring and pinky fingers. Muscles connect to bones by tendons. Tendons allow muscles to pull bones. This annoying injury makes it hard for me to grip with my left hand. When I extend my left arm, my hand shakes and the Supinator longus, and Extensor carpi radialis longus feel pain.

One of the interesting things about Kendo is that from time to time, we may have an injury but have to find a way around it to practice some how. Sometimes even if it means that we have limited motion. I will try some home remedy and see what happens.

Hiraku's facial expressions

2012-01-04T00:50:00.000-08:00

Finally I get some hard drawings done! 35 facial expressions took me about four hours.

Here are Hiraku's facial expressions!

Uncharted 3 favorite scene

2011-11-14T00:18:00.001-08:00

Uncharted 3 is truly a concept artists' game. Sometimes, they just created a cool level or scene first and then figure out how to tie it into the story afterwards. The chapter of Nathan Drake fighting the pirate is an example of this. This plane scene is another but I can't complain because I enjoyed playing it very much even though sometimes the story seems to be not a top priority. This is my favorite scene in the game.

This is my draw something anything update because it's been so long since I sat down to draw anything. I want to get some drawing in before I get my butt kicked in the class I'm going to in January.

Red Fox study

2011-08-24T00:55:00.000-07:00

I highly doubt that I will draw foxes like this in my comic book but this is just a study. There is no difference in fur or color pattern between males and females (vixens). Males are slightly larger. They have an acute sense of hearing and are omnivores.

Father, Ainu Warrior, and the Hunter

2011-08-17T01:15:00.001-07:00

A few more drawings I did over the weekend...

I like this version of the Ainu Warrior.

This one is a little too comical.

Getting some motivation!

2011-08-11T00:16:00.000-07:00

Here are a couple of great artists. Wow. Getting motivated...

http://justingerard.com/

http://www.kekaiart.com/

Obaasan

2011-08-10T23:46:00.000-07:00

She has to be simple in design, yet mysterious. She is stern and commanding. I plan to apply Sakura patterns that wrap around her kimono.
I paid attention to proportions this time. My plan is to design the full body shapes before designing heads.

Digital Inking Natalie Portman as Mathilda

2011-08-05T00:38:00.000-07:00

This digital inking sample was a practice piece using what I learned at the panel at SDCC recently on the topic.

This was sketched in mechanical blue pencils, scanned, desaturated, levels adjusted. You can see the blue pencil sketch on an earlier post.

Download pixel blender plug-in for CS5. It's only available for CS5. There are several ways to do it, one way is to just run the filter directly to the image, then do threshold or unsharp mask. Another way is to do unsharp mask and threshold first, then run the pixel blender plugin. Select oil paint, only works on RGB mode files. Play with the sliders but usually lower the brush scale, increase the stylization slider.

Although Brian Haberlin called this auto-inking, it doesn't excuse the artist from ignorance or lack of all knowledge and drawing skill. You still have to clean up and tweak it to hide the automated artificial plug-in look. This was just a test so I quickly went through the process. Her right eye is still inaccurate but I left it alone for this test. It takes some playing around to get it to look like the way you want but the results are quite nice. I could have made it purely black and white but I like this three toned look. It has softer and tonal feel than traditional black inks. I think this would be a pretty awesome look for my comic book before colors.

Comic Con notes

2011-08-04T22:21:00.000-07:00

Scott Robertson and Neville Page's Creative Design Panel

For video reference on an animal check out Corbis Motion:
http://www.corbismotion.com/

Or check out Animal Planet. Go to the Natural History Museum or buy a bone clone online of the weird animal you want to study.

Paint over reference photos! Aspects that affect design include proportion, stance, silhouette, symmetry, graphic, and value. Graphic refers to logos, text, numbers, bar codes and things like that that are a part of the design of vehicles. Always think about features and function when designing. What does the character or transport or prop have to do in the story? What features make the character, transport, or prop unique? Performance and personality shape your designs. Is your character tall and lanky or short and stubby? It affects how they move, their speed and attitude. Think about material. I think he was referring to surface textures, is it leather, skin, metal, wood, dust, water etc. Being constantly aware of all of these things and applying it to every one of your designs would make a great portfolio.

Breaking in and Staying in the Comic Book Industry and Building an art portfolio - Andy Schmidt and Zander Cannon

http://www.comicsexperience.com/

You need 3 things to get into the industry:
1 - talent (everyone has it, you just need to constantly develop it further)
2 - persistence (keep trying for reviews, submissions, even cold calls)
3 - be nice

to stay in the industry you also need 3 things

1 - talent
2 - professionalism (being able to deliver your promises on time)
3 - be nice

Actually you need to have at least two of the three things.

For portfolio, show 4-6 pages of FINISHED art. One Cover only. Get a professional script to draw from from.

http://www.comicbookscriptarchive.com/archive/the-scripts/

Include published work. Show it to someone who works with a similar style to get the most constructive critique. If you can't, then ask the reviewer who else he would recommend showing your portfolio to. Ask him if it's okay for you to draw more pages and send it to him in the future. Get his email or mailing address for submissions. Basic pay per page is around $170 per page for a penciller.

Ron Lemon - Inventing dynamic poses for Illustration

Characters with eyes spread further apart are usually preyed upon. Their eyes can give them more peripheral vision to look out for danger. Characters with eyes closer together are usually hunters. They focus on the prey that is in front of them.

Anatomy notes:
the 10th rib is marks the bottom of the rib cage
the bottom most part of the pelvis form is the pubis
older characters have more swollen obliques (love handles)
the top of the pelvic mass is the iliac crest

Digital Inking with Brian Haberlin

http://www.digitalarttutorials.com/tutorial_detail.php?id=22

download pixel blender plug-in for photoshop cs5 and use the oil paint option. lower brush scale, increase stylization. use with unsharp mask, threshold, and finish with clean up and detailing or fixing quirks. New in CS5 is wet media set of brushes, the bristle brush used at 1% is nice for sketching. Puppet warp lets you create control points like joints to warp. To thicken lines after inking, do gaussian blur, then use levels or threshold. Use liquify, warp under transform, smudge. Scans should be 10x15" at 600 dpi. Create a layer between the scan and the inks as if it was vellum. Fill it with 50% opacity white so you can see what you've inked and what you haven't.

Create your own edge brush by drawing a tall triangle and turning it into a custom brush. Click on control direction for more options. Create a hairy brush for fur and grass textures. Use white to go over dark areas to add more depth. Create a selection and fill it with rake brush textures in black and put white back over it to create more contrasting textures. Creating a rake brush is also very useful. For a quill custom brush change the round shape into a flattened oval and change the tilt angle, turn on texture - roundness jitter, spacing to 1%, use pen pressure and dynamic smoothing. A charcoal blending brush can create a nice blending and natural medium effect for some comics.

Comic Coloring and Digital Painting with Brian Miller

http://www.hifidesign.com/

color holds, also called knock outs is a technique that paints colors right over the inks. create a special effects layer separately for easy editing. Use negative wand tool. after flatting colors, check the transparency lock so that you will only paint on your selected color selection without altering the transparent portions. Use screen mode on brush settings to paint light into a dark initial tone. start with the darkest shade and paint light into it.

Why San Diego Comic Con 2011 was great

2011-08-04T11:06:00.000-07:00

Why was Comic Con great this year? That is a fully loaded question. There is no short and quick answer to that. Comic Con was great this year for many reasons. I told myself that I will come into it with a fresh pair of eyes and ears. I have been keeping an eye on the art world so I had some people in mind that I wanted to visit.

First on my list was Geof Darrow. I bought his Shaolin Cowboy comic books on ebay and I bought his sketchbook at the Con and had him sign it. As you may know that he made designs for the matrix and is well known for his Hard Boiled comics. I like his art because I can relate to what he draws, kung fu movies, westerns, and he has a wider range of interest because he also made some Totoro sketches.

Second my my list was to visit Alex Nino. He had a panel on creating dynamic action poses. He did concept design for Disney's Mulan from environment to some character drawings. To be truthful, he can't talk and draw at the same time so he just stayed silent while another panelist talked. The panel was terrible because it was unorganized and had technical projection difficulties. However, he had a table at artist's alley and I bought a very nice $15 "con sketch" from him. Not too many people visited him there so I think he got bored and spent a lot of time on my drawing. By the way, he did some Conan issues in the 1980's so I asked him to do a "quick" conan for me.

Third was to go to Scott Robertson's panel on creative design. I've been following his work for years now because I bought his books and how to dvds from Gnomon Workshop. He is a technical illustrator and teacher at Art Center School of Design in Pasadena. It was the school I wanted to go to to get my bachelor's degree but couldn't afford to. In 2001, they reviewed my portfolio and said that I can be accepted as soon as I figure out my method of payment. Back then the tuition alone was 30k a year. The work load was 15 units, they did not accept any transfer credits from SDSU, so I'd have to go for 3.5 yrs. 15 units of art classes was different from regular classes because the classes actually last 3 hrs long each. That's five classes, ten meetings a week, so you spend 30 hrs in the classroom. Then they expect that you spend the same amount of class time at home for doing homework. And some how I have to have income to pay for all of this while I'm attending. Anyways, he's a great artist and he publishes a bunch of art books which are geared towards professional level "how to" books. His panel was awesome and way to detailed to squeeze into one hour let alone tell you all about it in type. Scott taught a bunch of great artists in the current new generation including Khang Le. This guy's work is amazing. See the links below

http://www.designstudiopress.com/
http://www.drawthrough.com/
http://www.khangle.net/

Awesome thing was that he gave me a free book on drawing cars for asking a smart question. My question was, when you have to figure out the bone structure of a weird animal that you're trying to study and you can only find external surface pictures of the animal, how do you find out how it's bone's function? Like say a deep ocean fish or some weird animal from the amazon. They said bone clones, visit science museum and you can actually purchase bone clones, a model of the bones of the animal if you can find it. Also, there are places online where you can purchase videos like animal planet for specific animals.

Fourth was attacking my acheles heel; a panel on digital inking by Brian Halberin. The reason that I was overwhelmed on Violent Nights was because I couldn't handle the work load of penciling and inking while I was worrying about lettering also. Well, he showed us an quick and easy way to ink using photoshop.

We went to a few panels on writing. One covered 12 steps to the Hero's Journey, a good review from Joseph Cambell's book. One was about Epic Fantasy, what makes it interesting and "epic" which covered stories like Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, and stuff like that. One was about creator owned comics which was awesome because the guy who wrote Walking Dead was in the panel. You can download the comic which won best ongoing series, and watch the TV show. I like it a lot and the author was a really cool guy.

Eileen and I went with a friend to a free figure drawing workshop accross the street called Trickster and we drew along with David Mack. Eileen bought a couple of books from him and it was fun. He's known for Kabuki and I knew him because I bought his Daredevil TPB a long time ago. I also got a chance to meet Greg Ruth. Great art, but expensive. $600 for a 5x7" panel from Conan: Born on the Battlefield, a book worth buying if you buy anything. That was one of the cheaper and smallest piece on hand. I saw a Frank Frazetta ink sketch about that size priced at $12,000 of a girl figure by the way.

I only bought one other thing which was a book called Vent by Udon Comics. It was half off of their asking price at the beginning of the con plus I got a free art print of Blanka. The artists in the group were there and I got them to sign the book. They had lots of art technique tutorials and it covered a lot of work done in photoshop for coloring, sketching, and designing. If you're not familiar with their stuff, they did a lot of work for Capcom for character and concept designs for games like the newer Streetfighter games but 15 years ago they started out as a fan art group. The few artists were professionals not working for Capcom but loved Capcom art, so they got rights to publish art books and now comic books and video games as well. They are a good group of artists but what attracted me to them was one named Arnold Tsang. His character designs are spectacular. You can see them here:
http://arnistotle.deviantart.com/
He was at the booth so I got him to sign the book also.

I took my friend Yuho from Kyoto and Eileen to a Drawing with Jim Lee panel because they've never seen him draw and talk so that was fun seeing that they enjoyed themselves. Nothing different than what we saw in the old VHS I bought back in the 90's. His job as a copublisher for DC Comics lasts from 8am to 8pm, then he draws his comic book from 11pm to 4am during the week. Crazy schedule. I took my nephew and niece Ryan and Iris to a couple of drawing for teens and kids panels and bought them a cool Lego set. It was a Star Wars Ship with over 1000 pieces and they put it together in only 3 hours and 20 minutes. Anyways, they loved it and the Lego booth was nice enough to give us two complimentary kids tickets to Legoland. They will have a blast I'm sure.

Lastly, it was my first year dressing up. I was wearing a Shinsen Gumi outfit, they were Kenshin's enemies but in history they transitioned from being Samurai to Imperial policemen. Kenshin's rival was Hajime Saitoh, a very famous member of the Shinsen Gumi. I wore the outfit all day from 8am to 10pm. I guess you saw pictures of me on Facebook by now and Eileen as Chun Li. I ran into a caucasian girl dressed up as Kenshin so we took a few photos of fighting poses. We had several guest badges so we were able to let family and friends use them so it was nice to know that they had a good time also. I think that sums it up.

Random sketches

2011-08-03T01:02:00.001-07:00

I pulled some random sketches I found in pads lying around so here's what I found.

Hiraku Model Sheet

2011-07-09T00:42:00.000-07:00

I decided that I'm not going to get any where until I really tie down my character designs first. Here's the first finished model sheet for my main character, Hiraku. He is five and a quarter heads tall. Now we're getting somewhere. :) feeling good.

Beast vs. Xavier

2011-06-15T01:05:00.001-07:00

the key to creating a successful illustration is having a good premise. the next step is to find reference from real life. and lastly, the hardest part is the execution of the idea.

one problem that comes up over and over again is the difficulty of blurring the lines between separate pieces of reference. you must avoid making a piece that looks like a cutout collage. sure, a few tweaks in photoshop helps but how much? this is where drawing ability and memory comes into play. when combining photo reference with hand drawn material, you must make the photo reference look more like a hand drawing and make the hand drawing look more like a photo. some where in between, the two pieces will meet and blend together as if they were one. the seams should disappear and your idea shine through. techniques and processes of creation are hidden from the surface and the magical life appears on your canvas as if the characters are living and breathing the same air the audience is. this is what i want to achieve. it's been a struggle but i'm beginning to understand what it takes.

here's my idea for the San Diego Comic Con Art Show.

if i hurry, i'll be able to finish two drawings and this will be one. I will color it of course.

Coming back where I left off of on Hiraku

2011-06-05T23:42:00.000-07:00

My life has been crazy since the last entry about Hiraku made in late October of last year. Now I am back on the project. These sketches was where I left off when I was designing environments and developing some ideas for the city, forest, and mountains that our characters go by.

I seriously need to tie down some character design as well. More to come sooner than later.

Our Karesansui Garden Plan

2011-02-13T10:23:00.000-08:00

Karesansui literally means dry landscape. A common type of garden which suggests mountains and water using only stones, sand or gravel, and occasionally, plants.

Top of the image is lined with karikome style satsuki azelea or rhododendron shrubs. That wall is the east side.

for example:
Azelea example
Rhododendron example

To the left is the north facing wall. That is the Bonsai gallery. There's a big avocado tree in the top left.

To the right of the drawing is the south wall. This wall has shade so we will plant Camellia japonica there. We found Nuccio's Nurseries where the Huntington Library gets their Camelias and azelias from. The flowers normally come in red, pink, and white.

example:

Camelia example 1

Camelia example 2

There's a pine in the planting area of the patio peninsula. I will probably use Japanese black pine (P.Thunbergii).

Wood patio furniture, two concrete benches near the firepit. Golden bamboo in the top right and bottom right. I will need to install root barriers for these running bamboo. Persimon tree in the island.

There are two stone groupings. The top one is of 3 stones, representing heaven, earth and man. In the Sakuteiki, the Buddhist Trinity 3 stone arrangement is called sanzon butsu no ishi. Today they are called sanzon seki gumi. We will probably use a small succulent ground cover to replace the typical moss that surrounds the stones on the island.

We're using flagstone pattern pavers made by concrete cast and other forms for the patio. The edge of the patio is surrounded by a channel of black river rocks.

I'm not exactly sure what kind of water basin we're going to get but there will be one low to the ground near the entrance.

Obviously below the bridge is raked a grey-white sharp and broken granite sandy gravel representing water coming from the north. shirakawazuna (sand) not real water. Just dry garden.

Karesansui example:
Karesansui example

In Loving Memory of Mom

2011-02-04T08:10:00.000-08:00

She passed away on January 28th, 2011 around 6:30PM. She was only 66 years old. The funeral services were held at Featheringill mortuary on the following Wednesday. I made a video/photo collage, two picture frames, and wrote a speech for her.

Here is the video/photo collage

Below is my speech.

Good Afternoon everyone. Thank you for joining us today to pay respect to our Mom.

My mom is the strongest woman that I have ever known. She had enthusiasm, gentleness, compassion, and an encouraging spirit. She was appreciative of life. She made many souls happy and moved us all. Everyone who has tasted her cooking can understand this very well. She was a very hard worker who never gave up. Every photo she was in was beautiful and she had a countless collection.

We will no doubt miss her presence. It's okay to cry a little but I thought that doing so would make her sad if she knew that we were crying. Instead of being sad, I think it is better if we celebrate all the great things she had accomplished by being an amazing wife to her husband, mother to her children and grandmother to her grandchildren. She sacrificed everything so that we could have a better tomorrow. She was generous to us and always selfless.

A Buddhist Monk named Thich Nhat Hanh said that “our true nature is the nature of no birth and no death.” Our lives cannot be represented with a straight line beginning with our birth and ending with our death. Our lives more closely resemble a circle which has no beginning and no end. One day my dad explained to me that a tree bears fruit when certain conditions are met. Imagine that you are one of the fruits. Then that fruit will ripen and eventually fall off the tree and back into the earth. It will decompose and become food for the tree. This is the circle of life. If we can understand this then we will realize that birth is not the beginning of life and that death is not the end. These two events are more like doorways that mark important passages in the circle of life.

Nothing exists independently by itself. I cannot exist alone by myself. I am a product of my Mom and Dad. A part of Mom will always be in me, and in my brother and my sister. A part of her will also be in her grand children. If we can think deeply, we can appreciate her at all times because she is always with us in one form or another. If there is no real death, then there is no need for fear or sadness.

Mom is with us always if we can think deeply enough to see her by looking into ourselves. If we want to continue to take care of Mom, we should take care of ourselves. I hope all of you will leave here with no sadness and no fear and with the desire to take care of yourselves. That is the lesson that I think Mom would have wanted us to learn. Thank you all very much for listening and coming to pay respect to our Mom.

Hiraku Head Design

2010-10-27T02:17:00.000-07:00

Number one on the left to number three on the right. Which head design do you like best? Let's have the votes my friends. :) I've been designing this character for so long I don't even know what's best any more so help me out.

Organize thoughts

2010-10-26T21:38:00.000-07:00

Here is what I need to have in my development design portfolio book.

Character Designs: Hiraku (2 pages), Mariko (2), Servant boy (1), Fox Bride and Groom (2), 3 Fox minions (2), Bear (1), Hiraku's Mother and Father(2), 3 boy gang (2)

Props: Sacred Dagger and binocular (1), Mariko's necklace and dad's stop-watch (2)

Environments: Docks (2), Hiraku's house(2), the forest (2), the river with bridge (2), flower field with rainbow (1), the city (2), Fox shrine (2)

That's 30 pages plus several (maybe 4) more for poster designs, preview pages, some explanatory text and contact info, credits, and webpage info. So let's just say 40 pages maximum is what I need just to be safe. I have some material but there is much more to fill in. For a deadline? I'm going to shoot for April 2011. Time to get to work.

Model Sheet : Hiraku

2010-09-27T15:46:00.000-07:00

Back to visual development. There's been major edits to the story and design. The good news is that things have improved manifold. I can now tie down the model sheets one drawing at a time.

What's new:

He is much older now than when he was first conceived because he needs to be involved in a believable huge fight scene.

Now he wears a full length Hakama as opposed to the baggy pants. The bottom is pinched and pulled up to hang from the straps around the waist so that he won't trip on it in rough terrain.

You can tell he will get a good deal of punishment based on these drawings. This is like an actor's rehearsal in pre-production.

2010 Topps Sketch Card submission

2010-08-04T23:23:00.001-07:00

It took me about 2.5 hrs to draw this thing. That seems awfully slow to me.

Little Samurai

2010-07-28T01:08:00.000-07:00

July 28th, 2010

With new edits on page 4 and 10 recently. I need to fix a lot of things but one thing at a time. Note to self: I need to add one page to show Mariko falling into the river and one page to show the foxes transform. Also the last page needs serious help because it is currently very boring.

Page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

page 6

page 7

page 8

page 9

page 10

page 11

page 12

page 13

page 14

page 15

page 16

page 17

page 18

page 19

page 20

page 21

page 22

page 23

page 24

page 25

page 26

page 27

page 4 updated

2010-07-28T00:45:00.000-07:00

getting a bit closer to what i imagined. more clarity, better storytelling with a few small changes in one panel. slowly but surely moving forward. more depth, more foreshortening, less flat. define what the space is for with more clarity.

page 4 now

page 4 previously

Mariko expressions

2010-07-06T22:07:00.000-07:00

I have to get used to drawing my characters and explore their expressions. I have to somehow maintain a likeness so that I don't tweak their faces too far where it just begins to loose recognition or become inconsistent. That's the real challenge for me. I want to capture how they feel but at the same time I don't want my drawings to be too sloppy either. It's a fine line for me.

Page 10 updated

2010-07-03T09:01:00.000-07:00

getting a bit closer to what i imagined.

page 10 current

page 10 before

Miyahara Sensei says learn Kote-Men!

2010-02-20T02:01:00.000-08:00

It's been a long time since I drew anything and I'm back into Kendo so it's all I've been thinking of. This is a quick sketch about an important waza we learn in class called kote-men.

Dark Productions Web Page Launched!!!

2009-09-22T23:08:00.000-07:00

Dark Productions Web Page Launched! Woohoo!

Eileen is awesome :)

Little Samurai - Thumbnail Moments

2009-09-07T18:38:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about writing down the way I work on my comic book because the process may be useful for my own reference later on and perhaps other artists can find my methods useful.

I used to fold a 8.5x11 page in half twice to divide it into 4 even rectangles and begin drawing my layout thumbnails into them. Ever since I studied film and animation, storyboards, painting, online visual references, and draw in Photoshop, I don't approach the comic book page the same way i did 12 years ago.

Instead, what I did was draw out each key frame or "moments" that I thought was necessary to tell the story. This page shows 153 of the original moments that I sketched. These serve as a starting point so they are quite primitive. If you look at my current layouts, you will see that some changes were made to improve storytelling.

Hiraku - Moments

Environment Design is hard

2009-09-06T23:18:00.000-07:00

Environment Design is like pulling teeth for me. After 4 hours of noodling around with just one concept, this is what I came up with. Still not satisfied. It's problematic and I'm not even working with color yet.

I added a foreground element that it badly needed. Better, but till not satisfied. This still looks like lazy work to me. But perhaps it is because I'm comparing my stuff with great artists who do nothing other than paint.

At some point, I have to stop and call it finished. Does the image serve it's purpose? Yes. It tells the story. The story "reads" instantly. I understand what's going on. Do the rocks and mountains and clouds look great? Is it a masterpiece? Not really. Detaching and moving on...

Selling art prints on Etsy with my wife :)

2009-08-31T13:46:00.000-07:00

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5166588§ion_id=6379556

Support two poor artists please. Go and buy a print! We'll sign it for you :) and if you want it framed, I can have that arranged also. Let me know. Thanks.

Lestat's sketches

2009-08-29T16:41:00.000-07:00

Last Saturday, August 22nd, Eileen and I went to Lestat's Coffee House with James and drew from 11pm till 3am. I helped show Eileen with some anatomy because that is what she is learning. I have to admit that I don't have it all memorized. There are lots of muscles there and they develop differently on specific individuals so it's always a good lesson to go over again.

Drawing checklist

2009-08-24T12:16:00.000-07:00

I made a checklist with elements of drawing to be aware of on each piece. Some elements may not be as important as others depending on the specific purpose of the drawing but it's always hard to remember all of these when I am drawing most of the time. It is the base on which I critique my own and other people's art. I strongly believe that an artist needs to use something like this as a foundation and to use as a measuring stick to track their own progress and explain why one piece of artwork is more advanced or effective than another may be. At some point I will have to go back to this list and explain in detail what I mean by each word if someone is curious to know. This process could be turned into a nice instructional book probably if I use visual examples. Otherwise for now, this serves as a shorthand check list for me to go to when I want to improve my current work. I call it a drawing checklist but I also consider painting a drawing with color so these elements will also apply to painting.

Lighting
Design
Appeal
Clarity
Verbs vs. Nouns
Contrast
Pace
Acting
Composition
Continuity
Perspective
Mood
Temperature
Gesture
Anatomy

2010 Artist Alley Banner

2009-08-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

I think this is a little improved from the quickie. What do you think?

Hiraku's Father

2009-08-05T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hiraku's father is really hard for me to draw right now and I'm not sure why other than maybe I'm tired or I just haven't drawn realistic portraits in a long time. I sketched these out to get some practice with the construction process, focusing on building and sculpting the large masses and capturing "the feel" of the character as opposed to focusing on finished fully rendered drawings. I like the version of him with glasses. I think I'll use that in the book.

I increased the resolution on a 10x15" page to 300dpi to work on more details on page 3 but my computer slows down a lot. After making several brush strokes, there is a big delay before they actually show up on the screen. The advantages of drawing on the computer is that I don't have to hunch over my drawing on a typical drawing table and I can erase and re-work all I want in any one area and not have to worry about my paper getting messy and or torn. The downside is that the current computer is slow and buying a new one feels like wasteful spending. What I will probably do is cut each panel out of the page and work on it separately and paste it back into the final page at the end. That is what I did for Hiraku's house on page 2 only so far.

I have a tendency to draw stiff figures so I had to conciously force myself to use gesture and stretch and squash to make the pose more fluid and natural in the bottom drawing of Hiraku's father. Must focus on gesture always.

Artist Alley Banner

2009-07-30T01:53:00.001-07:00

This is a quickie banner idea I want for next year's Artist Alley if I can manage to get a table.

Comic Con inspiration

2009-07-28T11:52:00.000-07:00

I got a lot of inspiration from the Comic Con this year. I saw Hayao Miyazaki, Glen Keane, John Lassetter, and Bernie Wrightson.

I got to talk to a few other cool artists like Scott Williams, Sergio Paez, Derek Thompson, and Jonboy Meyers. I went to a short "how to" class with Adam Hughes and learned a bit more about layer modes in photoshop to color.

The first thing on my list of to do things is to design a banner for artist alley for next year and get that printed. This means that I have to pin point and finalize my design for Hiraku and Mariko first. Then I will make a finished drawing for the banner. I'm excited.

Little Samurai - Issue 1 layouts

2009-07-20T02:37:00.000-07:00

I chose to focus on picking which moments to use and pacing the story first so the composition of each panel may still change as I finish each page. This will be an online comic as far as I know until there is a demand for printing. There will be three issues in this story arc and this is issue 1.

Each page is 10x15" on my computer currently at 150 dpi because they are only thumbnails. The final pages are going to be 300 dpi for the possibility of future printing. Everything is a vague description right now but I will get more specific as time progresses. I will be updating these pages routinely so the layouts will evolve.

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

page 6

page 7

page 8

page 9

page 10

page 11

page 12

page 13

page 14

page 15

page 16

page 17

page 18

page 19

page 20

page 21

page 22

page 23

page 24

page 25

page 26

Self Critique:

I have a tendency to choose very flat viewing angles. Most of my camera angles are perpendicular to the picture plane and there is a lack of depth and design. Examples of my boring camera angle and repetitive composition can be seen on page 16-18 with every wide shot being very similar looking. I need to use more 3/4 views, apply the use of either formal or informal design to my compositions, and make better use of overlap and perspective to convey depth and dimension. These posts are going to be work in progress for a while because I naturally work in phases to prevent myself from getting stuck on any particular problem.

Notes:

It is tempting to draw the whole thing on the computer. I have been going back and forth between traditional pencil drawing and the wacom tablet. I have to admit I am leaning more towards digital for most of the work. I would like to add more variations to panel shapes such as jagged panels for action scenes. I made changes to the layouts for about a few weeks now and I finally thing it looks okay now. Time to do some real drawing now. Finishing the page is the hard part. I'm having a hard time on page 23 trying to convey that the bear turns into three foxes. I gotta find a way to do it better.

my process

2009-06-25T12:59:00.001-07:00

I've never actually finish a comic book before so I just had to come up with a process so that I don't get lost or too overwhelmed. Here it is.

1 - there is inspiration from a specific subject matter or genre. create a conflict, find a moral and message, and figure out how the main character will overcome his obstacles. then comes a basic format such as the 12 steps to the hero's journey which serves as a guide, not as a dictator. then eileen and i chat about a basic plot that we both like. this is all done verbally.

2 - i then create some sketches of key scenes that serve as visual story starters.

3 - i create the design packet while eileen writes. this includes everything from characters, environments, props, and vehicles. this is where i spend a whole week or more pulling reference from the internet and whatever books i can get my hands on.

4 - eileen gives me a script. i draw out moments to tell the story. it is too difficult for me to focus all aspects of drawing at once so this lets me isolate the pacing factor for me. i draw more moments in small panels as a note to myself that i want a fast pace action scene or show an emotion/reaction or build suspense, and i draw big scenic panels for slower scenes with more dialogue. gesture, camera angle, design, composition will come later.

5 - i scan all of these drawings and put them all in order and then we can flip through them like a flip book and get a basic idea of how some images will work with the dialogue. if i need to add panels, this is the time to do it.

6 - i sequentially organize all of these panels onto pages. since we are doing independent and online publishing, i ignore the 22 page format of the typical american comic book.

7 - eileen and i go through them and make sure there is enough room for word ballons.

8 - i make several passes through the pages. this is where i jump around from page to page to finalize the drawings,paying attention to the camera angle, use perspective grids, use reference, add lighting, draw everything consistently according to model sheets, make sure i use good gestures and facial expressions, be aware of design inside the panels, in panel layout in relation other panels/panel border design, screen direction, and cropping/composition. this all happens on the computer first. this is the stage that i'm at right now. more specifically i will draw the background first and characters afterwards on separate layers so that i have some flexibily to move things around at the last moment. then i plan on printing it out, doing some clean line work over a light table. then import that back into the computer and overlay on top of the computer drawing for the finished version. at the end of all of this, i will draw the cover and a poster and breathe again.

9 - color the pages. this process is to be explored so i will update this more once we get here.

10 - lettering word ballons, caption boxes, sfx, and finalizing panel borders. it's tempting to do hand lettering but i think it will be more likely that we'll letter on the computer.

11 - publish online. if we get curious enough or there is a demand and support for printing physical copies we will do so when that time comes. meanwhile we will go green.

12 - promote and tell it to the world

Page 5 progress

2009-06-19T22:04:00.000-07:00

Page 5 progress

I filled in some big empty areas and threw some rough Ainu straw Houses in the background. I have a tendency to draw the average adult proportion figure at first and when I go over it on a second pass, I make their heads bigger to make them younger looking. I think the rest of this page reads fine as it is.

page 4 edit 1

2009-06-18T19:38:00.000-07:00

after a bit of editing on page 4 here's what i came up with.

- panel one changed from a straight on back view into a slightly angled shot. i still need to fix major perspective problems because it is too forced but the basic idea of depth is introduced with perspective and tone indications. wow my eyeball perspective in close up shots is really wack but at least i can see it. darkest darks in the foreground and limited and lighter tonal scale in the background.

- i removed panel 2 because i felt like i didn't need it and i can tell the story of him turning his attention to the storage rook in the following wide shot anyways

- panel 2, i changed the placement of the camera so that we can see more of the food storage room more directly than before when the camera was from behind hiraku and the storage room was a small shape on the edge of the page. this should add clarity to where the room is in relation to the main house also.

- panel 3 and 4, i wanted to show a reverse shot of the servant boy with more food jars all around him to further emphasize that hiraku's family have an over abundance of food.

- old panel 5: i had hiraku yell at the servant boy but then i decided that it wasn't necessary. i should be able to tell the story of hiraku chasing the servant boy in the last panel on the page anyways. trimming off the excess fat.

- new panel 5: i have a lot of problems here so i think i may have to isolate this panel when i work on it into a new file, hammer the perspective down and nail the character model sheets down to make sure that they are consistent. i blew right through the servant's design so i have to put extra care into making him a unique looking character.

- the next important thing to work on is defining what the servant boy is holding. this will be crucial to telling the story.

Page 1! Woo Hoo!

2009-06-09T23:00:00.001-07:00

The main trick to finishing a drawing for me isto remind myself that "good enough" is good enough. For some reason, this page came out pretty easily. This is probably because I'm only focusing on one image; the splash page.

Plot recieved - working methods

2009-03-14T17:27:00.001-07:00

Eileen just gave me the finished plot for issue one. I will think that the comic will be called "Hiraku" for now until Eileen comes up with a better idea.

I've been studying film and animation for a while now so I will approach drawing this comic with those specific pre-visualization methods as opposed to the typical comic book way. The traditional comic book method was to thumbnail panels page by page and hopefully it all fits within 22 pages. I will be drawing oversized backgrounds to recycle throughout the panels like they do in feature animation for camera moves. I'm using this method to make sure I get more consistent with continuity and also to avoid re-drawing backgrounds that get reused. I will also ignore the 22 page limit and allow as many images and space as it requires for me to tell the story. The only thing I care about is that I will be comfortable with the quality of the pages and that each chapter (4 total) will be approximately similar in length. It may take me a bit longer than normal because I will be drawing more that what will be used in the final version of the book. I was first tempted to draw the whole thing digitally but I decided not to to preserve the craft of traditional drawing with pencil and paper. To "keep it honest" I gathered tons of visual reference from online resources. I love that I am able to do that because 10 years ago, this task was very difficult and even more time consuming since internet resources were more limited.

The computer will play a huge role because I will be doing my layouts in photoshop after scanning my rough pencils in. The plan is to do rough thumbnails of panels, making sure that I get all the important imagery in that is required to tell a good story. Scanning all of those in and arrange them in a page layout that makes sense in PS. Cleaning up the drawings and creating a tonal comp. Printing it back out on paper, light box that print to get some real hand drawn work back into it. Scan those and put them back into PS on top of the monotonic painting. Paint some light over the line work. Then I will make basic color pass on top and pass that to Eileen and have her do the final coloring in PS. Then we will letter the text on top. I won't post for a while because I want to finish the first pass of boarding the story out. Then I will make adjustments such as adding panels that I think are necessary. After that I will make the actual rough page layout and I will post those. So hopefully in about two weeks I will post those. I'm only on page 5 right now and I won't have a clue how many pages this story will require but we will find out real soon.

Foxes and Hiraku's House

2009-03-04T01:16:00.000-08:00

I'm just starting to break down the script into pages tonight. I will post them later when I get more of them done.

Fox Groom, Ainu servant, and Father

2009-02-23T02:21:00.000-08:00

Obasan

2009-02-21T22:03:00.000-08:00

I think she needs some hair pins sticking out of her head. This is my rough color idea for Obasan (Aunt).

Hiraku and Mariko color concept

2009-02-16T04:00:00.000-08:00

These are my first color ideas for Hiraku and Mariko. I will leave it up to Eileen to decide what the final colors will be. I work in Adobe RGB because it's more accurate for printing where everything looks more saturated and contrasting until I upload it to sRGB where it gets desaturated and less contrasting but you get the basic idea. Hiraku is a modernized character, further detached from nature so I wanted him to have cooler colors and somewhat more neutral to show that he is growing up. Mariko has very earthy colors and very bright and saturated; typical of young children's clothing but this also helps to tell the story that she is a more energetic and closer related to the land that she lives in.

It helps visualization to put them in the same space:

I'm not much of a colorist but this is the first rough color idea that I had in mind for Hiraku.

Mariko final design

2009-02-12T01:44:00.000-08:00

After a bunch of research, this is what Mariko's final linear design looks like.

Mariko idea

2009-02-08T02:52:00.000-08:00

I decided that I didn't want Mariko to look like a smaller version of Obasan (Hiraku's Auntie). I also wanted to contrast him against Hiraku who is dressed in more dignified and perhaps stylish clothes. The magic word is "contrast." So my idea was to dress her more like a peasant farmer. I like the direction that her design is going into. Obasan is not worked out yet but I think she will will wear a traditional kimono. Perhaps I will edit the patterns on her Kimono. Other than that, her costume is pretty basic. I still have to find a face for her.

Teaser

2009-02-06T22:55:00.001-08:00

Getting warmed up

Bullies sketches and Mariko follows Hiraku

2009-02-04T02:40:00.000-08:00

Atmosphere and visual effects are a big part of this story because it is centered around nature. There is almost no reference to linear perspective so I have to use atmospheric perspective, making things that are further away less detailed. This is an exploration of the moment Mariko follows Hiraku into the woods done with Photoshop.

Story beats and more character explorations

2009-01-31T00:29:00.000-08:00

I have to remind myself that drawing is not about creating a masterpiece immediately so that I may actually finish some work. Too much focus on finesse and trying to get everything perfect makes me stuck. Getting stuck on one drawing would hinder my growth. In these drawings, I try to get storytelling out and rough ideas for character designs on paper so that I have a stepping stone to build upon. Right now I need to focus on creating more quantity than quality. You can see some story beats below, not in any particular order yet because I'm jumping back and forth and haven't drawn them all yet. Once they've all been drawn, I will put them in order so that they may make sense. Here's what I have for now.

Lots to learn

2009-01-20T00:49:00.000-08:00

Story beat #1 - Hiraku's auntie (Obasan) tells him that Foxes get married on days when there is both sunshine and rain at the same time, and that they don't like being seen.

You guessed it. Hiraku goes to watch the Foxes' wedding and gets in trouble. I have no experience drawing bears and foxes so I will have to practice drawing them a lot for this comic. It's a tough, but fun challenge. There will be lots of learning and I will have to commit a lot of material to memory. I think I'll be drawing a couple hours every day and even more on the weekends just to get the hang of it faster because I don't want to struggle too hard when I hit the pages.

The only way to get familiar with the unfamiliar and commit it to memory is to repeatedly draw the same stuff repeatedly until I remember.

I made a simple map to get an idea of Hiraku's journey to seek the Foxes for forgiveness. I need to learn a lot more about painting backgrounds and environments.

Hiraku's antagonist is the bear. He has to deal with it in the forest one way or another.

At the end of the comic, a gang of three older boys find Hiraku and Mariko sleeping and steal a couple of important items from them. I did a few silhouette designs for them here.

More concept sketches

2009-01-18T00:17:00.000-08:00

I'm new at character designing so I'm already running out of ideas. Some of the sketches are already starting to look similar to past sketches and thumbnails or silhouettes. I can fit about 9 of these silhouettes on a 9x12 page and these were made using a Tombow black brush pen. I'm desperately trying to find inspiration and so far it's helping in a very limited way. I bathed my cats and one of them sat on a couple of my drawings. I thought it looked neat with the inks smeared so I left them that way below.

more Hiraku concept sketches

2009-01-14T23:06:00.000-08:00

I'm still not 100% satisfied yet, but here's what I have so far.

Mariko thumbnails and favorite silhouettes

2009-01-11T17:02:00.000-08:00

The more I veer away from traditional Japanese clothing and try to be creative the more I feel like going back to use traditional kimonos for Mariko. It's hard to be creative and at the same time not make something too weird for readers to connect to.

Hiraku silhouettes

2009-01-10T02:46:00.000-08:00

I started out doing drawing about two pages of about 48 thumbnails of the main character; Hiraku in my 9"x12" sketch pad with a sharpie marker so that I would be forced to concentrate on design and not get distracted with rendering. I did some traditional pencil rough sketches that were a bit larger and now I have taken several of my favorite thumbnails and cleaned up their silhouettes which you can see below.

Hiraku concept sketches

2009-01-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

Here are some more ideas I have so far for the main character of my comic book.

Untitled Comic Book - Hiraku thumbnails

2008-12-28T20:41:00.000-08:00

My goal is to finish a comic book by the time the San Diego Comic Convention comes around. My wife, Eileen is writing the story while I help with plotting. I'm in charge of design, pencils, and inks. She will be writing, coloring and lettering. I will also be helping her with coloring.

I haven't drawn for a long time so this whole process should be a good refresher.

Untitled Comic - Issue 1 rough plot

Hiraku is an adventurous curious voyeuristic boy. Hiraku's Auntie told him not to go outside because it is raining and the foxes get married on days like that. He disobeys her and upsets the foxes. His Auntie forces him to go on a journey to ask for the foxes' forgiveness. Mariko is a mysterious wandering girl who becomes his traveling companion. Along the way they run into a dangerous predator in the forest, and a gang of three older boys who steals important items from both Hiraku and Mariko.

Here are the first thumbnail exploration sketches of the main character Hiraku. I will be in the development stages for 4-6 weeks starting in January.