Hiya folks!

My good friend =mayshing could use help in qualifying for a grant.  She has fantastic work and you should totally check out her free online comics such as E-depth Angel [link] to see for yourself what quality projects she's made.

If she can get more support, her studio can do even greater things, along with the friends and other artists part of Altabe.

Below are the steps to vote:

1. Go to missionsmallbusiness.com: [link]
2. Sign in with your facebook account or make an account there.
3. Search for "Altabe Studio" LEAVE STATE AND CITY BLANK
4. VOTE!!!

Current status: 112/250 votes!  138 to go!  Please help!

Thanks a bunch!

Cheers,
Gingashi

GUILTY PARTY is out tomorrow!
I did some art stuff on this game.
Please check it out and enjoy!!!

[link] <-- to the Amazon page.

[link]

Some good buddies and I have made a collaborative blog.  Cef and Pav are two great artists and wonderful people, and I hope you check out their work and enjoy it as much as I do.

What?

Why are you looking at me like that?

Ah... more than half a year gone by... I didn't write or call... what kind of a schmo am I?...  I definitely wanted to come back here (not that I ever left, but I was so inactive it's almost no difference) with a bunch of work, but my hands are empty.  I apologize for not keeping up with you all.

No excuses, just an apology, and I hope to get something up here soon and check out some of the sweet artwork that's been happening here.

So much has happened and it's a shame I don't make more personal art from all of it.  We will see... the inactivity doesn't lie.  Though studio work is consistent, if I don't get personal art done, you can all help keep me accountable and yell at me or something.

Thanks for checking in on me for those of you that still do.  Let's hope I can get something going again.

Wish you all well, and good creating to ya.

Wednesday, Dec 10th, 8:00 pm EST on NBC, "Little Spirit: Christmas in New York" will be showing!  It's a one hour 3d animated film produced by Curious Pictures, and I had a hand in 3d texturing there.  It was a really fun job and so much was done in such a short amount of time, everyone worked very hard and they're an amazing team.  I hope you guys take the time to watch it, and hope you enjoy it.

Look for Leo's red jacket with an airplane on the back, and check out his bedroom with the outer space bedsheets... even his pajama shirt has a robot on it~ those are just some of my textures that I can easily point out to you.

Enjoy the special with your family and friends~ cheers!

woo... I let my activities inbox build up too much.  Just went through people who've been adding me or faving multiple pictures and came across some amazing artists to watch back.  This place is so large, it's a wonder how many great artists there are to find.

I'm just a little bug, so I wonder what the big guys on DA's inbox's are like.  Must be insane.

Speaking of insanity, *wheels9696 has done a ton of Fantastic Four sketch cards... and I mean ALOT.  I've been meaning to check them out one by one- gotta do that next.  Currently, he's having a commission sale, check it out!

-eric



I'm taking superhero and fighting game character commissions now, just send me a note!

Disclaimer:  this is just for people who care to take some time reading something so personal and long.  If so, hopefully it's enjoyable to read- and thanks!  It's about art... of course.

Time to reflect!

So far...


Around September last year some powerful muse threw a bus at my head and I decided to embark on an adventure into the world of American comics and animation.  I definitely had touched upon it before, but that September I made it official that I would focus on that area of drawing.  I think one of the biggest inspirations came as I stumbled into some Cheeks artwork on DA via someone's favorites, and then the ball got rolling.  With the purchase of the two artbooks of his out at the time and a new sketchpad, some markers, and some pens I trekked into the unknown.  I let myself go of previous ways of thinking and drawing and just charged head-first into a new direction.  Along the way Gurihuri drop-kicked me in the face (which was a world of pain since Gurihuri is a dynamic duo) and then I took a slight turn from drawing cartoony, angular, and bold work to some more subtle east meets west fusion style.  All throughout the work had an animated quality to it.

After about eight months I had my first ever character design portfolio filled with some Cheeks inspired cg artworks, some of my own convoluted style works, and the Gurihiru inspired red and blue pencil character sketches to top it all off.  It felt great to see all of the work put together like that in one binder and I felt a deep sense of accomplishment.  All throughout the journey, I got encouraging responses from people reviewing my portfolio, on DA, and from friends that would browse through my sketchbook at the time.  Without such people I would have felt my efforts a waste.

Choosing this direction has opened a lot of new doors to me both in connecting to other people who are fans of American comics and animations, and also to the professional side of things, as some are interested in this kind of style for their productions.  I don't feel like I'm just drawing as a hobby, and just for fun even though having fun is the best part about it... now I see the result of my drawing actually leading to some work, though it's a very small start.  In the meantime I plan on continuing work in the 3d field if things work out that way, while continuing to build up my drawing skills which is my ultimate focus.



From here...


Although I want to be a character designer professionally, I primarily have been following comic art instead of buying artbooks on animations, films, or games.  Even though I think to myself that I'm purchasing a comic for research purposes, I have to admit that I'm really just enjoying them, or being awed by them, and I haven't really taken the time to sit down and study them like I'd want to.

Really, comics are so freeing... allowing endless possibilities in style.  I think I mislead myself when I think too hard about making something look like "comic art".  Of course, a comic is at the core about the sequential art, with or without words, but I have to admit when I think of the words "superhero comic" I think of a specific look... and that's often the look I think I need to draw in.  Even though I am free to create a comic in my own style, I still want to learn the essentials and practice the basics, and thus I look to what I view as the standards, or the leaders in comics rather, since "standards" sounds like the work is average and common place but it's far from it!  To someone who has never loved a superhero comic book, saying "standard" would then mean all those things, but once you've delved into it, love it, embrace it- you see the various caliburs of artists and the magnitude of their skill that overwelm... that awe... that defeat you at times, haha.

When I look back at the really cartoony works I began with, I already miss that feeling and admire the pure focus that was in them, not allowing the temptation to even go back to how I used to draw, or fluctuate too much in style.  It shows one side of what I can still draw now and I needed to go through it, but now there's still the quest for a definitive style, the one that marks my own territory in the art world so to say.  I've been getting there.  I think my style now is flexible enough that it can work for animation but also for comics too, but its not too spread out that I'm without definition, identity.  I can get very cartoony and exaggerated or stay more natural, but it still looks drawn by one hand... right?

From here, I want to continue learning about comics.  I feel like I can already design in the raw sense of the lines, the shapes- this works for making designs for animation... but as for the comic side of things, I'd like to study light and shadow, composition and pacing, and pencilling (not just line work, but adding the contrast areas).

Pencillers follow a lot of pencillers, and inkers study a lot of inkers.  I'm nothing so I don't really have a focus of what to follow except that I'm really into comics right now.  I'm just constantly getting inspired by them, by artists here, by my friends, and I'd like to take after their example... to pursue goals and dreams in art, creating and getting the creations out there... making a business out of it.

I would say more, but I think this is a good place to end it.  Well, cheers to the ever exciting and challenging journey of art!

I have really been feeling a lotta love from people here on DA and I hope I can share that back as best I can.  Just want to say thanks to all the people who have watched me whether they be from my first posts here to more recent ones.  Thanks for all the comments, favs, support, for voting for my short film, and many cool things like linking and mentions in journals!  You guys are all so kind!  I don't feel mushy saying that you guys help me strive to continually make better art, and live and be a better person.  It's almost been one whole year here, and things are going great.  Here's to the future!

On another topic, some have asked from time to time about commissions.  I so far haven't done commissions here, but I think it's a good time to start.  I plan to begin accepting some commission requests in the near future!... even got my paypal account.  But don't ask just yet, I'm still in a crazy period at work, and wouldn't be able to get to them anyways.

For starters, I want to ease in by doing some free thank you artworks!  I wish I could thank everyone with a drawing, but instead, I'll do it the first come first serve way.  The first five people to respond to this entry can ask for a sketch.  Just jot down one superhero character you'd like to see drawn.  It'll be simple, but I'll try my best.  Due to the lack of free time, I may take a while before getting to work on them and finally post them up, pardon.

Anywho, be well everyone, and keep making awesome art!

p.s.- Don't ya just hate it when you're missing one issue in the middle of a story's run?  I'm following *duss005's Batman R.I.P. Detective Comics but missed one.  Ahh the pain!  Those issues sell out fast!

EDIT:  As of 11pm yesterday (Saturday 10/17), my thesis has been online available for voting.  If you didn't get to, there's still time to vote until 11pm today.  After that, the next short plays and mine is taken down.

[link]<-link to voting page

Disclaimer:  my film got stretched on the flash player, since originally it's HD720... but it's OK, I think the idea gets across.

Thanks so much for your support guys, it means so much to me!  You guys are awesome!

I don't have tv myself so I didn't get to see it air... did anyone get to see it?  My concerns would probably be: "Ah!  The compression!  Oh my goodness."  I hope it was fun to watch and looked clear.

-gingashi




10/9/08----

My 3d work hasn't been submitted here on DA but I figure I would post this because...

my thesis film, "Henshin", has been selected as one of the finalists for the 2008 Nicktoons Network Animation Festival!

It's scheduled to showcase on air and online Oct. 18th at 11pm (ET)*(*subject to change). Viewers can go online and vote for that days short, and the short with the most votes will be this years Viewer’s Choice winner! So if you like mine, please vote for me when the time comes! THANKS in advance!

It's focus is mostly about having fun, having interesting visuals and designs, and combing a lot of things that I like.  Hope it's enjoyable!

[link]<--link to Nicktoons site

[link]<--link to the shorts schedule

Just some recent things I've been enjoying in free time over the past few months, other than working on my personal art.

X-Men: First Class, Mutant Mayhem
Umbrella Academy: Apocalypse Suite
The Dark Tower IV: Wizard and Glass
Mass Effect
Metal Gear Solid 4
Super Smash Bros Brawl
Battlestar Galactica
Sword of the Stranger

I would comment on each one but I'll save this entry from page lengths.  The listed things are all really awesome!  With the games, I am playing  on my friend's systems.  I actually don't own any of them... I just have a DS and sega saturn.

Moth -no title-:
It's taking its sweet time in growing and coming together.  I'm still in the conceptual phase.  I am eager to get started already but it needs to brew some more.  Even when production starts, it will just be the rough draft.  It will be a long time before anything "final" comes out.

after so much cave dwelling and digital whatnot... tossing frisbee at the park rocks, although I wish I could throw it better.  Also- blue and red pencils on paper is great.  I miss drawing, so designing some fun characters today made me almost wanna cry it was so sweet.

yep.

Sometimes I wish I could show you guys all the printer paper, bic pen or pencil sketches, because I think that's where the heart of my work, and just me as a whole really dwells... that's where there are no restraints, worries, and digital influences to mess with things.  It may even be that if you could see the many pages of sketches you would see an entirely different artist... but I reserve this DA space for mostly "finished colored works"... and the occasional sketchbook scans to me don't do justice because they hardly come out right after a scan or adjustments, and bare their own kind of restraints as I draw differently in them.

printer paper... it's supreme.  The blank page, endless possibilities!

I am going to begin production on a personal project and hope to gradually build it up and be able to share it with you all.  I am not sure which story to embark on but I want to choose just one only and begin with character design sheets, and then hopefully get into illustrations.  I don't have time to make it into a comic but hope you will get a sense of the characters, world, and story from what I can provide.  I don't plan on it being a business venture really- just a simple and focused sharing of something from my brain with you friendly folk.

Horray for personal projects everywhere!

Also- thank you everyone for the support and feedback to my artwork, I really appreciate it and recently I was so surprised at the awesome response from people on my last entry where I was asking a question about style.  Everyones' responses were very helpful so thank you!

Going to be super busy for the rest of the month so please pardon me (although I'm sure to check here when my brain needs a little break).  I want to leave you with this Fantastic 4 fanart I worked on all day today.  Hope you all enjoy it!  I look forward to the time I can come back and keep on making fun art.  For now, it's to work I go.

P.S. and we have all lost an hour...!  But in the future we can get it back!  Yay