the journey so far

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!