Closing the Gap

Ever since I decided to do everything in my power to become a better artist, I've tried to help anyone that wants to pursue the same career path. I think that you can always learn something from somebody, if it is someone that is just beginning or someone that has been in the game for a while. You simply cannot say that you are an accomplished artist that knows what the deal is.

And specially when I talk to people that are starting at this, they seem to share a little bit of sene of disappointment at the beginning, because you are dying to produce awesome-jaw-dropping-juicy-delicious art that can inspire other people, and the fact is that, at least for the first years you will try your best to do so, only to find out that, for the most part your are not completely satisfied with your work. This can be frustrating, believe me I know, we all have been there.

That is why when I found this video, somehow it just clicked with all the right words and in the right tone. From now on I will have a solid message to share with all of my friends and future artists, because this is what it is all about.    

This is an excerpt of a longer interview made to Ira Glass, an american public radio personality, and host and producer of the radio and television show This American Life.

So here it is: http://vimeo.com/24715531 

And here is part 3 of 4 parts of the whole interview.

Art Jam 12: The Crow

90's rule

Tribute to The Crow.

Sketched during last week's ArtJam! and colored yesterday.

I kinda rushed the coloring and decided to do it Cell Shaded style because of the time I had to my disposal. I was sick with the flu last week, and I kinda slacked off for a bit. I know that is not an excuse :P

Done in Photoshop CS5. Around 5 hours.

Coffee Shop Sketch

I did this one as a warmup for my Gabby sketch. Warming up is really important, I bet everyone who draws has experienced a better set of art lines after 4 hours of working.

Spidey Colors

For all you color junkies, here is the process I went through to put some color to my first ever Spiderman illustration.

No music on this one either. Done in Photoshop CS5.

Here is the finished thing.

Art Jam 6: Spidey

I have a couple of unfinished drawings on my Laptop. They are either sketches that went too far and turned into almost finished illustrations or half finished tributes. But  I wanted to specially tackle this one since I started it.

On this week's Art Jam, EDSFOX and I wanted to explore our style of coloring. Each of us took a finished sketch and practiced coloring. Just relaxed and drinking coffee. MarteGod couldn't make it, (coloring Marvel comics is a tough job) We hope to see you very soon bro.

So here is my first Spidey ever. I'm surprised that I have never really try to draw famous characters such as this one before. The background is just an experiment so the character wouldn't felt so alone on the layout.

Done in Sketchbook Pro and colored in Photoshop CS5. 

Inspiration 101: Scott McDaniel

When you finally find that thing that you really like, it's natural that you search for better ways to do it so you can improve. In my case, while I was doing Sevenfold, at first it was exciting to get back on the drawing train, but soon I realized that it was taking me too much time to finish a single page, send it to the editor and continue with the next one. I was sleeping just few hours a day and I was having trouble meeting the deadlines. Illustration is always a race against the clock. You have to produce the best art you can within the time frame that you have, and that just means one thing: you need to be organized.

So I started to do some research on the interwebs, trying to find out how other people do it. I know that this is in a great part a labor of passion and love, which believe me I can honestly say that I have, but there had to be better ways to accomplish the task. That is when I stumbled uppon the web site of Scott McDaniel.

Boy did I hit the jackpot.

Scott is a comic book artist that works for DC comics as penciler for Batman, Detective Comics, Nightwing and The Great Ten. Needless to say he is uber talented.

And besides the fact that Scott is an awesome artist, he is a really really great guy. I haven't had the pleasure to meet him in person, but I've talked a couple of times with him through Facebook chat, and he is one of the nicest guys I've ever met. He believes in giving back to the art community, so he has a special area on his website dedicated to help aspiring artists to break into the comic book world where he describes the do's and dont's as well as what does one need to start in this business. It goes from the gear you need, tips for the artist, drawing exercises, the process of making a comic book page, cover and how to meet your deadlines keeping your schedule within reasonable times. In other words, it was exactly what i needed.

I cannot express how helpful Scott's website was to me at that time (it still is!). I learned a bunch of tricks that helped me speed up my drawing process, not sacrifying art quality or even time! One of the coolest things I learned was the use of the Light box (which I will explain how I built mine later). If you would be kind enough to pay him a visit and give him some love. I'm sure you will not regret it. Because probably, just as he says, you are here because you love comics and you love to draw.

You can find him on Facebook and on his website, scottmcdaniel.net

Once armed with better organizing techniques, I continue my journey to polish my process and search for more inspiring ways to produce better art.