The Comic Book Convention

Here in my hometown, ever since I was old enough to admire comics in more than a semi-serious kind of way, I remember that I always wanted to go to The Comic Book Convention. It takes place twice a year and it was a really exciting event to attend to. In the beginning it was very small and modest, but later on it got bigger and... not so much better. Anyway. The point is that I never really imagined that I would be on the other side of those booths, the artists side of the convention.

Fast forward to March 2010, the weekend of my birthday to be exact. That was the day all the work and effort that we had put in the project paid off. We had completed the 1st issue of Sevenfold: Legends in War. It had been a very short period of time to put together a comic but we did it. Sure it had many many things that could have been improved, but even then, the important thing was to start. Surely enough, as in many things in life, everything should get better as time pases.

One thing I should point out, was the fact that this comic was the first experience for every person in the team, so it was bound to have many flaws and room for improvement. With that being said, I was never happy with the way it was colored, I was only responsible for the pencils and the character design in the book, but in the overall development, I think it was a decent job under the circumstances.

I know this is a blog about the process of making art, so here are some pics of that day, which was kind of important to realize several thins about the business, its people and my future as an artist.

 

 

Also, I have never mention before this, but if you have any questions or comments about anything at all, please don't hesitate to do so. I would love to know what you think, even it if I have to wait for a while.

Character design

(Continued from this Post) Alright, so I was on my way to create a universe based on a very cool story. It's only fair to say that the story was not mine, but I had complete freedom in the creation of the characters. When designing a character, the first thing that you must have is the complete profile, which is the description of his or her or its phisical traits, as well as their personality and relationship to the story.

There was a fair amount of research needed in order to make an original interesting and original creation. From the type of outfit to the weapons or looks, you have to investigate what new traits you can contribute so the characters are fresh and exiting in new ways, and not another Wolverine or another Spawn.
In my case I used the Internet (obviously) to find out what I needed. From the different types of knives for the main character, which is a werewolf hunter, to military and pilot uniforms, F-22 airplanes and of course Dragons, big badass dragons. There is always something exciting to learn about everything, even if the story is not entirely based on reality, research is a fundamental part that reflects on your artwork.

These are the initial sketches exploring the outfits and weapons of the Hunter, some different kinds of dragons and the bad guy, a big ugly demon. First time I show some of this sketches btw.

 


 

Re-discovering one's true calling.

Ok, let's start shaping this mother up.

It was about one year ago when a friend asked me if I wanted to be the penciler for this comic book idea he had on his mind. At the time I was doing some graphic design, but it was not doing so well. So I figured what the heck, I'm going to get payed to draw a cool story and I get to design all the characters. It was a long time dream of mine to draw a comic book, so I got on board with the project. It had been a while since I last sketched something, so I asked him if I could do an art test first, just so he could be convinced that my style (if I ever had one) was adequate to  the story and to prove myself that I could still do it. It took me a while to get used to the old pencil and artboard, but little by little the hands remembered what it felt to draw again.

This was my first drawing in years.

The character was a were-wolf, a really nasty one. I decided to put some kind of ripped clothing as a form of a kilt, because he had to keep some kind of clothing, (kinda like Hulk's pants). I had never drawn a werewolf so I think it ended up pretty decent. When my friend saw this he was pleased with it and we started to organize the whole thing. This was the beginning of an interesting learning experience.

Next on the list: the character design process.