Hands on: Digital Inking in Photoshop CS5

So the search continued.

After seeing the potential and how alive the artwork becomes, it became kind of an obsession to find more and more about this "digital inking" thing. it was imperative that I found out how to get better, and with that comes finding the best tool for the job.

After trying Sketchbook Pro for a while I became sort of comfortable using it. But one thing I haven't experimented on was the sizes of the art boards.  Sure it was fun to use a wide format for sketches but not for an american comic book page format. A comic book page is roughly 11 x 17 inches, although it may vary due to different processes depending on how you like to work (either digitally or traditional) this is the official size. And Sketchbook Pro just doesn't cut it.

Aside from that, I needed to learn, and fast because I was contacted by a client from Deviant Art (my first international commission by the way) to draw a 6 page horror story. I was very exited and had the pencils for the first two pages already finished, but I needed to ink them. I was planning on inking them traditionally, you know as a way of practicing for the real deal, but once again, time is the enemy.

I decided to just dive myself into doing it directly on Photoshop. Like everything else, you just have to go for it. After watching a couple of You Tube Tutorials and a few tricks of my own I managed to ink for the first time a comic book page that resembles the real thing. And to my surprise it wasn't so bad. Here a sample of the finished Page:

And as I said before, I'm very interested in doing video tutorials about all the things that I'm learning, so I can practice and pass on the knowledge to anyone that can benefit from it.

Therefore I give to you, my first digital Inking Video Tutorial :

I hope to get more kick ass as time passes, in the meantime we are just part of the process. 

Sevenfold: Rise and Fall.

Comic book convention came and went, and we had a blast. It was our first experience as creators and being sited on the artist side of the whole thing was simply awesome. Sevenfold is the name of our comic and it was only the beginning of the 2010. -"This is my year"- I thought. This is the year where I come back to life doing what I thought I have forgotten for many years, drawing for a living.

Guess again.

We have had a couple of good talks with some editorial houses and the book was supposed to be selling in major magazine stores and comic book posts here in Mexico, but not just in my city, but in other major cities as well. We had planned to release 6 issues the first year, and if the book was successful, it would came for a second season the following year. We just had to keep working hard to make sure the book got out on time.

But even though we did it every month, for the first 3 months at least, something wasn't working. I don't know what it was, but the book was't selling as we had hoped. Together with mismatched partnerships with the editorial houses (which I'm not gonna name) we hit a wall that we could not evade.

Long story short, on october of that year, we could no longer support making the comic. We released only 3 issues out of 6. I have finished issue no. 4 completely and began issue no. 5. At this point, Ed, the creator of the story and Editor of the whole thing decided it was better to postpone it (indefinitely) than to continue. After all, making comics is a business and Sevenfold wasn't behaving like one.

So much for my big break in comics.

But, same as in life, everything happens for a reason. Something inside me told me it wasn't over, not like that at least. This Sevenfold experience taught me many many things, and the most important one was that I re-discovered my true calling in life. You can disguise it by trying to be something similar, but deep down you know what you are. You just have to be bold and face it.

I decided that moment that I wanted to become an artist, a comic book artist, no matter what, and I set myself to design a plan in order to do so.

Deadlines

In illustration as well as in anything, time is on the essence. Never trust the deadline day because you will not make it. As a colleague recently pointed out, being too light handed on yourself and your time management will bite you in the arse if you are not careful.

Right now I have a deadline to meet, that is why I haven't posted anything in a couple of days. But I will get to it, trust me.

I leave you with a little image of one commission I have to deliver in two days. I'll tell you all about it later.

Hands on: Sketchbook Pro

A while ago, when I was looking for means to digitally improve my drawings. In this journey I came across some very interesting software mentions in a couple of different blogs and podcasts. Of course there was always Photoshop and Painter as top artists choices to acomplish any task. As my investigation continued, I began to hear (or read rather) some other alternatives to those programs that not many people know about.

I was watching a live stream of Scottie Young, amazing artist that you should already know, and someone asked him what software was he using.  -"I do most of my sketching in Sketchbook Pro "- he said. He can produce some serious art with that software, it most be worth the watch. So I got it as soon as I could and started to use it with my Wacom Tablet. These quick sketches were actually my first attempt to digitally ink anything at all.

They suck I know.

Needless to say it takes a while to get used to the program, but it can be of great assistance for several reasons. It feels very natural, very real like pencil brushes, as well as other tools like the marker or the pen brush. I have seen it been used on the creation of concept art for cars and other vehicles. I have used it in the creation of logos, and some cartoon characters. 

Here are some other examples of things done in Sketchbook Pro, after using it a few times, it gets easier.

 

And of course, the crown jewel is the Legend of Zelda Tribute, but I can't show you that one just jet. 

It is a good software overall, I haven't fully explore it yet but I recommend you to check it out if you can, you might find it useful for the daily sketching. It just occurred to me this moment to make some video tutorials trying out all the different programs that I use to sketch of to make final art. I think it could interesting.

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.

The Legend of Zelda 2nd Teaser

Where is Navi now?

It's not my intention to keep you guys on the edge waiting and waiting for the finished piece... (or is it?). I have already finished the inks on the whole piece, I just need to make myself enough time to put the colors into it. Again, in the mean time here is another teaser of the process, which I will make a complete post once is ready.

To be honest this is the first time I draw Link and I really liked the result. I'm hoping the colors will really make it come alive.

Everything you need to know about the Legend of Zelda here.

Issue No. 1.

The main characters for the first Issue of my first comic project were authorized. I was getting to like the story a lot, it involved mythical creatures, angels demons and some other cool stuff. It was time to really get back on the horse. The truth was, I haven't drawn anything before that point for the past 5 or 6 years (I got into being an art director for an Advertising Agency, [pretty good one too]) and I was pretty rusty. But I had the will and the desire to do this. I started right in penciling the pages based on story boards drawn by some one else, so it saved me some time. Time, it seemed, was a resource artists do not have the luxury of.
It was only one week after I had completed only 2 or 3 pages when Ed, the writer of the comic told me:
-Dude, I got us a spot on the Comic Book Convention!- Great! I thought. But that's in March, meaning 2 months from now. And we dont have a comic book yet...

The Horror.

So I got into hyper speed mode, sleeping just enough hours and drawing the rest of the time. It was here where I really grasped the mechanics of what I lacked or better yet what I needed to improve in order to be able to do this faster and more practical. But in the mean time, it was draw or die. And I'm still here.

These are some of the first pages of Issue 1. I can't believe it was a year ago, there are many many mistakes that I see now, but right then and there that was my 110% all the way. I'll tell you more about the process of drawing the comic pages and how that process has improved dramatically since then.