Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Found the grind stone


I'm not as scared of the internet as one might think..Okay maybe I am. BUT Look! I'm making an effort. Prepared the next ten pages of Friendly game for toning. Working backwards and taking them one "scene" at a time. That also will hopefully make the task of this book less daunting.

And looking at other people with awesome toning skills for inspiration...

Like this guy! Rafael Albuquerque!

The beginning of the semester was a bit of a blitz. Long story short- Savannah is going to be my home for a while longer and SCAD will be graced with my presence for a semester longer. I realized that there shouldn't be any kind of rush to move back home and away from other artists that can help/ inspire me. Looking for a new place to live however will be....an exciting adventure

Staying Positive

-Affe

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Inking Blues

I'm bad at this writing frequently thing....The last couple of weeks, I put Friendly Game pages aside to compose and ink the above illustration for an art competition. It's around 8.5 x 15 inches, which proves I'm still attached to comic-page-ish dimensions. I actually blew up a doodle from my sketchbook and finished the actual pencilling in Photoshop to print out and ink the final image.

Unfortunately, when I went to get my ink refill at Wal-Greens that I was so excited for in all it's inexpensive glory, I learned that the company stopped refilling the apparently single use cartridges due to "electrical problems". Apparently though, all the different cartridge refill outlets both online and in-person have convinced HP to lower the prices on new ones a bit, as well as advertise about their inks being 65% better than those bargin ones.....Considering a large portion of what I print is going to have black ink drawn over in anyhow, it's not that much of a deterent to find some sort of refill station. The claims that refilled catridges sometimes broke printers howerver.....that's just rotten. I dunno how true they are.

Anyhow, I seem to take longer in inking things that are mine as opposed to inking over someone else. Most of that is the nasty habit of leaving things only kinda-drawn in because "I'm inkin' it, I know what it does, dur dur dur!" Somehow, I still find myself slowing down and questioning things too much though. Which is why it's important to always have that cut-off point of "NO. It's DONE and if you do anymore, you'll mess it up, so don't pick at it." You could work on a page forever and never consider it done.

Reading wise, I finished Stephen King's "Different Seasons" a week or so ago and enjoyed getting multiple good stories. Essentially, the book contains four nouvellas - the awkward middle child of the short story and the novel. They weren't all the level of super-awesome, the final story "The Breathing Method" took a while to get going and get to the meat of the story, but overall really good stories. Of special interest is "Apt Pupil", featuring a creepy kid and a disenchanted old Nazi. Probably not the best summary, but I'm sure you're interesting in finding out more now, right?

Anyhow, scanned the new pages for the start of the book. It will probably be a few weeks before I'm done inking the end of the book and can get to inkin' these new beginning pages, so here's a puppy for you till then:
AHUGE late congrats to lindsay who turned a different age last tuesday!
we love her!!

Thursday, September 24, 2009

finally read it!

the comic "garage band" by gipi i've been wanting to read for over 8 months now finally became accessible to me thanks to the venice library in los angeles, california. and boy, i gotta say: it's better than i expected.
it's a simple story about a 4-members (drums, 2 guitars and vocals) band who are given a space to practice by the main character's dad. the rule is simple: stay out of trouble and you can keep using the space. simultaneously, the singer's dad gets him in contact with some record label man who has decided to give them a listen. a few days before their "audition"... an amp blows up, which means... no sound... which means... they're screwed out of an audition. after that, the story only gets better.
it also does a good job at balancing out a between how much to talk about each character, how much to talk about the band's conflict and how much to show them playing in the garage (cus' let;'s be honest, a large part of comic;s charm is to read the band playing and jamming). each band member is given a significant amount of time on their own so the reader can know where they are coming from. Stefano (singer)'s tense relations at home are well paralleled with Alex's awkward life with his mom and aunt but interestingly contrasted by Alberto's tender relatinship with his father AND guiliano's sweet relationship with his girlfriend. Still, once they are put in the same invironment, they have their own antics against each other but work well together because of the music they make.
overall, it's a soft and simple story well told about a garage band of teenagers.( something that many can identify it) it's very realistic from a story sense, tho the art style takes some "getting use to" (in my opinion, i think its a bit sloppy in some areas and could have used some richer colors in some spots)

if you find it. it's a good read.

Saturday, September 19, 2009

comments must be made...


so, over the last couple of days i came across two art pieces that are really really cool, so, i wanna comment on them. the first one is Renne Lott's very first graphic novel titled "festering romance" out by ONI press. the story takes place in our dear past home, Savannah and it's about a girl (janet)attempting to make a new relationship work out without having to let go of her past. her better half (derek) is on the same boat. it's straight forward, sincere and yes, very cute. it begins with a very light feeling and not overwhelming at all for the course the story will be taking, which is a good thing, 'cus it doesnt make the reader feel forced into something, rather the story unveils itself in a simple manner as it goes along. basically, the story develops as it goes so it's a very well told story. the art for the book is highly cartoony manga-sque , which creates a neat contrast with the more serious undertones of the tale and one thing that can be said about renee's art style is that it is unique and authentic. she creates her own icons and lenguage to a character's mechanics. overall, it's a fun and enjoyable read. the art is solid and it's definetely one of those books with a strong message. check it out at


the second art piece that i bumped into was muse's new album the resistance. finally. after 3 years of waiting since their album "black holes and reveleation" here it is... and... there it was. first off.. i'm a muse fan, and it was interesting to see the band go back to the previous style they were using during the origin of symmetry and absolution isntead of the more dancy-but still enjoyable-techno rythms they did in black holes and revelations. the albums starts of with a "boom!" on its first track, and yes, we've all heard that "uprising" is very similar to a bunch of other songs, but, y'know what? so are those songs similar to others, and wtf, it's an enjoyable tune. after track one, the resistance only makes the album better and gives you a reason to pump the volume even higher. a big similarity to origin is distinguishable in "unnatural selection" and just as expected just as delivered. the song is a powerful melody that makes you wanna scream along " i want the truth". the biggest surprise in the album is the upbeat track "i belong to you" optimistic and unexpected, still blends well with the entirety of the album. and last but not least, yes... exogenesis... a 3-track symphony that tells a story of redemptions and regrets.

overall, the album is really good, but two things concern me: it's somewhat repetitive in its rhythms and specially in its lyrics. guitarist and singer matt b. talks about falling and questioning a union, as if there's more left unsaid on the page track that what he actually wrote. and the second concern is regarding the music, there are parts where it seems as if it does not go to the lengths muse has surpassed before. exogenesis could have been a whole lot better. but for what it is, it's a fun album, it's a well created album, well produced and i will say, impresively successful in blending styles such as chopin's writings into their united states. listen to it. it;s AWESOME. i'm about to it right now.

Thursday, September 17, 2009


penciling around the clock is fearly tiring, but exciting, specially fter 45 minute drives twice a day. oh well. so, it's early in the morning and while Affe is toning and Lindsay inks, i pencil other comics and prepare a demo for the future artists. the night before last i spent it inking and having a nice sip to some Tecate celebrating the 199 years of my independent home nation. I think all i gotta say is BIBA LA MEJIKO.

yey...

Saturday, September 12, 2009

wattaweek


well, i finished my first week at my new job, and i gotta say, i love it so much. the only down side is taht i dont get a lot of time to do other sketches, cus i'm already working on another comic, but, in general, i think i have one of the most wonderful jobs ever. not to mention, i do think it;s quite ironic that here we are working on a story about kids in adult scenarios.. and then there;s this job.

on another note, saw whiteout and lemme throw a huge shout-out to steve leiber, illustrator of Greg rucka's story. the film was awesome and very well followed the steps of what rucka and Leiber did. tho i do gotta say.. not a huge fan of the soundtrack, but, it was fun...

well, back to inking,,..

Saturday, September 5, 2009

typing is productive for a non-writer


what a weekend... and it's only half way thru.
so, before i go on ahead and upload some sketches i have been working on, first i wil announce to myself that i finally have a printer/scanner. i couldnt be more pleased.
also, the joy i get from knowing that lindsay got the pages just fine and dandy, cus... since i sent them before i had this little epson... lemme tell ya... i did not make copies, so if those pages didnt get there...


wow... dont even want to think about it, but, meanwhile.. i shall continue storybaording and working on other comics and, taking new responsabilities as a burbank resident.

gnite.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

A Friendly Box

So I finally got around to organizing (a little) in the studio space at home and found my Friendly Box. It's not the first Friendly Box, but this one's been around for a little over a year and during my go-abouts from Savannah back to Paducah for summer and winter breaks from college, I would stuff any and all Friendly Game related things into it, mostly my inked pages. Sometimes there'd be other stuff floating around, but mostly the inks. Specifically, I feared foul play would happen if these pages were left in Savannah when I was gone over the breaks, so they would travel back with me just like my computer and fancy printing junk. I hadn't touched the box since moving a month ago, and I knew there was a lot of last minute non-book stuff that was jammed into it during the frantic moving business, as well as complete disorganization left over with some pages being in the box and some being in a portfolio from the SCAD Editor's Day.

In the pile-o-stuff picture, clockwise from 1 o'clock you have 125 inked pages (some that are going to be replaced with changed scenes), a stack of thumbnails, character sheets, and Google-image reference pictures (some that were rather icky...), Joe's copy of the script with his notations and coffee-stains, and a few pencils that managed to somehow hitch-hike back with me, also from Editor's Day scramble.

I'd forgotten that Joe had given me his print-out copies of the script he used while thumbnailin' / penciling...although I was the one to ask for it. Joe basically fixed any and all awkward pacing that I had going on in the script, scenes that were 2 pages evolved into 5 or 6 and worked out much better that way. Needless to say, such additions switch around where and what pages dialogues happen.
Because the pile of inked pages were SO THICK, I thought I'd measure them for grins. The carpet kinda interfers, but it looks around 3 inches thick, give or take considering the curl on some of the pages. So many spot blacks.......

The difference in artwork is really drastic, considering the first pages of this stack were started in the last year of our undergrad at SCAD and go through until the end of the 2 year MFA degree Joe and I both beat ourselves up with. There's the first fight scene page, and then the fight scene I was working on the other night......What's kinda funny is that all the original inks for such a grisly story have been carted around in a box that has one of those obnoxiously fluffy toy dogs on it. But it fit 11 x 17 paper so....eh.

My brain's tired, so here's a few comparison and close-ups of my Friendly Box contents. Maybe by next time I'll have made it to Wal-Green's to get those ink-cartridge refills and print s'more blue-line pages.




Tuesday, September 1, 2009



still no new pictures at the moment, except for this one that i found and i think it's pretty cool. currently i am working on another comic where i get to pencil, ink and letter myself, and man, do i miss lindsay going over my work. not that i hate my inking or anything, but it makes a big difference.
as lindsay knows and probably hates me for it... i tend to overdraw sometimes. lindsay, so far has been great at simplifying my textures and details. also, she's really good at keeping things neat. when i ink my own work... i kinda go all over the place: spaltters are everywhere, textures and wakky and the random marks to indicate dents and scratches. essentially, when i kin my own work, everything looks like it's been knocked around a bit here and there. but even better, i'm so glad lauren is now helping in the project 'cus if there are shadows or shapes that must be added, lauren tackles those with her tines.

well... back to making a mess.