Update Ate My Gallery. Mini Projects.

I recently updated to Wordpress 2.3.2 and everything looked fine until I checked out my Drawings and Sequential Art pages. They utilize a gallery plugin and it seems the update broke it. So until I get it fixed (which will probably take a few days at least judging by how little I know of web dev and code) I apologize for the inaccessibility. Good thing the other pages aren’t affected. Now I notice they have the Wordpress 2.3.3 update for download already. Great.
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I am being swamped by multiple personal project ideas and opportunities and am not quite sure how to handle them. I have a short 2D animation piece I want to develop as preparation for my teaching. It’s tentatively titled “Coffee break”. Then there’s all the stuff I want to explore and attempt for the 3D animation module. And I’ve also been putting off entering Conceptart.org’s P.O.W weekly comic challenge, even though I was (and still am) keen on the idea, and had expressed such enthusiasm upon it’s inception. I hope it doesn’t get pulled due to low participation before I have a chance to jump in. I really don’t want to see the comic art skills I’ve been working on the past few months waste away due to complete inactivity. I guess some other things have taken priority at the moment, but that’s not really a good excuse for utter neglect. So yeah. So many things to do so little time to do it. What else is new.
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My brother recently loaned me the graphic novel adaptation of Paul Auster’s “City of Glass” by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli, and I enjoyed it tremendously (even though I suspect I’ve only partially understood it’s content). I do like the idea of a world defined by words, and the concept of identity brought up in the book. The artwork was beautiful and effective - ranging from stark and minimalistic to incredibly detailed - and the framing purposeful. Especially considering the book’s literally smaller dimensions. To be able to visualize the words into pictures is an incredible feat in itself and I can definitely appreciate that. I also found the use of variety within the 3×3 panels per page layout of the graphic novel to be clever and well executed. Recommended.

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“Blackbird” Comic Completed. Paperless Animation?

I’ve finally finished the artwork on the “Blackbird” comic. Here’s hoping someone picks it up soon. I’m going to take a bit of a break from comic projects for a while (at least those that stretch a few weeks at a time) to focus more on animation and developing teaching materials for the coming semester. One of the modules I’ll be teaching this time around is 2d animation. We’ll be using one of those 2d animation software that’s become so widely used today (check out the newer stuff they’re showing on TV nowadays for some examples), so for the most part it’ll be ‘paperless’. Basically it means that the entire animation process from drawing to final output is done in the software itself. No scanning of drawings needed and no flipping of cels/pages by hand necessary. Time-saving as that may sound, I still believe you can never avoid drawing stuff on good old-fashioned paper. Character designs, thumbnails, pose studies - they’re so much faster and more intuitive to do on paper imho. Wacom tablet and software notwithstanding. Maybe I’m just too much in love with my pencil.
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Did a quick pen sketch of this kid (who I’m assuming is heading home from school) on one of my rare trips on the MRT the other day. I really should get on the public transport more often. And I definitely need to get more sleep…

Posted in Animation, Comics, Drawings & Misc. | 2 Comments »

“Blackbird” is Gliding Along.

The new comic I’m working on is past the halfway point and hopefully it’ll get done before the end of next week. It’s 8 pages long so it’s more like a mini-comic than a proper one really. Here’s a set of drawings of the titular character I did as part of reference gathering:

I’m continuing my exploration of inking (and drawing using the pen both traditionally and digitally) with this project. I recently came across an article on spotting blacks in Draw! magazine which proved quite enlightening. It basically laid down some concepts I’ve picked up on albeit subconsciously when looking at comic art and doing my own. Now I’m planning to utilize it more prominently in my work - starting with “Blackbird”.

Anecdote: Apart from “Blackbird” I’m also trying to tidy up a set of storyboards this weekend for a work-related animation project.

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A Comic Seminar and Pitch. “Attic” Comic Completed. Another Comic Project Begins.

I’m beginning to think I really should be more focused in my blogs. Pick a theme or two and stick with it and not go off on tangents and trivialities. Keep the ramblings to a minimum; probably as an anecdote at the very bottom. And include at least 1 drawing/picture in each post. I claim to be a visual person and here I am putting up word after word after word without any pictures. More images it is then. Come to think of it, I’ll just make my blog’s theme be “visual storytelling” from now on. Comics. Storyboards. Animation. It’s so painfully obvious isn’t it?

Waitaminit. Did I just make a few late new year resolutions?

Anyways. So today I’ll talk about comics. I attended the “Comics to Films” seminar organized by Imaginary Friends Studios yesterday afternoon. They had Barry Levine from Radical Publishing come down and give a talk about what it takes to get comics to film. He also showed us a few sample artwork from upcoming comics/film projects both companies have been working on together. Two things stuck prominently in my mind after the seminar: (1) Radical Publishing doesn’t do superheroes. (2) Barry really likes painterly style artwork.
They had a pitching session afterwards where aspiring writers and artists present their ideas and Barry decides if he wants to help publish it. I took the opportunity to pitch one of the ideas Hafiz (my comics collaborator) and I have been working on, and was told that he’ll read through it and get back to me as soon as possible. Actually, part of the reason why I participated was to see what it would be like to pitch a comic idea. It was surprisingly easy-going and brief. Right now I’m cautiously optimistic over the outcome.
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Remember that b&w comics project I’ve been working on these past weeks? It’s called “Attic”. After all this time it’s finally finished and we’ve submitted it to an independent publisher to put in their anthology. The guy in charge seems to really like it so here’s hoping it’ll see print very soon. As a teaser, this is what the 1st panel looks like:

I did all the artwork and letters, and found inking to be something totally alien to me. Don’t get me wrong. I never had the mistaken impression that inking was “just tracing pencil lines”. I guess the tricky hatchings and the finality of inks place added pressure on me. I had to do quite a bit of research and practice before coming up with something I was more or less satisfied with. I ended up using loads of tracing paper to test out the lines and hatchings on top of the pencils. However, the upside of going through the whole process is that I’m slowly gaining confidence using the pen. In case you’re wondering, I used Copic markers primarily for my inks.
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As we’re putting “Attic” to bed, another comic project opportunity came our way. We discovered that another independent publisher is currently looking for submissions for a horror anthology. Being the prolific writer that he is, Hafiz came up with a cool short story in no time and handed me the script for a 6-pager comic. I’m at the character designs and layouts stages at the moment. I really need to step it up a notch and get the serious in-panel artwork going. The deadline this time is end January. Let’s hope I can finish it on time.
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Anecdote: I went to Dream Theater’s “Chaos in Motion” concert at Fort Canning Park last Thursday and - despite the pouring rain mid-way through - enjoyed myself tremendously. For almost 3 hours, they played most of “Systematic Chaos”, some blistering guitar and keyboard solos, and a choice selection of songs from their lengthy discography. The fact that more than a few were my favourites was definitely a major plus point. To sum it all up in one word: “AWESOME!”

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From C.R.A.D.L.E to Coheed and Cambria. A New Comic Project.

“No World for Tomorrow” is the latest album by the band Coheed and Cambria which I am currently really enjoying listening to. I heard about them when my good friend Hazik sent me a link about the band and the on-going comic project the lead singer is writing. He knows I’m a fan of progressive metal (Dream Theater is one of my all-time favourite bands) and comics. At the time, I haven’t been following either seriously for quite awhile, so I sorta put the idea of finding out more about them on the shelf and promptly forgot all about it.
Then one day, out of the blue, I decided I wanted some music to listen to at work. The CD I most wanted to check out was the new album by C.R.A.D.L.E (a Singaporean Malay rock band). I really liked their debut album a few years back and heard that they recently released a new one after a long hiatus. It’s rare that I have any interest in recent local or Malay music so this was kinda special. Most of the stuff they play on mainstream radio now is definitely not my cup of tea. I am soooo out of it it’s not even funny. Anyway, so I was looking out for the album and was having a really hard time finding any shop that sells it. Muzika Records is usually a reliable place to buy Malay rock CDs but the last time I visited their Joo Chiat shop they informed me it was sold out (btw in case anyone’s wondering, they no longer have an outlet at Queensway Shopping Center - I told you I was out of it). If any of you locates the CD, I’d appreciate a shout so I can go look it up.
How does this lead to Coheed and Cambria, you ask? Well, I was in town a week or so back, and decided to stop by HMV on the slim chance that they might stock C.R.A.D.L.E’s latest album, being the mega music store that they are. It didn’t really surprise me at all to find that they don’t (I’m not even sure if they stock any Malay music apart from the debut release of a recent local competition winner), but while walking down the aisles, I spotted “No World for Tomorrow” on one of the sample racks, tagged with an interesting review mentioning Marvel comics and Queensryche’s “Silent Lucidity” amongst other things. I recalled my friend’s recommendation and thought there’s nothing to lose in giving it a bit of a listen. I was hooked instantly.
From the soaring vocals to the rhythmic beats and catchy guitar riffs, every song had something pretty special in it. The experience for me was kinda like when I heard Dream Theater’s “Pull Me Under” or In Flames’s “Cloud Connected” for the very first time. The music and vocals grabbed me and stayed in my head for quite awhile after. I am also a big fan of the concept album (Queensryche’s “Operation Mindcrime” is a fav) so that was an added bonus. I didn’t realize until much later what a complicated epic fantasy story the whole “The Armory Wars” (the title of the on-going project the comic and albums are based on) was, or that this latest album is one of the closing chapters, but it really doesn’t matter. I snapped it up and have been listening to it over and over again ever since. I’ll definitely be looking out for their previous albums as well as the comic just to complete the entire experience. Maybe I can then make sense of the story, who knows. Come to think of it, I haven’t checked out Dream Theater’s or Queensryche’s latest albums yet either. I wonder if they’re any good…

Speaking of comic projects, my previous collaborator on “Carrier” and myself have been working on a new black and white all-ages mini-comic that we aim to complete and hopefully get published sometime in the near future. At the moment, I’m a little behind on the artwork, but I’m hoping to do a lot of catching up over the weekend. I’m really trying to keep it simple yet visually effective, but it’s still a lot of work. I’ll keep you updated on how it develops. And in case you’re wondering, “Carrier” Chapter 2 is somewhere in the works as well.

As if that’s not enough, there’s another small project that I’m right in the middle of at the moment. This time it’s a simple 2D animation piece. Nothing fancy. Just something to show off some features of a certain software. There’s a bit of a deadline on that one too. I’ll talk more about it in my next posting. As well as highlight the seminars and workshops I’ve been attending these past few weeks. Didn’t I tell you I had lots to say?

Catcha laters, peeps!

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