Louie: It’s him all right. Should I shoot him gangland style or execution style? Fat Tony: Listen to your heart.
Drawing styles is what separates artists from one another. Even when some artists copy each others styles, they aren’t exactly the same.
Styles are important enough that artists are more or less successful, sometimes, on style alone.
So a lot of developing artists are in a HUGE rush to get one. To find the style that will “make them somebody.”
I think this is the wrong way to think. I think worrying about style is a waste of time.
Today, I’m going to be talking about drawing styles.
You can either watch the video or read what I’ve got to say below it. It’s the same content. Go have a look.
Also make sure to check out what you get if you opt in to receive e-mails this week by scrolling to the bottom of this first article.
And below that, there’s the chance to win some free books and gift certificates:
My Style
I think I have a style. I’m not sure, but I might. If I do, I didn’t develop it, create it, or go out of my way to make it.
As animators we’re not trained to have a style. We’re not really supposed to have a style. We’re supposed to be chameleons of style. We are trained to emulate ALL styles.
In the animation industry, I would even go so far as to say that, having a style might be a detriment. I would say, that this might also be true with artists in general. If you only have one style, you’re shooting yourself in the foot.
Style Development
I think it’s better to be a good draftsman and draw well, then to have a style. What style actually is, is your favorite short hand solutions to drawing problems. It’s how you want to draw knees or faces…it’s the way you want to express certain things.
It’s something unique to you, and it just happens.
When you study a lot of academics, artists, and drawing solutions, the amalgam of all that work develops into your voice. Your style will develop without you trying hard. It will just happen.
Style is just you’re go to solutions. That thing you always do.
People will say,
“You always make one eye bigger than the other. You always draw eyebrows like that,” and you’ll say,
“Because that’s what I like,” and that’s what’s going to end up happening. Your style will begin to develop naturally.
Draftsmanship First
The problem is that the people who don’t know how to draw as good as they want, are the people that want to skip to style right away.
Develop your draftsmanship FIRST. Then you’re style will develop naturally. It will just happen, because you will develop short hand solutions.
Mastery of All Styles
I would even go so far as to say, that even when you develop a style, break from it. Try other styles. Do other things. Try emulating other people’s styles. Be a style chameleon. Don’t be pigeon holed.
Be able to do any style. From realistic to cartoony.
For example, if you look at someone like Frank Frazetta, he has some very “realistic” paintings. His style is very naturalistic. That’s what everyone sees when you google him. It’s these beautiful fantasy paintings:
The thing is, he was an incredible draftsman. Yet, he was also a fantastic cartoonist. He was able to draw the “Looney Tunes” style, perfectly. You would have never guessed it was him if you saw them:
When I first saw his cartoony stuff, I thought to myself,
“That’s Frank Frazetta? Really? That’s fantastic!” I wouldn’t have known.
He was really really versatile. Style didn’t matter. His draftsmanship skills where so good, he could do anything.
THAT’S what you want.
The Handy Cap of Style
You don’t want to pigeon hole yourself into one style. What happens when your style goes out of style? When no one wants “your style?”
Well, then you’re out of a job. You’re a one trick pony. Don’t do that to yourself.
Be a style chameleon. Be able to do draw anything in any style. The only way to do this, is to really work at developing your draftsmanship skills and master drawing.
That’s what I would recommend when it comes to style.
Comments
So what do you think? Leave a comment. Did you like what I said, do you disagree?
Drawing a Limited Edition Serigraph Cel
This week, I sent off an e-mail where I tell the story behind the making of limited edition serigraph cel, along with the original art.
Interested?
Opt in below before next Thursday and I’ll send you the e-mail too.
All these possibilities and more, are brought to you by: a woman who takes on the weight of the world through her magical gift, an empress who can inspire kings, a wizard spying against Nazi warlock vampires, a sword wielding, swash buckling, shape shifter, and The Grim Reaper’s novice.
My wife and her author friends want you to experience the fun and excitement that their books bring into your life. To this end, they are doing a “Blog Tour” starting (as of the time of this writing) TOMORROW.
Join them and enter to win the prizes above. But more importantly, see what fun reads these books are.
Who know, you might end up being ADDICTED TO HEROINES.(Sorry, I couldn’t help myself)
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – The Missing Pieces in an Artist’s Knowledge
Simpsons Quote:
Homer: [grumbling about Smithers] He thinks he’s so big. Karl: You don’t belong here. Homer: Huh? Karl: [pointing emphatically at Homer] You. Don’t. Belong. Here. You’re a fraud and a phony and it’s only a matter of time ’till they find you out! Homer: [gasping] Who told you? Karl: You did. You told me with the way you slump your shoulders. The way you talk into your chest. The way you smother yourself in bargain-basement lime-green polyester! I want you to say to yourself, “I deserve this. I love it. I am nature’s greatest miracle!” Go ahead, say it. Homer: [after a few bumbling attempts] I deserve this! I AM NATURE’S GREATEST MIRACLE! Karl: I’ll need three weeks’ vacation and moving expenses. Homer: You got it, buddy! Karl: Let’s go shopping!
Today I’ve got some videos for you and a link that will help and inspire you to invest in yourself.
I know you’ve already done this. As artists we’re always learning more and more about art. This is great, but just as important as learning our craft is investing in understanding on how to leverage it so we can live off it.
I was hoping to do a much shorter video this week. It mostly is, I just ended up asking a long winded favor at the end of this video.
Below is a video where I introduce the videos and link I’m going to be referring you to and why. You can watch it or you can go ahead and just start watching the videos. Below I’ve also transcribed what I say in the video anyway.
But please, make sure you read the favor I ask at the bottom of this post. It will influence my next blog topics from this point on. Thanks:
The Gap in our Artistic Knowledge
As artists, our education tends to be about drawing or our art. It’s usually not about money management, entrepreneurship, learning to make a living with the assets we’ve got.
There are to video below that I think are very useful in this regard. I’ve also got a link to a blog post that has recommendations on reading material.
Jim Rohn Videos
The first two videos are from a man by the name of Jim Rohn. He’s an old timey entrepreneur, marketer, and most importantly, motivational speaker. In the video he talks about things that, as artist we don’t really talk about or think about.
The first talk is called “Living an Exceptional Life,” which I like a lot. It’s in fact geared for kids. It tries to get THEM to think about this kind of thing at an early age. It even talks a bit about money management. I highly recommend it:
This next video is called, “Three Keys to Greatness.” This video compliments the first video above. There’s a little bit of information overlap with the video above, but it mostly adds other interesting things that are not said in the first video.
This third link is to a blog post written by Dan Kennedy. Dan Kennedy is a marketer that teaches marketing. It provides a list of some of his favorite books that he recommends if you want to learn marketing and other skills. Skills that we need to learn, especially because we’re not taught these skills as artist. We’re too busy learning to draw and do art.
I keep recommending these videos and this link to friends of mine because I think they’re very good to watch and read. Now I’m sharing them with you. I hope you get as much out of them as I did. I’ve watched the videos twice and have not yet written down notes from the Jim Rohn videos. I really should. They’re fantastic.
A Favor
Besides leaving a comment if you like what I’ve shared here, let me know if you have any questions about his kind of thing. I’ve really been studying it lately and I’m kinda eager to share what I’ve learned so far.
It would be nice to know if this is something you want me to elaborate on so we can keep the conversation going.
I’ve also like to know if there’s something else you’d like me to talk about. Is there any question that you might be wondering about or might want to know about that you think I might be able to answer?
The last series of posts on this blog where inspired by a reader of my blog who asked me to talk about increasing your value as an artist. So you can definitely influence the direction of the conversation of the next few posts.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Increasing Your Value as an artist by Doing What Others Can’t or Wont do
Simpsons Quote:
“You tried your best and you failed miserably. The lesson is: never try.” – Homer Simpson
Sometimes an art job is…well, to put it mildly, unappealing.
Artists simply don’t want to do it or don’t have the skill to.
At some point, after being in the art industry for a while, you can choose what jobs you’re willing to have and which ones your not so excited about.
Let’s say, for whatever reason, you turn down an unappealing job. In fact, it’s an unappealing job that MOST artists turn down or can’t do, though it’s still a good paying job.
You’ve just thrown away an opportunity. That job that no one wanted or couldn’t do, may very well have been the job that set you apart and made you look better than the rest. You would have become a more valuable artist.
I’m going to be talking about that in this week’s post. How doing what others can’t or wont will increase your value as an artist:
Drawing as Work
I just wanted to point something out that I’ve noticed and this is something that happens in just about every industry, and the art industry is no exception. The job is perceived as work–it’s a job.
We get our job done and then we go home, and we want to relax and have nothing to do with our job. An artist draws all day, for eight hours, and goes home and just wants to relax. That’s okay, that’s perfectly fine.
The thing is, sometimes an artist is given an opportunity in work or freelance to do something that might be more work. This work might be a pain in the neck, something they don’t want to do. But, it’s something necessary that whoever is giving you the job is really counting on it getting done. So they go to you, and you turn it down.
What does that do to you?
Well you’re not the go-to person after that. But had you said yes and accepted the job, your perceived value from that person would’ve gone up.
What Happened to Me During THE SIMPSONS Movie
Let me show you an example from my life from both sides, when I turned down a job and when I didn’t. They happened around the same time.
During the Simpsons movie, there was a ton of work that had to be done at the Fox lot. What ended up happening was that production would come around and ask artists,
“Can you work this weekend at the Fox lot?”
Just imagine how the artists were all overworked already because production was heavy. We needed a break, we needed a little rest. We wanted a free weekend. Just about everyone refused.
When they came and asked me, I said yes, and I was on the Fox lot working on the weekends. I thought it was a good opportunity and a good place to be, and it turned out I was right.
I eventually ended up working at the Fox lot ONLY. I was among all the other people who had agreed to come to the lot on weekends. The perceived value of every artist at the Fox lot increased, and it was much easier for us to be the go-to people than the people who refused.
How I Lost my Freelance Gigs
While I was working at the lot, it was a very intense and very heavy duty experience. It meant I had no free time, I had to stay there, and had no control over when I could leave.
I got a phone call from one of the art directors for the comic book that I worked on. I’ve been doing comic books on the side for twelve years.
The art director called me up and asked me to do a freelance job while I was at the Fox lot. He was desperate, and he was begging me to take the work. I couldn’t do it. If he had given me the work, there was no way I could meet the deadline. I wasn’t in a position to take the job.
Because I couldn’t accept the job, I hadn’t been called back by him in five or six years.
The Point
So, you take the opportunities that you can get. Don’t refuse work because you don’t want to do it; I refused it because it wasn’t humanly possible to do it, and even THEN it had negative effects.
I took the work that no one else wanted at the Fox lot, and it benefited me.
I recommend being willing to do what others are unwilling to do, and being willing to do what others cannot do, and that will increase your perceived value as an artist and secure more work in the future.
E-mailing Bum Thumbnails from “The City of New York vs. Homer Simpson” episode
This week my newsletter group gets a behind the scenes look at my thumbnails of the bum in this scene:
It was a good time. I laughed so hard during our talk.
Raul also put all kinds of goofy music and sound effect depending on what we spoke about.
If you want to hear out conversation go over to the Man vs. Art site and give it a listen.
And make sure to check out the post because Raul has done a cool little video about drawing a picture using “The rule of thirds”.
WEBSITES – Designing Super Basic Compositions
New drawing website post is up. This time I took on the daunting task of picking ONE tip on composition and wrote about it.
Really, it feels ridiculous to only pick one. I’m not sure what it was about this particular post compared to the other ones but this one REALLY felt like was I leaving a lot out.
Did I not pick the right principle to talk about? I’m not sure.
THE SIMPSONS NEWS – Increase Your Value as an Artist by Learning to Draw What You Don’t Like.
Simpsons Quote:
Homer: But every time I learn something new, it pushes out something old! Remember that time I took a home wine-making course and forgot how to drive?
Marge: That’s because you were drunk.
Homer: And how!
If there’s something you don’t like to draw as an artist, it’s very possible that there’s a simple reason why.
There’s also a way to actually start liking to draw what you originally didn’t like once you fix this problem.
On the show, as a Layout artist, you are often given assignments with things you simply don’t want to draw or don’t like drawing. As a professional, you don’t always have the luxury of simply skipping over the parts you don’t want to do.
On this post, I’m going to be sharing with you what I did to start liking to draw what I didn’t like.
You can either watch the video or read the post. The info is the same, only the post has a few example screenshots AND I added ANOTHER video of an example from an Miyazaki movie I didn’t mention in the video:
The Stuff We Tend Not to Like to Draw
I’ve learned to draw what I didn’t like to draw and by doing so discovered that I liked to draw those things.
And here the things artists usually don’t like drawing, mechanical stuff, stuff in perspective, backgrounds, buildings, cars…etc.
A lot of time, as artists, we just don’t like to do that because we see it as too technical, and rigid.
Ironically, that’s what makes it easy. Because it’s mechanical it’s a little more “mindless.”
How You Can Learn to Like It
But once you know how to do it well enough you find the things that make it exciting, gestural, and dynamic. Then it suddenly become fun.
But you have to actually get good really at it before you really start enjoying it. That’s part of the reason you don’t enjoy it, because it’s still technical and you haven’t found the “art” of it. Once you get passed that point, when you finally start to get it, it start becoming fun.
You start experimenting more, and it become much more entertaining.
How I Learned to Draw and LIKE Drawing Cars
I’m going to give you an example, from my work life.
I used to be a Character Layout Artist and I didn’t like drawing cars. Car where a pain in neck. They were no fun. I wasn’t good at drawing them and it felt too much like a technical drawing when I worked on them.
One time I had to do a scene on one of the episodes (Realty Bites) where Homer and Snake where fighting on top of Snake’s car Little Bandit. Little Bandit was like a convertible and then they had to fight on top of this moving car.
So I had to draw the car and I had to draw the fight scene.
I like drawing fight scenes, I always find them to be a lot of fun. You get to be dynamic, and it’s really exciting. I wanted this section of the show. I wanted to do these scenes but they had a moving car.
Lucky for me, the A.D. (Assistant Director) of the episode was really really good at drawing cars. So much so that it was his hobby. He liked to drawing cars for fun. It’s what he drew in his spare time.
So I went over and asked him, if he could give me some pointers. Just what is it that I should do when drawing a car? How do I make the process easier and faster?
He sat me down for about thirty minutes to an hour and gave me lessons on drawing cars.
One big take away from this lesson was when drawing cars, you should give them shocks. That way, the car’s wheels will stay on the ground, but the top part of the car will move a little bit.
Just that little tip was enough to expanded my mind. It was so perfect, because I could give the car gesture.
When you’re first drawing something, you’re usually drawing gestures. You’re usually drawing the power, the punch, the physics, and then you draw the figure around those elements.
When you gave the cars shocks, you get this extra element of physics and power you could add gesture to. Suddenly drawing cars became so much more fun.
I didn’t draw the cars perfectly, but I wanted to start drawing them.
Part of me always liked Japanese cartoons. I wanted to be able to draw giant robots, and machines like they do in those cartoons. Like that crazy car chase scene in Hayao Miyazaki‘s CASTLE OF CAGLIOSTRO. Brilliant BRILLIANT!
No computers used, ALL HAND DRAWN.
This sort of thing was was kind of driving me too (no pun intended).
The REAL Problem
This is when I realized that the reason why I didn’t like drawing cars is because I didn’t know how to do them well. Therefore I couldn’t find a thing about it that I liked doing. Once I did, then it was fun, and I didn’t mind it.
It became a fun challenge.
And in animation you don’t just draw one car. You have to draw, like, a billion different little cars and different positions, as they move though space. So I appreciated the lesson.
My Advice to You
If you have something you don’t like drawing, go out of your way to find somebody you can learn from.
Or just go out and do the things you don’t like to do, and FIND the thing that makes you like it. This will increase your value as a artist more. You’re probably not the only one who doesn’t like drawing that thing.
If you can do it and others can’t or won’t, suddenly, you’re more valuable. Everyone else is skipping out on that stuff which means, YOU shouldn’t.
Alright I hope this is very helpful.
E-Mails and Comments
Please leave a comment, and opt in to receive emails from me.
This week I sent out an e-mail where I talk about the LOGORAMA Simpsons spoof I storyboarded.
If you want to receive this e-mail, opt in before Thursday of next week. The opt in is down below the gratuitous screen shots of Homer punching Snake in the face.
Its a blog written by Chris Ledesma Music Editor of the Simpsons and it’s fantastic.
In fact, I don’t know how he does it but Chris is dropping all kinds of news and info on upcoming shows that I wouldn’t dare say.
It’s actually REALLY cool. He lets you know what shows he’s working on, and explains the process as he tells you about the up coming shows that haven’t been aired yet.
I talk about old shows, he talks about new one.
AND he talks about the creation of the music for the show, which is fascinating.
So this epic storyboard I’m working on has turned out to be…well…epic. It’s a little over 40 scenes (shots) long but there’s a lot going on in it. I was thinking I’d be done by Friday but I had three meetings with the director and the head director over it and there’s always something that can be done to improve it. I don’t mind, this is the process. How it all works. I especially don’t mind since the changes are all done on the first “rough scribble pass” which makes things easier for me as an artist to change or throw out.
The project has no dialogue and we didn’t know exactly how long it would be, so I also had to time my roughs in order to get an idea for it’s length. It’s a fun project, I must admit. I only wish I didn’t feel so pressured to finish. That said, I WANT to be done by Friday. Hopefully, somehow, I might be able to clean up the whole thing in two days. Whether or not I will succeed is another story.
I might be going on hiatus later than I thought, because of this. Which isn’t horrible, but it will take away time from my commission work.
ART
Speaking of special projects, I’ve finally finished getting passed thumbnailing page 7 of my script. I just forced myself to sit down and really concentrate on getting through it. So far, I’ve thumbnailed out 327 scenes/shots. Far more than I anticipated:
I thought about it for hours before I got to the drawing it and by the time I sat down, I knew what I was going to do. It went by much faster this way. It also helped that I watched a movie with a fight scene that game ideas. I really should have been doing that much more before I sat down to draw the fights. I just didn’t have time to do that since I worked on this stuff during lunch. It would have taken all my time looking at fight in order to get inspired or get ideas. By the time I would be ready to draw, my lunchtime would have been over.
Perhaps, during hiatus or during the weekends I can be home and look at fight scenes I like to see if I can plug in some of what I see into the roughs I’ve already go. It would be much easier to do something like that, now that I have something down, than it was when I was starting from scratch.
In any case, I think the worst is behind me now. There’s still one more battle to thumbnail, but it’s not as physical as the ones I’ve just done. It will hopefully be less of a handful.
COMIC BOOKS/BLOGS
Digital/Web comics are becoming more and more exciting to me. I’ve been getting more and more into them lately. For a long time I hadn’t been very interested in these comics because the quality of the art and storytelling hadn’t really been up to snuff. I really wanted a similar experience reading them as I did reading printed comics. Well, it seems like that’s changed quite a bit the last couple of years. Comics online and “digital only” comics, are just as good now, and sometimes, better than the printed stuff. Part of the reason is that many professional comic creators have started doing Digital work.
The latest of the these is Mark Waid, who wrote KINGDOM COME and SUPERMAN: BIRTHRIGHT among many other things. He decided he was going to start putting out Webcomics. He’s also turned his blog into a “process blog”. Kinda similar to what I do here in my ART sections.
His Digital comics site will go up on May 1st and it’s called THRILLBENT. I’ll let you know what I think about it when it goes live. But right now, I want to call attention to his blogMarkwaid.com. Mostly because I like how he’s approaching doing the comics. Though his a professional comic writer, he’s quite frank about how little he knows about writing for digital comics.
Digital comics and comics on the web are a very different monsters than printed comics. What works in print doesn’t necessarily work in the digital medium. So he’s writing about what he learns as he goes. He also writes about the approaches he takes and the experiments he makes. I like to read this stuff because it puts us all in the same boat. Also, he likes some of the approaches to digital comics that I also like. This makes it seem to me, as I read his blog, that we’re on the same page.
Since I’m also going to put a web comic up, when I’m done with my current project, building on what Mark Waid discovers that works or doesn’t work seems like a good idea to me. I’ve been reading his blog with great interest and I’m very curious to see how things pan out for him.
Check it out, if you’re interested in this digital medium. For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Well, it seems that the “special project” I worked on a few weeks back has gotten the green light, so it’s moving forward. I’m currently doing Character Layout work on it. I’m not sure how this is going to effect my revision work next week. I haven’t done Layout in a while and it’s a LOT of work in a very different way than doing boards. I hope I can get my work done by the end of the week, just in case.
In the meantime, at least it seems this thing I’m working on will get seen at some point.
Go to the article to download the pdf of the tips as well as a more organized written version of the info in the video. Also, leave a comment for them if you found his information useful.
MOVIES
My wife Alesha and I got to do something we don’t often get to do now a days, namely, go to the movies. Alesha REALLY wanted to go see THE HUNGER GAMES, which we both enjoyed quite a bit. I wasn’t as gung ho as she was but I went along because she was really excited about it. Neither one of us had read the books but we both thought the premise was interesting. This isn’t to say that the premise was original, especially since there was a Japanese movies, years ago, called BATTLE ROYALE, with a similar premise. But THE HUNGER GAMES was a lot less twisted.
In my mind, what really set THE HUNGER GAMES apart from BATTLE ROYALE was that it wasn’t ABOUT the actual games. It almost felt as if the games themselves where secondary to the set up. This isn’t to say that the games weren’t interesting. It’s just that without taking all the time the movie did in setting up the characters and the universe before showing the games, I don’t think it would have been as good of a movie. In fact, it’s the lack of set up that makes BATTLE ROYALE much less interesting. Also, BATTLE ROYALE was much more gruesome, while HUNGER GAMES, which also dealt with a similar subject matter, didn’t relish in any gore.
I found myself thinking of stories like 1984 and BRAVE NEW WORLD while watching THE HUNGER GAMES. When watching BATTLE ROYALE, I wondered why I was watching it at all. Because of this, I concluded THE HUNGER GAMES was BATTLE ROYALE done right.
I will note one observation that came to me as I watched HUNGER GAMES. Much has been said about the commentary this story makes on society when it comes to materialism, media, and the devaluing of human life. I mean, part of the story is about how a desensitized culture gets together to watch young people kill each other for entertainment. This works very well in book form, since it’s written words on a page, without the reader partaking in the entertainment in the same way the people in the story are. The thing is, I couldn’t help but notice the irony of sitting in a movie theater and paying to see exactly the same entertainment that the these “bad people” where tuning in to watch. As movie goers, we participate in and condone the entertainment put forth by the story as wrong and bad, when we’re entertained by the games ourselves. Because of this, I think the movie adds a extra element of reflection, that the story in book format didn’t.
What do you think? Am I off on this point?
ART
Don’t know what to say here except that I’m slowly narrowing the gap and getting closer to finishing page 7 on my script. I think next week I’ll be “off script”. What I’ll have to board will be something new that I have no script or treatment to work off of. It will be completely off the cuff.
I’m actually excited about it. For now though, here are my latest thumbnails.
For more comic and stories written by me, CLICK HERE.
If you like what you read, please consider signing up to my rss feed.
Merry Christmas!! It’s officially the start of Christmas season (before the 25th, it was Advent season).
THE SIMPSONS NEWS
I had the week off this week. I turned in the last of my work on Thursday and started on the Couch Gag for the episode on Friday. It’s actually really difficult. I was given til Monday of next week to finish it, so first thing Monday, I’ve got to get cracking.
BUT last week I found out, one of my co-worker, Liz Heck, has gotten on Tumbler. Her plan is to update it two times a week with her own art.
As I mentioned last week, my wife Alesha is doing her blog tour this week, with an end of the world theme. The first post was on post-apocalyptic recipes. If you have one, feel free to participate.
I’ve participated with a different kind of contribution. I wrote the top three essential things you need, in order to survive in a post-apocalyptic world. Here’s a sneak peek:
And if you leave a comment on there, you have a chance to win a $5 amazon gift certificate.
FAMILY
It was a very busy Christmas. Our family tends to celebrate the 24th AND the 25th. We usually stay up til midnight on the 24th but this year, with the kids, it was impossible. The thing is, even though Christmas eve was very different then the way we have been used to celebrating it, it seemed so much more Christmas-y. This year, we went out of our way to really focus on the kids having a good time. And they did.
The big focus of the Christmas Eve party, was the coming of Santa Claus to the house. The kids didn’t know he was coming, but we gave him the invite. It was all going to begin with the kids sitting around the living room as I read them a Christmas book. In this case, it was THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. That went relatively well. My nephew Paolo was his usual, over curious, excited self, and couldn’t stop moving but all the other kids were surprisingly attentive. Including my one year old, Ambrose, who had never had story time before. He sat and listened quietly. I was very surprised. I got to start reading to that little kid.
Once I was done reading, the kids where asked to sing Jingle Bells. It was going great until someone turned up the music. At first, everyone thought it was Jingle Bells and we all sang along until we realized it WASN’T Jingle Bells but something else. It threw everyone off and killed the singing. Luckily, around that time, there was a knock on the door and Santa showed up. He had his sack full of presents and all the kids got really excited. My daughter Elizabeth was jumping up and down with excitement. It was fun. They all got called up one by one to get a present and sit on Santa’s lap.
Lots of pictures and a little bit of crying. Especially from Ambrose, who was pretty sleepy by that point. That was a lot of fun. I’m glad that we did it. I think the worst part of the night, for me, was around the time Santa was going to leave. My three year old, Dante, heard my uncle say Santa had to go because his reindeer where waiting. Well, Dante REALLY wanted to go out see them. I ended up telling him that Santa didn’t really bring the deer. I told him he came by car today. He didn’t believe me, so I had to take him outside to show him there where no reindeer. He was disappointed. That really stunk. It made him sad. Which makes me want to rant about the whole Santa Claus thing, but I’ll save that til the end of this post.
We left the party around 11pm. We had eaten late and the kids had been starving. We should have thought to feed them before we left. Even so, around 8pm or so, Ambrose was an emotional mess. He was so tired, he just wanted me to carry him everywhere, which was a pain since he’s getting heavy. I also wanted to do thing, like eat, and it made it difficult when he just wanted to be on top of me being fussy. So we left early and by the time we where getting ready for bed, it was Christmas.
On Christmas morning, the kids got up and opened presents. There weren’t very many of them. In fact, most of them came from the dollar store. Only one didn’t, CARS SORRY SLIDERS. The kids really liked SORRY SLIDERS and I thought they’d get a kick out of having the Cars one because they call the SORRY SLIDERS the “racer game” anyway. Might as well give them a real “racer game”. Elizabeth was disapionted in her presents (for good reason) mostly because she didn’t get a doll. that kinda annoyed me because she has a ton of them and they just sit there because she doesn’t play with them. Why those she want another one to ignore?
We ate breakfast and tried to get ready as soon as we could. We had a few stops to make that day. We had planned to go to 9am Mass but we weren’t quite ready on time for it. I went alone and Alesha went to the 11am Mass. Around 1pm we were off to Alesha’s sister’s house. According to Alesha, we were there mostly to eat her sister’s gumbo. It was REALLY GOOD. It even had crab legs. The kids played a bit and then watched me play PLANT VS. ZOMBIES, or as they call it, “The bzombie game” (don’t know why they pronounce it with a “b”.
After that, it was off to Alesha’s grandmother’s house. We got there and visited for a while. The kids where all over me because they get bored there. On top of the fact that they were hungry. It was getting close to dinner time. After what seemed like a very long time, we left. We actually had one more stop to make. We had actually stopped off at Alesha’s sister’s house to pick up a document that she needed to take to an aunt’s house. We were going to go there only Alesha forgot to get the document. We canceled that stop and headed over to my parent’s house. We where going to celebrate Christmas there and open the rest of the kid’s presents. We ate there, opened presents and generally had a good time there. Alesha was so tired, I think she slept through most of it. She had done all the driving that day.
We left around 10pm. The kid’s where pretty tired. They had gotten some really great presents. Elizabeth got her doll so she was satisfied.
It was a busy, but fun, kid-centric Christmas and somehow, it was that much better for it.
SANTA CLAUS RANT
I’ve never really been a fan of the whole Santa Claus thing. I’ve been trying to avoid telling my kids that their presents are from Santa, but the culture makes it difficult to do that. I used to tell them Baby Jesus gave them the presents, which to me, is actually true. I suppose, it’s not a lie to say that Santa is real, if by Santa, you mean Saint Nicholas. Since he’s a Saint in heaven before the presence of God and therefore more alive than WE are. And I suppose we can say that it’s through his intercession (by which I mean his prayer for us to God) that we we give them presents. Still…it kinda bugs me, since Santa Claus and Saint Nick are often not thought to be the same person. After all, the popular image of Santa that we have in our heads, was actually made popular by Coca Cola billboards. Before that, there was no definitive Santa Claus look. It was easier to say, it’s Saint Nick back then.
Maybe I’m thinking about this too hard. What do you think?
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Oh boy, tough week this week. I was running behind on my board since I started it late last week. On top of that there were some writing changes that the director questioned. The problem was that a line was changed in the dialogue but the scene took place in a different location with slightly different action. The director was wondering if it was necessary to change the location at all since the scene worked fine in the original location. It would speed up the process and make less work for everyone. That was a big question that the director needed to ask the head director and I wasn’t sure if I needed to work on that new section or not. There were also a few things that the assistant director fixed in layout that I wasn’t suppose to fix in the boards. The problem with that is, it throws me off a bit. I’m not sure when I’m done revising the board or not and it’s very confusing. So I just turned in what I did and hoped it was what was needed from me. Later on that day, the director came over an we hashed out what was needed to finish the act. That helped a lot.
I started Act 2 after that, which, lucky for me, had less rewrites. That went a little smoother. Still, it really stressed me out in the previous weekend since I knew that there were a lot of “spinning plates” left to spin when I started work this week. At least, next week, I have a day off.
December 26-31, my wife, Alesha, will be going on a blog tour with an end of the world theme. Keep an out of for it. I’ll be making a small contribution for it.
Little by little, technology is creeping into board games. As it is, there are already tons of board games that can be played on: iPhone, iPads, and Androids. It was only a matter of time before board game pieces would start being introduced for these devices. Behold, the signs of things to come.
This video shows playing pieces that can be used to play board games on the iPad, using the iPad as the board. It’s called, the iPawn:
This video shows an interesting hybrid board game designed and developed on the Microsoft Surface by a student for a master thesis supervised by MiWi’s colleague. The game uses the Surface, Android phones, and other components. It’s a very odd board game about evolution or something. The video is in German, I believe but just watching what they do with the devices is fascinating.
ART
I was having so much trouble working on my thumbnails for my storyboard. I wasn’t sure why. It’s not like it was the first time I’d ever storyboarded something. It’s very similar to doing comics. So why was I having so much trouble? Turns out, I wasn’t asking myself what I usually do. Once I asked myself that, I realized, I usually sit down, with the hard copy of the script in hand and start doodling all over it as I read the script. I do this and, often, I put in a movie or TV show I’ve already seen, just to have something in the background that may or may not give me ideas for shots. It’s also nice to have something to look at when I want to rest my brain.
Once I realized that’s usually what I did, I printed out a copy of my script and, instead of using Post-Its like I did last week, I just drew on my script.
I worked beautifully. I put on MACROSS: FRONTIER and began drawing on my script. I managed to finish quite a bit of work that way. Okay, so, even though I wasn’t planning on posting my script here on my blog, it seems I going to do it anyway in order to show you the work I got done this week. So here’s the first page of my script. I doubt you’ll understand what my thumbnails are about, but the point is show you my process, so here it is:
Drawing on the margins forces me to draw tiny, which saves time since there’s less pencil mileage. I actually get more done.
Originally, I was planning to do all the audio recording before I started boarding. Since I couldn’t find a good way to record though, I decided to go straight into the boards. Turns out that was a good thing. I’ve found I change a lot of the script around depending on what I need the visuals to be.
MOVIES
Oh, and one more thing, this trailer premiered Tuesday night:
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The count down has begun the pressure is on to finish our show on time. It’s the first story reel of the season so we need to start this season off with a bang. Sheesh!
BLOG/COMIC BOOKS
I’ve heard a lot of complaints, online and off, about comics and how difficult they are to get into. I don’t see that at all. I’ve found the opposite is true. Before I begin to explain myself, I will first point you to two online sources that put fourth good arguments against my position. The one that started me thinking about this to begin with is this one:
You should first read these two articles. I think their arguments are very sound, but limited in what they put forth as the way to get into comics. I left a comment on Krishna‘s post but I don’t think I truly answered Krishna‘s concern. I mostly commented on everyone else’s comments to Krishna‘s argument. I recommend you read the comments as well.
Okay, now that you’ve read those articles, I’ll put forth my thoughts on the topic. Before I begin though, I will first tell you what I’m not going to be writing about. I’m not going to argue whether or not the modern superhero genre is catering to a younger audience nor will I write about whether cartoony comic artwork is better than more photo realistic comic art.
I will use the superhero genre of comics for most of my examples, mainly because they are by far the most complex type of comic to get into and it’s the genre that more quickly comes to mind when we think of modern comics.
What I mean by “mainstream” comics in this article is this: Marvel and DC comics, and to a far lesser extent Dark Horse, Image and Top Cow. I also include, in my definition, all English translated Manga. This might be surprising but most younger readers are more familiar with Manga than with Marvel and DC books. I will also use the word “floppy” to describe what most of us know as a regular flimsy comic, as apposed to a much sturdier trade paperback comic (a.k.a. “graphic novel”).
Okay, so, the topic that concerns us here is how easy is it to get into reading comics. I propose to you, that it’s easier than it’s ever been to get into comics. Comics and information about comics are everywhere. The internet has a ton of free legal comics at your fingertips. Cartoons and movies are great introductory ways to get you intrigued and curious about reading comics. Newstands may be dying off but comics are thriving as trade paperback books in all major books chains. Libraries carry comics now and there are even Encyclopedias that explain some superhero comic book universes. There really is, no real reason, why someone who wants to get into comics can’t get into them. If you think it’s too much work, trust me, it’s worth the effort.
As I was growing up in El Salvador (I lived there till I was 6 years old) my grandmother had a bookshelf of comics in her house for us and we used to look through them and read them. Surprisingly enough, this is not what got me into comics. What got me into comics was, years later, when our family had moved to California. Sometime when I was around 11 or 12, I picked up a copy of Peter Porker, The Spectacular Spider-Ham #15 at the local Circle K convenience store. It cost 75 cents. The same book now would probably cost $4.00 and I would have probably gotten it at Barnes and Nobles or Borders.
I wasn’t interested in “serious” comics at the time. I just wanted the funny cartoony stuff. Eventually, the book was canceled (I guess I was the only person that bought it) and the Spider-Ham stories where relegated to the back of Marvel Tales featuring Spider-Man. I bought those for the Spider-Ham stories but eventually, got bored one day and read the “serious” Spider-Man story which I fell in love with. This lead to my love of the “serious” comics.
I learned real quick that I had no idea what the heck was going on in any of the “serious” comics. In fact the only reason I knew who anyone was in a Spider-Man comic was because the Spider-Ham comic had spoofed them. I read the comics anyway. I thought I’d eventually understand what was going on. This worked some what. In those days the only way to find out what had gone before in a superhero book was really limited. You either bought back issues or read the “old issue index” comics that gave you a synopsis of the years of comics that had come before. If you were lucky you collected the comics that had does indexes.
Okay so what’s my point? Why the personal history? Well, on the one hand I see the point that a floppy comic now a days being $4.00 is a barrier to entry. I may not have bought my first comic if it was $4.00. But lets say I got a comic somehow. If it was a cartoony superhero comic like, Billy Batson and the Power of Shazam, it would have a good long story for a good value and it would have appealed to me where I was at, taste wise. I would have come back for more. Okay, lets say I wanted to get into a “serious” superhero comic, lets say, Spider-Man. Somehow I got hold of one and read it. Exactly the same thing that happened to me the first time would happen, I would read it, be intrigued and not know who anyone was, but I’d probably come back for more to find out.
You would probably argue,
“See you’re assuming you would read a floppy and get into a comic but comics are $4.00 so how would you even get the chance to read them at all?” Well, I’d read them for free at the Marvel website or download it for free from DC KidsWB. The Marvel website even has books that help you catch up with what’s currently going on.
There are more ways now than any other time, to get into comics and find out who the mainstream characters are. For starters, there are animated cartoons that do a phenomenal job of introducing people to the mainstream characters. I know because, it was through these cartoons that I got introduced to the characters of the DC Universe. Now, I love to read those comics. I’ve also gotten exposed to a lot of great Manga from watching their movies and anime, like the Lone Wolf and Cub manga and the Akira manga to name a few. My wife learned and became familiar with the X-Men and the JLA from watching their cartoons so when she reads those books, she knows who everyone is. The same goes with my Sister-in-law. She loves reading DC comics because she watched the Cartoon Network Justice League cartoon. My kids know who the Justice League, The Teen Titans, Spider-Man, Iron Man, The Legion of Superheroes, and Astroboy are from watching my DVDs of those cartoons. During her nap time, my daughter flips through kids comics of some of those characters before she goes to sleep (they’re all totally trashed, and very well “read”. She’s only three). My kids even ask me to read them comics.
My brother and sister-in-law bought the Marvel Encyclopedia and the DC Encyclopedia in order to get caught up on who’s who in both Universes. If you don’t have the money to spend for one of those, go to a website like Comic Vine. They have up to the minute explanation on what’s going on. Something I wish I had been able to do when I first started collecting superhero comics. The superhero comics I read as a kid in the 80s needed that as much as the current superhero comics do.
If you don’t want to deal with the big history of most superhero comics. Most Manga doesn’t have that problem (some do though) and there is also DC’s Vertigo line. Many of those don’t have as much history to catch up on, if any.
Not only that, but you can’t really argue that current superhero genre comics are too complicated, too adult or too , whatever you’re prejudice, and that older comics are better. Mainly because those very superhero comics are now collected in omnibus editions. Some of these collections can be found used for as low as $4.00! So if you want to read “better” superhero comics, then nothing is stopping you from reading those and literally starting from the beginning. If you want to make sure that the comics you let your kids read are “kid friendly” why not buy them or encourage them to buy and read those collections. They still hold up and there’s plenty of them; and when it comes to manga, there are plenty of kid friendly comics there too. Astroboy anyone?
If you want a complete comic story (old or new, adult friendly or kid friendly), you can pick up a trade paperback. There are many of these which are good introductions to a hero or universe. You can find all these and more at you’re local book store (here in the U.S.) or even *GASP!* at the library. Something unheard of in the 80s when I started reading comics. I would have LOVED to have that opportunity. I went to the library all the time as a kid.
Okay, having said all that, I want to argue that the price of floppies is too much for the value you get. $4.00 seems too much. Yet, a Magic the Gathering Booster pack, (same target audience) is about $4.00 for fifteen cards. A Yu-Gi-Oh! booster pack is $5.00 for nine cards. A Playstation 2 game averages $35.00 (double the price of most trade paperbacks). Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 games are about $60.00. The target audience of today’s comics are pretty used to forking over a lot for a little. I don’t like it at all but the price seems about average. Whether you get $4.00 worth of entertainment out it, that depends on the comic you buy and how it’s written. This is especially true for floppies since many (but not all) of them can be read in about 15 minutes.
Still, in the end, I don’t think floppies are as important as they used to be. Don’t get me wrong, they still have a valuable role to play, but they aren’t theonlyway in anymore. In fact, I will go so far as to say, floppies are not the way to get into most American superhero comics. Floppies are mostly written for comic geeks, trade paperbacks are for everyone else. Times have changed.
“But wait,” you say. “Encyclopedias? Looking up characters on the net? Watching cartoons and movies? That’s an awful lot of work. I want everything spoon fed to me”. Sorry, I can’t help you. Reading comics is a hobby. Every hobby has a bit of a learning curve. In knitting you have to first learn to knit. In putting together model kits, you have to first learn the best supplies to use and the best methods of assembling. In wargaming, you learn the rules and then learn tactics and strategies. The same goes for board gaming. If you golf, you learn and practice your technique. If you’d never played a video game before, how steep would the learning curve be to play a game like Halo 3? Most people that play video games spend hours looking up games and reviews to see what games are coming out that they’ll like to play next, as if researching for a school report. That’s a lot of work. Most hobbies require some level of work on your part. Work that you enjoy doing because it’s fun, enjoyable work and you find the reward from the hobby worth the effort. Comics are worth the effort.
After looking at everything that is available, I don’t think that mainstream comics are difficult to get into at all. It’s easier than it was when I started. I only had superhero comics to choose from. There’s more variety out there than there ever was. If you want to get into them and you’re finding it difficult, you must be working pretty hard to not succeed.
I after finishing up the last of the scenes on the show I was working on, I began helping out on another show. I’ll begin working on the first show of next season sometime next week.
FAMILY
Happy Easter! I’m so glad that Easter finally came. Lent is always a tough time to live through.
For Easter, we got together with the family at an Easter party at my aunt’s house. The kids had a great time, looking for eggs and eating candy.
I had a good time because there was some very yummy food.
He is risen!
MY WEB COMIC
I’m almost done so I’m posting up the first three pages and will continue to post the rest of it in the next three weeks. I hope you like it:
To be continued next week…
What have I learned from this so far? Quite a bit actually, but the biggest thing I’ve learned so far is that coloring a comic is really tedious and time consuming. It’s very doubtful that I’ll do another one in color any time soon. I’ll leave it in black and white.
VIDEOS/ART
These videos by Mike McDonnell on Warm Up Sketching are really helpful. I’m going to try putting the advise into practice when I go into figure drawing for now on. Check them out:
VIDEOS
Reading comics on the iPad? What’s that look like? Here’s a review of the Marvel Comic reader app for the iPad:
Now I just have to figure out how to put my comic up on the iPad.
BLOGS
You will notice that I now have a new page up on my blog called, “My Stories and Comics“. From now on, whenever I complete a comic, story, or drawings with a theme, I’m going to be creating a special page for those things so you can read them all in one sitting instead of having to search through the blog looking for all the parts.
I will be working on it to try to make it look nicer than what I have now. For now, it’s just functional. Take a look and let me know what you think.
VIDEO
Yet another funny review. This time it’s a video review of STAR WARS: ATTACK OF THE CLONES
Warning, the video is very funny but has some bad language:
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