This is Part two of my wonderful journey into applying a method which I never prefer, but tempted to use.

For the past weeks I have been experimenting and trying these methods I found and have gone to a conclusion whether its applicable for me or not. So far, I have two methods to share with you guys, and here they are:



Method one: Painted Backgrounds/portraits

Ingredients:
A picture, Photoshop Filter, brushes, Painter.


Load Pic...

..Filter > Artistic > Paint Daubs

..After several tweaking, click enter.


Load in Painter, use blend brushes to remove tighter details to make the portrait or picture look like its hand made.


Now finished, upload to DA and pretend its speed paint done in a few hours.


Summary: This is a method is more of a photomanipulation than drawing. Not a terrible method, but nonetheless removes the aspects of effort if you're "drawing."

Pros: Speeds up the process of making any composition. It takes a few moments in comparison to really making backgrounds from scratch.

Cons: Limited, You can only go as far as what the photos will give you, and would cause your comics to look too stiff because your dynamic pages and scenarios wont be present due to the lack of resources...Did I mention guilty conscience? If you think of yourself as an Artist, can you sit down and look in the mirror when you show an artwork and pretend you did it from scratch and with "refs?" If the answer is yes...May your computer crash a thousand errors.


Method Two: 3D > 2D

Ingredients: 3dprogram (maya, max, etc), 3d objects

Load object

Point camera to a specific location

Load render settings ( Some has settings where the shaders would only render the outlines)

Press Render

Save Image, Put rendered Image on specific panel.


Summary: This is not really a discovery, it has been used forever by some Manga Artists.

Pros: Same as Method one, Speed factor is way up there. A black and white Comic will definitely be done half the duration. If colored manually, it would hide the possibility
of being caught. Much easier to control because you have the object and the camera at your disposal, so Dynamic Angles and Poses are possible.


Cons: Similar to Method One, its also limited. However the limitation is based upon the individual who uses this and the arsenal of software they are using. Patience is the key, and a lot of technical knowledge. Another downfall is the understanding of spatial relationship between your characters and the technical background. You may use pointers in the render to put your OCs in position, but without full understanding, it may become more of a failure than a success. Biggest problem: Consistency. if your style still needs a lot of tweaking and improvement, the perfectly built backgrounds will conflict with your work.
And on the subject of limitation, You can only do settings or scenario that would match your backgrounds...



Studies Done. Also, just for the record, I do use refs now, This Journal is to show what I was pertaining on the previous journal. I admit that I was hesitant at first to use ref on my work, but I saw the big difference once I started to apply it.


However, Refs should not be in your canvas where its traced or manipulated over to cut time. You may be using ref, but as that Internetz meme says: " You're Doing It Wrong."


Photomanipulation and all that stuff are fine, but do point it out, dont go around town claiming you did " seven with one blow "

We know what happened to Mickey, the difference is that you wont have a disney ending like he did.

Battles up so im free to draw my ecchi and my hentai again.

Besides drawing im also doing experimentals, things that could speed up my work, or a new technique which would deem my comic entries effective and high quality.

A few weeks ago, around the time that my battle was happening, me and a friend which I am not going to mention was studying a fellow artist's work, he told me what this person was doing and I was pretty much amazed on the technique.

" He is prolly using this and that as ref."

Pretty much what my friend said about this artist.

Now, I have struggled for awhile not to use ref mainly for my pride, but I gave in, realizing my work improved a bit and I got back easily on the drawing spree faster than my " How to kill an artblock " method which failed me for many months.

But the thing is, it's not a ref, no...I told my friend that he isnt using such..I mean arguably it could be considered as ref, but just like a martial artist or one of those kung fu fighters, you see something that isnt right with a form, or if a discipline does not mix well with the movement.

So as curiosity calls, I decided to plunge in it..knowing it would kill me. Last night I decided to go and try the same method of this mentioned artist. Little does a lot of people know, this technique IS used by some people in the industry, especially Manga artists. But I studied it a bit further and see if I could mix it with my style, meaning I dont have the same discrepancy or inconsistency similar to this artist.


.......



....Now I know how Akuma got sucked into the dark hadou. ( *Insert Akuma SFIV OST* )


Some kids would say that he was just thirsty for power or he is a bad ass....No, actually as I study this technique, I really felt what it means to embrace a darker side of things. The thoughts will drown you with infinite surge of power, knowing that in your hand, you have mastered something which could be an ultimate form...The feeling intoxicates you, for every panel you see something which you have been trying to aim for, and at the same time felt stupid that its taking you years to take one path, when there is a darker one which is shorter.

The goosebumps runs through you knowing that this is taboo, and that this power you just harnessed can be justified because one or two masters have done it, calling your attempt feeble in comparison to the blood-stained hands they proudly raise in the sky.


Slowly, your purity is like paper dripped with ink, the black slowly eats the white, and all you could see is yourself with eyes bloodshot and still maintaining a fascinated yet shocked look...This is a sin...no...THIS.IS.POWER!!!!

......


SO I discard it. I deleted some of those shit that guy uses and decided to go on my own merry way. Now, would I still apply what this guy does? yeah why the hell not? don't get me wrong, I'm no Ryu who would try to justify myself to the purity of the discipline. I have some comics where I'll use it, but not when I'm fighting someone. You could say this is a weapon I'm not gonna apply if the battle is hand to hand combat.





Now I know some of you will prolly tell me you have the same experience or you have encountered something similar or you can relate, Save it guys, because if you do think you could relate, then that means you have the ego and pride of a baboon just like me.

Save the advice too, Its a realization not a sought for help.

I always have envied my college friends, They seem to know the timing for everything when it comes to the industry. Somehow whenever they apply it to me, for some reason, it bounces off and feels like a foreign language to me.


Like 3d, Its like my second language, I know how to apply it, but somehow I fall short on the advance steps.

It goes without saying even their terminology sounds like alien jargon to me at times. They giggle on artifacts and Sub-D's, while I smirk when I hear Panel Bleed and Gutter.

For the past hour, I have been doing nothing but draw a comic book. 7 days to go actually, and I still have a long way to go. Provided if I didn't have this art block, I wouldn't be falling behind. Somehow after chatting with some Filipino friends, It killed what seems to be the longest art block I ever had.

And as I browse through things I want to find out, people whom are influential on my work, It was like within a click of a button I have pinpointed out the origin of my skills.

Oddly enough, even seen a hundred paths that lead me to make a comic, in comparison to my pointless search in Craiglist's " Who is the next one to make me their expendable soldier " joblistings.

Hobbes has told me a hundred times, that I am not an animator, I'm a comic book artist. It's like this tatoo that was put to me since I was 9, since that time when all I did was draw...since that first time I finished a comic, but the world didn't care, and neither did I...(well..who would really wanna read a 12 yr old boy's 30 page pencil doodle about a guy dressed like sub zero and shoots kamehameha?)

Im still in denial stage. Getting hitched soon and building a family...comic book cannot provide for the mouths I will have to feed someday. I could deny that fact and pretend I am one of the chosen one, destined to be on top someday to watch as many follow the dark path that I lit along the way, but the truth is that I am not a chosen one, im just one of many...we could argue that It's just a matter of what my mind say not my heart...but when was the last time your heart made you survive in the harsh world of the "grown ups?"

looking back again, I remember how the technicalities come out of my friends mouth when they crit my 3d work, and somehow I hear murmur and a few familiar word: "something something something verticies...something something something render. "

But when Im doing comics, its like I become like them...full of terminologies and application where I could still be an amateur comic artist, but still can point out a strategic way of making a panel work through directional position of your character as it pulls you through a series of dialogues that pushes you towards an important plot object....


..ugh..I dunno, I guess all I realize is that I love comics, and I will do it whenever I can...but I will still hold on to the denial, as this is the only way I can provide for this passion, and for the future I am making.

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what I was doing earlier, I took a break from finishing some comic pages by drawing Tirso and Nora together. (Lhege's character in Brgy Bakbakan)


enjoy..you can see me do one work and completely delete it just to start with something else.

We all have grandpas we grew up with, we listen to them, we talk to them, and they tell us ( sometimes ) that we dont fall far from the tree.



I got a call from my dad and we happen to have a bit of a chitchat, and he reminded me of a request he wants me to draw for him: A painting of his Dad.


So I was browsing through my cousin's album of lolo and I googled my own stuff for references, then I found this.

[link]


hell yeah! finally I see him moving...well you know...like alive? finding how he sounds like and all that jazz.

......


....He sure dont act anything close to his children....


But then again, my father always tells me its all comedy in front of a camera, in real life he is overly serious and organized( and everyone one of them tells me he smells of old spice...never smell that scent before, gotta find that scent soon)


There was an article that says him and his partner in comedy gets beaten up by the Japanese and then gets released after interrogations...wow, he took that much damage? how contrasting to my lolo from the mom side who fights the Japanese; both does their own attack, one uses a gun, one uses satire, only in the end of the day, one loses another friend, the other loses another tooth.


I really wish I met him, well all seven of us from my generation would love to ( from my family branch, theres more and im still trying to find my bloodline as we speak )

Somehow,I know he is happy none of us ever followed his footsteps, I always hear from my dad how he didnt like my older uncles to pursue their love for music and just highly focus on finishing school, but can you blame them? heck, they got his skills in entertainment, personally I would be happy if my children gets bestowed with talents.


Sadly my branch of the family ( was it number two or three...all I know is that were not the first family, and my elder uncles are from the first one...I dunno how in the world he got away with it) never got much of his skills, but it seems they got his organizing skills and his palabra de honor of approach on things.


Ah well, Ill watch this one more time and then go to sleep, the next project from work may be announced today, im not sure....

...I think im glad he is not around to see my painting though...I know me and my dad has tackled that hypothetically he would hate my style of living...