What I've Been Doing

Hello everyone! It's meaches here, I'm still alive! I've been so busy lately that I don't have enough free time for blogging. I'm more active on Twitter and I have Instagram now too because my friends told me to get one. Follow me both @norealplot and say hello! The reason I'm busy isn't just with the family business but I'm also concentrating very hard on writing and designing my comics. It's not easy with the limited time I have but I'm making it work the best way I can. And of course, I want it to be good so I'm taking extra care with the quality of the story.

I'm actually working on two projects. One is an all-ages sci-fi/fantasy comic series that I've been tossing around since high school? It is my life's work! haha! The other project is a more recent collaboration with my sister: the idea is a children's story featuring animals having adventures. That's all I can say for now. Above is the sneak peek of what the character designs might look like. I'm mostly going for a simplified cartoony style to keep the work load light. But really, who doesn't love cute cartoons?

I've also been drawing a lot of Doctor Who. You all know how much I love Doctor Who. When the 8th season finished, that was the time I decided to doodle some 12th Doctor. Sometimes I think I'm forgetting how to draw. I'm getting rusty. Both are bad. lol. But I found the 12th Doctor is fun to draw as much as he is charming, despite his elderly wrinkles. I like how he still manages to convey a child-like "innocence" in his character.

So I've only posted the nicer drawings here. You can find the sketchier sketches on my art tumblr. Thank you again for reading!

Cats in Love

Not exactly a late Valentine's pic.. But my cat has been wandering far from the house lately and I think it's because he finally found a mate or something. There was a female orange cat he was rubbing noses with and I thought they looked cute together so I decided to draw something up for the month.

Hope you like it! 

It's Pirates Time!

I absolute love, love, LOVE Adventure Time. I haven't liked a cartoon series this much since Teen Titans. The characters are all so cute and charming in a weird way. In the spirit of crossovers, I saw there isn't enough love for Adventure Time + pirates so I decided to draw one of my own. (Marceline's pose is terribly wrong but I'm too lazy to go back and change everything again haha)

Experiment #2

So, I'm doing digital experiments, playing around with Photoshop brushes, trying out styles, etc.. This is one of the illustrations I liked most. This is a picture of my backyard where I conceptualize and observe environments. I love these swings but wished we had a tree house too. That would be loads of fun.

I still can't figure out how I really want to "paint" traditional textures in Photoshop/digital media. It's easier for me to produce various textures in traditional painting and with one brush. But here in digital mediums, there's a technique to texturing that I can't quite figure out yet. I want to explore these methods because it's convenient for digital projects.

Komikon 2012

Well, Komikon 2012 came and went. My group studio KARNIVORS successfully sold all our artbooks and bookmarks as well as several individual sketchbooks. Conventions get so cramped every time. I've seen and met a lot of the local artists, geeks, nerds, fanboys and fangirls, and the Gerry Alanguilan. We all took a picture with him and Keno got his bag signed. Frankly though, he feels different from in person..he seems more introverted and quiet.

Also, I'm finally able to buy copies of Ninja Girl KO! and have Kriss and Marco sign it. I absolutely love their manga-making team. I've been a fan of their stories and artwork since they first started out. Another great find in this convention was finally getting my hands on an original hardbound copy of Mouse Guard: Fall 1152. It wasn't exactly booksale cheap, since the book cover had ragged edges, and I saw that I could've gotten a brand new volume on Amazon for an additional P100...but the pages inside were still in mint condition and David Petersen's artwork is still something lovely to look at.

All in all, it was a good first convention and I've learned a lot, concerning selling and preparations. I'm looking forward to the next event and this time, I'll make extra preparations. Here, of course, is the artwork that I've contributed. The background studies and the troll face didn't make it to the book. I'm thinking of drawing more orcs and elves and whatnot and maybe include those in the sketchbook I could sell next time.

Komikon 2012 Teaser

I'm finally finished with illustrating artwork and compiling sketches for my group (KARNIVORS) artbook. Our theme is GRIMM'S fairy tales. I chose Jack and the Beanstalk. We're selling the artbook at the local Komikon 2012 later this month. For more info on the convention, see this poster: http://www.komikon.org/komikon-2012-poster/

And now for the teaser art! More, final and colored versions I will probably post after the event itself. Until then!

WIP: Sept 2012

I have a bunch of wips lined up for this month. Some are artjams with my friends, others are pages for an artbook. I'll be trying out new illustration styles for these pieces, which I'm very excited to finish! For the meantime, enjoy the preview sketches. :D

Miyazaki artjam

character designs for artbook

Crunch Time

Here are the illustrations for the children's storybook that I've finished. It's about a dog teaching/showing kids how to use the toilet. It's the silliest thing I've ever had to draw but it's loooooads of funny stuff. I'm really grateful to be able to get a project on my first try at freelancing and with a great client too! I hope to be able to work on more storybooks in the future, although I do have personal comic project to work on, which maybe I'll post about someday.

Click a picture to see the bigger version.

Danny Doggy loves to play, to twist and jump and run all day..

these first two pages feel too bright and cheerful for me..hahaha

pages 4-6

page 7-8 spread

pages 9-14

covers (front and back)

It's Adventure Time!!

Last month, my awesome friends and I made Adventure Time caricatures of ourselves. This is my version with my dog and cat cruisin' on our hover board. I had fun working on this, especially when it came to designing my pets!!

This is Irish and her dog, Axel, on their cool bike. She started the whole idea and told me to include my cat.

Here's Keno and his derp-faced, Russia! I think his character feels the most Adventure Time-fied.

Seeing our drawings all together is super adorable. I'm looking forward when our other friends will make their own versions too! I'll update this post when that happens!

More Old Stuff

I've been sorting through my harddrive and sketchpads and found more old art that I started before. Sorry for the old art spam, I promise this would be the last. Nico is from the Marvel comic series, Runaways, and she's my favorite character. I think I drew this during my free time in one of my classes. Her face turned out more anime-like than I wanted but she still looks cool.

Aaaaand check this out! When we're not drawing anything decent, shmuff (aka Irish) and I end up drawing some things totally random and sometimes down-right weird. But it's so much fun. XD

The Blue Balloon

This was another one of my projects from school. I had second thoughts about posting this since looking back, I don't like it very much. My coloring looks terrible, not quite as much as I would've wanted it to be but I'm putting it up anyway because it serves as a reminder for me to work harder. Maybe someday I'll draw and finish this for real.

All in a Logo

Hmmm, I didn't study graphic design or layout but I made these for a farm company. It's not much but it would be nice to put these up on my portfolio too, maybe. The first solid black house, is the final logo. The company printed it on their letterheads and company jackets so it was really cool and encouraging to see my own work printed and worn around by people.

Corgi Lovin'

So this is my dog, Dos. Yes, his name is Spanish. No, he doesn't really own a fancy red pillow. I just think it makes his picture looks better. Okay, back to drawing.

Pathways Film

So, here it is. The animated thesis by me and my groupmates. Enjoy.

Grumpy, Grouchy, Grumbling Guillermo

Hello everyone! Before I post my thesis video, I thought it would be nice to share this project since it's the first animated film project I got to be a part of. This was one of the projects in our Animation Principles class, where we started out with 5-6 groups. I was with Irish, Sab, Abby and Cathy. After a while three of the other groups dropped their project and the members were distributed to help out with the surviving groups.

This film, which we titled "Grumpy, Grouchy, Grumbling Guillermo," tells the story of a lonely man and the dog that changed his life. It's a cliche story but turned out cute, nonetheless. I could say I helped design the characters but Irish made most of the concepts. She also helped Cathy and Abby with the layouts and backgrounds. Abby created the cutout components. Sab worked as the director/producer duo.

As much as I'd love to show you the video, I don't have any links now. I don't know if any of my teammates will upload it but when someone does, I will update the link. The animation took two semesters, almost a year to make but we finished it close to November last year. We entered the film in the local Animahenasyon (animation festival) and flew to Bicol to stay over at the venue. In our group, only Irish didn't travel to the convention.

I met a lot of animators like Ms. Grace Dimaranaan (owner of Top Peg studio), plenty of local illustrators and other people from the industry like Mark Bambico (creator of the local animated series, Barkada Trip) and Ms. Lina Valdez, owner of Pinoy Animation Magazine. We also met foreign animators like Hasaan Muthalib from Malaysia and delightedly, Mr., from Gobelins, the French animation school we all so admire.

It was a wonderful experience, even though we had to stay another night due to a storm. Unfortunately, we didn't win the student division but that was okay. We made a lot of new friends and met new people in the industry. I remember feeling super motivated that week and relieving the memory gets me excited for drawing again. I hope I will have another opportunity to work on another project like this next time.

Thesis Snippets

Thank God we made it! Yes, my batchmates and I have made it through thesis and finally graduated! Goodness, I could really use a break. These are the backgrounds I liked most out of all I worked on. Maybe over my vacation trip I'll come up with more interesting drawings. :)

there was a time when I felt that the film was actually a mirror of my real life. The character is graduation as am I. haha.

okay, I don't really like this one but it's the ending scene so I thought it should be here to complete the set.

Pen Sketches

I drew these mini portraits the other day, while waiting for my friends to arrive. It was tricky and very challenging because I was drawing straight with a pen. Every stroke is irreversible! It's good practice, though, and actually fun to do.

from The Three Musketeers 2011 movie

this is one of Irish's favorite dudes. I haven't drawn him correctly, though.haha

Studies Dec 2011

They say that it's better to work on something bit by bit than try to come up with the whole thing in one sitting. I wonder when I'll have time and creativity to finish a real piece. Everything is mostly studies...since I'm juggling things with internship, thesis and other personal projects. But there are fun moments, especially in class or at the studio with my fluffers, Irish. She's been real supportive of me. I feel relaxed when she's around. :) Anyway, here are some dumb sketches.. Although I like the snowy mountains one.

here I once again tried to produce the traditional textures of oil paintings

this is just a study/doodle mimicking those warped sky anime perspectives

And because Fluffers wanted to see my dogs in their doghouse-apartment thing, I decided to show it off here too. They're so snug and feeling safe especially now since it rains here all the time and fireworks are starting to pop in the air. I only mostly see them in the evenings now but I miss playing with them. Oh, they don't really look that scary. They're actual very nice and sweet. That's just the flash from my camera ruining their image hahahaha!

Lily Catastrophe!

Well, I wanted to paint something different. It's something inspired by Claude Monet, Van Gogh and the classic technique of Impressionism. It turned out a bit messier and muddier than what I had in mind. But I feel like I'm getting the hang of using textured brushes but it's insane having to keep changing brushes. Like in traditional art, one brush might be able to get all of this done but it might take forever? Hmmmm.

WIP: Oct 2011

Another something I'm practicing with. I should really finish all my wips so I can post something on this blog ha ha ha. I actually like this one the way it is and thought of keeping it this way. The texturing still needs work but I like the colors a lot. Maybe I'll put it up as one standard pallet.