Blog Feed

Every since I was 4, and I was watching Dragon Ball Z on the television, I’ve wanted to create scenes of action and stories on paper.

So it started with scribbles.

I would draw a dot on a page to represent Goku or Vegeta, Dragon Ball characters, and when I wanted them to move I drew a line to show where they flew and blasted each other a where they fought.

Then it evolved to me drawing square faces and bodies. I drew Goku the most and by the time I was in the seventh grade I could draw him in my sleep.

Then, when I was introduced to manga, I knew damn well I would be doing this as a living when I grow up.

Manga is Japanese graphic novels. They generally have more pages than American comic books, but lack color and all pages are in black in white except for the cover, special pages, and maybe the first few pages of the first chapter.

Shonen, which is boy in Japanese, is a genre of manga that include many scenes of fighting, usually with supernatural powers, among the characters (to appeal to a male audience). I want to draw Shonen manga because I enjoy drawing scenes in which characters fight with powers; I’ve been drawing it all my life.

So, with that said, what I have been working on recently (with much pain) is my manga “Converse!”Making a manga is hard work, like most things, and it takes dedication and endurance. But the final product is so worth it (I have mini celebrations upon finishing a page or two).

But no, seriously, it is very hard. A manga artist usually has a team of artist for the background, effects, action lines, shading, inking, but most importantly a professional manga artist has a producer to tell him if his story is going a stray or what to fix and how to just be a better manga artist.

However, I am alone. I am sad.

But enough of that, let’s get to the important stuff.

Matthew has black hair, light blue eyes, pale skin, and is generally a nice individual. His name comes from my little brother’s last name and he is the main character of my manga.

The main character of any story, but specifically manga, must be relatable, attractive, memorable, and/or likable. If someone is going to read a book with pictures they’re going to want to look at something not…unappealing.

So I made Matthew and he gets positive criticism from my friends, avid readers of manga. So I knew I was off to a good start.

But, for my story, Matthew has to be sad to get his powers, so I came up with the story where his drunken father forces him to drive his in labor mom to the hospital. Being twelve and not a good driver Matthew and his mom get into a car accident and his mom dies, saving him by serving the car at the last minute.

His dad goes to jail and Matthew attends a boarding school; the rest of his family unable to claim him.

With a history like this Matthew is quite, and very cool headed. He’s seen some things, nothing really scares him, constant bullying has given him the ability to not give a f@!k about the insults flying his way, and he doesn’t mind being alone.

He does, however, fear since he didn’t cry at his mom’s funeral he’s emotionless and a “monster” so he cuts himself to invoke a reaction.

Which leads to Matthew’s quirks. He has a high pain threshold, he is a very fast runner, he owns a switchblade (for cutting), he’s passive assertive (“shut up, please.”), and he never smiles.

I like Matthew because he’s one of the coolest characters I have ever made, I can relate to him and he makes characters around him pop out. His hair is hard to draw, but drawing him fighting is so much more worth it. But moving on to the title.

Every Story Has One

I am a fan of single word titles for manga.

I am also a fan of exclamation points in the title of manga.

And in my head Matthew is never seen without a pair of Converses on. So…you know, out came the title.

…guess we can move on to the story.

Once Upon A Time…

First let me explain how people in manga get powers. It’s really cool yet simple at the same time.

When a person, in the universe of Converse, experiences an emotion to the fullest their soul overcharges and gives them unique powers. The only way for a person to get their powers is to know they have an overcharged soul; an OverSoul. An OverSoul gives a person heighten abilities in strength, speed, and supernatural powers.

So, yeah.

The plot for Converse is simple: two organizations compete and fight over people with OverSouls. One group made to protect OverSouls and tech them to defend themselves are called the Souls(?!), and the other group who capture OverSouls and steals their souls are called the Reapers.

Matthew runs into a Reaper agent but is saved by the Souls, later on he learns the leaders of the Reapers and Souls are twin brothers. Matthew meets friends, gets his weapon, learns about his powers, and ultimately learns every person with a soul on Earth is in danger so he has to get strong enough to beat the Reapers’ leader because Matthew’s element is the only one that can defeat him.

There will be hardship, betrayal, love, comedy, death, but most importantly, the power of friendship.

Or, something like that.

Actually Drawing This Shiatsu

I know I love drawing, and I know I love drawing manga, but Jesus Christ, this is the most tedious, frustrating, agonizing, time consuming thing I have ever done.

Professional manga artist has, like, and eight man team plus a producer.

I have stolen lead pencils and friends who can’t be pleased.

The cons to this business is that drawing a decent looking page takes much time. More importantly, coming up with a decent chapter, then drawing it takes a lot more time. For example, I spent an entire 65 minute free period working on Converse, and I only got a page done. Mind you, this is when I could find the right pose for one of the panels, but still.

I knew drawing would take long, I was ready to fight that battle, but the first chapter to a manga generally has to introduce the main character, explain the plot to some extent, and draw the reader in by being sweet, short, and interesting in a matter of 50 pages (Later chapters are 17-20 pages at a time after the intro).

Sweet Mary, mother of Lord, did this take forever.

I ran through 200 pages of storyboard before I finally landed on a beginning that 1) I’ve never seen before as an intro and 2) was so interesting I made my little brother, the Stone Face of Philadelphia say, “Wow.”.

Basically what I did was take the character who inspired the cover of Converse, a girl interested in film and photography, and have her make a documentary on how Matthew saved the world. Meaning, the intro actually starts at the end of the story, but through interviewing key characters of the story we learn the events that led to this through a collection of flashbacks. 

I know, it is awesome!

So I got to work immediately after finding the perfect intro and I ran into the time vs. drawing problem, after a week or so of drawing I have only 18 pages. 

The pros to drawing this hour eating monster is that I like when people read it and look at me and as “Are you updating soon?” I like when I finish a page I can’t believe I drew the scene. I like when I think about it, I turn my thoughts, a nonphysical, almost nonexistent thing into something everyone can see and feel.

When I first start a page, I draw the panel I’m going to work on. I don’t draw out all panels because…well I don’t know but I draw a panel translated from my storyboard and I add the characters inside with their actions and expressions. Then, I make sure to have enough space for the dialogue. If the person is talking they get a medium sized panel, depending on what they’re saying. If they person is screaming or calling out their super, awesome, KO move I give them a big panel and I may center them to leave room on the side for the words.

I’ve been told that I’m good at controlling space, so I rarely run into the problem of running out of space for speech bubbles. What I do have a problem with are hands and backgrounds.

The background I can avoid if I just make sure the scene isn’t zoomed out too much. However hands, I’ve worked my way from every body part and I’m now trying to master how to draw hands, which are very difficult to draw for some poses.

Then there is the bane of art career; the thing that will make sure I stay in accounting instead of drawing manga.

Drawing females. Oh, god.

In manga, and even American graphic novels, women are usually portrayed with big breast, thin waist, big hips and that doesn’t really sit right with me, ya know? So I ignored the female’s body and tried to conquer the face but they all come out looking like dudes with wigs.

When I finally did get it down though, I had to draw the body and that came out looking like a guy’s body too. I was/am stuck of how to draw a female’s body without objectifying her at the same time. It’s possible, but I’m just not there yet.

Someone like me should be discouraged, drawing for 13 years now and I can’t draw hands. Well, I would be if it weren’t for my past work. When I look at my skill from just a year ago I see such an improvement that I can’t help but feel good about myself. I’m sure a year from now I’m going to have hands and boobs mastered.

Then there’s the issue with how I ink my manga, Professional manga artist use calligraphy pens to draw there manga to give it a fine, finished look to give the impression they drew it once perfectly.

“What? I can’t do that. I can’t even afford a calligraphy pen!” Says me. 

I don’t plan on introducing myself to inking until I’ve master the pencil. That also goes for coloring, because I have a two page spread for Converse in the first chapter that would be colored if I have the tools and skills. Coloring and inking will come later in my artist career; most likely in college.

In the Distant Future

Hay una familia en el mar de Costa Rica. Hay un serena, un cangrejo y un pescado. La familia tiene una concha de mar grande. La familia tiene un estrella del mar. Es una estrella del mar pequena. El estrella del mar muy importante. El estrella del mar tiene un secreto. El estrella de mar esta triste. el estrella de mar va a llorar. el estrella de mar le dice a el padre "el mar, mamacoacha, no esta contento. mamacocha va a detruir el mundo. hay un problema, es un problema grande. 

la estralla de mar le dice a el padre " sube la montania mas alta con tu familia" la failia camina hacia la montania mas alta con la estrella de mar. la montania mas alta se llama huilcacota.  

For this first part of the project we were assigned Two self portraits. Small and Large. Both of them included shading, shadow and great sketching. All of these skills that we have learned so far in advanced art. It did not take me a very long time to do my drawing even though I tried my best.I noticed that the smaller portrait looked like me a bit more than the large it was harder to line the lips and other small features that aren’t big but very easy to catch the human eye if crooked. Below are my two drawing both small and large and remember this is my best.

​

a. What went well? 
We found a lot of resources, which helped in our understanding.
b. What did not? 
We could not use more infographics for a good visual.
c. What would you do differently next time? 
We would use more and unique infographics
d. Specifically comment on the 10 tips for effective infographics -

Be Concise : It was concise.

La llama le dice al papa, " Sube la árboles mas alta con tu familia. La familia camina hacia la árboles.

Mini self-portrait:

For this quarter we were assigned to do a mini self-portrait. Meaning we all had to take one picture of ourselves and draw our bodies, and faces with detail onto paper. This taught me a lot about positioning a picture onto a piece of paper, and analyzing and drawing shapes and face structures and applying it on to another artist based object.

At first, when I began to draw I sort of sketched out a few things with my eraser just to get myself started. I figured that by doing this it would make the rest of the process of drawing the picture a lot easier, also this way, I was able to position the picture in the right form on the paper. Then after I finished doing that, I took my pencil and began tracing over the lines in which the eraser already made. After I finished doing this I already began to see the outlining shape of my face. So then I started to draw my hair. Drawing the hair was a little difficult for me because I wanted my hair to actually look natural, I didn’t want my hair to look Juvenile. So I began drawing my hairline, and my cheekbones, and the rest of my face. I then drew my neck and a little bit of my arm. After that I began to draw my eyes. My eyes were surprisingly easy. I colored my eye in very dark with pencil, and then left one part of it white, because in the picture my eyeball was placed in that very spot, so I wanted to make that part become more noticed. Then after that I began to draw my other eye, and my forehead wrinkles, my lips, and my nose. Drawing my nose I have to say was probably the hardest part of that whole portrait. I think it was because my face was sort of tilted, and so I guess drawing my nose was a little bit of a challenge for me.

Overall doing this project was a little difficult but not too much, I had some struggle, but I believe by doing this project I have learned some techniques and skills that will help me in the future.

LARGE self-portrait:

For this assignment we had to make the same picture, except it had to be in larger contents. Everything in the picture had to be positioned and coordinated with the last picture that we drew. In this assignment we were given the choice of pencil or charcoal. I chose to do both because I pretty much did the whole thing in pencil but I wanted to make some things darker and lighter, so it was pretty cool to add that effect.

When I began this project, I first put my picture into Photoshop and put it on 24X36 and by doing this the picture in Photoshop was the same size as my canvas. So by doing that it really helped with the positioning of the project. I began the portrait by doing my hair first, and drawing the shape, and outline of that. I then began to draw the structure of my face, after I did that I drew a line vertically, and horizontally. I did this because it is way I can position the eyes, mouth, eyebrows etc.  I then began my eyes, and my eyebrows. After that I focused a lot on my hair. The shape of my hair I believe was good, but making hair look like hair was a little difficult, but I believe I succeeded. I then began to draw my lips, and a little part of my arm, and my neck, and then when it was finally finished I stepped back and looked at my drawing and I was pleased.

In conclusion, this project taught me a lot of techniques I could use when doing large projects. Some parts of this, I was a little unsure, but overall I believe I did a good job on this project.

Shade (4)  

         For this assignment we had to pencil shade four figures; one was a shading where it was dark on the top and then as you get towards the bottom of the paper the tone got lighter, another was when the shade began from the sides of the paper. It started off dark and got light as it hit towards the center, the third picture that I made was a shading that was made into two triangles and from each corner the shade was dark then as I traveled down the shading went into a lighter tone. The last one I did was a shading of a rectangle with a circle embedded inside. I shaded the rectangle first, and then the circle.

            When I started this project the first thing I did was create a boundary or a border for all my pictures just to give myself an idea of where to begin shading. I then took my pencil and I would start off dark and make my way down to lighter tones. I did this because I figured it would be easier to go from dark to light, than from light to dark. I think the hardest part about this project was I think figuring out which shade should come next to meet the last tone which is white, so I guess figuring out a tone leading into white I think was a little complicated.

            Overall this project taught me a lot about tones, and the different shades in which a pencil is able to produce. I believe I did a fairly well job on this project.

Texture (3)

         For this assignment we were conducted to make 3 drawings. Drawing #1 was to create scales, so I decided that I was going to do a snake, another drawing we had to do was make water, I made an ocean with a reflecting sun, and last, we had to make realistic hair.

            The first project I did was the snake. The snake wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be, because as I watched the tutorial on how to make the snake scales it turned out to be a quite an easy process. in order to make snake scales, and make them  neat, and blend in together, I was initiated to draw evenly spaced lines down the snakes spine, and in between those lines I created a type of oval shape, which created snake scales. The other project I did was the sun reflecting onto the water. To do this I first created a horizon. Then I began lightly shading the ocean with my pencil leaving a little space of white to show the reflection of the sun. The last one that I did was the hair. The hair was fairly difficult for me I think because how to make realistic hair you have to really study your dark and light shadings, because when your making starands of hair there are some parts that are dark and light which makes hair look natural on paper. To make the hair I used my pencil and I lightly did the outline of some ones hair on google and I then began to do the dark areas first and then I began the light areas, and then later into the project I began connecting the front of the hair to the back.

            I believe this project was a huge challenge for me, but I’m happy with my pictures. I think overall I did a job well done.

Point Perspective   

         For point perspective we were all given an assignment in which we had to look out the art room window and draw simultaneously the buildings and objects that we saw.

            I began this project by first drawing two lines that cross each other and with those lines I was able to make the picture that I observed outside the window, making it look realistic. In the picture I drew every object in which a human eye could catch. I drew buildings, the street lights the horizon, the other little buildings in the background etc. I have to say the hardest part about this project was positioning the scene onto paper.

            Overall I think I did a fantastic job drawing this scenery, this was also a little of challenge but I was able to push through, and get it to look alive, and realistic, as if your standing 22^nd street.

Going in to this project, I was so confident. I did the smaller portrait so now I’m a little more comfortable. But the only thing I was nervous about was drawing on big paper. Trying to draw at a bigger size is difficult. But I started out on what I know, so first I drew my head, and made sure my chin was looking right. The mirror is a big help because if you draw what you see it will come out great. Then I started with my eyes, but this time. I added shading and darker lines, so it can look more real. My nose I did better this time, better than the small self-portrait. My hair was different style from my smaller self-portrait, so my ears were covered. I added shading in my hair and then tried to show my cheekbones more. I was happy with the final product.