After Credits - Avengers Assembled

Pen and Ink. After-credits concept. Showpiece for The Avengers: Age of Ultron event at FisherMall, in Quezon City. Incidentally, I enjoyed the movie so much. Maybe because Joss Whedon speaks to me, what I want to see on the big screen is what he showed me.

On the asrtwork itself, I was never that good with well built superhero anatomy. So I adapted to my own style, and I hope the real Marvel artists won't be offended with this homage.

Workplace + Habitat

I was just into doing my Phantomanok illustration studies when my tablet just conked out on me. It wasn't really the tab itself but the cable. Must've disconnected something inside. I whipped out some paper and pen and doodled and sketched and a Tikbalang came to view.

Well, not the Tikbalang some movies and tv soaps try to sell, but more of the Tikbalang, that cryptid whose head resembles that of a horse, taller than any human, and legs large and powerful, which I imagined would be more horse-like.

But I refuse to subscribe to popular beliefs and views. I really think Tikbalangs are more mysterious and , well, definitely not the typecast. They should be monstrous yet interesting, wild and magical.

Excuse the images' blurry resolution, I only have a MyPhone. I don't really need a camera with it, but now I think I just might need one with a better resolution.

So Phantomanok will get it's life through the time tested method - old school pen and paper - which probably is for the best since I am more proficient with it.

NOTE:

The video was from my mobile phone too. It's where I live when I am in the city, and doubles as my creative studio. That's Silence of The Lambs playing in the background.

The Roxymorrons Characters

[This is a mobile phone video]

I haven't done anything new with this blog , so far. Work does have a lot to do with it. And I have been wrangling with a big poster for these guys, sort of, and I can't seem to pin down the band riding on a Vespa. So I took some steps back and did the thing over again. Starting with the character design. And it worked.

So I guess before I finish the poster, this would have to come first.The characters cab be in each separate frame, and can change postions. I should color them separately, and maybe the guys can use them as avatars or something.

Anyway, the video is from my MyPhone and added a soundtrack. Too small huh? It'll do for now. it doesn't matter, the completed work will still be posted here so with a little patience, it'll be done soon.

HAve I told you these guys are good? I have some orgiginal music from the band, but I would not want to pre-empt their release, so the generic audio should fill in for a while. The link above should redirect you to their Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/THE-ROXYMORRONS/143122110633

Sketch A Day 202

Some clothing catalogue can be very handy for reference with sketching the clothes. And then there's the environment to think of, the stuff she throws around, and boy am I so into this right now, my CD player is set up to play Joe Satriani's music to get me going.

Sketch A Day 004

Now, I know what it feels like for digital artists. My brush choices are often wrong. My skill in drawing is the only thing that's keeping this work in progress from going south. Four days into this and I am beginning to understand brush selection, though looking at this, I have lots to learn. At first, I thought I'd do the paper & pencil thing and just trace over the sketch, but that is a cop out. No, I think I mayhave to explore more of the options.

I have always been disappointed with the way I do my eyes. Often, I try to keep the lines minimal. But working with brush is something else. Best part about this is, I'm still learning. Not too shabby for an old man.

Sketch A Day 003

My shadows are way off. I would like to be as adept with the tablet as Anna Villaluna . You should see her work. Marvelous artist. And she can wield a mean guitar too.

Testing and experimenting with brushes is hard. But I love the process of making mistakes and improving the next time around. Am I making any progress?  I sure hope so. Another good thing about digital drawing is the fact that you can use the layers to go back and forth with lines and blending. Erasures are also easy to do.

But it's never easy to do illustrations. If it's easy, I'm not doing it right. Good thing I've learned some patience along the way.

Sketch A Day 002

This drawing with a tablet is kind of funny, in a way. Not like the way we do in-betweens during my TOEI Animation days, where we used Wacom PL500s. That was an awesome experience, being a guinea pig for the development of Pencilman, a software specially made for 2D animation needs. But that was a long time ago. This time I'm learning to do things digitally. I still draw like an animator does - sketching on paper with a pencil with a lightbox underneath. And then after having been satisfied with the final sketch for about 5 revisions, only then will I be able to break out a fresh sheet and finalize the lines, depending on what I had in mind at the time.

But this time, my Flex WSeries is proving to be quite handy. But it's a different thing drawing on a separate  surface and the outcome is on the monitor. So far, I have been using the normal brushes on Photoshop, 5pt with the fill and opacity set at 75%, blend mode at multiply,with a dimension of 600px by 800px.

Unlike pencil and paper, the strokes are controlled. Draw too fast and the lines get all slow and your progress will be in slow mo. So far, I think this will have a good ending. I'm running on instinct here. Sort of playing by ear. I have to discard old habits with drawing and try to keep up with the hardware.

Sketch A Day - 001

Started this illustration blog on an impulse. I know I have to do something to keep the skills updated. I recently purchased a graphics tablet from CD-R King. It's a Flex W-Series gfx tab, quite cheap and it works. The pen or stylus uses one AAA battery which could be a problem after a drop or two.

If you notice the title, is just what it is - this will be a work in progress. I'm committed now, so every so often, we'll see what we can come up starting from this sketch, and what the Flex can do.