Journals63
Newest
Faves and Watchers
1 min read
So Happy with the bunch of new followers and page visits of the last weeks. A lot of faves too! In the last 5 years I've doubled the watchers (right now 815) and made almost twice the visits than in my first 4 years (81K already). These are not big numbers considering what great artists on dA can achieve just in a week or a month but not bad for a comic book artist!
So thank you, guys!
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Hi guys, colored commissions will have free shipping this week, until next Sunday Dec, 5th.
Range of prices from 30 to 190€ (-10%). Please send me a DM to ask for the detailed price list. Thanks!
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Summary of the last two years...
4 min read
I said that when I was working for the American market, when I had achieved my first objective, I would write a journal to assess how I had achieved it, how long it had taken me, what efforts I had made, etc. Well, I've been inking for a few months now for that market and my first opportunity to draw my own pages has come up, so I think it's a good time to write this.
It's been more than 2 years since I decided to try it. My first intention was to be an inker, even knowing that it is a profession that sooner or later will become extinct. A few months later a friend who was already working for the USA asked why I was not trying to be a lineart artist (pencils+inks) instead of only an inker. That made me change my plans, making them more ambitious, but also more difficult to make! The first year was quite strange, unemployed as it was and making only some samples that took too long to finish. If something was decisive at that time was to participate in penciljack.com forums and be lucky to be reviewed by Paul Smith in several of my samples. No doubt he helped me learn a lot about all aspects of comic book industry, especially storytelling. I'm really grateful to him!
But if there has been something that has meant a before and after has been to contact an agent. When I was accepted, I promised to deliver at least 6 pages of samples every month so that he could move them through the publishers. And the result came relatively fast: the first month I had a positive response, nothing less than DC, although they later lost interest (and I do not blame them, as I was, and I still am, green for such a large publisher), but it was very exciting. Soon Valiant, Aftershock and Lion Forge also responded to my agent's emails, without much enthusiasm, but they did. Lion Forge gave me my first opportunity, the inks of a complete issue. I finished those 24 pages in 9 days! I enjoyed it a lot and I was really motivated, like never before. Then came a fill-in of inks of the same series, which started being 6 pages and in the end were 15, offering me also to complete the arc with some more issues!
Then came two tests: draw some pages for two different projects, one from the UK and the other from the USA (the latter quite important). I was between 4 candidates for the position for the UK project and 5 for the USA's. It was very difficult to get the job, but I had to try. First, I did the USA project, which test script came in much earlier. I delivered the pages a couple of days before the deadline. I did not draw the other test: I got the American project! A miniseries for Dark Horse! I still can't believe it!
Well, with all this reading I just want to show a couple of things: 1) Having an agent speeds things up a lot, and 2) Luck also plays a role in the process. The latter could be the subject of discussion. In fact, with whom I mention it, they always tells me that I deserve the job because of my talent and effort. But, I don't think I've tried harder or less than other artists who are trying to achieve the same goals, nor do I have a lot of talent (if I compare myself with the real comic book artists out there). So, as they always say, you have to be in the right place at the right time, no doubt.
But if something I have to recommend to people who are starting is to find a good agent as soon as possible. If you have enough quality to start rolling, they will accept working with you, which will be a great injection of motivation, and that will result in improvement in your work, because you will draw more and because the agent, if is good, will guide you and will correct faults.
Finally, and although it may still be a bit early, because I still have a lot to prove (this has only just begun), I can say that it is true that dreams are fulfilled. But, beware! You have to work very hard!
I'll continue my updates in the timeline, let's see if I'm done for the job!
Good luck!
It's been more than 2 years since I decided to try it. My first intention was to be an inker, even knowing that it is a profession that sooner or later will become extinct. A few months later a friend who was already working for the USA asked why I was not trying to be a lineart artist (pencils+inks) instead of only an inker. That made me change my plans, making them more ambitious, but also more difficult to make! The first year was quite strange, unemployed as it was and making only some samples that took too long to finish. If something was decisive at that time was to participate in penciljack.com forums and be lucky to be reviewed by Paul Smith in several of my samples. No doubt he helped me learn a lot about all aspects of comic book industry, especially storytelling. I'm really grateful to him!
But if there has been something that has meant a before and after has been to contact an agent. When I was accepted, I promised to deliver at least 6 pages of samples every month so that he could move them through the publishers. And the result came relatively fast: the first month I had a positive response, nothing less than DC, although they later lost interest (and I do not blame them, as I was, and I still am, green for such a large publisher), but it was very exciting. Soon Valiant, Aftershock and Lion Forge also responded to my agent's emails, without much enthusiasm, but they did. Lion Forge gave me my first opportunity, the inks of a complete issue. I finished those 24 pages in 9 days! I enjoyed it a lot and I was really motivated, like never before. Then came a fill-in of inks of the same series, which started being 6 pages and in the end were 15, offering me also to complete the arc with some more issues!
Then came two tests: draw some pages for two different projects, one from the UK and the other from the USA (the latter quite important). I was between 4 candidates for the position for the UK project and 5 for the USA's. It was very difficult to get the job, but I had to try. First, I did the USA project, which test script came in much earlier. I delivered the pages a couple of days before the deadline. I did not draw the other test: I got the American project! A miniseries for Dark Horse! I still can't believe it!
Well, with all this reading I just want to show a couple of things: 1) Having an agent speeds things up a lot, and 2) Luck also plays a role in the process. The latter could be the subject of discussion. In fact, with whom I mention it, they always tells me that I deserve the job because of my talent and effort. But, I don't think I've tried harder or less than other artists who are trying to achieve the same goals, nor do I have a lot of talent (if I compare myself with the real comic book artists out there). So, as they always say, you have to be in the right place at the right time, no doubt.
But if something I have to recommend to people who are starting is to find a good agent as soon as possible. If you have enough quality to start rolling, they will accept working with you, which will be a great injection of motivation, and that will result in improvement in your work, because you will draw more and because the agent, if is good, will guide you and will correct faults.
Finally, and although it may still be a bit early, because I still have a lot to prove (this has only just begun), I can say that it is true that dreams are fulfilled. But, beware! You have to work very hard!
I'll continue my updates in the timeline, let's see if I'm done for the job!
Good luck!
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Pursuing evolution
4 min read
I'm wondering how artists get their drawing excellence since years ago. And how they break into comics too, and as I'm trying to do so, I think I'll write a journal here if I finally reach that goal (being working in US comics; mastering drawing is something that I know takes a lifetime as you'll never end learning). Meanwhile, I must say that the path I'm in is fun, but full of doubts about how to do the work (perspective, storytelling, anatomy...), and it is quite hard too.
I've experienced the first 6 days working with my agent how it feels to be working 14-16 hours sitting in front of a screen (I was trying to go on a page per day rate as a test). I am experiencing the feeling of not doing any sport for months, when I have been going religiously to the gym for the past 23 years (I must recover my workouts; need to put order in my schedule). To that we must add that, obviously I want to know if I'm doing it right or not, and upload my work here, to Artstation, Facebook, Instagram, Digital Webbing and Penciljack. I receive reviews and criticisms, which usually do not pass advice, but sometimes they are hard and maybe it is one of the worst things to me. I never liked to make mistakes (who likes). But mistakes are what really make you learn, or so they say.
For the moment I've been drawing samples for 2 years, but only for 4-5 months taking it seriously. In this, the presence of the agent has been fundamental: suddenly I was in the need to deliver completed pages every month, if possible two groups of 6 pages, which means making a page every two days, approximately. This is a rhythm that is still slow. Even so, I'm not entirely comfortable, almost always late to deliver. The normal thing would be to send pages on days 1 and 15 of each month; The last two months I have completely failed. I have my excuses to justify it, but I keep in mind that if I ever work for a publisher who expects a page a day from me, those excuses will not be valid (unless it's about life or death). Fortunately I have had the understanding of my agent... by now.
The worst part of the creative process is planning the pages. The happy layouts. I find them very difficult. I watch videos and read interviews of professionals and always emphasizes the importance of this part of the process. But they do it every day at full speed, they usually hit it with the first one (the editor gives them the "ok" quickly) and they can put themselves to work quietly on their daily page. In my last pages, I have been doing the layouts and the sketches for more than a week, believing that they would work well and I have not succeeded in almost anything. Then, as I had to redo them partially, I was back about ten days doing the layouts of the two double pages and I have failed constantly (my agent has served me as editor with great patience and crossing lots of emails).
Then, there is the problem of the human figure. It's difficult! I use references of all kinds, from photos of the network, or photos of myself or other people who kindly pose, I use an app of figure poses in 3D (all of this needs so much time! That's why is important to draw the figures from your imagination, something that I can't do by now) ... but my drawings of characters are still not very much alive, they're stiff. I have to try to use techniques more typical of animation, use the "line of action", and learn to exaggerate the movements and enhance feelings in facial features. That will take me a long time, I'm afraid. To all this I must add that I do not have a personal style, I borrow from here and there, from a handful of artists that I especially like, but from that mix nothing personal comes out, at least by now. Honestly, in two years I have not seen any evolution in that aspect, and it's quite frustrating.
So, this is my current mood, the point I'm in the path, far or near the goal, I don't know. I only reach and know it if I continue working. But first, I have to recover a bit of the initial enthusiasm. These last pages have exhausted me a lot.
I've experienced the first 6 days working with my agent how it feels to be working 14-16 hours sitting in front of a screen (I was trying to go on a page per day rate as a test). I am experiencing the feeling of not doing any sport for months, when I have been going religiously to the gym for the past 23 years (I must recover my workouts; need to put order in my schedule). To that we must add that, obviously I want to know if I'm doing it right or not, and upload my work here, to Artstation, Facebook, Instagram, Digital Webbing and Penciljack. I receive reviews and criticisms, which usually do not pass advice, but sometimes they are hard and maybe it is one of the worst things to me. I never liked to make mistakes (who likes). But mistakes are what really make you learn, or so they say.
For the moment I've been drawing samples for 2 years, but only for 4-5 months taking it seriously. In this, the presence of the agent has been fundamental: suddenly I was in the need to deliver completed pages every month, if possible two groups of 6 pages, which means making a page every two days, approximately. This is a rhythm that is still slow. Even so, I'm not entirely comfortable, almost always late to deliver. The normal thing would be to send pages on days 1 and 15 of each month; The last two months I have completely failed. I have my excuses to justify it, but I keep in mind that if I ever work for a publisher who expects a page a day from me, those excuses will not be valid (unless it's about life or death). Fortunately I have had the understanding of my agent... by now.
The worst part of the creative process is planning the pages. The happy layouts. I find them very difficult. I watch videos and read interviews of professionals and always emphasizes the importance of this part of the process. But they do it every day at full speed, they usually hit it with the first one (the editor gives them the "ok" quickly) and they can put themselves to work quietly on their daily page. In my last pages, I have been doing the layouts and the sketches for more than a week, believing that they would work well and I have not succeeded in almost anything. Then, as I had to redo them partially, I was back about ten days doing the layouts of the two double pages and I have failed constantly (my agent has served me as editor with great patience and crossing lots of emails).
Then, there is the problem of the human figure. It's difficult! I use references of all kinds, from photos of the network, or photos of myself or other people who kindly pose, I use an app of figure poses in 3D (all of this needs so much time! That's why is important to draw the figures from your imagination, something that I can't do by now) ... but my drawings of characters are still not very much alive, they're stiff. I have to try to use techniques more typical of animation, use the "line of action", and learn to exaggerate the movements and enhance feelings in facial features. That will take me a long time, I'm afraid. To all this I must add that I do not have a personal style, I borrow from here and there, from a handful of artists that I especially like, but from that mix nothing personal comes out, at least by now. Honestly, in two years I have not seen any evolution in that aspect, and it's quite frustrating.
So, this is my current mood, the point I'm in the path, far or near the goal, I don't know. I only reach and know it if I continue working. But first, I have to recover a bit of the initial enthusiasm. These last pages have exhausted me a lot.
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The first step
4 min read
I haven't written a journal for a long time and I decided to do it today, when I realized that I've been in deviantart for 10 years, but I've only been active for 5 of them (I didn't upload anything until November 2012). If I look at the visits I've received in those five years, I've made an average of about 10,000 a year, and I'm about to get 600 Watchers. I am very grateful for the visits and the support shown by some people who have been somewhat more present than usual (who usually give favorites to my work or who have come to write to me when they think it appropriate).
They seem like high figures, but compared to the people who have millions of visits here are insignificant, and they have not led me to get even one commission in all this time (what they asked me was about topics that I was not interested in, or pretended to pay me ridiculously). Also, and this has been more recent, I have received messages from writers who offered to work drawing on their graphic novel scripts (I have answered all of them and thanked their interest in my work, but the truth is that I'm very busy drawing samples for my agent, trying to enter to work in some American Publisher someday).
In short, deviantart has not been what I expected, but the fault is not deviantart, but, of course, mine.
I've worked, and I've uploaded things, yes, but far fewer than I should have. I have lost a lot of time and overproached with a lot of stupidities (which are not relevant) for much of those 5 years. More or less in the same way that I have done all my life. So if I have not evolved more towards the artist that I think I can be it's just my fault, I have not practiced, I have not drawn or painted enough.
Now that I want to do it, it turns out that I don't have time. And that's when I realize how valuable was all that time that I've wasted, and that I can not do anything to get it back.
Well, I think I'm the way I am and it's hard to change, but I'm trying to improve for some time now, and although I'm on the run, I think I'm getting a little organized. But not in schedules, which is impossible by now, but in knowing what I have to do to get where I want, that is, to have a plan, although it will surely take longer than necessary because of that little time available. This is the case since two years ago, and you might think that it makes me calm, but it is not like that. I look back to what I drew then and see no evolution on what I draw today, I think I keep drawing at the same level as two years ago and I feel almost more insecure making comic pages now than when my knowledge was much less.
I see what real professionals do, here, and especially in Artstation, where you really see overwhelming talent, and I get very discouraged. I think there are many cartoonists out there who could get work in what I want before me. And they are many years younger! They have room for improvement and more time to develop their talent.
But I must move forward. Do not look so much at what others do and focus on myself, working for my own goals. It's the only way. I took too long to realize what I want, but now that I know I should not falter, even if it seems twice as hard to achieve as when I was 20 years younger. Hopefully at least one year from now I can say that I'm starting to see some progress in my work. That can be a first step.
They seem like high figures, but compared to the people who have millions of visits here are insignificant, and they have not led me to get even one commission in all this time (what they asked me was about topics that I was not interested in, or pretended to pay me ridiculously). Also, and this has been more recent, I have received messages from writers who offered to work drawing on their graphic novel scripts (I have answered all of them and thanked their interest in my work, but the truth is that I'm very busy drawing samples for my agent, trying to enter to work in some American Publisher someday).
In short, deviantart has not been what I expected, but the fault is not deviantart, but, of course, mine.
I've worked, and I've uploaded things, yes, but far fewer than I should have. I have lost a lot of time and overproached with a lot of stupidities (which are not relevant) for much of those 5 years. More or less in the same way that I have done all my life. So if I have not evolved more towards the artist that I think I can be it's just my fault, I have not practiced, I have not drawn or painted enough.
Now that I want to do it, it turns out that I don't have time. And that's when I realize how valuable was all that time that I've wasted, and that I can not do anything to get it back.
Well, I think I'm the way I am and it's hard to change, but I'm trying to improve for some time now, and although I'm on the run, I think I'm getting a little organized. But not in schedules, which is impossible by now, but in knowing what I have to do to get where I want, that is, to have a plan, although it will surely take longer than necessary because of that little time available. This is the case since two years ago, and you might think that it makes me calm, but it is not like that. I look back to what I drew then and see no evolution on what I draw today, I think I keep drawing at the same level as two years ago and I feel almost more insecure making comic pages now than when my knowledge was much less.
I see what real professionals do, here, and especially in Artstation, where you really see overwhelming talent, and I get very discouraged. I think there are many cartoonists out there who could get work in what I want before me. And they are many years younger! They have room for improvement and more time to develop their talent.
But I must move forward. Do not look so much at what others do and focus on myself, working for my own goals. It's the only way. I took too long to realize what I want, but now that I know I should not falter, even if it seems twice as hard to achieve as when I was 20 years younger. Hopefully at least one year from now I can say that I'm starting to see some progress in my work. That can be a first step.
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