A Few Steps Back...

So... I went on this AMAZING website today called Conceptart.com and spent some time there, putting up a few of my art pieces that consisted of my new style here. Talk about getting humbled. Turns out that the amazing art that I thought I had been putting out over the past few months is really... at a beginner level. Yeah, imagine my surprise! The thing about it, is that all of the statements and opinions of everyone there were backed up by analogies, and situations that described me to a tee! I am 27 years old, and have drawn since the age of 5. Over these past 10 years, I have been drawing off and on, and I have felt that over these past two years, my art has improved dramatically! But boy was I wrong. I was told from most of the artists there that my work was very "beginner level". They talked about values, and other things that quite frankly, I had never heard of. I basically taught myself to draw over the years. Took a few art classes in school, and read a lot of books, and tutorials from other artists, looked at TONS and TONS of comic books, and created this style that I now see is very rudimentary.

This site, and the amazing people on it literally made me step back and take a look at myself as an artist. I had realized that from a certain standpoint, I may be better than the average person, but in the realm of other artists, I have more than a lot to learn. I have never drawn from life for an extended amount of time; at least not enough to make it stick for me, and that is what I have decided to do. I am going to take a few steps back. Go back to the basics and start over again as if I am a brand new artist learning to draw for the first time. This is not to say that I am going to be stopping my art that I do now, like White Ninja Guy. That's not stopping. But as far as my other art things, I am going to be posting a lot less, and studying things in life a whole lot more. So beginning this year, you are going to be seeing a lot of changes, and some newer art. And I hope that it will be reflected in the newer art that I do.

I love this site, because it is a site that gives you legitimate critiquing of your skills as an artist. This is something that I have searched for over on Deviant Art, but have had no success in. Conceptart.org was in reality a "kick in the face". It made me realize that I really wasn't as good as I thought I was, and that I really had some learning to do. I don't back down from a challenge, and thus have come to terms with my ability and have every intention in the world of changing it, and becoming the best artist that I can be. So here is to new beginnings... Literally.

Be back later...

New Styles

I have been trying to do new forms of art for the past few weeks, and I have to say... EPIC FAIL FACE!!! I am trying to paint in a new way, to add to my artistic versatility as I want to be able to do all forms of art that appeal to me, and I am finding that I suck face. I am going to keep practicing, and I hope to get better, but sometimes, I just wish that I could get some 1 on 1 training to get it right. I have been doing tutorials and finding stuff on You Tube, and Deviant Art, and they have been a bit helpful. So I'm gonna keep up with the fight, and see where it takes me, you know? Someone out there seems to like my stuff. Both my fail pieces have been faved by at least 1 person, so it can't be TOO bad I guess. Anyways, here they are if you would like to check them out.

Original Battle Characters

So, I began participating in this thing on Deviant Art that is called Original Battle Character Zone. What it is, are artists that create these original characters and both artists do drawings of their characters defeating their opponents. Once the submissions are received, then a group of judges come together and judge each piece and chooses a winner based on creativity, skill, composition, and a host of other things. So I decided to enter my character, the one, the only, White Ninja Guy. It was a splash page battle where you had to make a splash page of your character beating your opponent. Here is what mine was...
I ended up winning the battle this time around, and got some great advice on how to make my entries better the next time around. What I like about the idea of all of this stuff, is that it doesn't matter if you are a great artist, or have good dialogue. It think you just need to be creative and original to win. I had fun doing it, and will most likely be doing it again in the future... So right now, I'm gonna start work on White Ninja Guy page three.

Be back in a bit...

White Ninja Guy - 2009

So, today I just made the new cover to White Ninja Guy: Battles. This is going to be the official first issue of the book, and I have decided to go forth with the storyline that I started. I am doing a lot of thinking as far as where I want the book to go, and hope to pull off the things that I had in mind. There are going to be a lot of battles that are going to have some familiar characters, and toward the end of the story, I will be introducing a new villain to the mix. Someone that will be a true nemesis for White Ninja Guy. I hope that I can pull off making this entertaining, and cool at the same time.



The cover here is the proposed cover that will be going up in January of 2009. Possibly by that time, I will be hosting the site on both Smackjeeves.com and on my own personal art site. This cover might be changed, and then again, it might not be. But so far, I am liking it. So this is the beginning of what is going to be happening, and I have to admit, I am a bit excited. Can't wait!

Be back later...

Looking forward...

Well, there is a lot going on with me right now. I'm sure you all that read this blog notice this, as I have not posted in a while. But right now, I am looking forward to what is in store for the future. I am going to be a freelance comic artist, so that I can have the freedom to do what I need to do, and what I like to do. I have decided to continue White Ninja Guy starting next year, and am deciding whether to take him in a whole new direction, or just continue with the story that is going on now with White Ninja Guy: Battles. I was going to join up with my best friend (brother) and his studio that he created called Masterminds Studios. But I decided to just take a step back and be a fan. The comic thing as a career doesn't appeal to me like it used to as it is such a hard career to get into, and again it doesn't give me the freedom that I want. I have been doing some art, and it has been fun. Rocket and Bounce here is some of my new work... Check out Cranky Octopus.com to see the comics yourself! Stellar ish! Anyways, catch you all later!