Thursday, April 29, 2010

Sketching

Lately I have been sketching a lot more which in part is thanks to one of my teachers. Sketching a lot has great benefits, for one if you really pay attention to your drawing ability and what not you can get better a lot faster than you think. And plus sketching is just fun I mean you could come up with some crazy idea while doing it or draw something that really just sucks ass. Either way it's just something really good to do. Just from doing more sketching lately I'm getting back to the way I use to be when I was younger.
I use to sketch like a ton when I was younger and do all sorts of random illustrations and such and this is really getting me back into that. Ever since I got to college like three years ago it has been harder for me to really get into the mood again to do just random sketches and illustrations and comic book stuff which is the whole reason I'm going to college to become an awesome comic book artist. Which finally I feel like I'm getting into that professional frame of mind. I'm doing more scripts then thumbnails, sketches, way better layout ideas and camera work, color comps. I mean I'm actually messing around with color now and I like it! I always hated messing around with color because I thought it was too complicated you know? But I finally got into just doing this style that uses just flat colors with two to three variations and I love it.
So overall my advice to anyone out there is to just friggin sketch more and more and more and do random illustrations and try out things you hate until you sort of understand them more you know?

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Work!Practice!Write!Draw!

Currently I am so slammed with a ton of work to do right now and it is really having an effect on me. I have tons of school work to do which includes; continuing to get good grades and stuff for graduation, nine more pages for my Children's book I am working on for Childs Ill, I have to do three finished illustrations for this book, a cover and two other illustrations, doing photos and research and all sorts of things for Figure illustration, and doing good enough at Science to keep a good grade, oh and doing projects well for Editorial as well. By the way I don't think I've done many awesome pieces that would be considered portfolio level which is not cool. Then I have my own side projects I'm trying to do like; writing a script for my comic I want to do, "Master's of Fiction" (which then I have to thumbnail, layout, pencil, ink and eventually color on the computer and publish through Lulu), do random pencilled pages for my comic portfolio and I offered to do a story and whole comic for this Indy anthology thingie so yeah....a bit too much on my plate per se.
But I guess this will all make me a better artist in the end. It is teaching me to not sleep so much, man that just holds you back...In anycase I hope to post some stuff up here soon but until then I will continue blogging.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Styles

You know I've always known there were many different styles out there and techniques. Occasionally I would try to copy those ones I found interesting and such but never really got too close. I'm talking about different artists techniques that I am inspired by, right now I'm really into like Ben Templesmith, Skottie Young and the artist who does the covers for the new Deadpool series whose name escapes me at the moment.
My teacher in my editorial and childrens book classes is wicked awesome he like lets us try anything out as long as we get some work done and what not. But he is teaching me now how to really get a feel for the type of coloring style I want to fall into with watercolors. Ya see I've never really gotten into colors almost the whole time I've been into comic art and everything, I was afraid to I guess you could say. I had no clue what I was doing when it came to color so I said screw it! But now I'm starting to like my work being fully realized ya know? From like pencil to ink to watercolors. I stick with just two to three colors on a subject which suits me just fine with my comic work. Not to say that professional colorists do this it just makes me more comftorable.
In an after thought now I have to say I don't know why I was so afraid to try color? I'm getting better now as I keep practicing. I will post up some artwork soon on my Deviant Art page!!

Monday, April 5, 2010

Ideas

So I've been throwing around some ideas for a one-shot comic that I want to do. I'm planning on (well if it comes out good)using it in my portfolio as a sample of my work that I can show to prospective companies that I'm interested in. I mean wouldn't it be great if I even got to publish it as a real mini-series? Well here is the title and synopsis:

"Masters of Fiction!"

Mike D. Burke

Synopsis: Three great authors from different times arrive in a strange Inn. Thrown together for one night they are to create three chapters in an anthology book that is about a certain genre in which they are familiar with. The only thing is they don't know who the characters are, what the plot is, and most importantly...who brought them there and how. There chapters must be done before dawn or one of them will die.