The wheels keep on turning.

Yeah, inking can be tricky. Pick your poison.

How to survive working in retail #9, taking form right in front O´ya.

Septiembre, mes de la historieta rio platense!

El 4 de Septiembre es el día de la historieta en Argentina y el 16 es el día de la historieta Uruguaya. Feliz mes de la historieta para todos!!

Los dejo con una página del artista Chanti. Lo pueden seguir en Facebook, link abajo.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Mayor-y-menor-sitio-oficial/279876322873

Y también pueden visitar la página en FB de Creando Comics:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Creando-Comics-Un-viaje-por-la-Narrativa-Visual/165956280177766

Birthdays.

And now, a few words from our publisher--wait...what?
Oh...right...we don´t have one. No one´s moving a finger to get us published...
Well then, a few words by a bitter man:

El humor en esta noche!

Arrancamos con una leve auto crítica:



Luego seguimos con algo que parece una tontería, y en realidad lo es:



Y cerramos con más fantasías de ESTE nerd:



P.D: Hoy me enteré que pasé a segundo año de profesorado. Así que por lo menos por un rato hoy puedo decir que la vida es buena.

Salú, turros de Balvanera!

Did I mention that we are in the app store?

Nope? Then check this out:



And maybe you might want to also take a look at the picture bellow to see how we rank:



I don´t need to say that my brothers and I are exultant with joy. But hey...we are!
Good times. ^_^

Sketch the night away.

Misleading as a title can be, this post is not necesarilly about thing I´ve made on one single night, there´s a couple of then actually. Anyway, right now I´m not doing any work in comics because I´m in between jobs, so this is the situation: when I´m working I complain about not having enough time, and when I´m not working I don´t know what to do with my life.

So I sketch stuff, like these:


This is sort of a celebration of the new shooters I plan to get my hands on. You can never underestimate the healing qualities of blowing up some heads with a sniper rifle. It makes me feel good about myself. I have so much hate directed towards humanity that is not even funny (to some).

Then I´m picking up the Sketchbook pro 2011 and doing somen drawings on the PC. It´s not easy for me to do this since I´m not used to drawing on a pad, but as I´m sure Corey here will testify...I´m getting better.


Here´s the first attemp I did with the sodding program:


And last, but not least a very interesting book about sketches and designs I found online. It´s sort of a complilation of the artistic side of Brian Wood (writer of Northlanders, DV8, DMZ and Local among many, many more titles). This is the second volume of PUBLIC DOMAIN, and you can get it from here TOTALLY FOR FREE (you cheapskates). So go and get it.


I´m writting a book about artists, so maybe you will find out more about that in the near future.

Until then...bye.

NEW YORK COMIC-CON 2011 is here!!

And for the second year in a row so are 3 GUYS MAKING COMICS!
I promised before, and because I´m a man of my word here you have the covers for our brand new book:


Just like last year you´ll be able to grab a copy of our newest issue of HOW TO SURVIVE WORKING IN RETAIL (in this case #7) along with all the previous ones.

Look for our booth and make sure to stop by and say hi to Ronnie and Markell, they are going to be more than pleased to sell and sign the books for you.



Let me remind you that the SKETCH VARIANT will be available ONLY during the show, from then on you´ll get the book with the regular cover.

Enjoy the CON, I´ll see you soon!

Make way for HTSWR #7.

Good news on the horizon. 3 Guys Making Comics are getting ready for the 2011 edition of New York comic-con and to make it a really sweet deal we are releasing the new issue of HOW TO SURVIVE WORKING IN RETAIL, Number 7!

It´s been a while since the book hit the shelves last March but things got really complicated for all of us, and since we have no back up from anyone life outside of comics comes first. But now the book it´s on the final stages of production and we are already working hard on the last issues of this first story arc that will conclude on issue 10.

Currently issue 1 it´s like on its SEVENTH print and like all the other issues it´s available in the states from COAST TO COAST and online on multiple places. We are also revamping the 3GMC website and don´t forget you can also follow us on Facebook. We are pushing hard to keep this baby of ours in the shelves and we really appreciate all the comments and all the fans we´ve been gathering all through this year. All the people have been extremelly kind when they talk about the look of the book and my art.

Thanks a bunch for that, I will continue to improve as I keep drawing, and that is because you are all there. THANKS.


Here´s also a nice pic from the store DEWEY´S in Madison NJ, if you see the book and want to shoot us a pic of the display or of yourself with it we will post it on the website and in FB.

Stay tunned, there are a lot of exciting things comming up in the near future.

Sobre la FIERRO.

Well, let´s get the obvious out of the way. This is about a comic I made for a contest and It didn´t win (or won, or whatever) So if you are Reading this whole post you are clearly out of your league (unless you speak spanish, that is).
I´m not gonna bother translating the text to english, you already know what you needed to know.

Now feel free to enjoy the pretty pictures. Here you have another testament of my eternal suckiness.

Ahora que me saqué eso de encima paso a contarles al resto. Esta es la historieta que hice el año pasado para el concurso de la revista Fierro de Argentina. Si bien en un post bastante anterior ya dije que no había ganado nada por lo menos llego a la preselección. Entraron más de 300 concursantes de los que eligieron unos 30, yo entré en ese número pero hasta ahí llegué. Los de la revista prometieron postear los finalistas en su blog pero nunca lo hicieron, así que ahora me tomo yo la libertad de postearlo acá para que aunque sea tengan algo nuevo para leer.

La historia la hice en un par de horas ya que era corta, se me ocurrió un comienzo y un final, el “desarrollo” apareció solo. La pinte en la compu con Photoshop y las letras también se las puse yo. Tanto trabajo para el mismo resultado de siempre. Es por este tipo de cosas que soy un resentido con la vida, y no es que ande por ahí queriendo dar lástima, es que no escondo lo que me pasa. Con nadie.

Me animo a citar al Talentoso (si, con mayúscula) Matías Bergara con algo que posteo en su Facebook, ojalá no se ofenda ni me lo tome a mal.

“El mundo del comic es muy parecido al de las artes marciales, para el que conoce a ambos. Mucho más sacrificio que guita; un amor y una entrega por el medio, que te exige hasta la última gota de tu persona; un respeto y una amistad instantánea entre los que juegan el juego, de cualquier pais y edad, que afirman apenas con una mirada mutua y una sonrisa la complicidad en esa disciplina tremenda a la que dedican sus dias; lo absurdo y desubicado del ego.”

Cuanta sabiduría y tanta razón en tan pocas palabras.
Más cosas en el futuro cercano. Gracias por leer y no comentar nada.

More stuff in English very soon.
C´mon guys, show me some love!

Cosas

Something I´m watching (or about to)

Let´s start with a brief disclaimer. I´ve never been such a big fan of David Finch. I´ve always thought that his style was ok. I mean, I can go for his baroque and sometimes over charged art, but he certainly doesn´t Rank in my top 10 of favorite artists, not even close. But if the guy can draw something like this, he´s ok in my book.



I´ve known his work since de Image days, going later to be milked away and thrown to super massive stardom at Marvel to his current affair with DC. He´s always been working on top characters and attracting a lot of people in conventions. The lines at his table were always huge, but so were the ones at Rob Liefeld´s.

Anyway, I came across a series of instructional dvds made by him and some other Image guys. Now, one thing I do love it´s the process of making comics and seeing other artists do their craft. That to me it´s some sort of nerd porn.
So after this brief intro here´s a rundown on the titles I found:


Dynamic figure drawing: the body with David Finch:
This is just one of many dvds he has made with the people at Gnomon Workshop. There are three more that I know of but this was the only one I could find with the links working. Here he show us how to draw the body accurately. It´s NOT and anatomy lesson, he just talks about the process of creating the figure and the methods he used to learn about the human body. It´s almost three hours long and it can get a Little boring from time to time, but it´s great to see what this guy can do. Not bad for a lefty.













Comic book inking with Joe Weems:
This one is a follow up to another one made as a team with Finch and colorist Steve Firchow. Finch draws a picture, Weems ink it and finally Firchow colors it. This one is particularly good for aspiring inkers, Weems shows you the whole process and mind set he has to tackle such a piece. He shows you techniques and instruments to use while he talks about his experience in the field.











Comic book Pin-ups with Joe Benitez:
Benitez it´s now making a creator owned book called “Lady Mechanika” at Aspen, so that´s what drove me to get this one also. To be fair I haven´t watched it yet, but from what I can gather he expleains what to keep in mind when doing a pin-up illustration. Y´know, how to use the space, be dramatic and stuff.








All in all they seem to be very interesting for the comic book artist. Since I don´t have anyone near to talk about comics with this comes as the next best thing.

Now let´s see if I can find the one about inking from Tom Nguyen.

P.s: We are getting close to the blog´s second birthday, so I´m trying to work on something to celebrate. I also notice that the number of visits keeps increasing, but it still is the land of no comments. Will it kill someone to drop a line or two?

More posts are a comin´

THE JOE QUESADA PROCESS TO MAKE A FANTASTIC FOUR COVER.

I´ve always loved Joe´s art, dating back to the days of SWORD OF AZRAEL or ASH. I have a folder with a gazillion images from him all the way from sketches, concept images, pencils, inks, complete pages and illustrations. When I saw this article about the complete process behind the creation of this cover I was just so happy that I thought that for some reason it was my duty to help spread the work of the good man.



You can find this on multiple sites, but I took it from BLEEDING COOL, so if you want to read it from there just go HERE.

For the ones like me, the ones who like to keep stuff and maybe print it to read them in the crapper I made a PDF version that you can get from HERE.

I´m heart broken because in Uruguay there´s no way to get his book with his art for Marvel comics and I can´t even find it scanned online. In the meantime this makes for some very interesting reading for anyone who makes comics (and reads English).



God how much I miss the simplicity of living in the US, whenever I wanted a book all I had to do was to go to some Borders or Barnes & Noble and buy it at once. Not to mention when I worked @ Midtown Comics and I didn´t even had to move to get them, even with my employee discount to make things sweeter.


My advice: If you are ME and live in the US, NEVER go back to Uruguay.
In the Meantime enjoy this article.

Sad Lisandro signing out.
More to come.

cosas

Therapy revelations.

If my therapist read this, she might be proud of me (or maybe not)



I don´t care about anything any more, I have to live with it.

Sigo delirando como idiota con fiebre.

Pero que divertido que es romper las pelotas. :)

For the English speakers, I´m referring to Grouchy smurf. lol.

Las nuevas sesiones del cine.

El año pasado me mandé un experimento durante las vacaciones de Julio. Al estar encerrado en el cine todo el día a merced de la misma película la mente (o lo que queda de ella) tiende a divagar e irse de paseo a cualquier lado. Así surgieron las infames "Theater sessions" del 2010, un comic de unas 15 páginas que casi nadie leyó. Ahora mi subconciente y mi aburrimiento se juntan nuevamente para traerles estas pequeñas boludeces que han de ser nuevamente ignoradas por el proletariado.



even though no one cares--
--more to come.

Exámen fresquito

Complicadas "vacaciones" de invierno. Durmiendo poco, estudiando mucho y trabajando aún más. Encima ya no hace más frío en el polo porque se vino todo para acá.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa.

When I´m working on something I always try to stay on top of my own game. I assume a lot of responsabilities and I never hesítate when I need to point a finger at somebody because they are not doing their job.
This might be a virtue to some and a serious flaw to others. Choose your side, I really don´t care.

Still, in the past, whenever “HOW TO SURVIVE WORKING IN RETAIL” has been forced to suffer some kind of delay it has been always because either Ronnie (writer/creator) and/or myself (artista/editor/co-creator) have been too busy living our life outside of comics.

You know, the one that pays the bills.

Throw into that concoction some work, family, personal tragedies, a relentless weather and what not and you´ll end up with a modest comic book (that turns out to be pretty ambitious BTW!) coming out without a regular Schedule and whenever its authors can pull an issue out of their collective ass.

This is the case for HTSWR #7. It´s been a while since #6 came out, and it seems that its going to take a bit longer before it can see daylight.
But I just want to make sure y´all know, this it´s all because of me. This time around it´s nobody´s fault but mine.

Trying to avoid coming up with silly excuses I just want to paint you a picture of what my life has become.

I´m working two jobs, one of them six days a week from midnight till 8 a.m. The other one just before going to the first one on the weekends. I´m also studying to become an English teacher and between clases and the mid term exams I´m really swimming in shit.

I´m also developing a project for a new graphic novel along a very talented writer from Uruguay that is pending approval. I commited myself in a long term Project for an icomic and I keep doing work for my good friends at Hadron Colliderscope whenever I have the chance.

I also happen to be in the middle of an unforgiving Winter in a house with no central heat. For you to have a beeter idea, when I sit at the drawing table ready to draw, the paper it´s so cold that it freezes my hands.
Now don´t get me wrong. I don´t want anyone to feel sorry for me (I take care of that just fine), I just want people to understand the reasons behind this issue´s lateness.


The book is completely drawn. All the pages are done in pencil and I started with the inking. I do what I can whenever I have the time. That´s the truth, plain and simple.
In the mean time 3 GUYS MAKING COMICS it´s growing up big time, too much for such a small company in fact. The book is getting terrific reviews and praise from pros and readers alike. They see the same potential in it that we saw back in the table of a dinner almost two years ago when all the planning started.

We are working on the digital versión of the book for ipad and android. We are remodeling the website to be completely new and we are also working in an upcoming Graphic Novel collecting all the issues of the series so far. Conventions are coming and going and we try to be present in as many as we can.

We do appreciate your support and pratronage, especially me. I´ve been told time and time again how much you folks like and enjoy the art. Thanks very much for that, really, I mean it. That means the world to me.

Besides, hey, DC and MARVEL are getting late with almost all their books, right?
Look at THE DARK NIGHT, AVENGERS: THE CHILDRENS CRUSADE, BATMAN Inc. BATMAN AND ROBIN, DEADPOOL MAX, BATWOMAN and maybe a few more that I can´t remember right now. They are the BIG ones and can´t keep a Schedule. How can we?
LOL, anyway. I hope to have shed some light in this matter. Not that it is a big problema in the world right now, it´s just that is a big thing for us, because this book is our Little baby. And its all a labor of love.

Our love for comics.

More to come.

My thoughts on Inking.

Well, let´s put it this way, inking its a part of the comic book process as much as lettering it, there are great inkers on the business. I just don´t enjoy doing it.
That being said, once you´re in the ballroom all you can do is dance. It becomes fundamental when you are making black and White comics, but in the overall picture of the industry today it has become sort of an unnecessary trait.


It is true that back in the day it was mandatory in order to get the book to print because of the printing tecniques at the time. It wasn´t posible to reproduce pencil and make it look nice, especially when you consider that the artwork had to be reduced, hence the lines resulted thinner.

Anyway, technology overcame that problem and nowadays we can print straight from the pencils and even tweak them to give them a feel of ink. To me (personally) find inking to be a very taxing matter because it is actually drawing everything twice. It´s not only redundant but very time consuming.

On the other hand, when you face an inked page in your hands it looks just gorgeous. It adds some drama and even gravitas to the line, making it pop out of the page. If you happen to be doing comics in Black and White like I am, then you are in dire need of inking your work. Not only because it makes it look better, but because it helps you to become a more integral artist. So if you haven´t acquainted yourself with the media, you need to get at it, pronto.


Brushes become an obsession, you are constantly looking for the one that suits you better. You buy them in all sizes and shapes. Short bristles, long bristles, synthetic or real hair, flat or sable, you name it, it´s gonna end up in your bunch. When you are not familiar with the whole process it´s good for you to study a bit. Read a book or two, maybe even watch a few videos that you can find online, but above all…PRACTICE!

If you are not sure just make a search of some pencilled artwork on the net and then trace over it using india ink, a brush, a crow quill and/or some technical pens. Choose your poison and get to work.

Here you have a couple of examples I´ve made over time to get fluid when ink needs to be spilled. I chose two of my favorite artists and then traced over their sketches. Maybe if you don´t like the first time you do it you can do it again a couple more times, the thing it´s to become good when it comes to choosing the right line and line weight as it is your decision if you have more tan one posible option to go with.


Sometimes you just click and it flows, others it becomes a pain in your butt. I suggest that if you are trying to become a better inker just practice and then practice some more. You might not like it, but someone has to do it.

One thing I do to keep me interested in the process it´s keeping the page clean. By this I mean just working on a very loose layout when I´m inking my own work, that way I can finish the page on the inking stage. This allow me to keep drawing, even it is with the brush instead of the pencil. If I´m working with someone else then it´s a completelly different ball game. Then I try to keep very tight pencils, leaving room for the inker to choose the thickness of the lines and maybe dropping some shadows.


I don´t know, here I am, rambling about something no one asked me about. Well, I guess that´s the Price for having a voice and something to say. Boy, having a blog sure it´s fun [and it can be educative as well]!!!!
More to come.

Sleep NINJA--

Damn you winter, who called you?