3/27/13

LET'S GO!

Digitally sketched, and then used a (crooked) lucigraph to transfer onto mat board.
Listening to “Club Bang” by Kaytranda ♫
(So so so so incredibly good!)

So I never posted the process of this first piece for my Type As Art class because I didn't have the original, huge, high quality photograph that my awesome teacher Mr. B took of it. Today I got that, so now this post will definitely happen!
This project was choosing one of the four elements (air, water, fire, and earth) and making a piece based on it. Surprisingly I was the only one of the class that chose fire, go figure. (Earth was the element roughly 85% of the class chose, which is weird but okay.)
And I wanted to get my hands into watercolor and ink again because BELIEVE IT OR NOT, I love me some ink and watercolor. This class has been great to just experiment and do things my way for once. It felt refreshing and took me back to high school, when I could do whatever the fuck I wanted and experiment.
 In fact, this semester felt like me doing whatever I wanted to do and it was OKAY for me to do whatever I wanted. Especially bringing back my love of just drawing random typography that comes to mind + hand-lettering and combining it with my illustration. Because that's what I used to do before college.



And this is the final piece. I absolutely love how it came out. It was a lot of fun to do!!

3/19/13

comics on the side of comics

Listening to “Wounded Hearts Forever” by Young Dreams ♫
So in-between all this thesis nonsense, I had to make pages for another class. And that's been ridiculous to juggle. And the pages I've made so far don't compare to the ones for thesis.
I haven't posted any step-by-step progress stuff, and figured this page would be a good one to start that tradition with.
This is from chapter 2 of Glass Hearts, actually. It's semi-spoilerific as for what happens in chapter 1 (aka aforementioned thesis), but whatever. I didn't know what to do script-wise (for a 3 page comic), so I chose a GH script.
I tried my hardest to make this as sketchy as possible. This is actually a thumbnail sketch, believe it or not.
Sometimes I feel like pencils repeat the thumbnail process, so I'm trying to think of it as a "clarifying the foundation" type of thing.

90% of inking took place in class last week.  
SAMURAI COLOR + PATTERN ATTACK!
The next page looks pretty boring in comparison to this one, but whatever. I'll just get it out of the way really quickly.

college thesis progress part 6 // 59/59 pages

The darker side of Glass Hearts: giving you maximum feels.
Watching: Yesterday's episode of General Hospital
(Fun fact: The time I was born was just before an airing of a General Hospital episode. 4 PM.)
My tweet is basically the best caption.
 So last Thursday, I was told to check when I should get my comic in to make physical copies of. And it turns out: it has to be this week. That was all the motivation I needed to work on finishing drawing the rest of the pages. 10 pages in 4 days? Believe it, it happened.

Sometimes I sketch over my thumbnail sketch to get more clarity for myself. 90% of the time, I can use the thumbnail as is for a sketch straight into inking though.
When I'm in my page-making-machine / workaholic mode, I tend to not care about anything else 80% of the time. This includes eating, taking breaks, etc. Saturday and Sunday were the two days I worked the hardest, finishing off all the single pages, and adjusting all page sizes for print.
This page is like a montage of epic Pantene commercials.
This was especially true on Monday, the day I worked on the spread of pages 58-59.
Because:
  1. I forgot to eat breakfast.
  2. I forgot to eat lunch.
  3. I didn't take a break.
  4. For 5 straight hours.

This was the final time I had to bust out that John reference off to the side.
Funny thing with sticking with a plan: sometimes you come up with something better as you're sticking to the old one. That's what happened with this last page. But I think it makes for something even more epic.
This originally didn't have a signature. But making 59 pages in two months kinda warranted it.
All that's left is finishing the cover illustration, making that book jacket, converting all the pages into grayscale .tiffs, and sending it in! That'll be the next progress post. Until then, look forward to a non-thesis post later today at 2!

3/15/13

college thesis progress part 5 // 49/59 pages

WE COME IN PEACE!
Listening to "Sweet Silverskin (Radio Rip)" by Hudson Mohawke ♫
(Another great, yet-to-have-an-official-release beat by HudMo.)
Watching: Family Feud rerun.

So basically since spring break, I've been trying to balance thesis and schoolwork. That's been…fun. Basically if I want a chance of getting books printed in time for the show, I have to be done by next week. Good for me, I haven't skipped any classes before this point. If you catch my drift.

GOTTA GO FAST!
Note the change from 60 to 59, because technically it is 59 pages. (The 60th page is a blank one.)
Anyways, here are more detailed numbers of my progress, because they're more telling. That and getting me more fired up to finish.
Basically, I've been watching too many gameplay videos of Dodonpachi games. And phallic food-eating-shots are always trendy.
49/59 pages
5/6 pages of script
10 pages to go
83% done

Snarky Peter is snarky, and real pretty this time around.

Boys can be so rude…! Well I never!

This is totally not for thesis actually, but for my comic elective! Crazy page is crazyyyy!
So yeah, I'm on the finishing stretch! And my page-making-machine mode is going to go on overdrive! I'm not too worried on the cover illustration because that doesn't take as long.
Also—! I finally got an email for my professional endeavors, because gosh I'm not going to have this lovely college-given .edu email forever. So going along with everything else, it's moniquecomics@gmail.com. Funny how the 'c' of my last name fits perfectly with comics. Who knew?

3/6/13

don't sweat it


Watching: the Young and the Restless
Listening to: DJ Madd - Forward Ever

So no one in my Subversive Style got to see this because I ran out of fucks to give, and didn't print it out. This project was to design an album jacket based on vinyl sizes. This is for an album I made up the title and track names of by Hudson Mohawke. He's one of my favorite producers and DJs, and everyone should listen to him. He's just freaking amazing. A lot of his stuff is really energetic and wonky and crazy. So I wanted to make type that was thick and filled with life and wonky and…yep.


3/1/13

college thesis progress part 4 // 30/60 pages

Listening to "タイジ (Boss)" by 並木学 ♫
Watching: Today's episode of the Young and the Restless for the 3rd time.

So I am currently in spring break. And more than the previous 3 years, this is a complete lie. Or at least, OH HEY SPRING BREAK YOUR BACK BECAUSE LOOK AT ALL THE WORK YOU HAVE TO DO HAHAHAHAHA. (I'm so professional.) Basically my workaholic tendencies and anxieties are at their highest: to the determent of my physical health. My back has never hurt this much before, I gotta say.
 Pretty much 90% of break has been used up on either thesis, or forcing myself to take a break from thesis (while thinking about thesis). I did finish one class project, but I have to work on 2 more. But due to family circumstances that I cannot state at the moment (this is another situation), I might not even appear that much next week at school! (This sucks because not 1, not 2, not 3, BUT FOUR CRITIQUES.) Based on trying to go into school last semester from the previous family circumstance and basically being unable to work, I don't want to repeat that situation. So I'm making a healthy choice and trying to give myself time to heal (once again).

Good news is tonight I finally reached the halfway point of the chapter! 50% done! 30 out of 60 pages! This is huge! Now to get the next 30 in less than a month (apparently it takes more time than I thought to print books - but I don't know).
Will Samurai go insane? Will her body last enough to reach this goal? WE'LL SEE!