Burn Out!

A couple of weeks ago I was neck deep in work that I got totally burned out. One morning I woke up and didn't feel like working at all.

So after two hours of sleep and a sudden urge to go toy hunting I called my GF and went to Divisoria to hunt for bootleg Transformers toys just for kicks.

There's this place in Divi that I used to go to when I was in college and was hunting for model kits that I could practice on. This place was a building that housed all types of KOs from China at dirt cheap prices and I'd go there with some of my friends whenever we had free time.

So I was there and I tried to find the KO Beast Wars toys that used to be so abundant there 6 years ago and I couldn't find any. Granted that it's been more than half a decade since they used to stock them there but I had this faint hope that maybe they weren't able to sell them and that they'd still be there. Nope, they weren't and instead I went home with two crappy TF's and two sets of pseudo-Lego's

The space ships were surprisingly nice... and very very cheap. Lego bricks would cost around 10 times what I paid for these guys.

When I was a kid my parents couldn't afford Legos and now that I've got my own money I wouldn't dare spend them on such expensive bricks.

Anyway, these are fun and a nice break from the model kits that I build whenever I feel the need to sit down and play with something. That's just me, I find it hard to sit and work long hours without fiddling with a figure.

I've been working on this guy for almost 4 months now, I think. I don't get to sit as much as I wanted to with my kits these past few weeks so I haven't been having that much progress but the Sandrock, as pictured here, is ready to be flat coated.

It's shiny because of the oil paints that I used to weather it and the discoloration and color filters that I used. This also brings me back to the roots of my college Gundam building days when I would use artist acrylics instead of Hobby Paints because I couldn't afford them then. I've decided that for this build I won't be using hobby paints since I don't live anywhere near a hobby shop that carries Tamiya paints and because I felt that I could pull off something nice using the cheap paints that I have at home.

It took waaay longer to paint but the results are ok with me :)

Here's a quick update on my Marvel try-out.  I still haven't been able to spend more than 4 hours on these guys daily and there are even days when I couldn't touch them because of the projects that I'm working on and sadly most of them are stuff that I can't post anywhere yet.

Just two more pages to go for my Marvel stuff and I'd be able to start working on new things come August. Thank God for the comic book gig and card illustration projects that are scheduled to start next month.

And yup! Finally got featured in ImagineFX's FXPose gallery hehe! So happy that I subscribed for one year!!! This one feels nice because being published in an industry mag was one of the top 3 goals for 2012. The other one's working from home and the 3rd, well, that's something that I'm praying and believing for right now.

Thank God for the blessings this year, 5 more months to go :)

Going back

Messy work area...

Yup... this is what my work area looks like from 12 midnight to around 3:30 AM. That's when I work on my Marvel samples. I spend most of my day working on freelance projects and because of this I end up waking at around 11 am.

Anyway, I heard one productivity tip and that is to defend your most creative time fiercely. I think I work more relaxed in the wee hours of the morning when everything's quiet.

I've been working traditionally for the past few weeks on my sample pages for Marvel because I work faster this way and that's because I have this nasty habit of zooming in whenever I work digitally. Working with a pencil is also a nice break from the long hours I spend illustrating with a tablet. Also, I feel a tad bit nostalgic when I'm working like this.

The light I am using is something that Manay gave me as a gift way back in 1998. That was the time when I was so in love with comics that I'd spend hours after school drawing. It's often that I'd be home at 5 then sleep at 6 in order for me to wake up at around 1 am to work on my assignments and then spend the rest of the early morning drawing Ghost Fighter and studying anatomy. It used to have a tape with this message: "Rome wasn't built in a day" which served to remind me that I should take my time to study the stuff needed to get what I wanted out of life then which was to draw comics.


The plastic board that I work on is something that I bought for myself in 2005 when I was working in animation. Way back then all I knew was that I wanted to work freelance at from home. When our studio then allowed us to take home the folders I immediately got hold of this plastic and started working from home which way back then was fun but left me in ruins financially.


Eventually I needed to work again so after 8 months I got back to being employed in 2006 and since then it has been a long road to being where I am right now which is almost exactly the way it was both in 1998 and 2006.

You need to buy a new scanner.

I'm beginning to fall in love with comics again after not wanting to work on it for quite some time, that's other than working on a Transformers comics. I've been watching loads of documentaries about comics and slowly and I know it's surely I'm beginning to understand again why I loved comics and also the super heroes that come with it, just the way it was in 3rd year high school when I started collecting issues. I'm also back to working on my anatomy via Loomis' book which was the same one that I used in 1998. I'm also working from home now like in 2005 and I'm thankful to God for giving me the means to do this now. God-willing I hope to stay in this position until I hit my next career goal.

Things do get around and they only do if you still want the same things for yourself, I believe. I like to believe that things are shaping up right now and I'm thankful for the clients: You guys allow me to pursue my life goals and for that I'll be greatful. It's just nice to feel like I'm high school again and still unwavering in my decision to pursue this career in art.

Oh... and here's a lineart I did for one of my clients. I know the actual painting looked different because I wasn't able to capture the face of her wife here but I had a blast drawing this. I'm in need of a new scanner though and will have to get one once I get the time to go out hehe (and when it's not raining!).

Hectic!

Digipaint commission for JimComp

Whoa... things have been pretty hectic recently and I haven't had the time to update my blog. Actually, I should be working right now so here's a quick round-up of what's been happening:

1. A lot of the stuff that I've worked on last week cannot be posted yet hehe... Hence the lack of updates to my portfolio. I try to find as much long term freelance projects to finance this journey to Marveldom. Let's cross our fingers and hope that what I'm working on right now will turn-out fruitful.

2. Wrapped up some short projects, this illustration here being one of them. I've been thinking too... it seems like I've been getting more projects doing digital paintings instead of comic book art and I guess that's due to the utter lack of sequentials on my folio. That needs to get fixed.

3. Late nights galore! I'm up till 3:30 AM almost everyday drawing and exchanging emails with clients. It's not that bad... in fact its better than when I was working. I stay up late and wake-up late so I still get 8 hours of sleep.

4. I was burned out last weekend and I just couldn't work so inspite of being wasted I decided to head on to Divisoria and scourge the old places that I used to go to when I was in college and search for KO Beast Wars toys. Unfortunately I couldn't find any and what I got instead was 2 crappy TF's that I plan to use on a kitbash project and 2 of these:

Pseudo-Legos: cheap and awesome!

I don't know why but the toys area of Divi has a way of relaxing me and making my mind work again... nevermind the snatchers, I've been going there long enough to know how to take care of myself.

5. And it's back to samples again. I've been messing around with my papers and pencils and hopefully wrap up another batch of samples for Marvel before this month ends. Hopefully I don't get that busy.

Me Grimlock say you baaaaaad!

My baby... my most expensive TF purchase to date (yes, I am cheap)

Here's Grimlock by the way... he's been dusted and is now back on the shelf.