Update 082812

My studio... that's me on the left.

Around two weeks ago heavy flooding hit our place and my studio, which was located on the ground floor, was heavily hit. Good thing we were able to move my stuff upstairs and most of the damaged stuff that you see in the photo above are just the stuff that we decided we could not save. What has affected me a lot however was that the cabinets on the extreme left, which house our guitars and guitar gear wouldn't close because the wood got warped and wouldn't stay shut. Man... even if I don't play as much now I just liked the idea of having a cabinet with guitars... even if they're not my own :)

So I'm operational now and have returned to my studio which is suprisingly more spacious! Thanks to all the stuff that I threw away! My brother moved his guitars upstairs (around 8 or more I think hehe) and what's inside the cabinet are just the ones that I own. I've bought another big plastic box to house my other toys that aren't on display and I can say that from this moment on... it's plastic for me!

Moving forward I think I should strive to move my family off this place. This part of Malabon just isn't safe anymore. I know it only happens once in a couple of years but I've lived in Obando where it floods regularly and I just don't want that life anymore.

Here's a page I rushed yesterday for a review. I've been swamped by work and am just writing now to ease myself into another long streak of working on a card game to be released this October in Germany. I really wish I could have done better on this one but I was so neck deep in the paid projects department that I just couldn't give it the time it deserved.

At this point I am praying that I start getting bigger priced projects so that I don't have to work on so much. I know it's possible because I know people who do this but in order for me to get them I need to clean my schedule so that I have more time to work on my portfolio. I hope to be able to paint for cards or work on some more comics come September. Maybe do some concept work and such... and a lot less of the projects that I am working on right now.

I've also started to constantly remind myself to finish off the tasks that I have in the quickest possible way. I've realized, based on the last samples for Marvel that I did, that if I drag on working on a page for far too long the image begins to stale. I wasn't happy at all with the last 5 pages that I did for my samples. In fact, once I get a new batch up I will take them away from my portfolio. They remind me that I need to work faster and when I look at those pages I cannot help but be reminded of the times I bored myself pencilling stuff that I started working on months ago.

So I guess it just boils down to refining my schedule. I like to think that I got the hang of this when I was working at Anino and I was scheduling tasks for our art team but with just me here and Kristel helping me when she's free from her projects it just feels different. I think I accomplish less when I work alone.

Today marks the end of the overly busy week that was the other week and I'm hoping that starting tomorrow I get more down time and personal art done.

Cheers guys and God bless!

Hwow!

Hwow! Nothing much really to report... except that I was able to send my second batch of samples to Marvel and to other publishers but to be honest, I wasn't really happy with how those samples turned out.

It felt that since I have been working on them for far too long at them when I finished I felt no more connection to the pages. That's a problem that I need to address: I need to work faster so that I don't lose interest in my drawing but it just gets harder as the days go on.

I've been blessed to be able to work on a lot of projects, and things were supposed to be on track if not for the Habagat floods that set me back more than a week's worth of drawing time so now I am trying to finish my projects hoping that I could free up my schedule next week in order for me to move on to the next phase of my training faster. If things work out I could be training with someone I've always looked up to in the comic book biz :)

I am believing that come September I'll be able to move to bigger projects so that I don't have to take in as much work. So far the projects that occupy my waking hours have been fun: Some card illustrations for a game to be released in Germany next month, some concept work and a comic book pith plus a couple of vector illustrations and a digital painting commission. Half of September has already been booked and if all goes well I'm praying that I may not have to look for additional clients next month and work on the ones that I have right now.

So it's pretty hectic and I've set a calendar for 12 to 15 hour work days, but that's only for this week. God-willing by next week the schedule would be lighter and I could go back to more portfolio art.

Cheers and God bless guys!