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!).