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!