Event report: Stripdagen Haarlem

So, how did my last event go? Here is a short discription:
It was a sunny Sunday and the crowd was pretty huge; from diehard comic collectors to your avarage person (you know what I mean, Vincit...). I went there around 11:00 till 16:30 though it started at 10:00. At first I did'nt attract that much visitors, but around 13:00 I finally got some attention and sold a few booklets to people.

There was also a guy that asked me for a drawing. The subject was to draw your own comic character relating to your favourite movie. And thus, Claire in a Darth Vader suit was born. At those moments, you should'nt think about subjects too much, the person does not want to wait for ever. I had a hard time of thinking and getting things done, since I'm having a field of anxiety around me with so many people around me. Luckily he was really happy with the drawing afterwards.

I did not go trough the whole event, because I was in a hurry when I left. It was a nice experience that I should do more often. Hopefully I can get a stand at a Anime Convention cominc in September, untill then!

Event anouncement: Stripdagen Haarlem

Coming Sunday, the 8th June In Haarlem the Netherlands. I will be there as a dealer selling my booklets and this poster. Probably the whole day if things go well, I'm looking at the weather that is. It's an outside location on a market street. Sounds fun but I don't want to think about rain or storm either. That would be a worse case scenario (next to selling nothing, haha). Check out the website for more info: http://www.stripdagenhaarlem.nl/

Digital Painting practice

I have been in a rut these days and haven't had my mind really much on making artwork lately. However, yesterday I went parachuting
and I think it was pretty awesome, just realizing it now. The view straight below is quite an odd one, everything looks really 2 dimensional, it's different then when looking outside a plane. Falling through a floor of clouds was also a very cool yet quick experience.

I started to do some digital painting finally. I tried a few times before, but got neverless bored easily. This is just a ballpen doodle that have to be detailed in some areas before starting to paint it. Yes, 'another' Claire. 'Why are you obsessed with her?' I probably hear you thinking. Well, it's a important and beloved character of mine that is starring in my graphic novel series Witch Cat. And since I'm hardly creative these days, it's Claire that pops my mind to draw at least something. I should study more paintings and colours, it's far from perfect, but I have sworn to finish this as a experimental piece.

A llittle inking practice: Page 3 of WC3

I haven't started again on Witch Cat 3 unfortunatly because of other things that have to be done. I did some pages a couple of months ago and I was thinking how to ink them without hurting the originals. You see, I'm not really fond on inking originals because I always have less confidence for making mistakes so that I have to draw a whole panel or page over and because of the dirtyness and damaged paper of penceling and erasing for 5 times.

So, I came with the idea of scanning the original and hook up my old printer and print the page in blue (Blue does'nt get picked up by the scanner in greyscale). However... that's how I wanted it. My inkcartridge is from some lame 3rd party company that does'nt print high quality and the colour blue seems to be dried up. So I picked grey scale and printed, which give a harsh tone result... I was tired of trying it again and started to ink, it was a practice after all.

Inked mostly with a 'Superball' pen (Pental France) which is a very smooth and dark fineliner and brush pen (Pental Japan). The practice was a pleasement to do and I could try a new technique now I had that pen brush, 'the shiny black hair technique' that is quite common in manga. I think I still have a lot to learn, but as long as the experience is pleasing, I'm happy.

True Love - Concept

These pages are concepts of my 6 page comic named 'True Love'. There was a POW (Panels of the Week) contest with the subject 'True Love' at the Conceptart.org forum. I could'nt start anything at the moment back then, but I promised my self to work later on it as a small comic study and It's because I like the subject.

The first 3 pages are also the only ones I show to the public. You will see how it ends with the two love birds, then... (and just why is that truck heading at full speed in the middle of a city!?)

Event anouncement: Stripdagen Arnhem

I'll be attending together withMangafique at the Stripbeurs Arnhem. An event that concentrates mostly on franco/dutch comic creators, attending there signing comics for their loyal fans. Ofcourse, you can buy my Witch Cat comics if you'd like to (please do!). But you can also come along at the Mangafique boot (which is sideways after the entrance!!) to have a chat or even a drawing.

At the moment, I'm in an artistic identity crisis (have no idea how to discribe it, it's not an artist block neither). Let's hope it'll settle down till the 19th of April. I'm looking forward to that day, see you then!

Silly doodles

Just some quick ballpoint concepts for maybe cutouts or something else. I'm at the moment working on Witch Cat #3 by the way. Can't tell when it will be released.

East meets West manga

Way back in this blog, I mentioned about the 'west meets east' manga competition that I joined in to. Well the fact is, I didn't make it. This short manga was a nice challenge with the buildings and stuff, it's a short comedy manga about some homeless cat girl that wants to spent the night cozy outside of the terrible wheater.

This could be plan B or C (are we curious, hmm?), this is one of them: putting it on the internet, for you're pleassure.

***This post is edited and links are removed until it is clear that my entry is approved or not. Thank you for your concern!***

Some fanart from fighter games.

Again, I'm busy at the moment to improve my drawing abilities. Mostly drawing heads and stuff since I want to get off from the symbol like faces, which are common mostly in unrealistic and cartoony artwork. I suck a the more realistic faces and I draw them automatically, so practice will hopefully make perfect.

I have some fanart this time, from fighting games. Cammy from Super Street Fighter II and A.B.A. from Guilty Gear XX Slash. I think water ink (Ecoline) does suit me well, it's fun working with it. Funny enough I forgot almost Cammy's most remarkable part: her army strips on her legs. They're now digitally added, sneaky sneaky. And I still love cutouts. Still it's digital but I try to manage the traditional feel of it.

Also, I know the website self ain't updated for a while. It might take a while since I want to redo the whole website over again. I only don't have a clue how I'm going to dit it, but please have patience and stay tuned!

A new year, an exposition and one year older.

Wew, 2007 was for me a fast year that passed by. With 2008, I hope to spend more time on drawing and studying the fundementals more of art. How ever, i'm for the last 6 months working for college at a company which specializes in making mobile phone games. So, I have no idea how much impact this will have at my drawings. Though, it is a creative stage because I'm going to make sprite graphics and what not for the company. I'm very excited about this!!

As from an earlier post, the Mangafique exposition in Utrecht, the Netherlands has started since the 6th of January. At that date, I was there as well selling the Witch Cat issues. Furthermore, there where also other Dutch doujinshi circles/small press groups, selling there books and merchandise as well. In the end of the first day, there where over 1250 visitors coming to see our work from the exposition. There was also a workshop about manga drawing and even how you draw traditional Japanese clothes and weapons.

Yesterday, was my birthday. It comes always very quick after the christmas holidays, new years evening, so sometimes I wished that my birthday was later this year. But in the end I don't mind it, because it's easier to remember for others.

Mangafique Exposition photo's: (will add discription later)

The gallery ally with my work as well from others upstairs
A close up of my work
Making of... a manga page by Nat-chan
The back side of the same ally
Back to the front side of the ally, from the right
My Claire artwork and Tyara's Mage! artwork
Most Dutch doujinshi titles from individuals
Dutch doujinshi from Cheese cake and Open minded
Directions and the mascotte of Mangafique named Indy
The gallery from the first floor
Gallery work from Open minded
Art by Open minded member Eva (Life machine)
Gallery work from Cheese cake
Upstairs view from the first floor
Gathering of cosplayers
Manga workshop
Doujinshi/smallpress selling point from the left side
The mid section where I sold my issues
Other view and Vincit who's kinda posing