Diary of a Manga-ka Wanna Be :P

 lol, I found some old floppy disks though I cant find them all. There was a lot of old art (no colored ones I lost them) and old stories. this chapter seemed to be the most edited one

( Read 'Kowasa to fantasy' )

Yep,classic symptoms of weebo-ness back in the day. I think it was the high point of anime on TV and I was around 9th grade. The anime club was starting up and I was taking japanese class. This story I have no idea whats going on nor the characters. I might find a note book of it some where but doubt it.  theres only 1.5 chapters more and they are unedited. its all a lol fest

Last week we had a lady and her 6 years old boy move into our spare room. I wasn't untill yesterday that I remember her from 3rd grade back in Haiti (i’m 22 now). My dad also spent 2 weeks at the house (he travels around the US a lot).

I’m used to just having the house to my self since my bro goes to school and then out with friends and my mother comes from work at 6. Other then the fact that my Dad would call to do things, I mostly had little distractions.  The internet doesn't  really give me distractions anymore since I have little interest in what's going on with media and it kind of gets tried to go and find new stuff on a regular basis.

For the most part, I’m with out distractions but this past 2 weeks was a test to my concentration. I hear a lot about how freelancers or stay at home artists (as in doesn't have out side studio space) have a hard time dealing with family. Its a type of distraction that you don't necessarily feel bad about doing (like youtube surfing) but you do feel bad about how little you worked.

For a while, I used to think I”m really really lazy (and I still feel that way in comparison) but my bro made me realized something. I’m not that lazy, but I cant stick to 1 thing.  I could easily be distracted and when not distracted I have the tendency to ‘just sit’ and let my mind drift.

Anyways, Dad finally left to his trips (he was pretty needy) but now there's a 6 year old running about when before it was total silence.

So instead I’ve changed my sleeping habits and so far found one I kind of like 7pm to 3am. Everyone starts to wake up around 6 so I get about 2 hrs of silence and that's enough time to ‘get into groove’.

Its been working and I’m glad.

Now, I can’t get my self to work. I feel like doing uncreative busy work cause my mind feel to empty.

I’ve gotten this commission to do a comic and since its going to be print only the commissioner has requested not to all the pages online but every other 3rd page or so. For the most part, I’ll only post pieces, splash pages and character art. I’ll only post character art on DA, 

( so you guys get a nice bonus! )  

On my end, here’s a peak at art for the 2010 art collection I’ll be brining to megacon:

If you havent read Galactic Divine please do. I’m kind of a head of my self in this drawing. The art book (and getting commissions to pay for the print run) really took up my time. February will be me doing all the pencils of ch.3. I havent toned the pages since I want to tone them all at one time for consistency. I also find that I’m getting stronger in my inks so as not to be tone dependent.

The sketch on the Art collection cover:

 
 
 

lol, small I know, but I have a doodle on how I want to do the cover. The scribbles on the left is notes to my self.

I’ve never done so much art all jam packed before. One of the reasons I think is cause in general I have a better sense of how to use my materials and more on anatomy (plan to do a self boot came soon cause I have way to much difficulty with hands and head angles). Another reason is cause I have a whole book worth of tumbnails that I need to get to. Its a large queue and I keep adding to it!

Alright, this is a long post, but I did warn you that I would post more.

I had to buy this (4$) its a usb extension (giving you more usb ports) and its cute XD

but why did they give it red eyes instead of blue?

 

I shook the camera a bit there

It looks like a game boss. You know, the annoying ones that every time you hit it, it goes back to hiding in the dark and you cant hit it until it steps out. You still see the eyes just so you can avoid the attacks.

Even in the light it still looks freaky. the fins on the side is where you plug in USBs.  there’s 2 other ones under the fins. Got it at office depot. 

Maybe I should have bought the 2nd one? cause I know in the future I’ll need more ports. I have another one already but I dont have all my stuff plugged in and theses things can get expensive with out being this cute!

So as I’m forcing my self to have insomnia (sleepy but with loud music and needing to do work its hard to go to sleep anyway).

Really been keeping up with my  new years res. How you guys doing?  My last post was of the art book. I’ll have more on that later (still).

Anyways, I plan to have more of my thoughts of as I learn things so for this post.

DEADLINES!!

I’m still in the mid of this self imposed/economy forced deadline of sending this book to print.

1. why am I writing this post when the deadline is tomorrow? I really really cant concentrate in just one thing. lol, so I know if the future I need give my self enough time.

2. If you’re going to attempt to do all nighters, have plenty of food and water. You need it to temp replace the fact that you’re not sleeping.

3. You’ll get this kind of ‘adrenalin’ and if you roll with it after the deadline (as in still keep up a good amount of working hours but sleep more) you’ll start to get used to working regularly. Its a great booster. Plus its keeps your brain warmed up to make new work and get less frustrated.

4. You grow because of your limitations. Because of the time limit, you’re forced to see what you have problems/bad habits with. I’ve gotten a bit better at faces but I really need to work on lower body and have more poses ‘in my head’.

5. SPEED!  and not because of drawing but organizing your work flow.  You’ll learn of your habits and what to do make things easier for you. I have a folder with just a bunch of saved resources in order. I’ll have to arrange them better so its easier if I need to find things instead of looking up the internet and resave. If you use photoshop, premade templates and actions really help. Other things help like how I tone is faster then before and I hope I get faster.

6. Feeling proud of your work ethic. The more you work, the faster you improve, the better you’ll feel (cause we artists go through the ‘funk’ a lot) and the better you feel the better your work. Its kind of like a circle and you really don’t want to break it. I’ve had funks last 2 years and I hated it.

 

Let me know if anything new is going on with you guys, what deadlines you got.

Also, check out the nice comic covers that  100_series done and chico_chan will be at the megacon table too!

Just letting you all know that I've been updated the webcomic version of Galactic Divine here: http://decisiveorigin.com/

This version doesnt have the edits and few other things that will changed since I've lost all the toned pages and the color pages (lost those completely). So the print edition will be different but the story is the same. Differences will be drawing edits, retoning, different color pages and some sketches and stuff at the back.

Please leave a comment either hear or on the site and let me know what you think of it. I'm about half way through ch.2 but about done with the writing. Like I said this year is a year that I 'get serious'.
________


On another note, I'll be printing another Art collection book, more on that next week but so far the art that will be in the book:
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Glow-149764943
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Golden-Moon-145868589
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Hers-148541655
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Celebration-140393138
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Pink-131169125
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Galactic-Divine-Cover-118479209
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Chocolate-120264426
http://cetriya.deviantart.com/art/Book-Keeper-122446309

Theres more to the book,new art not posted , a walk through and sketch works.
I wont open preorders just yet but the pricing will be about 10$.

 Just found out that Webcomics.com, a used to be comic community site with articales, forums and more is no longer free.

30$ a year isnt much but for a place that really pushed 'free content for return of ads and merch sales'  it seems that it makes not sense. 

Anyhow, in the world of art, its sad that the education of art is staying close to the 'previalged'

I'm just going to blame this on the economy

 Rip this from trecomics 


PART ONE: COMICS PERSONALITY TYPE

Name:
Laurie times

Age:22

Sign:
bunny, Sagittarius ?

Introverted or extroverted?
Introverted that can be social

What are your top 5 procrastination tools?
sleep
Internet
Internet
Internet
Internet

What gets your juices flowing?
Deadlines and some music


PART TWO: COMICS CONSUMER

What kind of comics do you like to read?
depends on my mood, shoujo, comedy, violent, dark humor, magical ect...

What kind of comics do you dislike?
Shitty comics, stupid ones, horribly drawn, pondering to the lowest denominator

When were you first introduced to comics?
9th grade (actually when I was 7yrs old but didnt know at the time)

What were some of your first comics?
Fake, sailormoon, kodocha, fushigi yuugi, mars, lot of shoujo

When did you first get "The spark"?
Sailor moon fan art and when I got the internet so it was before I read a lot of comics. 

What is your favorite animated movie?
hmm.. Millennium actrist? 

What is your favorite anime series?
sailormoon, cowboy beebop, cutie honey, the good stuff


PART THREE: COMICS CREATOR

What kind of comics do you make?
for now, shoujo action

When did you first start making comics?
hmm... 11th grade?

What are your favorite comic artists right now?
Clamp, Kine Aqua, kazuya Minekura, those are who I take most of my influnces from, but I do like a lot of artists and cant list them all (and not all are japanese)

How you guys end of the year stuff going?
me? doing better, seriously dont know where the emo-ness came about all of a sudden.

so this meme was easy and fun and plus it let me take a look at my work over all
( 2009 summery of art meme )
I can tell mid summer to fall I just wasnt felling it. August I had nothing to really pic from and over all I didnt really make much art over all through the year. So this is something to think about. I know by the end of the year I did a lot more work, guess I felt the new year as a dead line?

Anyhow, I'm going to focus on BW work for next year, just to get me used to drawing a lot more. Sketching, pencial, inks, the works cause I feel my coloring is much better then my drawings. I'll be done with my current degree, depending on finaces I might move next year (any one want to be my room mate?)

Also, found an awesome qoute for a mini book to print for megacon, more on that in feb if I actually have time for it... lol