Graphic Novel Project Attempt (revived)

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Masato Attempts to make a (NEW) Graphic Novel

Postby Masato » Sun Sep 07, 2014 10:55 am

Blog #7: Real Life vs Art


This project kicked off right as I hit summer vacation; plenty of time to dream, plenty of time to draw, to write, plan, visualize... Plenty of energy to get psyched up, to find my strength, to air out my soul, and set lofty goals for myself.

Then, back to work.

Money, bills, and the SYSTEM slams back into reality. The missus and kids were likewise thrown back to reality of responsibility, so I was ready and willing to tackle it the best I could... but before I knew it 2 weeks had flown by and I had not touched this project at all.

At first it was difficult; I really wanted to continue working on the comic. But as each day went by, that desire began to fade, and even began to become somewhat intimidating.

Through this, I think I discovered something, at least about myself; CREATIVE MOMENTUM.

There was one point among the busy weeks where I had a slim opportunity to crack the comic again; a night free, kids asleep. I ALMOST copped out and went to bed... man it was so tempting to just say 'fuck it'. - but I forced myself to draw for even just 10 minutes.

And in that brief 10 minutes, the creative momentum received a push.

I had to wait more time yet before I could continue again, but that little bit, that small victory vs laziness made all the difference to give that momentum another boost.

If you are creative, it is NORMAL I think to 'not feel creative'. But the longer you put it off, the more daunting it becomes to go back. We are out of practise, and are scared to face our true levels. But give yourself that push. Even if you produce nothing worthwhile, I guarantee it will spark your creative energies again; - wake them up!

Here is the crappy drawing I did in that 10-minute kick. It is a brainstorm for the first page of the comic, which I am about to draft out right after I finish writing this. You probably can't make out anything, lol

Will post the results soon.

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KEEP BEING CREATIVE. It is a struggle. It is worth it.


Here is a Bansky quote to cap this (he basically says the whole blog in 1 phrase, lol):
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Postby Masato » Sun Sep 07, 2014 5:07 pm

Blog #8: Page 1 ROUGHED (only 67 to go)

Here is the first page roughed.

It took much longer than I expected... about 4-5 hours. This is good to know, if I am to make any sort of realistic deadline for myself.

I am going to keep doing rough pages because I still have not completely figured out the style or character designs yet... - I fully expect that as I go, the characters and style will start to become clearer, and then I can go back and fix up these roughs before inking. This is the first drawing of this character ever for example - its not there yet at all, I'm sure I will 'discover' how he looks more precisely with more drawings. I also obviously need more study in dog anatomy (legs), lol

I will continue putting in the text for people to start following the story.

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Postby Masato » Sun Oct 12, 2014 12:40 pm

Blog #9: Oh, the irony of Blog #7

lol

Life B movin' fast these days... no time for comics :(

Hopefully I can make things slow down near the end of the month, maybe set aside a few days to catch up.

Peace/Love to all.

Stay creative, the world will try to stop you!

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Postby greenseed » Sun Oct 19, 2014 2:01 pm

this looks awesome.... my step sister is taking a graphic arts major @ sait in calgary and she recently made her own chidrens book called The Rain Crabbit. You may like to check her stuff out for inspiration. http://adriennedraws.tumblr.com/ looking forward to more frames from Grape Soda!

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Postby Masato » Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:03 pm

^ Dude, her work is fantastic..!

Seriously nice stuff. I was surprised to see such quality from a 'graphic arts' student.. usually that is a lot of graphic design stuff and few of them can really draw imo.

She must either have some great teachers, or she is just really talented and internally motivated to perfect her work. Not everyone has an eye for real design beyond a certain point.

Thanks for sharing, I wish her well. Does she dig forums? :)

I promised the illustrations for a children's book I was hired for by the end of the month. I am taking the last week to do it but not sure how good I can get the illustrations by then. I've done very few 'final art' pieces in my life, I have no experience making something look really nicely polished and finished.

Kinda nervous about it. The pages from her book are an inspiration I needed, thanks

Keep us updated on her stuff

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Postby Masato » Tue Jan 13, 2015 7:47 pm

Alright folks - I'm back on the wagon!

New blog post: http://blog.masatotoys.com/



Blog #10: Four Months to Wake Up

So after my initial burst of inspiration during the summer, I went right back to sleep again. Got busy with work and family, and the project got shelved. (in my defense, I did help the missus create an art school: http://masatotoys.freeforums.org/mrs-masato-is-building-an-art-school-t1084.html :) )

It apparently took another break (Christmas) to renew my strength again to pick it back up. Lets hope I can keep more momentum this time!

I realized a few of things:

1. I still had no idea what my characters look like, or exactly what the style of the illustrations will be.

To solve this, I figured I could either spend months pre-designing everything... or I could just get started on the basic compositions and hopefully the answers will come out as I go.


2. Dividing my pages into typical comic-book panels is an art form I am not experienced with.

Trying to find my own style for this I think would really slow things down. However, I do storyboards all the time, and did the entire Sonnen's War comic with just horizontal panels. I am familiar with it, and am way faster. So this will be the format.


3. My drawing-studies of dogs over the summer was extremely valuable, but I am still miles away from being able to free-draw dogs comfortably. Also, my protagonist begins as a puppy, and I never practiced drawing puppies, lol.

This was another good reason to just start sketching; I knew that if I really studied and practiced until I felt 'ready', I would never get started.


My goal now is to rough out all the pages in a loose, sketchy style where no details are really decided yet... Just get the pages down, make sure the story is told smoothly... then fill in the details later. They may not be 100% legible to others at this stage, but with inks, color, lighting etc I think I am off to a good start.

Here are the first 11 pages, out of a total of 67. I did all these in less than 2 days. By that math I should be done in 2 weeks.

But we know that's not gonna happen now, don't we? :D

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Postby Canuckster » Thu Jan 15, 2015 5:01 pm

Dude, this truly is awesome.
People say they all want the truth, but when they are confronted with a truth that disagrees with them, they balk at it as if it were an unwanted zombie apocalypse come to destroy civilization.

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Postby Masato » Thu Jan 15, 2015 7:14 pm

Well it ain't shit unless I finish it

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Postby Som-Pong » Thu Mar 12, 2015 2:22 pm

I have no real input other than that I think beastiality is not hepreseneted enoff.

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Postby Masato » Fri Mar 13, 2015 11:00 am

the story is just getting going...! trust me it builds pretty fast... :) Seems like a sweet/innocent beginning but has some much bigger themes/issues as the story develops

I need to get back to this soon

How am I ever gonna get this done?? lol I need to find some money


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