Feedback Rundown: Long Beach Comic-Con 2010

So I took my portfolio to the 2010 Long Beach Comi. I wasn't really expecting to get a job considering this was my first go at sequential work, but there's always that voice in the back of your head telling you how good your work is. That same voice can get you in trouble. The best artist are the best because they know how good their work isn't. I've gotten of topic. 

Thankfully after going to a handful of cons I've meet a lot of artist who are willing to belt out a ton advice and give a critique here and there. Below is are are pics of the artist and summaries of the advice they gave me at the 2010 LBCC.

Up first is Joel Gomez. If you don't know his work look it up. He's one of the best at background art out there currently. I've been talking to him at cons for a while now, but I tried to show him art at 2010 Comic Con International and he chewed me because all I basically had was layouts. It may seem harsh, but that was a push I need to realize that I to build an extreme work ethic in order to break in let alone be one of the best. This time around he was glad to see I had a set of sequentials and he gave me advice on  how to use line weight to show distance in my back grounds. Most importantly, he said the trick is getting in the habit of drawing all the time.

 Then there's JJ Kirby. His critique was the one of the most thorough and hardcore. He basically said that my story tell should be so tight that I can black out all figures and still be able to clearly tell whats going out. He also went on to explain that if i'm telling a story about any given character that I need to sell that character, and that the best way to do so is to use at least three well know elements of that character in a piece.

Peter Nguyen told me to how to better approach how i configure panels. He also said I need to to work on my anatomy and figure work ( which is what everyone said overall) oh, and that I should finish with a splash.  

I met Ryan Benjamin like three or four years ago at the 2nd (I think it was the 2nd) Wizard World Los Angeles Comic-Con. Besides Angel Medina he was the friendliest artist I had meet. I had no art on me, but after talking to him for about 5 min he let me come behind the booth with him and draw. And to this day I always look for him at a con. when critiquing my work he not only told me but he showed me how how I need to better set up perspective and  energy.

Then I spoke to him about the financial aspects of being a comic artist. Most importantly page rates. It's the one thing that artist want to put out there because everyone makes something different, so either you don't want people to know how much you make or how little you make. However, as I discussed it which Ryan he said that people need to know this type of information and that he was considering posting what he knew of artist salaries. He said the lowest he's ever accepted is $75 a page (for a friend) and the highest $1200 a page. As he was talking he was also working on a double pages splash for the 1st issue of his run on Batman Beyond. He said with each page on that run would be something like $495 (don't quote me on that).  He also said it all comes down to who you know and who nows you. Something to consider.

This is Adrian Kali Turner who was cast as Duane Jones in the new "The Walking Dead" series on AMC (which is awesome buy the way). The day before he had just started reading the Invincible book so when we met we got started talking about it. I think we were talking for like thirty minutes. he was extremely nice and gave me a copy of a variant cover of The Walking Dead #78 that he signed. I can't remember what happens to his character in The Walking Dead (or if he's even in the comic), but I hope he goes far in acting none the less. 


Ok, so that's all I have to report for now.

Immortal Iron Fist

So one last post for the day. I’ve been doing this Iron Fist thing as a warm up to my Wolverine pages. Before its completed I want to have a lot of elements from the last Iron Fist run by Matt Faction and David Aja with a few other things from the past of the Immortal Iron Fist. Enjoy.

Wolverine Sequentials!

The 2^nd Annual long beach Comic Con is coming up in about a week or so, so I been on my comic grind so to speak (well as much as can be expected with a full time job). I decided to go with Wolverine as the protagonist and the Gordon with some hydra goons as the antagonist (Gorgon is one of my fave Wolvie enemies). I choose not to go with a costume for Logan because it’s kinda the easy way out + its hard to show emotion with cowl.

This is my first go at some sequential work and I learned a lot in the process, but there are a lot of things I fell I need to improve on. With that said the third page is not done yet, which I’ll finish up this weekend and post soon.

CENTUAR

Other than my day job and drawing I spend a lot of time contributing to the works of my fraternity, Iota Phi Theta fraternity, Inc. For those of you who don’t know my fraternity’s symbol is the centaur. So I’ve been meaning to getting around to drawing one of those for some time now. It’s my first time dealing with elements of animals in a long time now + I’ve never drawn a horse (ok, maybe when I was 10). I tried to give his hair more of a “black” look considering how my frat is historically African-American. Tell me what you think.

My Collection

All my comics and reference books. I know it's not alot compared to many people's collections out there, but there mine, all mine muha ha ha haaa!

Work Station

Everything has to start somewhere. My art starts at my "workstation". A couple of years back, I came across a comics blog that had interviews from some of the best of today's comic illustrators. The coolest part was that the interviews showed pics of their studios too. So I wanted to post a couple of pics of the area I work out of.

Prints I got at various cons. I keep them near where I work, so that I have measures of what level my art is on, and goals for what I want my art to become.

Action Figures! Don't judge me.

Some stuff I'm working on now. Hope I can get those pages posted soon ; )