Back to Black

Haaa... I'm back. After the long weekend I've been so busy with my dayjob that I didn't have time to update this blog for days. At least now I have some time to do so after two successive days of staying late in the office. Belated happy Easter, everyone! I've enjoyed playing with my son in the East Coast Beach last Sunday. it's been a while since we went there because of so many things I'd have to do on weekends. I've just finished the latest comics I'm working (though two more is on the pipeline) and my 'tabi' (architectural sideline i have from other offices-- yeah, shhhh!!!!) is not that urgent so we decided to spend easter in the beach and did some barbecue and beer with some Filipino friends here. It's fun. And I'm glad we did. :)

Anyway, I just want to clarify things that one of the visitor of this blog commented. I don't do cartoons. I do comics with realistic style. They're not the same. Not manga either. I do comics even though in my dayjob I'm an architect/ landscape architect. I do it simply because of passion. I grew up loving it and dreamed of becoming one of the artists that I used and still look up. This guy, who evidently has no knowledge whatsoever in making comics even commented that working comics is a dinosaur-like effort since you do it manually with pentel pen, and I just trace somebody else's pencil works. Forgive my manners but I have to say this: What an ignorant guy! I mean, PENTEL PEN??? C'mon, he should have researched first before commenting so he won't shame himself. But problem is, some people can't help but talk tacklessly with things, expressing their opinions who are in no way backed with knowledge on the subject. First, comics people don't use Pentel Pen. We use quills, rapidograph pens and brush with ink. Then he say I trace other people's pencils. Ahk! You can only trace somebody's pencils and be credited for it if you're a professional inker. (In most comics, there's a penciller, an inker, a colorist and a letterer. In my case, I do both pencils and inks). If I ink other people's pencils without any association with them, I'd be sued! Especially if i show off the work as mine, don't you think? And how will I acquire those pencilworks anyway? Geezz... And dinosaur work?even though I do enjoy working manually (there still nothing beats the scent of ink in paper and producing original tangible work of arts), I currently do some of my drawings directly on computer using my genius tablet and PAINTER software. I bet this guy will never know the difference. Below is an example. These two panels are blow-up panels taken from my recently concluded comics work. One is done manually using pen & ink, the other using Painter and genius tablet. Can you tell which is which? :)