Resolutions

I don't make them. Ever. They would really just be another thing to make myself feel bad about because I'm not good at habits. I don't have any addictions, there is absolutely nothing that I do every single day except brush my teeth. I have no rituals, there is nothing that I "can't leave home without" - I often forget my cell phone, keys, camera. But I decided this year to make one:
Kelly challenged me to do a page a day, so I'm going to try...I mean I'm going to do it. In the words of Yoda "Do or do not. There is no try." That's my 1/1/11 page. :)

And I've decided that instead of Manga, I'm just going to draw my day as a comic book in whatever way makes me happy. Manga is kind of serious because the Japanese are very serious people as a whole. Also, I HATE the way they make eyes. If you want to just draw a smudge of a nose and a line for a mouth, that's fine, but I want to add color to my pages and Manga eyes are open lines. I've been trying to make eyes Manga-ish but closing the lines and it just hasn't been working for me. So I'm going a different way for now and maybe I'll be ready to draw Manga later.Oh, one more thing (I swear!). Here's December's calendar all filled out:I don't have January's ready yet, but I'll post it when I do! I'm trying to wait for my next play date with Kelly. Instead of using patterned paper, we're planning to paint our own paper and cut it up for the days!

Paper?

Saturday is the day - January 1, 2011. I'm going to start keeping a manga journal. I posted some pictures of my new journal (Strathmore smooth Bristol!) that I've been making comic book panels with. But it bothers me that I can't use both sides of the page because the copic markers that I plan to use will leak through the back. How do I know? Tried it of course.

Front:

Back:

I haven't found a paper yet that the copics don't bleed through. So yesterday Ajae is telling me about a paper she used in some kind of class (clearly I pay close attention to people) that had a coating on one side that didn't let markers bleed through. It sounds interesting except the problem remains the same - can't use both sides.

So I wondered what kind of coating would be OK for copics to draw on and still be blendable? (That's not a word, in case you're wondering.) My first thought was matte medium, so I asked my copic expert (Kelly) and she said I should be able to color over matte medium. (You can't used them over acrylics, it's bad for them even though Teesha does!) So, I tried it.

Front:

Back:

In other words - it WORKED!!! I tried three different papers but NOT the bristol - what was I thinking? I have another journal with Bristol paper that I can try it with and if it works, I'll be able to get two months of manga into my Bristol journals! Yay!

Manga Prep!

I know, I know, I promised better pictures were going to start being posted here and they will, I swear. My new stupid camera didn't come with a cord to connect it to the computer and it really didn't occur to me that I wouldn't have any way to get the pics off the camera. My printer has four card readers and I have a million different cords, but none of them are what I need so I had to order a cord and it will be here by January 3rd. Bummer, huh?

Anyway, this is what I've been working on for the past couple of days! This is my new journal from Ajae - I LOVE the smooth Bristol paper!!
It's comic panels. Theoretically. I'm thinking that having all these prepared pages is going to help with the execution of actually making my daily life into a comic book.
It's one less step to do ON that day, you know? I'm going to prep the entire journal this way so the whole thing is good to go.
The one thing I don't like about the paper is that the copic markers that I plan to use bleeds through. I haven't found a paper yet that stands up to these markers, so for now I'm just using one side of the page which seems like a bit of a waste.
Since I'm anal and obsessive, I've been working on this for two days and I've only got about twelve pages done but I'm really enjoying looking through the pages like they are. I can't wait to really use this book!! :)

Manga Practice

I'm really good at buying a bunch of books on a subject and studying it to death and not quite so good at actually putting things into practice. I keep saying that I want to draw my days as manga-style comics but I haven't really done anything about it. Haven't started, haven't done much except buy a few books on manga drawing. So the other day I did a couple of sketches following the directions in Manga For Dummies.

I liked these eyes best of the ones in the book because I want the lines around my eyes to CLOSE. I hate when they just have a short line at the top and bottom but the corners don't meet. But the eyelashes are so stupid! I'm going to try different eye styles because those lashes are just ridiculous, but at least they came out like they were supposed to!
Here are some faces. I like the first and third on each, but the middle ones look f-ing stupid! Lots more work to do.
I think the first step is to figure out who the characters in my pages are going to be, right? That's what I'm thinking, I need to draw my characters individually so I have something to look at when I'm working.This is me and Kelly drawing and making tomato sauce. :)

Avoidance...

I know that to become a better artist, I have to practice. Knowing this, however, doesn't really motivate me. I want to pick my pencil up and draw what's in my head. Doesn't happen that way. I mean, for some people it totally does. Not me. Today I finally spent a few hours just practicing drawing. Most of the day, actually. These first:

I want my journals to be like comic books (I know, I know, I'm supposed to say "graphic novels"), so this is some manga practice.

Then this was made with PanPastels, and watching one of Pam Carriker's videos:
Thank god it looks better in person. I have SO MUCH trouble getting good pictures of my art. I don't understand it - I have a great camera, I get awesome pictures of my kid, I've photographed a couple of weddings, did my brother's engagement photos - but it stinks with my art. Maybe it's trying to tell me not to quit my day job? Oh, yeah...I don't have one.