Rusty Banana Forge

If you’re reading this, you probably had the same knee jerk reaction I did when I saw Super Inggo animation clips playing on ABS-CBN Channel 2.  Or perhaps you are one of the animators or designers of Super Inggo and you are wondering if anyone’s noticed that the design for Super Inggo looks a little too Digimon…

Well I’m here to tell you are probably just as old as I am… And hopefully most kids won’t know who Tai Kamiya is…

Read the rest of this entry »

Been a while since I did some Illustration Friday.  This was done on Photoshop. I think most of us grew up with clutter, and some of us let it get into our heads.

During the ToyCon 2008 held just recently, I took part in 2 contests. This was one of them: The Talecraft Illustration Contest. Talecraft is a story creation card game. There are character cards and I chose the Monstrous Adolescent card to illustrate (I chose 3 character cards randomly and opted to go for that one.)

My initially study was #1. But then I realized that the whole point of Talecraft is to have players come up with unique story & character ideas of their own and not to be boxed in by the relatively limited view presented on any card.  So I essentially went more towards a fairly more surreal and expressive illustration - hopefully giving players more leeway in terms of their imagination.

I used a child soldier as reference. He had a pretty intense gaze.

The Pixel Pintura is now on its 6th year!  Despite having no internet at home, I can at least still use the PC to teach Digital Coloring & Painting!  If you’re interested click the poster for a larger version.

Digital Coloring Basics is 4 sessions @ 3 hours a session.
Digital Coloring Pro is 6 sessions @ 3 hours a session.
Digital Painting Basics is 6 sessions @ 3 hours a session.

We are located at 854 A. Mabini St. Mandaluyong City.  Philippines of course.

If you’d like to ask about the price or other details kindly text me at 09167481644 or contact me through this blog.  My phone line is dead at the moment, and I don’t know when it’ll be back.  (It will sound like no one is answering the phone.)

 Things have been busy (and more difficult with no internet connection at home) so I haven’t able to research and develop a new workshop for Digital Painting.  Guess what it’s called.  Think creative. 

This is a work in progress for the 2008 Ang-InK Catalogue.  Is it fair, good, or excellent? Any suggestions?

Don’t forget, we’re looking for new members!  Join today!  We can all be friends!  (And maybe so much more!)

Local comic book artists were invited to the College of Saint Benilde’s relatively new School of Design & the Arts (SDA) Building in Manila to participate in a talk with Mr. Ben Templesmith.

Ben is the Australian artist of the 30 Days of Night graphic novel series as well as others including Fell, written by Warren Ellis.

Ben talked at length about his process (planning to rendering) and demonstrated his digital coloring technique. You can view some moments of his discussion here on my Multiply site.

Some key techniques he presented and that I believe are responsible for his current rendering style include:

• Drawing and inking on gray paper and adding white for the lights.
• Bringing in photographed and painted textures into Photoshop to supply most of the darkness in his illustrations. (He has an ever growing collection)
• Photoshop’s Render>Lighting Effects filter as well as Photoshop Image>Adjustments>Variations for quick and effective global lighting & color.
• Duplicating layers on which color enhancements are then done, and then using the eraser to temper the effects
• No graphic tablet, only the Mac hockey puck mouse.

He also showed us behind-the-scenes photos of his experience with the cast and crew of the 30 Days of Night feature film. Those photos also included a fair deal of dead bodies, severed body parts, fake snow, fake fangs, fake blood. Quite humorous really.

Following his talk, we had a chance to ask him questions, such as:

• What does he do to break artist’s block ? (He doesn’t have it that much.)
• What does he fear the most? (The taxman.)
• What did he study? (Illustration, more on the business end of it.)
• What is his dream project? (He’s done it already, he’s just taking what’s comes by.)
• How’d he break into comics? (His own website and Internet forum participation.)
• How much royalty was he paid for movie rights? (A nice sum, but not life-changing, definitely less than one million U.S. dollars.)

Plus other things on white pens, copyright, and as well as his inspirations.

After the Q&A, we took photos and Ben proceeded to autograph copies of his stuff (even 30 Days of Night posters). When that was done Mr. Benjie Marasigan of the SDA gave us comic artists a tour of the multimedia floors of the building. Nice enough to teach and and to study in, looking forward to more events there.

Thanks to Fully Booked for sponsoring Ben Templesmith over and offering his books at a discount, and also to the School of Design & the Arts for hosting the talk and connecting the academe with industry.

For the next few Sundays, our church will be talking about Heroes! It’s interesting. Wouldn’t it be fun if we could do this:

Well anyway I made this humorous illustration based off the NBC TV series. There’s a version of this illustration where you can put your own text into the bubbles, it can be found at my Deviant Art gallery. Contribute and distribute, enjoy!

Did you know that Pinoy Komiks died? I didn’t. Frankly I didn’t care any less when and if it did. But it’s alive now, whatever that’s worth. So now what? Business as usual for me. I think I’ll see what’s up in Pinoy Animation…

Let each artist do their best and may we have no regrets. Be at the Komikon this year, bring a camera, shoot yourself and your achievements. Tickle a few toes, step on others. At the end of the day, kings and pawns go in the same box.