Ryu's Krew: A Dark Epic Sci-Fi Action/Adventure

Lost

2011-12-22T22:01:00.000-05:00

No, this has nothing to do with the show or me actually physically lost. It's more of a mental loss than anything.

Let me start with the hiatus of Ryu's Krew.

That was more or less myself stressing myself out over the book(s) again, not knowing what to do exactly, and just not knowing what to do in general. A big part of this is not really having a 'proper' place to draw. I was using my card table for a little while, but that takes up quite a lot of space, and I'm not a big fan of that at all, not to mention that there's no incline so I'm constantly leaning over trying to figure out the little details. Then I tried putting a sheet of glass on my computer desk (the surface of the desk is warped) and that worked for a little while, but it broke off after a while.

Last, I tried using my lap desk. Which I occasionally use if I'm too lazy to sit at a desk or anything else proper, but I tried drawing in bed, and it just wasn't right. I ended up getting too lazy because I got so comfortable. So, that obviously didn't work out. With all that, I just got frustrated (seems silly, I know) but add that to me getting 'sick' of working on Ryu's Krew. And it's not the actual story or the art that I'm sick of, it's more or less the idea of me sitting there mindless working on it. I kind of zone out whenever I draw (at least that's how it's been for a while). But when I sit and read/look through what I have...I love it. I really do. I love the way it looks, and everything. I have no complaints about that.

I suppose you could say I'm weak-minded, in a ton of aspects. I could blame it on the depression, but I really think it's a lack of self control to be quite honest. I need to put myself in a positive, motivated mindset where I can do what I can to get stuff done.

With that said, here's the second half of this rant/blog. I don't know if I posted it here or not, but about 3 or so months ago I got my first job working at McDonalds. I got a few shifts a week, but then got paid every two. Which in reality, isn't that bad for what I was doing/wanted to do. But getting 2 shifts a week for maybe 4 to 5 hours...isn't really even worth it. Despite that I am lucky enough to not have bills or anything, it was still hard to do anything, like buy presents for Christmas for example. I managed to get that done, luckily. Not to mention I was treated rather poorly there, and I really just got fed up and quit.

Then about two weeks ago or so, I got hired in at a gas station right down the street from my house. That's more or less been my dream job for a while, and I say that because it's so convenient for me just to walk to work. I don't mean dream job as in "I could see myself working there my entire life." But more or less a job I wanted because of pure convenience.

I never intended to have a full-time job, or anything like that. Just something that would take the monotony out of life (instead of sitting at home all the time basically) and also make some money while I'm at it. To support my books, art supplies, gas, advertising, and whatever else I would want. Maybe have a few shifts a week or something, and I wouldn't even care if it was day or night.

Well. The opposite basically happened. I'm unsure at this moment if it's because we're basically short a person who generally works midnights (which is what I work) because of family issues, or if this is what they intend to do, but I'm working basically every night. Christmas Eve, Christmas Night, and I finally have two days off after working a week straight. Which some of you might say, "I work that, or work more. Why would you complain?" Because I have no free time anymore. Wait, no. I have very, very sparse free time. Essentially, I work until 6:30 in the morning, I come home, I can't sleep right away, and when I do, I end up sleeping until like 4 or so, and if that's enough sleep, I'll feel lucky. But generally it's not, because I always have little interruptions here and there that fuck up my sleep schedule. In essence, I never have the energy or time to work on my books/comics anymore. Which adds onto the depression. The work itself (as long as nothing fucks up as something it did last night) isn't that bad. I have a schedule for when everything needs to be done now, and it's not too bad. It's just working every single night, back to back to back to back, and it's just too much for me. It really is.

So I'm hoping that I can talk to my manager tomorrow, and see if it's only going to last for a little while longer. Because when I was hired in, I was told I would get anywhere from 20 up to 32 hours a week. Which would be fine. But honestly, I could even live with 20 hours a week. I want something part time. So that I actually can work on the comics.

With that said, I have been going through a lot of problems lately with being confused about comics, going between hating them and such. But a few great artist friends of mine on Facebook have been posting a lot of really positive status' and such, about their dreams and aspirations. And it really made me sit back and think, "Wow, do I really want to work at a gas station for the rest of my life?" No offense to the place, it's really not too bad, but as I said, it's just too MANY hours. I don't need that much money, I've never really had a huge need for money. But also the long stressful nights I've had the past few nights at work have really given me the inspiration to really pursue the comic career. The independent comic artist thing that I've been wanting to do since I was a freshman in high school. The first step that I'm taking is getting these hours straightened out, and making sure that this isn't going to happen all the time, and let my manager know what my intentions are, and hope that it all goes smoothly. You're probably thinking that I'm crazy for almost demanding less hours and such, but it's a necessity for where I want to go with my life. Also, I'm sure there's other people there that could use the hours more than I.

I'll have 32 hours on my check next week, and 40 the check after that. Just to give you a rough idea of how much I've been working. So with that, my first purchase is going to be a proper art table. I'm thinking of buying one from Hobby Lobby that I saw for about 200 dollars. It seems nice and sturdy, and suits my needs. And it looks like it doesn't/wouldn't take up much space. And I think having a proper workspace is the first key step in order to being productive. I know a lot of people are able to draw on their computer desks and such, but with mine, and how my room is set up, I really can't. Which is a shame, but it's whatever.

So what does that mean for my comics, and even my custom action figures? At the moment, for Ryu's Krew, I want to work on it. I want to work on that, and Charles & Viktor. I'm thinking of keeping Ryu's Krew strictly as a graphic novel, and having Charles & Viktor just be an online comic of sorts, but also eventually get that in print. I feel it would make much more sense that way, so instead of people reading a few pages of Ryu's Krew, getting utterly confused and hating it, you could read it all at once and decide then. But I'm not giving up, as I can never really give up. Not on this.

As far as the action figures go, I'm waiting until I can get more Aves Apoxy Sculpt to continue, but I shall definitely keep working on them occassionally.

With that said, keep an eye on my twitter, as I'll be posting on there more often as well.

Ryu's Krew: Indefinite Hiatus

2011-12-14T17:38:00.001-05:00

Ryu's Krew is on an indefinite hiatus, for many reasons. I don't feel the need to sit here and explain in full detail as to why, but it boils down to me needing a long break.

For the time being, I'm going to focus on creating custom action figures of my characters and such (including Ryu's Krew).

Know that Ryu's Krew is not over, and I'm not giving up. But I do need a break.

I deleted all of the pages from Book ONE on here, and any other site except for the Comicfury (official) page, but I only left the Mission 0 and Mission 1 pages on there, because that is essentially the "preview". Despite that some/most of you have already seen and read what I had up of Mission 2, I deleted that because I wasn't happy with how it looked visually. I cleaned it up, but will not be uploading any more of it online.

Sorry to anyone who has been reading, but you will be able to read more one day, I promise that.

I might work on some Charles & Viktor comic stuff in the near future possibly, as I'm working on custom figures of them as well. It's something I'll have to consider.

Until next time..

The Last stretch...

2011-12-03T22:45:00.000-05:00

That incredibly thick stack of paper is essentially what I have left to ink and shade. There's about...40 or so pages there, including the rest of Mission 3 and the Prologue. The prologue was added to give more depth and more understanding for the reader as far as the reasoning behind the war and what occurs at the beginning.

I'm gonna be working on the Prologue very last, because I'm going to essentially do it in the style of Mission 0, with markers and such. But I'm going to have to wait until I can afford to buy more markers, as I have approximately no marker ink left. With that said, I can finally get down to work on Mission 3 and finish this bad boy up, which is super exciting. The thing that was holding me back is not exactly knowing what way my book would end up, and such is the problem with my kind of writing. But this book has been a serious learning experience, and I definitely know that I don't want to do it this way again as far as writing.

All in all, the moment I get to hold this book, completed, in my hands will be one of my greatest achievements and more than likely one of the greatest moments of my life. 3+ years of hard work, remaking, and different problems and such, it'll be all done. Sadly, I'll only have one book to show for it, but this will inevitably be the hardest part. I feel once I have a copy of even just one book in my hands, I'll have much more motivation, and much more desire to create. I love what I do, and I love my own story. It's a mixture of all the things I'm interested in, and in a story I've grown to love.

Here's to Book ONE! I'm going to start pushing this, and my next blog post will be about the book when it is in fact, done.

Haters Gon' Hate

2011-11-27T19:50:00.000-05:00

Something I feel I should clarify before I get into this, is that I by no means think I am a SUPER AMAZING ARTIST or have no room to improve, etc, etc. But when someone goes as far as saying that my comic is half-assed and I don't put forth effort...then that's when I get pissed.

I posted a topic over at FurAffinity, just talking about my comic. I got nothing but negative feedback, which hurt a bit, yeah. But I can deal with that. But when people make stupid assumptions before doing any research prior to arguing with me, and essentially saying what I do is shit and I should quit or anything along those lines, you should stop being an egotistic all-knowing piece of shit, and go elsewhere.

Now, someone on there actually gave me some pretty useful tips (as far as resolution, to where the pages would load faster on slower connections) is good. But then I had a small handful of people saying that they only read the first five pages and had no idea what the hell was going on, or who is who. If you honestly cannot tell who is who despite context clues, OBVIOUS context clues as to who is who, then you need to go back to reading Dr. Seuss or something much more oriented for kids. I do understand that it is a bit hard to tell what is going on in some of the panels, as I tend to put a lot of details in them which ends up making them cluttered, but I'm working on fixing that as far as future pages.

With all that said, I'm thinking about going and adding a Prologue of sorts better explaining the war, because I do feel like that isn't touched upon enough. If I added more content to that part prior to Mission 0, maybe people would get a better understanding. The problem with that is, would I have to re-number the Missions then for print? That might be a thing. I'm unsure yet. But I am going to inevitably do a prologue to make the beginning a lot stronger. As for the art, if you don't like it because it's a bit dirty, and you have to take time to look at, then by all means, don't read it. I don't care. I have an original style that I made and I'm happy with. That's all that matters to me.

But at the moment I am going through and penciling a lot of pages to Mission 3 so that it'll be done and ready so I can just move on ahead. I'll actually go through and buy new markers in order to keep the Prologue with the same look as Mission 0, which means I'll have to tweak a few things as far as inking goes, but that doesn't bother me much either.

I think I owe it to those who actually give a damn and have an honest opinion that isn't just saying I'm half-assing everything to make the beginning stronger. As far as anything else, I'm keeping it as is (aside from a bit of upgrading visually).

Back on Facebook!

2011-11-26T07:30:00.000-05:00

Ryu's Krew is officially back on Facebook!

https://www.facebook.com/ryuskrewcomic

And I've made a few small adjustments to the actual Ryu's Krew page, including a "like" button for Facebook, and a donate button for Paypal. Don't feel like you have to donate, it's just something I have up there for people to donate for me to advertise the comic more, so word gets out about the comic.

Also, I've added TONS of pictures that you may have not seen before to the Facebook, an even greater incentive to go like the page and see!

I've started advertising on Project Wonderful again (as I just got more money in order to do so) so hopefully that'll get me some more fans as well!

History repeats itself

2011-11-13T23:25:00.000-05:00

Which is true, not only as a general thing, but this also applies to Ryu's Krew.

As some of my long-time followers (uh..there's probably a few of you) may remember, I'd always say "Oh I'll do this this way, or I won't quit, blah blah blah" or I was always saying something that never ended up coming true. I would always post about how many pages I was going to work on, but inevitably, it never worked out -quite- as I intended. More or less due to lack of motivation or depression, either one we can blame it on.

But it's funny, I've never really had a 'set' way of finishing Chapters/Missions at a time. Sometimes I'd do it page-by-page, sometimes I'd do batches of pages (like 3 to 5), and sometimes I'd do all the pencils, then inks, etc, etc. But it's never stayed the same. Ever. Which may be the reason why I'm so lost in the direction I'm taking as far as comic production. I know where the story's going, I know everything else but how to go about making it.

As nice as it would be to take everything page by page, I really don't think I could do that. It's a matter of having the pages physically started, and able to be in front of my eyes. That sort of satisfaction that I apparently require in order to move on. This is all something I'm just now getting used to, and figuring it out after 4+ years of making comics on my own.

Part of me believes that it has to do with my 'artistic journey', because as any good artist knows, you never stop learning, and never stop improving. I obviously consider myself very early on in my journey, and I look forward to what challenges await me. It's also difficult for me to figure out what exactly -works- for me. With that in mind, I'm going to try and pencil out the rest of Mission 3 completely (instead of doing thumbnails, then having to flesh them out later like I did with Mission 1) and then go from there. I believe that this will allow me to work at a more productive pace, and able to get batches of pages done much, much faster.

I still believe that I can finish Book ONE before the end of this year. At least the comic pages themselves. That's my only goal at this moment. As for finishing Book ONE in it's entirety, I'd like to do that as early as the first two weeks of January. Then the journey shall truly begin, and I hope everyone is just as excited as I am..

There's a reason...

2011-11-12T18:10:00.001-05:00

...that I've stayed on Blogger/Blogspot for so long. Because it actually works, and can work with you.

It's a bit tricky sometimes to get it to do the things you want, but if you go to the help section then you'll basically get any answer to anything you wanted to know.

Recently I tried using Tumblr for my blog (and before that, just the comic site) but it was extremely hard to work with, and any time that I wanted to have a simple page redirect to the comic, it basically said I was being hacked or something to that extent. After a few tries, I said fuck it, deleted the account, and worked on this one. I've now made this site essentially resemble the Ryu's Krew comic site. Aside from a few things that really can't be helped.

But with that said, I'll be here making blog posts a LOT more often. I'll only make Youtube videos once in a while (more or less because it's harder to do). But it's fun to get my thoughts out via text.

Still working on the comic, most definitely. Just making an extra push to get the last Mission done, so that way Book ONE is done. It's so exciting for me, I can hardly contain my excitement (being srs here). But there's still a lot more to be done, and it seems like the work is never over, which I don't mind as much.

Wtf is going on with Ryu's Krew?!

2011-10-14T11:17:00.000-04:00

Something that I feel I need to address is exactly well, what is the future of Ryu's Krew? I said it wasn't going to be a comic, yet in my last Youtube video I decided to keep it. Then I said something about action figures. I'm sure a handful of you are confused.

To clarify, it's more or less just been me trying to figure out exactly what I want to do with Ryu's Krew. Obviously at first it was only meant to be a comic, but when I started losing motivation, I got to thinking, what if it became something much bigger? An epic story told in many different ways. The way the Graphic Novel story is set up, is essentially like a video game. I mean that in the sense of it has a set path (I'm speaking of older linear based games, where you traverse worlds and defeat a boss in each one). That's the sort of thing I'm going for. But I really feel like there could be a lot more to Ryu's Krew. I don't know if it'll all be in comic format necessarily, it's a possibility. At the moment, I'm just working on the Graphic Novels when I can, also working on the newer custom action figures.

I'm doing a new Ryu, Draycho, and Archound. All based on their current design. A Grim Teddy and Pumpkinjack. Then next I'll be working on the Gods and a bunch of others. The plan is to have a ton of different characters from the comic (if not all of them, well the more or less important ones). But I'm not going to push myself super hard on the book. Mainly because I want it to be as good as I can make it. And this is just the first one.

Ryu's Krew is a huge, vast universe that I really want people to be able to love. I'm just thinking of a lot of different ways I can make that happen. I'm going to keep drawing, and hope that my audience that I haven't found yet stumbles upon it and then I feel all will go well. It's just that I haven't found my 'audience' yet. I shall, soon.

But the comic will be done. Custom action figures will be done. There's a lot of stuff coming, so keep an eye out for it.

Depression Eats It Away

2011-08-18T11:58:00.000-04:00

A quick comment before I actually get into talking about the happenings of the comic (as this is very much related), yes, I do have a form of depression that actually has been going on for the past 4 years or so. Now, if you do a bit of research on depression, you'll find it basically destroys you little by little. Taking away your desire to do anything (not to be confused with laziness, as I'll point that out), and essentially making you feel like a useless piece of shit. You start to hate everything and everyone, and you want nothing but to feel alone. You're trapped inside your mind, and there's absolutely nothing you can do.

That is how I feel day after day. Now anytime I'd generally go to work on the book, I may end up getting possibly a page done if I'm lucky, and that's with pushing myself. Depression sets in, and I can't stand looking at it anymore. I've pushed myself much to the point where I would rather sit and stare at grass growing for hours than work on it. That, my friends, is how depression works.

Now I could sit here and whine about how I'll never get the book(s) done because of this, or how I'm going to quit. But no. That, is the main reason why I have quit so many times before. But deep down inside I have such a love for this story, these books. It's a matter of combating my depression and winning.

As for how I'm going about this, I'm going to try changing my mindset. Which, is much much harder than you could ever think unless you've done so before yourself. Changing the way you think, which in turn changes the actions you make...A lot easier said than done.

Very little work has been done on the book as of lately, and I'm striving to change that. Because I don't want this book or anything to fail. So with this said, I'm trying my damnedest to get this done.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T00:07:00.000-04:00

To all of my American followers (and anybody outside of the US that celebrates Independence Day) a happy, safe Fourth of July. I will be spending mine with my family, in between working on my comic :P

As for today, I spent the day with a really great girl, and had a lot of fun. We discussed art, and all in all, very fun time. But after all that, I feel inspired to work on my book a lot. And I noticed I'm honestly not a big fan of the smoother pencils that I was doing, so I'm going back and re-doing it all with more texture, basically not smoothing it out via tortillon.

This will push me back just a tad, but nothing really too terrible, as any sort of work is productive, and I want this book to look it's absolute best. So if it means going back and re-doing certain things, by all means, I shall do it.

With that said, I shall continue my great endeavor, and I hope you are looking forward to reading it.

Lost In Thought

2011-06-28T16:11:00.000-04:00

I feel like everytime I make a post on here, or on deviantArt, it's always because I've been away for an extended period of time. Which is usually true, because I'm so used to be confused about what I want, and how exactly I want to make such a thing happen. This mainly goes for if I want Ryu's Krew to be a webcomic or not, as that is the main concern generally.

When I stopped updating, I was graduating from High School, so I was busy with marching practice and didn't really want to work too much on updating a webcomic. Now mix that with depression, of which I've had the entire time I have been working on Ryu's Krew. And mix THAT with not liking any of the layouts for any the sites or anything, specifically my 'main' page.

(We'll discuss the depression thing a bit later on in this post) But having a Comicpress seemed perfect. I had a webcomic that I wanted to go big with -- but I wasn't entirely sure how to work Comicpress, as it's a bit more complicated than I'm used to. I don't have Dreamweaver or any fancy program like that, and I'm not entirely sure, to this day, how to change a lot of stuff around. I'm honestly not a big fan of it. I'm sure it'd be really nice if I COULD get it to work, but I cannot. So with that said, Ryu's Krew won't be updating on [ryu's krypt studios] anymore, and it shall be used for other things that I'll explain in the future.

Now. The debate I've had among myself, myself, and myself for having Ryu's Krew be a webcomic or not has been stressful, to say the least. It doesn't sound like a big deal, but this comic means a lot to me, and I want to get it out there. With that said, getting someone to buy a book from an amateur artist without much/any knowledge of who they are is a very, very bad business move. Especially in these days, when much of the publishing and finding of great new artists is online. So I decided that it would be the smarter move to stick with a webcomic, but later on get it printed, etc, etc.

So after realizing that is what I wanted, I had to figure out what I wanted to do. I already really liked Drunkduck and the layout I had on there. And while it seems like a bad move to have my comic hosted on a site where thousands of others are, I dig the community there, and until someone magically comes along willing to help me, then I'm fine with what I have. So I sat down, and for a good 2 hours or so, I cleaned it all up. Re-added the pages I had before, added the new logo, etc, etc. And now it's all pretty and shiny! http://www.drunkduck.com/Ryus_Krew <--- Go see for yourself!

Another thing I had to consider in this whole ordeal was the books. The books are the main point of the comic to me, as it'll be the final product and what I hope most people will see. The books are what I want to happen most. So last night I did a bit of research from where I wanted to get it printed (at least first, anyway) from Ka-Blam. I found out that for Book ONE if I wanted to keep the red and have color in the interior pages, it'd cost approximately $12 per book. That's for a 160 page manga-sized book. If you ask me, that's way too costly for as I said before, a not-very-well known amateur comic artist. Obviously I'd want to make profit, so I'd have to even sell it for more. So with a higher price, I'd end up with lower sales. So I checked out how much it would be for a black and white version of the same book, and it's only about $5. So I figure that it would not only be more cost-effective, but it's around the price range I want it to be. So the books will have to have black and white insides, and it doesn't look as bad as you would think (I tested it out on a few pages). I mean, it's a little depressing as I really liked the red for the interior pages, but the greyscale actually looks smoother to me, and it all blends in together really nicely. You'll just have to see if you get a copy :P

Also, I hate that I haven't been able to make any Youtube videos. As I'm waiting to get my Grad party money to purchase a new camera which would allow me to. I'm pretty excited, because I'll be making different kids of videos all the time. Inking, penciling, the different processes, and me rambling! Yay!

I've also been working a bit on the Ryu's Krew customs, and decided to only do Ryu, Draycho, and Archound. I decided on that mostly because doing the Gods/MoL, etc, etc, would be way too time consuming, they probably wouldn't look too good, and I wouldn't really want to work on those characters as I'm only really concerned about the Soldiers of the Gods. However, if Ryu's Krew gets to a point in it's popularity where action figures are actually made, I would by all means be more than happy to have an entire collection. Hahaha. Last night I managed to finish sculpting Draycho's hair for the most part (I just need to add a bit of bulk to the front that covers his right eye), Archound's hair is completely done, and Ryu's basically been done. The majority of the work I need to do is in the feet for all 3 characters, but I need to wait until I can get a Dremel tool to do anything with that, which should be this week. After which I need to sand and buffer the figures to where they don't look all gross, and I should be onto painting! :D

That's it for my huge rant right now, I'll definitely be making more blog posts in the near future (maybe tomorrow even), so make sure to bookmark this page.

Tools.

2011-01-26T22:10:00.001-05:00

Its been quite a while since I posted my last blog, and I apologize for those who have been waiting for one. My internet got shut off a little while ago, so I just have my phone and such. Which really isnt bad at, I can actually concentrate better. As for the title, Ive been noticing I change my tools around a lot. For penciling, Im now using a regular wooden pencil, and for inking, just ultra fine and regular sized-sharpies. I really enjoy the bold, almost grungy look to them, so I may continue to use them for quite some time. Still working on the comic, as usual. Just trying to get things done..

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[ONE Cover work initiate]

2011-01-18T22:20:00.000-05:00

For the past few days, I've been hopelessly looking for different ways to go about my cover. I had a general idea, but always thought I'd put it into fruition later on in the book. But no. Today, I started working on the cover for ONE. The first book in the Ryu's Krew graphic novel series.

The signifance really wouldn't seem to matter that much, I mean, it has to get done either way, yeah? But I've been looking forward to working on the cover and putting this book together for a long, long time. Ever since I started working on this version of Ryu's Krew, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted from my covers. I wanted an exciting, beautifully done cover that when someone who's never read it, can just look at the cover and go, "Okay, so it's about this..." and basically be able to know a little bit about the story already. Something that will grab your attention and hold it there. I want this, and all my other covers to just be flat out, amazing.

So I'm going to be working on this cover from now, obviously until it's done. I'm honestly going to guesstimate that it will take up until near the book's completion to have the cover all completed. Mostly because this is a newer medium for me to work in. Now, I've dealt with recoloring sprites before (which only involves the paint bucket tool in MSPaint, so not even difficult) but never in actually creating full-scale retro game style art. For my covers, mostly Ryu's Krew, I want to focus on a more SNES-style. Especially for the RPG games that have the really detailed sprites. My goal is to create a cover that not only fits the description I put above, but also to keep with the style of the comic, along with having a cool retro video game style.

As for the interior pages, the comic's getting done and I'm going to work on figuring out the EXACT stuff I want in it. Not only story-wise, but for extras and such too. I really want to make this book make you go "Wow. This is original, and really badass. I dig it!". And it's going to be my job to put forth my best efforts to make sure you say that.

With that said, I am going to work on the cover a bit before I go to bed.

McKoop/Ryu's Krew news and moar!

2011-01-07T00:00:00.000-05:00

Hey, all!

Haven't updated in quite a while here, so I figured I'd better update. I really ought to be better at this, but meh. Oh well. I think these are more useful than youtube videos, as those can show you, you know, video, but with blogs I can really go in depth with my comic artwork. I think I'm also going to start posting pictures too. In fact, I'll grab a few right now.

That, right there, would be Pages 2 and 3 of McKoop, currently the latest colored ones. Kind of sad, because the entire story is 16 pages long, so I have a while to go yet -___-

Despite that you can barely see it, those are penciled pages for McKoop. There's Pages 7-16 here. Most of which I did tonight, actually (I penciled 5 tonight). And my pencils generally are really lazy, because I like to be really loose and more or less "draw" with my inks. Not something I heartily recommend, however, it gets the job done. You could think of my pencils as larger thumbnail sketches.

Me inking Page 6 of McKoop. Yes, I am using Ultra Fine tip Sharpie markers for this. I like the look with that plus my coloring style, plus they're cheap and I'm decent with using them. They give a nice bold line, only bad part is that the colored pencils tend to go over them, but that's not too bad because it doesn't show up on the scanner! Also, all of my comics are generally drawn on 8.5x11 cardstock paper. Which is generally cheap, and comes in big packs of 250 or so. A friend of mine once said, "It's got the thickness of bristol, at the size of printer paper, but much cheaper." Which, is exactly right.

And here we have a nice picture of a penciled page of Ryu's Krew, and an inked page behind it. I covered the inked page up because I didn't want to give anything away. But basically, it's awesome and you all should be excited. Because as soon as McKoop is done (or before that, i dunno) I'll be working on it hardcore, and it will rock your worlldddd.

I'm also working on another small project. More or less collaboration. It's with the Ryu's Krew characters and my friend Torren's characters from his comic, illogical. It's gonna be shaded in with colored pencil, but I think I'm gonna ink it. I'll probably get that done tomorrow.

And last but not least, one more picture..

A little something I got over the holidays. My brand new Skullcandy headphones, and my set of Copic Multiliner SP Pens. Both of which are going to be VERY useful when working on my comics (mostly Ryu's Krew). The Skullcandy's are great, except my ears tend to get really warm after a while, but the bass and everything sounds really nice. I haven't gotten to use the Copic pens yet, but I'm really excited because the other copic stuff I've used is awesome.

So follow me on Twitter to actually get more updates from me! I hope to be done with McKoop and such soon so I can focus on Ryu's Krew, but who knows~!

My Twitter: FOLLOW IT!

Confessions..

2010-12-09T06:49:00.000-05:00

I felt like posting an entry here because I feel like I've abandoned this place, which is not the case at all! I've merely had nothing to say really, and was posting my journals over at dA.

But my absence from posting anything new on dA or Drunkduck has its reasons. It's not that I'm lazy. Well. Not so much, anyway. Upon finishing Mission 0, I realized that there was a lot to clean up. And I got kind of lazy (there's that word again) and didn't really want to do such a thing, which is when I was posting it on Drunkduck. I don't know if anybody read/remembers, but I was complaining a lot about how messy the pages look, and it displeased me. Because I don't want Ryu's Krew to be some sort of messy...bad looking comic. For all the work I've put into it, I want it to look great!

So I took it upon myself to start cleaning up EVERY single page in Photoshop. Which includes going over all the white lines again, because the pen I was using wasn't all that great with that. It's a long process, believe it or not. But the pages look 10x better. I'm getting rid of the screentones for Mission 0 as well, because they really don't fit in with the marker textures and all that. So Mission 1 is where the screentones start, even though they became a kind of critical part to the art of Ryu's Krew, I think it'll be alright. I think the traditional look really works with the whole prologue thing for Mission 0, as Mission 0 is more or less a prologue. So the whole marker coloring style really works because it makes it look classic, almost.

I'll be working on kicking ass, and may disappear from the internet every once in a while. But rest assured, I have not given up. I am merely working. Keep posted.

Format?

2010-09-28T06:41:00.000-04:00

Hey guys.

The past week or so (well, since last Thursday), I've been home with a terrible, terrible cold. I think the last time I caught a cold this bad, was sometime my Freshman year. Maybe it was just time for me to get really sick again? I don't really know.

But in the time I was sick, I got productive. I don't know if anybody saw my post on deviantArt/twitter, or even my Drunkduck page; but I had ultimately decided to go through the pages I had done yet so far (1-19, but only had posted 1-16) and re-color them all, via Copic markers. After the first page was done, I decided to try for the white lines that I put on this version of RK. So I grabbed out my Uniball Signo white pen, and got to work. After the first page was done, it was just like magic. It looked so much better, in my opinion, and so much more like Ryu's Krew.

Now the first...7 or so pages went by really slowly, for coloring. I got maybe a page or two done a day, here and there. Then Friday came. Friday was a very good day for me, aside from being sick. I had cranked out Pages 8-11, all colored, and looking good. That's 5 pages. Now, for anybody who knows/has known me, should know that for me especially, that's a lot. Even coming from last year, my least productive, and overall worst art year yet, it's just insane. But no, it gets even better.

The very next day, Saturday. I tell myself, "I want to get at least 5 done today, too." And those 5 pages would bring me to Page 16. But I had up to Page 19 ready to color. So after I got the 5th page done, I told myself, "I'm sick, I have nothing else to do, I might as well pass time by. Let's just sit here and finish it up." Keep in mind that it was probably like, 6 or 7 at night. So it was pretty insane. It was maybe 10 o clock at night, but I got it all done. My hand hurt so bad, but I felt so accomplished. Getting 9 pages colored in one day. Just, wow.

But with all that said, I've been doing a lot of thinking. I mainly used the webcomic format to get myself motivated about working on the comic. Coming from my Junior year (like I said, worst year) to this, I didn't want to relive it. And since I want to become independent, I feel partially like I should save the majority of the book for people to see when they buy it. I feel like nobody would really want to buy a book when they can already read the entire thing online.

I could be wrong, but for now, I think I'm going to keep it like that. So with that said, I'm only posting Mission 0 online. This could very well change, as I'm still unsure of what I'm doing/where I'm going with this, but rest assured, in one way or another, this is getting done. And at some point, it will all be in print.

My thoughts on digital art

2010-08-28T13:05:00.000-04:00

Before I get started, I want to state that I am not against digital art. Art to me, is art. It doesn't matter what medium it is created in, as long as it is not traced/copied, then that's all that matters to me.

Recently I've been working on a new project of mine (based on an old one) which I hope you will all see in about a week or two, and I attempted digital inking. It didn't help that my tablet was messing up (was no pressure sensitivity) and I didn't feel like restarting my computer in order to fix it. As this happens kind of a lot. I don't blame it on Wacom, as they are an amazing brand. Rather my computer is just old, and I don't think it's really cut out for anything else other than coloring.

Granted, for the time it did work (with no pressure sensitivity) it just felt lifeless, almost. It was really hard for me to get the look I wanted with it, and even after inking an entire panel, I hated it. I hated how it looked. I know a lot of artists who can work in the digital realm completely, and do it comfortably. I am not such an artist.

Does this mean I'm a bad artist? I don't think so. It just means I'm not comfortable with the idea of inking my lines on a computer screen. I think I was just meant to ink traditionally. Earlier work on Charles & Viktor had me digital inking (I believe it's the only project of mine that has ever had such a thing) If you click here, you will see said page. I don't know if you notice, but the lines are either wobbly, or don't have much to them. Mostly because I'm not used to working with digital inks.

Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I cannot absolutely do it. As I proved it right there that such a thing is possible. However I believe that since I have been inking, it has been traditionally.

First, with an ultra fine Sharpie (the smallest tip), then moving on to Microns and such. Granted, I made my way into using brush pens (speaking of which, I'm using for this new project) and it looks fantastic.

Yeah. I used brush pen instead of digital inking, and comparing even just the first panels side by side, you can tell that there's just a lot more to my traditional inking.

I just want everybody to know that actually, I do clean up my pages a lot with photoshop, which usually means that I have to go over some lines, re-draw some things, and actually, one of the Ryu's Krew pages featured two panels drawn completely digitally.

Basically, I'm going to be doing all of my comics, and projects traditionally. I mean as far as inks. Not that it really matters to anybody (unless they really like the look of traditional inks), but it seems like for a majority of artists online (not going to be putting any names, mostly because I can't remember half of them) that switch to digital, it's like their work becomes lazier. And again, there are some exceptions. But especially for comics, it seems like when people get used to drawing digitally (penciling stage, as well), everything becomes more lazy, they don't get as much done, and it's more of a struggle to get motivated. It seems like it happens a lot. I can't exactly say why, but I'm beginning to think that is what would happen to me if I ever switched to full on digital.

My biggest influence

2010-08-16T13:07:00.001-04:00

is Rob Schrab's Scud the Disposable Assassin.

I've come to this realization after reading through my copy of the Whole Shebang, and looking at some of the different techniques I've picked up on.

Obviously, it's not the same exact thing. But things like big panel borders, thick lines, screentones, etc, etc, are some of the things that Scud has inspired me to start using.

Every artist has their influences, and I had no idea what mine would be. I'm beginning to know who mine are, and it's a good thing, because when people ask you, you don't just go "LOL I DUNNO". I can straight up tell them, "Rob Schrab, (insert others here)" as I have yet to discover who else I have taken inspiration from.

With that said, I am going to get back to work on the comic.

Scud The Disposable Assassin is © to Rob Schrab: 2010

Comics as a medium

2010-08-13T15:01:00.000-04:00

I started doubting comics. This doubt crossed into my mind about a year or so ago, after my love of comics started declining. And any single emotion that was put forth to comics kind of withered away.

I stopped "believing" in comics, or so to speak. I didn't believe that comics could actually evoke some sort of emotion from a reader. I don't know why, I just guess that the element of sound was really necessary.

It wasn't until recently that I actually proved myself wrong. While drawing the first scene of Ryu's Krew, I really started to think about how I could evoke emotions in the reader. You have to have some sort of buildup, and when you get to that point, you just have to draw it as best as you can, with the most emotion showing as possible. Not to the point where it just looks ridiculous, but to where you can tell how devastated/excited or whatever the character is. I actually felt myself feeling the pain of my own characters while drawing/reading through it. I've never been able to do that before. It was a really neat experience. And needless to say, I'm proud of myself.

So no longer do I doubt comics, because there is so many more things you can do with them than you can with say, movies or video-games. Video-games are playable stories, which is awesome, but I think that comics are in between novels and movies.

Comics are a great medium. Endless possibilities, but that all relies on the artist and writer.

So until next time~

Webcomics make life easier

2010-08-06T23:22:00.000-04:00

I say that, mostly due to when I was working on a book. I lacked motivation. I lacked inspiration, and I lacked desire to work on it.

This lack of desire could've very well caused the downfall to my comic. And well, it could've caused the downfall to everything I've worked so hard to achieve. I'm not saying I would've downright quit. It would've been more like, "No desire to work on it for like, a month", and that month would've gotten to be 2 months, so on and so forth.

The good part about the webcomic is that I've managed to really kick myself in the ass and get stuff done. Been working on it digitally and such rather intensely. It's funny how when I was working on it (the book version) I was just going to do all the digital-based stuff at the end. But now, I'm doing it. I only have like, 7 or 8 pages done, and I've already done about 5. So my buffer is really running out (inked page, wise), and that means I really should get kicking with these thumbnails and stuff. So I believe tomorrow, with my new sleeping schedule (waking up early~ finally. haha) I shall embark upon working and possibly finishing the thumbnails for all of Mission 0.

Then, and only then, shall I start penciling more pages. I don't know if I'll do anything with Page 6 (as I have Page 5 completed), but I will definitely be doing some things with Ryu's Krew tomorrow. I also plan to possibly write somewhere else, besides my room (a.k.a, the studio) because I feel that a change of atmosphere will really get me thinking.

It's almost like, if I were to just sit outside and write. Let my mind wander, I could come up with some amazing ideas. Because I feel like if I just keep sitting in my room and writing, I'll still feel enclosed. Coming up with the same ideas. I think a change of scenery would really do me some good. I really, truly want this comic to be amazing. And I will do everything in my power to make it so.

This comic will hopefully inspire people, and I hope it will entertain people. If I can do that, even for just one person, my goal will have been completed.

Goosebumps

2010-08-01T17:52:00.000-04:00

I just finished writing for Mission 0 (not including putting it into a comic-style format). And I don't know what it is, exactly. But just by typing it out, and reading it, I managed to get goosebumps. The weirdest part is, I don't think I've gotten that feeling with ANY other version of Ryu's Krew. Or any other comic I've written for, for that matter. The anticipation of these past few months, just being able to finally say that I'm on the road to being done with SOMETHING is crazy. Mission 0 is going to be about 40 pages or so. I have yet to compile everything into a script, and edit it, but I'm going to guess about that much.

My goal right now, however, is to put it into a comic-style format for the script, so I can tell how many pages there will be, etc, etc. Then to do thumbnails of those pages, so I know the placement of everything and the pacing on the pages themselves. This process will take possibly 3...4 days, if I work hard. Maybe less, but with the way I work, I'm going to say about that much time. Which in all honesty, isn't THAT bad.

I plan on kicking ass on the digital-aspect of the pages too. I only have up to page 7 inked, but that would be another 2 1/2 weeks of buffer if I had all that done. And I don't need that much time to get just one more page done. So there is tons to be done yet. But it is being done, and I'm actually enjoying it for the moment. I'm not pushing myself too hard, despite having re-made the first two pages at least 3 times now.

Pushing myself TOO hard is pretty much the worst thing you can do, especially as an artist. Yes, you need to push yourself to succeed/become better, etc. But there's a certain point that you should not cross.

Sadly, with the amount of pages in this Mission, I only expect maybe 2 or 3 Missions (well, 0-2 or 0-3, so actually 3 or 4) in the first book. Which really isn't too bad, I suppose, but we will just have to see whenever it's done. I'm hoping that this year I can finally get a lot done, and hopefully, if I am able to get an art class, or multiple art classes, that the teacher will again allow me to work on my own thing. Would would be very good, because I could then get even farther, which we want.

So with that said, I'm kicking ass, and hopefully it shows in my work.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Ryus_Krew

(updates Tuesdays and Thursdays)

It's been a week..

2010-07-30T12:06:00.000-04:00

I started Ryu's Krew last tuesday. I completed the first full week.

I'm really not sure what to think. It's not a big goal. Just that people are seeing my newer art for the comic.

I'm really excited for the story to get going and such. I really want to start kicking ass on more pages (as I have) so that I can get ahead by a bunch, especially because I know when school starts up, I won't have all this free-time to work on my comic. Which saddens me, greatly.

Ryu's Krew will be a great, and epic comic. I hope you all like what I have planned.

http://www.drunkduck.com/Ryus_Krew

Volume 1 kick-ass-time-in-progress

2010-07-24T22:31:00.000-04:00

Alright.

So comic artists like me, independent comic book artists that usually have some sort of artistic job that pays the bills, and are working on their comics on the side. Usually plan to do comics full time eventually (at least that's their dream goal).

We tend to get uninspired, and unmotivated. These little bursts of unproductivity that can kill a project.

Which is dangerous, and depressing. The reason for my unproductivity is because of the internet. I spend way too much time on here, perusing useless articles and things that do not really matter.

So I think what I really need to do, is to just stop. I'm going to be on the internet a lot less, if at all anymore. It's beginning to get incredibly bad..

I believe in the whole "Mind over matter" thing. For some of us (who I'm sure know who I'm talking to) spend too much time on here, and thus are unproductive because they're just too lazy, and don't want to. I'm a victim of it. My mind is constantly wanting me to just be on here, and thinking that the comic will get done on it's own. The sad truth is, it won't. It's all gotta be me. The same with others and their projects.

I have to hold up with this if I want to get anything done. I really REALLY want to get this first book done. It will be the greatest achievement of my life, the hardest thing I will have to overcome, I believe. This may be untrue, for all I know. But seeing into the future, this seems to be it. All my failures and my future successes rely upon the completion of this first book.

No other project matters to me as of now. They can all wait. I will work on the customs every once in a while just to get them done and such, but for the most part, it will be straight up book work. I will hopefully soon know the whole layout of the book, and I plan to make it as awesome as humanly possible. I want to look up different coloring methods to make it look great, as well. I may or may not throw in a few color pages. Who knows.

But with that all said, I hope I really won't be on here much, outside of tweeting (since I use it while I draw/listening to iTunes).

So hopefully, I will see you in a month or two, with a lot of progress made.

With high hopes, let's do this.

-Aaron

Deserto Concerto - Accomplished

2010-07-20T16:27:00.000-04:00

It took a very very long time (about 2 or so months) to finally finish this up.

But it's finally done, and I couldn't be more proud. I uploaded the entire thing both to my Facebook, and to deviantArt. But because I don't share anything with non-friends, I think it's easier (much easier) just to link you to the gallery on dA.

I even uploaded a little "Making Of" thing to where you can see the different steps I took to create the pages. Almost like I did with Klown Kidnapping.

Sorry it took me a week to post this. :\

Anyway, enjoy~!

Rant: An Artist's Journey

2010-07-14T13:35:00.000-04:00

Whenever someone picks up a pencil, puts it down to the page, and starts drawing, it is at that moment that they become an artist.

Nothing, however, is saying that they will become a better artist, or that they will ever draw again. Most amazing artists start drawing from a very young age, except, usually they don't stop. They keep drawing for the love of it, and usually create some pretty bizarre things along the way.

Now I, among most artists, DID draw at a very young age. In elementary school, when it was cool to draw DBZ characters, I was attempting, but failing rather hard. I remember one of the kids could draw them almost perfectly, as if he traced them, though he didn't. That's what everybody was doing back then. But I sort of stuck to my own thing, until I quit.

Then it wasn't until 7th grade that I picked a pencil up again, but this time, to draw a Knuckles the Echidna rip-off, Chog. And for a few months, this dominated my life. It was one of those comic books that kids thought comics were like. You know, 6 panels, divided up by one line going down vertically, then 2 lines going horizontally. No "gutter" space at all, just a sort of butterfly type panel style. But every page had the same exact panel layout, like a strip.

This comic, was all pencils. Pencil and printer paper, to be exact. Although back then I hated shading, so it was just all outlines, like I thought drawing was. And to be honest, it was terrible. I hated it back then, but I kept with it, possibly because it allowed me to let loose with my emotions, almost like the pencil was talking for me.

I nearly managed to complete the story of Chog (a very stupid story, at that), but I just sort of gave up towards the end. Merely because I pushed myself to the point where I HATED drawing.

But in 8th grade, I finally picked the pencil back up. It was for a stick figure comic series about video-games. How delightfully original. I got the idea from Nintendude1's comics on the N-Sider forums, back when there was such a thing. And alas, my comics couldn't compare. Everything he threw out seemed like, magic in a way. Whilst mine was garbage. After a while, I just got sick of competing, and then quit.

I started up another comic series, with inspiration from my friend Torren's comic, Illogical. This one would feature a new Sonic-inspired character, named Ryu. Merely because I thought the name was awesome. I changed the look as much as I could, without changing the eyes or mouth area. But I did it. And that's when Chaotic World was born. This beast ran for I want to say at least 60 or so strips. It was something I did throughout 8th and 9th grade. It helped me to put all my crazy ideas together, and it was just a blast working on it. So many good times. All crazy adventures with my characters and such. Again, not the best comic out there (of course), but it was fun, which makes it worth it to me.

Then along came Ryu's Krew. And we pretty much know the story from there.

What's the point of me telling you all this? Well, it's simple.

If you truly, I mean truly want to become an artist. A good one, one that people can look at and say "Wow, this is just awesome!" You have to push yourself. I'm not saying to push yourself like I did, to the point where you want to quit. But I'd like to think that even in the time span of 4 or so years, I've improved immensely. I've developed something I can call my own, and now have many comics I can work on (despite me only really working on one).

The path to becoming an artist is a long, hard, and terrible one. I say terrible in the sense that you have to be optimistic. It's hard because you look at the artist's who surpass you, and you almost want to give up. But that's the thing, don't. I still get terribly jealous every time I see one of my favorite artist's pieces. Makes me wish I could do half of the stuff they do. It's all a matter of using the feeling of them being better than you as inspiration.

Tell yourself, "I'm going to get this good, if not better one day." Put your mind to it. Then put pencil to paper, and get started. Don't copy them, that's a terrible idea. Instead, take inspiration from it, learn a few different techniques that your favorite artist does that you would like to learn how to do. Do what you need to do at first, but remember, don't try to create something that's already been done a million times before, unless you know you can put an original spin on it. Come up with something you want to do, but also make it original.

That, also is what makes being an artist, especially a comic artist so hard. It seems like everything's been done, and nothing is original. This statement is both true, and false. True in the sense that you will never know what has hasn't been done, and also false in the same way. But that's why you have to do it, make it your own, and hopefully it'll turn out different than the version someone else halfway across the world came up with 5 years ago.

Don't be afraid to draw what you want to draw. Especially when you have artist block.
That's what sucks about being a comic artist, especially. You get this desire to work on other things, or you only work on one thing. Working on multiple things means you'll get frustrated, and a few of them won't get worked on, and it'll eventually lead to your downfall. You'll end up quitting, either drawing all together, or just those comics.

However, drawing just one means that you'll end up getting burnt out.

So try to keep drawing nice, and interesting. Draw a page, sketch, draw another page or two, take a break. Do what you have to do, just, whatever you do, don't quit. You'll never know how far you would've gotten, or how much more you would've improved.

With that said, keep on drawing~

Update - 7.13.2010

2010-07-13T02:25:00.001-04:00

I felt like you guys needed an update :P

http://www.youtube.com/user/DatBoiDrew - For DatBoiDrew's Youtube

Ryu's Krew VS The Ringmaster

2010-07-11T21:21:00.000-04:00

Today I felt like drawing a Pin-up. Due to the fact that I had a lot of fun drawing the last one, and felt it was time to show everybody what the Ringmaster looked like.

The Ringmaster, for those who don't know, is the leader of the Klowns that you saw in Klown Kidnapping.

The Klowns will more than likely appear in Mission 1 in Volume 1 of Ryu's Krew. So you should all get excited. I'm hoping that I can make them just a bit darker, so they aren't necessarily underestimated.

Fun fact: The klowns in Klown Kidnapping was originally meant to be a parody of the whole rapping/dark clown music genre, "Insane Clown Posse, Twizted, etc"

Welcome to the Lair...(of the Grim Teddy)

2010-07-08T03:39:00.000-04:00

This was a challenge for me. I stumbled upon a few sketches in this sort of style (using brush-pens, copic markers, just for a really "brushy" look, along with correction pen), that was both really grungy, and awesome.

Purely, it was something I enjoyed.

So I wanted to do something like that. After getting over my fear of experimenting artistically (as a few artists, if not all have), I put this out. This is brush pen, copic, and a Uniball Signo (white).

I think the coolest part about this piece, is that I got to use my new, improved skills with something I used to use all the time, so I got a really grungy look/feel to it.

As for the concept, I just wanted to show the Grim Teddy, sort of angry/disgusted/pouting in his throne. His lair has remained the same since the 5th attempt, just because I really like it.

Soul searching

2010-07-06T19:28:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, I had to answer why I wasn't motivated anymore.

It was almost like I had no desire to draw...which for some reason, felt "dangerous" to me, because this became my life goal. My dream. I had put my heart and soul into my book...

but why...?

That was the question I had to ask myself.
I sat down, and read through some journal entries I had written over the past few years, more so over the time that I became really interested in the book.

After reading, I still really wasn't sure. I knew that I was just very depressed, and needed some way to escape reality, in a sense, but it wasn't just that. Over the time that I put on it, I came to the realization that these characters belonged to me. And not only that, but they became a part of me. This story is now part of me, which I suppose is one of the main motivating factors. If I don't finish it, then I'm not complete.

Another thing, is the possibility (not saying that this will happen, or that it has to happen) that I could one day see my story hit the big screens...and or even be turned into a game. The thought of that motivates me even more.

So it wasn't artist block that made me not want to draw, no.
It's that I lost sight of what made me want to continue.

But now..? I'm thinking about the big picture.
I know what I want, and I know why I'm doing it.
And now, I'm kicking ass like never before..

We're making some progress..

2010-07-03T04:08:00.000-04:00

At first, I wasn't really sure if I was going to get a lot done on this book. Merely because of the fact that I just became unmotivated as I finished the first page. I honestly have no idea why, but I feared that it would get in the way of me finishing this book.

Upon realizing that if I kept up this sort of attitude, I would never get it done, and that really worries me. Getting this book done, nay, getting this story completed is incredibly important to me. And I can't stand to think that I won't get it done. So that's why I'm pushing myself now. It's not a bad "push-yourself" sort of thing, but a good one.

Now, I'm getting more done, and it's actually coming along really well. I'm actually really happy with my progress right now. Just wanted to give you all an update.

I'm still a long way from being done, but that's fine. I'll get there when I get there.

Some of Loki's Minions (Concept Sketch)

2010-06-29T14:08:00.000-04:00

This was actually my warm-up sketch from this morning, so excuse the poor anatomy on this, I mainly just wanted to figure out what they looked like.

The sort of thing I'm going with for Loki's Minions (not to be confused with the Minions of Loki, the group) is a sort of alien demonic thing. I feel it works well with the whole future theme, and the demonic thing obviously comes from the fact that Loki is an evil God. But I want to draw them in such a way that it doesn't look like every other demon character.

I don't know how many more/what else I'll be posting in the future. Just know that Ryu's Krew IS being worked on, and I promise that I will make it the best book I can. I won't stop until it's done. :)

Sundays are the only day off

2010-06-27T14:20:00.000-04:00

But usually I would post a page of Deserto Concerto. At least up until last Sunday(?).

The reason why I haven't really been posting them is because I haven't really been working on it. I do have a page or two more that I haven't posted, and I'll put them up here eventually. I've just been really busy with working on the real thing that I haven't really had time to work on that. Don't worry though, it will be done.

See, with this Ryu's Krew (by that I mean, this version) I wanted to get everything finished. So expect some pin-ups along the way and such.

The title is pretty much what I wanted to talk about. As an artist, one that's working on a book, no less, I never really give myself any "break" time. It's always just work, work, work. Which is what gets people so burnt out after a while. And it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I pretty much discovered that I cannot draw on Sundays. Let me reiterate.

Every time I go to draw on a Sunday, I always end up getting frustrated with my work (more so than usual) and then quitting, I then tell myself it's going to be my day off, and then I'm mad because I can't get anything done. I end up going to play some video games and just relax. It gives me time to recharge my creative batteries for the week. It wasn't until this very Sunday that I decided to make a habit of out it. I'm not even going to pick up a pencil unless I absolutely have to.

This'll make me want to work harder tomorrow, despite how little motivation I had for this first page. I think working on the rest of the book when I get to around...Page 20 or so will be easier. Because I'll have something done.

Anywho, I find myself drinking coffee or energy drinks late at night to keep myself awake while working. Last night I ended up drinking a Monster Assault. I usually hate Monster because of the nasty taste (and usually prefer AMP), but the taste isn't all THAT bad, and it kept me up for at least 5 hours. Probably would've been longer too, but I forced myself to go to sleep.

On the blog here, I plan on posting a tutorial or some sort of thing showing me working on the book. Maybe a video (which would be on youtube too)? Who knows. I'll figure that out.

Now if you don't mind, I'm going to go relax.

Ryu's Krew - START!

2010-06-26T01:17:00.000-04:00

After what seems like a year (actually has been), I'm starting work on the first volume of Ryu's Krew.

It's...it's a weird feeling. With every other version, I just spent a small amount of time developing them. Like I think the most I've spent is 2 months, before. With the last version, sure I was still working on it back in February, but I changed stuff since the last version.

There's so much to this story now, since I very first began it. I'm sure I'll put something in the book about it...but it's just crazy. It's crazy to sit down and see how far I've come. These books will be neat too, because you can see me improve on the way (as I'm sure I will be doing tons of).

So, with hope, inspiration, and motivation, let's get this done.

Start date of Ryu's Krew: June 26, 2010.

The new 'style' of "Ryu's Krew"!

2010-06-24T10:52:00.000-04:00

I'm sure you can tell both pictures look cleaner, no?

That is because I am going digital.

I decided since the price of markers (well for me, it'd be more ink and extra nibs), is so high *for me anyway*, that I'd have to find some sort of alternative. I wanted it to be greyscale, with a bit of red. So my other choices were pencils/colored pencils, or digital. Now, at this point in my artistic journey, I've had a little bit of usage out of my tablet. In fact, just enough to get used to it.

There's not really much else to say here, just that I AM working on Ryu's Krew (not the actual pages just yet), and it's coming along amazingly. I think you'll all love it! :D

Deserto Concerto - 5/Start of Summer

2010-06-20T12:21:00.000-04:00

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I don't recall if I posted an entry about this, but summer started last Thursday. So with school out and such, I feel a lot more motivated than ever to work on my comic projects and such. There's a lot I wish to accomplish over the summer, and I'm hoping I'm able to do all of it. I'm not sure if I can, but I'll try.

I'd like to get a lot of sketching and writing done today. There's a lot of things I still have to plan out visually, and make sure I like. I'm hoping that all the planning and such can be done to where I can start on it soon. Then I can work on it crazily, wooooo.

I'm also working on Deserto Concerto, and still do not know what the page count will be. Looks like I'll probably be working on it along with the main story. It won't be any more than 30 pages though, I can assure you. Maybe around 20? I dunno yet.

I'm still really trying to figure out how I'm going to do this. I still need new marker stuff for toning and all that, so I could probably start the pages, and just wait until I get that stuff? I dunno. That's why I was also considering digital for that, but I don't know if I'd like that much. I'll figure it out, probably have to draw one up, and leave it kind of blank.

As for Charles & Viktor, I think I'm going to try to get Break the Ice done, and then just stop working on it for a while. At least until Ryu's Krew is up and started. I definitely WANT to work on it later on, just kinda busy with RK right now to worry about both. But I'm definitely not abandoning it.

So, until next time I make a blog post~

Also, Happy Father's Day, to all the father's who survived the year(s) **in case you just became a father this past year** looking and caring after your children. Make it a great day!

Deserto Concerto - 4

2010-06-16T22:05:00.000-04:00

It has been done! :D

Finally got around to scanning the last few pages I just finished inking up and stuff. Of course, won't be posting them until the respective Sundays. Why? JUST BECAUSE I CAN. HAHAHAHA.

ha.

I'm such a dick.

But yeah, on Page 6, I started to expirement with ink splatter. Looks sweet if I say so myself.

One more day of exams, then I'm done. So expect a lot of comic production! I dunno if I'll be on here to give you all updates (I'll try not to, as sad as that is) but I'll definitely try to update here around once or so a week. Depending on how things are going.

But art production will be up, and everything will be fantastic!

Exam week :\

2010-06-15T19:31:00.000-04:00

Hey everybody, sorry I haven't posted anything new really (especially not the 4th page of Deserto Concerto!)

I've been extremely busy the past few days preparing for exams at school. However, after Thursday, I'll be out for summer! Especially yesterday and today I was busy, I just finished doing an 18 page Chemistry exam study guide! (which you'll know about if you've friended me on Facebook, or heard my complaining on Twitter)

So I probably won't get much done for any of the comics lately, just so you are all aware. It all really depends on how exams go, etc, etc. But I plan on finishing Break the Ice, and Deserto Concerto very soon.

I'm really not sure what I'm going to do after that, I may try going to colored pencils for Charles & Viktor, or I may try and start Ryu's Krew. I honestly have no clue at this point. All I want to do is finish those two small comics up, and see where it all goes.

So I will post back here in a few days, either with a video and Deserto Concerto page 4, or just the page.

Ryu's Krew Test Page

2010-06-13T00:42:00.000-04:00

I think I like the marker look better than anything I could come up with digitally. It just kind of works with Ryu's Krew.

I just tried recording audio for my tutorial series on "making comics" but I don't think making videos is gonna work out so well :\ Merely for the fact that I can't really speak my thoughts as clearly as I can type them. It's weird.

But I suppose I'll get started on sketching more stuff for Ryu's Krew tomorrow, and hopefully I can get started on it as early as next week. I have a bunch more stuff to plan yet, but essentially I could get started by then. We can only hope anyway.

As for what I'm going to do right now, I guess I will go and watch an episode of Dexter. As I'm really not feeling like drawing, playing video games, or anything like that. I guess all my creative energy is just kind of gone at the moment.

Happens to the best of us, I suppose.

Long Day

2010-06-12T01:42:00.000-04:00

My morning started as usual, with a shower, then pop-tarts and coffee (my usual breakfast). The coffee was warm, and delicious as always. And then I went to the bus, school, etc, etc.

By the time I got home from school, I was already pretty exhausted. Not so much physically, but moreso mentally. Waking up at 5:50 in the morning is killer. Thankfully, I only have to do that until Thursday (not counting this weekend, obviously) because that is the last day.

However, I have exams next week. Only 4 (because I'm exempt from 2), but still in all. This really won't affect comic production, as I'm a beast. But it's just annoying. But then I'm off for the summer.

I just finished my CWI 5 - Round 2 entry, and I must say, my pencils have gotten better. But now that I'm done with that, I sit here and think, what do I want to do with my summer? I mean, yeah, I could easily sit down and start finishing Break the Ice, just to get that over with. Or should I work on Ryu's Krew right away? I'm sure I could manage both.

That's probably the best option. All I can really do now is write/plan and sketch for Ryu's Krew, along with working on Deserto Concerto. Then work on finishing Break the Ice. I probably won't be starting the second Charles & Viktor adventure for a while, sadly, then. Because Ryu's Krew will take the majority of my time.

But I was thinking about how long this thing will be, and if I'll even be able to finish Ryu's Krew. I mean, I got sick drawing Klown Kidnapping and Deserto Concerto, and I wasn't even halfway through with either when I did! But I suppose that's what Charles & Viktor is for. Almost like my back-up thing. I'm sure that I will get through this, because I will push myself artistically, but let's hope that I can do this!

Video tutorial on making comics..?

2010-06-09T06:56:00.000-04:00

I was thinking the last few days about making a video tutorial series on youtube or something about making comics.

Now, obviously, I'm not the best there is, but I feel for as long as I have been working on them, I've learned quite a lot, and I feel I should be able to pass that information onto the newer "generation" of comic book artists. I hope that this will hopefully clear up a lot of stuff for people who have been asking "How do you go about making one?" or "How do you start?"

I'll try my best to provide tutorials on just about everything. Except maybe digital coloring, which I rather suck at, but I suppose I could try.

Now working on: (Ryu's Krew) Deserto Concerto - Page 6
(Charles & Viktor) Break the Ice - Page (1-4) 5.

Deserto Concerto - 3/New Video

2010-06-06T15:53:00.001-04:00

I like this page, especially since it's got the little TV recording thing as the one panel. Next Sunday I'll put up Page 4.

Also.

Charles & Viktor re-working

2010-06-05T13:12:00.000-04:00

No, no, no. Don't read that as "I'm quitting, and thus re-doing everything from scratch," as I have with Ryu's Krew.

Read it as: I'm going through and making the pages that I've posted better. Now this won't really slow me down too much, as I've planned to do this for a while. I want all the pages to look the best they can.

The first few pages (and even the one I'm working on now *page 4*) is pretty much experimentation. I've never really worked with digital art, aside from coloring. So this is all new to me, really. The inking and stuff. But I think I'm getting better, and starting to enjoy it more.

I think I might also extend Break the Ice if I feel the need to. Just because I felt I ended it so abruptly, (I can't remember how it goes atm, I'll have to look) so it may be longer than the 7 or 8 pages I had drawn out. Something I've realized, is I always feel rushed with my art. Not like I sit there and make everything look like crap, because I try to finish it (and most of the time I do), but it's like I feel I have to get the stuff done and out of the way as fast as I can.

I guess it's something I've subconciously developed while working on Ryu's Krew. I had to push myself to get stuff done, because I was getting really sick of working on it.

Speaking of Ryu's Krew, I'm currently unsure if I want to start it this summer or what. I'm really not going to push myself to get it all started as soon as possible, and that's because it usually turns out like garbage then. I still have some sketching to do, and I would like to get Deserto Concerto done before I start it. I want to look over what I have so far and make sure I like it. I also want to write for the rest of Volume 1. Just so I don't have to stop here and there. Also do thumbnails, etc, etc. So I really have no idea when it'll start. But it's all to make it better.

So pretty much, Charles & Viktor is getting all the glory for a little while. Sorry to anybody who's disappointed by that, but I'll still be working on Ryu's Krew. It's just at the moment, not really feeling inspired for it.

Extra info about the Ryu's Krew short comics..

2010-06-03T19:50:00.000-04:00

I just thought something I should talk about is the Ryu's Krew short comics, and why I started them in the first place. (Klown Kidnapping, Deserto Concerto).

Originally I had started it with inspiration from the game MADWORLD, and I wanted to try using heavier shading with my comic pages. So drawing inspiration from that, I started on the first of what is to be many short comics.

The idea for Klown Kidnapping anyway, came both from the whole "scary clown" genre, and Insane Clown Posse. I thought having some sort of evil/bad-ass clowns in my comic would just sort of add to the wacky/zany part of it. I also thought it'd be amusing since Loki is a trickster God, so I felt it worked.

So with the whole clown thing in mind, and the need to practice heavier shading, I started. No story-in mind, all I knew is I wanted Archound in there, fighting. At the last moment I added in the part where he wanted to save a girl (she was originally going to be in the story, but last moment I decided not to have humans), but I still consider it part of THIS Ryu's Krew. I'm sure I'll be having to explain that a few times.

Now, I think I use the comics more or less not only as a way to practice, but also as a way to tell more about the world they live in, and generally give you more info about the characters.

So I can't tell you exactly how many of these I'm going to be doing over the course of working on Ryu's Krew. Or even after. When I'll start them, or when they'll end. That's all just a bit mystery to me.

With that said, I hope you've enjoyed this small insight onto my decision on making these short comics.

Broadening the Horizons & CWI!

2010-06-02T17:07:00.000-04:00

No new comic pages or anything like that for this post, sorry :P

Felt kinda sick this morning/last night, so I stayed home from school. Starting to feel a bit better, so hopefully it's just one of those really short sicknesses. I don't know what it could've been from. Lack of sleep? I dunno.

Anyway, I'm ceasing writing for Ryu's Krew for the time being, just until I get Deserto Concerto and Break the Ice done. I figure I can just write after I finish every chapter. Shouldn't be too hard. All I really have to do right now is work on thumbnails for the main comic, and then get to work!

I also started another short Ryu's Krew comic thing, but I probably won't work on that until like, after Mission 0? I dunno yet. Depends on how I feel and such.

As for broadening the horizons, I'm referring to art styles. Specifically with Charles & Viktor. Ryu's Krew will definitely be in the grey-traditional style (unless for some reason, I decide to also add screentones? I dunno yet about that though).

I'm considering doing colored pencils for Charles & Viktor, at least for Football Invasion. Just to test it out. If I decide I don't like it, I can always go back and re-do the pages for when I put it all together in a book.

It's just always fun to expirement with art, and the different styles you can choose. So it should be interesting.

Also, I will be starting commissions online soon, as soon as I can get my bank account set-up and all that, I can pretty much start then. I'm not sure as to how I'm going to do that just yet, but I'm sure I'll figure out something.

As for Come Wit It (a drawing tournament hosted by DatBoiDrew), I'm working on my entry right now. Which is where I got the idea for using mixed medias for a comic. It'll be interesting. The category this time around is a "kid surrounded by darkness", and I have a really cool idea. I'll post it up here when it's done.

Something I've been thinking about for a while is, it's always nice to have two projects to work on. Especially ones that are so...different from each other. For me, I have Ryu's Krew, which is in all rights a dark and depressing story (filled with epic action/adventure and such too), then you have Charles & Viktor, which isn't completely innocent (there's minimal blood and violence), but it's a lot brighter and lighter-hearted.

So for me, I have two comics at the opposite ends of the spectrum. This allows me to not get completely burnt out on either one really, and allows me to sort of recover if I get bored of intense drawing.

The only thing that will sort of suck, is that when I work on Ryu's Krew, I'll have to put in some Charles & Viktor time as well. So I'll practically always be drawing. Which isn't so bad, I suppose. Especially since I want to get done with Volume 1 as fast as I possibly fan, while keeping the quality as great as I can too. I'm not going to be rushing or anything, by no means. But I want to be able to sell it and have the first one completed, because that is, in my opinion, the biggest hurdle.

The way I see it, after you complete your first book, your pretty much good. There's no saying you won't quit afterwards, but especially when your me, and really have nothing to show for all the work you've put in (except getting better at drawing) then it's sort of...depressing. I think after I get Volume 1 done, getting through Volumes 2 and up won't be so bad.

Although the bad thing about working on something as epic as Ryu's Krew, is that I won't really have time for Charles & Viktor, even though I'll be making time. The first Volume or whatever of that won't be out for a while after. So sadly, it'll just be stuck up in the internet for a while. I'm seriously just going to throw a number like, 2 or 3 years out there. It may be longer, it may be shorter. But that's just speculation.

As for Volume 1 of Ryu's Krew? I'm guessing a little over a year, if not more. Things can happen that could push back production (such as school, injuries, sicknesses, etc) but I'm going to do my best to push through that). So we'll just have to see how that goes.

So with all that said, let's do this!

Break the Ice - 3

2010-05-31T14:11:00.000-04:00

It took a miracle for me to be able to finish this.

I say that, because I had no want, no desire to work on Charles & Viktor until at least the summer (which it's not for me, yet). I've been pretty busy working on Ryu's Krew stuff (story, Deserto Concerto) and all that, and haven't really had the time to put into this comic. I honestly cannot tell you when I plan on finishing Break the Ice. I mean, I definitely do plan on finishing it, but I think after I write for Ryu's Krew/finish Deserto Concerto, I'll take a break from that to do a "sprint" more or less with this comic. I probably won't do that with the next little episode thing, but I want to have a buffer of sorts with this.

I'm planning ahead for Volume 1 of Ryu's Krew. I'm gonna guesstimate that it's gonna be around 250 to 300 pages. I don't know the actual length, or anything. I don't know how many chapters ("missions") are going to be in a book, I don't know yet. But I do know this, that it will be epic, and awesome. And hopefully, you will all love it. It'll probably take me like, a year to get each book done. Maybe a bit more. Just because of the amount of pages, and then putting it all together. I'm really excited to get this going, because I know this is it. I know this is the last time I'll ever have to re-make it (unless I put it in a big collected version, or re-master it lololol).

But in all seriousness, creating a world, like I have with Ryu's Krew. It's an amazing feeling. I have to be honest, I was kind of scared because I've never fully been in control of anything before (creative-wise) and it's weird. I mean, I'm just now really beginning to explore my creativity, because I've always felt I've held back in a way. I just kind of went with the bare minimum and called it good. I figured that people would be able to figure out the rest.

Look at the first version of Ryu's Krew, for example. Sure, it says in the future, but what about the people that live there? It looks empty to me. And is everybody an animal? Is there any other cities? Planets? Those are questions that I guess I just left the reader to figure out.

But now, I guess my writing has advanced enough where I can answer those questions. To where, yeah, maybe the reader won't understand everything at the beginning, but all the questions and stuff will be answered, to where they know about the world my characters live in.

I eventually should take pictures of my "studio" (I'm hesitant to call it that) and some of the Ryu's Krew pages in progress. Although, that won't be until the summer, or after that. Mainly because I want to finish Deserto Concerto and Break the Ice. I'll also make more of the short comics like Klown Kidnapping/Deserto Concerto whilst working on the main story, just for a nice break or whatever.

So now, I am going to go write some more Ryu's Krew.

Deserto Concerto - 2

2010-05-30T15:46:00.000-04:00

And here's Page 2 of Deserto Concerto! I think it came out pretty good. I like the energy in the last panel, you just sort of feel the explosion. The things on the sides, obviously, is supposed to be pyro. Like that you would see during a concert. And yes, his microphone is a sword! I thought it was an awesome idea.

Anyway, I've been considering different things I could do for the book. Like the extra things I'm going to be putting in it, but then I just kind of give up because it won't be done for a long time. I'm gonna guess around a year, because if my estimate is right, it'll be about 200-300 pages long. Just for Volume 1. Who knows how long it'll actually end up being, but I'll just keep it around there to be safe.

Currently I'm working on my second commission (gonna get a bank account set up to where I can have commissions online too) and I'm really happy that I'm getting some. It's exciting, and awesome at the same time!

Charles & Viktor will be worked on shortly, I'm thinking I'll take a short Ryu's Krew break, and work on Page 3 of Break the Ice, and just keep going on with it. Sadly, the page rate for C&V will be slow for a little while, but I'll try to get as much done as I can. Then after I finish the last page of Break the Ice, I can work on fixing up the first page so it looks like the others, lol.

Summer is also gonna be here in just like, 3 weeks. That means that I'll hopefully be able to get started on Volume 1 of Ryu's Krew, get some stuff done with Charles & Viktor, and just generally kick ass!

Deserto Concerto - 1

2010-05-23T13:50:00.000-04:00

Well, finally the first page of Deserto Concerto is up! This new short comic explores a little bit more of the crazy that is Rock Panda, and his band. Rock Panda, Metalhead, and Hayde are also known as the Minions of Loki. But more about that later.

All the Ryu's Krew short comics will be in this sort of style (as Klown Kidnapping was), and it'll explore the world of Ryu's Krew a bit more.

Insight

2010-05-20T22:25:00.000-04:00

Recently, I have been considering making a mascot for the Krypt. I'm not sure, as it may come off as cheesy, but then again, it'd be kind of cool in a way. Right?

But anyway, I definitely have a lot of work to do still with Ryu's Krew. However, I'm presently busy with working on a commission, then I'll be finishing up Break the Ice, finally. I'm really not too sure how I'm going to make pages faster. I guess I really can't, which is a bummer, because they're really fast to pencil. It's just the coloring/inking portion I'm terribly slow at.

I'm not saying I'm going to stop that, by any means. I love the look. However, I am suggesting that I might just be slower with making pages, at least until Summer hits. Then I'll be less slow. Because I'm going to work more on the story/sketches for Ryu's Krew, and other stuff as well.

The reason why Ryu's Krew is so important should be obvious to those that have been following me since 2008, or even since 09. Which I'm sure you'll hear about a ton, and I'll have to put that somewhere on the blog. (Probably on the Ryu's Krew page or something).

Also, tomorrow I'm picking up the latest volumes (latest as in, a few years old) of Penny Arcade. 4 & 5 to be specific. I find that Gabe's art style is just fun to look at, and it's always exciting to see what him and Tycho have planned for the next strip.

While I'm at it. I might as well throw up a few other webcomics I like reading.
Sam & Fuzzy
Acrobat

Sadly, that's all I ever really read anymore. Mostly because I'm too busy drawing my own comics to be reading others.

I really do need to get on the ball with my art though, I've been slacking lately, and just felt somewhat uninspired. I suppose, maybe, soon I'll get back in the flow of things. Possibly, stronger than before.

So let's do this Charles & Viktor thing.

Current Projects and old ones too!

2010-05-14T22:13:00.000-04:00

Don't expect a new post every night, but I haven't really talked about this on dA or anywhere else really, as I've been pondering it over for the last little while.

This post (at least the beginning portion) is meant to address the projects I talked about a little while ago, the 9...or was it 11? Well I believe the 11 was all my projects combined (website and custom action figures of Ryu's Krew chars), while the 9 were comics.

I only really posted a little of like...two of them? But I started work on like 3 or 4. The Super Mario one just got kind of old after like, 3 pages. I realized I wasn't into creating something that I didn't completely own, so I didn't really have my heart in it. Also, I was terrible with colored pencils (and didn't feel like digitally coloring) so it sort of got trashed.

CHASE is a project I plan to tackle later. I don't know if anybody remembers, but here, heere, and heree were actually sketches (the first, too) for the comic. I did a test page, with colored pencils, and overall wasn't really happy with the result. I'd always planned to do it sometime soon, since it was planned to be short, but I want to focus on other things for the time being. I can save this for a rainy day.

Todd Toast & Chad Cheese was also planned to be a webcomic. I'm thinking of turning it into a children's book or something (surprising?). I mean, especially for my art (minus For Great Justice, and the sketches I did for CHASE), my art is generally dark and not all that sweet. But I thought re-doing an old story, making it tons better, and showing the world would be cool. I'll tackle this one eventually, just like CHASE, but this one will be later on down the road.

Lastly, Rob & Steve was something I had started like, 3 times over? The first time was on lined paper, and I was meaning to do it digitally, so you couldn't see the lined paper/etc, etc. And it was meant to be a joke sort of deal, because it started out in a mall filled with zombies. Then I re-did it with a more serious tone, although inked it rather poorly with ballpoint pen, and didn't like the result. And after a little while, re-did it yet AGAIN with a grungier comic-book style, but just got too busy to do any more of it. Again, this is one I'd like to save for the future. I'm sure there'll be a bleak period where I'll have zero ideas and need these.

There's more, but I won't spoil anything (unless I already have, but I won't re-spoil it :P). So I bet your asking, "What are you working on, then!?!"

Which I sort of posted in the last entry. Ryu's Krew is currently being worked on (a lot more now than it was before), mostly in the planning stages and such. I'd like to get the story completely figured out, and write a ton out, maybe all for the first volume or so? I'm not really sure yet. But the art-style is currently being experimented with. I'd like to do a black and white comic with screentones, almost like Scud: The Disposable Assassin. Not so much like a manga, but like a western, modern sort of comic deal.

I'm working on a few short comics for Ryu's Krew. One that's just one page (a test page, really), and then a short comic (it's pretty much like Klown Kidnapping, just different) and it'll give you a look into some characters you haven't gotten to check out yet. These comics pretty much just give you a chance to check out the world of Ryu's Krew, and lets you really see how the characters act, and etc. Plus, it's also very good for practice, different angles, composing of panels, anatomy, perspective, etc, etc. The name for the new short comic is, Deserto Concerto. I'll let you figure out the rest.

Then with Charles & Viktor, I'm working on Break the Ice. The digital portion, that is. I've finished penciling long ago. But I'm also penciling the next "episode" or whatever you wanna call it. I wish it didn't take so long for me to make a page, but sadly, it does.
Inking is fun, and different for it, because I have to make it clean and able-for-coloring, but then the coloring is what takes forever. Looks really nice though. And don't worry, I refuse to go to black and white with Charles & Viktor. I have a lot planned for this comic. So this and Ryu's Krew are my big projects for the time being.

Also, For Great Justice. Although that's not really being worked on all that much. It's really just a project that gets worked on whenever Trevor and I hang out.

But altogether, that's pretty much just 2 projects I'm working on. Which is nice, because I can switch back and forth, and it's not really stressful at all for me. And I have tons of inspiration for both, so I'm happy about that.

And don't forget the blog! That's a rather small project though. I still have to figure out how to work this thing/make it better and such, and I will, in due time.

One last thought before I go and ink this short comic. I'd really like to get into pixel art. I think that'd make for some interesting covers.

Let's Do This

2010-05-13T15:30:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the Official Ryu's Krypt Studios blog! Managed by yours truly, Aaron Kilborn, the creator of this wonderful "studio" that produces such comics as, Ryu's Krew, Charles & Viktor, and For Great Justice!

Here, I will briefly explain the point of this blog, and a little about a few of my comic projects.

This blog will be the heart and sole of Ryu's Krypt Studios until I can make a website. But even still, this may stay the true home of Ryu's Krypt. Why did I choose a blog, you ask?

It's easy to manage, and I can talk about the art/post my art here, as well as on my deviantArt, and simply because I feel the blog best accompanies an artist. A place for the artist to talk about his or her art, and blah blah blah. A website, obviously, would be nice. But for the time being, we can deal with this.

Now, let's talk about the comics.

Ryu's Krew: Set in the future, a world inhabited by both animals and humans (animals with human-like traits, may I add) is invaded by the evil God Loki. Loki wages war with the Olympian Gods (the good guys of this story), as they search for an army to defeat Loki. Watch as 3 criminals are transformed from good to bad, as good battles evil, as an evil God attempts to annhiliate all that lives. I've only said a very small fraction of what to expect from this comic. It's a dark, gritty sort of style. It will not be a webcomic, and it won't be done for quite some time, but I plan for it to be in a graphic novel sort of fashion, so spread out into different books and such.
Charles & Viktor: This comic, however, is a webcomic. Intended to be a sort of, random modernized Tom & Jerry. Not so much the battling between each other, but that same sort of cartoony violence you've come to know and love from it. Featuring an alien bunny and alien dinosaur, you see them go to strange locations, and bash the crap out of random things! This comic is in complete color, and (sadly) is the only one, other than For Great Justice, that is currently being made.
For Great Justice: A collaboration between my good friend Trevor and I, intended to be a strange sort of comic-strip about two teenage boys who try to perform everyday tasks, but they do not go as intended. With a simplistic cartoon-style, and bright colors, and jokes, this one is definitely light-hearted.

Sadly, that's all I can really say for now. I do have more comic projects planned, but I don't have the time, nor desire to work on them yet. Merely because I still have school, and I'm trying to work on the story for Ryu's Krew, and Charles & Viktor.

Charles & Viktor is my main project for the time being. I would say that, because It's something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. After working on Ryu's Krew for 2 years, with nothing really "funny" in between, is kind of draining. So after I get a little of this done, I'll end up starting Ryu's Krew back up, and I'll be posting bits and pieces of that for you all to see, and I'm sure you'll all enjoy it.

With that all being said, go check out my deviantArt, and go spread the word of the Krypt.