Another extended tweet

A lot of monthly Writing and Art Prompts have helped push my storytelling and illustrating skills. Glad to participate again this Pride Month, which forces me to actually sketch out OCs that would otherwise remain in my head. 

For example, I came up with high school English teacher, Mr. Bakker. Wrote about him in early scripts, and finally fleshed him out in December 2021. In October 2022, I drafted an episode about his work-relationship and friendship with my male love interest, Peter, but before that, struggled to find a first name for him. 

Sometimes, a character's first name comes to me. Sometimes, their last name. Rarely do I get a full name. 

Now, for this Pride Month, I finally get to draw Bakker and his husband, Gonzalo. And then struggled to research a last name and possible cultural background for Gonzalo... *sigh* 

The creating doesn't end, but hopefully, you'll like the characters I introduced last year and the newer ones this year! 

HAPPY PRIDE MONTH. 

The Eyes (and Brows) Have It: Attention To Details

Working on eyes, like hands, has always been fun for me, though it is a bone of contention for other artists. Most of us know that once you don't get the character's eyes just right, it can irrevocably change their face.

Here is a close-up of Ronan's eyes...

This comic will start out as a black-and-white, so it'll be easier for me to digitally fix it. 

Here is Ronan further out. I'm also shaping out his eyebrows, but now the eye to the viewer's left needs more attention.

As we zoom-out more, we see more of the character and get to see who he is. 

Ronan has jowls and keeps a sparse beard. Also, with seeing nearly his whole face, I can see as his artist that I'll have to shave off a little more of his viewer's right eyebrow and tweak more of his viewer's left eye pupil and bottom eye line.

Now that we are fully zoomed out, you, the viewer, may not notice what needs changing, but from the previous images, you get how obsessed we artists get with just the smallest of details. 

I will be enacting the changes I mentioned, and when I do, I will be posting these on my Insta, both Befores and Afters. 

I (May Have) Found A Winner!

It looks like it's finally happening! After searching, researching, and testing out a number of art/artist and illustrator/cartooning software/apps, I may have found what I was looking for. 

DISCLAIMER: I'm returning to digital art after being away from it for many, many years! And even back then, I could cheat. Not now and not with these new software. Sure, you can still cheat, but you need to actually know the software nowadays in order to do so. At least in my book. 

I worked on my MLI (Male Love Interest) first. Black and brown skin is an intriguing mix of warm/cool, layering, and shade/tones.  

I'm saying this to warn you not to take any digital art advice from me. I've been out of the loop for eons, and I need to get back in for me. I don't know enough to teach or advise.

Previous first and second tries made Peter's skin tone too patchy or murky. Now, I can add at least 2-3 layers of color for his skin tone. I'm still learning, so don't mind the streaks as this is still a practice sheet. I have the uncolored original backed up, so don't worry.

I used a Mouse! I have my tablet stylus but wanted to charge them both and, as I said, this is just practice and a test!

Yanina is my MC (Main Character), so I better get her right! Just because she has white skin doesn't mean her skin color won't require rules. As I said about Peter above, this is just the first layer of coloring.

I also wanted to get her hair, eye(s)(brows), and nose color right, and I did on the second try! This looks like the exact color I use for Yanina when I'm illustrating her with my marker sets!

Here are the ones I've tried (& they're all FREE except if I note otherwise): 

Krita 

SpeedyPainter

Medibang

IbisPaintX

Colorist

JUMP! Paint 

Gravit Designer

Inkscape

Artweaver

GIMP

FireAlpaca

And never disparage Microsoft's Paint! The pre-installed program saved me for an assignment back in Computer Art and Ive given it props since! 

MS Paint not only helped to remove the dots from my dot grid originals, but it gives a variety of stencils including word balloons/bubbles and offers the same list of typesets (font styles) that Word and other word processors offer. 

So far, though Google Web Developer, it offers a number of copyright-free fonts and I picked and have my WinZipped folders all ready saved to folders when I get the chance. 

Expanded IG post about current draft board - Plus, news from the Twitterverse!

[News from my Twitter account]

I've noticed in my push to add Alternative Text or Alt-Text to my webcomic wip, a small number of my readers have expressed that the platform causes them anxiety and stresses them out. So, since I have plans to submit the webcomic series to other platforms and possible publication, I never closed my Tumblr account. Learned that Tumblr allows one to create numerous/multiple secondary blogs, so I created one for "Summer to Winter". When I begin posting will I drop the link. Also, most folks don't need a Tumblr blog in order to access its content.

[Originally posted on my Insta]

I've been feeling run-down the day after I run errands. I don't know if it stems from my chronic health conditions, but, all I know is, once I run errands on one day, I'm wiped out the next day. Also, we've been dealing with problems in the house, so my draft board has looked like this since last week. As soon as the skin flares calm down, I should be able to get back to work. 

P.S. NO COMMISSIONS. #ChronicHealth #ChronicPain #SkinAllergies #Drafting #Drawing #Cartooning #Comics

Expanded tweet about maximizing work output

I had a severe writing block a few nights ago and just outlined the chapter... Tried several different playlists: K-pop, Urbano Latino, Reggaeton, and Michael Jackson... What finally helped: Anita Baker's 'Just Because'. What helped more: stumbling on an Anita Baker playlist! 

The more I make sketch studies for a difficult chapter, the quicker I get panels completed. I have more to rough draft for this chapt that involves two flashbacks that will converge since the two main characters became a couple. 

I've had to come up with ways to bang out work quicker since getting severely sick last November. 

Septimus, my new favorite!

I'm currently working on an art series with now one of my favorite secondary characters, Septimus. And I came to a realization today while sketching the sixth piece... 

Septimus is an updated version of my boy, Sonny, a hightop fade teen bear-boy I came up with back in middle school! Septimus is instead a dog instead of a bear, an adult, lighter-skin, more excitable, even more outrageous, and q*eer. 

I know I promised my Pride Month artwork and will do so after this post! Again, thank you Dear Readers for indulging me!  

Entries from the Twitterverse...

Note to Readers: The following are a series of tweets I use as a sort of progress report to myself or relevant writer groups I'm a part of.

"Time Tiger" or its full name TIME TIGER:/4846_Chronicles, is a series of short stories I'm working on and compiling together. It began as an idea I illustrated back in junior high. 

Below are the following: tweets(or progress reports to myself) to stay on track.

Two 1/2 pages of that 'spinoff' series... Hilarious that I'm writing spinoffs when I haven't written a significant amount of the groundwork stories yet.😜😖 #amwriting  #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstories 

A GIRL AND HER CAT

I can't believe how many incarnations this #shortstory has gone through over time.😳 It went from some teen HS manga drama to a mystery-thriller with horror elements...😬 #amwriting #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

I had to do some #conceptsketches of the main #aliencharacter. Now that I worked out his look, I can tackle the human MC next. I want to work on her headshots and braids. But I #amwriting the story in the middle of this. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstory

Trying to revise and update the looks of different #alien species from old notes and previous drawings is fun and tedious at the same time. #scifi #sciencefiction #amwriting #amdrawing #amwritingscifi #amdrawingscifi  IG: handdrawnbycarmenjr 

Worked on a scene from my  near-future #shortstoryseries(3rd or 4th entry) & I find it harder to develop the #technology 80-100 yrs from now versus the #tech I'm developing in my #spaceopera set within the same universe about 2700+ yrs later. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

Intrigued! If you want more info on this series and its concept art, you can go on my Instagram @ handdrawnbycarmenjr

Hope to see you there, Dear Readers.

I Hate This...

D@mn. Did I bite off more than I could chew? This month is freakin' wild and I can't get my creative act together. I missed Camp NaNoWriMo for April and decided to make up for one of the "lost projects" by doing two for July Camp. 

And now I may not make my word counts on both because of an unforeseen project and trying to help out with technical issues at home that drain me and make me remember why I never applied at any tech support jobs! 

I am a total night owl introvert when it comes to things like this because, then, people are asleep and I don't have to contend with them getting in the way of my personal creative work being done.

And the comic work continues...

[From the Twitterverse]

Doing sketch studies for future use in my comic. I'll then take pictures... I like to build a collection of random drawings so I don't hunt down references in the middle of drawing a scene. 

The Year I Couldn't Draw

As quarantine and lockdown forces me to have enough time to draw and even some wee hours to write, I remember when I couldn't draw.

It's not that I would not draw or lost the ability to do so. I just COULDN'T. 

Throughout 2000, many pivotal events happened. I finally freed myself from college. I had already graduated but remained, my excuse was I had a campus job and I felt comfortable. But I didn't want to remain there in case I grew stagnant. 

I also started to substitute teach, which wasn't something I wanted but I just couldn't figure what else to do with an art degree. My mother had to undergo cataract surgery, and I was constantly sick from catching colds and other viruses from little to young students. My body was always weak, my immune system always compromised. I was a sickly kid. Oftentimes, almost to ER-deathly ill. 

This same year trying to figure things out, I ended up in ICU twice. 

And then as the year drew closer to its end, my only grandparent became ill. We spoke on the phone as she was overseas in my parents' country, letting me know she wasn't doing well. She died weeks after, her oldest daughter, my mother, holding and watching her take her last breaths. 

This was also the same year my first short story was published and I knew I wanted to write if the artwork didn't work out. All this happened in 2000. Though my mind was on fire with story ideas, I became lost in what to draw... The ideas dried up. Inspiration and necessity left me. Looking at art supplies caused me to vacillate between anger, frustration, and sorrow. Now I know this was depression but I didn't wish to speak its name. I gave up my art, fearing that the dry-spell would cause me to lose my illustrating abilities once I felt able to pick up a pen or pencil. 

That painful 2000- and the Year of the Dragon, no less. My animal year under the Lunar calendar! -forced many questions. I yielded to few answers. I needed to get back into myself. I wondered if it were possible and I missed my chance. 

There are the people who see your works and feel it flowed to you. That mystical ease of expression. But just as hard as it became for me to create, when 2001 came around, something unclasped and I was able to look at a blank sketchbook page again. I remember drawing a new idea as the tears fell, spattering the colors. 

I had started diving more into my writing by attending workshops, registered for more classes, and attend more writer conferences. 

The effects on my year-long artist block collapsed but with it, pain, rage, and grief for my lost grandmother, my lost ideas, the loss of fear of a parent's health, the loss of my body's autonomy. I had to accept it in order to give it up. And with that, I was free to illustrate once again.

Decolonizing my own work...

When I drew a cat character back in high school, this was around the time I began to formulate characters for my Tabber the Red series. One of the more important female characters, a male student called her 'thunder thighs'. A male character 'looked gay'*.When working on characters for my scifi dog comic, one athletic-looking female character 'looked like a lesbian', as if one's body type determined one's orientation! 

I have gotten a lot of flack, criticism, and insults towards my OCs (original characters) since I could put pencil/pen to paper. And when people attack my characters, I feel as if they're attacking me. One particular hurtful comment was when a close friend and fellow artist told me to kill off my main female character because she wasn't 'good enough for the main male character', who happened to be a gangster! 

Now you probably noticed a pattern here. Most of the harshest critiques are towards my female or femme looking characters. We already know why this is and I can discuss it another time, but, the point of this post is to understand how important it is to me as an artist to show diversity even within my speculative fictional worlds. That's why even my anthro cat characters will have locs and braids. That's why I make sure that this October artist month, when I show my Tabber the Red fantasy-sword&sorcery characters who happened to be tattooed, scarred, or wearing mendhi and/or henna, I put a footnote that all those body markings have nothing to do with war or becoming a warrior and everything to do with cultural/ethnic/tribal/national identity. 

Since I pull inspiration from real-life beliefs and practices, the same respect I will accord to others, I will do so for my fictional people. To me, culture and ethnic identity is important and not to be appropriated as gimmick or 'trendy'. I'm doing my research. I'm speaking to others. I will learn, so that when my characters express themselves, the identity will be as seamless as the 'air they breathe'.

There will be more 'decolonizing' for my OCs and in my writings. Just you wait and see.

*That character that was called gay? It seems that even if that person meant it as an insult, I realized while writing the character that he is indeed QUILTBAG and I'm writing in his sexual identity and orientation into the story. So, I guess that long ago person did me a favor by 'outing' my cat character! 

It took two years, but...[*edited*]

It's been two years and four months since I finally completed my main character alien species, the Aturan. 

For those who haven't read my short stories yet, I have two short stories that appeared in Kyanite Press: The Journal of Speculative Fiction: THE HUMAN NETWORK and CATCHING FEELS.

To make a long story short(see what I did there?), my short story series takes place in a near-future New York City where an alien species known as Aturan live among us. Most of us don't know they exist because they are natural shape-shifters or polymorphs, to use a Star Trek term, and so can look like many other alien species, including us.

In April 2018, I started work on how these aliens would appear and was bored by the regular heteronormative binary that 'plagues' other aliens in other stories. Not only did I work on figuring out that my aliens defaulted as polysexual, but I wanted to use the term omnisexual, an ElfQuest series' term, to mean that my aliens were not only sexually and romantically attracted to other sexual identities and genders among their own, but that they could be romantically and/or sexually attracted to other aliens too.

Now in September 2020, I finally completed the last four identities. If you want to see them in their technicolor glory, head on over to my Instagram page: handdrawnbycarmenjr. I also have explanations for each of the identities but purposely remained vague. I want readers to learn more as they take in the stories. 

Lastly, I can count on one hand which science fiction writers heavily influenced me into writing complex alien characters. 

The first is Andre Norton. Her explanations on how aliens viewed and explained things to the humans in her novels and short fiction is nothing short of amazing. 

The next is Anne McCaffrey. She shows that aliens can often get along with humans and have their own senses of humor.

The next is C.J. Cherryh. I can't begin to tell you how often I read her stories over and over just to get a sense of her physical descriptions and biological explanations of aliens, their societies and even their history. Just the way they interact with humans and view things is something I rarely saw in most of the scifi I read.

And last is Octavia Butler. Yes, her aliens invading and changing humankind's destiny is nothing short of glorious. To see Black characters forging through and participating in said future is magnificent to read. And that she seamlessly weaves in racial injustice, oppression, and racism into the fabric of her hard-hitting stories is breathtaking.

The Comic Story I'm Working On

The more I explain about the work-in-progress comic I'm currently drafting, the more I have to keep explaining to justify a premise that, in this case, needs no justifying.

In a nutshell, SUMMER TO WINTER is about a high schooler who falls in love with her teacher. Eight years later, the two reunite and begin a relationship. Sounds simple? Pure and wholesome? Well, not to some who I told the synopsis to. Without even waiting for an explanation, folks assumed the worst. They assumed a toxic relationship. Something wholly inappropriate had the high schooler and her teacher started that kind of relationship. But they didn't and I wouldn't write that.

I'm not judging other writers for writing about that. Writers we can write whatever (as long as it doesn't hurt or harm innocent people). There's all sorts of ethical and moral issues with writing certain topics. That's not what I'm getting into with this post. What I AM SAYING is most of my story ideas stem from conversations I've had or eavesdropped on, rumors I've overheard, folklore, family history, and the tales read and/or spoken to me or that I've read over time. 

When I was in high school, I heard a rumor about a student and a teacher(rumors are great fodder for storytelling. I'd rather turn a rumor into a story idea rather than repeat it) and it went something like this: 

A teen girl likes her teacher and goes after him. He rejects her, citing that it's inappropriate. Student tells him she's set to graduate and that she'll come back for him. 

The 'story' is when she DID graduate, she went back to see him and they ended up together. In another version, they got married. 

Now, did this really happen? A lot of folks have asked me. I don't know. I don't know if this was a true story or made up. So is the nature of rumors. 

Depending on circumstances or situation, you may not get the real life drama behind the story, but the 'What If?' is compelling enough to want to write about it! 

So this is what I did. I didn't want an imbalance. I didn't want an illegal relationship. I knew about peers who were minors and abused by adults. I didn't want to normalize such in any story I write.

I am a romantic. I love romance. I love romantic movies and shows, comics and graphic novels, I love romance novels. I'm a sentimental person, probably to the point of being schmaltzy. I don't deny it. I like when couples wear the same clothes. I like when a couple cosplays together. I even think it was cute reading about such a couple that the guy crossplays his characters so he can wear the same clothing as his girlfriend. Don't judge me. Don't judge him. 

I've even been reading more representative romances, the kind I've always gravitated towards when younger: interracial, intercultural, interfaith, and inter-ethnic. 

I also have been reading a lot of webcomics and e-manga that shows LGBTQIA+ romances. The more representative of real life, the better!

So, getting back to my story, SUMMER TO WINTER, I wanted to expand on that rumor I heard from my high school days. I wanted to see behind the scenes. And I wanted it to be a sweet love story with a lot of steam to get the pulse racing. And I love comedies, and life can be hilarious, so that's in there too. 

The draft pages I've been posting to my writing group and to my Instagram - I also post the SFW (Safe For Work) pages on Facebook - Hey, my bosses, coworkers, family and family friends are still on there! I don't feel comfortable posting there! - but the rest is received by my Twitter chat group and my Insta followers, and the feedback is intense and mostly positive. 

Pretty much in a nutshell, I continue to write the stories I wanted to see on TV, in the theatre, and in books. And I've been getting those stories, but now I'm getting even more that I didn't know I wanted, and that's perfect for me as a storyteller... 

Stay inside as much as possible, be safe and take care, Dear Readers!

Drawing covers as I cannot seem to write

10 Ohuhu markers with 7 ShinHan Touch markers will be the colors I'll use for my furry comic covers. I'll also use 4 of the 8 Faber-Castell art pens if for any inking.

Summer to Winter(c) cover by CWJR

Also, by coloring only along lines, I can still show skin tones and clothing colors. It makes for more luminescence and gives vibrancy to the characters and space.

Summer to Winter(c) cover by CWJR

When I'm working in black or white, I'll use a single color and perhaps its own shades or tones ONLY for that chapter. I feel it gives a European graphic novel look while I'm aiming for more of an Asian comic look for the covers themselves.

You can see all these covers and draft pages from my story on my Instagram: handdrawnbycarmenjr 

You can also click above [HanddrawnbyCarmenJr underneath this blog's title!]

Summer to Winter(c) cover by CWJR

The Art of Plugging Away 2.0 ('20)!

I'm working on a number of projects as I always do. But one is a graphic novel that's had many starts and stops. About near the end of 2018 is when I finally figured out how I should make this story 'look'...  

Now, I've gathered all the drafts and am wondering about how to bring them to final: do I manually light-box trace to better paper or scan/upload and fix on illustrator software? 

We shall see.😬

I Won July Camp NaNo 2019

I WON CAMP NANOWRIMO.

I needed to complete another story project, so for this July Camp NaNo, I decided to work on two stories simultaneously: a continuation of the April Camp NaNo story project and the start and hopefully completion of the second story.

I set my sights on 9,000 words, just as I did for April, and made it to 9,099 words!
Now to work on revising and editing both projects. During July Camp, I also added more to my online world-building encyclopedic blog.

I also did a video series of coloring a sketch on some of the characters and uploading to Instagram. Though I kept tight notes on the videos, they still ended up out of sequence. I'm really exhausted that I did this to myself. But... I won and that means I beat my record from last time. While being distracted with other projects such as the world-builder blog and art-process videos.

And no, I'm not posting to YouTube. It's already been suggested. I have my reasons. I don't need to be on so many social media platforms. I work in several genres and need to get my projects and acts together, and, right now, I use events such as NaNoWriMo and Inktober to get those ideas off the ground. I mean what I say. Social media is work in and of itself, and right now, I'm at a tolerable level.

Thank you. And as always, when I have something new posted or upcoming assignment, I will let you know the details, my Dear Readers.

Inktober 2018!

I realized this Inktober that if I just draw my characters from my head, it helps to draw them quicker than last time. And when in doubt, just move on to another character that needs drawing.

After I completed my Inktober quota this AM, I quickly sketched 6 character headshots. I can point out each person's ethnicity/culture & possible religious affiliation. I've always come up with diverse characters.

After this nap, then I'll work on some more sketches.

INKTOBER is upon us!

Inktober is fast approaching!

I'm getting ready.
I'm planning my butt off.
I have preliminary drafts and thumbnail sketches!
I ordered some new supplies. Will be laying out current supplies this weekend.

Bookmarked the new art prompts from Inktober's official social media.

I'll be posting on my personal Facebook account and on my public Instagram and Twitter accounts with the hashtag #INKTOBER and #INKTOBER2018

Looking forward to participating again and to your viewing and comments!

Illustrations, New Concepts, and a New Art Account!

[NOTE: Here, there be links!]
As a return to my Tabber the Red writing, I had an idea for an illustration while writing the latest cat fantasy.

 ShadoWalker & his Autumn angel (2018)

The concept was difficult and it took some planning but I think I got my point across. Oh! I can also introduce my new Instagram account: Hand drawn by Carmen Jr - While the Deviant Art is my official online portfolio, the Instagram is for friends and other artists to see progressions of my work - such as rough sketches, thumbnails, preliminaries, and drafts! As well as previous versions side-by-side with updated versions.

I'm ranting again

There's so many reference books I'm enjoying reading now while I'm also writing and scripting. I also have some miniature sketchbooks I've been keeping in my purse so ideas don't escape me while I'm at work or out and about.

Will post some of those books because you all may want to read one or two titles!

Anyhoo, I'm still working on the science fiction short story and have a new feline fantasy short story that's been years in the making. If I can finish that as well as two others, I can feel I'm back in the furry game. I actually feel bad that I have not gotten a new Tabber the Red story published in a minute. I'm actually sad.

The artwork for it is also slow in coming and I don't want to make the excuse it's because I worked on other things but it's the excuse and reason I have to make. Because, while I'm working on one thing, something else gets put aside.

It's the reality of being a creative type and it gets me angry when other people don't understand this. Or even think that I and other types are *gasp* wasting our time/fooling around!